Microsoft opens its biggest store, across from Apple

Today Microsoft opened its biggest Microsoft Store yet, and directly across from an Apple Store. This is Microsoft's sixth location, with a seventh planned in Bellevue, Washington on November 18, just down the road from Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond.

The brand new Microsoft Store in Bloomington, Minnesota, located inside the Mall of America is 8,600 total square feet, and features all Microsoft electronics and software, including Xbox 360 slim, Kinect, Windows Phone 7, Office 2010, Windows 7 and even Microsoft Surface.

Microsoft's store opening kicked off at 9AM, where thousands attended to witness the opening ceremonies and ribbon cutting. The three-day celebration will feature a performance by Kelly Clarkson today, with Kinect events and prizes tomorrow and Windows Phone 7 available in stores on Monday.

Microsoft also opened a brand new store on Thursday in Oak Brook Mall, in Chicago, Illinois. Celebrations for the Oak Brook store were similar to that of the Mall of America store, which featured performances from Colbie Caillat, and NFL star Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears, and MLB star Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs.

iOS 4.2 on iPhone 4 - First Impressions

As reported earlier today, developers have been given access to a near-final Golden Master (GM) build of iOS 4.2, with a general release expected soon.

It is highly unlikely Apple would make any changes prior to releasing the updated OS to the public, but not impossible - the Golden Master build of iOS 4.0 featured the Game Center app, while the public version released soon after did not.

As has been widely reported, iOS 4.2 is primarly aimed at bringing the iPad up to speed, features-wise, with the iPhone and iPod Touch families, adding a bevy of features including multitasking, printing and content streaming.

However, that doesn't mean other iDevices have missed out.

AirPrint

While iPad users have been calling for the ability to print from their ''magical'' tablet since day one, iPhone users - with the exception of the iPhone 3G - also gain the ability to shoot documents to a shared printer. Printing is available from Safari and the Photos app, but not from Notes, and uses a simple pop-over menu.

Once iOS 4.2 is installed, iTunes also prompts the user to enable AirPrint, and will warn you if it is enabled without any shared printers available. Apple has promised that AirPrint will require no configuration, drivers or additional software and I was able to successfully print to an older Canon printer connected to a Windows 7 laptop.

Lock Screen Bug

A widely reported bug which provided an easy way to bypass the security code on any iPhone appears to have been fixed - following the steps to reproduce the bug now drops the user back to the lock screen.

MobileMe

It has been reported that MobileMe setup on iDevices now asks for an Apple ID. MobileMe logins were previously seperate to Apple IDs.
In-Page Text Search
Under iOS 4.2, iPhone users can now search for words or phrases in webpages within Safari. In-page texts searches use the existing search box in the top-right of the screen, with in-page results appearing below the usual Bing, Google or Yahoo results. Users can then flick through matching words or phrases, which are highlighted yellow.

Font changing in Notes

Purely a cosmetic change, but it is now possible to choose between Chalkboard, Helvetica and the default Marker Felt fonts in the Notes app. Changing font affects all new and exisiting notes, and it isn't possible to use more than one font in a note.

DST Bug

As Daylight Savings came into effect several weeks ago in Australia, I was unable to test if the DST bug was present in iOS 4.2.
Apple has notified developers that they may begin building and submitting iOS 4.2 apps for review, using an updated version of the iOS Software Development Kit. The release of iOS 4.2 will mark the first time the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad families have been able to run the same version of iOS.
As always with a major iOS update, iOS 4.2 will require an iTunes update to 10.1, a minor bump from the current version 10.0.1.
Update: A new volume bar has also been added to the multitasking menu on capable iDevices, accessed by swiping to the right past the iPod controls.

Flash content on the iPhone, iPod and iPad - seriously!

One of the downfalls of the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is Adobe Flash support. Apple has made it very clear that they won't be supporting Flash on any iOS devices. That is, until one startup company found a solution to bringing Flash onto any iOS device, and yes, it was approved by Apple.
The startup company called Skyfire, has been working hard with Apple to bring a brand new browser to the mobile phone that supports Flash video. Skyfire will use a revolutionary technology that they have been developing for the past few months that downloads video onto their servers and converts the flash video into HTML5, which will then be streamed to your iOS device.
There wasn't any mention on CNN if there is any delay between the conversion, but nevertheless, it is Flash video on your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. There are some setbacks to the application however; Skyfire won't be able to convert flash-based games or non-video content and of course you'll have to use the Skyfire browser.
Skyfire's CEO Jeffery Glueck said two or three websites have opted out of the technology, including Hulu, because of their business model to charge customers on mobile devices to play video.
Skyfire will be available for the App Store this Thursday at 9am and will sell for $2.99.