GeekWire reports that Joe Marini, principal program manager for the Windows Phone web platform, is no longer employed at Microsoft. Marini had been at Microsoft since 2003, and was most recently seen giving a public talk at Microsoft’s BUILD conference in Anaheim last week.
News of Marini’s departure arrives after he posted numerous tweets regarding an unreleased Nokia phone sporting Microsoft’s mobile operating system. A company spokesperson declined to make any comment about his departure, citing a policy against discussing personal matters.
But people within the Redmond company are claiming that he resigned after learning company plans to let him go for improper use of social media and disclosing confidential information. According to Microsoft’s social media and blogging policy (PDF), employees are supposed to “be smart” and not dump information into tweets or posts that could be considered confidential… like an unreleased Nokia phone.
“I just got a chance to try out one of the slickest looking #Nokia phones I have ever seen. Soon, you will too! #wp7,” he tweeted on September 7. Not stopping there, he decided to actually rate the device with a firm ’8′, saying that it had a solid feel, a good camera, a responsive UI and nice little touches on the body construction. So far, the phone sounds like a slick device.
But rating your unreleased product probably isn’t a good idea. Explaining why your product didn’t score a 9 or 10 probably isn’t the best promotional tool either, and likely a good reason to receive a swift kick out the door. “The camera was good, but I didn’t have optimal lighting,” he responded when asked why the device only scored an 8. “I’d like a larger screen too.”
Marini’s outing is reportedly part of Microsoft’s full-frontal attempt to curb leaks. The company recently kicked out one journalist from the BUILD conference for breaking an embargo by prematurely posting video content about the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.
What do you get when you toss Minecraft and World of Warcraft into a mixing bowl? How about a mod with the strange title of Mine of WorldCraft?
Although some may agree that World of Minecraft may roll off the tongue a little better than the current title, the mod’s mixture of words was likely chosen to escape any legal hounds that may be sniffing at the project. Nevertheless, the game itself should remain unscathed. Unfortunately, little else is known about the mod save for what’s seen in the video below.
The idea should be fairly obvious: it’s a fantasy-based MMORPG using the Minecraft engine. The in-game world features the typical Minecraft pixilated visuals, but the overlying UI is more in tune with Blizzard’s game or other MMORPGs on the market. Choose a faction, a gender, a specific class, and you’re on your way to hacking up blocky wolves and donning super-awesome armor in a Minecraft/World of Warcraft hybrid environment.
Whether this mod is for real or just a joke on behalf of a very creative film maker, the clip is highly entertaining to watch. Little details will bring a smile to any MMORPG fan’s face such as the Night Elf race that will “likely die out due to a shortage of males anytime now” to the description of the Paladin class which reads “Paladins are a weird kind of people with an extreme love for Notch and the color yellow.”
It started off as a rumor yesterday, but bang the news is now official! The HP Board of Directors intended to express their displeasure with then-current CEO Leo Apotheker by sacking him after being with HP for less than a year, the news was made official last night after the close of the NYSE.
Apotheker has officially been removed from his position and replaced by rumored front-runner for the job, HP board member and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. He will also be resigning as director. Apotheker’s time as CEO saw the company making wild strategic shifts on a seemingly-regular basis, contributing to the appearance that the company lacked real leadership. However, despite his firing, reports are that some of his recent strategies, which include spinning off HP’s personal computer business, will remain in place.
While Whitman’s leadership of eBay was largely a success, her tenure was not without controversy. That controversy, and her lack of relative experience in the hardware business, didn’t dissuade the HP Board who, unhappy with Apotheker’s failure to right HP’s flagging fortunes following the mismanagement of Mark Hurd, likely desired someone with a proven record of successful management. That the company apparently intends to go forward with plans to spin off their computer business may be confirmation of a plan to become more of a software services company, a job for which Whitman would also be prepared to oversee.
Whitman’s most recent appearance in the public eye occurred during her bid to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger as California governor, though it is not likely that Jerry Brown’s failure to present himself as a candidate for HP CEO contributed to her receiving the job. Her first order of business remains as of this writing unknown, but one hopes she wasn’t too fond of the TouchPad and Pre.
Wednesday hactivist group Anonymous deemed September 24, 2011 (this Saturday) as the USA’s “Day of Vengeance.” According to a press release, the collective and various other “cyber liberation groups” plan to “peacefully yet forcefully” protest all over the United States. They also plan to launch a series of cyber-attacks against various targets including Wall Street, “Corrupt Banking Institutions” and even the New York City Police Department.
The new declaration of war seemingly stems from an ongoing nationwide protest of around 15,000 “peaceful demonstrators” parked in public places to protest the “unjust policies of the U.S. government and the corruption in our financial institutions.” The root of the protest is currently taking place on Wall Street and has already resulted in arrests based on the 1845 “mask” laws.
With the Tablet S on sale, it was really only a matter of time before its inevitable teardown, and here to fill our need for splayed circuity is one from TechRepublic. Seeing as most Honeycomb tablets have similar internals, there aren’t too many surprises to be had, but the outfit did curiously find a hole for a cellular modem, as well as an easy to replace battery and an internal plastic frame that adds rigidity (pictured above). If you’re ready for 74 photos of the slate being torn asunder from every possible angle, a source link awaits you below.
Brothers from another mobile mother, or just a case of copycat syndrome? We’ll let you be the judge, but from the looks of this latest leak, Samsung’s SHV-E120L could be sharing some of the LG LU6200′s special spec sauce. Outed over on Cetizen and iNews24, the full breakdown of the device’s innards point to a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 HD display, 2 megapixel front-facing / 8 megapixel rear camera, 1GB RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC. We’ve seen conflicting reports as to the exact version of Gingerbread that’ll ship on the phone, with Android 2.3.5 in the running. As for the handset’s radios, its purported MDM9600 Gobi chipset indicates tri-mode LTE, HSPA and CDMA compatibility. Samsung’s super-sized smartphone could hit South Korea later this month, or in early October.
The Porsche 911 is dead, long live the Porsche 911. The German automaker’s latest and greatest has taken to the Nürburgring where old marks have fallen hard. The 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S was sent through the Green Hell, where it promptly beat the time achieved by the prior 997 version by a whopping 13 seconds.
With a time of 7:40, the 2012 911 matches the mark set by the previous 911 GT3. If you happen to own a previous generation 911 GT3, we’ll pause here for a moment while you go out to smash something with a hammer.
You shouldn’t fret too much though, because this just means the next-generation GT3 should be a land rocket capable of blistering the surface of the ‘Ring. GT2 guys, your numbers are still safe… for now.
It started off as a rumor yesterday, but bang the news is now official! The HP Board of Directors intended to express their displeasure with then-current CEO Leo Apotheker by sacking him after being with HP for less than a year, the news was made official last night after the close of the NYSE.
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