Surface 2.0 only a couple of years away

Surface is a multi-touch computer by Microsoft Corporation which has a flat screen that is capable of reading more than one gesture of the hand. The device comes in the shape of a table and will be launched in the UK next week. This multi-touch solution is similar to the one the new generation of notebooks have in their touchpad. However, Microsoft’s Surface can even read content from a printed material that is placed on the big screen thanks to its five cameras hiding inside the machine. 

During a festival called South by Southwest Festival there were rumours that the second generation of the MS device would be launched in 2-3 years’ time. A company called Phenomblue that makes applications for the Surface was told that the second generation was still in the development stage. So it seems these were not rumours, after all. 

Current development codename for Surface 2.0 is Second Light, which is to have a second projector inside in order to project images just above the surface of the screen. Also they plan to install infrared sensors so that the device can interpret gestures even before one’s hand touches the screen. The director of Clarity Consulting, another company producing applications for Surface, expects Second Light to have High-Definition cameras installed, as well. 

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7945154.stm

Microsoft Flight Simulator series to end

Microsoft's Flight Simulator is one of the longest running game in the history of computer games. Unfortunately, Microsoft made the entire development team redundant by shutting down the Aces studio. By cutting almost 5,000 jobs the software giant made it questionable whether the series would live to have another episode or not. 

The very first episode of Flight Simulator dates back to the early '80s. As Nels Anderson, founder of the site FlightSim.com told BBC, "Microsoft have apparently cancelled a 27 year franchise. Flight sims were one of the few things about Microsoft people actually liked. It made them money and had an enormous following. To cancel something like that is an amazing thing to do." 

According to Dermot Stapleton, who is the director of a company that published third party add-ons for Microsoft's simulator games, "it's the end of the line for their in-house development studio, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the line for the game. All Microsoft did was name a group of developers working on the game Aces Studio and now, as they've laid them and a load of other developers off, they have been somewhat hoisted on their own petard. My guess is that Microsoft will now licence the code to a third party developer and then cross that "cash bridge" when they come to it." 

But will that do good to the series? Could they preserve the values for which it had been successful if the franchise is given to a third-party developer team? Nels Anderson did not seem to be as optimistic as Dermot Stapleton was, as he said that MS had already canceled one of its long-life series, MS Train Simulator, which had been buried in 2003. Even though announcements were given of sequels, these did not make it and the project were canceled, eventually. As Mr Anderson says shutting down Aces studio also means the shutting down of Flight Simulator once and for all. 

Other sources say that it is the kind of game that requires more time to "age". Some still use Flight Simulator 2004 instead of the latest release, Flight Simulator X. 

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7874937.stm