The week in Steve Ballmer: CEO ignores call for his head, talks Windows 8, China piracy and sees Microsoft stock rise
I'm sure every week in the life of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer must be hectic, but this one seemed especially interesting, at least from the outside looking in.For one thing, a hedge fund manager who apparently is pretty influential...
You call that a virus? How I kicked the Mac Defender's butt in five seconds
About six months ago, I bought the MacBook Air, the first Apple computer I've owned since my childhood self played Oregon Trail on the Apple II in my family's house. I was told by some Mac lovers that I'd never need anti-virus...
Users lose faith in Google over Calendar glitches
Google provided a crash course this week in how not to convince users to upgrade from a free service to a paid one. Google Calendar users have been complaining about missed email and text message appointment reminders, and several...
Microsoft's open source love-in expands with CentOS Linux support
First, Microsoft submitted source code to the Linux kernel. Then, one of its executives claimed "We love open source." And just last night, Microsoft said it is now adding interoperability support for CentOS Linux so it can be run on...
Microsoft kicks off Tech-Ed with license and virtualization upgrades
Microsoft opened its latest Tech-Ed conference by announcing better virtualization support for Exchange 2010, new licensing options for cloud deployments, and information about customers and partners using and supporting...
Microsoft to snatch Skype away from Google and Facebook
Rumors have been flying the last few days that either Google or Facebook would buy Skype, the popular Internet phone service. But now it appears Microsoft will swoop in and buy the company for roughly $7 billion.That is what was just...
More antitrust headaches for Microsoft despite expiration of IE judgment
The landmark antitrust judgment over Internet Explorer is finally set to expire next week after a decade of federal oversight over Microsoft.But Microsoft's antitrust problems aren't ending just yet. Another old case involving...
Determining Windows attack risk now slightly less confusing
No one knows for certain how likely they are to be victimized by malware, but since 2008 Microsoft has been trying to give customers a rough idea of the risks they face with its "Exploitability Index," a rating system released in...
How to use Windows 7 on the iPad with VMware View
VMware was late to the game in bringing virtual desktops to the iPad, nearly a full year behind rival Citrix, but the release of VMware View Client for iPad a couple months ago brought VMware into the tablet age. VMware let me test...
IBM endorses Red Hat's KVM virtualization
A year after dropping Xen virtualization from its Linux software, Red Hat is still a niche player in the virtualization market. But the company is gaining some recognition for the KVM hypervisor. IBM, which already uses KVM in a...
Microsoft less profitable than Apple despite gains in Office, Kinect
Led by strong sales of Microsoft Office and Kinect for Xbox 360, Microsoft raked in $16.43 billion in revenue and $5.23 billion in profit during the quarter ending March 31, 2011. The numbers lag behind Apple, which reported higher...
Google gives Android users a Docs app, but no offline access yet
Google released an official Google Docs app for Android devices today, and while the app is better than the Docs website for mobile browsers it does not provide the long-awaited offline access and editing. After downloading the app...
VMware buys SlideRocket to boost end-user computing
VMware, long the king of virtualization in the data center, is trying to make headway with users who may have never deployed a virtual server or even heard of a hypervisor. VMware's acquisition today of SlideRocket, an online...
Microsoft blasts Google Docs compatibility with Word
If there's one major disadvantage Google has in the documents war against Microsoft, it's that Microsoft products are so widely used that Google has to offer near-perfect compatibility with Microsoft Word when it comes to maintaining...
After blasting Google, Microsoft finally gets FISMA certification of its own
When Microsoft called out Google for making misleading claims about FISMA certification, Microsoft was still working on getting its own stamp of approval from the government.Microsoft just today announced that BPOS-Federal, its...
Microsoft turns the table on Google, discloses Chrome security bugs
Google has a habit of telling the world when it finds a security problem in Microsoft software. The officials in Redmond like to wring their hands and complain about Google putting Microsoft customers at risk, but eventually they...
Barack Obama disses BlackBerry, gets free phone offer from Microsoft
It turns out U.S. President Barack Obama is getting tired of his BlackBerry, complaining that in "the Oval Office, I always thought I was going to have really cool phones and stuff. I'm like, c'mon guys, I'm the president of the...
Microsoft shows off IE9's HTML5 chops on Windows Phone 7
We've known for a couple of months that Microsoft will deliver a mobile version of Internet Explorer 9 for its Windows Phone 7 smartphones, and today the company used the MIX11 keynote stage to show a preview of the new browser,...
Steve Ballmer and Toyota to sell cars powered by the Windows cloud
I've been driving Toyota vehicles for about a decade now (with no safety problems, I should add), but until today I had no idea there was something my Toyota Avalon and the Camry before it were missing: Microsoft software.Not content...
Pardon me, Mr. Page: A few requests for the new Google CEO
Larry Page is once again the CEO at Google, taking over yesterday from longtime chief Eric Schmidt. It sounds like he's ready to shake things up, forcing Google to act more like the startup it used to be. Product chief Jonathan...
