Microsoft

Windows Blue preview to hit in late June, Microsoft exec says

NEW YORK--Users will get a preview of Windows Blue in late June, a Microsoft executive said Tuesday.

Julie Larson-Green, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Windows, said a public preview of the update to the Windows 8 operating system will be available in time for Microsoft's developers' conference next month.

She declined to provide many details about Windows Blue, the codename for the update, but she said it will enable device makers to create products with smaller screen sizes. She added that despite some reports, Windows Blue won't have any major changes from Windows 8.

"We're … Read more

Microsoft extends revenue guarantee with Yahoo

Microsoft is going to continue to pay Yahoo a guarantee for the revenue-per-search (RPS) shortfall that is continuing to persist.

Reuters noted that Yahoo disclosed the latest year-long extension of the guarantee, which had expired on March 31, on May 7. The guarantee took effect on April 1, according to Yahoo's latest 10-Q filing.

Search Engine Land recapped RPS this way:

"(W)hen Yahoo & Microsoft signed a search deal in 2009, Microsoft promised that Yahoo would earn a set amount of money for each search that happens, a 'revenue per search' or RPS. If this didn't … Read more

Windows Start button could make a comeback, Microsoft exec says

NEW YORK--The Windows Start button could make a comeback in future versions of the software, Microsoft's head of Windows confirmed Tuesday.

Julie Larson-Green, corporate vice president of Windows at Microsoft, said the company is having "meaningful discussions" about bringing certain older features of the Microsoft's operating system to Windows 8. That could include a Start button that remains on the screen.

However, she said Microsoft believes "fully in the start screen and model of having live tiles and access to everything you want in a glance."

"The Start menu was never built for … Read more

What's new about Windows Blue (FAQ)

Microsoft may be the only company on the face of the planet where the sale of 100 million licenses is seen by some as a disappointment.

Tami Reller, the chief marketing officer and chief financial officer of the Windows division, noted Monday that Microsoft has sold more than 100 million licenses of Windows 8 since its October debut. But slowing PC sales have sparked some hand-wringing, leading to speculation about the coming update for Windows 8, codenamed Blue. The significant changes in Windows haven't been universally embraced, Reller acknowledged to The New York Times.

"The learning curve is … Read more

Next Xbox may not need constant Web connection

Plenty of video gamers had feared that the next Xbox console from Microsoft would require a constant Internet connection.

But a new internal e-mail to the Xbox team, reported on by Ars Technica, suggests that the console won't always need to be plugged into the Web.

"Durango (the code name for the next Xbox) is designed to deliver the future of entertainment while engineered to be tolerant of today's Internet," the e-mail said, according to the Ars report. "There are a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection, and … Read more

Bill Gates: iPad users frustrated, need the Surface

The legion of unhappy iPad users is vast and growing.

They picket Cupertino daily, protesting that Apple make urgent changes to a device that really is substandard. They are very mad and they just can't take it anymore.

No, no, this is not my observation. It's my imagination of Bill Gates' imagination.

For in an appearance on CNBC on Monday, Microsoft's chairman explained very patiently that the iPad is a hive of pain.

I am grateful to the Loop for espying this footage and not using the word "loopy."

Gates told CNBC that Microsoft is … Read more

Asus CEO 'very optimistic' about Windows 8 tablets

Look for Windows 8 tablets to have a strong year, says Asus CEO Jerry Shen.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal in an interview published today, Shen said that his company is "very optimistic about sales for Windows 8 tablets this year," adding that he believes Microsoft's support for 7-inch slates will be the central move in the platform's success.

Windows 8-based tablets currently measure 10 inches or more in size. Microsoft and its fellow tablet makers reportedly are planning to launch 7-inch slates later this year that can still run the company's Windows platform. … Read more

Acer to launch Win 8 tablets with smaller screens this year

Acer plans to launch Windows 8 tablets with smaller screen sizes in the second half of the year, an executive said Friday.

Such devices will feature touch screens smaller than 10 inches, Emmanuel Fromont, Acer president for the Pan America region, and Sumit Agnihotry, Acer vice president of product marketing, told CNET in an interview following an Acer product launch event in New York.

They likely will cost below $400 -- the typical entry point for Windows tablets today -- and will be pushed as productivity devices that link to the traditional PC world more easily than Android devices, the … Read more

Future Microsoft tablet may have 7.5-inch display, low price

A future Microsoft tablet is expected to sport a 7.5-inch display, as the budding tablet maker seeks to reduce both size and price, according to NPD DisplaySearch.

"From the supply chain side, we're seeing the panel specifications, the touch module, the mass production schedule being made," Richard Shim, an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch, told CNET Thursday.

The tablet is expected to use a 7.5-inch panel with 1,400x1,050 resolution, according to Shim. That comes to a respectable pixel density of 233 pixels per inch, higher than the Nexus 7 and Apple's iPad Mini. … Read more