Beyond Binary

Livescribe on Sunday is introducing the Echo--the next generation of its digital pen.

The Echo will come in two models--a 4GB and 8GB model, while the prior generation 2GB Pulse will remain as the company's most affordable option, dropping to $129. The 4GB Echo will sell for $169.95 and the 8GB Echo will sell for $199.95.

From a features standpoint, the Echo resembles its predecessor, with the main selling point being its "paper replay" feature--the ability to record handwritten notes in synch with recorded audio. However, Livescribe has made several hardware changes that make the … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--With Bing still just a year old, Microsoft clearly doesn't expect its revamped search offering to be able to go out there and earn a living.

But no longer a newborn, Bing will need to do more than look pretty to win parental affection. Microsoft is counting on further gains in market share, not to mention continued progress in emerging areas such as mobile search and mapping.

In its first year, Microsoft managed to go from about 8 percent market share to 12.7 percent as of June, according to Comscore. That gain is significant, although the company … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft Senior Vice President Satya Nadella said on Tuesday that he is pleased that Bing has gained nearly 5 percentage points of market share in its first year, but said he is not kidding himself into thinking that is a victory.

"None of us are confused," Nadella said. "We are a low-share player."

Microsoft now has double-digit market share, but barely, said Nadella, who heads up engineering efforts in the company's Online Services Division. Still he said the company has made progress on nearly every metric since launching Bing a year ago. In addition … Read more

Microsoft has decided to give businesses some more time to move off of Windows XP.

Until now, those buying new PCs with Windows 7 Ultimate or Windows 7 Professional have had the option to downgrade those machines to Windows XP. Microsoft had said this option would end 18 months after the release of Windows 7, or with the shipping of Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which entered beta on Monday. Had that happened, those buying machines after that date would only have had the option to run either Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

However, Microsoft backtracked on Monday, acknowledging customer … Read more

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer insisted on Monday that Microsoft is still serious about tablets.

Ballmer reiterated that there will be Windows 7-based slates on the market this year, while Windows Vice President Tami Reller showed off a couple of models, including the dual-screen Libretto that Toshiba has in the works as well as a slate from Chinese computer maker Hanvon.

"Over the course of the next several months, you will see a range of Windows 7-based slates that I think you'll find quite impressive," Ballmer said, speaking at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.… Read more

Microsoft has made a number of improvements to its Worldwide Telescope project, including partnering with NASA to offer much better imagery of the planet Mars.

In some cases, the imagery lets you get close enough to see details such as the tracks left by the Mars rovers.

"You can see the boulders and things like that," Dan Fay, director of Earth, Energy, and Environment for Microsoft Research. Microsoft previously teamed with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a Mars project that let youngsters and other space enthusiasts help count and label craters on the planet's surface.

With … Read more

Although much of Microsoft's focus at its partner conference will be on the cloud, many of its product announcements have to do with on-premise software such as Windows and Windows Server.

On Monday, the first full day of its annual Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft is scheduled to announce, among other things, the beta of Service Pack 1 for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The update for Windows 7 is quite minor and consists mostly of previous bug fixes and other tweaks. On the server side, though, the service pack will add some new features around virtualization. … Read more

Microsoft is announcing on Monday that it plans to let businesses and partners run Windows Azure in their own data centers by purchasing a new server appliance.

The software company had previously hinted that customers might someday be able to host their own instances of the cloud-based operating system, but had yet to commit to that option.

The Windows Azure Platform Appliance will be made up of hundreds of servers, along with networking gear and other components in a container-size package. HP, Dell, and Fujitsu will be among the first to sell the appliances, although Redmond is offering few details, … Read more

Microsoft has put a price tag on keeping Windows in tune.

The software giant said on Monday that it plans to charge customers $11 per computer per month for Windows Intune, a cloud-based service that lets small businesses manage and protect their computers.

Microsoft announced its plans for Windows Intune back in April, but had not yet said how much it would charge for the service when it is ready for mainstream use early next year.

Group product manager Alex Heaton said that Microsoft settled on that price based on what it charges for other online services, such as hosted … Read more