After Adobe announced their plans to stop developing Flash Player for mobile devices, we are now hearing that Microsoft plans to do the same with their own proprietary plugin, Silverlight. Microsoft Silverlight never really managed to gain the same amount of popularity among web developers.

But now it seems that will not be an issue for long. Microsoft is on the verge of announcing the next version of Silverlight, with the beta version already having been released back in September. But this will probably be the last version of Silverlight.

The Microsoft Kinect has anounced some very interesting uses that are not at all what most of us first envisioned when the controller landed for the Xbox 360 and gamers. Microsoft would be offering a SDK for businesses to make apps that would use Kinect for things in the business world.

The Kinect for Windows SDK has now hit beta 2 and you can download it right now to play with. The SDK still supports the Kinect on machines running Windows 7. It offers APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking. The SDK allows devs using C++, C#, and Visual Basic via Visual Studio 2012 to access the capabilities of the Kinect.

Microsoft has announced a special version of the popular Firefox browser that comes with the Bing search engine. As you might guess, this version of Firefox changes the default search engine and homepage from Google to Bing.

For Mozilla, this will serve as another form of revenue. For Microsoft, this move will help boost the user base for Bing. With two of the world most popular web browsers using Bing as their default search engines, this could help accelerate Microsoft plans to take over Google as the most popular search engine.

Microsoft 8.5 billion USD acquisition of Skype has finally been closed, the company recently announced. The plan is for Skype to become a new business unit within Microsoft, with Skype CEO Tony Bates becoming the president of the newly created Skype division. Users should expect for Microsoft to integrate Skype into a variety of its products, including mobile.

The Official Skype blog Posted :

"Joining forces with Microsoft is the best way to accelerate this mission and capitalize on our position at the intersection of social, mobile and video communications. Simply put, we want to transform communications. Microsoft is committed to the ubiquity of the Skype experience communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus. And we have only scratched the surface."

We have seen screenshots of the redesigned Xbox 360 dashboard before that uses the slick new Metro UI but now a video has leaked that gives us a nice little tour of the interface and all the various menu options that we can expect to see when the update is released this fall.

The video is low resolution and a bit blurry. Moreover there is no audio and the text is all in French so its basically like watching a French movie with no audio and subtitles. You still get a good look at the UI, including the new Bing search bar. Unfortunately, there is no web browser built-in and you are limited to searching content for Xbox. Everything else seems the same as what we have now, just in a different looking interface.

Apples implementation of Intel Light Peak technology is going places. Intel has now announced that they will be bringing the technology to Windows-based computers as well, with companies like ASUS and Acer joining the bandwagon and getting their products ready for a 2012 launch.

Being the same essential technology, Thunderbolt on these other devices will work the same way as it does on the new range of Mac computers. It will have the same specifications and features that Apple touts for its new range of Macs and will work with the same set of accessories.

Today, Nokia and Microsoft announced that they would deliver Symbian software updates called Microsoft Apps. These updates will add some serious business productivity tools for anyone buying a new Symbian Belle device, as well as anybody looking to upgrade from Symbian Anna to Symbian Belle. Read on to find out exactly what’s coming, and when.

If you are into downloading apps that wil increase your productivity and we know you all are you will be happy to hear that during the fourth quarter of this year you will be able to start up the Software Update app from within your phone and find the following free apps:

• Microsoft® Lync™ 2010 Mobile – for cost efficient IM, presence, audio and web meetings on-the-go.

• Microsoft® PowerPoint® Broadcast – quick broadcast of presentations directly from PC to mobile.

• Microsoft® OneNote™ – rich note taking with images. Syncs with Microsoft® SkyDrive®.

• Microsoft® Document Connection – single view to documents stored on mobile, including email attachments as well as documents on Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 sites.

A second update in early 2012 will add:

• Microsoft OneNote sync with SharePoint (in addition to SkyDrive)

• Adding Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint as native applications for the first time outside the Windows platform.

Microsoft tablet strategy has always been Windows but previous computer slates it has shown off had Windows 7 on it and this did not fit the form factor because that operating system was never built with tablets in mind. That should change with Windows 8 , as the building Windows 8 blog constantly says that this version has been designed from the ground up with touch input in mind.

We have seen the Metro-style home screen before and it brings a tile-like interface to Windows 8 and elements of this can already be found in Windows Phone and on the Xbox. This is supposed to be a finger-friendly interface that will allow Windows 8 to work properly on a tablet, where touch interface is critical. But Microsoft has to please many masters with Windows, as hundreds of millions of users are familiar with the standard desktop interface and some will freak out with radical changes.

Microsoft Steven Sinofsky addresses this in a somewhat vague way in that blog post about design: Microsoft is taking the middle road where it can still leverage its millions of traditional users, apps and APIs while still designing something that can fit nicely and work elegantly on a tablet.

Windows 8 brings together all the power and flexibility you have in your PC today with the ability to immerse yourself in a Metro style experience. You do not have to compromise! You carry one device that does everything you want and need. You can connect that device to peripherals you want to use. You can use devices designed to dock to large screen displays and other peripherals. You can use convertible devices that can be both immersive tablets and flexible laptops.

Of course, its far more difficult to execute that vision and its unclear if Microsoft is capable of doing it or if thats even the right approach.When Steve Jobs first introduced the first iPhone, he made a big deal about how the OS was OSX.

As time progressed and the iPhone and iPad became tremendous hits, that association has been downplayed if not completely ignored even if there are technologically similar underpinnings. Apple iOS is now the company main platform and many of its elements went upstream with the introduction of Lion.

When Jobs talks about the Post-PC era and the iPad, he means that Apple is trying to strip out many of the frustrating elements of traditional computing to make it easy and elegant for the mainstream to use these devices to check the web, do e-mail and social networking and consume apps. The fact that the iPad has been more successful than any other tablet to date show that its on to something.

Toshiba has announced the Portege Z830, a new series of ultrabooks. The 13-inch model is only .63-inch thick and weighs just 2.45 pounds (1.11kg), light enough for it to earn the "lightest 13-inch ultrabook" moniker.

The Portege Z830 uses a sleek aluminum and magnesium allow case, which makes it light as well as sturdy. Also, the thin design does not come at the cost of connectivity options, as it still has two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, SD card slot and a headphone jack. You also get a large backlit keyboard with a chiclet design.

On the hardware front the Portege Z830 offers Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3, i5 and i7 series processors, integrated graphics and an option of multiple SSD capacities. The 8-cell, 47Wh battery is said to give a battery life of up to 8 hours. No exact models and configurations were mentioned, but Lenovo said the base model will be just under the $1000 mark.