SAN FRANCISCO — July 16, 2012 — Today, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the customer preview of the new Microsoft Office, available at office.com/preview. The next release features an intuitive design that works beautifully with touch, stylus, mouse or keyboard across new Windows devices, including tablets. The new Office is social and unlocks modern scenarios in reading, note-taking, meetings and communications and will be delivered to subscribers through a cloud service that is always up to date.

“We are taking bold steps at Microsoft,” Ballmer said at the press conference in San Francisco. “The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers. It is a cloud service and will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8.”

Office at Its Best on Windows 8

• Touch everywhere. Office responds to touch as naturally as it does to keyboard and mouse. Swipe your finger across the screen or pinch and zoom to read your documents and presentations. Author new content and access features with the touch of a finger.

• Inking. Use a stylus to create content, take notes and access features. Handwrite email responses and convert them automatically to text. Use your stylus as a laser pointer when presenting. Color your content and erase your mistakes with ease.

• New Windows 8 applications. OneNote and Lync represent the first new Windows 8 style applications for Office. These applications are designed to deliver touch-first experiences on a tablet. A new radial menu in OneNote makes it easy to access features with your finger.

• Included in Windows RT. Office Home and Student 2013 RT, which contains new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote applications, will be included on ARM-based Windows 8 devices, including Microsoft Surface.

Office I s in the C loud

• SkyDrive. Office saves documents to SkyDrive by default, so your content is always available across your tablet, PC and phone. Your documents are also available offline and sync when you reconnect.

• Roaming. Once signed in to Office, your personalized settings, including your most recently used files, templates and even your custom dictionary, roam with you across virtually all of your devices. Office even remembers where you last left off and brings you right back to that spot in a single click.

• Office on Demand. With a subscription, you can access Office even when you are away from your PC by streaming full-featured applications to an Internet-connected Windows-based PC.

• New subscription services. The new Office is available as a cloud-based subscription service. As subscribers, consumers automatically get future upgrades in addition to exciting cloud services including Skype world minutes and extra SkyDrive storage. Subscribers receive multiple installs for everyone in the family and across their devices.

Office I s S ocial

• Yammer. Yammer delivers a secure, private social network for businesses. You can sign up for free and begin using social networking instantly. Yammer offers integration with SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics.

• Stay connected. Follow people, teams, documents and sites in SharePoint. View and embed pictures, videos and Office content in your activity feeds to stay current and update your colleagues.

• People Card. Have an integrated view of your contacts everywhere in Office. The People Card includes presence information complete with pictures, status updates, contact information and activity feeds from Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

• Skype. The new Office comes with Skype. When you subscribe, you get 60 minutes of Skype world minutes every month. Integrate Skype contacts into Lync and call or instant message anyone on Skype.

Office U nlocks N ew S cenarios

• Digital note-taking. Keep your notes handy in the cloud and across multiple devices with OneNote. Use what feels most natural to you — take notes with touch, pen or keyboard, or use them together and switch easily back and forth.

• Reading and markup. The Read Mode in Word provides a modern and easy-to-navigate reading experience that automatically adjusts for large and small screens. Zoom in and out of content, stream videos within documents, view revision marks and use touch to turn pages.

• Meetings. PowerPoint features a new Presenter View that privately shows your current and upcoming slides, presentation time, and speaker notes in a single glance. While presenting, you can zoom, mark up and navigate your slides with touch and stylus. Lync includes multiparty HD video with presentations, shared OneNote notebooks and a virtual whiteboard for collaborative brainstorming.

• Eighty-two-inch touch-enabled displays. Conduct more engaging meetings, presentations and lessons, whether in person or virtually, with these multitouch and stylus-enabled displays from Perceptive Pixel.

While the full lineup of offerings and pricing plans will be announced in the fall, Ballmer discussed three new Office 365 subscription services. When available, each new subscription offer will include the new 2013 editions of the Office applications — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. In addition, subscribers will receive future rights to version upgrades as well as per-use rights across up to five PCs or Macs and mobile devices. The three new editions will be the following:

• Office 365 Home Premium — designed for families and consumers. This service also includes an additional 20 GB of SkyDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype world minutes per month.

• Office 365 Small Business Premium — designed for small businesses. This service also includes business-grade email, shared calendars, website tools and HD webconferencing.

• Office 365 ProPlus — designed for enterprise customers who want advanced business capabilities and the flexibility to deploy and manage in the cloud.

The customer preview is available at office.com/preview.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

SAN FRANCISCO — July 16 , 2012 — Microsoft Corp. will announce news live from San Francisco via webcast on July 16 at noon PDT:

Microsoft Announcement

When : Monday, July 16, at noon PDT

What: News from Microsoft

Who: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will share the news.

Where: Live via webcast at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news (available for

viewing in the following languages):

• Chinese (Mandarin)

• English

• French

• German

• Italian

• Korean

• Portuguese (Brazilian)

• Russian

• Spanish (Latin American)

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

Ten days after the major release of Backup4all 4.8 we are making a small update, build 278. You can download it here: Backup4all 4.8.278. Even though today it’s Friday the 13th, we’re confident enough to release the new build as … Continue reading →

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SAN DIEGO — July 1 2 , 2012 — Today at San Diego Comic-Con International, the world’s largest pop culture convention, 343 Industries and Microsoft Corp. unveiled the official trailer for “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn,” the landmark live-action digital series based on the best-selling Xbox franchise. The series will be initially distributed worldwide by Machinima, debuting on its new channel, Machinima Prime, as well as on Halo Waypoint, on Oct. 5, 2012. “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” will unfold through a series of five episodes, setting the stage for the worldwide launch of “Halo 4” on Nov. 6. The official “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” trailer is now available on Machinima Prime (http://www.youtube.com/MachinimaPrime) and on Halo Waypoint (http://halo.xbox.com/ForwardUntoDawn). Machinima will also be releasing exclusive content, backstory and character pieces leading up to the launch of this highly anticipated series.

“Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” tells an exciting story of heroism and sacrifice on a scale never before seen in the “Halo” universe, taking fans back to the beginning of the human and Covenant war and leading into the events of “Halo 4.” Set against the backdrop of a United Nations Space Command (UNSC) military academy, a group of highborn cadets are training to be the next generation of soldiers in the UNSC’s ongoing war with insurrectionists in the outer colonial planets. Among these cadets, Thomas Lasky struggles with his doubts about this war, and with the burden of expectations he may not be able to carry. As Lasky comes to terms with his potential as a military leader, the terrifying alien alliance known as the Covenant arrives and turns his world upside down. Inspired by the Master Chief, he must decide what it means to be a hero. “Halo” fans who experience Lasky’s thrilling origin story in “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” will be rewarded with special insights into the story of “Halo 4” and the “Halo Infinity Multiplayer” experience.

Directed by Stewart Hendler (“H+,” “Sorority Row”) and written by Todd Helbing and Aaron Helbing (“Smallville,” “Spartacus”), “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” features a diverse cast of established and up-and-coming Hollywood talent, including Tom Green (“Dance Academy”) as Thomas Lasky, Anna Popplewell (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) as Chyler Silva, Daniel Cudmore (“X2,” “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “The Twilight Saga”) as the Master Chief, Ayelet Zurer (“Angels & Demons,” “Munich”) as Mehaffey, Mike Dopud (“Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol”) as General Black, Enisha Brewster (“Footloose”) as April Orenski, Masam Holden (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Elizabethtown”) as Michael “Sully” Sullivan, Osric Chau (“2012”) as JJ Chen, Iain Belcher (“Supernatural”) as Vickers, and Kat De Lieva as Dimah.

“Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” is backed by a top-tier production team led by executive producers Lydia Antonini and Josh Feldman, former Warner Bros. and Playtone executives, respectively. Continuing its involvement with the “Halo” franchise, Legacy Effects (“The Hunger Games,” “The Avengers,” “Avatar”) is creating specialized costumes and armor, and visual effects are being designed by an award-winning team led by John Sullivan (“The Pacific”). Production services are provided by Herzog & Co.

An extended, 90-minute Special Edition featuring additional footage and bonus content will be available Nov. 6 in the “Halo 4” Limited Edition and on on-demand video services.

• “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” Special Edition. Available as part of the “Halo 4” Limited Edition game bundle for $99.99* (U.S.), the “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” Special Edition is an extended 90-minute version of the live-action digital series that will bring the “Halo” universe to life as you’ve never seen it.

“Halo 4” Limited Edition also includes the following bonus content:

• In-fiction content expanding the characters and stories of “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn”

• Special Featurette: “Bringing Gaming into Reality”

• Making of “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn”

About “Halo 4”

Launching worldwide on Nov. 6, 2012, “Halo 4” marks the beginning of a new saga in the blockbuster franchise that has shaped entertainment history and defined a generation of gamers. Developed by 343 Industries exclusively for Xbox 360, “Halo 4” ushers in the return of mankind’s greatest hero, the Master Chief, in a newly envisioned, epic sci-fi adventure.

As one of the biggest video game franchises in history, the “Halo” series has sold more than 42 million games worldwide to date, generating nearly $3 billion in total franchise sales and inspiring multiple New York Times best-selling novels, live-action features, comic books, action figures, apparel and more.

About 343 Industries

343 Industries is the publisher and developer of the blockbuster “Halo” series of videogames and, as part of Microsoft Studios, oversees the “Halo” franchise, including novels, comics, licensed collectibles, apparel and more. 343 Industries is home to world-class developers working on the “Halo” “Reclaimer Saga,” which commences with the arrival of “Halo 4” on Nov. 6, 2012, exclusively on Xbox 360.

About Xbox

Xbox is Microsoft’s premier entertainment service for the TV, phone, PC and tablet. It’s home to the best and broadest games, as well as one of the world’s largest libraries of music, movies, TV and sports. With Kinect, Xbox 360 transformed gaming and entertainment in the living room with a whole new way to play games and find entertainment — no controller required. More information about Xbox can be found online at http://www.xbox.com.

About Machinima

Machinima is the dominant video entertainment network for serious gamers around the world. The number one entertainment channel on YouTube, Machinima serves over 1.7 billion video views a month, and reaches over 183 million gamers monthly. Machinima’s global content network features official publisher content, gameplay videos and original content, including over 20 original weekly shows, all aimed at the coveted 18 – 34 year old male demographic. Machinima is fast-becoming a global phenomenon with an ability to capture a cultural sensibility and awareness among a next generation of entertainment consumers and marketers alike. The company is backed by MK Capital and Redpoint Ventures, and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* Estimated retail price. Actual retailer prices may vary.

Press only:

For new “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” assets, visit: http://press.xbox360.com/products/p227/halo-4-forward-unto-dawn

The official trailer is available on Machinima Prime and on Halo Waypoint at

http://www.youtube.com/MachinimaPrime

http://halo.xbox.com/ForwardUntoDawn .

Note to editors : For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.