Microsoft News Archives

The app, called 360 Live , allows you to manage your Live account in just about every way you would possibly want to on the go -- from accepting friend requests to seeing which friends are online and sending them messages.

Microsoft to raise prices, add more high-end editions with SQL Server 2008 R2 More likely to ship with Visual Studio 2010?Is it not more likley that SQL 2008 R2 will ship with Visual Studio 2010 as it has done with previous releases? I understand VS2010 is likely to be available in March .

SAN ANSELMO, Calif., BUSINESS WIRE -- SDM Software, the industry expert on Windows Group Policy, today announced that its GPExpert Group Policy Automation Engine 2.0 was named as the Gold medal winner of the '2009 Editors' Best Awards' in the Active Directory and Group Policy category by Penton Media's Windows IT Pro magazine.

After conquering the search world, Google is now pushing hard to be a major provider of business software, tackling longtime dominator Microsoft over productivity and collaboration apps.

Microsoft's latest round of security patches appears to be causing some PCs to seize up and display a black screen, rending the computer useless.

SCENARIO: It's tomorrow. You turn on your PC.A First thing you see is: Microsoft has located pirated software on this PC.

The recent news conference and related buzz around the Google Chrome OS really got me thinking about if the industry is ready for another OS especially after reading this eweek.com piece: As the world prepares for the release of Google's Chrome OS, a Web-based operating system that Google announced earlier in 2009 and that is expected to be ...

In a memo to employees, Jody Allen, Paul Allen's sister and the CEO of his investment firm, said the 56-year-old received the diagnosis early this month.

Today's Globe&Mail writes PC: Now It Stands for Price Cuts and that "... consumers are increasingly ignoring higher-end machines." After having spent tens of thousands of my household budget on computers since 1983, I am glad to see them priced at disposable levels.

On the eve of Cyber Monday , Apple Macs held the top three spots on Amazon 's "Most Wished For" laptop list, as well as the top four spots on the desktop computer wish list.

Error while installing SHAREPOINT 2010 Preparation Tool - The tool was unable to install Microsoft "Geneva" Framework Runtime.

Gartner Projects Modest PC Growth for 2009 [November 23, 2009] After a bleak first half of the year, sales are finally creeping into positive territory.

A panel of Microsoft distinguished engineers offers revealing and humorous views on the state of programming Microsoft Corp.

In November of 1985, Microsoft made its first step into the graphical computing era with the debut of Windows 1.0. Nearly a quarter of a century later, on Oct.

Back in 2002, the research department at Microsoft started experimenting with the virtualization of 802.11 wireless adapters under the project code name VirtualWiFi .

The struggling office software company agrees to be swallowed by its largest investor In a desperate bid for survival, long-time office software maker Corel Corp.

All right, a new report from the NPD Group says that 48% of the retail dollars spent on personal computers in the U.S. now goes to Apple.

Microsoft last week launched its first serious effort to build IT into its cloud plans by introducing technologies that help connect existing corporate networks and cloud services to make them look like a single infrastructure.

Microsoft wants Silverlight to be optimized for every platform that it runs on, said Brian Goldfarb, director of developer and user experience platforms at Microsoft, during an interview at the company's Professional Developers Conference on Wednesday .

The figures from Schouten's tests show that many pages render in half the time on the Direct2D-enabled Firefox build.

So that's why no one on Twitter likes Microsoft. To remind holiday shoppers about their new OS Windows 7, Microsoft recently bought a display window in legendary New York department store Saks Fifth Avenue.

Hackers are racing to build reliable exploits to use against a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer , putting pressure on Microsoft to push out a patch before attacks go public, researchers said today.

Over the past few years, multiuser computing has emerged a ' particularly in educational institutions a ' as a way to reduce computer costs and increase worldwide access to technology.

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer and Windows president Steven Sinofsky announcing the Windows 7 release last August.

Some weeks ago, I wrote about an expected upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 version which I called that time " Windows Mobile 6.5 Second Edition ". And so far, everything was completely unconfirmed, but now it seems that Microsoft is indeed working on an update of its recently launched Windows Mobile 6.5 Windows phone operating system.

