Business

Is Vista worth it? With all the hoopla, hype, and criticism floating around the 'net since Vista's release, it's no wonder users are confused as to whether the leap to Microsoft's new operating system is a good investment. In a recent article by ... Laptop Magazine, author Jeffrey Wilson wrote that "it's no secret that Microsoft's new operating system offers plenty of additional functionality over XP and gives users a much better experience overall." It's also no secret that Vista has taken some serious heat in recent weeks for a number of issues, the most frequently reported surrounding ... (view more)

Being fair minded while discussing Microsoft is difficult for me considering all the illegal activities their management has engaged in, and have been convicted for, in both U.S. and International Courts over the years. But, I do try hard to be as ... open-minded as I possibly can when talking about their software. With that in mind, I wanted to talk to you about Vista and all the hype that has been blowing around in the wind. It is confusing, conflicting, and in some cases, just too hard to believe! Let me begin. On one hand, you hear Microsoft touting the virtues of Vista as the Best OS since ... (view more)

If you were getting bored with the lack of juicy gossip in the tech world, don't worry: there's a new Google rumor making waves. Ex-entrepreneur and technology buff Simeon Simeonov has posted a blog giving his two cents on what he thinks is Google's ... next move: the Google Phone. He purports that Andy Rubin, former founder of the company Danger, is working with a group of 100 Google staff members to develop the phone. (Source: theinquirer.net ) Simeonov also points out that Google has been slowly acquiring mobile-centric companies. Reqwireless, Inc., which produces mobile applications, and Skia ... (view more)

Microsoft has reportedly made its most pricey acquisition since 2002. The Redmond-based company purchased Tellme Networks, and although the price remains undisclosed, it is estimated to be upwards of $800 million. (Source: theregister.co.uk ) Tellme ... Networks is a voice recognition company and has made a name for itself by becoming a leader in recognizing and responding to voice inquiries on the telephone. Tellme currently powers over 40% of all directory assistance calls in the US. (Source: arstechnica.com ) Meanwhile, Microsoft has been experimenting with voice recognition capabilities for ... (view more)

Microsoft has recently released its updated Visual Studio 2005 Studio Pack 1 (SP1), a revised edition that promises to allow developers to get the most out of future Windows applications. It steps up the initial developments launched with the first ... version of Visual Studio 2005 SP1, in December. The key components in the December version of Visual Studio included .Net Framework 3.0, which is made up of the Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Workflow, Windows Communication Foundation, and Windows CardSpace. Each of these features have been made exclusively to help developers construct ... (view more)

Recently, Microsoft publicly attacked rival company Google Inc., criticizing them in regards to their carefree approach when dealing with copyright issues. Microsoft's harsh comments came shortly after Google signaled their intent to move into new ... media markets in an effort to further expand their corporate influence. Microsoft argued that Google's latest venture would come at the expense of those who hold copyrights on many books, videos and software. In a statement addressed to several media correspondents, Microsoft representative Thomas Rubin went so far as to imply that Google is acting ... (view more)

Although Google pulled the plug on its Google Answers service in November, not everyone who worked on the project was quite as willing to toss their service in the trash. A group of researchers who worked on the Google Answers project have decided ... to reincarnate the service into a similar one called Uclue. Uclue is definitely reminiscent of Google Answers. It allows users to ask a question and set a price, ranging from $5 to $250, in return for having their question answered. Although Google eliminated Google Answers when the service failed to rake in solid traffic, the researchers who worked ... (view more)

After several attempts to make iTunes compatible with Windows Vista, Apple is still discovering defects and incompatibility issues. The iTunes software is a crucial component when synching music to be downloaded onto iPod portable players. Even ... though Apple recently released iTunes 7.1, the company urges customers not to install the product on Vista-ready computers until all the incompatibility issues are resolved. (Source: denverpost.com ) Apple has since removed warnings from their website in favor of a cautionary notice that acknowledges some glitches with the program -- which includes ... (view more)

Intel, who has not benefited from expected boosts in sales after the Microsoft Windows Vista launch, has decided not to upgrade its PCs to Vista until the first service pack has been released. Once the service pack is released, Intel says they will ... still hold off on a full Vista roll-out. (Source: PC Advisor UK ) "I know of no organization that is going to adopt it before Service pack 1 is out -- that's in the second half of this year -- and that includes us. Starting in the second half of this year we'll do a modest deployment, and continue into next year. That's the large company approach ... (view more)

Massively popular search engine Google has been diversifying its interests as of late. Previously known only for its ability to transfer the user to the most relevant websites in a query, Google expanded into the interactive mainstream last year by ... purchasing YouTube.com for more than a billion dollars. And if that wasn't enough to show the might of the almighty Goo, the company recently released its own "gadget" web tools, designed to offer Internet services similar to Vista's operating system helpers. Now, it appears major tech company IBM wants to use Google's tools for business use. ... (view more)