Consumer software and hardware

Microsoft may be poised to boost the Xbox unit with a simple wave of the hand.

The software giant is reportedly close to buying Israel's 3DV Systems, an Israeli start-up whose technology allows a gamer to control a system through nothing more than a hand gesture. (See video below for a CNET video demonstration of the technology.)

According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Microsoft may be willing to spend around $35 million to acquire the company and its technology, which uses a depth-sensing camera to record a gamer's motions. The newspaper also noted that the … Read more

Microsoft has quietly reorganized its Zune team, splitting up the hardware and software teams, CNET News has learned.

The software and services portion of the Zune team--the bulk of its staff--will be added to the portfolio of Enrique Rodriguez, the vice president who currently runs Microsoft's Mediaroom and Media Center TV businesses. The hardware team, meanwhile, will now report to Tom Gibbons, who also leads the hardware design efforts within Microsoft's Windows Mobile unit.

"We're just being very pragmatic and even more so in a world in which not even Microsoft can afford to over-invest," … Read more

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

Microsoft, not necessarily known for being the company for hopeless romantics, is home to at least one.

In a posting on the Channel 10 developer site, Laura Foy put together a list of Redmond products that show that "Microsoft is a super romantic love machine of a company."

In the somewhat tongue-in-cheek video, Foy shows how the company's Web services, in particular, can keep February 14 from being a bust.

"Are you a bit of mess when it comes to Valentine's Day?" Foy asks in the text that accompanies her video. "Are you … Read more

With the PC market tanking along with the rest of the economy, Microsoft is seen as unlikely to be able to live up to the financial forecast it issued in October.

The company is set to release its quarterly earnings after the markets close on Thursday.

In a further sign of just how rough the economy is, Microsoft is also expected to announce shortly its plans for a significant, companywide layoffs. Although Microsoft has cut jobs in a particular unit or location in the past, it has managed to navigate through all past downturns without having to resort to such … Read more

Microsoft has been in the software game long enough to know that when you're announcing a release as big as an operating system to millions of itchy-fingered techies, you release it when you say you will and you have the foresight to get your servers in a row.

Yet, the general release of the much-anticipated Windows 7 beta is overdue by hours, Microsoft having first posted the files late, and then pulled them when servers buckled under the traffic. What's left now is a sort-of apologetic, but mostly noncommittal notice that there's no estimated arrival time for … Read more

Microsoft's Windows Web site will be the place to go to get the Windows 7 beta later on Friday. At the moment though, many users are encountering just error messages when they try to reach the site.

This was the message I got--"HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable." Is anyone out there getting through?

I have some calls in on this and will let you know what I hear back.

Microsoft's Bill Veghte said the company is aiming to have several million testers for the beta version. Microsoft has talked about having just a … Read more

Microsoft Research on Thursday is releasing software that gives musicians, both casual and professional, a new way to speed up song development. Called Songsmith, the $29.99 application creates musical accompaniment based on whatever is sung into the computer's microphone.

In order to do this, the software processes the pitch and tone of what's recorded and lets users hear how it might sound if they had a little backup in the form of a virtual piano, drums, and keyboard. Microsoft is expecting them to use the new track either as inspiration for further song development or as a … Read more

Eleven counterfeiters have been given jail sentences of between one and a half and six and a half years by a Chinese court after being found guilty of producing fake Microsoft software.

The "ringleaders of the world's largest software-counterfeiting syndicate," as Microsoft described them in a statement on Wednesday, were sentenced on New Year's Eve. According to Microsoft, theirs were the longest sentences given for this type of crime in China's history.

The syndicate was charged with making and distributing more than $2 billion worth of fake Microsoft software, which had ended up all over … Read more