Microsoft

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Microsoft's New Search Engine: Bing

'Decision engine' gives users more control over results

(Newser) - Microsoft wants “Bing” to replace “Google” as your verb of choice for Internet search, PC World reports, with CEO Steve Ballmer unveiling the search engine today at a conference in California. Bing—already available for a test run—will be fully rolled out by Wednesday. The runner-up name...

Zune HD Hits Stores This Fall
 Zune HD Hits
Stores This Fall 
May 27, 2009 3:22 AM CDT

Zune HD Hits Stores This Fall

Microsoft confirms upcoming iPod Touch rival

(Newser) - The Zune HD will be out this fall, Microsoft has announced, ending months of speculation. The next-generation media player, designed as a direct rival to the iPod Touch, will feature an organic light-emitting diode touchscreen, an HD radio tuner, and a browser with a customized version of Internet Explorer, reports...

$200M Russian Investment Values Facebook at $10B

(Newser) - Facebook is getting a $200 million investment from a Russian Internet investor that values the social networking company at $10 billion. The investment gives Digital Sky Technologies a nearly 2% stake in the Palo Alto, California-based company's preferred stock.

Microsoft May Unveil Wii-Like Remote in June

(Newser) - Just-released patent applications suggest Microsoft has indeed created a so-called “Magic Wand” to rival the Wii remote, the BBC reports. It could come out at next month's industry expo in Los Angeles. The applications say the wand has "biometric sensors" that would detect "fingerprint, hand geometry, hand...

Drop the Remote: Xbox Plans Motion-Sensing 3-D Camera

(Newser) - Microsoft is developing a 3-D camera for its Xbox 360 that would allow users to control games through body movements instead of a remote, the Wall Street Journal reports. Unlike the Wii, gamers would not hold any type of hardware to swing a tennis racket or the like. Insiders think...

Monopoly Cops May Find Google Too Popular to Bust

Google Has Good Product, But It's Also a Monopoly

(Newser) - The government is finally getting wise to the fact that Google holds a monopoly on Internet advertising, and has launched two antitrust investigations, Therese Poletti writes for MarketWatch. Google is “becoming almost a privatized version of the dreaded Big Brother from George Orwell's 1984,” Poletti writes, worse even...

Apple Reportedly Eying Twitter

(Newser) - Apple is closing in on a $700 million, all-cash deal to buy Twitter, Gawker reports. Silicon Valley sources say an agreement could be announced as early as next month at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, and the iPhone is reportedly the force behind the deal: Its users already post...

Microsoft, Verizon Look to Launch iPhone Competitor

(Newser) - Microsoft and Verizon are in talks to launch a smartphone on the carrier’s network early next year, the Wall Street Journal reports. The phone would likely run on a souped-up version of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system, and have access to Windows Marketplace, its version of Apple’s...

Bill Gates Senior: Bill Junior Was a Brat

Bill Sr. recounts raising his 'smart-ass' son

(Newser) - Bill Gates stopped being a kid right about age 11, his father tells Wall Street Journal. And then he turned into a royal pain, at least for a while. In the most famous bit of family lore, Bill Gates Sr. says he had to chuck a glass of cold water...

Microsoft's Revenue Drops for First Time

(Newser) - Microsoft Corp. said today its quarterly revenue fell from the previous year for the first time in its 23-year history as a public company, while its profit dived 32 percent. The shortfall illustrated the toll the recession has taken on the world's largest software maker, even though it remains one...

Face It: Font Inspires a Certain Type of Backlash

(Newser) - Comic Sans is a lighthearted font, easy to read and very popular. Too popular, if you believe its legions of detractors. Like many other comics-related entities, it even has a sworn enemy—the 10-year-old Ban Comic Sans movement, which compares misuse of the typeface "to showing up for a...

