Theortically, Microsoft's Bing could overtake Google in search arena by 2012

According to latest data released by Experian Hitwise, Google may no longer be Search Engine king and may lose it's throne to Microsoft's Bing.

According to the data, Google was responsible for 64.42% of searches in the U.S. in March, 2011. Where as it's rival Bing-powered search (search.yahoo.com + bing.com) accounted for 30% of U.S. searches.

Theortically, Microsoft's Bing could overtake Google in search arena by 2012

Microsoft Sells 175 Million Copies of Windows 7 in Nine Months

As apple annonced their best profit earning this Quarter so does the Microsoft. Microsoft had announced their record-breaking Q4 earnings report, mostly driven by sales of Windows 7 and Office 2010. Microsoft is reporting that more than 175 million copies of Windows 7 were sold in just nine months, making it the fastest-selling OS in the company’s history.

Just a month ago, the company announced that it had already sold 150 million units, or seven copies of Windows 7 per second.

The sale of 175 million copies in just nine months is just mind blowing since, on average, about 20 million copies sold per month.

Microsoft Sells 175 Million Copies of Windows 7 in Nine Months

Now you can place the Battery in the direction which you like.

InstaLoad is a new battery technology from Microsoft that gives devices power, regardless of how users insert the batteries. It doesn’t matter which side is positive or negative; the device will simply work.

The technology is in the mechanical battery contact design. Each side of the metal contacts in a device have positive and negative points, rather than just a positive or negative point.

Now you can place the Battery in the direction which you like.

Microsoft Kin is set to be Stopped.

The Kin, two Microsoft-branded phones targeted at teenager users, is all set to be no longer available.

The Kin, formerly known as “Project Pink,” was revealed in April and lauched on the Verizon network in May. However, ominous signs emerged for the phone’s demise after Microsoft cut the price of the Kin in half.

Here is Microsoft’s official statement on the Kin:

“Microsoft has made the decision to focus on the Windows Phone 7 launch and will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones.”

Microsoft Kin is set to be Stopped.

Microsoft say I am the Boss.

Apple Inc might be giving a hard time to Microsoft, but it wanna shows that it is still the Boss.

So Microsoft revealed some numbers to serve as a reminder:

• 150 million Windows 7 licenses sold

• 7.1 million projected iPad sales in 2010

• 58 million projected netbook sales in 2010

• 355 million projected PC sales in 2010

• less than 10% of US netbooks ran Windows in 2008

• 96% of US netbooks ran Windows in 2009

• 16 million subscribers to the largest 25 US daily newspapers

• 14 million Netflix subscribers

• 23 million Xbox live subscribers

• 173 million Gmail users

• 284 million Yahoo Mail users

• 360 million Windows Live Hotmail users

• $5.7 billion Apple net income for fiscal year ending in Sept 2009

• $6.5 billion Google net income for fiscal year ending in Dec 2009

• $14.5 billion Microsoft net income for fiscal year ending in June 2009

Src: [microsoft_blog]

Microsoft say I am the Boss.

Salesforce sues Microsoft.

The world's biggest maker of Web-based software charged that Microsoft is infringing five Salesforce patents in programs, including in the Windows Server operating system and the widely used .Net platform.

"Microsoft's continuing acts of infringement have caused and are causing irreparable harm to Salesforce.com," the complaint said.

Salesforce is seeking unspecified damages in the suit, which was filed in US District Court for the District of Delaware on Thursday.

The battle began on May 18 when Microsoft sued Salesforce in federal court in Seattle, alleging its rival uses its technology in software menus, toolbars and graphical interface features.

Salesforce sues Microsoft.

Bing Entertainment goes online.

Microsoft's Search Engine, Bing has forayed into Entertainment Search Business with the launch of bing.com/entertainment .

It's a new vertical centering on music, movies, TV and games.

Bing Entertainment goes online.

