Microsoft

Microsoft chopping Zune prices

With the economy tanking and the holidays looming, Microsoft is hoping to salvage some Zune sales by chopping prices.

The software maker plans to announce on Wednesday a price cut for its flash-based models. The 4GB version will drop to $99, the 8GB model will drop by $10 to $139, and the 16GB model will sell for $179, down from $199.

Microsoft is also cutting prices for several of its Zune accessories. The cuts take effect on Wednesday in the U.S. and on Friday in Canada.

Zune marketing director Adam Sohn said in an interview on Tuesday that the … Read more

Wall-E checks out Microsoft's telescope

Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope has a new celebrity tour guide: Wall-E.

One of the features of the telescope software is the ability for both experts and amateur stargazers to offer their own guided tour of the universe to share with others. The latest such tour is by Wall-E, the animated robot from the Disney/Pixar movie of the same name.

"WorldWide Telescope is about making science fun for everyone," Curtis Wong, manager of Microsoft's Next Media Research Group, said in a statement. "By working with Disney/Pixar, we're enabling kids and families to discover the … Read more

Office Web Apps won't work offline

SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft's forthcoming Office Web Applications will allow users to create and edit spreadhseets, presentations and Word documents through a browser--but only so long as there is an active Internet connection.

In an interview Monday, Microsoft senior vice president Chris Capossela said that, at least initially, the browser based versions of Excel, Word and PowerPoint won't have an offline mode.

"In the first generation we are certainly looking at having them be connected," he said. "For offline usage of course the Office suite is incredibly powerful." (See YouTube video below for his full comments … Read more

Microsoft aims to be a good host

SAN FRANCISCO--For perhaps the first time in its history, Microsoft made the case on Monday that businesses shouldn't run its software. Instead, Microsoft argued that corporations should let it run the software for them.

During the past several years, Microsoft has been testing out the idea that it can host and run business software cheaper and more effectively than individual enterprises can do on their own. The effort started in 2005 with a single customer--battery maker Energizer--which had Microsoft essentially handle all of its PC desktops.

Over time, Microsoft narrowed the service to an option in which it hosts … Read more

StarOffice gains native Mac support

With its latest version, Sun Microsystems is adding native Mac support to its StarOffice productivity suite.

The software, a distant rival to Microsoft's dominant Office package, sells for $35 to individuals and $25 for each user inside a business.

StarOffice 9 is open-source and its code is shared with OpenOffice.org 3.0, which was released last month.

In addition to adding the Apple support, StarOffice 9 can also read the Open XML file formats that Microsoft introduced with Office 2007, but StarOffice cannot write files back into those formats.

Sun may add that ability if the market requires … Read more

More dirt in 'Vista Capable' lawsuit

You know an e-mail is going to be juicy when its subject line is "CONFIDENTIAL" and it starts out: "I would prefer not to have this discussion on email."

That's how Intel's Renee James started an e-mail to Microsoft's Will Poole, discussing the company's concerns over Microsoft's "Vista Capable" program. Intel was particularly upset over Microsoft's plan to require Vista Capable machines to have graphics cards that would support Vista's new driver model, as its 915 chipset was not planned to have that support.

Microsoft eventually did … Read more

Microsoft launches second retail site

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 skipping Vista

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

Windows Live tries to show its social side

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