Articles about Microsoft

Quick, send a load of Valium to Intel and Microsoft executives! Gasp -- to Apple, too. Today NPD DisplaySearch forecasts that tablet shipments will exceed notebooks in 2013, globally. But in China and the United States, the milestone passed last year.

About 18 months ago, analysts started the smartphone-shipments-are-greater-than-PCs meme, which I didn't take too seriously. The market dynamics are different and handsets' functionally don't replace personal computers. Tablets are a whole other matter, because they can do just that. The category's rise over laptops is hugely significant.

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Microsoft may have pulled out from CES 2013, leaving Qualcomm to steal the spotlight with its opening keynote presentation, but the firm's smartphone operating system lives and breathes at the popular trade show. US carriers Sprint and Verizon Wireless unveiled plans to offer new devices running Windows Phone 8, with the big red being the first of the two to release a product to market with the Samsung ATIV Odyssey.

For quite some time the ATIV Odyssey was rumored to surface as a Verizon-branded version of the ATIV S, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The new device comes with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 800 by 480, a 5MP back-facing camera capable of 1080p video recording and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. The handset is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and a 2,100mAh battery.

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Welcome to the second Tuesday of the month, the day that has become universally known in tech circles as Patch Tuesday. It is that one day when Microsoft chooses to reach out and touch our computers in an effort to fix whatever has gone wrong or been exploited over the past month. Even during the Consumer Electronics Show we cannot escape Microsoft -- Steve Ballmer made a surprise appearance on stage last night, and now there is this.

For January 2013 there are several fixes in store for customers. There is of course the obligatory Malicious Software Removal Tool update, which appears almost every month. The tool works in the background in an effort to keep PC's safe. Most customers never know it is there because it does not appear in any app list, but if needed, you can launch it from "Run" by typing "MRT".

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Steve Ballmer's surprise CES pre-show keynote appearance is shocking and full of symbolism. Ballmer goes from being star to minor player on one of the tech industry's most important stages. Stunned sums up my reaction, and I was sorry to see Microsoft's CEO there last night. The company officially pulled out of the Consumer Electronics Show this year, with Ballmer ceding the keynote he inherited from Bill Gates. Clean break would have been better than this.

I don't demean his time on stage, which actually livened a limping start. Qualcomm chief executive Paul Jacobs benefited from his keynote predecessor's Windows 8 presentation. My problem is Ballmer being there at all, for what his presence represents -- and there are a couple overlapping ways to read it.

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Tomorrow, the Consumer Electronics Show officially kicks off, not that many vendors are waiting. There already are plenty of Day 0 and -1 announcements, which make me wonder if this -- the first of two posts -- isn't already late: What I would like and not want to see during this year's big event. If early press galas are any indication, many CES participants won't hit the jackpot in Las Vegas this year. Sadly that's a trend.

Like 2012, I'm sitting out the tradeshow. The real benefit is mingling, and that's for everyone -- from journalists to manufacturers to distributors. CES really isn't about gadget geeks but everyday consumers and CE manufacturers getting goods to them. Why else would LG's press gala feature 39 new driers and 72 refrigerators coming this year? But the big noise is all about the toys today, as it will be all week.

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What's the first thing that springs to mind when you encounter the term "jailbroken"? Naturally, iPad, iPhone or iOS are among the most likely answers, but what about Windows RT? Microsoft's tablet operating system also embodies a walled garden principle, however, similar to some Apple products, a developer uncovered a method to run unsigned apps, by exploiting a kernel vulnerability.

The jailbreaking method currently available for Windows RT is aimed at more advanced users that are familiar with modifying system files, as there is no installer or one-click-to-jailbreak solution ready. Daring users have to change the minimum signing level from "8" (also known as "Microsoft" level) to "0" (also known as "Unsigned"), the latter, which is the default value for the x86 counterpart, Windows 8. Sounds easy, but the process is not.

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There is friendly disagreement here at BetaNews. My friend and colleague, Mihaita Bamburic, uses Windows 8, but laments that he wants to return to the last era by downgrading to version 7. While I feel for him, and he certainly has that option, I would say the same thing I did to my family when I upgraded our household computers -- yes it is different, but I doubt Microsoft is going back now.

That is a harsh statement, although I certainly put it as gently as possible to my wife and kids. However, aside from my assertion that things will not revert, there are several other reasons I feel no loss in this move.

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Life as an early adopter is sprinkled with moments of joy and regret after first trying out a product up until another shiny toy takes its place. The burning desire to pursue something new often backfires in my endeavors, with personal expectations rarely fulfilled by cutting-edge software or hardware. My experience running Windows 8 is no different, as Microsoft's latest entry into consumer operating systems seldom ticks all the right boxes. But I plow through, even though what I really want is to go back to Windows 7. (Oh my, my colleague Alan Buckingham disagrees.)

I started using Windows 8 in mid-August and throughout all my time with it not once did I ever feel comfortable enough to say: "This is a keeper". Fact is what I love about Windows 8 I almost never use, and what I loathe I do have to deal with every single time -- it's a self-destructive relationship I simply do not want to be in anymore. On the other hand, at the opposite end lies Windows 7, which fits me like a tailored suit -- no extra "in your face" functionality that I rarely take advantage of. Simply put -- less is more.

