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Looking to debunk a report that Microsoft’s new motion-sensing video game controller might be racist, Consumer Reports says it found no evidence that Kinect has problems recognizing users with darker skin.
GameSpot, a popular video game website, said earlier it found through testing Kinect that its facial recognition camera system did not work properly for some players with darker skin. Get the full story »
Two boys play the Kinect for Xbox 360 at a Charlotte, N.C. Gamestop store, Oct. 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
Caryn Bailey, a 32-year-old blogger and mother of two, is impressed with Microsoft’s new Kinect game-control system. But she already owns the Wii from rival Nintendo, and she’s not ready to shell out hundreds of dollars to switch.
That’s the challenge Microsoft Corp. faces as it begins selling the long-awaited system on Thursday ahead of the lucrative holiday season. To succeed, Kinect will need to exude the kind of iPad-like magic that defies frugality and gets people spending to experience something new, even as they cut back elsewhere in the uncertain economy. Get the full story »
Google is suing the U.S. government for excluding its products from being considered for a five-year contract worth about $59 million to upgrade the Department of the Interior’s email system.
In a complaint filed on Friday, Google said the government abused its discretion and acted in a manner that was “arbitrary and capricious” by only considering sales proposals with email technology based on Microsoft Corp technology. Get the full story »
Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that its net income in the latest quarter rose 51 percent, boosted by higher sales of Windows and Office software to businesses.
In last year’s quarter, Microsoft deferred some revenue from Windows sales. Had it not done so, net income would have been only 16 percent higher this year in comparison. Get the full story »
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer at Thursday's software developers conference. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pumped up unique features in the company’s new Web browser and smart phone software at a software developer conference Thursday, the company’s annual pep rally for people who will build programs for the Web, Windows computers and phones.
Ballmer is known for his onstage enthusiasm. This year, he joked with the crowd that he wouldn’t repeat the memorable “developer prance” of years past, when he loped around hollering, “Developers! Developers!”
During the keynote address, Ballmer and Dean Hachamovitch, a top executive in Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer division, showed off how developers can program websites to take advantage of new features. Internet Explorer 9, which is in beta test form, uses more of a PC’s hardware to make pages load and run faster. A new version of the underlying code is being released for developers Thursday. Get the full story »
Ray Ozzie at a Microsoft event in 2005. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu/File)
Consumers have turned their backs on Microsoft. A company that once symbolized the future is now living in the past.
Microsoft has been late to the game in crucial modern technologies like mobile, search, media, gaming and tablets. It has even fallen behind in Web browsing, a market it once ruled with an iron fist.
Outgoing Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie called out Microsoft’s lost ground in a blog post over the weekend. Get the full story »
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Corp.’s departing software chief, has asked the company to move on from its roots as a computer-oriented company to imagine a “post-PC world” that relies on wireless devices and the Internet to function.
The call from Ozzie, who announced his retirement from Microsoft last week, is meant to galvanize the company, which has fallen behind Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in the rapidly growing phone and tablet computer sector that many now see as key to the future. Get the full story »
U.S. stocks could see big swings to the downside next week on any remotely “bad” news since volatility indexes are at levels considered too low.
The Chicago Board of Options Exchange Volatility Index, a gauge widely used to measure investors’ anxiety levels, fell 2.54 percent on Friday to close at 18.78, its lowest level since April. The VIX, which rose to near 50 in May, has been around or under 20 for the past two weeks. Investors also will face a blizzard of earnings, which many analysts believe will continue to support the rally that began early this month. But any disappointments in either earnings or outlooks could, of course, trigger a sharp sell-off. Get the full story »
Packages of Windows 7 lined up for purchase on Oct. 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)
Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 has sold more than 240 million copies in its first year, the company said on Thursday, making it the fastest-selling operating system, and helping the software giant to record profits despite a recent dip in computer sales growth.
The new software, which costs from $80 for a simple upgrade to $320 for the top-of-the-range edition, was launched a year ago this week to supersede the unpopular Vista.
Although Apple Inc’s OS X and Linux-based operating systems have won some market share in the past few years, Microsoft still controls 90 percent of the world’s 1.4 billion or so personal computers, and is expecting more customers to upgrade or switch to Windows 7. Get the full story »
Microsoft Corp said on Monday that chief software architect Ray Ozzie, the man who took over that role from co-founder Bill Gates, would retire and not be replaced.
The move signals a new phase in Microsoft’s shift toward cloud computing, which Ozzie championed, and cements control of the company’s direction under Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Get the full story »
AOL Inc. and several private equity firms are exploring the possibility of buying Yahoo Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Shares of Yahoo jumped more than 9 percent on Thursday on the news, fueled by the prospect that the Internet company could be the target of a buyout by private equity firms, possibly in conjunction with another media company like AOL or News Corp. Get the full story »
The Microsoft store planned for Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook will open on Nov. 4, making the Chicago-area location the fifth such store for the technology giant.
Microsoft’s first store opened a year ago in Scottsdale, Arizona and the company also has locations in Mission Viejo, Calif., Lone Tree, Colo., and San Diego. Get the full story »
Microsoft Corp. issued its biggest-ever security fix Tuesday, including repairs to its ubiquitous Windows operating system for flaws that could let hackers take control of a user’s personal computer.
Microsoft released 16 security patches to address 49 problems it identified in its products.
It said four of the patches were high priority and should be deployed immediately to protect users from potential criminal attacks on the Windows operating systems. The patches are software updates that write over glitches. Get the full story »
The new Windows Phone 7 is presented at the Windows Phone 7 launch press conference in New York, Oct. 11, 2010. (Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi)
See a photo gallery of the Windows 7 phones here.
Microsoft on Monday unveiled its plan to battle the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry smartphones with its new Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system.
At a press event in New York, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that Windows Phone 7 smartphones would be available in the United States on AT&T’s network.
“When Microsoft first showed us Windows Phone 7, we knew it was going to be a winner,” AT&T CEO Mobility and Consumer Markets Ralph de la Vega said at the event. “It was different than anything we’ve seen.” Get the full story »
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer shows Slate PCs during his keynote speech before the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in January. The company plans to introduce a new slate to counter the iPad. (Reuters)
A Microsoft slate to counter Apple’s popular iPad tablet computer will be seen by the Christmas holiday, Microsoft’s Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday.
Ballmer did not say whether the palm-sized slates would actually be on sale in time for Christmas, nor did he say who would make them. Microsoft has been slow to respond to the iPad, and has also made little headway in mobile phones.
“You’ll see new slates with Windows on them. You’ll see them this Christmas,” he told an audience of students, staff and journalists at the London School of Economics. Get the full story »
