Apple Now Worth More Than Microsoft & Intel Combined!

Apple pulled out all the stops at yesterday’s WWDC event. OS X Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud blew my little mind yesterday. So what’s going to blow my mind today?

How about the fact that Apple is now worth more than Microsoft and Intel combined? Yup, that’ll do it!

MacDailyNews totted up Microsoft’s and Intel’s market valuation when the markets closed on Friday and their total sum came to a combined $316.8 billion (MS – $201.59b & Intel – $115.21b).

Apple’s valuation on Friday closed at $317.6 billion, a little under $1 billion more than the two great rivals combined.

During the WWDC keynote, Apple’s SVP of Product Marketing, Phil Schiller told us that there is now more than 50 million Macs on the market. That may not sound too amazing but what is of note is the year over year growth for Macs vs PCs. Mac popularity grew by 28% while PCs declined by 1%.

Microsoft Adding Cloud Storage to Xbox Live

Microsoft Add`s Cloud Storage to Xbox Live yes..Microsoft is going to launch this year but they did not specify about the release.Apple wasn't the only one making cloud-related announcements today. Microsoft's Xbox Live will also get cloud storage later this year.

what is cloud storage??
The update will allow Xbox Live users to sign into their accounts from any console at any time to access game saves and full profile, including items like Microsoft Points for purchases, Achievements, and friends.
"Cloud storage will allow you to enjoy the same great Xbox Live gaming experience even when you're not in your own living room by giving you the option to store your 'game saves' securely in the Xbox Live cloud instead of on a portable memory unit or your console's hard drive," Microsoft said in a statement. "Gone are the days of 'gamertag recovery.' Now all you need to do is sign in, no matter where you are!"

Microsoft said the update will be added "later this year," but did not specify a timeline.
The cloud option is just one of several updates coming to the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. Also scheduled is a new dashboard that Microsoft said will be simpler, cleaner, and easier to navigate. "All of your favorite content is categorized in a way that is easy to browse and find what you're looking for, plus you can use voice anywhere in the dashboard to effortlessly navigate and get to what you want," the company said.
The voice component was a big part of Microsoft's larger press event this morning at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. There, Microsoft unveiled Live TV, a new experience that adds live television streaming, built-in DVR functionality, voice-powered Bing searches, and a content deal with YouTube to the Xbox platform. "Quite simply we believe TV is more amazing with you as the controller," said Marc Whitten, vice president for Xbox Live.

Microsoft also unveiled a number of new games for the Xbox platform, some of which will have voice-control functionality thanks to Kinect.
"We want Xbox Live members around the globe to experience the magic of Kinect's voice recognition technology so we are committed to bringing voice to eight additional markets by the end of this year with a total of 13 markets that will have Kinect voice," Microsoft said. "We are also exploring some innovative new ways to enable the Live community to help us accelerate the refinement of voice models in new markets, and look forward to sharing developments on that front soon."
Another addition to Xbox Live will be Beacons, which will let you notify Xbox and Facebook friends that you want to play a game on Xbox Live. Set a Beacon and tell Xbox Live what you want to play, and Xbox Live will let you know when friends are playing or if they want to play the same game.
"With Beacons, no matter what you're currently doing on Xbox Live your friends know that it's ok to ask you to play your Beaconed games," Microsoft said. "Imagine sending out a Beacon to let your friends know you're interested in playing 'Halo,' while watching a movie on Netflix."

Microsoft to launch Office 365 Soon

Microsoft is launching its cloud offering Office 365 later this month with a splashy
event in NYC.

Office 365 will be a subscription service that combines online versions of Word, Excel
and PowerPoint. And Office 365 will allow users to get to their mail, calendar, and
contacts from virtually anywhere on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices.
Microsoft plans a rollout event June 28 in a swanky Soho gallery space used for
corporate events, according to an invitation sent out to the media.
There, CEO Steve Ballmer will talk about the Office 365, what Microsoft calls
its next generation cloud productivity service which brings collaboration to
everyone.
While Skylight Soho might not be the venue of choice for a lot of small companies
that are watching every dollar, Microsoft sees great potential in landing
cost-conscious customers who run their own businesses.
Microsoft is offering Office 365 subscriptions for as low as $6 a month,aimed
at small businesses that don’t want to manage their own servers.
Tom Rizzo, senior director of Microsoft Online Services, told me recently that
the new Office 365 offering was in beta with 100,000 organizations and 2.5 million seats.
Rizzo said that there is a lot of interest in cloud services. But he was candid.
He said he expects small and mid-size businesses to be the first to adopt because
they have less to move to the cloud. What he called the “pro-sumer,” an interior
-designer or other one-person operation will be quick to move over, said Rizzo,said
about 70 percent of those who signed up for the Beta were small businesses.
At the same time, he said large enterprises will probably move to the cloud more
cautiously and maybe incrementally. Maybe moving mobile workers to the cloud
first, for example. He said he expects many larger businesses to be hybrids,
wanting a mix of cloud storage options to go along with keeping some storage

in house.

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9 versions in 11 Indian languages

Microsoft released the latest version of Internet Explorer 9 in 11 Indian languages including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malyalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. Microsoft may well be a late entrant in this space behind Google Chrome and homegrown browser Epic that is built specially for the Indian market.

This is not the first time Microsoft is engaging with the Indian market. The company has a few India-specific tools like Indic language input tool, phonetic keyboard that has language support, and features such as email, instant messenger are also available in local languages.

Experts feel that this could increase Microsoft's prominence in the browser market but will do only that. "If Microsoft is looking at reaching the rural market and drive technology adoption, it is a good strategy but it will not lead to PC adoption. People are not going to buy a computer only based on local language offering. That won't happen," said Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst, Gartner.

Google, Microsoft to test Apple's tablet dominance

Google and Microsoft's attempts to loosen Apple's grip on the booming tablet-computer market will be put to the test this week as PC makers unveil new models at the Computex trade show in Taipei. Investors and analysts will be looking to see if Google's Android operating system can match the popularity of the iPad, while Microsoft may preview its next Windows platform for tablets a year after Apple's first offering hit store shelves.

"Investors want to know which tablet is better, which has the best price-performance , and when the non iPad camp is going to get going ," said Angela Hsiang, an analyst at KGI Securities in Taipei. "Previously, people couldn't actually see the products .

At Computex, we'll be able to touch and use them." Acer and Asustek Computer, which upended the computer market when they showed low-cost netbooks at Computex in 2007 and 2008, will demonstrate new tablets featuring Google's Android this week. The operator of the world's most popular search engine and Microsoft will both send executives to the event to meet with reporters and update companies on their plans.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, and ARM Holdings , whose chip designs are used by Qualcomm and Nvidia to run tablets, will also try to convince manufacturers that their products are the best as the desktop and notebook markets slow. Global shipments of tablets will climb to 215 million units in 2015 from 17 million last year, Toni Sacconaghi, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, wrote in a May 26 report.

Fifteen percent of all tablets will cannibalize the sale of consumer PCs, reducing computer-sales growth by 2% annually between 2010 and 2015, Sacconaghi wrote. Competition from new entrants will cut Apple's share of the tablet market to 50% next year, iSuppli said on April 21, from almost 100% when the Cupertino, California-based company began selling the iPad in June.