Articles about Microsoft

Microsoft shipped its one millionth Zune MP3 player after nine months on the market according to Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division. The company had originally expected to top the one million mark in June, but the company achieved the feat a month early. "We're very pleased with the progress. We've sold a little over a million Zunes. In the category we're in, the hard-disk-based category, we've got about 10 percent market share," said Bach. "It's a good start. It's not an overwhelming start. I'm not going to pretend it's some gigantic move." Even though Microsoft shipped over a million Zunes, it's still well behind segment leader Apple which recently celebrated its 100 millionth iPod sold after nearly six years on the market. As of February 2007, the iPod commanded 73.7 percent of the MP3 player market. Microsoft's 2.4 percent share was good enough for fourth place behind SanDisk and Creative Labs. Microsoft is expecting a rathe

Backroom Boffins at Microsoft have had a breakthrough in developing software which can accurately guess your name, age, gender and potentially even your location, by analysing patterns in your web browsing history.The big idea is to prevent people from protecting their online identity by telling porkies about their personal details.According to New Scientist, Volish software engineer Jian Hu from Microsoft's research lab in Beijing said that there are strong correlations between the sites that people visit and their personal characteristics. For example, 74 per cent of women seek health and medical information online, while only 58 per cent of men do. And 34 per cent of women surf the internet for information about religion, whereas 25 per cent of men do the same.Another Volish boffin said that Hua-Jun Zeng said software could get its raw information from a new type of "cookie" program that records the pages visited or even your own cache of web pages. So far the software can only gue

Microsoft picks up an internet ad firm for a hefty sum Microsoft Corp. announced today it will acquire aQuantive, Inc. for $6 billion, roughly $66.50 per share in an all cash transaction. This will be the largest purchase the software giant has ever made, spending roughly three times as much money as it has on any other company. The company?s goal is to provide the advertising industry with an internet-wide advertising platform and a set of tools and services that help its constituents bring in the highest possible return.The acquisition of aQuantive will allow Microsoft to build and strengthen its relationships with advertisers, agencies, and publishers. It will also help the software giant build and support next generation advertising solutions and environments such as cross media planning, video-on-demand and IPTV. The combined technologies and portfolio provide for constituencies as follows:Advertisers and ad agencies will benefit from a world-class media planning, buying and campa

Microsoft readies slimmer HDD-based Zune and a new flash-based ZuneMicrosoft's answer to Apple's popular iPod family of players was first launched in mid-November 2006. The $249 player promised to change the way we socialize with portable audio devices while at the same time offering the Zune Marketplace which is Microsoft's equivalent to iTunes.The original Zune came in three colors (white, black and brown) and featured a 30GB HDD, 4" color screen, built-in FM tuner and WiFi connectivity for "3-day-or-3-play" wireless music sharing. At launch, Microsoft also made available 100 limited edition hot pink Zunes which quickly made the rounds on eBay for insane prices. Recently, Microsoft added a fourth official color to the Zune family: pink. While Apple is already celebrating 100 million iPods sold nearly six years into its initial launch, Microsoft has more sedate figures for its Zune. Microsoft expects to top the one million mark by next month and is right now holding on to roughly 2

Windows Vista Minimum Supported System RequirementsProcessor800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1System Memory512 MBGPUSVGA (800x600)Graphics Memory-HDD20 GBHDD Free Space15 GBOptical DriveCD-ROM drive2Audio-Internet-1 Processor speed is specified as the nominal operational processor frequency for the device. Some processors have power management which allows the processor to run at a lower rate to save power.2 The CD-ROM may be external (not integral, not built into the system).

Just when you thought the bickering over Vista's search capabilities were finished, along comes Google to fuel the nearly extinguished flame. Apparently, Microsoft's actual filing that spelled out its intentions to alter the search functionality within Vista wasn't as clear cut as previously understood, and now Google is out for even more blood. Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, called the remedies "a step in the right direction," but also declared that the changes "should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop-search providers." Essentially, it seems like Google will be barking up Redmond's proverbial tree until Microsoft allows users to disable Vista's built-in search (or better yet, choose Google) entirely. Oh, the drama.Read More

Halo 3 fans sit tight, ?cause Microsoft has announced the launch of a special Halo 3 edition of its Zune portable music player! Available for pre-order now exclusively from GameStop, the player will cost $249 and ship from June 15, 2007.The Halo 3 Zune comes with:Videos:Halo 3 ?Starry Night? advertisement Halo 3 E3 2006 announcement trailer Halo 2 theatrical teaser trailer Three Halo 3 ?making of? documentary videos A custom episode of Red vs. Blue ? just for Zune! The first six episodes of Red vs. Blue Season 1 Music:Halo Original Soundtrack ? Complete Album Halo 2 Original Soundtrack, Volume 1 ? All tracks by Marty O?Donnell and Michael Salvatori Halo 2 Original Soundtrack, Volume 2 ? Complete Album Artwork:Over 120 different images, including game concept art, storyboards, paintings, and conceptual marketing imagery

Continuing its history of setting new benchmarks for desktop innovation and ergonomicdesign, Microsoft Corp. today launched the Natural(R) Ergonomic Desktop7000 -- the pinnacle of comfort. With the average consumer spending approximately six hours per day on their computer(1), Microsoft responded to the growing need for comfortable peripherals with its new desktop that makes optimal use of the ergonomic designs of the bestselling wiredkeyboard(2), the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, and the award-winning Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000. Combining best-in-class ergonomic design and 2.4 GHz technology for a confident wireless connection, the Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 represents the ultimate wireless desktop experience and makes time spent on the computer more comfortable and productive.Read More

Microsoft (MSFT) executives like to say we're still in the early stages of the lucrative business of Internet search. They contend that as wide as Google's (GOOG) lead may seem now, it's not insurmountable. But for all of Microsoft's protestations, and the money it has pumped into building a better way to seek out information online, the world's largest software company continues to come up short in search (see BusinessWeek, 4/2/07, "Where Is Microsoft Search?"). In May, for example, only 8.4% of all searches among U.S. Web surfers went through Microsoft's MSN or Windows Live engines, compared with Google's 56.3% share, according to research firm Nielsen//NetRatings (NTRT). Microsoft isn't going to give up the fight any time soon. But the software giant is savvy enough to know that it may need to shift the battle to a different front. In recent months, Microsoft has been spending money to boost its efforts in what's known as vertical search, those niche markets where Netizens

Ctrl Z is the magic undo combo. It simply undoes your last action, say, the paragraph you accidentally erased (it works in other applications, too--try it on the Photoshop filter you really wish you hadn't applied, or after renaming a document or a folder in a Windows directory). Programs vary in the number of times you can undo something, but some will let you Ctrl Z all the way back to the beginning. (And, yes, there is a redo command, just hit Ctrl Y.)Ctrl B, Ctrl I, or Ctrl U apply bold, italics, or underline to highlighted text, respectively.Ctrl P prints whatever is in an active window.Ctrl Backspace erases an entire word at a time, instead of a letter. Ctrl up or down arrows let you scroll an entire paragraph at a time, instead of one line, and Ctrl Shift up or down arrow will select an entire paragraph.Ctrl Enter inserts a page break in Word.Alt Ctrl C inserts the copyright symbol (Alt Ctrl R inserts the registered trademark symbol, and Alt Ctrl T makes the trademark symbol).I