Yes, Steve Ballmer did go all Microsoft on Clippers fans

Hard-core. Bloomberg screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

Some people, when they change careers, change their act.

They mellow, they become more mature, more relaxed, and generally happier with the state of the world.

You might expect, therefore, that when Steve Ballmer took the reins of the Los Angeles Clippers and presented himself to the fans, he would offer a more measured corporate self.

You might expect there would be nothing of the "Developers! Developers! Developers!" type of shrill excitement.

You might also expect that the members of Congress would decide to live on the moon.

For Ballmer stood on stage and presented all the relaxed gentility of a preacher on ecstasy.

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And yes, he screamed.

"We're going to be hardcore! Hardcore! Hardcore!" he offered, with a menacing mien.

He added: "We're going to keep coming and coming and coming and coming and coming."

It's remarkable how phrases from one Hollywood industry can prove useful in another.

Still, some might observe that Ballmer didn't seem to jump all around the stage, so there's plenty of room for more performance art.

I very much look forward to the first time a referee's call goes against the Clippers. The new owner leaps from his courtside seat, ululating in a tone far off the right-hand end of the piano.

He storms up to the ref and goes nose-to-nose, eyes-to-eyes, arms waving like a Russian conductor's, before declaiming the error of the ref's ways.

Somewhere, another tech investor, Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban, will look on and mutter: "I've got nothing on this guy."

Tags: Technically Incorrect Tech Culture Tech Industry Steve Ballmer Microsoft About the author

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How Microsoft will ride Android hardware to save Windows Phone

Microsoft vice president of engineering Darren Laybourn shows off the new HTC One M8 for Windows Phone at an event in New York City in August 2014, CNET/Sarah Tew

Rival Android could be the cavalry coming to the rescue of Windows Phone, in Microsoft's latest maneuver to advance its smartphone operating system.

The underlying notion is this: Microsoft wants to make it easier to introduce devices that use the Windows Phone software. That was the message delivered this week's announcement of the HTC One M8 for Windows Phone.

Specifically, Microsoft has tweaked its Windows Phone 8.1 software so that hardware makers can lean on the hardware and reference designs they're already using to build devices for Android-based phones in order to build a Windows Phone device.

"We wanted handset makers like HTC to be able to leverage their engineering investment and provide them with a real choice," said Darren Laybourn, vice president of engineering for Microsoft in an interview following the launch of the HTC One M8 for Windows. "We feel the software should be the differentiator and not the hardware."

For four years Microsoft's Windows Phone smartphone operating system has limped along, trying to gain traction against the much more popular Apple iOS and Google Android devices. But Windows Phone handsets remain niche products. In fact, they only garnered about 2.5 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in the second quarter of 2014, according to IDC.

Microsoft has struggled to convince hardware partners to make phones running the Windows Phone operating system in what has turned into a chicken-and-egg scenario. Device makers don't want to dedicate resources to building a Windows Phone because there are so few customers. But without the devices -- especially iconic ones that offer cutting edge components and technology -- the operating system will never gain popularity among customers.

Management knows that Microsoft's mobile ambitions are doomed if it can't break that pattern. The solution depends on finding a way to get device makers other than Nokia, whose handset operations Microsoft acquired earlier this year for more than $7 billion, to build high-end smartphones using Windows Phone.

With the release of the latest software, Windows Phone 8.1, and now the launch of the HTC One M8 for Windows, Microsoft has come up with a new approach that could point the way past this dilemma.

"Ideally, I'm sure that Microsoft wants HTC, Samsung and others to produce exclusive designs for their software," said Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research. "But I think they recognize the market reality now. And they're willing to let dedicated hardware go to get more high-end Windows Phone smartphones on the market."

HTC One M8 for Windows product photos See full gallery

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Microsoft to sell Xbox 360 500GB drive for less than 320GB version

Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET

Xbox 360 owners will soon be able to score a 500GB media drive at a promising price tag.

Currently listed by Microsoft as a "pre-order coming soon," the 500GB media drive would give Xbox 360 owners plenty of space to install games, high-definition movies, entire game discs, and other hefty content. Depending on how much you're willing to spend, the Xbox 360 by default comes with anywhere from just 4GB to 250GB from Microsoft. So a new 500GB drive could prove handy if you're running low on space.

The drive will be available for pre-order sometime this month. Microsoft advises interested buyers to check with their local retailer for more information.

The interesting aspect is that the 500GB drive will sell for just $110, while a 320GB version of the same drive runs $130. So why is the larger drive cheaper?

