By Paul Thurrott, 07/30/2010
An often irreverent look at some of this week's other news, including the completion, sort of, of Windows Phone Secrets, Microsoft's re-commitment to slate PCs, why you should wait for 2011 for that slate PC, Microsoft's cloud experience, 8 core businesses for Microsoft but only one that matters, IE 9 public beta in September, iPhone 4 to plague 17 other countries today, and Apple's pointless new Mac gadget....
By Paul Thurrott, 07/29/2010
Online retailing giant Amazon this morning announced its third-generation Kindle eBook reader, which is smaller, lighter, and faster than its predecessor, while offering the same screen dimensions and 50 percent better contrast. Best of all for potential customers, the new Kindle is getting a significant price cut, with the base model costing just $139....
By Paul Thurrott, 07/28/2010
At the Black Hat security conference on Wednesday, Microsoft and Adobe announced they were dramatically expanding their relationship in order to better protect users against electronic threats. Now, Adobe will provide vulnerability information about its products via Microsoft's Active Protections Program (MAPP) to security solution vendors...
By Paul Thurrott, 07/28/2010
Microsoft this week denounced a web search partnership in Japan that would see its close partner, Yahoo!, tie up with industry Goliath Google....
By Paul Thurrott, 07/27/2010
The US Copyright Office, a unit of the Library of Congress, this week ruled that iPhone users are free to "jailbreak" their devices, opening them up to non-Apple-approved applications....
By Paul Thurrott, 07/26/2010
As part of its quarterly and annual financial results released late last week, Microsoft announced that it had sold more than 175 million copies of Windows 7 through the third week of July....
By Paul Thurrott, 07/23/2010
An often irreverent look at some of this week's other news, including Microsoft's record-setting financial results, Windows 7 hits 175 million units sold, Microsoft's mysterious ARM agreement points to a possible tablet future, Apple delays white iPhone 4s until the end of time, Nokia issues in the high-end market, Dell settles SEC case for $100 million, Amazon profits surge, and Facebook hits 500 million users....
By Paul Thurrott, 07/22/2010
Microsoft this week released an automated online tool to counter a recently-revealed zero-day vulnerability in the Windows shell. This vulnerability affects all modern Windows versions from Windows XP through 7, including Server versions....
By Paul Thurrott, 07/21/2010
Microsoft this week announced that its Kinect motion-sensing add-on for the Xbox 360 will launch November 4 in North America and will cost $149.99, as expected. Additionally, Microsoft will sell an all-in-one bundle that combines a new low-end Xbox 360 with the Kinect and a Kinect-specific game for $299....
By Paul Thurrott, 07/21/2010
Microsoft announced the immediate availability of a beta version of its next Security Essentials product, which provides free antivirus and anti-malware functionality to Windows and is aimed at individuals and home-based businesses....