microsoft

Now that Microsoft knows you want it, Office 2007 Beta 2 downloads are no longer a gratuity. Since its release two months ago, the extremely popular program has been downloaded a total of three million times, leading the Redmond-based company to ... start charging $1.50 USD, beginning August 2. According to Microsoft, the beta program -- 550 MB for the basic version, 2GB for the full suite -- and its explosive popularity have put a fantastic strain on the company's networks. Even Microsoft itself has been caught off guard by the intense downloading of the Office beta, stating that the 3 million ... (view more)

Microsoft Virtual Pc 2004 Virtual PC for Windows is a client based software virtualization application that allows you to simultaneously run multiple operating systems on a single PC. Each virtual machine emulates a complete hardware system -- from ... processor to network card -- in a self-contained, isolated software environment, enabling the simultaneous operation of otherwise incompatible systems. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx Peacefire Peacefire is a website that contains instructions for getting around blocking software, including an interesting program called ... (view more)

Stepping outside the bounds of its usual focus on security and operating systems, Microsoft has recently licensed touch-screen technology. Dubbed "Touchlight", the technology is one of twenty projects being offered to venture capitalists for ... development in cooperation with Microsoft. Signing on for Touchlight is EON Reality, who will use the technology for exhibitions, technical demonstrations, and training exercises. EON hopes to begin commercialization of the Touchlight and other similar projects before the year ends. (Source: microsoft-watch.com ) Touchlight: How It Works Microsoft's ... (view more)

As previously noted , Microsoft officially confirmed the existence of its own competitor to Apple's successful iPod portable music machine, Zune, after months of rumors and speculation. One of Microsoft's big features for Zune is reportedly the ... ability to download music and videos wirelessly. (Source: cnn.com ) That means you wouldn't first need to download the music to your PC, and then transfer it to your player. This gives Zune a true "on the go" feel. If the speculation proves accurate, the Zune player could detect what music is on other people's players nearby and automatically download ... (view more)

Even with massive revenues through a number of initiatives, the cost of meeting demand for the Xbox 360 console has left the Microsoft Home and Entertainment division with a posted operating loss of $414 million for Quarter 4, 2006. Similar losses ... were felt last year in anticipation of the 360 launch, but despite promises that a number of concepts would force a profit, such explosive revenue has yet to materialize. Luckily for Microsoft, its SQL server (the language used to retrieve and manipulate database materials) has exploded in recent months, making up for the growing pains of raising ... (view more)

In a pair of recent surveys on brand power and popularity in Britain and the United States, Microsoft dominated and dropped out of the top ten in each, respectively. In a public survey by consultant agency Superbrands and research group YouGov, ... Microsoft launched into first in the hearts of British voters. The poll, conducted by a group considered "industry experts", asked 2,373 members of the public what brand they felt was the most reliable, distinct, and routinely showed the best quality. In the provided list of some 500 companies, Microsoft, to the astonishment of many UK tech insiders, ... (view more)

In a quarter that proved disastrous for the makers of the processing chips that power its software, Microsoft has reported strong earnings for the second financial period of 2006. So strong, in fact, that the Redmond-based company has pledged to buy ... back $40 billion of its own stock, with at least half of that within the next month. Normally, it takes years for a company to buy back just portions of its stock. In the past, much of Microsoft's pledge in doing so has been no different. It pledged three years ago to buy back $30 billion, and has only recently completed this purchase. The second ... (view more)

On Friday July 21, 2006 Microsoft executives confirmed the launch of Zune, a music software and hardware product line that will rival Apple's iPod and iTunes. In early June, Microsoft denied rumors that the company was developing a digital media ... player to compete with Apple's iPod. However, In a statement released Friday, Microsoft general manager of marketing, Chris Stephenson revealed that the "new music and entertainment project [Zune]... will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year." (Source: news.com ) What is Zune? Zune's ... (view more)

In a bid to win back the hearts of tech junkies dismayed by European antitrust fines and deceptive anti-piracy programs ( Windows Genuine Advantage ), Microsoft is defending the average surfer by waging a new war against "spam". As spam -- the ... advertising granddaddy of Spyware most typically found in emails -- spreads to bulletin boards, Microsoft is integrating a program that roots out such false and annoying offers. As mentioned, spam has traditionally been associated with email. Culturally linked to the Monty Python viking sketch, "spam" was first used to describe annoying online messages ... (view more)

After nearly a year of delays, Microsoft and Yahoo are finally ready to release a combined Instant Messenger (IM) service. As of July 13th, 2006, the two companies have begun to offer a limited beta test to the general public. The new IM service ... connects Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger (the newest version of MSN Messenger) with Yahoo Messenger, using a single user ID. The service is merely an added capability to the Microsoft and Yahoo messengers; all that is needed is to download the latest beta update to either messenger to begin using the new service. The merge will spawn a worldwide ... (view more)