Beyond Binary

As I noted in a tweet yesterday, Microsoft's Office unit has scheduled an event for Tuesday in San Francisco. But folks hoping that the company is ready to move its productivity software to the iPad may be disappointed.

Instead, I'm hearing that the event will likely be focused on Microsoft's hosted online services, which today center around the awkwardly named Business Productivity Online Suite, a bundle of hosted Exchange and SharePoint. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley says the next version is in testing and may also be getting a less cumbersome name--possibly the moniker "Union." (… Read more

NEW YORK--Chelsea Kate Isaacs hasn't graduated from college yet. But she's already learned one of the tough lessons of tech journalism: some companies are easier to deal with than others.

Isaacs, a 22-year-old journalism major at Long Island University, came to prominence several weeks ago after a well-publicized e-mail spat with Apple CEO Steve Jobs as she tried to complete a class assignment.

Isaacs turned to Jobs after failing to get answers from Apple's PR department. The e-mails got increasingly terse, ending with Jobs telling Isaacs: "Please leave us alone," according to the e-mail thread … Read more

NEW YORK--When Microsoft failed to announce any Mac software for Windows Phone 7 at its event on Monday, many people assumed that meant that there would be no way to directly load content from an Apple computer onto the new devices. However, that will not be the case.

"Later in 2010 Microsoft will make a public beta available of a tool that allows Windows Phone 7 to sync select content with Mac computers," Microsoft said in a statement.

The statement, released shortly after midnight ET Wednesday, came after a Microsoft employee in the United Kingdom posted a tweet, … Read more

NEW YORK--While Microsoft showed off Windows Phone 7 yesterday as its answer to the iPhone, many are still wondering what the company's response will be to the iPad.

CEO Steve Ballmer has noted on several occasions that there will be some Windows 7 slates this year, but that's not the answer to the question--Microsoft has had tablets for years. The real issue is how Microsoft plans to respond to the iPad's instant-on abilities, it's long battery life, and the fact that it's easily navigated with just a finger and no need for a keyboard.

"… Read more

NEW YORK--Steve Ballmer thinks that Microsoft is going to make up some lost ground with Windows Phone 7. But just how much, he won't say.

"I won't make any forecasts," the Microsoft chief executive told CNET today in an interview following the introduction of the new mobile OS. "I think this is a very dynamic marketplace. You've got a weird eclectic mix of players...We'll have to see where we play in the mix, but I am optimistic about the chance to make some real progress."

Ballmer did say that Microsoft is … Read more

NEW YORK--Just after Steve Ballmer finished up on stage, I cornered some of the development team members and got a look at the copy and paste features that Microsoft said will come early next year to Windows Phone 7.

The current version of Windows Phone 7 lets you move the cursor, but not highlight any segment of text. So I imagined that the copy and paste feature would build on the cursor. Instead, it starts out taking advantage of the fact that, while not visible, the operating system does recognize individual words, something needed for the spell checker and text … Read more

Microsoft hopes to sell its new Windows Phone 7 as something that complements one's life, rather than looks to take it over.

In contrast to ad campaigns that focus on the cell phone and its powerful hardware and software, Microsoft's forthcoming advertising campaign focuses on how easy the new operating system makes it to get information at a glance and then return to what one is doing.

A teaser spot, which will air later this month, shows a sea of people all staring at their phones oblivious to other people or to their surroundings, which include a fallen … Read more

Editors' note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary and questions from our readers. For those of you who just want the basic updates, we've included them in regular text here. To get the key points from today's Windows Phone 7 announcement, you can check out our summary post here.

Transcript of live blog starts here--note that all times given below are in Eastern Daylight Time, since … Read more

Bill Gates has been taking online classes for years. Now, he thinks it's time to make sure a whole lot more students do the same.

Today, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is announcing a new multiyear grant program that will give millions of dollars to those with novel ideas on how to use technology, and in particular online courses, to improve education. The Next Generation Learning Challenges are aimed at both funding new ideas and getting various groups to partner and expand on some of the good ideas that are being tried out, but only at small scale. … Read more