At the Black Hat security conference, Microsoft demonstrated a new security tool called the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit or EMET, which would allows older programs (like IE6) to receive new vulnerability patches. The software, an update to the original version of EMET, released back in October 2009, is intended to help better manage risk in older, legacy products while the customer or company is in the process of migrating to a modern and more secure version.

With the new version of EMET (ver. 2), there’s a better user interface, a more robust infrastructure and more mitigations, says the official announcement. And although anyone can use the tool, there’s a big corporate focus with its development – the announcement notes in particular its benefit to “line of business applications on backend servers and browsers on the desktops of corporate executives.”

The updated software hasn’t arrived yet, but reports from the conference say it should be made available in August. 

Messenger Companion, a new browser plugin for Internet Explorer, makes surfing the web a more social experience. Detailed here on the Windows Live blog, the new plugin lets you view links you’re friends are sharing, comment on them and share links with others directly from a website. And since Messenger now connects to your social networks (like Facebook, for example), Messenger Companion lets you share to those services as well.

However, this is no mere “status update” link-shortening tool – it can also help you discover new content of interest as you browse the web.

For example, if you’re on YouTube, Messenger Companion will subtly flash to notify you that a friend (or friends) of yours have recently shared links from that site on any social network (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.). You can then click on the notification to see what they were sharing. You can also click the Messenger Companion button in IE to see all the recently shared links from the site. After doing so, the Messenger Companion sidebar opens up to display a News Feed-like stream of shared links.

If you choose to comment on those links, that comment is posted back to the original social network from where the link originated.

And if you find something share-worthy, you can use Messenger Companion to do so. It will updated your Windows Live Messenger status as well as your status in any social networks you’ve connected via the Windows Live service.

Messenger Companion works in IE7 and IE8 and comes with the Windows Live Essentials beta. (Remember: “beta” means “feedback wanted!”)

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Microsoft is launching its first Hohm-enabled gadget courtesy of a partnership with Blue Line Innovations, a Canadian-based company which sells energy monitoring and management devices. Hohm, for those unaware, is a web service designed to help consumers monitor and analyze their energy consumption and then make recommendations for cost-savings measures.

Previously, using the Hohm website, the Q&A section would have to be filled out based on what you knew about your home – but unless you already had energy-monitoring gadgets installed, your answers were estimates in several cases.

Now, with the new Hohm PowerCost Monitor and WiFi Gateway, you’ll have hard data.

The device hooks up to your home’s power meter (no wiring required!) and reads actual usage. The details are transmitted to your Microsoft Hohm account which displays the data in near real-time graphs and charts (delays are 30 seconds or so). You can also view the data from a mobile device, if desired.

This is only the beginning for Hohm-enabled gadgets: Microsoft plans to connect Hohm with smart plugs, thermostats, HVAC systems, electric vehicles (it’s already in the Ford Focus Electric) and more.

The Blue Line PowerCost Monitor and Wi-Fi Gateway are available today from Blue Line Innovations and through select retailers like Frys, Amazon, and Microsoft stores. The complete package of PowerCost Monitor and Wi-Fi Gateway is available for $249, the Wi-Fi Gateway is also sold separately for $159.

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Oh yes they did. At a private concert for Microsoft employees held in Atlanta at the Microsoft Global Experience conference, the Black Eyed Peas put on a great performance, captured here on a YouTube video. (Note: not entirely SFW due to expletives).  

At one point during the concert, Will.i.am (fast forward to 5:38 to see) calls the audience “my Bing Bingers”…or maybe “my big Bingers?” – it’s hard to tell. He then goes on to tell Fergie: “This is the future of search. So when I say ‘Bing, Bing’ you know what ‘Bing, Bing’ means?” He continues, “if I have a ball or a projectile, I hit it and it continues to ricochet everywhere, that’s bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing… Eventually it takes ‘em all out. That’s what 'Bing Bing' means.”

Well, that’s an interesting interpretation. I thought it meant “bing!” like the sound of a lightbulb going off when you had a revelation or idea. But you know, “takes ‘em all out,”…that’s cool too.

(via Seattle Times)

No, not Street “Side” view, Street “Slide” view.

Engadget (via MIT’s Technology Review) uncovered a cool Microsoft Research project called “Street Slide” view. The project attempts to create a new interface for viewing the street-level photos used in online applications like Bing Maps Streetside View.

As explained on the project’s homepage, today’s mapping applications enable users to virtually visit cities by way of “immersive 360 degree panoramas, or bubbles.” Users move from bubble to bubble, but this doesn’t necessarily provide the best visual sense of a city street.

With Street Slide, the researchers took the best aspects of the “immersive bubbles” and transformed them into multi-perspective strip panoramas. You can actually slide out of a bubble to see the street from a different perspective – a strip that’s viewed from a greater difference. When viewed in this mode, the empty space above and below the strip could be used for business logos and building numbers (addresses), or even ads.

According to the MIT article, the researchers have already made a version of this technology for mobile devices, including the iPhone. “It broadens out your visual sense to cover a two-block radius,” says Michael Cohen, a senior scientist at Microsoft Research.

