Microsoft Changed there Logo after 25 Years

In advance of one of the most significant waves of product launches in Microsoft’s history, today we are unveiling a new logo for the company.

It’s been 25 years since we’ve updated the Microsoft logo and now is the perfect time for a change. This is an incredibly exciting year for Microsoft as we prepare to release new versions of nearly all of our products. From Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 to Xbox services to the next version of Office, you will see a common look and feel across these products providing a familiar and seamless experience on PCs, phones, tablets and TVs. This wave of new releases is not only a reimagining of our most popular products, but also represents a new era for Microsoft, so our logo should evolve to visually accentuate this new beginning.

The Microsoft brand is about much more than logos or product names. We are lucky to play a role in the lives of more than a billion people every day. The ways people experience our products are our most important “brand impressions”. That’s why the new Microsoft logo takes its inspiration from our product design principles while drawing upon the heritage of our brand values, fonts and colors.

The logo has two components: the logotype and the symbol. For the logotype, we are using the Segoe font which is the same font we use in our products as well as our marketing communications. The symbol is important in a world of digital motion (as demonstrated in the video above.) The symbol’s squares of color are intended to express the company’s diverse portfolio of products.

Starting today, you’ll see the new Microsoft logo being used prominently. It will be used on Microsoft.com – the 10th most visited website in the world. It is in three of our Microsoft retail stores today (Boston, Seattle’s University Village and Bellevue, Wash.) and will shine brightly in all our stores over the next few months. It will sign off all of our television ads globally. And it will support our products across various forms of marketing. Fully implementing a change like this takes time, so there may be other instances where you will see the old logo being used for some time.
We’re excited about the new logo, but more importantly about this new era in which we’re reimagining how our products can help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.

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Microsoft Confirm hackers Spam in Android Devices

A spam engineer at Microsoft has warned that hackers can use Android powered tablets and smartphones to send spam emails.  Android users should be cautious to install any mobile apps that do not come from the Google Play Store or the Amazon Appstore since a new malware app has been reportedly sending spam emails through affected devices.  Terry Zink says that a new app is sending out emails with the signature “Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android” and the messages are starting to come from a number of locations including Indonesia, Chile, Lebanon, Oman, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Thailand.

Zink wrote on an MSDN blog, “I’ve written in the past that Android has the most malware compared to other smartphone platforms, but your odds of downloading and installing a malicious Android app is pretty low if you get it from the Android Marketplace, but if you get it from some guy in a back alley on the Internet, the odds go way up.”  The malware affected app logs into your Yahoo account through your Android device and then starts by sending out spam messages.

The app does not seem to be coming from Google’s Play Store, so that is a little less to worry about, but users who attempt to download hacked, pirated or other versions of official apps should be aware they could contain the malware code.  Malware type apps have appeared in the past and sent spam text messages from users phones in order to rack up phone bills to unsuspecting smartphone users.  The “botnet” virus gives the hacker just enough access to your account to send the spam messages.  The messages have not been sent anywhere in the United States yet, but that does not mean you are 100 percent safe either.

Users can avoid malicious content from mobile app download stores if they stick to official stores like the Amazon Appstore and Google Play Store which scan for potentially harmful mobile apps and remove them from the store or deny their submission altogether.  If you are concerned about downloading the wrong type of mobile app you can follow a couple easy steps.  Before the app is installed on your device, the Android software will show you what permissions it has on your phone.  If you are downloading a game app, you might want to make sure it does not have access to your contact list.  You can get more tips for downloading safe apps online.

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