Microsoft launched the beta of Office Home and Business 2010 over the weekend and is delivering the preview using its new "streaming" download technology.

Windows Internet Explorer 8 offers features to enhance the online holiday shopping experience.

Hyderabad, Nov 25 Microsoft India Development Centre is all set to release the Indian languages transliteration software that will allow users to type Indian language words using the regular keyboard.

Microsoft is implementing a background technology for Azure, AppFabric, that will help it serve as a platform for composite applications working with software in the enterprise.

Complete your post-migration tasks. Follow the instructions on pages 75 through 78 in the Microsoft migration document.

Office Starter 2010 a ' A Non-Starter for Current Office Users? Monday, November 23rd, 2009 by the oracle On the ZDNet website , Microsoft reporter extraordinaire Mary-Jo Foley has a few items about the replacement for Microsoft Works, called Office Starter 2010.

Microsoft has delayed re-releasing a Windows 7 installation tool that it has admitted included open-source code, saying that it's still testing the revamped utility.

Benchmarking Windows 7: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger? Often hailed as the solution to Windows Vista performance problems, we wanted to know just how much better Windows 7 really is.

Rupert Murdoch isna TMt very happy with Google making News Corp content available to everybody, but word is that Microsoft is offering to pay News Corp to de-index its news sites from Google, which would probably drive those searching for News Corp sites to Bing.

Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell will be leaving the company at the end of this year, a surprising development given Wall Street's praise for his guidance of the software giant's finances amid the recession.

All this week at the Professional Developers Conference , Microsoft has talked about cloud computing, what many consider the next frontier.

As with any new release, in Silverlight 4, Microsoft has made some changes that developers like and others do not.

What new services will the company add as it moves ERP into the Azure cloud? : Microsoft said it is readying two new online services, and one updated online service, for its Dynamics Enterprise Resource Planning package -- all to debut next year.

An online airing of tens of thousands of stolen Webmail passwords suggests that ita s time to find extra protection.

A newly discovered threat that doesn't yet have any patch can allow for a Web-based attack against up-to-date Internet Explorer 6 and 7 browsers, according to security companies.

News reports say Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp. over a deal that would see the media company get paid to remove its news websites from Google.

Chrome represents absolutely no threat to Windows for the foreseeable future, just at a time when Microsoft is vulnerable.

I'm spending the weekend at my parents' house in York and so my duties as the person who knows about computers come into play.

Microsoft doesn't have a great history of producing two good OSes on the bounce.

Microsoft released a bunch of public betas of various Office 2010 products this week.

Obviously, the big news from Google yesterday was the official announcement of the Chrome OS operating system , which should raise a few red flags for Microsoft .

Given the choice, most international business travellers would opt to have Oprah Winfrey in the seat next to them, according to a new survey.

New Delhi The world's leading software firm Microsoft is now focussing on the fast growing smartphones market in India after the netbooks segment-- a new category created to brigde the gap between mobiles and laptops-- received lukewarm response from buyers.

Microsoft Corp. plans to make its Business Process Management software, BizTalk Server, work very closely with the just-announced AppFabric .Net application server within several years.

After years of planning, Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie has delivered the foundation for Microsoft's future - a technology that allows Windows applications to run either in the cloud or in-house. The Azure platform was unveiled at Microsoft's annual Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.

As anticipated, Microsoft last week launched the first, and likely only, public beta of Office 2010.

Why the upgrade is worth it. 19 November 2009 10:00 GMT / By Duncan Geere Microsoft Office 2010 has now entered it's public beta phase, and it's already looking like a pretty substantial upgrade to the 2007 version, and a huge improvement on earlier editions of the omnipresent Office app suite.

Technology companies are awfully fond of comparing their work to poetry and art .

According to a recent survey conducted by Microsoft Corp., the majority of entrepreneurs who started their business during the recession were employed.

Microsoft will pass out beta code Wednesday it hopes will define the next evolution of directories.

Did the Mayans know something we don't? After a patchy decade of desktop OS releases - " one not helped by the five year stretch between XP and Vista, or the release of interim operating systems such as 98SE and Me prior to shifting to the NT codebase - " Microsoft wants to get back on track with a three year release cycle for Windows.

