Articles about Microsoft

Bing has released its latest "Bing it on" challenge, a contest launched back in September 2012, and, along with that, comes new TV ads. As has become the M.O., Microsoft is going directly after the largest fish in the search sea -- Google. This time, Microsoft hits directly at the heart of Google -- Google, Kansas that is.

You may recall, back during the race to become the city which would receive Google Fiber, Topeka, Kansas changed its name to Google, Kansas. For that reason, Microsoft chose this as its attack venue for the new challenge and ad filming.

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SkyDrive has been around since 2007, so perhaps there is no surprise that the cloud storage service has a large number of users. Combine its venerability with the fact the service is now rolled into Windows 8 and Office 2013, and you have a recipe for success. That is exactly what Microsoft reports today.

Microsoft's Mike Torres, group program manager for SkyDrive apps, says "the service continues to grow: since October 2012 when Windows 8 launched, 50 million more people have started using SkyDrive, helping us reach an important milestone -- over 250 million people are now using SkyDrive as the new place to save their files".

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While many of us upgrade software by simply clicking a link -- frequently found in the Help menu -- many Visual Studio users would prefer other options. In fact, Demand is high for an ISO version of the latest update to the integrated developer environment, which recently moved the 2012 product to update 2.

Microsoft points out that many customers install Visual Studio Updates from the 'toast' pop-up notification or from the Extensions and Updates dialog. In tracking the release feedback, Microsoft also observed a set of users requesting an ISO image as an alternative way to download the update. The primary reasons seen for such requests, the company claims, is familiarity both with the format and with various download management tools.

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I’ve been using Bing as my primary search engine for nearly two months now, and I like it. While I personally think it still lags behind Google in some areas, it’s definitely improving. It delivers decent results, offers some great features and does an excellent job of integrating social sources like Facebook and Twitter.

I chatted with Bill Hankes, a director at Bing, to find out more about the service and the division's future plans, and also asked him about that divisive Scroogled campaign...

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Microsoft continues the trend of expanding the interoperability options of its flagship unified communications product, Lync Server 2013 -- federation with Skype arrives in June.

Microsoft Lync Server 2013 is an already impressive offering with instant messaging, presence, enterprise telephony, conferencing and collaboration features out of the box. The latest version of the Lync client features even tighter integration with Microsoft Office, as well as a robust mobile version for the three major platforms. Lync Server 2013 is also being touted as an enterprise ready PBX replacement with major improvements around high availability and disaster recovery options. Other highlights include support for a hybrid voice topology that integrates with Lync online, and support for virtualizing all workloads including voice. The product continues to make impressive inroads with enterprise customers, already adopted by 70 percent of the Fortune 500.

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I subscribe to Office 365, as it is a great value -- for just under $10 per month I can install Office 2013 on up to five computers and even gain an additional 20GB of SkyDrive storage, taking my total to 45GB, thanks to being grandfathered into the 25GB free plan. The subscription even gives me a bit of free Skype that, perhaps, one day I shall actually use. All of this sounds great -- what more could you want? Well, how about a payment system that has customers in mind?

Over this past weekend, I had occasion to meet with the dysfunctional payment system that Microsoft has implemented. While I use many of the company's products, Office 365 Home Premium is my first occasion making monthly payments to the software giant. I am used to doing so with other services, such as Amazon.

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Windows Phone remains well behind its biggest competition, iPhone and Android. But Microsoft is continuously looking for ways of changing the mobile landscape. A recent ad for the platform went viral and the company's app store continues to grow, along with new devices being released.

In fact, Microsoft's Todd Brix  claims the company is "seeing strong results for the ecosystem since the launch of Windows Phone 8 with more than a 100% increase in app downloads and nearly 140% increase in paid app revenue".

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Fifth in a series. Nearly two months ago I gave up Google and switched to Microsoft. Although I tried not to have any preconceptions, I’ll be honest and say I thought (based on past experience), I’d be swapping a set of mostly superb products and services for a collection of inferior alternatives and hate every moment I was away from Google.

