Microsoft

Holding a 55 per cent share of the overall operating system (OS) market, Microsoft's Windows XP continues to be the world's most popular OS. But, Microsoft's newest web browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), won't run on XP -- a fact that has been the ... point of criticism for many industry experts. Nevertheless, Microsoft continues to stand by its decision to leave XP behind. Abandoning XP Users: a Deliberate Decision "It was a very deliberate decision," said Senior Director of Microsoft's Internet Explorer division, Ryan Gavin, in a recent interview. "You simply can't build on something that is ... (view more)

It's safe to say that, so far, Windows Phone 7 (WP7) is not off to the record-breaking start that Microsoft had hoped for. It's a fact that the Windows Phone 7 mobile platform has barely made a dent in the overall market share and the focus ... continues to be on Android, BlackBerry and Apple's iOS operating systems. Furthermore, updates for the system have been slow in reaching users, and for that, a Microsoft executive is apologizing to all Windows Phone 7 adopters. Speaking out on the issue is Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's vice president for the Windows Phone division. He admits that updates to ... (view more)

In three days after its launch, Apple sold 500,000 units of its iPad 2 tablet computer. To most people, that number would seem impressive. But Microsoft's Craig Mundie is not most people. In a recent interview with Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, ... Microsoft global chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie had this to say about what appears to be a rapidly emerging tablet market: "I don't know whether the big screen tablet pad category is going to remain with us or not... Personally I don't know whether that space will be a persistent one or not." (Source: huffingtonpost.com ) Tablet ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced that it won't be sending out Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) by automated update until the end of June this year. Originally, the plan was to send the Internet Explorer 9 update as an automatic download, providing the Windows ... Automatic Updates feature was enabled. The timeline for the automated update was to be scheduled for March 21, but that has since changed because Microsoft says the delay is a necessity due to its widespread corporate use. (Source: zdnet.com ) Internet Explorer 9 Rollout Cause of Delay Two-Fold There are two reasons being given for the June timetable. ... (view more)

A new book by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen reveals a lot about the company and the people who ran it during those heady days in the early 1980s. Some of the most fascinating content focuses on Allen's impressions of Microsoft's 'wunderkind' ... leader, Bill Gates -- and not all of it is complimentary. Along with Gates, Allen helped found Microsoft in 1975, though the latter left the company in 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a form of cancer. Allen beat the disease but never formally returned to Microsoft, instead pursuing a number of other ventures with his newfound ... (view more)

A new study suggests that the web browser you choose to use may have an impact on the energy consumed by your laptop. If you're a user that's on the go, this study could prove newsworthy, but it's not without its caveats. Watt Consumption, ... Efficiency Measured In the study, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), Mozilla Firefox 4, Google Chrome 10, Apple's Safari 5, and Opera 11 were tested. Each browser was run on an Intel laptop that measured the watt consumption when the browser was a) left idling, b) displaying a news website or c) running a number of graphics-based web tests. For the ... (view more)

The European Union (EU) has come under harsh criticism of late for upgrading its computer networks to Windows 7 without first considering other operating systems. It's just emerged that at a "secret meeting" last December, the European Commission ... (which is the administrative wing of the EU, responsible for applying the laws produced by elected politicians) decided to upgrade computers across the European political system to run Windows 7. (Source: pcworld.com ) Controversial Decision Gives MS Big Boost The controversial element of the decision was that it was made without putting the ... (view more)

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)