Microsoft just launched this video to promote the new version of Internet Explorer. Instead of talking directly about the product, they made a funny video with celebrities talking about the Internet history. As Faris says, “The cool thing about being this huge gray corporation is that every time you don’t act like it, it’s awesome.”

As a result of the study “Planetary-Scale Views on a Large Instant-Messaging Network” from Microsoft and the University of Carnegie Mellon, it was proved that, in average, you need 6.6 persons to reach any person in the planet.

For more information: TechDirt, El Universal

According to Microsoft…

Via TechNet

Microsoft has launched a new website to promote Office 2008 for Mac. A really good approach with the simplification methaphora. The bad thing is when you want to “learn more” about the product, you are redirected to the traditional (and not-so-simplified) MS website.

Simplify your Work

Via Cpluv

Along the time we have been forced to adapt our habits to new technologies that promise to facilitate the way in which we work. Thus, we have adopted the mouse and the keyboard as the main tools to interact with computers. We have also adopted the windows concept and the fact that we can only make one task at a time (minimize a window, scroll or change the window’s size are tasks that can’t be performed simultaneously) as our paradigm for human-computer interaction.

Smashing Magazine published recently an article showing some improvements regarding the user’s experience.

Cheoptics360
It is a product by Vizoo that can display 3D holograms with an altitude from 1.5 to 30 meters, regardless it is outside or inside.

Reactable
It is a collaborative musical instrument with a touchable interface in which many users can control the instruments simultaneously by moving or rotating physical objects that are placed over the surface.

Multi-Touch
This is a device that accepts many commands at the same time through different fingers of the same or different persons. Through the interface the virtual objects can be manipulated and the user is able to interact with the system with many fingers, just as with the iPhone interface.

Microsoft Surface
Surface is a Microsoft’s product that enables multiple users to manipulate virtual objects at the same time through a touchable table. The system is able to sense the objects that are placed over it and communicate with them in case of electronic devices such as cameras or mp3 players.

Other developments reviewed in the article are Photosynth and BumpTop.

For more information read: Smashing Magazine.