Microsoft

Microsoft researcher stores digital life

Chronicling our lives has been part of our culture for as long as we have kept personal diaries. Today, technology offers many different ways of recording our thoughts and feelings, which makes the task far easier.

Ten years ago, Gordon Bell, a principal researcher at Microsoft, set out to chronicle his life by recording everything that happened to him. Visit him in his office and you will face microphones and video cameras. As he travels, he goes "laden down with stuff."

The Microsoft-funded project is still going, and Bell sees it as "one of the most important … Read more

Next version of Outlook Web Access to actually support popular browsers

Microsoft announced on Thursday that the next version of the Exchange server, Exchange 14, will have a few useful new features including, finally, full support for browsers other than Internet Explorer.

A Microsoft demo video shows full Web access to the Exchange e-mail server from Firefox running on Vista, and Safari on OS X. The Web access product is now called Outlook Live. University users of Microsoft's free hosted e-mail service (Exchange Labs) will get the beta of the service shortly. It appears that corporate users, who know of Web access to Exchange servers as Outlook Web Access, will … Read more

Microsoft follows Apple into the retail business

After years of brushing off the notion, Microsoft said on Thursday that it will open up its own line of retail stores.

Without detailing the plans, Microsoft said it has hired David Porter, a 25-year Wal-Mart veteran, to lead the effort. Sources say that Porter's mission will be to develop the company's retail plans and that the effort is likely to start small with just a few locations.

Porter, who will start next week, will report to Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, also a Wal-Mart veteran. Most recently, Porter was at DreamWorks Animation, heading that company's product distribution … Read more

New Windows 7 build appears on torrent sites

A new build version of the Windows 7 beta has been available on several torrent sites as Microsoft ended the distribution of an earlier version, according to a report.

Computerworld noticed that Windows 7 Build 7022 has been available on sites like The Pirate Bay for download this week, the last days in which Windows users were able to download the beta before Microsoft pulled the plug Thursday. Several versions are still there as of this writing, which includes a Release Candidate version of Internet Explorer 8 for Windows 7 that was missing from the original beta release, and XTreview.com … Read more

Charter Communications to file for Chapter 11

Charter Communications announced Thursday it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of an agreement reached with its debt holders.

The announcement runs counter to the success its largest investor and Chairman Paul Allen received when he co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Since that time, however, Allen has run into bumps along the way with his other investments.

Charter, which announced its plans to file for Chapter 11 while the markets were open, ended the day down a whopping 48.1 percent to close at nearly 3.5 cents a share.

By April 1, Charter plans to file … Read more

Sources: Windows 7 moving toward 2009 release

Microsoft is moving forward with plans to launch Windows 7 this year, although the company still refuses to publicly commit to that goal.

PC industry sources in Asia and the U.S. tell CNET News that they have heard things are on track to launch by this year's holiday shopping season, which has been Microsoft's internal target for some time.

Microsoft is also putting the finishing touches on a program to offer Vista buyers a free or low-cost update to Windows 7. That program could kick off as early as July, sources said.

The company has run such &… Read more

Microsoft nabs another Yahoo exec

Microsoft is continuing its one-employee-at-a-time acquisition of Yahoo.

The software maker confirmed late Wednesday that it has hired Larry Heck, a Yahoo vice president.

Microsoft said that Heck will start in a few weeks and report to Satya Nadella, senior vice president of the online services division of Microsoft's R&D group.

"We look forward to welcoming him to the team," Microsoft said in a statement.

Heck is the latest in a string of executives to move from Yahoo to Microsoft, with the most notable being Qi Lu, who now runs Microsoft's online unit. Other … Read more

Windows 7 buzz may stall Vista

The positive buzz for Windows 7 is creating an interesting challenge for Microsoft: It appears to be making it tougher to get businesses to move to Windows Vista.

And it's not like there has been a mad rush on that front to begin with.

Gartner did a survey in October that found about 30 percent of large businesses were likely to skip Vista and a significant number of other companies still hadn't decided what to do.

Plaudits for Windows 7, combined with a weakening economy, could mean that as many as half of businesses decide to skip Vista … Read more

Ballmer urges stimulus approval

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent a letter Wednesday to every member of Congress urging speedy approval of the pending financial recovery bill. Ballmer has been calling for congressional action on the matter.

Here is the text of Ballmer's letter, as posted to Microsoft's Web site:

February 11, 2009

Dear member of Congress:

Microsoft strongly supports passage of the conference agreement announced today between the House and Senate on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1), and I urge Congress to act now. We believe the final conference agreement will help families during this difficult … Read more