Microsoft will be compliant with industry standards in Internet Explorer 9 such as HTML 5 , but Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live division, decried the habit of vendors getting ahead of the process.

Earlier this week a statement from a senior National Security Agency sparked rumors that there might be a NSA backdoor in Windows 7, but these concerns were quickly addressed by Microsoft.

Microsoft Corp. is giving away nearly 24,000 vouchers to North Carolina residents who want to improve their computer skills so they can improve their lot in the work force.

Microsoft released Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 to manufacturers on Monday.

A new feature in the Mozilla browser bars add-ons from dropping code into Firefox's own directory.

As expected , Microsoft began talking about Internet Explorer 9 in public yesterday at its PDC event in Los Angeles.

There are only 26 letters in the alphabet, but a lot more goes into making a quality keyboard then just the letters you type out.

Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. kicked their battle for personal computing supremacy into a higher gear Thursday, with Microsoft touting sales of the latest version of its Windows operating system software as its Silicon Valley-based rival promoted a technology that in many ways stands in sharp contrast.

Microsoft has been hard at work in the background developing a cloud strategy that's populated with some concrete products and services.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaking at a press conference in Tokyo earlier this month.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is coming to PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC in 2010.

Computer systems with proper security and network controls should be able to withstand about 80 percent of known cyberattacks, according to a senior National Security Agency official.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder and billionaire investor Paul Allen has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and is undergoing chemotherapy.

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Microsoft will talk about its plan for upcoming builds of Internet Explorer this week at the Professional Developers Conference -- though, it will not offer a preview of its next browser, according to CNET .

The beta of Microsoft's upcoming Office suite Microsoft Office 2010 has been finished and already been made available to MSDN and Technet subscribers.

Windows users running 64-bit versions of the operating system are less likely to get infected by attack code, Microsoft's security team said yesterday.

Microsoft has settled a lawsuit with a former employee that it once charged with fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract.

Interesting news from PDC: Microsoft has announced two new services - " Pinpoint and Dallas.

Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it will launch its long-awaited Windows Azure cloud computing system on Jan 1, as it looks to take advantage of the growing interest in internet-based software and services.

A CHINESE court has found Microsoft Corp infringed a Chinese company's intellectual property rights by including certain fonts in its operating systems, according to a court judgement.

It was only a matter of time... for both of them. Microsoft has been busy expanding its well established platforms this week.

I don't know if you want to make this into a meta-pattern or what, but Google again seems to be stepping up where Microsoft has stumbled, today hiring laid-off business development director of Microsoft's Emerging Business Team Don Dodge, according to TechFlash.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In a memo sent to employees, the CEO of Allen's investment firm says the 56-year-old Allen received the diagnosis this month and has begun chemotherapy.

Microsoft has confirmed that the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool from the online Microsoft Store indeed violates the GNU General Public License .

Windows still doesn't ship with antivirus or antispyware, but Microsoft's new Security Essentials antivirus application is just a simple download away.

Heads up to all Microsoft Windows users: If you're running Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, stop what you're doing and immediately download and apply the MS09-065 update released earlier this week.

Microsoft's addition of a trash can to Windows 95, for example, was particularly galling for fanboyz as the handy interface element arrived 10 years after Apple introduced its own trash can.

The Web Platform Pavilion in the Big Room at PDC is hosting a series of Chalk Talks during PDC with some really exciting sessions that you won't see anywhere else.

Microsoft late on Friday confirmed that an unpatched vulnerability exists in Windows 7, but downplayed the problem, saying most users would be protected from attack by blocking two ports at the firewall.

SuperGeo Technologies, the leading global provider of complete GIS solutions, develops a Biodiversity GIS application for users to query species information and share survey data by Internet GIS.

You might think the cool cats at Google Inc. can afford to relax. With almost $20 billion in the bank, and a virtual license to print more by selling search advertising on the Web, what's to worry about? Microsoft? It's on the move again, but no immediate threat to the core business.

If you use Microsoft Office and you frequently work from different computers, you need to check out the Office Live add-in for Office Live Workspace .

