Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the company missed the mobile phone software curve and is now playing catch-up. However, mobile “is a dynamic market” and Microsoft could make a comeback.

All Things Video | AllThingsDDuring his interview onstage at D8 today, Steve Ballmer talked about how the company’s smartphone business.

iWonder Android tablet fixes major bug: the logo is right-side-up — Engadget

Microsoft issued a release just before the actual announcement and demo at the Mix conference, which is just getting under way—here’s what we can pick out so far. (More to come, after the demos.)

Internet Explorer 9: A Fresh Start – Internet Explorer 9 – Gizmodo

1. Apple’s Tablet
The noise and speculation are too loud to ignore the presence of Apple’s Tablet. If all the rumors are authentic and, if by all means Apple launches the iSlate on 25^th January, then it’s going to be the thing to talk about in 2010.

We all must admit that a tablet is a concept that has been around us for a very long time. But it still hasn’t entered the main line consumer devices. But after the increase in sales and demand of Amazon Kindle and Nook, the market is pretty sure that a tablet is soon to be the device to have. So at this time, if Apple can bring the device with the interface that people are looking for then that’s it – We have our new iPOD.

The reason I say this is because, Online Reading is something that every Internet users do and Tablet provides the best way to consume the Internet content. Though we might still be working on a Laptop, Tablet will be the way to consume the digital content.

2. NetPhone

We are already seeing the usefulness of Google Voice, which many Americans have enjoyed. We already have software like Skype which allows you to communicate through the data line.

This shows that people are still comfortable with voice communication and it is not something that will die. We would still want to call our friends and family and communicate. Hence, we might see more advancement over VOIP and its strength.

Though mobile network provider would have to play a hard battle with the VOIP services, the conflict between these two models will end once we have more and more VOIP services running in our mobile devices.

3. Net Neutrality

The rise of Smartphone have suddenly put lot of pressure on the mobile network providers. The online content consumption and communication have stressed out the network providers. One of the prominent example is the failure of At&T to meet the iPhone’s demand. This have forced the content provider and distributors into two opposite poles.

Content providers like Google (YouTube for video content) consumes lot of bandwidth and this is not good for the network providers because they have to face the burden of handling the requests. On the other hand, content providers doesn’t have to pay anything to the distributor. As a result, Network providers would have to charge the users for more. Now this brings a great conflict between the consumer, provider and distributor. Net neutrality is all about giving full access to the Internet without any restriction. But we still need to make some breakthroughs in the communication between the provider and the distributor. Hence, we might be able to see some breakthroughs on Net Neutrality in 2010 and this should solve the current problem.

4. Social Profile Management(Advanced Analytics)

Online Social Networking have blasted the news channel on each opportunity in 2009 and it will continue to do so in 2010. More and more real time content would be distributed online and consumed by people. Online networking will see more than just sharing information.

2009 had an overwhelming reaction towards social media which created a lot of junk in the Internet. Currently, so many in formations and contents goes to waste and doesn’t make its way towards the targeted audience.

2010 will see a revolution towards social profile management with advanced analytics. This will be applying spam control over your network and strengthening the efficiency of your network connections. Profile search will also be a big thing, as sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook gets employed in professional hiring. Social network provides a best way to reach out to potential business and hence search (not for content) but for people should be big. Hence, social profile management with advance analytics will be the next big thing for social networks

5. Virtualization

Client desktop computing is surely the new way towards connecting people to offices. Virtual desktop

or Virtual machines will soon be employed in many offices providing better flexibility to hardware and software selection. This will reduce all the hardware cost of servers and desktops CPU maintenance in office. This will also reduce the cost of software as most will be deployed in the virtual machine. This is a key to cutting costs, lowering complexity, as well as increasing agility as needs shift.

6. Online TV

YouTube and other online video sharing sites have almost killed the TV. The new generation prefer Internet over TV channels. As with the music industry, TV channels have understood and going online is the only way towards future and they have to jump into this bandwagon before it’s too late. There are already many commercial channels shifting their attention from TV to Youtube or other sites like Hulu. Further, Google have already announced its paid content over Youtube and the new video advertising technology.

