The war of words between Microsoft and Google over the use of Google Apps in the enterprise continues.
Sharing his thoughts yesterday in a blog called "The Hidden Google Tax," Microsoft's director of online services, Tom Rizzo, took some swings at Google Apps, proclaiming that it's not a cost-effective solution for the enterprise.
Rizzo, who in the past has offered his no-holds-barred opinion of Google Apps, said that Microsoft interviewed almost 100 small and midsize businesses that use Google Apps.
Among the findings, Rizzo said that 90 percent of the companies use Google Apps in conjunction with Microsoft Office and in fact continue to rely on Office for productivity reasons, security concerns, and the ability to work offline. Further, most of the companies included in Microsoft's survey use only Gmail and Calendar, with only two out of five using Google Docs and two out of three continuing ... Read full post & comments
Windows Phone 7 updates need to be completed through official channels, Microsoft says.
(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET) That's according to Microsoft's Brandon Watson, who wrote about the issue on the company's developer blog yesterday. Anyone who updated their Windows Phone 7 devices to build 7390 via "unofficial mechanisms" will be unable to complete the update to the company's latest build, 7392, he wrote.
"Despite the fact that many people have claimed that an unofficial update mechanism worked fine for them, we cautioned that phones which were updated via this method were not going to be able to update past build 7390," wrote Watson, a senior director for Windows Phone. "Unfortunately for those customers out there who acted on information ... Read full post & comments
Originally posted at The Digital Home
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, posting at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Users of Internet Explorer can now get rid of those persistent "Flash cookies" thanks to the latest version of Adobe Flash and support from within Microsoft's IE.
Cookies are files created on your PC and used by sites to keep track of certain data, such as site settings and usernames. All the major Web browsers let you remove cookies. But one flavor of cookie, known as a Flash cookie, doesn't get thrown out when you delete your traditional Web cookies. That limitation has triggered privacy concerns.
But the latest release candidate of Adobe Flash 10.3 integrates with the "delete browsing history" feature in Internet Explorer 8 and 9. This means that when you delete your browsing history or your cookies specifically in IE, the Flash cookies will now go along for the ride.
As discussed in a Microsoft blog yesterday, the company has outlined a few steps ... Read full post & comments
But the latest release candidate of Adobe Flash 10.3 integrates with the "delete browsing history" feature in Internet Explorer 8 and 9. This means that when you delete your browsing history or your cookies specifically in IE, the Flash cookies will now go along for the ride.
As discussed in a Microsoft blog yesterday, the company has outlined a few steps ... Read full post & comments
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaking at Mobile World Congress 2011, shortly after announcing a deal with Nokia.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET ) A new partnership between once fierce rivals, which calls for Microsoft's Bing Search and Bing Maps to be built into the operating system of future RIM devices, would have seemed unfathomable just a few years ago.
But it's hardly an unusual strategy for Microsoft. For years, the software titan has competed fiercely against companies, only to embrace them when their fortunes sag. The list is long. Microsoft made peace with America Online, a one-time competitor in Internet access that also bought browser rival Netscape. It settled with RealNetworks, with which it once did battle in ... Read full post & comments
The latest batch of rumors regarding a Windows app store has cropped up.
They include a different name than previously rumored, a logo, and the ability to deliver software directly to a person's desktop, according to Windows enthusiast site WinRumors and other sources.
WinRumors reports that the new shop is likely to be dubbed the Windows Store--not the Windows App Store. It apparently will offer consumers a variety of free and paid apps for PCs that they can download much in the same way that Apple users can download apps from the Mac App Store. Its release is tied to that of Windows 8, the next version of the Windows operating system.
The store will also allegedly kick off with a new logo that, like much of Windows 8, borrows some of its look and feel from Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Metro UI.
The new store will most likely be based on HTML5 and will send apps to PCs from Microsoft's cloud-based Azure service, according to Windows enthusiast site MSWin (Google Translate version), which apparently peeked under the hood of the recent Windows 8 Milestone 3 Build. The site also found subtle entries pointing to a Windows Store deep within the bowels of the Windows Registry.
... Read full post & comments
They include a different name than previously rumored, a logo, and the ability to deliver software directly to a person's desktop, according to Windows enthusiast site WinRumors and other sources.
The alleged logo for Microsoft's upcoming app store
(Credit: Geek.com) The store will also allegedly kick off with a new logo that, like much of Windows 8, borrows some of its look and feel from Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Metro UI.
The new store will most likely be based on HTML5 and will send apps to PCs from Microsoft's cloud-based Azure service, according to Windows enthusiast site MSWin (Google Translate version), which apparently peeked under the hood of the recent Windows 8 Milestone 3 Build. The site also found subtle entries pointing to a Windows Store deep within the bowels of the Windows Registry.
... Read full post & comments
If Clippy isn't buried here, who--or what--is?
