As you are aware, the Windows phone Mango OS has been given much attention for quite a few weeks now, more particularly after it got a sneak preview by way of a leak last week.
As if adding to the excitement, a tweet from the staff at the Au KDDI store in Nishi-Kasai in Tokyo has brought new information about the release of the Mango device from Fujitsu. News suggests that the company will be releasing the Fujitsu ISI2T as early as August 25, 2011, (this Thursday).
The device from Fujitsu Toshiba is a touchscreen smartphone sporting the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango and will come in a couple of splashy shades as well as black.
It will have some added significance in the smartphone arena, as it will witness the partnership’s first Windows Phone ever and may be seen as an ideal candidate to take ‘Mango’ out of the box.
The smartphone boasts an exceptionally enormous 13.2-megapixel camera, 32GB of internal storage, and is both waterproof and dust-resistant!
Some more Mango news: Last night, on the 22nd, Microsoft started accepting Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) Apps. Matt Bencke, the GM for Windows Phone apps at Microsoft, announced via Twitter:
So get submitting if you’ve developed any Mango apps!
Hi, I’m Grace Gimson, new to the Academic team, and have completed my first month as an intern here at Microsoft! I’ve got a year of marketing, events and projects to look forward to here but before I talk too much about me, I want to fill you in on what some of the more technical interns have been up to! If you’re considering applying for an internship with Microsoft, or are just interested on what interns get involved with then have a read!
The following interviews were conducted with interns from both the Reading and London offices, and they’re from a variety of departments:
Alex Olivier (Global Technical Support Centre):
Development Support Engineer – Internet
I support our customers on their development projects, focusing on Internet technologies including IIS, ASP.NET, Silverlight, and pretty much anything else that touches the internet.
What have you got involved with so far?
What are you looking forward to?
I am going to be involved with the Intern and MACH blog, I have a WP7 App project in the pipeline, I’ve got a day out with my team soon (Off-roading I think(?)….and lunch, I usually look forward to lunch.
Abbie Holland (STCE – Search Technology Centre):
SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) – This mostly involves developing internal applications used to test and improve Bing.
What have you been involved with so far?
I’m really looking forward to playing a role in the outreach team for Young Britain Works, the project is a fantastic idea for a great cause, and I’d love to see us pull some successful results from it this year. I’m also looking forward to seeing Bing continue to grow, and of course eagerly trying to convince my boss what a good idea it would be to take me to the US sometime this year!
Bethan Kelly, (EMEA CRM Support Team, Global Technical Support Centre (GTSC):
(Microsoft Dynamics) CRM Support Engineer.
(Hopefully) Milk Round Graduate Team (Involves campus visits to careers fairs and events) and Dynamics Working Week (Meeting the EMEA team face to face).
Simon Frost (UK Messaging Developer Team, Global Technical Support Centre (GTSC):
Developer Support Engineer – I help developers outside Microsoft who are developing applications that work with our messaging technologies to solve their development issues / queries.
“Auditioning” for the highly popular campus milk round 101 positions (Campus tours), developing a departmental Windows Phone 7 App and attempting to learn absolutely everything I can while I am here!
Fav Mohammed (Dynamics AX):
I work in Dynamics AX as a SP (Support Professional) and communicate with partners to solve faults, crashes, bugs and general problems with the product. Dynamics AX is an ERP software (Enterprise Resource Planning) and uses a multitude of different Microsoft products to work.
I have applied for the 101 milk round campus team, sounds really fun! I’ve been a part of the Microsoft cricket team and I couldn’t live without cheesecake Thursdays…I’m hoping to petition for ice cream Fridays or something! Overall I look forward to helping big partners with issues, and to further improve my knowledge through Microsoft exams!
Neil Palmer (Strategy and Planning, Field IT):
Role involves supporting the management of the department by providing stats on how the department is using its time and resources (technically a techie role, but it is quite business-y).
As my role isn’t so technical it will be great to get stuck into some code and learn to use new and exciting technologies such as SQL Azure! Also this is a great opportunity to work on projects with other interns from different business areas. Looking forward to Silverlight development, I’ve never used Silverlight before so it will be great to learn a new skill as well as develop cool software for my department.
All of the interns I’ve spoken to are really enjoying getting stuck in to their roles and having so many new opportunities open to them. Look out for a coming post on what some more interns across the business have been up to, from marketing to business analyst positions!
