Hearing the news that Google is taking another stab at social media with a new group-chatting app dubbed “Spaces” may feel like deja vu for anyone paying attention to the tech giant’s previous, mostly unsuccessful efforts to gain traction in the social media world with Google+. But Google isn’t the only big name in the tech world that’s tried and failed to popularize a new tech product, not by a long shot. [More]
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Burned By Too Many Scams, Microsoft Bans Tech Support Ads In Bing Search Results
By 5.13.16
Imagine if an entire section of the phone book (remember those?) was dominated by fake companies and scam artists. You’d hope the phone book people would wise up and get rid of that section. That appears to be Microsoft’s way of thinking as it bans tech support ads from its Bing search results. [More]
Microsoft Will Finally Stop Nagging PC Users To Upgrade To Windows 10 In July
By 5.6.16
If you’re running any version of Windows on your PC that isn’t Windows 10, you’re undoubtedly familiar with Microsoft’s persistent efforts to push users to upgrade, by way of pop-ups and automatic installations. Those days will be over soon, as Microsoft is promising to stop nagging folks come July. [More]
Google Chrome Dethrones Internet Explorer To Become Most Popular Browser
By 5.2.16
If the technology world was a high school hallway, Google Chrome would be shoving past former prom queen Internet Explorer while wrinkling its nose like it smells something particularly offensive. That’s because Chrome is now the most popular browser, as it recently took home a larger share of the market than its rival for the first time. [More]
Microsoft & Google Continue Lovefest, Agree To Drop Regulatory Complaints Against Each Other
By 4.22.16
Google and Microsoft are building off the new lovey-dovey relationship they embarked last year on when they agreed to stop suing each other over patents: the two best friends you ever did meet are not promising to drop all pending regulatory complaints against each other across the globe. [More]
Microsoft To Stop Production Of Xbox 360
By 4.20.16
Last fall, Microsoft issued a software update on the Xbox One’s second birthday that included backward compatibility that allows owners to play some of their old Xbox 360 games on the newer console. With that feature firmly in place, Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will say goodbye to the 10-year-old console. [More]
Microsoft Sues Justice Dept.; Wants To Be Able To Tell Users When Govt. Reads Their Files
By 4.14.16
Before the advent of cloud computing, law enforcement would often have to physically go into an office or home and seize computers and servers of criminal suspects and their cohorts — an obvious tip-off that an investigation is taking place. But now, with so much data living far from the devices used to access it, the government can seize that information without having to load up a van full of hardware, leaving the target of the investigation none the wiser. What’s more, the government can try to block cloud-computing companies from telling affected customers about these seizures, which Microsoft believes is a violation of the Constitution. [More]
Microsoft Bringing Android Notifications To Windows 10 PCs
By 4.1.16
For those times when your Android smartphone isn’t clutched safely in your hand or resting at an accessible distance nearby, you may experience moments when you’re unaware if you’ve just received a text or missed a phone call. Microsoft says it’s going to ameliorate any uneasiness you may feel by funneling Android phone notifications over to PCs running on Windows 10. [More]
New Microsoft Office Starbucks Extension Lets You Schedule Coffee Meetings, Buy Gift Cards
By 3.31.16
The technological powers that be understand that people often don’t want to click around in more apps or programs than they have to. In a move meant for caffeine lovers on the job, one of Microsoft’s newest add-ins for its Office programs lets Starbucks customers do things like schedule meetings at the local coffee shop and buy gift cards for the store as well from within Outlook. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Will Rock Out With This Zune
By 3.23.16
Across the country, hidden away on clearance shelves and junk bins, there are piles of inexplicably outdated and overpriced electronics that should have no place on a store shelf. Our readers who scour the nation’s big-box stores in search of these retail antiquities are the Raiders of the Lost Walmart. In their latest field report, we see a modestly old PC, an iPod Touch and iPhone case that charges your device from 2011 or earlier from AA batteries, and the hottest media player Microsoft had to offer in 2009. [More]
Microsoft Store: Just Kidding, Everyone! We Still Accept Bitcoins
By 3.15.16
Remember yesterday, when the Microsoft Store’s support page said it no longer accepted Bitcoins as payment for funding accounts? If you were upset, turn that frown upside down, as Microsoft says that support page information was some kind of fluke, glitch, or otherwise unintended mistake. [More]
Xbox One Will Support Cross-Platform Multiplayer With PS4, PC
By 3.14.16
If you like playing online multiplayer games on your Xbox One but hate that you can never play your pal because she’s a PlayStation 4 devotee, here’s some promising news. [More]
Microsoft Store Will No Longer Accept Bitcoins As Payment
By 3.14.16
If you liked using Bitcoin to pay for apps in the Microsoft Store, we’ve got some bad news for you: the cryptocurrency is no longer a valid payment method. [More]
WhatsApp Ending Support For Some Older Devices By End Of 2016
By 2.29.16
If you own an older Nokia or Blackberry smartphone and are an avid user of WhatsApp, you might want to think about your phone’s future: the messaging service plans to end support for several operating systems by the end of the year. [More]
Windows 10 Users Start Seeing Full-Screen Ads As Screen Savers
By 2.24.16
Just because you don’t have to lay out money for software, that doesn’t necessarily make it “free.” In the last few days, users of Windows 10 have noticed full-screen ads on their lock screen if they happen to be using “Windows Spotlight” to put pretty pictures there. Fortunately, you can banish the ads from your screen, without even having to pay. [More]
Microsoft Officially Recalls 2.25M Surface Pro Power Cords That Can Overheat, Catch On Fire
By 2.2.16
Nearly two weeks after rumors swirled that Microsoft would replace the AC power cords for older-model Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro 3 tablets sold in the U.S. and Canada before March 2015, the Consumer Product Safety Commission officially recalled the chargers. [More]
Microsoft Makes Good On Plan To Push Windows 10 Upgrades More Aggressively
By 2.2.16
Last October, Microsoft told Windows 7 and 8 users that it was only a matter of time before they’d be pushed a bit more aggressively to upgrade to Windows 10. That time is now, as the company will be recategorizing Windows 10 as a “recommended update.” [More]
Microsoft Finally Resolving A Five-Year-Old Skype Privacy Flaw For All Users
By 1.22.16
There’s a security flaw in Skype that can expose users’ location. That’s not the news, though: that flaw was discovered in 2010, and published in 2011. No, the news is this: after more than five long years and one big acquisition by Microsoft, that problem is finally fixed. [More]
