Microsoft’s new ‘Patent Tracker’ shows us every one of the 40,786 patents it owns or controls

March 28, 2013 6:40 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

On precisely the same that day that Google unveiled its open source pledge, donating ten patents for free open source use, Microsoft unveiled its new Patent Tracker, a tool to reveal every single patent that the company owns, has acquired, or owned historically.

Microsoft: Say goodbye to Samsung, say hello to great smartphone photos

March 20, 2013 10:23 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Microsoft's going on the offensive against Samsung's best-selling Galaxy S III in a new ad focusing on Windows Phone cameras, like the one in Nokia's Lumia 920.

Billion-dollar Danish: Microsoft owes Denmark $1 billion in unpaid taxes, treasury says

March 4, 2013 6:48 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Microsoft owes the Danish treasury 5.8 billion kroner, or about $1 billion U.S., in unpaid taxes relating to its purchase of financial software vendor Navision in 2002, says the Denmark government.

Opera hits a big milestone — 300M monthly users — and decides to swap out its core browser engine for WebKit

February 13, 2013 5:21 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Which essentially means that everyone is using WebKit except for Microsoft and Firefox. And that the fat lady is not singing for the end of Opera's improbable browser journey.

Yes, you can run Linux on your Microsoft Surface Pro

February 6, 2013 8:59 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Microsoft has obviously decided that the "Pro" part of "Surface Pro" is actually meaningful, not just a marketing designation, and has provided the ability for enthusiasts to fiddle, potentially damage or even brick, but ultimately customize their devices exactly how they see fit.

Microsoft releases ‘Bing Apps for Office’ to transform your documents into something much more like the web

January 31, 2013 1:32 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Microsoft's new Office 365 is cloud-integrated, saving documents up to SkyDrive right as you save them on your PC. Now, with five new Bing-powered apps, Microsoft is bringing the power of the cloud back down into your local document.

Analysts: Office 365 is a win for consumers. For businesses, it’s not so clear

January 30, 2013 1:00 PM Christina Farr
Christina Farr

We asked the experts to predict how the new Office 365 will fare in an increasingly flooded market. Analysts agree that adoption will be slow at first, but it's a win for consumers who can access high-quality products at lower price points.

Visual Studio + Git: Microsoft development tools now support open-source version-control system Git

January 30, 2013 9:29 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Microsoft development tools such as Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server now support Git, the open-source version distributed version control system for software projects.

Apple, Google fall off list of America’s 20 most trusted companies

January 29, 2013 10:18 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

The most trusted companies in America include HP, Amazon, IBM, eBay, and Microsoft. But Apple and Google, the two companies at the forefront of the mobile revolution, didn't make the cut.

Microsoft: Cheaper Windows RT and Windows 8 tablets coming

January 24, 2013 3:25 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Microsoft's soon-to-be-released Windows 8-running Surface Pro may cost an internal organ plus a year's servitude, but price relief -- and other Windows tablets -- sound like they're coming soon.

Apple and the stock market: ‘to say that investors are idiots, really is an unfair dig at idiots’

January 23, 2013 10:09 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

It's been an interesting day. Apple reported record revenue of $54.5 billion and record quarterly profit of $13.1 billion, then saw its share price drop 10 percent.

50% of smartphone buyers want iPhones (but phablets are phat, too)

January 15, 2013 10:12 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Half of Americans planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days are planning to buy iPhones, according to a new survey from 451 Research.

Selling Windows Phone: Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph on why iPhone and Android users will love and buy his device

January 11, 2013 12:17 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Editor's Pick It's odd to see Microsoft as the underdog, but that's the reality in mobile. And, according to Rudolph, that's what makes it fun.

AT&T sold 110K smartphones a day last quarter, including 7.2M iPhones and 2.2M Android phones

January 8, 2013 7:57 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

AT&T took a moment to toot its own horn this morning, announcing that it sold more than 10 million smartphones in the last quarter.

66% of phone, tablet owners don’t really care if they run iOS, Android, or Windows

January 7, 2013 3:08 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Watch out Apple and Google: Two-thirds of smartphone and tablet owners don't have strong brand loyalty to any one particular operating system, according to a new study by Accenture.

Technology 2012: The year’s winners and losers

December 30, 2012 10:00 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

In every year, there are winners and losers: companies, devices, operating systems. Here's our look at some of the biggest successes and failures of 2012.

For every 100 web pageviews on an iPad, a Kindle gets 5, a Galaxy gets 3, and a Surface gets 0.22

December 27, 2012 8:58 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Advertising and analytics company Chitika released its December 2012 tablet market update, and the numbers aren't great for any tablet that doesn't start with the letter I.

Microsoft launches first game for iPhone, iPad with Xbox Achievements

December 24, 2012 8:36 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

In an extension of the Xbox gaming ecosystem to iOS, Microsoft game studio You vs the Internet has launched Wordament, the first-ever game for iOS with Xbox Achievements, on the Apple app store.