Episode 36 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week your hosts are Patrick O'Keefe , Brad Williams and Kevin Yank .

More than a dozen federal agencies, including the White House and all branches of the military, are testing Windows 7, according to Microsoft.

Worth reading are three Q&As with three Microsoft executives over three days. TechFlash's Todd Bishop sat down with Steven Sinofsky , president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live division, to talk about his upcoming book, "One Strategy." Co-written with Harvard Business School professor Marco Iansiti, to book is based on Sinofsky's internal ...

A just-published Apple patent application for hand-writing recognition on pen-based computers has re-ignited speculation the company will soon unveil a tablet device.

This week, PC World editors Steve Fox, Robert Strohmeyer, and Tim Moynihan are joined by Macworld's Jason Snell for to explore all the hubbub over allegations that Microsoft has copied Apple in the design of Windows 7 . But first, Steve Fox walks us through the history of Intel's disputes with rival chip maker AMD , and sheds light on the ...

With a full schedule on tap, the 2009 Microsoft PDC next week will tout efforts ranging from the company's Windows Azure cloud platform to plans for programming languages Session descriptions for the Los Angeles event reveal topics such as "Architecting and Developing for Windows Azure," "Future Directions for C# and Visual Basic" and "Software + ...

Despite the aggressive "Mac and PC" TV ads that sharply, if humorously, criticize the new Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft's Bill Gates has nothing but good things to say about Apple's Steve Jobs.

Even though a public beta build is expected to arrive as soon as next week at the Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles, those of you who can't wait until then can apparently find the Office 2010 code already on torrent sites.

Brian L. Roberts, the chief of Comcast. Ralph J. Roberts, seated, was a salesman who moved into cable.

Log out block 'good for security' Posted in ID , 13th November 2009 12:09A GMT Microsoft has said its new policy of requiring users to accept third party cookies to log out of Hotmail improves security.

I'm Steve Jobs, and Windows 7 was my idea. You would think that even if you worked at Microsoft and didn't get the 72pt.

From the ' Defense in Depth ' files: Microsoft is rethinking how to do security in an Agile world.

Five years after its first version was released, the Firefox browser faces new challenges from Google and Microsoft.

Capitalism is still alive and well, say the world's two richest men, despite lingering shocks from the longest, deepest recession since the Great Depression.

Microsoft may launch the public beta of Office 2010 as early as next week, according to e-mail messages received Tuesday by people who have been testing the company's next application suite.

Consumers may appear to be snapping up Windows 7, but large companies won't, according to CIOs interviewed this week.

Bill Gates said on Wednesday he believes Wall Street pay is "often too high" and that U.S. government ownership of American International Group Inc worries him because it has devalued the giant insurer.

Microsoft is adding to Bing's search features, loading up Bing with map enhancements, video integration and the use of Wolfram Alpha search results.

"Just when I thought Windows phones had already one too many layers between the end-user and Microsoft, they've just decided to add in one more for good measure.

Revenue from cloud-computing services could reach $7.5 billion in 2009, an 18 percent jump from last year's revenue of $6.4 billion, according to research firm Gartner .

Microsoft on Tuesday issued six security bulletins fixing 15 vulnerabilities, including a critical patch for holes in the Windows kernel and other Windows and Office components that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer.

United Arab Emirates: 41 minutes ago Columbus IT, was awarded Partner of the Year 2009 Award by Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft's business solutions division, at their annual award ceremony this year, held recently at the Monarch Hotel in Dubai, UAE.

Amazon announced today the availability of Kindle for PC. The small application allows Kindle users to access Kindle books from the PC.

Microsoft made two enterprise moves on Monday, one expected and the other a bit of a surprise.

Microsoft released six security bulletins addressing a total of 15 vulnerabilities.

Says Sophos' methodology was flawed, in part because the testers did not take advantage of Microsoft security tools Nov 09, 2009 04:29 PM Microsoft accused a software industry rival of overhyping tests results that purported to show security features in the new Windows 7 operating system fail to block 80% of malware threats.

The alliance between Microsoft Corp. and Novell Corp. continues to bear fruit three years after it was first signed , say the two companies -- one the world's largest proprietary software vendor, the other one of the largest open-source companies.

