Microsoft

Update at 2:17 p.m. PST, with comments from Microsoft on fate of Windows Marketplace.

Microsoft is doubling down on retail, with the launch of a second online store at the start of this year's especially critical holiday shopping season.

The Microsoft Store, which opened for business Thursday, is designed to carry the largest and most up-to-date selection of the software giant's product lines, such as Office, Windows, Xbox, and Zune.

The one-stop shop will carry Microsoft hardware too.

Microsoft currently operates its Windows Marketplace e-commerce site, which it began testing in 2004.

There are many similarities … Read more

Sydney Water CIO Tim Catley today said the organization, Australia's largest water utility, would likely skip Vista and instead plan ahead to install Windows 7 on its 4,000 desktops, which are currently running Windows XP.

Catley, who since 2005 has worked to turn around Sydney Water's IT operations, said he would likely skip Vista because the threat of Microsoft putting the screws on hardware vendors to end support for XP had dissipated.

"I think we might skip Vista and wait for 7 to come along," Catley told ZDNet.com.au after delivering a speech at … Read more

Microsoft is announcing a series of changes to its Windows Live services aimed to give more of a social-networking flavor to the company's communications services.

With the update, Spaces, Windows Live Hotmail, and Windows Live Messenger will get deeper ties with one another. While stressing that it is not trying to create a new social-networking site, Microsoft is nonetheless adopting concepts like news feeds and profiles that have made such services so popular.

"The general thing people are trying to do in all of these services is keep in touch," said Brian Hall, the general manager for … Read more

A Microsoft blog reiterated this week that the Web-based version of Office won't be tied to either Windows or Internet Explorer.

In a blog posting on its Channel 10 site, a Microsoft blogger noted that, owing to support of Firefox and Safari, the forthcoming Office Web Applications will run on Linux and the iPhone.

The blogger, Microsoft's Sarah Perez, also noted that Microsoft won't be mandating use of Silverlight, its rival to Adobe's Flash.

"Silverlight is not required," Perez said in the Q-and-A posting. "Using Silverlight will enhance the user experience, resulting in … Read more

Back in 2006, Microsoft was only too happy to tout a cable from Belkin that made it easier to move from XP to Vista. It even gave away the devices as part of its CES press kits.

However, a new twist on that cable is likely to get a far chillier reception in Redmond.

While Belkin's original USB cable--the Easy Transfer Cable--was aimed at moving from XP to Vista, its latest product is aimed at those moving to a Mac.

The $50 Switch-to-Mac cable "automatically moves your music, movies, photos, files, and Internet preferences" from a Windows … Read more

As many people have noted, Windows 7 is a lot like Windows Vista. But by adding multitouch abilities, Microsoft is hoping to create an operating system that, quite literally, feels different from Vista.

And, when you do get to put your hands on Windows 7, it certainly is a much different experience than Windows Vista. For those who missed it, here's a video of the touch features in action, taken at the PDC.

But PCs that use that multitouch technology are bound to cost more than their traditional counterparts. And I'm just not sure how many people will … Read more

While many of those who have played around with the early version of Windows 7 have noted that it feels pretty zippy, especially for a pre-beta version, InfoWorld says early benchmarks show the software is just on par with its predecessor.

In an article on Monday, InfoWorld said that Windows 7 is a "virtual twin" of Vista when it comes to performance.

On the one hand, this could be seen as bad news, considering Microsoft's efforts to position Windows 7 as better performing. At the same time, this is a pre-beta version. Early releases often lag in … Read more

Microsoft announced a second country is piloting the use of One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop in conjunction with Windows XP.

The deal, announced with the state government of Cundinamarca, will see the laptops put in two schools, including the Santa Maria Del Rio primary school. That school, which just got its first computer lab, will now get additional PCs with the software training and infrastructure donated by Microsoft and the laptops themselves coming from One Laptop Per Child.

Microsoft announced in September that Peru was the first country to sign up for the Windows-on-XO option.

That the Windows … Read more

Usually when I get news about Sun Microsystems and Microsoft working together, it is some highly technical enterprise collaboration stemming from their lawsuit settlement a few years back.

On Monday, though, the companies announced something in the consumer arena. Sun will start distributing the MSN toolbar to Internet Explorer users when they download Sun's Java Runtime Environment.

The companies said that Sun's Java runtime is downloaded tens of millions of times per month.

"This agreement with Sun Microsystems is another important milestone in our strategy to secure broad-scale distribution for our search offering, enabling millions more people … Read more