Microsoft Is Developing Software That Will Save You Cash On Your Gadgets

It's an entirely too familiar feeling. You spend loads of cash on some new gadget and it goes on sale the following week. If only there were some way to know when prices will drop!

You still can't know when things go on sale, but researchers at Microsoft are working on a way to help identify the best time to buy something.

It's called Prodcast, and it looks at price history, sales volume, and time of year to guess when an item might go on sale. It can even tell you how certain it is -- if an item costs $900, Prodcast can tell you that it's 80% certain the item will cost between $750 and $800 in two weeks.

The technology has huge application in price comparison sites, which currently only tell you where to buy a product, not when.

Prodcast will be demoed at the International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining in San Diego next month.

[NewScientist]

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See Also:

• Windows 8 Rumor: Soon You'll Be Playing Xbox Games On Your PC
• 7 Ways To Save The Money You're Wasting On TiVo
• Alan Greenspan Blames The Bad U.S. Economy On The Lazy Young Work Force And The U.S. Copying China

Microsoft Is Developing Software That Will Save You Cash On Your Gadgets

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The Truth About Developing For iPhone And Android (AAPL, GOOG)

We just had lunch with a bunch of entrepreneurs and VCs in Paris, including Foundry Group VC Brad Feld, and one of the topics that came up was mobile distribution, namely: should you develop for iPhone or Android first? 

Brad Feld's take: it doesn't matter. 

The reason it doesn't matter, Feld said, is that both platforms now have enough reach now.

Monetization is still better on the iPhone, Feld granted, so if you want to sell your apps, at least in the short term you should focus on iOS, but that's it. 

A lot of people have been saying for a very long time that the iPhone is a much better platform than Android, and it's pretty striking that things have come so far so fast.

Keep in mind that Feld is a co-founder of TechStars, so his opinion carries weight with dozens of startups, and a board member of Zynga, whose big next growth market is mobile. 

iOS may be technically a better platform than Android in terms of easiness to program and to transact, but Android is growing so fast that it basically doesn't matter anymore.

Android Is Destroying Everyone →

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See Also:

• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Sorry Google, Android Smartphone Users Prefer The iPad
• 20 Ventures That Convinced Lots Of Strangers To Give Them Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars
• French Startup Criteo Is On $200M Revenue Run Rate

The Truth About Developing For iPhone And Android (AAPL, GOOG)

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Microsoft MSN Team Developing HTML5/CSS iPad App

The MSN team has been developing apps for the iPad. In May, MSN launched "Onit," a men's lifestyle app for the iPhone and iPad.

Microsoft MSN Team Developing HTML5/CSS iPad App

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Developing media literacy

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Developing media literacy

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Google Developing Chrome OS for Tablets

"Details in Google's source code reveal that company programmers have begun building a tablet version," reports CNeT. This mayn't surprise to many, given that Google created mock-ups of a Chrome OS tablet more than a year ago. But it does indicate that a tablet incarnation of Google's Web-app operating system is a near-term priority, not just an idea.

Google Developing Chrome OS for Tablets

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Apple Developing iAds for Video

Apple will be adding a video angle to its advertising offerings in the coming months, with a new product that will deliver in-stream ads to videos shown on the iPhone, iPad and (potentially) the Apple TV, according to multiple sources. The new product would not just expand Apple’s advertising capabilities and boost revenue, but could help convince more content owners to make their videos available on its iOS devices.