Along with TV, advertising also has to make its way to the eco-system and we already know of many rumors over Apple and Google coming with ways to prevent viewers from skipping the ads. This makes TV programs the best way to enter into Internet. Hence 2010 will certainly see the hand and hand cooperation of the Internet providers and the Online TV channels.

7. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing will be the new way of doing business over the internet. It will be more of virtual resources management, where company can optimize his/her resources according to needs and dynamic adaption to changes. This will allow companies to greatly enhance their products and services. Cloud computing will also leverage the potential of web application in the Internet and we might be seeing some great online applications for users and also enterprise solutions.

8. Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is going to blow people’s mind in 2010. With the help of mobile computing, GPS  technology, mobile camera and Google maps, mobile application is going to have much more power to bring the experience to the user.

Further, the core of the technology will be the mobile camera and the placement of processed information on top of live streaming content from the camera.

We are already seeing some of it with mobile GPS applications, but 2010 will be clearly put these applications on the top shelf of mobile apps. This will allows users to get every information by integrating physical reality and virtual world.

9. Online Microsoft Office

Microsoft did face a lot of failures in 2009 starting with its slow rise of Bing and failure of Windows Mobile 6.5. So 2009 was not the year for Microsoft, but we could expect more from Microsoft in 2010. It’s Windows 7 have received good reviews, hence in 2010 we may get to read more about it. Windows Mobile 7 is also on its way, it might help Microsoft gain over their Smartphone market share.

But above all, we might get to read about Microsoft’s online OS. Yes, the Word and Excel. With the strength of today’s computing power over internet, the time is right for the Online Office. We have already seen the success of the Google Docs, so the speculation is high for Online Office. Hopefully this will reduce their cost and avoid nagging updates. The new competition is obviously on the Internet.

10. Mobile Transaction (Mobile Banking)

We all surely need to get rid of credit cards and debit cards. Once the mobile becomes more than just a communication platform but your financial manager, we will see a huge potential of mobile transactions and mobile banking.

Mobile application builders have already started making applications for enterprise solution by making it enterprise friendly. For mobile banking and transaction to be successful we need an enterprise solution over the mobile network similar to RIM’s Blackberry which will confirm security over the mobile transaction.

The year 2010 will certainly see the glimpse of future’s monetary transaction

10 Technologies That Will Rock 2010

Here is the list of Windows “keyboard” commands that come very handy when working with (mostly fixing or configuring) something in Windows. Quick example on how to run these commands: go to “Start -> Run” type the command name, and … magic! a corresponding GUI window appears in front of your eyes!

For example to see “network connections” window all you need to do is to go to “Start -> Run”, type “ncpa.cpl” and click Enter as shown above – that’s all!

In addition to the newly announced Wolfram Alpha integration, the Bing Search Team is also launching a number of new features that live up to Bing’s promise of being a “decision” engine and not just a search engine. These features include improvements to their travel, weather, and shopping options as well as the “previews” feature which are the little sidebar pop-ups that appear when you hover your mouse over a search result. Combined, these improvements represent a major step forward for the new search engine, even leading some to dub the offering “Bing 2.0.”

Improved Travel Features

Travel is already one of Bing’s more useful capabilities thanks to an acquisition of a company called Farecast whose service helps travelers determine the best time to fly in order to get the best price. Now travel searches will be even easier. Once rolled out, you’ll be able to hover over the “Travel” link on the homepage to get a pop-up task-focused menu with options to “search flights,” “search hotels,” or “get airfare deals.” 

There will also be a new interactive Instant Answer where you can enter in your origin, destination, and dates into the boxes provided in order to find airfare deals courtesy of Bing Travel. Alongside travel booking-related results, information on the area you’re traveling to will also be made available including local attractions, points of interest, neighborhoods and other local information sources like newspaper web sites. There will even be high-resolution photo slideshows of your destination.

