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New Microsoft Garage Site Invites Public To Test a Wide Range of App Ideas

Posted by samzenpus on from the give-it-a-spin dept.

An anonymous reader writes Microsoft today launched a new section on its website: The Microsoft Garage is designed to give the public early access to various projects the company is testing right now. The team is kicking off with a total of 16 free consumer-facing apps, spanning Android, Android Wear, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows, and even the Xbox One. Microsoft Garage is still going to be everything it has been so far, but Microsoft has simply decided it's time for the public to get involved too: You can now test the wild projects the company's employees dream up.

17 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Unpaid labour? by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Could someone tell me why we would want to do unpaid labour for Microsoft?

    I'm quite prepared to test and help support Linux and open source projects. Microsoft? Not so much....

    --
    If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
    1. Re:Unpaid labour? by tqk · · Score: 2

      Ha. Very funny. Not my desktop. Considering what it can do on a desktop, not even close to ready.

      When did MS finally discover the Internet even existed, or was something they ought to consider? Win95? WinFor Workgroups?

      No. Fuck no. Morons.

      --
      "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
    2. Re:Unpaid labour? by Richard_at_work · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is your selective memory ignoring all the sendmail and bind exploits that did the rounds in the 80s and 90s?

    3. Re:Unpaid labour? by tqk · · Score: 2

      I remember that. Just before the Winmodem wars started. Why's my machine always crashing every time I connect to the net?!?

      "Get a real (external) modem, doofus!"

      Damn, that was tedious! I wondered if it would ever end.

      --
      "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
    4. Re:Unpaid labour? by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2

      Wow, you *are* ignoring the sendmail and bind exploits - many of them were due to lax security rather than being coding bugs.

      And you also seem to ignore the thriving antivirus markets that existed for the Atari, Amiga and other non-MS platforms - I wonder how MS was responsible for those!

  2. Make an app, then see if it has a market?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's a bit dumb, make an app and then see if there's a market for it?

    For example:
    "Collaborate - This app lets you host or join sessions on canvases made up of text cards and images. You and multiple other users can draw on the canvas to organize content, or manipulate the text and images using pinch, drag, and rotate gestures."

    WTF? Like finger painting for management consultants? Don't they have whiteboards for this? Why would they switch their huge whiteboards for small screens. Presumably for distance communications? So its integrated into some sort of VOIP and video app too?...no?

    "Floatz - This is an app designed to let you float an idea out to the people around you to see what they think. You can join nearby Floatz conversations as well as start your own with a question, an idea, or an image that you share anonymously."

    Now why would people whose opinion you want be required to download the 'Floatz' app for you to communicate with them? Why would they bother to use this?

    "Journeys & Notes - This is a social app meant for the space between an origin and a destination: It connects you to a community of people who have traveled the same path that you’re on. Whether you’re taking the bus to work or jet-setting across the globe, you can both leave behind notes for others to discover and read what others have shared."

    If I'm in Barcelona and want to know about Barcelona, what does it matter what my source point was and my destination point? Is a restaurant different in flavour if I arrived at it North to South than East to West? Does it make great tapas if I came down from Girona, but not if I drove up from Sitges?

    Look, it appears that a lot of fluffy management types got together to think up app ideas, and they came up with some fluffy ideas that are really not of much use.

  3. Garage? by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 3, Funny

    Awesome, can I leave a giant oil stain in the driveway?

  4. Re:WTF is this? Microshdot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...and Apple.

    Slashdot is just non-stop Microsoft and Apple.

    I'm sick of it here. I'm off to Pipedot.

  5. ex microsoft shill by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Unless microsoft goes back to developing a better OS based off of win 2k or win xp - I'm more likely to tell MS to fuck off and just hope I can port all my games to Linux someday instead.

    Vista Sucked - Win 7 slowed searches and locks up if you have a bad cd - win 8 was just a - well failure isn't anything but kind - so no, not interested in Microsoft wank stuff.

    OS that works. That's what the focus should be. Unfortunately, Micrsoft jumped off the Star Trek movie Mantra after XP. Every other release sucked until after XP - then they all sucked.

    --
    _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
    1. Re:ex microsoft shill by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 2

      The CD problem you refer to is not a fault of the operating system, but rather the drive and the motherboard bios. I've had similar issues on both Linux and iOS with optical media

      how the hell did you have an optical drive failure on iOS?

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    2. Re:ex microsoft shill by tqk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The CD problem you refer to is not a fault of the operating system, but rather the drive and the motherboard bios.

      Bull. Shit. This goes back to win for workgroups. Copy a file to the floppy drive, takes over the whole damned CPU. They've never known, *had any clue*, as to how to build an OS. They only know how to cash checks from morons (accountants, doctors, lawyers; the stupidest computer users on the planet).

      --
      "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
  6. Unlocking the Lock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can someone explain to me the point of an unlocked lock screen? Take a look at their Next Lock Screen app. It basically bypasses the whole point of a lock screen by letting you launch apps, send emails, and auto-connect calls. What's the point of locking anymore if random users still have access to everything? Their app isn't the only one that does this.

    I understand showing the time, accepting a phone call, and maybe showing upcoming events. But everything else? WTF.

    1. Re: Unlocking the Lock by pinkushun · · Score: 2

      It must be microsoft's answer to running in kiosk mode. Just like how UAC was added after-the-fact to provide a secure userspace.

  7. Is This Post a Paid Advertisement? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The post appears to be a paid advertisement.

    Please confirm, Slashdot. Open up, come clean. Transparency is good for a news aggregation site.

  8. Re:WTF is this? Microshdot? by roger10-4 · · Score: 2

    Never heard of that site, but thought I'd go take a looksie.
    The most recent article: "Escape from Microsoft Word"

  9. Fuck Microsoft by ARos · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wouldn't try any of their lame products if they paid me to try them. The trick to wooing developers [developers developers] is source code, evangelism, and community. Until you offer that, stay in your garage.

  10. ob by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    You can now test the wild projects the company's employees dream up.

    I'm doing that right now.

    They call it Windows 8.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."