Items tagged with Microsoft
Well, well -- Microsoft seems to be making more money these days from Android than their own mobile OS. As it turns out, Microsoft has good reason to demand royalties from Android, and so any major company selling Android devices is ripe to be plucked for cash. This week, Microsoft and LG hammered out a patent agreement that covers Android...
Read more...
It's a new year and already the first Patch Tuesday of Microsoft's monthly Windows update schedule has come and gone. If you ignored the update notification sitting your system tray, take a moment to let Windows Update do its thing, and as a reward for kicking procrastination to the curb, Microsoft will get rid of a...
Read more...
Microsoft made a surprise announcement a couple of weeks ago when it informed the tech world that the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas would be the last one in which the Redmond software giant gives a keynote or rents floor space. The company is pulling out after this year, at least as far as major presence...
Read more...
You've probably never driven your car off a cliff or walked aimlessly into a 30-foot hole in the middle of a construction site, but perhaps your travels have taken you "through an unsafe neighborhood" or "in an open area that is subject to harsh temperatures." One of Microsoft's latest patents -- No. 8,090,532 -- aims...
Read more...
Since 2003, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has played host to both a dizzying array of gadgetry and more serious presentations from major computer manufacturers. The fusion occured after Comdex, which had been the major yearly computing show for decades, faltered and was folded into CES. CES remains a major draw each year, but some of...
Read more...
Microsoft is planning to take action against a UK corporation it claims sold some 94,000 pirated copies of Windows, but the company, British retailer Comet, isn't going down without a fight. Earlier today, Redmond released a statement alleging widespread fraud: "As detailed in the complaint filed today, Comet produced...
Read more...
For the love of all that is holy on the Internet, it's time to stick in a fork in Internet Explorer 6 and consider it done, says Microsoft (and we wholeheartedly agree, by the way), in a matter of words. That's not a direct quote from the Redmond software giant, but heck, the company did go and create an "Internet Explorer 6 Countdown" page...
Read more...
We've discussed the fragmentation of Android and the shoddy update services of the various carriers before, but the Droid 3's situation is raising these issues again. According to pre-CES reports, Verizon is poised to end-of-life (EOL) the Droid 3 along with its entire current lineup of MiFi hotspots. The BlackBerry...
Read more...
It was always assumed that Mozilla's Firefox browser would one day overtake Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the global browser market, ending IE's reign that began when the Redmond software giant buried Netscape Navigator years ago. But as it turns out, Google Chrome might have a better shot of overtaking IE, and at the rate things are going,...
Read more...
Microsoft came ever-so-close to ending the year without a single unscheduled patch outside of its monthly Patch Tuesday routine, but in the end, three "Critical" vulnerabilities found in its .NET Framework prompted the Redmond software giant to take action immediately. Left unpatched, the flaws could allow for the...
Read more...
Microsoft's Windows Phone platform has a long way to go before it truly challenges Android and iOS for mobile dominance, but after a bit of a rocky start, it might be starting to hit its stride. According to All About Windows Phone (AAWP), one of the go-to blogs for Windows Phone app statistics, the Windows Phone Marketplace now has more than...
Read more...
RIM is in trouble after delays to its core products and upcoming BlackBerry OS 10 sent investors diving for cover. During the company's last conference call, its co-CEOs promised to investigate every possible option for improving RIM's market position while it works on the upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS and tries to strengthen the appeal of the...
Read more...
Microsoft is going to make one more big splash at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and after that, the Redmond software giant will barely keep up appearances at CES. After 2013, there will be no more Microsoft keynote presentations and no more Microsoft booths. While some are wondering if this is a sign that CES is on its...
Read more...
Motorola has a bit of good news, and a lot of bad news to swallow tonight. The International Trade Commission, which has been super busy of late, has just ruled that Motorola Mobility didn't violate six of seven Microsoft patents. But the bad news? That one. The one they did violate could cause them quite a bit of...
Read more...
The Walmart-owned VUDU movie rental service is making big strides in the home entertainment realm, as they've just launched on Xbox 360. That's a super major platform to launch on, no doubt. Xbox LIVE customers can now shop VUDU's library using new, interactive features such as voice search, voice control and Kinect gesture commands to rent...
Read more...
The Xbox 360 is six years old, granted, and in the realm of technology, that's pretty ancient. Be that as it may, we can't help but get a little excited about a Star Wars themed 360 console decked out in R2D2 trim and accompanied by a C3PO inspired controller. Throw in a white Kinect bar and our geek senses start to go into overload. We've...
Read more...
Microsoft didn't waste any time swooping in and snatching up the domain name SkypeSexFinder.com after it became available, according to Whois records online. Fusible was first to discover the domain name registration and noted that it was redirecting visitors to its Bing search engine, though not Bing's homepage...
Read more...
The lack of a physical keyboard on tablets is both inconvenient and can take a toll on our hands and wrists. To alleviate these issues, Microsoft announced a new mobile wireless keyboard, the Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 5000. As the name suggests, this keyboard uses Bluetooth to connect with a mobile device...
Read more...
Microsoft's Xbox 360 console is six years old. The Nintendo Wii is five years old, and so is the Sony PlayStation 3. All three are due for an overhaul (can you imagine gaming on a PC that's half a decade old, or more?), and while they're still popular gaming platforms, consoles are really starting to shine as streaming media centers. According...
Read more...
Attention AMD fans, if you're running one of those newfangled Bulldozer processors in your system, how would you like a free performance boost? You can have one, so long as you're rocking a copy of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft this week rolled out a hotfix that's supposed to make things run better automagically. "Currently,...
Read more...
These days, there's buzz surrounding Dropbox and Box.net. But in reality, there are plenty of other services out there that offer similar things. Microsoft's SkyDrive has continually been one of the best on paper, but it has yet to reach critical mass in terms of buzz. But now, with the help of one key integration...
Read more...
Adobe's mobile Flash Player has seemingly passed on this year, and now it looks like Microsoft's own Silverlight may be headed to that weird digital graveyard in the sky, too. Rumors of Silverlight's demise have been floating around for months now, and without a peep from Microsoft themselves, Silverlight 5 has been...
Read more...
