That Skype for BlackBerry 10 app? It’ll be an old Android port
When the BlackBerry team said Skype was committed to bring its app to BB 10, did you envision the software being a simple Android port? Me neither. Read more »
ComScore: Windows Phone lost US market share in holiday quarter
You’d think that during the final quarter of last year, when Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 8 and Nokia debuted a new flagship Lumia, the platform would gain momentum. You’d be wrong. Read more »
No surprise: Microsoft Surface Pro arrives to a mix of cheers and jeers
Microsoft’s Surface Pro is now on sale, starting at $899. Early reviews are mixed with the word “compromise” appearing quite often amid the good, the bad, and the ugly. Read more »
Podcast Q&A: BB 10 data plans? Ink in Surface RT? Console gaming v. phones?
It’s another edition of our call-in podcast where we take your questions and provide answers. This week: Windows RT inking, useful Android freeware, BlackBerry 10 data plans and more. Read more »
How Dell should go big now that it has gone private
photo: Shutterstock / Dusit
Free from the scrutiny of public markets, Dell should let its freak flag fly and take some real risks to distinguish itself from the server-vendor pack. I think that means doubling down on next-generation software and server design. Read more »
Microsoft shows it gets the cloud by integrating products and focusing on mobile
Microsoft has introduced a new sign-on experience for users of business applications such as Office 365 and Windows Azure, showing it’s trying to better accommodate cloud users. Read more »
Microsoft’s big data boss heads to Madrona Venture Group
Microsoft vet and data platform VP Ted Kummert is joining Madrona Venture Group as a venture partner. As VCs aim to boost their enterprise investments, they’re snatching up talent from big IT. Read more »
The Dell deal is done: Company goes private in $24.4B transaction
After a week of whispers, it’s official: Silver Lake Partners and Michael Dell are taking his eponymous PC company private. Read more »
Can Microsoft make it in Africa with the Huawei 4Afrika Windows Phone?
The $150 handset is cheap for a Windows Phone 8 device, but still pricey compared with entry-level smartphones and semi-smartphones from Nokia, BlackBerry and Huawei itself. Read more »
Dell buyout deal is reportedly near
The notion of a privately-held Dell, partly owned by Microsoft, is getting closer to reality, according to published reports. A deal in which Microsoft owns a big stake in a PC company shows just how drastically times have changed. Read more »
Another Microsoft partner plays the field: HP outs a $329 Chromebook
Following Samsung and Acer, HP has thrown its hat into the Google Chromebook ring. The new $329 Pavilion may appeal to those wanting more screen and less Microsoft. Read more »
Fruux’s cross-platform iCloud rival gets team-friendly
The tool, which synchronizes contacts, calendar entries and tasks across most platforms, is now explicitly targeting business users with the new Fruux Team version. Read more »
Microsoft Office 365 hits pothole
photo: Flickr / ToddABishop
Just days after the Microsoft Office 365 Premium launch, the service goes down for many users. Read more »
Data centers haven’t just changed computing, they’ve changed communities
photo: CC license by Flickr user IntelFreePress
Following the opening of data centers, communities in Oregon, Washington and Virginia have made new policies, built many new homes and prompted environmental activism. Read more »
Friday funny video: How to use a dual-screen Windows tablet in Starbucks
Heading to a coffee shop without your Mac? Consider this sneaky method to use a two-screened Windows laptop — and save your Apple stickers! Read more »
Good news Gmail users: Google extends Sync support through July
When Google announced it was dropping Sync support last month, it left Gmail users on Windows Phone reeling. An extension give Microsoft time to address the situation. Read more »
New numbers show: Microsoft moves more media than you might think
photo: Corbis
Sure, consumers still buy a whole lot of DVDs – but they’re also starting to spend money on movie rentals on their Xboxes and Windows 8 devices. Read more at paidContent »
Whoa: Tablet shipments now more than half that of the PC
IDC has the market share breakdown of tablet sales by vendor, but the big story isn’t who is making more tablets. More important is the tablet impact on the PC market. Read more »
Yahoo vets back Tomfoolery to put some pizzazz in enterprise software
Tomfoolery aims to make enterprise apps mobile and fun; now it has $1.7 million from Jerry Yang, Brad Garlinghouse and others to get started. Read more »
VMware shares get slammed
VMware shares took it on the chin Tuesday, a day after the company talked down its projected earnings for the next quarter. Read more »
Microsoft: You’re doing it wrong. Surface Pro should have more free storage
While few devices actually provide the advertised amount of storage capacity, Microsoft’s Surface Pro is a hog: The 64 GB model comes with only 23 GB available to the user. Read more »
AWS launches transcoding service a week after Microsoft goes after media biz
Amazon has hopped into the video transcoding business with it’s new Elastic Transcoder service, joining Microsoft, Encoding.com and others as providers of such a service. Read more »
