Apple and Microsoft: tour de smartphone force for iPhone
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Microsoft's Intellectual Property Group is building a financial model designed to value and predict prices for technology patents, allowing the company to better forecast and budget for intellectual property-related costs -- all inspired by a best-selling book about baseball.
Microsoft Windows 7 may represent the last ever, large in-mass upgrade of the Windows client environment and define the line where the desktop PC was no longer the center of the end-user universe, according to IDC.
The Great Recession cast a shadow on all sectors of the economy in 2009. IT fared better than most, however, and the slump did not curb the dynamic nature of the industry. Acquisitions among big vendors continued to reshape the market, operating-system wars extended to mobile battlefields, microblogging became a powerful source of real-time information, and the take-up of small, 'Net-connected devices was stronger than ever. Here, in no particular order, is the IDG News Service's pick of the top 10 technology stories of 2009.
Since its highly ballyhooed rollout near the end of October, Windows 7 has been applauded by many as Microsoft's best operating system yet. But no OS is perfect, and that goes for Windows 7.
Experienced PC users know that not every operating-system upgrade goes smoothly -- but that bit of understanding does little to offset the annoyance we feel when we're faced with seemingly unresolvable installation problems. Windows 7 has presented some users with a few serious upgrade bugs of its own. Don't worry: We'll explain how to exterminate them.
The reports of the Windows "black screen of death" seem to be greatly exaggerated and hardly worth mentioning.
Microsoft Windows 8 may be coming as early as 2012, based on a recent rash of comments and hints dropped by Microsoft personnel in official capacity and informal context.
Google's Chrome OS event made me realize: There is a lot in Google's OS that can benefit Microsoft--like giving it a completely new platform and one it needs. If Google is really true to its open source promises, Microsoft should join the fun.
With the release of the Office 2010 beta, the general public finally gets to check out how Microsoft plans to deliver on its promises for the next edition of its flagship productivity suite--namely, close integration with lightweight Web versions of core apps (Excel and PowerPoint Web are the first to debut for consumers via Windows Live, with Word and OneNote available only in the business-oriented SharePoint 2010 server beta), better multimedia support, a subtle interface refresh, and a slew of features designed to make document creation and sharing easier. But there's some news too, most notably support within Outlook for tracking feeds from social networks.
Yesterday was Microsoft's Patch Tuesday for the month of November. There are 6 new Security Bulletins this month: 3 rated as Critical and 3 rated as Important. Not all Critical Security Bulletins are created equally though. You need to understand the implications of the flaw being patched and how it applies to your systems to determine how urgent the update is.
Windows 7 may be brand spanking new, but that doesn't mean you can't find free or cheap tools to tweak its settings, add features, or smooth an upgrade from XP or Vista. We've compiled a list of ten valuable software tools -- many of them free -- that can make your Win7 experience a lot more rewarding.
Just as with Windows Vista, one of the big questions you face when going to pick up a new computer is whether to install the 32- or 64-bit version of Windows 7.
It's been almost a week since Windows 7's official launch, and a ton of information and opinion is out there surrounding Microsoft's latest operating system. On the one hand, you have positive reports of Windows 7 helping extend battery life, installed on new PCs with less crapware, and offering a more intuitive interface. But users are also complaining about annoying issues like delayed driver support for peripheral hardware and upgrade bugs.
With the countdown now on for the official shipment of Windows 7 next Thursday, Microsoft and friends have been cranking up the proverbial hype machine, but not without a few clinks and clanks along the way.