Love technology? Want to win $25,000, plus a tonne of other prizes? Then you’re going to love Imagine Cup 2012!

The Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition. Each year the Imagine Cup challenges students from Australia and around the world to use technology to help solve some of the world’s toughest problems.

It can be a piece of software, a game, film, mobile apps, or even robots!

Register for Imagine Cup before December 1st, and receive your place in the Imagine Cup Summer Training Camp – where we’ll show you how to utilize the latest technology on the market, including the Windows Phone 7, and the XBOX 360 Kinect!

But hurry, as spots for the Summer Training Camp are filling fast! So sign up today at http://www.microsoft.com/australia/imaginecup/, and change the world!

Yours Sincerely,

Albert Ong

UTS Microsoft Student Ambassador

Edit: It’s out! Grab it now at http://dev.windows.com

Fresh out of the BUILD conference in Anaheim, Microsoft has officially revealed all of the cool new features in Windows 8. New features like the Metro Start screen, ribbon explorer, new task manager, HTML5/Javascript app development, WinRT, I could go on.

But even bigger news for those of us early adopters is the announcement that at 1pm AEST (today, Wednesday 14/9), the Developer Preview will be released for anyone to download and install.

Now remember this is an early preview, so it isn’t a complete representation of the final product, and there is no support in place if you break something by installing this. However if you’re ready to take the risk, you can try out the awesome new features today.

Head on over to http://dev.windows.com at 1PM and you can grab the preview (assuming the servers aren’t taken down by millions of downloaders like Windows 7).

While you’re there, try out the new Windows Live ID integration, login with your Live ID and sync with other Windows 8 PCs easily.

Albert here.  I’d like to give a warm welcome to you all to the 2011 Tech.ed conference from the sunny beaches on the Gold Coast in Queensland!  Sponsored by Telstra, AvePoint, and HP.

I will be your correspondant over the coming days over one of Australia’s biggest IT training events.   I will also be giving you shots and photos from the conference, and some seminars personally.

I do apologize for the delay in getting you Day 1′s information late, as I lost internet connection later that night. 

But on another note, let’s dive in!

Day 1 – Opening Keynote + Tech.ed Expo + Opening Party

Tech.ed 2011 Opening Keynote

The first official day of Tech.ed started with the keynote, MC’d by Nick Hodge (http://www.nickhodge.com/blog/), a proud and proactive Microsoft Professional Geek. 

Guest speakers at the Keynote included Australian comedian Adam Spencer, Beached Az’s Jarod Green, and Jane Cockburn from Cochlear.

Over 2800 IT professionals were present for the Keynote session.  This was an amazing number of attendees, with over 75% of attendees new to the Tech.ed conference altogether.

Tech.ed Expo

The Tech.ed Expo (the tech expo of the conference) showcased some of Microsoft’s latest technologies - including the Windows 7 Phone’s Mango, Visual Studio Lightswitch, XBOX 360 (both Kinect+Foxtel), Microsoft Surface, and many more!  

There were also a large number IT companies present at the Tech.ed Expo, including HP, Hitachi, SMS, Diginet, Plantronics, thycotic, CEO, ddls, DocAve, NINTEX, Acronix, ITTS, and many many more!  Plenty of tech, IT services (and freebies!) up for grabs! =D 

Opening Party

There were only two words I could use to describe Tech.ed 2011′s Opening Party – Absolutely massive!

With over 2800 people mingling as the expo was turned into a giant party, Tech.ed had more than 10 XBOX 360s and Kinects set up with titles including Kinect Sports, NBA, FIFA, and Dance Central. 

With Beers and Wine glasses all around, people became like kids with candy.  

That ends Day 1 of the Tech.ed Conference.  Will be up with Day 2 Soon =)

Albert

Not a software developer? Do you prefer to create short films? Enter the digital media category. Do you consider yourself an IT pro, there’s the IT challenge. There are plenty of categories available to compete ion, all with their own prizes.

Are you creative, can you get together a team to make an awesome game about the theme? Then enter game design, not only could you win monetary prizes, but you can also get feedback and meet top industry developers and peers.

However with Microsoft being a software company, and the organizer of the event, the big money is in software design. Come up with something original and unique that can help to solve one (or some) f the worlds toughest problems using software (and hardware if you want) and you could win $25,000.

The theme of the 2012 competition is “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the worlds toughest problems.”

Teams are permitted and encouraged, although check with the category you plan to enter for maximum team sizes and rules.

