Microsoft is believed to have replaced the design architect responsible for the Xbox 360 user-experience Dan Coyner the general manager of Design and Planning within the Xbox team, has been replaced with Emma Williams, who led this month Xbox dashboard update.

Williams will now lead design on the next-gen Xbox, tongue-in-cheek referred to as the "Xbox 720", which a source in the team has confirmed is on the roadmap for a 2013 release as per earlier rumors. Microsoft is working on two new consoles, one hardcore gaming flagship and a second, slimmed-down model with a focus on casual gaming and multimedia use.

After One Note, Microsoft is now releasing an official SkyDrive app for iOS and their own Windows Phone. but No Android version AGAIN!

You have the ability to view all your files and folders saved on your SkyDrive account, create more folders, delete them or upload files from your device to them. You can also share the files or folders with others, whereby it mails a link to the file or folder to your recipient and you can choose whether the viewer can just view it or edit it as well.

WP7 Demo Below!

Microsoft has announced plans to automatically upgrade older versions of Internet Explorer, such as the much-maligned IE6, from January 2012. The decision is intended to bring Windows XP, Vista and 7 users up to date with safer, more efficient versions of the browser, though Microsoft is keen to point out that nobody will be forced to upgrade if they don’t actually want to.

Previous arguments for keeping IE6 and other earlier releases of the browser have been generally related to enterprise browser-based tools not updated for newer iterations. Microsoft is respecting that, and says that not only will its existing IE8 and IE9 Automatic Update Blocker toolkits stop new versions from being installed, but anybody who has declined an update through Windows Update will also be left alone.

Microsoft has officially unveiled So.cl, and contrary to Facebook-challenger expectations it is a hybrid system pulling together social networking and search and targeted at students. Found at so.cl, the new tool allows "montages of visual web content" including photos, video and text to be constructed and shared for collaborative editing and discussion, as well as video parties for real-time conversation.

Students are expected to build communities with similar research goals, and Microsoft is targeting those on social media courses who may lack the collaborative tools that other disciplines have. "So.cl might even give students the ability to create their own social tool" Microsoft suggests, "customized for their own community."

The folks at Microsoft appear to be taking several opportunities to give away Windows Phone devices on Twitter with a clever usage of the hashtag term #droidrage thus far the response has been a mixed bag of respondents having real problems and a gigantic collection of obvious user errors gone wild.

Taking the opportunity to gather in those Android users who are not able to fix problems on their own into the Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone Mango fold is Microsoft latest tactic in showing off how simple the platform can be what we will be waiting for here is the response from the people who though they were not able to figure out how to use an Android phone were then able to use a Windows Phone without a hitch.

Microsoft began rolling out the latest dashboard update for Xbox 360 consoles everywhere yesterday, bringing a new look and a number of new features to the platform.

As well as the metro-style UI, Kinect support for controlling the dash and voice search powered by Bing, the update coincides with simultaneous launches of companion apps for both iOS and Windows Phone.

My Xbox LIVE centers around control of your Xbox profile with support for Xbox Live messaging. The app also gives you access to your community of friends and the achievement browser. What really impressed us, though, is the way the Metro UI-styled application fits into iOS without looking like it is artificially stitched onto Apple platform. This is probably partly due to the immersive full screen interface, but is definitely something you would notice.

The Xbox Companion for WP7 is much richer in functionality and that's understandable as Microsoft wants to keep some of the flare for its own platform. Basically, the app turns your Windows Phone handset almost into another Xbox remote control allowing you to navigate in the dashboard and inside applications, launch games, control media playback, and search with Bing. The app works via Wi-Fi and cellular data, and if you have a solid connection the experience promises to be really smooth.

The Xbox 360 fall update is coming tomorrow and it will bring tons of new stuff. But the first and most important change is the complete interface overhaul. Microsoft has put the Metro UI in charge.

The first new feature of the upcoming Xbox 360 firmware update is the Metro-styled dashboard. There is one horizontal bar at the top with different categories, each of them using Metro interface with live tiles. That way we have much more content showing on the screen and the sub-menus are almost extinct.

Sources from Microsoft has informed us that the public Windows 8 beta will be released in late February of 2012.

The timing of the public beta launch has been the subject of much debate in the technology community. It is expected that Windows 8 will be released in 2012, but the exact expected date for the completion and shipping of the forthcoming operating system remains undisclosed.

Microsoft estimating that Windows 8 should be released to manufacturers (RTM) in June. Given the newly known late February planned beta release, our estimate remains possible, if perhaps a bit optimistic.

Samsung has put the second-gen Microsoft Surface SUR40 up for pre-order, with 23 countries including the US and much of Europe getting the chance to pick up the slimmed-down multitouch worksurface. Targeted at retail, healthcare, education and hospitality, the Windows 7 based table has a Full HD 1080p 40-inch display covered with a sheet of toughened Gorilla Glass.

Less bulky than the first-gen model, the SUR40 can track 50 points of simultaneous touch, including fingers, hands and objects unlike in the first-gen Surface, with used a camera-based tracking system in the base of the table, this new model "PixelSense" system has individual cameras embedded in the pixels themselves. Keeping things running is an AMD Athlon II X2 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor paired with an AMD HD6750M GPU.