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Opinion

Ancient Microsoft scam lives on

A main claiming to be Microsoft support called to say suspicious activity had been observed on my computer and if I would login, he could help.

iPhone 6 is an apple, the Lumia 830 Windows Phone is an orange.

With today’s iPhone announcements Apple confirms its dedication to consumers, advancing beyond what Microsoft’s Windows Phone has to offer them, but the news also leaves Windows Phone as arguably the better phone for businesses.

Opinion

Microsoft previews cloud-based Web apps proxy service in Azure

Azure AD Application Proxy can help support secure remote access for BYOD programs

Microsoft: Upgrade from Office 2003, but not to Office 2013

Go for Office 365 in the cloud instead

A Microsoft version of Android would be a nightmare for everybody

There’s talk about Microsoft embracing Android, either as a mobile OS topped by Windows features and services or by providing support for Android applications within Windows.The benefits in the first case include attracting...

Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 for free?

Rumors about the future of Microsoft’s operating systems – Windows, Windows RT, Windows Phone and the XBox OS – indicate possible moves toward consolidation and perhaps even making some of them available for free.The latest as...

South Park: A dead Bill Gates engineers the murder of Steve Ballmer over Xbox competition

The only thing more brutal than Microsoft-Sony gamebox competition is South Park’s depiction of how brutal that competition is.In the most recent episode, the folks producing the show have created a scene in which Bill Gates lectures...

FAQ: The Microsoft-Nokia deal

Microsoft and Nokia have an agreement under which Microsoft will buy the Finnish phone and services company, thereby actually transforming itself from a software company to a devices and services company – the mantra its executives...

Microsoft: Ballmer may be going but our direction remains the same

Microsoft promises to keep hammering away at same business principles that were forged during the tenure of CEO Steve Ballmer, who has announced he’s leaving the company within a year.According to The Official Microsoft Blog the...

Microsoft’s SkyDrive hits trademark trouble in Europe

You’d think Microsoft would have learned its lesson about trademarks and the European Union, but apparently not.A court in the U.K. says the name of Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud service violates BSkyB’s trademark on the word sky...

Microsoft boosts its Electronic Frontier Foundation privacy rating

Microsoft is winning praise from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for taking stronger stands to protect the privacy of customers’ data that it stores in its cloud data centers.In its annual “Who’s Got Your Back?” report the EFF...

Foxconn pays Android license fees to Microsoft despite Google’s claim they’re unjustified

While Google insists that Microsoft doesn’t own intellectual property included in its Android operating system, manufacturers who make Android devices think its smarter to pay Microsoft royalties on disputed patents than to get...

Microsoft lures Windows XP business customers to Windows 8 with a 15% discount

Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP just about a year from now and perhaps not coincidentally it is offering a discount to customers who upgrade from XP to Windows 8.The offer is aimed at businesses that use up to 249 licenses....

Microsoft Hotmail, Outlook, SkyDrive problems could hurt customer confidence

Microsoft paints a rosy picture of customers storing documents and other data in the cloud so they are accessible from any Internet-connected device, but yesterday’s outage of its mail and storage services should make anybody rethink...

Microsoft seeks to capture a generation of Office 365 users

Microsoft is offering college students its cloud-based Office service free for six months, a move that could help solidify Office as a package they’ll want to keep using once they graduate.The offer gives eligible students Office 365...

Microsoft could pay billions for running afoul in Europe

Microsoft faces stiff penalties in Europe for failing to give customers there an adequate choice of Web browsers in its Windows operating systems, and now it is being chased by the Danish tax authority as well.The European Commission...

Should Azure customers worry about reliability?

It’s hard to stay on top of everything all the time so it’s understandable that something like renewing a security certificate could fall through the cracks as it did to Microsoft last week, grinding its Azure Cloud Service to a...

Windows 8 guru names the top 8 trends at CES

The man who oversaw production of Windows 8 for Microsoft then quit still has admiration for what his former employer is up to, based on his latest blog about what he liked at CES 2013 last week.The top eight trends Steven Sinofsky...

Windows 8 portables to get inexpensive, long-lived by Xmas 2013?

Wait until next Christmas to buy a Windows 8 ultrabook for $600, says Intel. Well, more or less.The company predicts that by the end of the year PC makers will be cranking out low-powered portables with touchscreens based on new...

‘Christmas gift for someone you hate: Windows 8’

That headline runs atop a blog by MIT researcher and instructor as well as serial entrepreneur Philip Greenspun who ran Windows 8 through its paces and found it wanting in several areas.He’s very specific and raises some good points,...