Microsoft

To the surprise of many, Microsoft finished well in a recent World's Most Ethical Companies award list, recently unveiled by the Ethisphere Institute. Ethisphere is a think tank whose mandate is to improve standards for business ethics. It looked at ... 110 different companies, some being nominated by the Institute and others applying for nomination. A number of the firms included in the list are from the software industry, including Adobe, Microsoft, Symantec, Teradata Corp and Salesforce.com. Hitachi Data Systems was a winner in the computer hardware category, with other notable mentions ... (view more)

Microsoft looks to be working on an interactive television product, likely in the form of a set-top box. That would put it in direct competition with rivals Apple and Google. Speculation about the move has been spurred by the fact that a Microsoft ... executive's company bio has been revised. Tom Gibbons, who'd previously worked in Microsoft's general hardware and mobile devices divisions, is now listed as the company's "corporate vice president of TV & Service Business". Given his background, it does seem logical that he'd be working on physical devices in the new role. According ... (view more)

Hoping to entice new users to make the switch from Google, Microsoft has invested a great deal of time and resources in the promotion of their Bing search engine. It now appears that all of the strenuous efforts are finally paying off, as Microsoft ... (via Bing) has become the second-most popular online video site in the US. February's comScore Video Metrix statistics indicate that Microsoft's Bing is now in second place, surpassing such established competitors as Yahoo! and AOL. Even Facebook, given its sheer appeal and the number of user accounts it continues to retain, pales in comparison to ... (view more)

Self-proclaimed cranky technology and business journalist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (whose articles have also appeared in the Washington Post, PC World and ZDNet) recently put together a list of five reasons not to upgrade to Microsoft's newest web ... browser, Internet Explorer 9 . Topping the list of reasons are operating system incompatibilities and performance issues. We've known for some time that Internet Explorer wouldn't be compatible with Windows XP, but that doesn't make it any easier for Vaughan-Nichols to swallow. Even though Windows XP is slowly declining in market share, it remains ... (view more)

More than two million people have downloaded Internet Explorer 9 in the first day of its public availability. Microsoft has welcomed the "enthusiastic reception", though Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) hasn't been received with quite as much fanfare as ... some previous web browsers. To put things into context, the 2.35 million downloads -- equivalent to 27 downloads per second -- is double that of the first day for the beta edition of IE9 and four times that of the IE9 release candidate (RC). Internet Explorer 9 Download Not Record Breaking The numbers are on par, as a finished browser is ... (view more)

Microsoft has launched a special feature in its Bing search engine intended to help users find bargains. To much surprise of many users, however, the mobile edition isn't available on Windows-based phones. Bing Deals to Partnership with Groupon The ... service, dubbed 'Bing Deals', doesn't bring any original offers, meaning it's not like Groupon or Living Social. Indeed, Microsoft says it's made a deliberate decision not to compete against such sites and instead plans to work in partnership with them. (Source: pcmag.com ) It's likely a smart decision. Services such as Groupon work by arranging ... (view more)

"Don't get too used to the way Windows looks" was the message relayed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at a recent Houston Technology Center luncheon. Ballmer says he figures the Windows operating system (OS) found on most PCs right now will look a ... whole lot different in just five years time. Windows "will look a lot different and it will run different applications," Ballmer told members of the local business community during a presentation at Union Square in Houston's Minute Maid Park. With many new technology innovations making their way into mainstream, MS Windows needs to keep up ... (view more)

The Microsoft Zune media player is officially dead. Amidst steadily declining sales, Microsoft has reportedly decided to stop producing the handheld MP3 player, once characterized as an 'iPod Killer' by the hopeful Redmond-based firm. Released in ... 2006, the Zune initially had techies excited for several reasons. For one, the design and build quality was top-notch. Others liked the subdued colors, such as brown. But most interesting about the Zune was the ability to share music across different Zune players. For instance, if one Zune owner downloaded a song, he or she could share that tune with ... (view more)

Microsoft is in some hot water after one of their latest Twitter posts was misconstrued as a ploy to use the horrific natural disasters in Japan to promote the Bing search engine. Since the now-upgraded 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck last week, the ... media has reported hundreds of people killed, and thousands more missing. A subsequent tsunami, which slammed parts of northeastern Japan, has sent the death toll skyrocketing still higher. In the aftermath of such devastation, Microsoft sent out the following tweet early Saturday morning: "How can you #SupportJapan -- http://binged.it/fEh7iT ? ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced that Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) will be released on Monday, March 14, 2011. However, both the date and the chosen venue for the official launch are a little surprising. The final version of the new browser will be available to ... download from 9PM PST (Pacific Standard Time) March 14th. To mark the occasion, Microsoft is holding an official launch part in Austin, Texas as part of the SXSWi (South by Southwest Interactive) Festival. (Source: windowsteamblog.com ) The setting is a surprising choice. For one, the festival is a tech-based spinoff from a better-known ... (view more)