microsoft

Thanks to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Wednesday night and a video interview with Entertainment ... (view more)

Apple's much-hyped tablet computer could be on sale within a few months . But now Microsoft has responded by promoting its own tablet PC in partnership with HP. The Windows 7 Tablet: by HP Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off the device as part of ... his major address to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Wednesday night. The computer is effectively a Windows 7 notebook but in the form of a single touchscreen rather than a separate keyboard and display. Pricing isn't confirmed, though reports are that it will be sold for less than $500. The new device is produced by HP, and not Microsoft. ... (view more)

Word of Microsoft's upcoming video game console, MS Natal, broke last night but it didn't come during company CEO Steve Ballmer's much-anticipated speech in front of a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) crowd. Instead, news that Microsoft Natal will ... ship this year emerged thanks to a leaked video featuring former Xbox chief Robbie Bach. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hit the stage last night; the company had hoped it would be during his speech when further details about Natal were finally unveiled. Unfortunately, a video featuring Robbie Bach playing Natal was posted to Microsoft's Channel 9 ... (view more)

Everything is just about set for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote address tomorrow night in front of a giddy Consumer Electronics Show (CES) crowd. Big news on upcoming products is expected -- however, a day before his speech, Microsoft ... yesterday unveiled pricing for its highly anticipated Office 2010. Microsoft Office is well known for its impressive suite of tools used by home and business users, including fan-favorite programs Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. The next edition of Office is due this June, but thanks to the recent announcement we now have an idea of how much Office 2010 will ... (view more)

Small Canadian companies are having big success against even bigger opponents of late. Just a week after a U.S. judge confirmed Toronto tech firm i4i's claim against Microsoft's use of XML technology in Word, an Oakville, Ontario company has won its ... domain name case against search giant Google. For those who've missed the news, Microsoft last week lost its appeal over an August decision that forced it to remove XML functions in its very popular Word, a big part of Microsoft Office. On the winning side was small Toronto-based i4i; the court decision means Microsoft must remove the conflicting ... (view more)

As we reported yesterday , Microsoft has lost a federal appeal over a copyright case involving the MS Office program, MS Word. In short, Microsoft breached a patent on a technique for opening XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents in MS Word. ... What is XML? XML is something of a sequel to HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), which is the language used for creating the layout of a webpage. Whereas HTML "tags" decide how text appears on screen, XML tells a computer what the text is about. This effectively turns web content into a type of database and makes it easier to organize and manipulate ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced their involvement in the war against illicit child photos by creating a new software tool that will give those looking to abolish such unethical material an upper hand. The software, which is somewhat similar to an antivirus ... program, will identify signatures in content to find images of those being abused. Microsoft researchers worked alongside Dartmouth College computer science professor Henry Farid to produce PhotoDNA. The software is able to accurately pinpoint certain characteristics in digital images that computers can scan online. Said Farid, "The basic idea is ... (view more)

Parents, take note: Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite holiday bundle doesn't pack all the cables you need to take advantage of the console's high-definition potential. That's a change Microsoft has made in hopes no one would notice, and it could lead to ... some disappointed faces on Christmas morning. This past weekend, I purchased Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite Holiday bundle -- you'll recognize it by the two games on the cover, Lego Batman and Pure. On the surface, it's a good deal; two free games and a console Microsoft promises is less likely to suffer from the dreaded "Red Rings of Death" issue that ... (view more)

Microsoft has apologized after a contractor appeared to copy code from a rival company to use in a microblogging service. But Plurk, the company claiming its material was stolen, says it is considering taking the matter to court. Juku, a ... Twitter-style blogging feature on Microsoft's MSN site in China, was taken down this week after the complaints. Plurk's staff had written that Juku's design had involved "blatant theft of code, design, and user interface elements." As Much as 80% of Code Stolen Not only did Plurk staff believe Juku's look and feel was remarkably similar to its own site, but ... (view more)

Microsoft is being sued by a small tech firm for using a part of its name, Bing! Information Design, as the moniker for its new search engine. Bing! Information Design says it's been using the name for almost ten years, far longer than the ... seven-month-old Bing search engine. St. Louis-based Bing! Information Design filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in its home city. The company claims that Microsoft's search engine violates its trademark on the word 'Bing'. Bing! Information Design says it has had rights to that name since 2000. Specifically, the suit alleges Microsoft is guilty of "trademark ... (view more)