Microsoft Launches Newer, Slimmer Version of Xbox 360

Today at its Xbox 360 media event in Los Angeles, Microsoft dropped a big piece of news: the launch of a slimmer version of the Xbox 360, which starts shipping today and will hit stories by the end of this week.

The new Xbox 360 comes in black, rather the current Xbox 360, which is white. It has 250 GB of disk space and comes equipped with built-in Wi-Fi, instead of using a direct Ethernet connection. And, best of all, it’s shorter and thinner than its bulkier counterpart.

The new console will cost $299 — for comparison’s sake, the PS3 Slim and the current 120 GB version of the Xbox 360 also cost $299 (that’s more or equal GB for your buck).

Microsoft Launches Newer, Slimmer Version of Xbox 360

Microsoft game lets kids tickle tigers.

Microsoft on Monday unveiled the first games for its remote-control-free video game system, Kinect for Xbox 360. Several of the titles were pretty generic: a dancing game, a race car game, an adventure game and a fitness game.

And then there was "Kinectimals."

A demo of this bizarre but cuddly game showed a little girl tickling and playing with "Skittles," a virtual tiger cub. She threw sticks for the tiger to fetch and called it to the screen, where it licked the television and wagged its tail for her.

"Come here Skittles!" she called to her virtual friend.

Microsoft game lets kids tickle tigers.

Microsoft changes Windows Phone Marketplace policies for attracting more developers and share.

Today we’re introducing the new set of Windows Phone Marketplace policies that will govern the application submission and certification process as Windows Phone 7 comes to market. We’re taking the next step with Marketplace to attract a much wider range of developers, from large software companies down to students and hobbyists.

Microsoft changes Windows Phone Marketplace policies for attracting more developers and share.

Windows 7 can help save cost.

Windows 7, the latest operating system (OS) from the Microsoft, can help businesses save about Rs 1,000 per PC annually on power, a study on Sunday said.

According to a report by Mindteck's Smart Energy Lab, companies can save about Rs 1,000 per computer a year on an average through Windows 7 as compared to older operating systems like Windows XP or Vista.

"Energy efficiency is a key factor that companies are concentrating on, and the research shows that the new OS helps companies to not only save money but also contributes to the various green initiatives they are taking," the Microsoft India director,Mr Sumeet Khanna, said.

"Optimising desktop power management is one of the simplest, yet effective, ways to reduce power consumption in an enterprise. Increasing energy efficiency on Windows 7 has been one of the core areas for Microsoft," he said.

Windows 7 can help save cost.

Hackers plant viruses in Windows smartphone games.

Hackers have planted viruses in video games for smartphones running on Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, according to a firm that specializes in securing mobile devices.

The games -- 3D Anti-Terrorist and PDA Poker Art -- are available on sites that provide legitimate software for mobile devices, according to John Hering, CEO of San Francisco-based security firm Lookout.

Those games are bundled with malicious software that automatically dials premium-rate telephone services in Somalia, Italy and other countries, sometimes ringing up hundreds of dollars in charges in a single month.

Those services are run by the programmers who built the tainted software, Hering said on Friday.

Hackers plant viruses in Windows smartphone games.

Microsoft Responds to Google Dumping Windows: Our OS Is Secure.

After recent rumors that Google is internally abandoning Windows and switching to Linux because of security concerns, Microsoft fires back at critics, claiming it’s doing more than its competitors when it comes to security.

“When it comes to security, even hackers admit we’re doing a better job making our products more secure than anyone else. And it’s not just the hackers; third party influentials and industry leaders like Cisco tell us regularly that our focus and investment continues to surpass others,” Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc says in a blog post.

He also lists some facts to support his claim, citing several security improvements in Windows (Windows) 7, like Parental Controls, Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), BitLocker disc encryption and an enhanced Windows Firewall. Furthermore, Microsoft ships software and security updates “as soon as possible through Windows Update and Microsoft Update to keep our customers safe,” he says.

Microsoft Responds to Google Dumping Windows: Our OS Is Secure.

Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) is being rapidly phased out.

According to web analytics company StatCounter, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 is now truly a relic of the past with less than 5% of market share in the U.S. and Europe.

IE 6 was seems to be unfriendly to the many of the developers which led them to find the other alternative.

Now, based on an analysis of 15 billion page views in May 2010, StatCounter’s numbers indicate that IE6 usage in the U.S. has fallen to 4.7% from 11.5% in the last 12 months.

Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) is being rapidly phased out.

Google kicks Windows on security concerns.

Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.

The directive to move to other operating systems began in earnest in January, after Google's Chinese operations were hacked, and could effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers internationally.

"We're not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort," said one Google employee.

"Many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks," said another.

Src: [edition.cnn]

Google kicks Windows on security concerns.

Now apple is bigger than Microsoft as tech company.

Good news for the apple fans and the mac users. Apple has pushed past arch-rival Microsoft to become the world's biggest technology company.

Changes in the share price values of the two in Wednesday's choppy trading left the total value of Apple at $222bn (£154bn).

Microsoft is now valued by investors at $219bn.

The worth, known as market capitalisation, is calculated by multiplying the number of shares in a company by the current share price.

Now apple is bigger than Microsoft as tech company.

Hotmail is reloaded.Takes on rivals.

The new Hotmail like you to provide a new experience. In the blog post, Microsoft program manager Dick Craddock said the company studied e-mail usage for a year while considering the changes.

"People made it clear to us that the No. 1 thing they wanted their e-mail service to address -- whether it was Hotmail or any other e-mail service was to help them manage the clutter in their inbox; not just the spam, but all the mail they get that's clogging their inboxes," he wrote.

A key feature to the new Hotmail, which will be rolled out over the next few weeks, will be a "sweep" feature that allows users to clean out their inbox in one fell swoop.

Hotmail is reloaded.Takes on rivals.

Microsoft Office 2010 takes aim at Google Docs

Article appeared on news.bbc.co.uk.

Microsoft is preparing to launch its latest weapon in its ongoing battle with Google.

The software giant will launch its flagship product Office 2010 to businesses on 12 May.

Microsoft Office 2010 takes aim at Google Docs

Microsoft announces Spindex social media aggregator

Article appeared on telegraph.co.uk

Microsoft plans to help people deal with social media overload.

Microsoft has announced that it is building a tool to aggregate all of a user’s social media activity into a single place. Spindex, which works in a similar way to products such as Friendfeed, aims to show users all their social network activity and avoid the hassle of logging on to various websites. It says it will help you you “Make sense of your social overload.

The General Manager of Microsoft’s Fuse Labs, Lili Cheng, wrote on the company’s blog that “Spindex, which we’re making available in early technical preview form, aggregates your social streams (Facebook, Twitter, Bing, etc.), making it simple for you to find what’s new, see personalized trending topics, and generally make the most of the time you spend being social on the Web.”

Microsoft announces Spindex social media aggregator

Is bad time started for Adobe flash??

After apple, now its microsoft's turn. Microsoft says IE9 will only support H.264 for video.

Article appeared on guardian.co.uk

Microsoft is supporting H.264 in IE9 but not its own system, VC-1, or the open source Ogg Theora. It will continue to not support Adobe Flash, though you can expect it to support its own rival system, Silverlight.

Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch, the general manager of Internet Explorer, says he has noticed "a lot of posting about video and video formats on the web recently," and taken the opportunity to chip in with support for the H.264 codec. He writes:

HTML5 will be very important in advancing rich, interactive web applications and site design. The HTML5 specification describes video support without specifying a particular video format. We think H.264 is an excellent format. In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only.

There's nothing new about Microsoft supporting HTML5, even though it's not yet a standard. There's also nothing new about Microsoft supporting the heavily patent-encumbered H.264. Nonetheless, some people have taken the "only" bit rather badly, saying that IE9 should support the open source codec Ogg Theora.

Is bad time started for Adobe flash??