Today’s high-tech breakfast tidbits include the reported death of Messenger, how Election Day will break Twitter, the Surface’s shrinking disk space, and a return to the ’80s with a new version of Elite.
Windows Live Messenger muerto?
the edge Avid Microsoft watcher Tom Warren reports that the company will retire its old instant messaging client, Windows Live Messenger, in favor of Skype. The two share many of the same features, with Warren reporting that the back end of the two services has already been merged, with around 80% of instant messages sent via Skype actually running on Live Messenger. The logins for the two services have also been linked on Windows 8 clients.
“The company will announce the retirement of Windows Live Messenger soon, possibly this week according to sources,” says Warren.
How Twitter will break on Election Day
Will you be watching US election coverage tonight? If so, chances are you’re pairing the TV pundit with regular peeks at Twitter, or at least trying to. Buzzfeed makes the point that while Twitter may now have the experience and infrastructure to deal with what is sure to be the busiest day in its history, we as users may suffer from the additional traffic. Well, at least US users.
During the first debate a month ago, “policy pundits and writers scrambled to establish an initial narrative; reporters were live-tweeting each candidate’s statement. Apparently everyone else, capable or not, was making jokes.”
If you followed a lot of US political types, your feed will have sped up quickly, sometimes to the point where it became unreadable. And that was just a discussion. If there’s ever a night that forces you to finally get your Twitter lists in order, Tuesday, November 6 might be it.
Surface disk space reduction
That 32GB version of the Surface with Windows RT might sound like it has enough space for digital media and movies for those long flights, but scratch the surface and Microsoft reveals that there’s actually only 16GB of free space. Microsoft explains the lack of capacity, in part by the operating system, applications, and recovery tools, but also by the mix and match of metrics.
“The advertised local disk size is displayed using the decimal system, while Windows displays the disk size using the binary system.” the company explains. “As a result, 1 GB (in decimal) appears to be approximately 0.93 GB (in binary). The storage capacity is the same, just displayed differently depending on how a GB is measured (decimal or binary).” Which is a great explanation for a consumer device.
The best news for Microsoft is that its tablet is more profitable than the iPad. ISS iSuppli Investigation reveals that the total parts and labor cost for the Surface RT weighs in at $284 for the $599 version of the device. “From a hardware perspective, Microsoft has had success with the Surface, offering an impressive tablet that is more profitable, on a percentage basis, than even the lucrative iPad at current retail prices,” the company said.
Oh, and that $100 keyboard cover that everyone thinks is way too expensive? That costs between $16 and $18 per unit, according to the research.
How the cover of New York magazine was shot
Sandy caused great devastation, but also produced some truly remarkable photographs. The image that caught the most attention was the startling cover of New York magazine, which showed vast swathes of Manhattan obscured by pockets of energy and light. It was taken by Dutch architectural photographer Iwan Baan, “using the new Canon 1D X with the new 24-70mm lens at full aperture. The camera was set to 25,000 ISO, with a shutter speed of 1/40 of a second.”
Explain this article on Poynter“It was harder to rent a car than a helicopter in New York the day after Sandy,” Baan said. And because there was such limited air traffic so soon after the storm, air traffic control allowed Baan and the helicopter to fly very high above the city, a huge advantage for the photo.”
Elite back in the frame via Kickstarter
Granted, we don’t normally cover gaming news, but we thought ’80s-style rose-tinted readers would be interested in the fact that David Braben, one of the original creators of the space commercial hit Elite , is doing an update. . braben is seeks £1.25m in Kickstarter funding, with collaborators offering the option to shape the direction of the new version, titled Elite: Dangerous. Given the success of the original, it’s hard to see the need for Kickstarter funding, but the developer explained to the BBC that the industry has changed shape.
“It’s the kind of game that’s very difficult to make through the traditional publishing process, because publishers want to see the end result before moving forward,” Braben said. “The kind of games that are made tend to be sequels to games that have been successful recently, so you get a lot of games that look the same.”
–
