Articles about Microsoft

Finnish mobile maker Nokia has taken the wraps off its latest, and largest, Windows Phone 8 devices, called the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320. The smartphones represent the company's entry in the phablet market, which so far has been dominated by Android handsets from Samsung's Galaxy Note series.

Nokia has built the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320 around Windows Phone 8 Update 3, that ships with support for 1080p displays and quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors. Both hardware features have been available on Android smartphones but were missing from devices running Microsoft's tiled OS which only supported up to 720p displays and older Snapdragon S4 processors.

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The traditional telephone and email setup at many businesses is dying. This old-school approach is no longer efficient. As crazy as it is to call email "old school", that is exactly what it is. Many business users want the ability to reach out in real-time, with the option to escalate the interaction to voice or screen-sharing. Lync is the dynamic software solution which is trailblazing the corporate world.

If you aren't familiar, Lync is a business-focused instant messaging client for Windows. However, it is so much more than that -- it is a communication service that brings colleagues together. It provides VOIP, instant messaging, video chat and screen-sharing. The magic of the software is the integration with Outlook -- your status can be automatically updated to reflect your meetings and appointments. Today, Microsoft announces that adoption of the software is booming.

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Despite poor sales for the first gen model, Microsoft is pushing forward with its Surface tablet. While other manufacturers build Windows 8 devices, the Surface serves as a reference tablet, spotlighting the right way to produce the hardware, and that is a good a reason to continue production.

And continue it does, with the second generation sales kicking off tonight, including midnight openings at select Microsoft locations around the US. "Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 and the new accessories go on sale at 12:01am Tuesday, and Microsoft is hosting midnight events at 10 Microsoft retail stores across the country to celebrate", the team announces.

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Last week my colleague Mihaita Bamburic explained how to install the freshly released Windows 8.1 in VMware Player and Workstation, and I wanted to follow that up by showing how to set up the new OS in my personal favorite virtualization software -- Oracle VirtualBox.

There are many reasons why you may want to try out Windows 8.1 before committing to it as your primary operating system -- if you used Windows 8 and hated it, you may want to see exactly how much better the updated release is. If you’re thinking of upgrading from an old OS but aren’t sure about the Modern UI, this a good way of trying it out first.

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With Android handsets and iPhones taking the lion's share of the smartphone market, Windows Phone is quite often overlooked by most consumers in their purchasing decisions. The popularity, or lack thereof, of devices running Microsoft's mobile OS likely plays an important part but it also detracts folks from getting the smartphone that may be right for them. Ask yourselves how many of your acquaintances have been in this position.

Many do not even take Windows Phone into consideration and the ones that do easily find a couple of reasons to dismiss the platform and jump on the Android or iPhone bandwagon. Yes, Windows Phone may not be the right answer for everyone but it might be for more people than naysayers think. And I have got 10 good reasons why consumers should give Windows Phone a chance.

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The name "Maxthon" likely evokes some memories for long-term Windows users. The browser, that was once known as MyIE 2, is among the oldest of its kind, having launched on Microsoft's OS more than a decade ago. It has never risen to the popularity of Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer, but it has been a perennial alternative ever since. To keep up with the changing computing landscape, the company behind Maxthon has also launched the browser on Android and iOS.

And, now, Maxthon arrives on Windows Phone 8 as well where, once again, its biggest rival is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which the former has long struggled to surpass in market share. But, this time around, the balance can tip in Maxthon's favor as smartphone users are not as enamored with (or, better said, glued to) Internet Explorer as Windows PC users used to be. But there is one barrier to overcome: Maxthon has to clearly best Internet Explorer. And that may prove to be, once again, a difficult task.

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Few places scream mountain biking louder than Utah. With locations like Canyonlands National Park, the entire state has become a mecca for thrill seekers, and served as the backdrop for the real-life situation that became the movie 127 Hours. Red Bull, famous for its energy drink and its sponsorship of sports, uses the state to stage its Rampage mountain bike challenge.

