microsoft

If you've been waiting for Windows Vista SP1 to come out before you make the leap to the new operating system, don't, says Microsoft.

Microsoft's Pete McKiernan, a senior product manager for Windows, told CNET News.com that one of the purposes of a service pack is to include all the patches that have been released in one package. Windows Vista SP1 will have that, but little else for the home user.

Unlike the buzz surrounding Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1 won't include a new version of Internet Explorer, and won't include any new … Read more

Microsoft has officially revealed its plans for new 4GB, 8GB, and 80GB Zune MP3 players (the rumormongers nailed this one). The new players are expected out in November, priced at $149, $199, and $249, respectively. The 80GB version is only available in black, but both the 4GB and 8GB versions will be available in black, red, pink, and green. While the news hasn't exactly knocked us off our feet, there are some interesting new features worth noting (skip to the end to find out what they didn't add).

Wireless sync Zune users can now sync their player to a computer over a home Wi-Fi network. This is a feature Zune users have been asking for from the very start, so it's nice to see it finally implemented. Existing Zune users (all 1 million) will also be given the new wireless sync feature… Read more

The technology and music pundits wrote off Microsoft's Zune player immediately after it launched, and one reviewer predicted that it would be such a failure that Microsoft would quietly forget about it by the middle of 2007. I was willing to give Microsoft a little more credit, only because I don't think that the iPod and iTunes are perfect, and because I've seen how Microsoft comes from behind: it refines, improves, outspends and waits until the competition stumbles.

This evening, Microsoft unveiled version 2.0 of its Zune family, and this time, it's got a credible music player--for 2006. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it's 2007.

… Read more

For most everyone working in the U.S. corporate world, Microsoft Office is a must: Outlook for e-mail/calendar; Word for word processing; Excel for spreadsheets; and PowerPoint for presentations. The 2007 release has been covered extensively on CNET Reviews.

However, a recent rise in free office suites has given end users much more choice in productivity software than they've had in many years. Just two weeks ago, IBM announced a free version of Lotus Symphony. Though it's still in beta release, the freeware includes serviceable word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software, all of which support Microsoft Office … Read more

It was not what a prospective buyer normally says--unless of course you're aiming to drive down the sales price.

"I think these things (social networks) are going to have some legs, and yet there's a faddishness, a faddish nature about anything that basically appeals to younger people," Steve Ballmer told The Times of London.

If we take Ballmer at his word, I'd say that qualifies as a public dousing of last month's speculation about Microsoft considering a 5 percent stake in Facebook.

Then again, maybe not.

In the same interview, Ballmer allowed that there … Read more

CHIBA, Japan--Microsoft for years has been trying to bring more consumers into computer gaming, but Nintendo was the company that figured out how to do it, said Yasutoshi Magara, managing director of Microsoft Japan, in a briefing at Ceatec Japan 2007, the country's big technology trade show.

The Xbox 360, Magara said, was designed mostly with a relatively well-defined demographic in mind, namely 18- to 30-year-old males into networking games.

"They (the console developers at Microsoft) start there," he said.

By contrast, Nintendo, with the launch of its Wii motion-sensing console, aimed for the family and developed … Read more

We first reported on Office Mobile 2007 in June, the same time Microsoft announced the Japanese version of Windows Mobile 6 (WM6). The company revealed then that this new version of Office Mobile will be available in Q3 2007--but looking at today's date, it has not happened.

Last week, a pre-release version was mistakenly put up for download from the Microsoft site. This has since been taken down. The reason cited was that the file was meant for internal testing and not for public consumption. The upgrade is widely reported as being Office Mobile 6.1, but Microsoft has … Read more

The more Microsoft events CNET sends me to around New York (the Windows Vista launch weekend, Halo 3's raucous little debutante ball), the more I realize one thing: No matter how much Gates, Ballmer, & Co. seem to always have issues (like that "Zune" debacle), that company knows how to throw one hell of a party. I'm not kidding. It even has its own wine now.

Created by South African winery Stormhoek especially for Microsoft, the "Blue Monster Reserve" sauvignon blanc is accompanied by the tagline "change the world or go home." … Read more