Weekend Reading: Aug. 17th Edition – Bing App for Windows 8 Introduced & Artist Series Mice Unveiled

In this edition of Weekend Reading, we have stories on back-to-school shopping, Skype tips for avoiding e-mail scams and phishing and a look at the Bing app for Windows 8.

Bing introduces app for Windows 8. “We’ve completely re-imagined search for the new experiences of Windows 8,” said the Bing Team in their announcement of the Bing app for Windows 8 on Wednesday. Searching with the Bing app is fast and fluid, whether you use a touch device to tap and swipe or type and click with a keyboard and mouse. Visual results and images take center stage, letting you quickly find what you’re looking for, so you can search less and do more. While you can still rely on the Bing Web experience in Internet Explorer, we’ve optimized the Bing app to shine on Windows 8. Bing is available on almost all of the Windows markets and languages. Prepare to be amazed by Bing search with touch:

Microsoft and Facebook partner with Washington State for MyVote App. Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed guest posts on Microsoft on the Issues, discussing how Washington is engaging with young voters with help from Microsoft and Facebook. Washington is developing a reputation in the elections and tech community for pioneering work in reaching potential voters online and through social media. The latest example is the state’s partnership with Microsoft to create an app that links Facebook users with our MyVote online service for voter registration and information. Learn more about this app and how Washington State is carving the path for the rest of the U.S.

MyVote

Clickable artwork: Express yourself with Microsoft Mice. You picked that snappy wardrobe, the trendy haircut and the stylish art for your walls. There’s no reason, then, that self-expression should stop short of technology. This week, Microsoft Hardware expands its collection of Artist Series mice with the release of five new designs, plus three new limited edition colors that help infuse life and personality into your computing experience. Choose one that reflects your style or buy a mouse for every mood. Check out the complete lineup in a slideshow on the Microsoft News Center and this Wednesday post on the Windows Experience Blog.

Mice

Thinking about making an app? Now’s the time. You’ve had your Windows Phone for a while now, but recently started to get the itch to create your own app. Maybe it’s because you want something for your business, or your kids, or to make life easier—or just to prove something to yourself. Whatever the reason, there’s no better time to dive in. In case you missed it, last week we unveiled the Windows Phone Dev Center, a new home for our app developers that’s designed to make creating apps for our phones faster and more profitable. Head on over to the Windows Phone Blog to get the rest of the story.

This one’s for all you hardcore gamers out there. Today, NVIDIA launched a graphics card that’s packed with powerful high-end features, but will be available at an affordable price. This new card is called the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, and is based on the latest NVIDIA Kepler architecture (which debuted with the GeForce GTX 680). You can read more about it over on the Extreme Windows Blog. Below is a screenshot of the new NVIDIA card:

7384_GTX-660ti-top-1-600_69255CF8

Celebrating International Youth Day. Since 1999, the United Nations has been celebrating International Youth Day, taking a moment each year to focus the world’s attention on one of the most important segments of the population. Celebrated on Aug. 12, this year’s International Youth Day theme was focused on “Building a Better World: Partnering with Youth” and was closely aligned with Microsoft’s commitment to closing the opportunity divide among young people. As part of this year’s Youth Day theme, the United Nations called for further attention and feedback on priority areas of the Secretary-General’s Five-Year Action Agenda. Learn what steps Microsoft is taking towards “Building a Better World: Partnering with Youth” in this week’s Corporate Citizenship Blog post.

Skype Offers Three Simple Tips for Dealing With Scam E-mails and Phishing. One of the topics we hear about from our users is malicious e-mail contact from individuals impersonating Skype. Recently, we posted some helpful tips on avoiding malicious contact in the form of unwanted Skype calls, and now we’re following that up with some tips on how to protect yourself from e-mails with malicious intent. Fraudsters often try to impersonate well-known and trusted services such as Skype to trick users into giving away their personal or financial information. This practice is called phishing. We take phishing seriously at Skype and in this week’s post, offer three tips for avoiding scams and phishing.

The new Visio how to: Modern Shapes in the org chart, network, timeline and more. Visio users tend to do one of two things after creating their diagram—share it or present it to others. Both of these scenarios require your diagram to look visually appealing. So, unsurprisingly, one piece of feedback users continually told us was that they wanted to make professional and modern looking diagrams. In his Tuesday post on the Visio Blog, Ian Mikutel shares an overview of the changes we’ve made to Visio templates and shapes—what we call “content”. Ultimately, when you combine Visio’s new features with new content, it’s easier than ever to produce professional and modern diagrams.

Back-to-school shopping list: Notebook, pencils, PC…Xbox and a smartphone? Face it parents, back-to-school supplies are just way more fun these days. This Microsoft News Center back-to-school slideshow feature shows some of the great technology products out there to outfit your student for the year ahead. “How will an Xbox or smartphone help my child in school?” you ask. Xbox: Think incentives. As for the smartphone, recent OneNote Blog guest blogger, Christina Tynan-Wood, writes about her son using a Windows Phone with OneNote to capture notes and lectures for those less-than-interesting topics.

That’s a wrap for this edition of Weekend Reading! Thanks for stopping by The Official Microsoft Blog!

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

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