Windows tips

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Hi, it’s Brittany K again. Last time, I talked about some of the apps I use to plan a trip. And since I got back from a trip to Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago, this time I thought I’d tell you about some of the apps that came in handy while I was traveling.

FlightAware

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Today NVIDIA has announced an exciting new GPU in their GeForce lineup: the GeForce GTX 780. Graphics cards based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 GPU are available from a variety of manufacturers starting today, so won’t have to wait to order one! NVIDIA also released the first shipping version of the GeForce Experience app (V1.5) and updated GeForce drivers (V320.18) which are optimized for several of the latest DirectX 11 game titles including BIOSHOCK: INFINITE, FAR CRY 3, and Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2.

GeForce GTX 780 GPU

The new GeForce GTX 780 is a new high-end gaming GPU that offers both greater performance and new features compared with previous GeForce GTX GPUs.

NVIDIA’s new GeForce GTX 780 GPU (reference card shown)

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Today, we’re announcing two new mice designed specifically for Windows. These are the first mice from Microsoft to include a Windows button on them, giving you quick and easy access to specific features in Windows – and, in the case of the Sculpt Comfort Mouse, more advanced functionality in Windows 8.

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How many times have you rushed out of the house without some important file you needed for work—or wished you had access to your desktop computer’s music or movie library from your hotel room on the beach?

Enter Splashtop 2, a popular app designed to provide remote access to your PC or Mac that just arrived in the Windows Phone 8 Store today.

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The announcement of Xbox One made this a very exciting week for tech enthusiasts. Xbox One will no doubt change the way we think about gaming and entertainment, and I’m eagerly awaiting my opportunity to experience this new technology first-hand.

Today more exciting news was shared related to the new generation of Kinect: next year we’ll see a new Kinect for Windows sensor and corresponding Kinect for Windows SDK. The next generation Kinect for Windows sensor will have enhanced capabilities compared to its predecessor, and it will power some exciting new Windows PC experiences!

Here are some highlights of the new generation of Kinect for Windows hardware and software:

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This blog post was authored by Rohan Thakkar, a Program Manager on the Windows Phone team.

- Adam

Last year we evangelized the use of the LongListSelector control to provide smooth infinite scrolling scenarios. The LongListSelector control is so useful that we decided to enhance it and move it to the SDK for Windows Phone 8. In this post we discuss the improvements we’ve made to the control, and provide a mapping guide for Windows Phone developers who are already using the Windows Phone Toolkit 7.1 version of the LongListSelector.

If you prefer to read XAML instead of plain text, you can go straight to the samples and explore them:

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This blog post was authored by Matthias Shapiro, a technical evangelist at Microsoft.

- Larry

The cornerstone app architecture for Windows Phone development is the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) design pattern. In this video, Matthias Shapiro demonstrates the basic structure of a Windows Phone MVVM app. He shows how you can build robust and flexible MVVM apps for the phone that take advantage of data binding, commanding, and presentation logic (ViewModel) portability. For more information, see Practical MVVM For Windows Phone on Channel 9.

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HP is announcing some new Windows 8 PCs today – including a brand new portable All-in-One PC called the HP ENVY Rove 20. Most if not all these new PCs all come with touchscreens.

HP ENVY Rove 20:

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It’s a great week for Xbox games from Electronic Arts, with four titles previously available only to Nokia owners now available to everyone and four new Nokia exclusives hitting the Windows Phone Store. Unless otherwise noted, these titles are available for both Windows Phone 7 and 8. Here’s the rundown.

All Windows Phone users can now test their driving and parking skills in the spatial-awareness Parking Mania ($2.99). If you love classic board games, you’ve got to try The Game of Life ($2.99). Sneak, scamper, and snack your way on an epic journey in SPY Mouse ($2.99). Or test the limits of your knowledge with Trivial Pursuit ($2.99).

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ASUS just passed along the note that the Transformer Book TX300 is now available at Amazon, B&H, BestBuy.com, CDW, Excaliber PC, PC Connection, and Tiger Direct starting at $1,499 (U.S.).