Apple Inc's phoenix-like rise from the ashes has propelled its market value to $180 billion, raising the possibility that it could challenge Microsoft Corp for the technology crown.

The two companies' latest collaboration combines Web, client, and social technologies for building apps and services for the social networking site Microsoft on Monday unveiled Microsoft SDK for Facebook Platform, enabling use of Microsoft technologies such as Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation in conjunction with the Facebook social ...

The "Conficker" and "Taterf" computer worms are still going strong a year after they made their first appearances, U.S. experts say.

Microsoft will release guidelines for developers building online applications and for those using the Agile code-development process.

Microsoft officials highlighted the company's wave of enterprise server products during the kick-off keynotes at the company's TechEd Europe conference on November 9. While the majority of the Microsoft's marketing and advertising muscle has been behind Windows 7 for the past couple of months, this week, the focus is on the server side of house.

Marvin Ma, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Monday 9 November 2009] While smartbook PCs based on ARM processors will be launched in 2010, Microsoft will continue with its strategic cooperation with Intel and will not have Windows 7 support smartbook PCs for the time being, according to Microsoft corporate vice president Mike Nash for Windows Platform ...

We wouldn't expect Microsoft to say anything other than positive things about Windows 7, but it's another thing when an independent company comes out an confirms that Windows 7 really is off to a good start.

Last week's announcement that the city of Los Angeles was moving to Google Apps was quite a blow to Microsoft.

I've used notebooks for years at work and at home, but don't often use the keyboards on the notebooks unless I'm on the road.

Microsoft faces increasing competitive pressure from its Web-based rival, Google Apps, as it prepares to make Exchange 2010 generally available on Nov.

How many people really use Google Apps and how many of them are paying customers? That's a question Google has never quite answered, having touted a "20 million users" and "2 million companies" figure that is almost meaningless.

Kylie, a girl who has appeared in Microsoft Corp.'s e Y'm a PC' television advertisements, introduces Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft, during a media event launching Windows 7 in New York, New York on Oct.

Let's look back at the week that was in Microsoft news. Here were the top stories: Windows 7 SP1 beta rumored by end of 2009, RTM summer 2010 : Windows 7 may be out, but Microsoft is of course still hard at work improving the operating system.

Among customers' spending priorities are technologies that promise high return on investment and nondiscretionary products like security and compliance software.

Computer giant Apple Inc will open its first French store beneath the Louvre museum on Saturday just two weeks after Microsoft opened a theme cafe to promote its Windows 7 software.

After notifying customers and partners that Exchange Server 2007 wouldna t be able to run on Windows Server 2008 R2, the latest version of WIndows Server, the Exchange team has reversed its decision.

Office 2010 will be released into a far different competitive landscape than Office 2007 faced By Elizabeth Montalbano When Microsoft releases the next version of its productivity suite, Office 2010, it will be into a very different competitive landscape than the one Office 2007 faced in late 2006.

Verizon's Thinkfinity.org Offers Free Educational Resources for Parents, Students and After-School Programs Page: 1 Microsoft ships Windows 7- should you buy it? Did you hear? Microsoft is releasing a new version of Windows - should you buy it? Windows 7 is here.

Windows Live Messenger led Microsoft's Web properties in capturing 14.5 percent of total time spent online in September worldwide, handily beating Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other sites, according to analysis firm comScore .

Microsoft's rivals have asked European antitrust regulators to modify the ballot screen that would give Windows users the chance to choose which browser they use in Windows, according to a report by the New York Times .

Microsoft has announced that it will release six security updates, with three for Windows labelled as 'critical', next Patch Tuesday, the 10th of November.

Microsoft is cutting prices of its Microsoft-hosted Exchange, as well as its suite of business services , and is refunding the difference to existing hosting customers.

Microsoft officials have shared details about two of the three different versions of Office 2010 that are in development: The Office 2010 client and the Office Web Apps.

Angry users put enough pressure on Microsoft over the past four months to make the software giant cave -- the company will offer full support for Exchange Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Mozilla plans to overhaul the look and feel of Firefox for Windows, a redesign that will resemble Google's Chrome in several key elements, according to screenshots and discussions on the open-source developer's Web site.