The event, which took place October 11-13 in Virgin, Utah, was streamed live online and will be shown on NBC December 21st in the US. However, Red Bull is also partnering with Microsoft's Internet Explorer to bring it to you sooner.

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Just about everyone with a desktop, laptop or even a Surface Pro running Windows 8 has been busy updating to Windows 8.1 over the past couple of days.

But things aren’t so rosy for anyone with a Surface RT. After a number of users took to Microsoft forums to complain about problems updating their tablet/laptop hybrids to the latest version of Windows, the update was pulled from the Windows Store.

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Oh dear. If you try and search using Google in Windows 8.1 there’s a very good chance the results page won’t display properly. Whatever you search for will generate a mangled page that works, but makes finding the results you want rather tricky.

This problem doesn’t affect searching using Google in Chrome, or Firefox, it only affects IE11 in both Modern UI and Desktop modes.

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This was another week in which Microsoft managed to steal the show, this time with the public release of Windows 8.1. Here at BetaNews we were fully prepared for the upgrade and showed off what's new. While we're generally impressed with the update, there's still a little room for improvement. Of course the Start menu (or lack thereof) is still a sticking point, but you can get this back. The operating system update was preceded by a raft of updates to Window's built in apps.

Windows 8.1 may be where it's at right now, but there are still plenty of people running Windows XP. Google announced that Chrome users on XP would be supported for a year after the OS is retired.

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Microsoft is using an interesting technique to ensure that websites such as BetaNews (or FileForum in particular) list only the latest versions of its software. Rather than just contacting websites who link to software that is no longer available, Microsoft is invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to force websites to remove the links. BetaNews has been contacted by Google after one such complaint from Microsoft.

In the complaint -- which can be read on the Chilling Effects website -- Microsoft refers to our listing for Microsoft Project (although the page is no longer live). Microsoft contacted Google who in turn contacted us to say that "Google has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that some of your materials allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others".

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Just over 24-hours ago Microsoft unleashed Windows 8.1 upon the world -- a free upgrade, or "fix", for Windows 8 customers; a new operating system for those not already using the latest version. Every shiny new release comes with a marketing plan and this one is no different, as the ads have already begun to roll.

Microsoft is pushing out two new videos to get things under way -- one to show off the hardware and its multitude of designs, and another to focus on the user interface and apps.

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Microsoft has officially released Windows 8.1 to consumers, following the operating system's availability on MSDN and TechNet. The new version addresses many of the issues that plague Windows 8, and adds a number of new features that, among others, make it easier to use the Desktop and relegate the Modern UI. PC users should definitely be happier with Windows 8.1.

If you want to try Windows 8.1 before installing it on your primary devices, your best option is to use a virtual environment. VMware offers two of the most popular dedicated applications, and in this article I will show you how to leverage VMware Player and VMware Workstation to install Microsoft's latest consumer operating system for testing on a virtual machine.

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With winter coming here in the northern hemisphere, our mindset begins to change. Trips to the beach are replaced by ones to the slopes. The "boys of summer" are replaced by the guys on the gridiron, the court and the ice rink. It's the perfect time for skiers, snowboarders and sports fans.

Now, the Bing Weather app is adding ski reports to its list of features -- "you’ll find the app now supplies current snow and weather conditions at ski resorts around the world, plus weather history and additional metrics like the UV index", reports Microsoft's Michael Stroh.

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Today has been a big one in the annals of Microsoft -- Windows 8.1 rolled out the door to a fair amount of headlines, and Visual Studio 2013 also arrived, to much less pomp and circumstance. Next week promises the same, with Surface 2 hitting store shelves amidst stories of stock shortages.

But nothing in the Microsoft universe is ever as simple as it should be -- the tech giant seems to almost enjoy keeping customers guessing. Hence the case of the Surface Pro 2, which promises to ship on October 22nd -- providing you only wish to score a 64 or 128 GB model.

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