(Credit: Screenshot of Microsoft promo video by Edward Moyer/CNET Center for Investigative Reporting) GeekWire's Todd Bishop spied the fastener in what he reports is--gasp!--Microsoft's new training tool for Office, a game called Ribbon Hero 2. Clippy even appears to get top billing--the game's official name, Bishop reports, is Ribbon Hero 2: Clippy's Second Chance (a title that's sure to send shivers down the spine of many an Office user).
It's not the first time the aroma of conspiracy has wafted around the cloying length of wire. A month after Clippy's supposed 2001 ousting from Microsoft's flagship software suite (and his supposed move to jobs as a cab driver and a UPS deliveryman), a duo of crack CNET investigative journalists revealed that the fastener had somehow made his way into Office XP.
... Read full post & comments
Originally posted at Crave
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 interoperability database for Apple's iOS
(Credit: Microsoft) A newly announced service called the iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool, acts as an interchange for developers to take applications they've already written for Apple's platform, and figure out ways to get the code work with Microsoft's standards.
"With this tool, iPhone developers can grab their apps, pick out the iOS API calls, and quickly look up the equivalent classes, methods and notification events in WP7," said Jean-Christophe Cimetiere, Microsoft's senior technical evangelist in a blog post announcing the tool. The database is also able to direct users to a directory of code samples, where they can learn to do some of the same things using Microsoft technologies. ... Read full post & comments
Originally posted at Apple Talk
It may be more of a stumble than a full-on trip, but Microsoft is having a bit more technical trouble with its Windows Phone 7 update.
Microsoft's Michael Stroh, who writes for the Windows blog, acknowledged yesterday that the company stopped sending updates to Samsung Omnia 7 phones. Those are the same phones that were rendered useless, or "bricked," when Microsoft started to roll out the so-called NoDo update in February.
"The team discovered a technical issue with the update package for this model," Stroh wrote in a reply to questions posted on the Windows Phone blog. His reply was first reported by the WinRumors site.
Stroh said Microsoft is working to fix the problem. "The work of fixing and testing the package is nearly done, and the team hopes to resume update deliveries soon," Stroh wrote. "When I know more about the timing, I'll pass it along."
The update problems seem limited to the Samsung phones. According to Microsoft's Where's my phone update Web page, the company is delivering the update to most other Windows Phone 7 devices at this point.
... Read full post & comments
Microsoft's Michael Stroh, who writes for the Windows blog, acknowledged yesterday that the company stopped sending updates to Samsung Omnia 7 phones. Those are the same phones that were rendered useless, or "bricked," when Microsoft started to roll out the so-called NoDo update in February.
Samsung Omnia 7
(Credit: Samsung) Stroh said Microsoft is working to fix the problem. "The work of fixing and testing the package is nearly done, and the team hopes to resume update deliveries soon," Stroh wrote. "When I know more about the timing, I'll pass it along."
The update problems seem limited to the Samsung phones. According to Microsoft's Where's my phone update Web page, the company is delivering the update to most other Windows Phone 7 devices at this point.
... Read full post & comments
Microsoft revealed more about the plight of Netbook sales in the age of the iPad during the company's third-quarter earnings conference call today. This follows statements by Intel's chief financial officer earlier in the month.
The Redmond, Wash., software giant said today that the consumer PC market declined 8 percent in the most recent quarter and part of that was due to "a 40 percent decline in Netbooks," according to a statement by Bill Koefoed, general manager of investor relations, during the earnings conference call.
"In total, we estimate the PC market declined 1 percent to 3 percent in the third quarter," he said.
At Intel, the story--or at least the emphasis--was different, with the chipmaker reporting strong PC client growth of 17 percent on April 19.
In a CNET interview on April 19, Stacy Smith, Intel's chief financial officer, said this ... Read full post & comments
A Toshiba Netbook.
(Credit: Toshiba) "In total, we estimate the PC market declined 1 percent to 3 percent in the third quarter," he said.
At Intel, the story--or at least the emphasis--was different, with the chipmaker reporting strong PC client growth of 17 percent on April 19.
In a CNET interview on April 19, Stacy Smith, Intel's chief financial officer, said this ... Read full post & comments
Originally posted at Nanotech - The Circuits Blog
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
Net income in the company's fiscal third quarter climbed 31 percent from the year-ago period to $5.23 billion on sales of $16.43 billion, a 13 percent gain. Earnings per share climbed 36 percent to 61 cents, a figure that includes a 5 cent a share benefit from a settlement with Internal Revenue Service over tax audits from 2004 to 2006.
"I'm pleased with our healthy financial results for the quarter," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said on a conference call with analysts, investors, and journalists regarding the results.
Investors were less pleased, though. Microsoft released its results after the stock market closed, but in after-hours trading, its shares fell 1.4 percent to $26.34. And that comes even as Microsoft ... Read full post & comments
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