Microsoft buy Minecraft

Yes the rumors have finally been confirmed. MS has bought Mojang for 2.5 billion. What are my thoughts on this? Well I think MS is doing a lot of cool things so I am excited. Actually not much in minecraft will really change. Skype hasn’t really changed much imo since MS acquired them several years ago.

 

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/15/technology/minecraft-microsoft/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Pirates of Silicon Valley

This is a great movie that I hadn’t watched in a very long time but I recently was able to get it through netflix. It tells the story of steve jobs and bill gates as they rose to the top:

Xbox One’s Cloud

There are many people who either do not understand the cloud or wonder what it is. Here is a great article that explains it. Also, here is an infographic that visually explains it. In a nutshell:

– There will be 300,000 servers to power your games
– These servers will be dedicates. That means that microsoft will host matches so there will be less lag and less pauses in game from a host switch. Current PS3/xbox360 relies on p2p or host matches.
– There will be unlimited cloud storage for xbox live users
– Worlds will continue when you stop playing. So just like WoW on the PC, there will be a world on the server and gameplay will continue even when you are not on.

How does this compare to Sony’s cloud? Well Sony has been rather quiet about it. We do know:

– It releases in 2014
– They are using Gaikai but this is only for streaming ps1-3 games. – Will they have the same functionality as xbox 1? We honestly do not know. Rumors are that they will not. This comes from the titanfall developer who said ps4 does not have the technology to play their game. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen but Sony really needs to make it clear what their cloud is and is not. Unfortunately if it was more than what we know I am sure they would have said so. Better to not say anything when its not as good.

xbox one cloud

Xbox 1

So MS announced their new xbox today dubbed xbox 1. Thus far it seems pretty cool. Nothing I didnt expect though so no surprises. Seems like a great upgrade to the xbox 360. Actually this round of consoles all feel like upgrades rather than whole new systems.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xboxone/meet-xbox-one

Microsoft Office for Mac price increased 17%

Seems like a lot to me considering that microsoft is now competing with free software like Google Docs and Open Office. On the mobile front MS is competing with just plain apps from several companies. Article

Now for my students – please remember you get a huge discount at your school on MS products like office (among other software). So before you graduate, go to the bookstore and buy your $20 copy of Office because once you leave the price goes up a few hundred dollars:)