Articles about Microsoft

When Sony Pictures was hacked, it was a horrible situation for the company. Not only were its computers knocked offline, but the content of corporate emails were disclosed, embarrassing both the company and individual employees. Sadly, this hack escalated into a terrorist threat, which ultimately led to the opening of film, 'The Interview', being put on hiatus.

While this was a huge blow to Sony and free speech overall, the good guys are getting the last laugh. Today, on the Eve of Christmas, Google and Microsoft shock the world and announce that you can watch The Interview today on Google Play, YouTube movies and Xbox Video!

Continue reading →

Windows Phone has no future in the consumer market. After being around for more than four years, its market share is only at 3 percent, and declining. Microsoft might as well pull the plug now, before its nickname becomes BlackBerry. After all, no one would really miss Windows Phone. Seemingly bracing for the inevitable, even die-hard Microsoft fanboys have embraced rival platforms (you know who they are). There's nothing to be gained by being the last one on the podium, unless Microsoft is looking to become the laughing stock of the market. It'll have to fight BlackBerry for the title, but that's not hard.

The consumer market is not only tough for Microsoft, but for relevant players too. Samsung's profits are sliding, and its sales aren't doing well either. Apple may still have the highest profits, but its iPhones' market share is closer to that of Windows Phone than Android. Other players are struggling with similar issues, which will only grow larger with time. So why keep going at it? At the end of the day, Windows Phone adds little to no value in the consumer market. However, there is still hope for the platform in the enterprise market, which has a different set of priorities to consumers. There, Microsoft actually has a chance of becoming a major player.

Continue reading →

Hotels are keen to extract money from guests, and in a bid to try to force them into paying for internet access, the industry is trying to gain permission to block personal Wi-Fi hotspots. Microsoft and Google are usually rivals, but the two companies are putting up a united front to fight these plans.

The American Hospitality & Lodging Association and Marriott International has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to use network management hardware that could prevent guests from creating and sharing their own private hotspots. The argument against this is that hotels are essentially requesting permission to block access to unlicensed parts of the wireless spectrum.

Continue reading →

If you're thinking of starting afresh with your Surface or Surface Pro in the New Year, Microsoft just made your life a little easier. The company has just released a series of recovery images for Surface devices that can be downloaded and used to restore the Windows tablet to the state it was in when you first bought it.

As this restore feature is something that's built in by default, you might be wondering what the value of these recovery images is. Well, there's always the possibility that your existing recovery image is corrupt, or you may even have freed up some space by wiping it out. Now you can get it back.

Continue reading →

By now you've likely heard that the US is trying to seize emails held by Microsoft on foreign soil, something that you'd think it has no right to do. After all, the US government may have some reach, but grabbing from another nation seems to be extending it quite far. Both company and country are baulking at the prospect.

None of us wishes for a criminal to not be caught, but we want it to be done legally. Now Microsoft has officially filed its amicus brief in the New York court of appeals, with general counsel Brad Smith.

Continue reading →

The patent wars are cooling down. Rockstar Consortium's litigation against numerous Android handset manufacturers has come to an end after the group sold 4,000 patents to RPX Corp. The intellectual property risk mitigation company bought the patents for $900 million, ending lawsuits against HTC, LG and Samsung.

Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Sony formed Rockstar Consortium back in 2011 to purchase around 6,000 patents from the bankrupt Nortel Network Corp for $4.5 billion. 2,000 of the patents had previously been shared between the members of the consortium, and the remainder have now exchanged hands for less a quarter of the original sale price.

Continue reading →

It’s that time of the year again when news sites and search engines look back at the stories and events that shaped the year. The top stories on BetaNews are obviously going to be different -- mostly -- from the top stories on other sites because we focus on technology. So in other words don’t expect Kim Kardashian "breaking" the internet to appear anywhere in our list. Although that’s not to say she won’t make an appearance somewhere…

Because BetaNews offers a mix of content, we’ve put together three top 10 lists -- News, Opinion/Editorial, and Guides. With news, it's not necessarily the biggest stories of year that make the list, but rather the content that was viewed the most. All three lists are presented, as ever, in reverse order.

