Entries By Tag: Microsoft

IE 9 (RC): ups and downs

Last month, on February 10, Microsoft has launched the release candidate (RC) for IE 9 browser. Theoretically this is the last phase of development before the RTM (ready to manufacturing) version, the company focusing on fixing the remaining bugs. ... read more

Bill Gates pledges to give

By now everybody knows that Bill Gates and his friend Warren Buffett have convinced many billionaires to donate most of their wealth to charity back in August. "The Giving Pledge" gathered more then 30 American billionaires such as: Michael Bloomberg (New York Mayor), Larry Ellison (Oracle co-founder), T. Boone Pickens, Ted Turner, David Rockefeller and Ronald Perelman to join their cause. ... read more

Waiting for Google OS... should Windows watch its back?

The rumor that Google is launching an operating system is no longer breaking news and almost everybody is waiting for the final release. At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco (Nov. 2010), Google boss, Eric Schmidt, announced that the Google OS will be available “in the next few months". ... read more

Photosynth: 3D art at your fingertips

Photosynth is a piece of software created by Microsoft which allows users to recreate a 3D or a panoramic scene by using a series of flat photos of the same object or location. If you wonder how can this be possible, the answer is presented in this article.
  ... read more

Can IE9 regain the lost market share?

With the release of the newest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari forcing the boundaries of the web, Internet Explorer has lost plenty of market share. ... read more

Microsoft's internal war: Windows 7 vs. Windows Vista

When two important products of the same brand enter in competition with one another, the outcome, no matter the result, for sure will be satisfactory for the "mother company". ... read more

Apple vs. Microsoft... or is it vs. Google?

By now you've probably heard that Apple is the newest company to challenge the so called title "World's Biggest Tech Company", in the detriment of Microsoft. ... read more

Google Chrome is GROWING

Google Chrome is growing, and it's growing fast! Launched on September 2, 2008 as a beta version (the [last] stable version was released on April 27, 2010), Google Chrome didn't start as an eye catcher. ... read more

Microsoft Office 2010: the suite which aims for Performance

It took Microsoft more than three years of development, two software leaks (they sure don't have Apple's security) and many rumors to launch, on November 2009, the Beta version of their newest suite: Microsoft Office 2010. Meant to be more focused on the employee's needs, the successor of Office 2007 brings in more tools, a friendlier user experience and extended compatibility. ... read more

The new Browser War: Google goes Machiavelli on Microsoft

It's been a busy season for the major players on the web browser market, with Mozilla Corp. launching Firefox 3.5 on 30 June, and Microsoft releasing its 8th edition of IE in March. While the former included native integration of audio and video, more privacy features and an overall performance improvement, the latter added accelerators, improved privacy protection, and a compatibility mode for pages designed for earlier version of IE. Along came Google ... read more

Crossing blades in cross-browser compatibility issues

It's been only a couple of weeks since Google's last attempt at publicly admonishing (let's not use the harsher word "humiliate") Microsoft's baby, Internet Explorer. Well, as they say, all is fair in love and web. :) Since there is no "mommy" to go to when peers start hitting each other, the problem is left in the hands of players. And Microsoft is certainly an old player at this game. ... read more

Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google. What's in it for each?

Previous days have found the web filled with rumors, either reliable or not so truthful, about Microsoft finally having closed a partnership deal with Yahoo. Although everything has been confirmed by officials from both parties, the mystery still remains as everybody is now wondering ... read more

.NET Framework 4 Beta 1 released

Following the announcement of the first Beta version for the Microsoft development platform and tools, the new enhanced .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 is available for download from MSDN.

One of the exciting new features, though not sure to remain in the final release, is ... read more

Biiing!

For the uninitiated, the word above is an onomatopoeia - for the connoisseurs Bing is the new search engine from Microsoft. The word itself wants to stand out for a discovery or for a great idea. So, if Archimedes left us with the famous "Evrika", Microsoft is giving us "Bing". But, no matter the story (manufactured or not) for this name, Bing is Microsoft's attempt to conquer the search engine market. ... read more

Silverlight 3 – Microsoft's Lancelot

This month's MIX conference revealed a lot of "hot" stuff about the new MS products, and Silverlight 3, released yesterday, was one of the topics discussed. Fully supported by Visual Studio and Expression Blend, Silverlight 3 is hyped with: significant graphics improvements including 3D graphics support, out of browser support that allows Web applications to work on the desktop, important media enhancements, GPU acceleration and many other features that improve RIA development productivity. The future ... read more

5 Years of waiting for Windows Server 2008 (2)

The second release of Windows Server 2008, the R2 beta version, brings about a major change - it works only on 64-bit machines, and this alone triggers some important improvements. Besides that, the power consumption is cut through attentive monitoring and adjustment of the processors utilization levels. This way, the used power is limited to the actual needs of the workload.

5 Years of waiting for Windows Server 2008 (1)

After a 5-year period of waiting for the successor of Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 was released in February 2008. [...] Initially called "Windows Server Codename Longhorn", Windows Server 2008 is built on the same kernel as Vista (Windows NT 6.0 kernel), which means it has the same architecture and core functionality as Vista. Moreover, some of the technical, administrative and security features are similar to Vista. Among the new and improved features are  ... read more

Windows 7 - a step towards "life without walls"

After Microsoft's presentation in 2008, the world was once again divided between apple lovers (not the fruit lovers) and windows lovers. Such an outcome was triggered by the unveiling of the new operating system - Windows 7, which has the ambition to be an upgraded version of Vista with a new, user-friendly approach.

Internet Explorer 8: the makeover!

It was about time that Windows released a new and improved version of the Internet Explorer browser, taking into account the fact that Firefox and even Safari have taken big steps forward by now. [...] The beta version of Internet Explorer 8 was released in August 2008 and brings along new and very useful features such as: security and privacy, web slices, accelerators and much more ... read more

Silverlight: made to light up the Web

Exactly 2 years have passed from the initial release of Silverlight, in April 2007, and during this time period a number of definitions have appeared, trying to better explain what Silverlight is and what it actually does. Some say it is a web browser plugin, some view it as a new Microsoft technology that allows the development of RIA (Rich Internet Applications) and some just know that it is an alternative to Adobe's Flash. All of these definitions are quite true, but incomplete one without the other ... read more

Office Web Applications and Azure - Microsoft's new bet

Microsoft has demonstrated in more than one occasion that they can take a raw idea and bring it to its maximum market potential. They did come up with quite a few great ideas themselves - but arguably the most impressive feature that Microsoft has illustrated over the years is the capacity to re-pack an already proven concept into a better shape, that ultimately wins the market. This happened with DOS, Office, Windows, Internet Explorer, XBOX - and might also happen with the new services that MS has recently launched: Office Web Applications and Azure. ... read more

Microsoft: Antivirus or not?

For the past few years, Microsoft has been subject to some pretty harsh comments and disputes over its embedded (or not) antivirus solution for Windows OS users. With several attempts throughout the years, consisting of the MSAV from the MS-DOS 6 (1993) until the forms of Windows Live OneCare, the Microsoft mogul didn't really enjoyed much appreciation from the public, as regards to antivirus facilities.

In 2003, after Microsoft acquired the intellectual property rights over the RAV Antivirus from the Romanian company GeCad, things started to spur once again. ... read more