That turned out not to be the case. Now my experiment is over, I find myself impressed with some elements of Microsoft’s offerings, but frustrated with others. So here’s a summary of my overall experience.

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Microsoft has been actively migrating customers from Hotmail to its Outlook.com service over the past six weeks. That migration ends today, as Microsoft announces completion of, not only the big move, but also that the company now has instant success from the latest web-based email offering.

"When Outlook.com came out of preview, it was already the fastest growing email service thanks to your support. The last two months have seen the release of a new, modern Outlook.com calendar, a refreshed Outlook.com app for Android devices, two-factor authentication for your account, new international domains for people around the world, and the release of a preview of Skype calling in Outlook.com" boasts Microsoft's Dick Craddock.

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"Hi, my name is Alan and I am..." okay, no, I'm not an alcoholic but I do love a good beer. I am especially a fan of dark brews -- stouts and porters. I have had the Untappd app on my Android phone for a while, and now those on Microsoft's mobile platform can partake in the fun.

Untappd launches today on Windows Phone, making drinking a social activity -- though perhaps it has always been that, except for George Thorogood. Untappd allows you to record all of the different brews you sample, discover new ones and even check-in as if it were Foursquare. The latter makes it easy to meet up with friends who are out imbibing.

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On April 30th, while announcing Skype video messaging for the desktop, Microsoft let it be known that the feature would be coming to the Windows 8 app soon, as well. The company did not lie -- soon arrives today. The communication app already had video calling, but Skype Video Messaging lets you record and send a video message, as opposed to making a live call. This enables getting your message across, even when the recipient is away from his or her PC or phone -- think SMS with video capability.

The new version of the Skype "Metro" app is officially 1.7 and available now from the Windows Store, although the feature is still considered a "preview".

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So much for Apple's tablet reign that analysts stoutly stood by even just months ago. Android kicks ass, crushing iOS shipments during first quarter, according to IDC. Among the top four, the fruit-logo company posted the lowest year-over-year growth (65.3 percent), and considerably less than the overall market (142.4 percent). Meanwhile, the company's market share fell by 18.5 points to 39.6 percent.

Among tablet manufacturers, Apple is market leader, with the question being for how much longer. Samsung share rose 282.6 percent -- ASUS even more (350 percent). Strong Nexus 7 shipments pushed ASUS past Amazon to take third place. ASUS' challenge and opportunity could be Google I/O, where the tablet launched last year and new model is rumored for the event starting May 15. Challenge is maintaining shipments during product transition; opportunity is capitalizing on new sales.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of consumers, publishes its report on safety in the digital age. There are some winners and also some major losers this time around in the "Who has your back?" statement -- hint put down your cell phone, step away slowly and nobody gets hurt.

The annual report looks at major technology service providers' commitment to users' rights in the face of government data demands. EFF examines 18 companies' terms of service, privacy policies, advocacy, and courtroom track records and awards up to six gold stars for best practices in categories such as requiring a warrant for content, telling users about government data demands and publishing a transparency report.

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Many people want Microsoft to die, and the sooner the better. I’m not in that group, although I understand that years upon years of letdowns through viruses, DLL hell, BSODs (Blue Screens of Death) and a myriad of other problems lead many in the tech world (and consumer world, too) to walk away from everything Microsoft. Add to that the growth of the Internet and mobile devices as well as slumping PC sales, and you can see why so many wait with baited breath to see the company go away for good.

Nevertheless, quarter after quarter Microsoft continues to prove that it still has life and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, in 2011, CEO Steve Ballmer explained how the company intends to reinvent around devices and services. Seeing that the growth of mobile devices and the services that support them represent the future of computing, Microsoft responds yet again to the changing world of computing.

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Microsoft is on an update streak with Windows Azure, introducing significant new features at a steady pace. For the past couple of months we have witnessed an overwhelming number of changes meant to improve the company's cloud platform, including the Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service) support announced two weeks ago.

Microsoft's latest move in this never-ending chess game with its rivals is the Windows Azure SDK (Software Development Kit) 2.0 for .NET which now features improvements for websites, cloud services, storage, service bus and PowerShell automation. Let's take a look at what's new.

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