Microsoft and Walgreens join forces to ‘transform healthcare’

Microsoft and Walgreens announced today that they will be teaming up to help improve health care. The companies have entered into a seven-year agreement during which Walgreens plans to migrate most of its IT infrastructure over to Microsoft's Azure c...

Microsoft offers developers a preview of its quantum computing kit

Developers hoping to get on the quantum computer train early can now get started with Microsoft's Quantum Development Kit, a free preview version of which was released today. The kit, which was first announced at Microsoft's Ignite conference in Sept...

Microsoft’s connected car platform will put Cortana on the road

Microsoft's next big push into the automotive space won't be a Redmond-made self-driving car. Instead, the company hopes to provide the backbone for a whole suite of cloud-based services that automakers can use to enhance the driving experience in th...

Agawi cloud game streaming headed to Windows 8, focused on ‘mid-core and hardcore’ games

Agawi cloudbased game streaming headed to Windows 8, focused on 'midcore and hardcore titles'

Cloud streaming provider Agawi (formerly "iSwifter") is making a second major push with its cloud-based game streaming service alongside Windows 8 this October. Beyond the social content it already brings to the iPad -- "more than 12,000" Facebook games -- Agawi's second run at streaming is more focused on what it calls "mid-core" and "hardcore" games. But what does that mean? Executive chairman Peter Relan says "mid-core" means "web-based MMOs with a PC download," versus PC downloads representing the "hardcore." The example video (below the break) shows Agawi working with a variety of games, though none of the titles in the video confirm potential content partners for the service (Relan teases a fourth quarter reveal of more news). And today, Agawi announced its collaboration with Microsoft Azure, resulting in cloud game streaming across the world of Windows 8 -- tablets, PCs, and even its phones.

"Popular AAA games will be made available in the coming months for instant play on Windows 8 devices with no additional work required by developers," the launch PR promises. Input methods for games vary dramatically by platform, and we've already seen what happens when you shove tablet-based touch controls onto a console/PC game (it ain't pretty). "That's a publisher decision," Relan says. "We support the idea of d-pads on the tablet itself. We support pure touch gesture on the tablet. We support point-and-click on the screen -- touch and tap. We support swipe for scrolling. We support a full controller, like an Xbox console controller," he adds.

Continue reading Agawi cloud game streaming headed to Windows 8, focused on 'mid-core and hardcore' games

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Agawi cloud game streaming headed to Windows 8, focused on 'mid-core and hardcore' games originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft delivers Windows Server 2012, puts the enterprise on cloud 8

Microsoft delivers Windows Server 2012, puts the enterprise on cloud 8

Forget Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 is where it's at... if you're a corporate IT manager, that is. Microsoft has just posted the finished version of its suit-and-tie OS for immediate sale in download form. Not surprisingly given Microsoft's big cloud push, the emphasis with the upgrade is on improving how well the software scales for internet hosting -- the company wants one common backbone that can handle as little as a small e-mail server to large-scale Azure deployments and virtualization. Server 2012 is also defined by what you won't find: while the Metro-style interface from the platform's Windows 8 cousin shows its face in the Essentials version, it's noticeably stripped down and goes away in the more advanced tiers. The real shakeup for some might just be the new price points, which drop the cost by a large amount for offices that don't need more than a slice of what the all-out Datacenter edition has to offer. We'll admit that most of our attention as end users will be focused on what happens several weeks from now, but if you're one of those rare server operators that can't wait to start testing a new OS release almost immediately, you've got a head start on most of us.

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Microsoft delivers Windows Server 2012, puts the enterprise on cloud 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 13:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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