Items tagged with NASDAQ:MSFT
In the hardware world, even the best-selling devices eventually reach EOL (end-of-life) status. And, as fate would have it, it seems that the software world follows suit. But every now and again, a product is killed that leaves us scratching our heads. While Windows Phone 8 is clearly the premier mobile product for Microsoft, it sure doesn't...
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Microsoft is acquiring Nokia’s mobile business, effectively ending any possibility that Nokia Lumia phones might someday run Android, and the Redmond-based company is wasting no time in rebranding the line of handsets currently bearing the name “Nokia”. According to a photo dug up by IBtimes, a UK advertisement from Microsoft...
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One of the ongoing debates between the Xbox One and PS4 revolves around the expected performance difference between the two consoles -- or lack thereof. According to Edge, developers have privately stated that the PS4 is significantly faster. A console agnostic game can, according to their sources, run at 30 FPS in...
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With the introduction of iOS 7 later this week (at least into public hands), Siri is poised to exit "Beta." Finally, right? Of course, language learning takes time, and Siri has been ingesting queries for a long time now in order to improve her understanding of the human voice. Meanwhile, Google Now shipped for Jelly Bean devices, and arguably...
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When Vine emerged in order to give digital junkies the ability to share their lives six seconds at a time, we knew some strange videos would eventually surface. But, we can't say we ever expected anyone to have so much ample time that they'd sit around recording clips of an unreleased video game, and then spewing them all over the Internet....
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It's hard to believe that this is a headline in 2013, given IMAP has been around for decades and is extremely useful, but when the company in question is wrapped into its own email protocol, it becomes a little less surprising. Simply put: If you use Outlook.com as your email provider, you now have the option of using IMAP, a protocol that...
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After a leaked screenshot of a Nokia Lumia 920 running Windows Phone 8.1 showed, among other things, an app called “zCortana”, many speculated that Microsoft was developing a personal digital assistant in the vein of Siri. Nothing has happened since then to change that perception, and in fact whispers...
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Former Nokia chief Stephen Elop has emerged as the odds-on frontrunner to replace Steve Ballmer at Microsoft, and while that may very well come to fruition, there are other candidates worth considering. Two of them include Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally and Computer Sciences Corp's (CSC) CEO Mike Lawrie. Citing "several...
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On Labor Day, Microsoft and Nokia issued a press release confirming that Nokia's devices division was being wholly acquired by Microsoft. It was a fairly short release, and just like that, it was done. But here's the thing: while it was easy to announce, it took a ton of work to get where we are today. The New York...
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If you've made the decision to swim in Windows Phone waters, you may have been eyeballing Nokia's Lumia 1020 and been turned on by its 41-megapixel rear-facing camera. That's pretty beastly, but a glance at the $299 price tag may have turned you off just as quickly. Would you be interested again if it was $100 cheaper? Whether or not you would...
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Under Steve Jobs, Apple could seemingly do no wrong, at least towards his latter years. There was the introduction of the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad, each of which were must-have devices for a period of time (some would argue they still are, though Samsung would certainly dispute that). When Jobs passed...
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Following up on the Chrome browser's 5th birthday celebration, Google announced a new kind of Chrome app, which the company says "brings together the speed, security, and flexibility of the modern web with the powerful functionality previously only available with software installed on your devices." Put another away...
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There’s a deluge of tantalizing mobile products pouring out of IFA in Berlin this year--see our recent coverage for more--and here’s another: Sony announced the VAIO Tap 11, the “world’s thinnest” Windows 8 tablet PC, which measures 9.9mm in depth without its keyboard dock. For...
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You don't become the world's largest PC player by standing idly by, and certainly no one can accuse Lenovo of doing so at IFA. On the contrary, Lenovo announced a number of new products today, including the Yoga 2 Pro, a 13.3-inch touchscreen laptop with an eye-popping 3200x1800 resolution. That's four times the...
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More leaks are emerging regarding the rumored Nokia Lumia 1520, codenamed “Bandit”, this time in the form of what purports to be the device’s home screen. Among the clues that this is a shot of the 1520 is the time in the upper right corner, which Nokia typically uses to indicate the model number. The image is from evleaks,...
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Microsoft’s Windows operating systems have held a relatively consistent market share for the last year--91.67% in October 2012 and 91.19% in August 2013--but there’s been a good bit of shakeup as it pertains to the various versions of Windows. According to data compiled by NetMarketShare, Windows 8 has climbed to 7.41% market share,...
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One has to wonder why Microsoft has been doing everything it can to bury big news over the past couple of weeks. Ballmer's retirement plan was unveiled in a hush-hush fashion, and a few days ago, Microsoft decided to give a board seat to an activist investor for the first time in the company's history. As if that weren't enough change for...
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Microsoft is putting the finishing touches on its transition away from Microsoft Points for the Xbox ecosystem. One of those touches is bringing back the Xbox Live Rewards program, which was temporarily put on hold while Microsoft stopped the Points program. As of yesterday, the system is up and running – with...
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Android may have been birthed as an operating system for digital cameras, but after being acquired by Google, it's since grown to become the most popular mobile OS in the world. Cyber criminals have taken notice, and according to a study by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation...
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Pandora is still a very popular streaming music radio service, but the company is dealing with a growing cadre of serious competitors; Windows Phone 8 has a similar problem in the mobile market with iOS and Android. Now, the two companies have partnered to offer Pandora ad-free on Windows Phone 8 at no cost, for the rest of 2013. The app itself...
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