Pedro Hernandez

Microsoft has stopped playing coy when it comes to its big Windows 8 update. In sharp contrast to the tight-lipped stance Microsoft took when details of Windows Blue (now Windows 8.1) first emerged, the company is now demonstrating the software in some high-profile settings. Microsoft picked the Computex tradeshow in Taipei, Taiwan, to give its […]

Good news for Nokia? A new forecast from Canalys may give the Finnish maker of Windows-based smartphones reason to be optimistic about its partnership with Microsoft. Although Windows Phone commands only a sliver of the smartphone market at present, things will change radically in a couple of years. According to the analyst group, Windows Phone […]

Windows 8.1, a free update for Windows 8, is set to launch sometime later this year. While Microsoft has already teased several new enhancements for users, it has largely kept mum on the features aimed at IT managers. That changed June 3 during Microsoft’s TechEd conference in New Orleans. Promising to show attendees “some things […]

Microsoft has bridged its consumer and enterprise communications platforms, and slightly ahead of schedule to boot. Skype and Lync users can finally call each other and participate in text chats without switching apps, the company announced. For now, Lync-Skype connectivity works only on the Skype desktop clients for Windows and Mac, but Microsoft assures that […]

It’s officially back. After months of rumors, Microsoft finally announced that the venerable Start Button is coming back to Windows 8 in the upcoming “Blue” update, which will officially kick Windows up to version 8.1. Antoine Leblond, corporate vice president of Windows Program Management, delivered the news in a May 30 Blogging Windows post. “We’ve […]

Microsoft believes that its Windows Azure cloud computing platform can help combat botnets, among the biggest scourges of the Internet. The company has taken a tough stance against botnets and their operators in recent years. As the term suggests, botnets are Internet-connected networks of compromised computers—often running the Windows operating system—that can number in the […]

Demand is growing for enterprise social solutions, according to a new Microsoft-sponsored report from research firm Ipsos, which surveyed more than 9,900 information workers in 32 countries. Although more than half (46 percent) of the respondents reported that their productivity improved following the use of social tools, 39 percent of those polled claimed that collaboration […]

Microsoft’s touch-enabled, post-PC journey is off to a slow start, according to a report from Soluto, a provider of cloud-based PC management services. In its analysis of 10,848 Windows 8 systems and 313,142 Metro app launches across 9,634 unique apps, the company discovered that users of Microsoft’s latest operating system launch a Metro app a […]

Microsoft has unleashed a new Windows 8 ad, and this time there’s no question about which big rival the company is gunning for. The spot, called “Windows 8: Less talking, more doing,” depicts Apple’s iPad and an Asus VivoTab Smart tablet running Windows 8. Immediately, the contrast between the iPad’s static, icon-packed screen and Windows […]

Microsoft unveiled its next-generation video game and multimedia console, the Xbox One, on May 21. Shrouded in an angular black enclosure, and joined by the updated versions of the Xbox controller and Kinect sensor, the new hardware is capable of generating the fast, fluid and high-fidelity graphics that gamers clamor for. But video games are […]

Microsoft’s follow-up to its successful Xbox 360 console is officially called Xbox One. Xbox head Don Mattrick took to the stage on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., May 21 “to unveil the ultimate, all-in-one home entertainment system.” On display was a black, sharp-edged console, revamped controller and an upgraded Kinect sensor that constitute the […]

AMD-supplied chips. Kinect 2. Blu-ray support. There’s no shortage of rumors surrounding the next Xbox, code-named “Durango,” and tomorrow (May 21) Microsoft is expected to clear the air in a press event hosted at its Redmond, Wash., campus. Ahead of the video game industry’s massive E3 trade show in June, Microsoft will be making an […]