Articles about Microsoft

2014 is still young, but the tech news has been hot, and much of it surrounds the two new gaming systems on the market. Some of that news has been hype for the upcoming Titanfall, a title that is generating a lot buzz from the gaming community. Microsoft fueled that fire last week with a beta release, now it is stoking the blaze with more news.

Today Xbox Live chief Larry Hryb, better known to gamers as Major Nelson, unveils the new limited edition Titanfall bundle for Xbox One. What can you expect from this offer?

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There have been a lot of interesting announcements made at MWC this year, and HP is one of several companies making it clear that business users have not been forgotten. The new HP ProPad 600 has been unveiled alongside an upgraded HP ElitePad 1000 G2, and both have been designed with mobile computing in mind.

Both tablets run Windows 8.1 and the ElitePad 1000 G2 picks up where the HP ElitePad 900 G1 left off. The hardware is impressive enough, but there is a strong focus on battery life and portability.

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According to reports, Microsoft is set to slash the price it charges OEMs for Windows 8.x. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to pick up a copy of the tiled OS for any cheaper, but it does mean significant savings for (some) PC builders.

At the moment, Microsoft charges all OEMs $50 per copy of Windows 8. The price cut will see this license figure reduced by 70 percent to $15 per copy. However, there is a caveat -- it will only apply to devices that will be sold for $250 or less at retail. In other words, Microsoft is hoping to kick start a run of lower-priced PCs, in an effort to compete with Chromebooks.

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Today Mobile World Congress officially got started in Barcelona, Spain. Despite the name, and the expectation for handset announcements, Microsoft had a bit more in store when it took the stage. Joe Belfiore talked a lot about Windows Phone, as should be expected, but that wasn't all he had up his sleeve.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 isn't exactly unheard of -- it's been leaking all over the place the past few weeks. But official word from Microsoft has not been put forth until now. The company has a major perception problem with its latest operating system, and this was rumored to be a big step towards fixing that.

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In a long, thoughtful post today, Mark Rogowsky writes for Forbes: "No, Apple Is Not Like Microsoft". He responds to arguments put forth by Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes, which Steven Russolillo summarizes in Wall Street Journal post "Four Reasons Apple is the New Microsoft".

I disagree with the original argument and its rebuttal. I encourage you to read both posts. The answer to why one stock soars while another sunders has little to do with market caps, P/E ratios, and other math metrics analysts crunch like gerbils with a new stick. People generally make decisions for emotional reasons -- what feels right to them. As I so often say, in business perception is everything.

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Bing continues to expand its search options, as Microsoft takes on Google. It's an uphill battle, but not one that is completely out of the question. The search engine has many features to earn it recommendations, including a clean interface and easy access to locations and simple glance for local events.

Now the company is rolling out timelines, a way to get more information on your people searches. "We now show you important events in the timeline of influential or famous people’s lives. In the case of Henry Ford, we highlight several events of Henry’s life including his marriage and early career of farming and running a saw-mill in 1888, incorporating the Ford Motor Company in 1903, and his retirement from the company in 1918", Bing's Richard Qian states.

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While the gold-standard of office suites remains Microsoft's Office, many competitors are trying to catch up. While Libreoffice is a nice alternative, it has failed to truly take off beyond Linux users and people who don't want to spend money or cant afford to buy Microsoft's solution.

However, the biggest competitor lately has been Google. The search giant has been making a push with both web apps (like Google Docs) and Chrome OS. Education institutions have been high on Google's web philosophy as it is cheaper. Today, the search giant announces that it will be providing Google Apps for Education to students in the Brazilian city of São Paulo.

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Windows XP launched in October of 2001, and so has passed its 12th birthday. Customers using an operating system this old should understand the risks associated with it. Yes, Microsoft is still updating it, and will do so up to April 7th of this year, but that is small compensation for the lack of modern features included in this decade old system.

