Business

An early release of Microsoft's uber-popular web browser Internet Explorer version 8 (IE8) is now available for download. The Redmond-based company boasts that it's the safest and most secure browser ever constructed, and has included several new ... features meant to protect users against even the most innovative hacker attacks. As expected, Microsoft has simply added yet another digit to its browser, dubbing this one simple "IE8". There are a number of good reasons to invest precious download minutes in Internet Explorer 8; at the top of the list is a special new feature meant to protect ... (view more)

YouTube has announced a partnership with Sony and Nintendo to create "YouTube for Television". As the name suggests, users can now watch their favorite Internet videos on their big-screen television sets. What's the catch? Since YouTube for ... Television runs over the Internet, the link needed to log onto the service is only accessible via a game console. Since the partnership is exclusive to Sony and Nintendo, the user first needs to pick up a PlayStation 3 or Wii to start watching television-displayed YouTube videos. Conspicuous by its absence in the partnership is Microsoft and its Xbox 360. ... (view more)

Recently unsealed documents relating to the ongoing "Vista Capable" class-action lawsuit revealed that a group within Microsoft recommended in 2005 that the lowest-priced version of Windows Vista be released without the "Vista" name due to concerns ... over "user product expectations." The lawsuit claims that Microsoft misled consumers with its "Vista Capable" marketing program in the months leading up to the January 2007 release of Windows Vista. Part of the allegations in the lawsuit contend that Windows Vista Home Basic is not the "real" Vista because it lacks the ... (view more)

The tech industry is beginning to feel the heat from a financial meltdown that has been burning the rest of the world for months. Microsoft recently announced that it would lay off up to 5,000 employees -- 5 percent of its work force -- over the ... next 18 months, starting with 1,400 jobs immediately. Chipmaker Intel is also reportedly laying off between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs while closing five plants in the U.S. and Asia in response to falling computer sales. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) The announcement came a week after reporting a 90% dip in profits for the last three months of 2008. Facilities to be ... (view more)

The European Commission has once again attacked Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. The EU (European Union) body recently ruled in principle that such behavior breaches European competition laws. The ruling concludes a year-long ... investigation which is the latest in a series of battles between European regulators and Microsoft. In one case, involving the inclusion of Windows Media Player in Windows, Microsoft was fined a total of $745 million. The European Commission is the executive wing of the European political system: it carries out the laws made by politicians. Its new ... (view more)

Sometimes a recession has its benefits. Some retailers have little choice but to drop their prices in a desperate attempt to win that hard-fought consumer dollar. Take the case of Intel, which recently revealed that it will be dropping the prices of ... several of its popular microprocessors. On the chopping block is the popular high-end Core 2 Quad processors for desktop computers (roughly 4x the power of a single processor chip) and the company's Xeon line of chips, specifically engineered for single-socket servers. Officially, the cuts stem from a desire to clear out inventory space for a ... (view more)

There's been much speculation about the health of Apple CEO Steve Jobs in recent days, and although no one outside his immediate group of friends and colleagues knows exactly what is wrong with the technology mogul, Jobs has officially announced ... that he will be taking some time off in the near future. Concern over Jobs' health is not particularly new. In September of last year, many Mac, iPod, and iPhone fans were devastated by a Bloomberg news slip announcing the Apple boss had actually kicked the bucket. In the end, that was merely a slip up on the part of someone in editing, but even when ... (view more)

According to a court document, an expert estimates that Microsoft earned more than $1.5 billion through the sales of PCs labeled as "Vista Capable" when they allowed some PC makers to label XP-running PCs as "Vista Capable" prior to the release of ... the Windows Vista operating system in early 2007. (Source: nwsource.com ) Last February we reported that a "Vista Capable" lawsuit was granted class-action status because some PCs labeled as "Vista Capable" were only capable of running the most basic version of the operating system. (Source: infopackets.com ) Despite claims that Microsoft ... (view more)

Dell is hoping to make the first major announcement of the year. Rumors have begun to circulate that the company is set to reveal the dimensions for a new computer that promises to be even more slender than the MacBook Air, one of the world's ... thinnest laptops on the market. It's been almost a year since Apple first introduced that slim device. At the time, its ultra-sleek design made it the "world's thinnest notebook" and a direct threat to the classic design of alternative products now seen as "bulky" and "excessive". It was also around this time that Apple began releasing parody ... (view more)

It seems not even Microsoft is impervious to the effects of this increasingly painful recession. According to reports, the Redmond-based company is preparing to lay off about 17 per cent of its entire workforce in the coming months. Despite its ... portfolio diversity -- including operating systems, antivirus software, and video game consoles -- Microsoft is clearly feeling the pressure applied by a tightening global economy. In fact, there seems to be a sense of emergency to the massive cuts (about 15,000 workers out of 90,000), which rumors suggest should be made official by January 15. As ... (view more)