8

Microsoft appreciates the feedback on Windows 8. Up to a point.

"There is a trend to the extreme," Frank X. Shaw, corporate vice president of corporate communications at Microsoft, wrote on The Official Microsoft Blog on Friday, addressing some of the harsher attacks.

Here's a fuller quote:

In this world where everyone is a publisher, there is a trend to the extreme -- where those who want to stand out opt for sensationalism and hyperbole over nuanced analysis. In this world where page views are currency, heat is often more valued than light. Stark black-and-white caricatures are … Read more

Google plans to finish defining its VP9 video codec on June 17, providing a date on which the company will be able to start using the next-generation compression technology in Chrome and on YouTube.

"Last week, we hosted over 100 guests at a summit meeting for VP9, the WebM Project's next-generation open video codec. We were particularly happy to welcome our friends from YouTube, who spoke about their plans to support VP9 once support lands in Chrome," Matt Frost, senior business product manager for the WebM Project, said in a blog post Friday.

WebM is Google's … Read more

Mac users may want the ability to alter their keyboard settings to change keys, as well as other options. KeyRamp4MacBook for Mac permits a number of settings and key changes that could be useful for a small number of users.

KeyRemap4MacBook for Mac downloaded quickly, but to install it the system needed a complete restart, which was an inconvenience. Technical support was not available, but the program did not reveal any bugs during testing. The lack of tutorials would be problematic for early Mac users since the interface was very cluttered and difficult to decipher. After the computer restarted, the … Read more

Microsoft on Friday said users shouldn't expect a version of Apple's iTunes that's been specialized for Windows 8's new Metro interface "anytime soon." Though if you've been paying attention to the battle between the two companies, it should come as no surprise that Apple's dragging its feet.

iTunes is an immensely popular piece of software on the PC, and has been since Apple ported it over from the Mac in 2003. There were always two key reasons for that: one was selling content from the iTunes Store, and the other was providing … Read more

Microsoft Windows 8 users will likely get access to all the most popular apps in Apple's iTunes store. But it's doubtful they'll get iTunes anytime soon, according to a recent interview a Microsoft exec gave to CNN Money.

Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Microsoft's Windows division, said that by the holiday season the Microsoft will support the most popular apps in Apple's App Store in its own app store. Microsoft now has more than 60,000 apps available, and users have downloaded about 250 million of them.

But the one app that is likely … Read more

If you're itching to snap up a budget Nokia Lumia 521, head over to Walmart on May 11 and buy it for $130, its full retail price.

If you aren't in a rush, the Windows Phone 8 handset also goes on sale May 22 at T-Mobile stores, Microsoft retail stores, and T-Mobile's Web site for $150.

However, if you don't want to fork over the full sum at once, you can also buy the budget smartphone for $30 down and pay $5 installments every month for the next two years. Either way you look at it, … Read more

Huawei's first Windows Phone 8 handset, the Huawei W1, lands later this month in select Walmart stores and on Walmart.com.

The handset, known globally as the Huawei Ascend W1, by the way, is an entry-level device with a 4-inch LCD display, a 1.2GHZ dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, and a 5-megapixel camera that can capture 720p HD video.

That's not all, of course. The specs continue with a VGA front-facing camera, and the phone comes with an Adreno 305 400MHz GPU. Although there will only be 1.7GB of available user storage, the W1 will come … Read more

Microsoft appears to be listening to its partners a bit more when it comes to Windows 8.

That's according to Acer President Jim Wong, who spoke to The Wall Street Journal for a story published Thursday.

Acer has been among the most vocal critics of Microsoft, complaining that sales of Windows 8 devices have been disappointing and knocking the software titan's attempt to get into the hardware business with the Surface tablet. Even Microsoft has acknowledged that more work needs to be done to educate consumers on Windows 8 and Windows RT -- the latter being the stripped-down … Read more

I don't know where these have come from.

I don't even know if they're official Windows 8 videos. [Note: They are. See update at end of story.]

But I do know that these are works of utter, thorough, and complete genius.

Microsoft's Windows 8 has struggled to project an image that is anything that might be described as entirely relevant.

It doesn't mean Windows 8 has failed. But it does mean that it has inspired about as much excitement as the Kansas City Chiefs of late, the Kansas City Royals (until this season), or the authorities at the Heights High School … Read more