Kodu provides an end-to-end creative environment for designing, building, and playing your own new games. The core of the Kodu project is the programming user interface. The language is simple and entirely icon-based. Programs are composed of pages, which are broken down into rules, which are further divided into conditions and actions. Conditions are evaluated simultaneously.

The Kodu language is designed specifically for game development and provides specialized primitives derived from gaming scenarios. Programs are expressed in physical terms, using concepts like vision, hearing, and time to control character behavior. While not as general-purpose as classical programming languages, Kodu can express advanced game design concepts in a simple, direct, and intuitive manner.

Kodu | Projects | Fuse Labs

Microsoft has revealed today its public beta of the next version of WHS, code named "Vail." The primary upgrades / changes include the extension of media streaming outside of the home or office, improvements in multi-PC backup and restore, simplified setup and user experience as well as "significantly" expanded development and customization tools for partner. Beyond that, the company’s playing things pretty close to the chest, but you can feel free to grab a 64-bit copy of the beta starting today and dig in yourself. ‘Course, Microsoft recommends that you install the software on a secondary (read: not important to your livelihood) machine, and on the development front, it’s introducing a new SDK for those who wish to "create add-in applications using Vail’s new extensible programming model."  

Windows Home Server ‘Vail’ beta now available for download, brings improved UI and streaming options — Engadget

One of the more common question we’ve seen flying around lately is "Where can I download the Touch Pack for Windows 7?" That’s been a difficult one because it was created for OEMs and wasn’t meant to be a MS Download. That changed tonight, you can now download the Touch Pack from the Microsoft Download Center. The Touch Pack features three games and three apps including the Microsoft Surface Globe, MS Collage, MS Surface Lagoon, MS Blackboard, MS Rebound, and MS Garden Pond.

Download details: Touch Pack for Windows 7

Xobni is an add-in for Microsoft Office that adds an extra column that provides search and social networking context to your inbox. Connecting with LinkedIn and Facebook, Xobni (that’s "inbox" spelled backwards in case you missed it) brings in photos to put with emails and some general contact information like title and employer. Xobni also claims to have a email search experience that dynamically displays results while you type.
Most important about this latest refresh of Xobni is that it now works with Office 2010, and it will with with either the 32-bit or the 64-bit install. There is a free version and a plus version that include things like an advanced search and advanced filters.  Download Xobni here.

Xobni now Office 2010 32/64-bit Compliant | Larry Larsen | Channel 10

I am super phsyced about the Docs.com.  The site designees state:

 “I’m so excited to announce today the launch of a new beta Facebook app from FUSE Labs called “Docs”, also available at our docs.com website.  Built on Microsoft Office 2010, the Docs app enables Facebook® users for the first time to create …”

INTRODUCING DOCS… for FACEBOOK « Docs.com Blog

You’ve probably heard of a few podcasts that interest you, but having to watch their feeds, or subscribe through software like iTunes, sounds like a hassle. Zune.net, the web side of Microsoft’s media gadget, lets you watch and listen casually, for free.

Zune.net Plays Audio and Video Podcasts Without Software – Podcast – Lifehacker

Since the first Bing theme pack for Windows 7 was so popular, the Bing Team decided to do it again with the release of Bing’s Best 2, a new collection of desktop backgrounds for your Windows 7 computer.

Windows 7 theme packs let you click once to install a set of desktop backgrounds that rotate from one image to the next on an interval you specify. In this new collection, there are 21 images pulled from those featured on the Bing.com homepage. Via onTen

Bing’s Best 2 – Bing’s Best 2

Windows and Mac: Miro Video Converter quickly and easily converts video on-the-fly for popular devices, with presets for your PSP, Android phone, or Apple device.

The program has presets for a variety of formats and devices, such as the Motorola Droid, Google Nexus One, PSP, iPhone and a variety of iPods. It also supports MP4 and Ogg Theora conversion. To use it, just drag and drop a video you want to convert into the app, select your preset, and let the program work its magic, converting your file so you can easily add it to your portable device. The file is saved in the same folder as the video source. It has an easy and intuitive interface, and accomplishes in taking the hassle out of converting video. Miro Video Converter is a free utility for Windows and Mac from the same developers who created the open-source internet video player, Miro

Miro Video Converter Easily Converts Video for Your Android, PSP, or Apple Device – video converter – Lifehacker