Improved Previews

While the previews feature itself is not new, it’s about to get a major update. The new previews will extract information from the associated web page. For example, a business listing’s preview may show an address and phone number. Another preview may extract a “contact us” email address. Previews will also now include a screenshot of that web page and popular links on the site. Previews for Facebook pages will show the person’s photo and links to message them or send a friend request.

New Event Searches

Another new feature is event searches. To use this, just type in the name of a city and then the word “events.” Bing will return a summary of events which you can filter by categories like performances, civic activities, music, and more. This will be an option for major cities only for now.

Shopping Improvements

Bing Shopping has also been improved to offer built-in sharing features. Each product listing will include a share feature that lets you send a link to that product over Facebook, Twitter, or via email. Not only can you use this to share your interest in a product, you could also quickly post it to these social services along with a question you hope your friends might know the answer to.

Better Answers for Health Conditions, Medications, and Hospitals

The search results for health conditions, medications, and hospitals have also been improved to provide more information and better organized results. There are one box answers as well as site-search boxes for querying within a hospital’s website.

And More…?

Believe it or not, these are just “some” of the new features coming to Bing. There are tons of other updates still in the works, according to the blog post about these changes.

You may not be seeing these results just yet – the rollout is expected to take a few weeks before it’s complete.

More Bing Improvements: Better Previews, Weather, Travel, and More | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

Although each student will have their own mouse, keyboard and screen–and be able to work on their own application–the computation will be done by a single PC running a new version of Microsoft’s Windows Server operating system. The new product is being dubbed Windows Multipoint Server 2010.

Windows Multipoint Server, due out in the first half of next year, allows a multiple students to work off a single PC, each running their own applications and off their own keyboard, mouse and display.

For now, Microsoft says it’s aiming the product only at the education market.

Microsoft to schools: Share a PC | Beyond Binary – CNET News

Microsoft is launching a Bing update that includes enhancements to the search engine’s "hover preview" feature and incorporates data from Wolfram Alpha, the "computational knowledge engine" launched this year by scientist Stephen Wolfram.

The company describes the refresh as the biggest update since the Bing launch in June. The features will also add more local results for weather and events, and an overhauled Bing Shopping site. A Microsoft representative said the features will be rolled out gradually and won’t be fully available to everyone for several weeks.

The Wolfram Alpha integration is described in this post on the Bing blog — showing how people will be able to use the feature to solve math functions or search for answers to data-intensive questions, such as which type of meat has more protein. Separately the improved hover preview feature in Bing will let people see a snapshot of the site or search within it from the Bing search results page, before they go to the site

Both features take Bing further along the line of being a destination unto itself, as opposed to merely directing traffic to other sites. Will be interesting to see how online publishers react, particularly if the Microsoft search engine starts to gain more traction.

On that front, researchers at Experian Hitwise released a report today showing Bing’s market share rising from 8.96 percent to 9.57 percent of U.S. searches in October, while Google and Yahoo saw slight declines.

Bing revamp adds Wolfram Alpha

Microsoft has just released a slew of new Windows 7 Themes.  Go check them out.  I like the Zune ones. 

Here are some of my favorites below

Personalization Gallery – Windows themes, backgrounds and gadgets – Microsoft Windows

Whether or not you’re a fan of Windows operating systems, there’s no denying that Windows has one of the best media center apps available (especially if you want to turn your PC into a media center powerhouse on the cheap). It’s got its problems (TV recordings are encoded in an absolutely irritating DRMed file format), but it ships with Windows (so in a sense is free) and it can extend to common hardware like the Xbox 360 with aplomb (see the media center powerhouse link above).

Now that sites like Hulu have become a viable destination for free TV, Hulu integration seems only natural, and Hulu Desktop Integration makes it simple for users to jump between Windows 7 Media Center and Hulu Desktop.

Hulu Desktop Integration Brings Hulu to Windows 7 Media Center – Hulu – Lifehacker