Microsoft's antitrust settlement offer to the European Commission needs minor, often cosmetic changes in order to restore fair competition to the market for Internet browsers, said some of the software giant's main rivals Thursday.

Near-final code for Microsoft's next SQL Server database is due today, wrapping in hardware from partners to help counter Oracle's proprietary Exadata appliance.

Updated Management Pack, new Application Ready Solutions for Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager offer dynamic network control to ensure optimal application.

" 5 November 2009 - " Symantec Corp. today announced the availability of Backup Exec System Recovery 2010 , a complete data and system backup and recovery solution for small businesses.

CLEAR SKIES: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer inked pacts with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Chunghwa Telecom and HTC Corp during a whirlwind visit to Taipei By Jason Tan STAFF REPORTER Thursday, Nov 05, 2009, Page 12 Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp, speaks at a forum on cloud computing at the Grand Hyatt Taipei yesterday ...

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is notifying approximately 800 workers that their jobs are being eliminated as the software giant completes the layoffs it announced earlier this year .

HTC revealed the HD2 phone will start shipping in the US in early 2010. European and Taiwanese people are luckier, they can get the phone starting today.

Of the new features in Windows 7 it's probably among those that has received the least amount of coverage, but for expatriate PC users the ability to switch the language of the operating system represents a major step forward for Windows.

Microsoft Tuesday said it will make a preview of SQL Server 2008 R2 available this month that is features complete, including new business intelligence integration tools and master data management features.

Microsoft Corp. is giving its MSN Web portal a long-overdue makeover and says it hopes the new site will funnel more people to Bing, the software maker's search engine.

A A A Governor Jay Nixon announced yesterday that the state would be teaming up with technology company under the Microsoft Elevate America Program.A The program, launched nationwide back in February, has been implemented in six other states.A A A A Under Microsoft Elevate America, 25,000 vouchers will be given to Missourians for e-learning and ...

"The hidden story here is that most large GAPE installations are Gmail-focused. SMBs are using Google Apps as a replacement for Microsoft Office, but large enterprises aren't. So while enterprises buying GAPE may be paying for e-mail, a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation package, what they're really using is the e-mail portion." ...

Windows 7 has been out less than two weeks and already we're seeing third-party applications to exploit code in it.

Windows 7's market share surged nearly 40% in the week following its release, according to Web measurement company Net Applications.

Techtree.com Apple floods Google with anti-Microsoft ads iT News The cheeky advertising appears in the sponsored sites section of the three search engines and seems to occur only when "Windows 7" or "download Windows 7" Apple Using Google To Dampen Windows 7 Hype ChannelWeb all 195 news articles

Apple will never lack for opinions about how it should be running its business. Unfortunately almost all of it's bad.

Innovative partnership with Microsoft to provide high-tech skills programs -- free of charge ST.

Companies worldwide are slashing spending on information technology because of the global downturn and will have to learn to do more with less, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said Monday.

Samsung and Microsoft announced to collaborate on efficient energy usage in computers.

Rating: --- Tackling server performance issues can be a major challenge. Bottlenecks, changing workloads, and disk or network saturation are just a few of the potential performance concerns that can arise.

No doubt, Windows 7 users will find that the latest update to the Microsoft client operating system sucks less than Vista.

The company supports the operating system for its Check Point Endpoint Security solution.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 11:20 AM PDT Starting in 2012, users of certain GPS devices will no longer get traffic updates, weather reports and other data because Microsoft is discontinuing its MSN Direct service.

Warner Bros. Pictures has agreed to step in and replace Microsoft as the sole sponsor of Fox's Seth MacFarlane variety special, set to air Nov.

Important security update for Opera 10 H-Online Opera 10.01 fixes an "extremely severe" issue in the browser.

Microsoft is shutting down its Office Accounting product on November 16. "We have determined that existing free templates within Office used with Excel was a better option for small businesses, and the Microsoft Dynamics ERP products were appropriate for mid-range organizations," Microsoft said in a note on its Web site.

The websites of Bing, Microsoft and Yahoo are displayed on a computer monitor in July 2009.