Remember that ultra-low-cost Android-powered tablet that Marvell was showing off back at MWC this year? It seemed neat enough considering the aggressive goal of getting it into Chinese customers’ hands for somewhere around $100, but there was a single unforgivable problem: the iWonder logo was upside-down. Fatal flaw, right? Well, not to worry, because Marvell’s back with the iWonder here at CTIA, and this time the logo’s facing precisely the same direction as the display (in landscape mode, anyhow). We’ve also learned that the tablet is being produced in a wide variety of colors — we saw white at MWC, black here — so if you’ve ever dreamed of owning a cherry red Google-powered tablet that’s as big as your frickin’ skull, Marvell knows a guy who knows a guy who can probably hook you up.

iWonder Android tablet fixes major bug: the logo is right-side-up — Engadget

Windows/Mac/Linux: Video encoders are a dime a dozen but DamnVid not only encodes local video in a wide variety of formats, it converts online video in real-time as you download it.

You’ll find no shortage of video conversion tools if you take the time to look. The majority of them, like DamnVid, rely on the venerable FFmpeg library. Unlike the majority of video conversion tools, however, DamnVid makes it extremely easy to download and quickly convert online videos from dozens of video sites.

In the screenshot above we started filling the conversion queue simply by visiting a few video websites and copying the URL as we found videos we wanted to download and covert. You don’t even have to copy and then paste the URL into DamnVid, it grabs supported site URLs right from the clipboard. When you’re ready to convert the videos, DamnVid encodes the video in the new format as you’re downloading it significantly cutting down on the time it takes to empty the encode queue.

DamnVid Encodes Movies While Downloading for Speedy Conversion – Conversion – Lifehacker

Haven’t updated your laptop’s trackpad driver lately? Then you may well want to consider doing so, at least if your laptop is equipped with a Synaptics trackpad. As a user on the Hardware Zone forums discovered, the latest Synaptics driver seems to enable multitouch gestures on older laptops that didn’t previously support them, including two-finger scrolling, and three-finger click. What’s more, while the drivers themselves come from HP, they should work just fine on other laptops with a Synaptics trackpad. Hit up the link below to try it out for yourself.

Synaptics driver enables multitouch gestures on older trackpads — Engadget

If you’re a software developer lucky enough to get a look at the iPad before its release, you’d better be ready to submit to some of the toughest security measures this side of Super Max.

We’d gotten an inkling about the extreme precautions Apple was taking from none other than Rupert Murdoch, but Business Week has an in-depth look at what goes on behind closed doors.

It starts with a 10-page nondisclosure agreement that must be signed by anyone making contact with the device. Developers who want to test their apps on the iPad must do so in an isolated room with blacked-out windows, and the tablet must "remain tethered to a fixed object" for the duration. While Apple will ship iPads out to devs, they won’t do so until they’ve got photographic proof that their restrictions have been complied with.

That is, of course, if you’re able to get your hands on an iPad at all—it’s not clear how many developers have been seeded, but even notables like Flixster and Evernote have been shut out of the process so far.

How Apple Keeps iPad Developers on Extreme Lockdown – Ipad secrecy – Gizmodo

According to this press release, Marvell is announcing the $99 Moby Tablet for Education. You’ve seen my video of Marvell’s 4.3″ Tablet prototype shown at CES based on the Marvell Armada 600 processor. The Moby tablet is based on the same Armada 600 platform but comes with a larger screen (probably

//slashdot.org/submission/1196796/99-Moby-Tablet-as-textbook-alternative?from=rss

Why ? Because some said that buying an IPad from amazon is way cheaper than buying IPad from online Apple store because of because tax charged. With IPad order from online Apple store, you’ll have to pay tax for around thirty or forty dollars but If you buy IPad from Amazon you can save more ! and this is not included Amazon’s discount yet.

If you want to buy a cheaper IPad, better wait for Amazon ? – a place for digital read & digital write. – tablettweet.com

At the MIX10 conference, Microsoft released the developer preview of Internet Explorer 9. This isn’t a full web browser like IE8 is – just a taste of what’s to come in IE9. Developers who have the preview browser installed, though, will receive updates bringing new code every 2 months until the beta release of IE9.

As previously announced, the new browser will support HTML5, CSS3, and hardware acceleration. It also sports a new JavaScript engine called “Chakra.” You can read more about its improvements and how to send feedback over on the IE blog here.

When you first launch the IE9 preview browser, you’re taken to the IE9 Test Drive website where you’ll find a series of tests ready to be run. There are speed demos for testing browser performance, graphics demos, and HTML5 demos for testing border radius, CSS2, DOM Style, and DOM events. There’s also an “HTML 5 T-Shirt Designer” app that uses HTML5 and XHTML to let you create your own shirt.

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Preview IE9 Now | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10