Tech Leaders Unite Against Microsoft

Nokia, IBM, Oracle join EU antitrust case over Explorer's dominance

(Newser) - A technology consortium whose members include IBM, Nokia, and Oracle has joined the European Commission’s antitrust case against Microsoft, the Financial Times reports. The consortium, Ecis, joins Google and the Mozilla Foundation in accusing Microsoft of using Windows to distort the web browser market in favor of Internet Explorer....

Microsoft to Apple: Bring It On
 Microsoft 
 to Apple: 
 Bring It On 
ANALYSIS
Apr 11, 2009 9:48 AM CDT

Microsoft to Apple: Bring It On

(Newser) - With its snazzy ads and iPhone groupies, Apple has been winning the Mac vs. PC wars, but Microsoft is ready to strike back, Peter Burrows writes in BusinessWeek. Positioning itself as a cheaper alternative, the company has launched its own slate of “uncharacteristically cool” TV ads and is offering...

Microsoft, Yahoo Discuss Ad Partnership

Takeover apparently off the table in informal negotiations

(Newser) - Microsoft and Yahoo have returned to the bargaining table, but their latest discussions concern advertising sales, the Wall Street Journal reports. The advanced, though informal, negotiations have included both firms' CEOs but likely don’t involve talk of Microsoft acquiring Yahoo’s search business, which it tried to do last...

Computer Virus Phobia Leads to ... Computer Viruses

(Newser) - Fear of computer viruses is now one of the major reasons people are getting them in the first place, Reuters reports. According to Microsoft, seven of the 25 top threats come in the form of fake security programs, which users terrified of malware like Conficker are installing indiscriminately. Losing market...

R&amp;D Dollars Flow Even as Revenues Slump
R&D Dollars Flow Even as Revenues Slump
ANALYSIS
Apr 6, 2009 11:11 AM CDT

R&D Dollars Flow Even as Revenues Slump

Firms see innovation as key to post- recession success

(Newser) - Revenues may be plummeting, but US companies spent as much on research and development in 2008’s fourth quarter as they did in 2007's, the Wall Street Journal reports. Analysts point to products like the iPod, introduced during the last recession, as proof that continued R&D outlay can lead...

Stands That Keep Your Lap&mdash;and Laptop&mdash;Cool
 Stands That Keep Your 
 Lap—and Laptop—Cool 
PRODUCT REVIEW
Apr 1, 2009 10:40 AM CDT

Stands That Keep Your Lap—and Laptop—Cool

(Newser) - Laptops may be convenient, but the heat they produce often makes them uncomfortable to use where their name suggests you should. Enter the cooling tray, which usually comes equipped with a USB-powered fan to keep your legs from getting scorched. Katherine Boehret runs down a few choices in the Wall ...

Worm Set to Unleash Massive April Fool's Prank

Malware experts race against time to limit the program's damage

(Newser) - Malware experts are racing to find the authors of the Conficker C worm and limit the damage it seems poised to do beginning April Fool’s Day, CNN reports. Conficker C, the bug’s third iteration since late 2008, has infected between 5 and 10 million computers but so far...

New IE8 Promising But Slow: Mossberg
 New IE8 Promising 
 But Slow: Mossberg 
tech review
Mar 19, 2009 9:56 AM CDT

New IE8 Promising But Slow: Mossberg

While some features are unmatched, slow page loads hinder updated browser

(Newser) - Internet Explorer 8 becomes available at noon, but don’t go ditching your current browser just yet, writes Walter S. Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal. Microsoft's latest is "a big improvement over its predecessor, IE7, and a much closer competitor to its main rival, Mozilla's Firefox"—but...

Gains Fizzle; Dow Down 7
 Gains Fizzle; Dow Down 7 
MARKETS
Mar 16, 2009 3:16 PM CDT

Gains Fizzle; Dow Down 7

Tech leads declines, Dow falls from triple-digit gain

(Newser) - Stocks swung back to losses as optimism from last week’s rally faded today, the Wall Street Journal reports. Investors treated last week’s announcements that many troubled financial institutions ran operating profits in the first two months of 2009—ignoring “toxic securities” on their balance sheets—with skepticism....

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