Microsoft

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What Cookies? Google, Microsoft Plot New Ways to Track You

Systems could mean big gains for tech firms

(Newser) - The Internet's biggest players are taking a bite out of cookies. Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are all working on ways to track users on their own, without the help of the small data chunks that reveal online activity, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company that wins what one...

Nokia Introduces New Windows Tablet, Phablet

Phone offers 6-inch, 1080p display

(Newser) - With Apple preparing for its (possibly iPad-themed) event in San Francisco today, Nokia is making some noise of its own over in Abu Dhabi. The device maker has added several new gadgets to its lineup, including a Windows tablet and a big-screen phone, or phablet. The new Lumia 1520 phone...

Top Microsoft Investors Want to Boot Bill Gates

Small group doesn't want him picking the next CEO

(Newser) - Three of Microsoft's top 20 investors are calling for the head of Mr. Microsoft himself. It's been a long time since Gates actively ran the company, but he's still chairman of the board, and is on the special committee that will select a new CEO. The board...

Bill Gates on Ctrl-Alt-Delete: Yeah, That Was a Mistake

Wishes he could Ctrl-Z that, make it a single button

(Newser) - If you ever found yourself annoyed at having to press Control-Alt-Delete in order to log onto Windows on your computer, you've now been vindicated. In an interview for a fundraising campaign at Harvard, Bill Gates himself admitted the three-key requirement was a mistake, the Verge reports. Basically, it was...

Microsoft Yanks Ads Mocking New iPhones

Only lasted a few hours online due to backlash

(Newser) - Microsoft launched a series of online ads mocking Apple's new iPhones yesterday ... only to take them down a few hours later. The ads, titled "A fly on the wall in Cupertino?" featured send-ups of meetings between Apple staff and execs ("Remember the thing about how we were...

Microsoft and Nokia: The Saddest Names in Tech Unite

How pundits are reacting, and how Microsoft is explaining itself

(Newser) - Why did Microsoft buy Nokia's phone business ? We now know Microsoft's answer: The computing giant released a 30-slide presentation today arguing that the move will improve Microsoft's margins on Windows phones, which will allow it to invest more in the platform, which will accelerate sales and...

Microsoft Buys Nokia's Phone Side for $7.2B

And it may have nabbed a new CEO in the process

(Newser) - Two firms largely left in the dust by the smartphone era are set to become one with Microsoft's $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia's cell phone business. "It's a bold step into the future," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who plans to step down within...

Business Gurus Opine: How I'd Fix Microsoft

From building a better tablet to creating more chaos

(Newser) - Microsoft revenue tripled under soon-to-be-ex CEO Steve Ballmer , but the one thing that $78 billion in sales can't buy is street cred. The Wall Street Journal asks an assortment of business leaders how they'd help the company get its groove back. A few highlights:
  • Alex Rampell, co-founder and
...

Ballmer Made $769M in Quitting
 Ballmer Made $769M in Quitting 
Aug 23, 2013 2:00 PM CDT

Ballmer Made $769M in Quitting

Because investors were so glad he was leaving

(Newser) - Cheer up, Steve Ballmer. Sure, you had to make the fairly humiliating announcement that you were stepping down as Microsoft CEO sooner than you'd wanted to. But on the bright side, you made a lot of money in the process. Investors were so excited to see the backside of...

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer to Retire; Stock Surges

Tech giant doesn't announce his successor

(Newser) - It's probably a bad sign when investors react to news of your CEO's departure by buying like crazy. Microsoft dropped a bombshell this morning by announcing that Steve Ballmer would retire within 12 months, the AP reports. The company gave no indication of who might succeed the longtime...

Facebook Moves to Get Planet Earth Online

And using Facebook, presumably

(Newser) - Some 4 billion people on this planet do not have Internet access, so a group of tech giants has formed a partnership with the aim of finally connecting those unfortunates to the virtual world of cat GIFs and, ahem, witty news curation websites. Spearheaded by Facebook, the partnership, called Internet....

Microsoft Pens 'Unusually Dramatic' Letter on PRISM

Brad Smith tells Eric Holder 'the Constitution is suffering'

(Newser) - Add Microsoft's general counsel to the list of people not happy about PRISM and other government surveillance programs. Brad Smith wrote a letter to Eric Holder yesterday—a letter Business Insider calls "unusually dramatic" in its tone—asking the attorney general to convince President Obama that he should...

NSA Is Watching Skype, Too
 NSA Is Watching Skype, Too 
Jul 12, 2013 9:00 AM CDT

NSA Is Watching Skype, Too

Guardian report says Microsoft helped feds spy

(Newser) - Microsoft has no problem handing over your emails—or even your Skype calls—to the NSA, according to new documents from Edward Snowden, per the Guardian . In fact, the software company is working closely with the NSA to help it get around Microsoft's encryption. While Microsoft is arguing it'...

Every LA Schoolkid to Get an iPad

District agrees to $30M Apple contract

(Newser) - After approving a $30 million contract with Apple, the LA Unified School District is poised to provide every student with an iPad. The decision comes after a 6-0 vote by the Board of Education, the Los Angeles Times reports. The device "received the highest scoring by the students and...

Facebook, Microsoft Unveil Thousands of User Data Requests

Just "a tiny fraction of 1% of our user accounts" targeted: social network

(Newser) - In the second half of last year, Facebook got between 9,000 and 10,000 requests from local, state, and federal officials for user data on 18,000 to 19,000 accounts, the company says. It complied with 79% of the requests, it says. Under fire, Facebook released the data...

Microsoft, McAfee Exchange Data With Feds: Sources

In exchange, they receive classified intel

(Newser) - Thousands of US companies—including banks, and software, internet, and telecommunications firms—are exchanging information with national security agencies, according to anonymous sources in a new Bloomberg report. Only, they aren't sharing your personal info or browsing data with the NSA, FBI, and CIA, but rather things like software...

Microsoft to Open Mini-Stores in Best Buy

Partnership will be bigger than chain's deal with others

(Newser) - Microsoft has unveiled plans for "store-within-a-store" sections in Best Buy stores, becoming the latest major consumer electronics maker to acknowledge advantages of the brick-and-mortar format. The sections will begin opening this month and offer Windows-based PCs, tablets, Xbox, and accessories, as well as trained staff to explain Windows 8...

Tech Giants to Feds: Let Us Air Our Role in NSA Spying

Google, Facebook urge feds to lift gag orders

(Newser) - Google and other tech giants are far from happy about being seen as willing partners in the NSA's Internet surveillance program and they want the government to lift gag orders so they can show otherwise. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo have requested secrecy orders be eased so that they...

They 'Bristled,' but Google, Facebook Did Help Feds

NYT: No direct access to servers, but something like a 'locked mailbox'

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Larry Page, and other tech executives have been loudly denying they gave the government "direct access" to their servers under the newly revealed PRISM program . ("We hadn't even heard of PRISM before yesterday," wrote Zuckerberg in his post . The "government does...

PRISM Not Used to Target US Citizens: Spy Chief

Companies firmly deny involvement in PRISM

(Newser) - As news of the government's PRISM tech surveillance program makes waves, officials and companies are responding, with the Director of National Intelligence attempting to put the story in perspective. "The unauthorized disclosure of information about this important and entirely legal program is reprehensible and risks important protections for...

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