Microsoft

In hindsight of the successful "Mac vs PC" TV commercials, Microsoft has launched a new "PC vs Mac" website. The Microsoft website is entitled 'Do The Math', and greets users with two images: one has an open MacBook Pro 17, while the other is an HP ... Pavilion DV7 -- adorned with a Hawaiian lei, accompanying surfboard and palm tree backdrop. Microsoft: Buy a PC, Take a Vacation The idea behind this latest scheme is to provide a 'side-by-side comparison' of two products (one of which happens to be a Microsoft-endorsed and reported price savings of $1,350), and that by buying a PC, ... (view more)

With the Apple iPad being touted as the "all-in-one" tablet computer, many would be inclined to think that its sudden global demand would account for a recent slump in PC sales. Industry analysts, however, believe that the decline is more closely ... linked to the success of Windows 7. In the aftermath of the 2010 holiday sales season, only 12 per cent of consumers admitted to purchasing an iPad in place of a standard PC (a slight dip from the 14 per cent who had initially picked up the tablet within the first six months of its availability). While the figures indicate that the release of ... (view more)

A recent report revealed that many businesses still have no plans to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, leaving their ailing PCs at higher risk for malware. That may change, however, with a new report suggesting that Windows 7 is five times less ... likely to be infected by malware than its predecessor. Windows 7 Five Times More Secure than XP The study comes from Microsoft's own Security Intelligence Report, which is released annually. The report not only revealed that Windows 7 is five times more secure against malware than a machine running Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), but it was also ... (view more)

Earlier this week Microsoft announced plans to buy up popular Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, Skype. The Redmond-based software giant agreed to pay $8.5 billion in the deal, which will bring all 170 million of Skype's users under ... Microsoft control. The deal marks the biggest acquisition in Microsoft's history. (Source: go.com ) "Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a recent statement. "Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, ... (view more)

Microsoft unveiled a modest Patch Tuesday collection of fixes for its software products this month. However, at least a few of the patches address security holes that experts say could be easily exploited. On Tuesday, Microsoft's series of May ... patches addressed just three bugs, only one of which is marked "critical," the company's highest security rating. The most serious patch is labeled MS11-035 and is intended to fix a vulnerability in the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), a component in every edition of Windows Server. Critical Update Not Automatically Deployed The way in which ... (view more)

The Department of Justice has agreed to end its legal oversight of Microsoft. It follows a 10 year period during which the Redmond-based software company had to make itself open to examination by U.S. officials. Basis: Microsoft Unfairly Promotes ... Internet Explorer The Department of Justice has agreed to officially end the oversight on May 12, 2011. The case brings to a conclusion a process that began way back in 1998, when the department filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing it of unfairly promoting its own Internet Explorer (IE) browser by including it in Windows at the expense of ... (view more)

Microsoft Security Essentials has put on a mediocre showing in a series of recent tests run by international examiners AV-Test.org. The results were deemed so poor that Microsoft actually placed 20th out of 22 antivirus products tested. MSE Strong ... at Detecting Known Variants Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 (MSE) started off the testing procedures relatively strong when required to uncover malware drawn from industry-agreed Wildlist selection, including malware variants such as the Koobface virus . In this test, Microsoft Security Essentials finished with an impressive detection rate of 100 ... (view more)

Microsoft and Research in Motion (RIM) have announced a partnership that will see the Redmond-based firm's Bing search engine used on the BlackBerry. It's a surprise move that some are speculating might indicate an even deeper relationship in the ... future between the two tech giants. The Bing announcement was made at the recent BlackBerry World trade show, when RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis shocked the crowd by introducing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Together, the two revealed that Bing will soon be found on both the BlackBerry (and its various iterations) and the newly-released RIM PlayBook ... (view more)

A new poll suggests that adoption of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system by IT (information technology) organizations is proceeding slower than expected. The survey found that just one in four companies reported having already moved to the ... operating system, while more than half said they'd not made any progress in doing so. The poll comes courtesy of Unisys Corp., a Pennsylvania-based provider of IT services and technologies. It conducted the survey of 133 firms two months ago, and found that 53 per cent of all respondents reported that they either "haven't started" moving to Windows 7 or ... (view more)

Microsoft has been accused of patent abuse by Barnes & Noble by allegedly preventing manufacturers from using Google's Android operating system (OS), a product which competes with the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. The accusation comes ... just over a month after Microsoft filed suit against Barnes & Noble company for allegedly infringing on a number of patents with its new Nook e-reader device. Microsoft Declares 5 Ways Nook Infringes on Patent Back in March, Microsoft accused Barnes ... (view more)