Continue reading →

If you’re thinking of treating yourself to a new PC or a Windows tablet, then Microsoft has some special deals that might be of interest. Its end of year sale offers some decent savings on PCs and tablets from the likes of Lenovo, Acer, HP and ASUS.

You can also pick up the HP Stream 7 Signature Edition Tablet for just $99, which is even more of a bargain than it first seems as it comes with Office 365 Personal, which by itself is worth $69.99.

Continue reading →

We've seen several builds of the Windows 10 Technical Preview -- some official, some less so -- and there's another big build due in January. If you're interested in Windows 10, it's likely that you have already jumped onto the preview builds and have been updated as and when new versions are released. But as we get closer to the actual launch, the publicly released builds are going to start to get more exciting.

In January users of existing preview builds will be able to upgrade automatically, or there's the option of downloading an ISO. But Microsoft hasn’t forgotten users of Windows 8, and the company has released a tool that makes it possible to grab January's Windows 10 Technical Preview build through Windows Update.

Continue reading →

The Halo series has been a massive success for Microsoft on Xbox, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection was an eagerly anticipated launch. But when the remastered game collection hit Xbox One, it didn't take long for gamers to discover a raft of problems with multiplayer games, and a range of glitches that impacted on performance.

Now Microsoft and games studio 343 Industries have apologized for the issues in a way that the companies are hoping will be well-received -- by giving away a batch of free stuff. That's not to say that an accompanying, contemporaneous apology has been issued; instead the freebies are a thank you for gamers' "support and understanding as we worked through issues impacting" the game.

Continue reading →

We've already heard that 2015 is supposed to be the year of cryptocurrency, and Microsoft recently announced that Bitcoin is an acceptable form of payment. Now Reddit is getting in on the virtual currency action. Kind of. Well, perhaps. The details are vague at the moment, but the intriguingly-named Reddit Notes have been announced.

It comes just a few months after Reddit managed to secure $50 million in funding, and at the time "the investors in this round have proposed to give 10% of their shares back to the community". The birth of Reddit Notes is the start of this payback, but it's not yet clear who will receive them or what they will be used for.

Continue reading →

Microsoft is keeping its promise of delivering Lumia Denim in the last quarter of 2014, as the firmware update is rolling out now. However, most devices which are slated to get it will only receive it starting early next year.

"The Lumia Denim update has started rolling out to a limited number of devices in selected markets, and will continue arriving in waves by device", says Microsoft's Adam Frasier. "A wider rollout of Lumia Denim to all Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone 8.1 is expected to begin in early January, following partner testing and approvals". I wouldn't be surprised if the roll-out ends very late in Q1 2015.

Continue reading →

Nokia’s HERE suite of driving and navigation apps first made its appearance on Windows Phone, and although it’s now being developed for other platforms, for many it remains best associated with Microsoft’s mobile operating system.

However, now that Nokia is no longer tied to Windows Phone, the Finnish company’s interest in developing for that platform is waning, and it will in future be focusing on Android and iOS -- which have a much larger user base.

Continue reading →

With Windows Phone still struggling to gain considerable traction, Microsoft is trying to boost its operating system's market share by focusing on the low-end of the market, which has real potential of attracting consumers, especially those in emerging markets. And, so far this year, Microsoft has introduced quite a few affordable Windows Phones, with the latest of the bunch being the still-Nokia-branded Lumia 638.

Lumia 638 is a new Windows Phone 8.1 handset that is designed for India. It is touted to be one of the most affordable smartphones with 4G connectivity available in this Asian market, which is sure to attract the attention of price-conscious local buyers. What else does it have to offer?

Continue reading →

Microsoft's Gabe Aul has given an insight into how the Windows 10 Technical Preview has been received by testers. In a blog post, Aul reveals that there are more than 1.5 million registered Windows Insiders testing out preview builds, and that nearly a third of this number -- around 450,000 -- are using it on a daily basis.

So far there have only been three official preview builds: build 9841, build 9860, and build 9879. There have also been a few unofficial leaks including, 9888 complete with a limited preview of Cortana and more recently build 9901. Microsoft does not shy away from acknowledging the existence of these leaks, but it's not clear if they have been included in the usage figures.

Continue reading →