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Despite recent stories of Google's big plans to take Microsoft's IT business away, the race is far from over. Today Microsoft announced a fairly big win for Office 365 and, no doubt, privately high-fived over this perceived slap in its rival's face. While Google Apps continues to progress, the city of Chicago prefers to stick with the old guard and its new cloud solution.

Michael Donlan, the Vice President of U.S. State and Local Government at Microsoft, announced today, along with Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, that the two sides have reached an agreement that will allow the city to "consolidate its three disparate email systems into one Microsoft Office 365 environment in an effort to improve collaboration, enhance security, and provide both mobile and desktop access for anytime, anywhere productivity".

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What's the first thing that springs to mind when you think of Windows 8? "Confusing", "difficult to use", "efficient", "tiles" or "US Department of Defense" might be among the possible answers. Whoa, what? Yes, the Department of Defense (DOD) has announced that, as part of a $617 million licensing deal, it will begin using the newest versions of Microsoft products, including the controversial operating system. Now think of all the possible jokes...

The announcement does not disclose the entire number of products that will be used, and only mentions Office 2013 (which the DOD says offers "enhanced security and content management tools"), SharePoint 2013, and Windows 8. The Department of Defense says that the beneficiaries of the deal will be the US Air Force, Army and DISA (Defence Information Systems Agency), and that the purchased package is already customized to meet its specific needs, with an ongoing focus towards mobile computing.

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This may seem like a distraction from my theme of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but please stick with me for a moment as we consider the fate of Blake Krikorian, who is best known for the Slingbox and now seems to be selling his current company, the awkwardly named Id8 Group R2 Studios. I think Krikorian’s career arc and our fascination with it give some insight into the whole tech-vs-Hollywood theme, showing how aimless and confused are some of these big technology companies.

The post I read that got me thinking in this direction came from Kara Swisher at allthingsd.com, which is part of the Wall Street Journal. Krikorian is reportedly selling his home automation startup to Amazon or Apple or Google or maybe Microsoft -- in other words the usual suspects. Amazon may be now out of contention because Krikorian just resigned from the Amazon board. But in any case, Swisher says, they all want Krikorian because "he is considered one of tech’s most savvy execs with regard to video and media distribution". Yeah, right.

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Microsoft chose to kill off Live Mesh, its PC-to-PC syncing service, late last year. Of course we knew this was coming when Windows Essentials 2012 was released without the Live Mesh app as a part of the suite, but  for some reason, the company waited to hold off making the official announcement until a bit later.

The reason for the move is clear -- Microsoft wants customers to migrate to SkyDrive. Although it's unquestionably a great cloud service, SkyDrive doesn't provide P2P syncing like Live Mesh, instead forcing customers to use the cloud as an intermediary. Sounds fine, but it only comes with 7 GB of free storage, or 25 GB if you were grandfathered in as an early adopter.

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For those used to cutting the rope or drawing "something", Microsoft Surface Pro is not going to be the tablet for you. Microsoft’s latest attempt to conquer the business end of the tablet market has left many puzzled as to why the software giant has priced a basically untested product right at the $900 mark, when the latest generation iPad starts at $499. They assume, perhaps understandably, that Surface Pro competes with Apple's pride and joy, yet they are wrong. Surface Pro is actually a miniaturized laptop trapped inside a tablet's shell.

For professionals and power users it doesn’t take long to realize that Surface Pro is as far away as possible from a basic consumer-oriented tablet. The dead giveaway is the processor and graphics card combination -- a third generation Core i5 CPU paired with an HD Graphics 4000 GPU, both made by Intel. Together they really shout from the top of their silicons: "We really come from PC technology!" The naysayers should therefore understand where Microsoft is actually going with Surface Pro -- towards professionals and power users, not the Cut The Rope or Draw Something crowd (although it can be used for that too).

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The year was a big one for Microsoft with updates to almost every website and software program, as well as the release of Surface RT. But now it is time to look ahead to 2013 and the company has not only announced the expansion of retail sales for its tablet but the next six company store locations.

Jonathan Adashek, GM of Microsoft's Communications and Strategy, Sales & Marketing Services Group, revealed today: San Antonio, Texas; Miami, Florida;  Beachwood, Ohio; San Francisco, Calif.; Salt Lake City, Utah; and  St. Louis, Missouri will join the current locations around the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

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If you can say nothing else about the company, you at least have to admit that Microsoft has certainly come up with some unique marketing ideas recently. Many would call that a departure from the past, when the ads were either boring or just plain weird (remember Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld)? The company went from that to self-parody and real humor like the recent Internet Explorer 10-Mayan apocalypse campaign.

Now the mobile side of the business has rolled out a new website to let customers know that Bilbo Baggins, of Hobbit fame, is a Windows Phone 8 customer. The site lets you see Bilbo's home screen so that you can get some insight into what is important to the adventurous hobbit, like his map of "home sweet shire" and the current weather conditions in Middle Earth. You can even view his camera roll which, of course, he stores in his SkyDrive account.

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