Tag: MICROSOFT

It's still a bit odd seeing Microsoft deliver apps for Apple's mobile platform. And it's even stranger still to see one as sexy as the new Bing app for iPad, which brings a slick, immersive search experience to Apple's tablet. Just as a regular search on bing.com will, the Bing app for iPad tailors the results it displays based on what you're searching for. There are loads of custom views, ...

Microsoft's Business Unit, the Mac software arm of the Redmond-based software giant, is set to release its first Service Pack for Office 2011 for Mac. Just like most updates of this nature, SP1 will address a myriad of bugs, and roll in most of the hotfixes that came before it into one, easy to install package. SP1 will also address Outlook's syncing support, with the BU adding calendar ...

For what seems like an eternity, Download Squad readers have reacted to news of security exploits targeting Adobe Reader with a common sentiment: why doesn't Microsoft build its own secure PDF reader into Windows? Apparently the Windows 8 team agrees, and they're working away at an application called Modern Reader which is exactly that. From the handful of screenshots Paul Thurrott has ...

Some of you who own Windows Phone 7 devices are still waiting for your pre-NoDo preparation update -- never mind NoDo itself. A few workarounds have been posted, but unfortunately they didn't work unless your carrier had completed testing and was ready to schedule the update. Now, however, the Chevron WP7 team's Chris Walshie has delivered a handy little utility that will allow you to update ...

It's not really a secret the Microsoft had planned on bringing bits of Windows Phone 7's Metro UI to Windows 8, but we haven't seen a lot of really telling evidence. However, with the Windows 8 milestone 3 build now available to Microsoft Connect partners, it was really just a matter of time before we started to get a peek. Thanks to Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott, we've now had a glimpse ...

Happy first birthday, Windows Phone 7! One year on, and the fledgling mobile operating system has 36,000 active developers in its AppHub community, 1.5 million downloads of its Developer Tools, and 11,500 apps in its Marketplace. Microsoft is quick to take a couple shots at competitors' app stores, beating its chest about not re-counting tanslations of an app or "lite" apps, "increasing ...

Microsoft has shared some news about the state of its most and least loved Web browsers -- Internet Explorer 9 and 6, respectively. Even with IE9 only recently exiting beta, Microsoft reports that 3.6% of Windows 7 users are now running the new browser (no mention of Vista... what's with that?). The post also reveals that the adoption rate is almost five times what IE8 garnered in the early ...

Microsoft has announced that people who use both Hotmail and Internet Explorer 9 are now able to see a desktop notification of how many messages have arrived since they last checked their Inbox. Unlike Chrome's desktop notifications, these won't be pop-up bubbles. In fact, the pinned Hotmail icon will simply change to display a number next to it -- that shows how many messages have arrived ...

With Windows 8 milestone 3 now up for grabs for select Microsoft Connect partners, it's inevitable that leaked bits and pieces will start popping up around the Web. In fact, the first "official" wallpaper image from the still-brewing OS is already making the rounds. As you can see, it's got a similar feel to the good ol' Windows 7 default background, but features a more subdued smattering of ...

Select Microsoft Connect partners -- major players like HP -- have been given their first taste of Windows 8. According to various sources, the build string currently sits at 7971.0.110324-1900, which is the third milestone build of the successor to Windows 7. So far, there haven't been many details revealed about Windows 8. An actual System Restore -- which is being referred to as History ...

Microsoft, citing Google's tyrannical 95% share of the European search market, has lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission. It's not like Microsoft is breaking any ground here -- the European Commission has been investigating Google's alleged violation of European competition law since November 2010 -- but there's no doubt that the addition of Microsoft's gravitas will affect the ...

Over on the Internet Explorer Blog, Microsoft has posted results from an extensive comparison of the top five Web browsers. The goal: to determine whether Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4, Chrome 10, Safari 5, or Opera 11 is able to squeeze the most life out of your laptop's battery. A baseline was determined with test systems sitting idle, and then browsers were pointed at about:blank, a ...

Using some early numbers from both StatCounter and Net Applications, Mozilla's noisiest hominid, Asa Dotzler, has illustrated Firefox 4's meteoric rise to around 5% of Web browser global usage share. Internet Explorer 9, which launched two weeks ago, seems to be enjoying a much more casual stroll in the park with just 1.5% of the global Web usage share. Interestingly, we can see IE9 dipping ...

In times of a shortage, people tend to stockpile certain things. And with the looming exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, it's really no surprise that Microsoft jumped all over Nortel's stash of nearly 700,000 addresses when they became available for purchase. Nortel, of course, has been selling off what assets it can as the company battles through bankruptcy proceedings. Microsoft ponied up $7.5 ...

The Bing team has just delivered a major update to its mobile search. m.bing.com now utilizes HTML5 tech to deliver better image and iOS app search, as well as realtime directions and transit info to Android and iOS users. It gets better, too. If the update situation for Windows Phone 7 wasn't bad enough, the official blog post offers this sad-trombone style news for WP7 users: "If you have a ...