Friday, November 06, 2009 4:57 PM/CST
Microsoft's much-rumored Courier tablet, slides and video of which leaked online this week, suggest that Redmond could be preparing a robust competitor in the tablet PC market. Scuttlebutt suggests that the Courier will run on Windows 7 and Microsoft-engineered hardware. Microsoft could potentially intend the Courier as a competitor to Apple's own (alleged) Tablet PC, which some analysts have predicted will roll out sometime in 2010.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 5:12 PM/CST
Microsoft executive Eric Ligman responded in a new Microsoft SMB Community Blog posting to criticism from the Windows community, after he suggested last week that using Windows 7 upgrade discs to install a full version of the operating system on a blank hard drive was ultimately an illegal "hack." Ligman's new missive suggests some commenters to the original post were making pre-determined conclusions about some of his words.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 5:04 PM/CST
Microsoft expanded its retail foray with the Oct. 29 opening of its store in Mission Viejo, Calif., in a mall that also contains an Apple Store. Despite the massive crowds that attended the opening, time will tell whether Microsoft's strategy of aggressively challenging Apple in the retail space will succeed.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 5:14 PM/CST
Microsoft's Technical Preview of Office Web Apps allows Windows Live subscribers to test out browser-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. While Word documents can only be viewed and downloaded, users can perform online edits to Excel and PowerPoint documents ... but only if those uploaded documents have certain file extensions.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 2:26 PM/CST
Microsoft has expanded the technical preview of its Office Web Apps, which allows Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents to be viewed and sometimes edited via the browser. However, users of older Office platforms may find some issues with the Excel Web App, which doesn't seem to allow certain Excel formats to be edited.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:20 AM/CST
Microsoft decided to pull out of sponsoring a Seth MacFarlane program that would have married "Family Guy"-style humor with Windows 7 branding, over concerns that jokes about deaf people and other topics would be too edgy for their intended audience. However, Microsoft will likely continue its branding relationship with Fox. MacFarlane, meanwhile, is looking for a new sponsor.
Monday, October 26, 2009 2:30 PM/CST
Microsoft spent a portion of its Windows 7 launch event on Oct. 22 touting the multitouch functionality of some of its partners' PCs. Although Microsoft-powered touch screens have been in use for many years, the Windows 7-equipped devices represent a huge push by Microsoft into the consumer market. The only question is, does the public's enthusiasm for multitouch PCs actually match Microsoft's?
Friday, October 23, 2009 5:25 PM/CST
As Microsoft rolled out Windows 7 for general release on Oct. 22, Apple stepped up its anti-Windows ad campaign. During the same week, Apple also released new hardware. Although Steve Jobs' company fought to claim some mind share from Microsoft leading up to the Windows 7 launch, the sheer size of Microsoft's customer base--and the rare event of a new Windows operating system--guaranteed Redmond the lion's share of attention.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 2:03 PM/CST
Microsoft used its Windows 7 launch to brand itself as a warm and fuzzy software conglomerate, running its family-friendly ads and having 5-year-old Kylie, the star of some of those spots, introduce Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Ballmer re-emphasized that Microsoft's ultimate strategy is to create a cloud-based environment for consumers, centered on Windows 7-powered devices.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:37 AM/CST
Windows 7 launched in a high-profile event in New York on Oct. 22. In the hours before the launch, headlined by CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft executives discussed the process that went into making Windows 7 an improvement over Windows Vista, Microsoft's much-maligned previous operating system.