A spokesman for Microsoft confirmed the $110 price tag to CNET and said that the company is working with retailers to revise the price of the 320GB media drive to maintain its competitiveness.

The new drive shows that Microsoft hasn't forgotten about Xbox 360 users in the wake of the Xbox One. Of course, sales of the Xbox One, released at the end of 2013, haven't quite been as hot as hoped for, with the new console selling fewer units than Sony's similarly new PlayStation 4.

Microsoft still sells the Xbox 360 and all of the necessary accessories, a wise move in a gaming market where consumers may feel that the older console still holds up quite nicely, thank you.

Update, 3:00 p.m. PT: Adds comment from Microsoft.

(Via Engadget)

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Microsoft brings back-and-forth conversations to Bing

A Bing search for the president of the US. Screenshot by Dara Kerr/CNET

Sometimes when you seek an answer from a search engine, it only brings up more questions. Well, Microsoft has been working on a fix for that.

The tech giant rolled out a new feature for Bing on Wednesday that lets users have more of a conversation with the search engine, rather than just asking random questions.

For example, if you type in "who is the president of the United States," you'll get "Barack Obama." Then, if you want more information you can type into the query box, "how tall is he," and Bing will know you're talking about the president and will answer back "Barack Obama height, 6 feet, 1 inch."

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Here's everything Microsoft just announced at Gamescom

Microsoft

Earlier today at the annual Gamescom trade fair in Cologne, Germany, Microsoft held a briefing that included some high-profile gaming announcements and news. Here are all the major bullet points from the press conference.

Rise of the Tomb Raider, the follow-up to Crystal Dynamics' stellar 2013 game, will launch as an Xbox One exclusive in late 2015 -- though there does seem be language that leaves the door open for a release on other platforms down the road. As of now it's only an Xbox One game.Xbox One will be getting new features including DLNA, USB playback, boot-to-TV, an updated friends section among others according to Xbox Wire.Two new Xbox One bundles will hit later this year. An all-white console packed with Sunset Overdrive will go for $400 (without Kinect) on October 28, and a Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare-skinned Xbox One with a 1TB hard drive and the game for $500 on November 3 (also without Kinect).Microsoft debuted an impressive gameplay demo of Remedy Entertainment's Quantum Break which is set to hit exclusively on Xbox One in 2015.The Halo 5: Guardians beta will begin on December 29.Moon Studios' charmingly dark platformer Ori and the Blind Forest will launch on Xbox One and PC this holiday season.The Fable Legends multiplayer beta will start on October 16."Evolve," the recently delayed shooter from the team that brought us the Left for Dead series will offer an Xbox One beta in January 2015.Xbox One digital pre-order and pre-loading begins with Forza Horizon 2 and FIFA 15.

We'll have more from Gamescom in Germany as it breaks.

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Microsoft takes shake out of videos with hyper-lapse

Microsoft's upcoming tool could smooth out raw footage from this sky diver. GoPro

While watching friends' adventurous GoPro time-lapse videos of mountain biking, skateboarding, or kayaking can be fun -- sometimes that shaky footage can bring on nausea.

Microsoft Research is looking to tamp down that sick-effect with a new tool that turns rough time-lapse footage into smooth videos. The company announced Monday that it's created an algorithm that stiches and blends together video frames to take the shake out of videos.

"At high speed-up rates, simple frame sub-sampling coupled with existing video stabilization methods does not work, because the erratic camera shake present in first-person videos is amplified by the speed-up," Microsoft researchers, Johannes Kopf, Michael Cohen, and Richard Szeliski, wrote in a blog post.

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Turning raw footage into time-lapse videos is important because it speeds up what would otherwise be hours of tedious and dull footage. As the researchers note, "There's nothing wrong with these except they're hours long and dead boring to watch."

But converting that raw footage into time-lapse videos creates the shaky conundrum. So, by using Microsoft's tool and taking time-lapse to the next level, to what the researchers call "hyper-lapse," could make the videos much more watchable.

While the project is still in beta, the researchers said that they are working on making it available as a Windows app soon.

(Via TechCrunch).

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Why the creators of 'Halo' left Microsoft to make 'Destiny'

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Bungie's sci-fi shooter (and sort-of MMO) Destiny held an open beta this past weekend for all home consoles (PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360) simultaneously. It's an ambitious game for the team that created Halo, joined Microsoft, and subsequently split from the company to make this multi-platform game (signing a 10-year deal with publisher Activision Blizzard in the process). We talked with Polygon Editor-in-chief Chris Grant for more on the impact of the beta, why Bungie left, and how important this $500 million project is for everyone involved.

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