Acer Chromebook sales eating away at Windows 8 revenues
Acer hasn’t been kind to Microsoft of late and is now trumpeting its Chromebook sales, which account for between 5 and 10 percent of all sales in just two months. Read more »
Want to run Windows through an HTML5 browser? Mikogo has you covered
The screen-sharing operation just released Mikogo Cloud Desktop, which lets businesses access full-fat Windows desktops on tablets, smartphones and other desktops. And yes, that can mean Windows 8 on an iPad. Read more »
Microsoft gets a (little) boost from Windows 8, but profits fall
photo: Flickr / ToddABishop
For its second quarter, Microsoft’s profits sagged to $6.4 billion or 76 cents per share from $6.6 billion (79 cents per share) compared to last year’s comparable period. Read more »
Group calls on Skype to release a Google-like transparency report
After Microsoft bought Skype, some were concerned about the security of their Skype calls. Microsoft did little to assuage those concerns, so a group of human rights organizations and journalists are demanding more transparency. Read more »
A Microsoft investment in Dell would show how vulnerable both IT giants are
Both Microsoft and Dell face lagging stock prices and the perception that they both missed the boat in mobile. But the two companies also face very real threats to their core enterprise IT businesses. Read more »
Why Microsoft would want a piece of Dell
If Microsoft takes a big stake in Dell it could sway operating system and software loaded on Dell PCs, servers and potentially other devices. Read more »
Online gaming power Steam disses Windows 8, pushes Linux
The company behind the popular Steam online gaming platform is definitely not impressed by the latest Windows version and is instead pushing Windows developers to Ubuntu Linux. Read more »
Microsoft pushes ahead with its own take on WebRTC
Microsoft published a first prototype for plugin-free video chat in the browser Thursday. However, it’s a bit different from what Google and others have in mind. Read more »
The fourth quarter of 2012 in mobile
The mobile platform wars heated up in a big way as 2012 came to a close. Among other trends, Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8, Android’s dominant market share grew, and mobile commerce reached record highs during the holidays. Read more »
Sorry Windows RT, Windows 8 on an Atom has your number
Microsoft’s Windows RT software had an opportunity to bring limited Windows 8 functionality to low-cost tablets, but that window may already be closing. Intel Atom-based slates with full Windows 8 and long run-times on a single charge have fewer restrictions and cost about the same. Read more »
SAP marries transaction processing with analytics by putting Business Suite on Hana
SAP’s customers, used to running its enterprise software on the likes of Oracle, now have an in-house in-memory alternative. It’s a bid for relevance on SAP’s part and, according to chairman Hasso Plattner, mobile is the big driver. Read more »
One less Windows RT choice in US: So long Samsung Ativ Tab
U.S. consumers have one less Windows RT tablet to choose: Samsung has decided not to sell its Ativ Tab, citing weak demand for Windows RT and a lack of product understanding by consumers. That’s OK, the Ativ with full Windows 8 and Intel’s Atom is $599. Read more »
Want a sub-$500 Windows 8 tablet? Look to Dell.
Looking for a Windows 8 slate on the cheap? Dell removed the active digitizer and swappable battery from its Latitude 10 tablet for an Essentials model that starts at $499. Aimed at educators and students, the tablet is much less than Microsoft’s $899 Surface Pro. Read more »
The 2013 task management tools market
The task-management market is growing, in part because users need to coordinate with teams via mobile. In this case, heavier-weight solutions like Yammer, IBM Connections, and Podio don’t always suffice. But the demand for digital to-do lists that can be shared across project teams is increasing. Read more »
Asus VivoTab Smart Tablet blends bits of Surface Pro and RT
One look at the new Asus VivoTab Smart Tablet and you’ll swear you saw it before. It looks just like Microsoft’s Surface products. It blends some of the best features of Surface RT and Surface Pro, however; priced right, it could be a big seller. Read more »
America has plenty of wireless spectrum — we just need a new way to allocate it
photo: Andrey Titarenko/Shutterstock.com
The conventional wisdom is that we have a radio spectrum shortage. That’s not the case, according to President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. What we need is a much more efficient way to allocate what we have, and that includes a plan for shared use. Read more »
Microsoft takes heat — on its own blog — for Google pushback
photo: Flickr / ToddABishop
Microsoft isn’t getting much — if any — sympathy for its complaints over the Federal Trade Commission’s recent settlement with Google over its business practices. Read more »
Google wins: a plain English guide to the FTC’s big ruling
photo: Kzenon via Shutterstock
After a two-year investigation into Google’s search business, the feds finally issued a decision. The outcome is a clear win for Google — here’s an easy Q&A about what happened and what it means. Read more »