Who’s hoping for a WP7 phone implementation of this tech? I know I am. In case I didn’t explain this too well, you can see Street Slide in action in the video here.

As promised, the Bing “entertainment experience” is getting into gear with updates for music, tv, movies, and now more games, too. According to this post on the Bing blog, those searching for free games on Bing have several new options, including Belle's Beauty Boutique, Carniball,Fishdom Spooky Splash, Jigsaw, 8 Ball Champion, Pyramid Solitaire and Gardenscapes.

But don’t worry if you’re not sure what game to search for by name – I discovered that you can simply type in “games” into Bing and the top result will link you directly to the Games themselves (click either the link’s heading or just “Play Now.”) Here you’ll find all the games housed on Bing, like the ever-popular Bejeweled, for example, and Plants vs. Zombies, just to name a couple.

The bing.com/games site also groups games into categories like “most popular,” “action favorites,” “puzzle favorites,” “word favorites,” and more, so you can find just the sort of game you’re looking for, even  if you don’t know what it’s called.

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Earlier, the Bing iPhone app was updated with a barcode scanning function, meant to be used for comparison shopping purposes. If you’re wondering how this works, the Bing blog has just provided a handy how-to.

However, I noticed a couple of things about the way the instructions were written over there that may be confusing to new users. For one, you don’t “click” anything – you “tap.” Also, the camera is not an icon, it’s text. And you only tap to take a photo when you’re scanning cover art, not barcodes.

Based on my experiences with the Bing app, here’s how I would explain it to new users:

1. From the Bing’s homepage, tap the word “camera” at the bottom of the page. This launches the iPhone’s camera.
2. Point the camera at a barcode or, if a book, CD, DVD or video game, you can just point the camera at the cover art.
3. If a barcode, the app will automatically recognize the code and perform a search. For cover art, you’ll need to tap to take a photo first.
4. Bing will then search for results. When it finds a match, it’s displayed in a box at the bottom labeled “1 result.” (I’ve yet to scan anything where it finds more than 1 result, but that could happen, I suppose).
5. Tap the thumbnail to see the result details. Here, you’ll find a description, images, rating, reviews and links of where to buy.

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Earlier this month, the Outlook Social Connector at long last added in Facebook and Windows Live integration to complement the LinkedIn and MySpace integration already present.

The Connector now pulls in Facebook profile photos for your contacts, lets you see a contact’s most recent Facebook status update and displays their recently posted items, like their new photos. It also tracks all the recent activity with a selected contact, including email sent and received, meetings and shared attachments, no matter which plugin or plugins you choose to use with it.

Now, thanks to a simple new feature from a company called Amplify, you can augment your “social” Outlook experience even further. The company has just introduced a “post-by-email” option that lets you simultaneously share content to Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, FriendFeed, Tumblr, Bloggers, Posterous, WordPress and more just my emailing it in. It’s the perfect complement to the Social Connector.

After signing up for Amplify, you’re provided with a unique email address which you use to post. The Subject line becomes the post’s title and the body becomes the post’s content. Attached photos are also posted to the social networks of your choice.

You can even specify in any given email which services to post to if it’s not always going to be the same ones each time. Using the “autopost” command about the message’s body, you can direct where this message should be posted. So, for example, if you want to post something to Twitter and Facebook, you’d just type autopost twitter facebook on the first line and your tweet/post on the 2nd.

To get started with the Social Connector, you’ll first need to grab the Social Connector itself from the download page (if you haven’t already) then head over here to grab the social networking plugins you want to use. To try Amplify, you can sign up here.

(hat tip: TheNextWeb)

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We recently covered a new Foursquare application for Windows Phone called MySquare, but it was for Windows Phone 6.0+. What we’re really interested in is Foursquare for the new Windows Phone 7. And now we have it! From mobile development firm Touchality (also makers of the beta Foursquare app called WiMoSquare), there comes an alpha version of “Foursquare for Windows Phone 7.” (Yep, that’s the name. Clever, right?)

Everything works in this current release, including the ability to perform check-ins, find friends and see what’s happening in a given locale, but the code is still in the process of being cleaned up, according to the app’s page on Codeplex.  But already this Silverlight-infused WP7 app is looking great, based on these screenshots. Also of note: the app has integrated Bing Maps functionality where you can get the name, address, phone number and Twitter account for a particular business. A “Get Directions” button will even tell you how to get there.

Can’t wait to see this one in action! If you’ve managed to get your hands on some early Windows Phone 7 hardware, the app is available for download from here now.

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Another improvement to Bing, released earlier this month is an improvement to the weather search functionality. Did you know that you can now just type the word “weather” into Bing and get a local forecast? How’s that for easy?

The forecast info is pulled from Foreca, Intellicast, and IMap Weather and is displayed as an “instant answer” at the top of your search results.

But, wait, it gets even better. The folks over on LiveSide realized you don’t even have to hit “enter” after typing the word “weather” on the Bing.com homepage to see the forecast! The auto-complete functionality displays the relevant information, complete with current temp, high and low for the day and a graphic (sun, clouds, etc.). It’s simple, at-a-glance info and really fast to access. If you didn’t already have Bing set as your homepage, this is (yet another) good reason to do so. 

(via LiveSide and the Bing blog)

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