The company has been through three iterations of Windows since the aging OS hit the market. XP has had a great run, but all things must come to an end. My colleague Brian Fagioli suggested users move to Linux, which I have nothing against, but calling it an alternative to the changes in Windows 8.x is ridiculous -- it’s still a completely foreign operating system with a stiff learning curve.

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Xbox One touts its voice control, but some customers feel that isn't quite enough, and using a game controller is not much easier. Harmony supports the console, but not everyone wishes to pay for the high-end universal remote.

Now Microsoft is unveiling a new Media Remote for the gaming system. This isn't entirely unexpected. After all, last week Amazon Canada accidentally reveled the little remote control on its retail website.

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Every day, I speak with hundreds of people on social media, IRC and instant messenger. However, I rarely get to see the person face to face. The closest I get is their profile pic. Heck, even those can be faked; a hairy old man can pretend to be a 21 year old female college student -- trust me on this.

In other words, while technology has linked more people together, it has sucked the humanity out of the interaction. Video chat, such as Skype, is a great way to remedy this. Today, Microsoft announces an initiative with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Sanjay Gupta, urging people to say "hello" to complete strangers or people you haven't talked to in a long time; on Skype or in person.

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After launching SkyDrive replacement OneDrive yesterday, Microsoft announced, today, Office Web Apps is also out of its cloud lineup and, instead, Office Online is here to take its place. To prove that the change is not for change's sake, the software giant designed the new suite to be easier to find, with other new features also being offered.

Office Online takes a first step in the right direction, as it is available directly from Office.com, unlike the now-defunct Office Web Apps which users had to access via SkyDrive. The former's address is easy to remember and, indeed, makes it easy to find. And it is not just Office Online available there, but also Outlook.com and the complementary Calendar, People and OneDrive. More consumer-facing, cloud-based Microsoft services listed in one place is a clever strategy, especially when it is combined with a streamlined page design. Marketing starts there for the online version of Office.

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My e-mail inbox this morning contains 118,306 messages totaling about seven gigabytes. I really should so something about that but who has the time? So I keep a lot of crap around longer than I should. I have, for example, every message I have sent or received since 1992 when I registered cringely.com. Those obviously occupy a lot more than seven gigabytes, though interestingly enough the total is less than 20 GB. My storage strategy has been a mixed bag of disks and cloud services and probably stuff I’ve forgotten along the way. So I’ve decided to clean it up by standardizing on Microsoft’s OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) cloud storage service, just relaunched with its new name. I need about 30 GB of storage right now but I don’t want to pay for anything.

No problemo.

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If you wanna be my lover, you've got to...err, enough of that. If there is one thing that technology enthusiasts love, it's the Spice Girls. Yes, their girl-power pop is the soundtrack for computer programmers, gamers and IT professionals the world over. In the BetaNews newsroom, we often have arguments over which Spice Girl is best. While I am partial to Baby Spice, Mark loves Scary.

However, many people love Posh Spice, otherwise known as Victoria Beckham. After all, she is married to the dreamy soccer player, David Beckham. Besides being a great singer, she is also a fashion designer. Today, Microsoft announces that it has managed to get her on Skype to field fashion-related questions from fans.

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Following a legal battle with satellite broadcaster BskyB, Microsoft was forced to change the name of its popular cloud storage service SkyDrive, opting to go with OneDrive. The name change was unveiled three weeks ago, but today the update begins rolling out across all compatible devices.

Microsoft hasn’t simply just changed the name and logo of its product, and switched the web address to onedrive.com, it’s added some additional features too, and to celebrate the launch is giving away a grand total of 10 petabytes of free storage.

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Time sure goes fast. It’s hard to believe but it’s been a year since Outlook.com came out of preview. To celebrate the one year anniversary, Microsoft has created a video showing the new features and changes it has made to its popular webmail service.

"One year ago today, Outlook.com came out of preview and rolled out to people worldwide. It’s been a great year. We’ve learned a lot, heard great feedback from customers and continue to work every day to deliver the most personal and productive email service. We believe more than ever that Outlook.com is the best email choice for people around the world", Microsoft says.

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