Microsoft

It appears Microsoft's threats that last month's injunction against its popular Word software could deliver "irreparable harm" to the company has paid off. A U.S. Court of Appeals judge has granted the Redmond-based firm a stay of the injunction ... pending appeal, meaning it won't have to pull the software off store shelves by early October. Last month a Texas federal judge ordered Microsoft to halt resale of Word, a key component of its Microsoft Office suite, unless it removed important XML features whose patent is owned by Canadian company i4i. Microsoft had been ordered to stop selling Word ... (view more)

Microsoft wants more iPhone applications to use Bing as their default search tools. While not developing apps itself, Microsoft has released a toolkit to allow independent firms to power their apps' searching with Bing. At the moment, Google is the ... default search engine on the iPhone, with Yahoo the alternative option. Anyone wanting to use Bing must use the web browser to type in the site's address rather than using search bars. That's not easy with smartphones such as the iPhone where small and fiddly keyboards make manual searches inconvenient. Many users prefer to use dedicated ... (view more)

Here's the good and bad news on the upcoming Microsoft's monthly Windows Update: the good news is that Microsoft only has five security problems to fix. The bad news is that they are all marked critical. Patch is Due Next Tuesday, but Few Details In ... an unusual move, the company isn't releasing any details about the problems which are being fixed in the next Patch Tuesday update, scheduled for release next week. It's possible the firm doesn't want to tip off hackers who might try to exploit the problems before the fixes are released, but it's unusual that Microsoft wouldn't at least outline ... (view more)

Microsoft and Intel have teamed up to promote Windows 7, both claiming that the new operating system (OS) is faster, more energy efficient, and that it takes advantage of Intel-based computers. Energy Savings for Multi-Processor Systems The new ... features relate to the way both the Windows system itself and individual applications draw on the processors at the heart of a computer. Previously, Windows would make regular automated demands on the processor as a matter of course. This automatically 'woke up' any processor that the application had allowed to become idle because it wasn't needed at ... (view more)

There are two reasons the netbook market has emerged as the most popular in the tech industry: portability and price. However, Nokia -- best known for its cellphones -- is challenging the traditional price point, and will soon offer its powerful ... Booklet 3G Netbook for a whopping $820. Despite several unique features the notebook is very expensive, indeed. So, exactly who will buy the Nokia notebook? Most analysts are already guessing that the Finnish company has misinterpreted the best plan of attack for entering the netbook market and will immediately alienate most customers after launch. ... (view more)

Tired of your wimpy laptop battery kicking out too early? I, for one, have just about had it with my two-year-old Vista-equipped HP laptop, which practically laughs at me every time I attempt more than twenty-five minutes of work sans power cord. In ... an attempt to help ramp up excitement for its upcoming Windows 7, Microsoft has now promised that their new Windows 7 Operating System (OS) could help improve the battery life of your PC. If a recent Microsoft demo is to be believed, the improvements could be dramatic. When the company used two identical laptops running the same DVD in a ... (view more)

According to an anonymous Microsoft insider, the company has been holding special, secret meetings with what could be the least secretive codename, ever: "Screw Google!" As often as once a week, Microsoft is initiating what are being referred to as ... "Screw Google" meetings aimed at discrediting the corporate advancements of Google. Attending these meetings: a blend of Google rivals and third-party professional groups hired to develop the strategies needed to take down the current web search leader . The leak to the public has caused more than a few Microsoft affiliates to sweat. Law ... (view more)

PC makers Dell and Hewlett-Packard, some of the world's largest manufacturers of computers and their accessories, have announced their support for Microsoft's bid to overturn a recent injunction preventing the Redmond-based technology giant from ... selling its popular MS Word software in its current form. Back on August 12, a Texas federal judge ordered Microsoft to stop the resale of Word because of XML patent conflicts with a small, Canadian company. The order accompanied a gargantuan series of fines totaling $290 million, but the real financial threat for Microsoft -- and its major customers ... (view more)

One of Microsoft's latest online advertisement has been called racist in nature, though some argue it's just plain bad photo editing. Whatever the issue, two different versions of the same still-pictured ad were seen on a number of Microsoft web ... sites, including those of foreign affiliates. Black Male Model Swapped for White The advertisement in question depicts a panel of three individuals seated in a boardroom setting at a table. The first seated is a an Asian male; the second, a black male seated behind an open laptop computer; the third, a white female. The problem? The second version of ... (view more)

A campaign group known as The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has accused Microsoft and its upcoming Windows 7 operating system of seven sins against freedom. The freedom in this case does not pertain to whether or not companies charge for their ... software, but rather the way it affects the user's rights to control their software. The group has written an open letter and sent it to CEOs of 499 of the leading 500 corporations asking them to consider carefully whether or not to upgrade to Windows 7. Of course, the FSF didn't think it was worth sending the copy to Microsoft, though oddly enough, a ... (view more)