Ever wanted to get on the inside track with a big technology company? Be a part of some of the stuff that we do? Get access to things before other students, get exclusive training, attend invite-only events, become an ambassador to other students, and gain invalueble experience for your CV in the process?
If any of that sounds like you, then you're in luck! The Microsoft Student Partner programme offers all that and more! But what is it? And how can you apply to be an MSP for the upcoming academic year?
What is a Microsoft Student Partner
We're looking for passionate and tenacious students studying something that's either technical/design focussed or marketing/business focussed to help us become more awesome. We need people who love presenting. We need people who love technology.We need people who aren't afraid of trying new things, meeting new people, and having a lot of fun in the process.
As a Microsoft Student Partner, you'll get access to a brilliant community of likeminded students. You’ll spend some of your time planning campus events, blogging and tweeting your experiences with technology, demonstrating the latest technologies wherever you go, and working with your peers and students on campus, clubs and your department.
You’ll get to work with the latest and greatest cutting edge technology, talk to inspirational and aspirational people within the technology industry and gain exclusive access to events, and resources.
There are three different streams of the programme that you can apply to: Technical, Senior Technical, and Business. Check out this document (http://www.slideshare.net/msukstudents/msp-2012-summary-terms) for more information on what we're looking for, and the differences between the three schemes.
What do you get in return?
First and foremost, being an MSP looks great on your CV. You'll also get some great opportunities to build unique skills and get involved in projects that'll give you a lot to talk about when you're showing off your experience in a job interview!
As with many things in the world of technology, the more you put in the more you'll get out - and the more active MSPs will get things like a full MSDN subscription to download our entire library of software, and much more.
Every MSP will be invited along to our UK MSP summit, too - it'll be happening some time in early 2012 and is a chance to get together with other MSPs for a tonne of great sessions, learning, social, and employability stuff. Just chat to some of last year's MSPs to find out how awesome the 2011 summit was!
How do I apply?
Here's the fun part! We want to hear from you, in your own words, why you you want to be an MSP. To that end, we've made the application process very different - and ultimately more fun - this time around!
Using your computer's webcam (no webcam? get in touch!) and an internet connection, we want you to record or upload to YouTube a short video explaining why you want to be an MSP. It needs to be no longer than three minutes, and we encourage you to be as creative as you can be! This means you can either use YouTube's built in webcam capture tool in-browser, or you can do something else and then upload the video.
When you upload, mark the video as 'unlisted' - that way your friends won't get hold of it before we do - and copy and paste the link to the video into the application form below. Fill out all of the other bits of the form, and drop it in an email to ukmsp@microsoft.com.
There you have it! We want you to join us for what looks to be an amazing year! Now, applications will remain open for some time, but we'll announce the first wave of MSPs in early September - so get your application in fast and beat the crowds!
Click here to view the MSP 2012 Terms & Guidance: http://www.slideshare.net/msukstudents/msp-2012-summary-terms
Summer’s flying by, and job application season is fast approaching! Whether you’ll be applying for grad jobs, placements, internships, part time work or just getting your name out there, you’ll need a good CV to help you stand out.
We’ve come across Sahas Katta’s creation…. Check it out here
He’s made a portfolio of himself by entering his resume, skills, location and contact details within a Windows Phone 7 Mock up, it definitely stands out from the crowd!
Or how about designing something a bit more old school like Zef Narkiewicz has here
The opportunities are endless, get creative and let us know if you come up with something special :)
Thanks to Ray Fleming (ex Microsoft UK now out in Australia) for his post and Bilal Mughal's comment on Facebook that reminded me to tell you about free ebooks.
We have 9 free ebooks here available in PDF format. The bonus news is that the Microsoft Press team have now made them available free in two additional formats, DRM-free EPUB and MOBI.
This means you can read them more easily on a wide range of ereaders, notably Kindles and iPads - as well as the Nook, Sony Reader and Kobo eReader. Of course these files can also be read with ereading apps for the various devices on netbooks, laptops, and desktop PCs. The key difference between these formats and the previously-offered PDF and XPS files is that the text is “reflowable,” meaning that it recomposes depending on the width of the screen (or as you resize a Window).
Tip: Choose MOBI format for Kindles, and ePUB for most others
Thanks Ray!