microsoft

Bill Gates has already proven his interest in geoengineering schemes with his earlier co-patent filing for reducing the intensity of killer hurricanes. So perhaps we're not too surprised that Science Insider has dug up the Microsoft chairman's past projects on altering the Earth's climate, ranging from filtering carbon dioxide to reflecting sunlight via brighter clouds.

If TMZ.com and Kate Moss have taught us anything, it’s that there’s a lot of cell phone video footage out there. Unlike TMZ.com and Kate Moss, researchers at Microsoft’s Labs in Cairo, Egypt are doing something cool with all that content , combining feeds from multiple phones capturing the same scene into multi-angle, live online broadcasts.

Tethering your phone's data connection to your laptop (and the fact that the iPhone can’t do it – thanks AT&T) is all the rage right now, but despite the convenience of the mobile Web, such connections are still comparatively unreliable. But the geeks over at Microsoft Research have come up with Cool-Tether--a seemingly obvious, yet novel way to pool multiple cellular data connections into a single, faster and more reliable Wi-Fi hotspot that can be shared by all.

Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission yesterday gave Microsoft its blessing to integrate Yahoo!7 Search into its own search engine, Bing. The partnership is reportedly part of a 10-year deal between the two companies in whch Yahoo will handle advertising for both companies.

Pen and voice input for computers is so early-millennium. Now Microsoft has created a next-gen computer concept that includes touchless gestures and eye-tracking, and has taken the device on a college tour with chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie.

A research collaboration between Microsoft, the University of Washington and the University of Toronto is developing a muscle-controlled interface enabling Minority Report-esque, gesture-driven interaction with computers. It's perhaps the most promising of the billion or so Minority-Report-aspiring prototype interfaces.

Dungeon masters with deep, dark pockets no longer need imagine how the venerable tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons might play on a futuristic multi-touch platform. Six students at Carnegie Mellon University recently released a video showing off their D&D concept for Microsoft's Surface Table, complete with a storyboard slideshow and rolling the virtual 20-sided die.

Earlier this week we brought you the news of Microsoft’s prototype multitouch mice. For those unaware, Windows 7 is set to be the first major operating system to support multitouch capabilities. This means that PCs using the soon-to-be-released operating system will be able to support hardware that utilises more than single digit-capable hardware that’s currently the standard (i.e. computer mice).

Microsoft’s much-hyped motion control technology, Project Natal, may well be quite a way off still but they’re already thinking about cost. Traditionally, Xbox-related peripherals have been criticised for their comparatively high costs; a tradition that is likely to continue with the recent announcement of the $100USD cost for the soon-to-be-released 802.11n wireless adapter.

By now you know the Windows 7 line, but in case you've somehow missed it: it's the first major computer operating system to support multitouch, meaning it (like an iPhone) can read more than one finger press at a time. Of course, in order to take advantage of touch, you need to upgrade your hardware -- for a premium price, naturally.

Is Apple unstoppable? If it is, the Zune HD has long appeared to be the best shot at unseating the MP3-player kingpin. Knowing that, when a Zune landed at PopSci HQ, we had to see if such a thing could actually be true.

For a week, I split my commute between a Zune HD and a brand new iPod touch (my fourth Apple player). These are the high- (and low-) lights of my week with the Zune HD.

Researchers from Georgia Tech have devised methods to take real-time, real-world information and layer it onto Google Earth, adding dynamic information to the previously sterile Googlescape.

They use live video feeds (sometimes from many angles) to find the position and motion of various objects, which they then combine with behavioral simulations to produce real-time animations for Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

Secrecy is important when it comes to the big hitters of any industry. Timing is also a crucial factor when unveiling a particular product to an eager market. So when Microsoft’s cards that have been quite close to its proverbial chest start to leak online, both secrecy and timing are thrown to the wind.