This theme is open to interpretation and imagination, so come up with some awesome ideas, register, and make your awesome solution that will get you through to the finals, and maybe even into 1st place!

Register now at www.imaginecup.com and start creating!

Need some inspiration? Check out the 2011 Software Design winners – Team Hermes:

Join us as Microsoft hosts the annual Australian Imagine Cup finals at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney this Thursday, the 5^th of May 2011.

The Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition. Each year the Imagine Cup
challenges students from Australia and around the world to use technology to help solve some of the world’s toughest issues.

This year’s competition culminates at the Australian Imagine Cup finals event, with 5 teams selected to battle it out in front of a live judging panel to see who will be selected for the coveted 1^st place spot in the Australian Imagine Cup finals and represent Australia at the world wide Imagine Cup finals in New York later this year.

There’ll be plenty of great door prizes on the night for the audience in attendance, including two XBOX360
Kinect Bundles and XBOX360 Games up for grabs!

Register now as seats are filling fast! https://www.microsoft.com.au/events/register/home.aspx?levent=672344&linvitation

Yours Truly,

Albert, Aarohi & Michael

I’m up and early this morning, to tell you about our first event this year for 2011:  MINDSTORM!!!

MINDSTORM! gives students like you an introduction to one of the world’s biggest technology competitions – Imagine Cup!

We will also have guest speakers, and there will be plenty of prizes!  And did I mention freebies?! =D

MINDSTORM!  (*Boo yah!*)

When: Friday 4th March at 10-12PM.

Where: CB10.2.240 (that’s Building 10, ground floor)

Entry is FREE!

So register now at http://mindstorm.eventbrite.com for your once-in-a-lifetime to change the world!  Don’t miss out!

But on to the really cool stuff… The local student experience team has launched the Student PC Offer.

For AUD $1099 (34% off RRP – incl. delivery), you get a Microsoft Signature Dell XPS 14. This awesome laptop features the following tech specifications:

• Intel Core i5-480 (2.66Ghz, or 2.93Ghz with Turbo Boost)
• 6GB 1066MHz RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M (1GB)
• 14” WLED Screen (1366×768)
• 2x3W JBL Speakers
• 640GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 5+ Hours of Battery Life

All of this runs Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Edition, and comes with Office Home and Student 2010.

If you are interested, head on over to the Microsoft Store for more details and to take advantage of this great deal.

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 has also been released to manufacturing. This one does have some nice features, like RemoteFX, which uses the server’s graphics card to render out 3D content and videos for remote desktop – so now you can get the full desktop experience remotely.

The goal for RemoteFX is to give full desktop capabilities to low end client machines, that can remote into a powerful server and take advantage of the hardware there – this could be pretty cool for low power client slate/tablet devices running over Wireless N.

There are some other features and changes regarding HyperV and memory, you can read more here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2011/02/08/windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-sp1-releases-to-manufacturing-today.aspx

But onto the news you’re looking for, if you have a MSDN subscription (maybe through work) then you can start downloading SP1 on the 16th of February. If not, it will be made publicly available on the 22nd of February.

Remember, downloading the Windows Update version is usually the best, it will only download and install what it needs to, however if you want an offline ISO, I’m sure that will be available publicly as well.

I will make another post when the public release occurs on the 22nd.

Microsoft has decreased the price of the upgrade version on www.itsnotcheating.com.au to $49.95 (from $119).

Not much else to say, if you haven’t upgraded already and are looking to, now is the perfect chance – before the price goes back up (maybe).

For those who do not know, Dream Build Play is (was) an annual competition where XNA developers would compete to create the “best” game, with the chance for big prizes and usually an XBOX Live Arcade contract.

Every year the winners won tens of thousands of dollars, and received great publicity, so just becoming a finalist means you can usually do well on the XBOX Live Indie Games service.

In previous years, the competition has consisted of two parts:

• A “warmup” competition, usually themed.
• The main event, no theme.

Interested? Well the competition hasn’t started yet, but in the meanwhile you can head over to the competition website and sign up to be notified when registration opens.

If previous years are anything to go buy, simply registering when the main competition opens should get you a free 12 month Creators Club App Hub trial, and those who submit an entry usually get a premium subscription.

We will post more details when they appear, but for now, start thinking about your game ideas, and feel free to start by grabbing XNA 4.0 from the App Hub website, and start looking through the great learning materials they have there.

So

1. Sign up for notifications about the competition
2. Download XNA 4.0
3. Start creating a winning entry!