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Microsoft is hard at work preparing a Windows-based alternative to Apple's already-popular iPad tablet, the company's CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts on Thursday. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Asus, Lenovo, and Toshiba are cooperating with Microsoft on such a device, expected later this year, in a bid to catch up with Apple and Google Android. "It is job-one urgency around here. Nobody's sleeping at this point," Ballmer told analysts. The Microsoft CEO was also surprised to hear Apple sold more than 3 million iPads, since launched in April: "They've sold more than I'd like them to sell. We think about that," he said....
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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It's easy to bash Microsoft. From its CEO, to its massively popular operating system, the company does not exude the cool, hip style of Apple. Nor does it exude the wide-eyed optimism or Google. For these reasons, and others, Microsoft is regularly bashed by the tech-set who drool over Apple and Google. It's not just the tech scene. Wall Street is cool to Microsoft. After crushing earnings, Microsoft's stock is underperforming the market. Well instead of piling on, we're going the other way. Of all the major tech companies out there, Microsoft is one of the most successfully diversified, exciting...
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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Jim Robinson has laid down the law with regard to tech thread flame wars. I am motivated to make sure we tech-thread-heads are aware of this. This vanity is a heads-up with regard to Jim's comments last night, and I've added a few thoughts of my own as an observer. Here's what Jim said: To All: [That goes for everyone.] I don’t see any reason whatsoever to be having flamewars on FR over computer products. Those who have a problem with Apple should just not buy the product and that takes care of that. Don’t come to FR to flame...
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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On Tuesday, Microsoft credited strong sales of Windows 7, as well as the introduction of Office 2010, for pushing its second quarter revenues to a record $16 billion -- a 22% jump over the same quarter in 2009. Windows revenue grew by more than $1 billion, to $4.55 billion, according to the company. As it has several times in the past, yesterday Microsoft called Windows 7 "the fastest-selling operating system ever." The OS has certainly outperformed its predecessor, Windows Vista. According to data from Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Net Applications, which tracks operating system usage share by monitoring 40,000 sites that...
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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One would assume that after the 10 members of the notorious "Russian spy ring" were sent to Moscow on July 9 (and the 11th disappeared in Cyprus), the number of Russian spies in the United States should have gone down. At least a bit. But it hasn't. As if produced by the skillful hand of a Secret Magician, Russian spies keep popping up -- to the joy of people who're craving to derail recent improvements in U.S.-Russia relations. On July 13, supreme forces running secret operations around the world introduced us to the "12th Russian spy", a Alexey Karetnikov, who...
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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It seems absurd. Microsoft, America’s preeminent software maker, provides the operating system for more than 90% of the world’s computers — including those used by the U.S. Government. Microsoft has always carefully protected the source code to its operating systems. In fact, a key distinction between the various Windows variants and open source OSs like Linux and BSD is that Linux and BSD are open source. Microsoft protects its source code for a variety of reasons. One reason Microsoft doesn’t release its code is that its source code is the company’s crown jewels, it’s proprietary advantage. Another is consistency....
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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<p>WASHINGTON — Ten Russian intelligence officers have been arrested for allegedly serving as illegal agents of the Russian government in the United States, the Justice Department announced Monday.</p>
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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A top Microsoft executive today compared Apple's iPhone 4 to his own company's problem-plagued Vista operating system. "It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I'm okay with that," said Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, in a keynote speech at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), which runs through Thursday in Washington, D.C. The successor to Windows XP, Vista launched in early 2007 and was heavily criticized by users, and in a series of e-mails that became public during a class-action lawsuit, even by the company's own senior executives. The consensus, deserved or not, has become that...
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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As expected, today's patch slate was short: Just four security updates that included fixes for five separate flaws. Of the four updates, three were rated "critical," the highest threat ranking in Microsoft's four-step scoring system. All five of the specific vulnerabilities patched today were also rated critical. Two of the bulletins affected Windows, while the remaining pair impacted Office. Four of the five vulnerabilities in the bulletin quartet were pegged by Microsoft with an exploitability index score of "1," meaning that the company expects attacks to materialize in the next 30 days....
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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Tomorrow is D-day for Windows XP SP2 users. Granted, Windows XP SP2 will still work, but tomorrow is the last Patch Tuesday for the venerable OS which means it will become more unstable and less secure as time goes on. Simply applying SP3 will suffice to continue running a supported platform, but here are five reasons to consider switching off of Windows XP entirely. 1. Hardware Support. Windows XP is archaic, and it is designed to run on outdated hardware. As new technologies are introduced, it is unlikely that Windows XP will be compatible or able to take advantage of...
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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Microsoft is positioning its upcoming Windows Phone 7 smartphone OS, planned for release this October, as an "ad-serving machine."That's how Microsoft exec Kostas Mallios described the OS... Microsoft's smartphone OS will provide advertisers with three levels of ad-serving "opportunities" in addition to standard browser-based ads, and in a radical departure from the tacks taken by either Apple's app-based iAds, or Google's browser-centric world, two of Windows Phone 7's ad-delivery systems will enable ads to be sent outside of either apps or the browser. The first level of ad-serving is app-based. No surprise there... The next two ad-serving schemes, however, break...
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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Here’s the short story: Leaked NDA Microsoft slides that landed on an Italian blog site have spread like wildfire. The content of the slides shows that Microsoft is pushing some innovative technology for Windows 8, but also very much looking to Apple’s business model for inspiration. Here’s some analysis. First, a tip of the hat to Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet for condensing the story. She sourced the Microsoft Kitchen blog that covered the leak, and that blog, in turn sourced the Italian blog ‘Windowsette’ that scooped the leak, which in turn was picked up by most of the...
Published on Sunday 1st of August 2010 01:53:36 AM
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