Items tagged with Redmond
Today, Microsoft confirmed a development rumor that's been swirling around its next-generation console ever since it announced Kinect would become an optional add-on rather than a mandatory boat anchor. Lifting that requirement will give game developers 10% additional graphics power to play with and help close...
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In a world in which its corporate communication team wasn't apparently being run by two monkeys and a sack of hammers, Microsoft executives would've taken the stage yesterday and delivered a concise, official explanation as to whether or not used games will run on the console. In point of fact, everyone thought they...
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If new leaked roadmaps are accurate, the long-rumored Microsoft Office for iOS won't see the light of day before mid-2014. A new set of Office updates are supposed to drop with Windows Blue later this year, and Metro versions of more Office applications are in development. There's an Office RT update package for...
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Dell's decision to go private (and Microsoft's $2B investment) are big news in the tech world today, but there's precious little in the way of hard evidence for why Michael Dell decided to buy back the company he founded as a college student back in 1984. The Microsoft angle has gotten a lot of press, but it's not the...
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At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) today, Steve Ballmer formally announced the launch date for Windows 8 -- the OS will be RTM'd (Released To Manufacturing) the first week of August, with an estimated ship date in October. Microsoft's own ARM-flavored Windows 8 Surface will supposedly go on sale...
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Windows Phone 7 was supposed to reverse Microsoft's declining market share, prove that the company was capable of designing a product that could stand against the best Android and Apple had to offer, and re-establish the company as a major player in the smartphone space. Despite generally positive reviews, WP7 has...
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At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference this week, Tami Reller, the company's CFO and Corporate VP of Windows / Windows Live, spilled the beans about Windows 7's adoption rates and some of what the industry should expect from Windows 8. Windows 7, according to Reller, has sold at three times the rate of Windows XP with the result that...
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When the Department of Justice and Microsoft hammered out the terms of their agreement in 2001, one of the strictures was that the software giant would be subject to official DOJ oversight for a period of five years. In 2006, the DoJ opted to extend the term another five years, but the government body won't be doing the same thing again. On...
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Microsoft's demonstration of Windows 8 running on ARM processors may have been one of the major events of CES, but the OS's 2012/2013 release date has been criticized as a day late and a dollar short. One of the tidbits that slipped out of CES is that IT analysts aren't the only ones frustrated with Redmond's timetable. Intel Senior VP and...
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A few weeks back, Microsoft confirmed the existence of a 17-year-old bug in all 32-bit versions of Windows that could, under certain circumstances, be used to gain control of a system. The flaw's usefulness was limited, since anyone with administrative access to a system probably doesn't need a hack to gain control of...
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Investors have had a couple days to digest the strategic partnership Microsoft and Yahoo jointly announced this week, and they aren't exactly pouring money into Yahoo's coffers. The company's stock price (Ticker: YHOO) has fallen nearly 20 percent over the past five days, from its July 27 price of $17.31 to...
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Microsoft and Yahoo have had an on-again / off-again relationship for years, often whipsawing from one extreme to another. This time, however, it's official, agreed upon, and public. The two companies have signed an agreement aimed at improving their competitive position against Google. Yahoo executives characterized the deal as providing...
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It's a rumor from a blog with every third word misspelled, but this one seems to have legs. Microsoft appears to be preparing to either spin off or sell outright Bungie Studios, the developers of their fantastically successful Halo series of video games. Microsoft would retain the rights to any future versions of the Halo franchise, but Bungie...
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Google released their "Google Gears" open source tools to software programmers yesterday . It's a handy virtual widget that allows users to work on web-based applications when they are off-line. Web-based applications that handle e-mail, news, and process information like spreadsheets and text documents can be altered or generated anytime,...
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