Microsoft

Microsoft is offering to pay $1 billion to buy the digital assets of Nook Media LLC, the digital book and college book joint venture with Barnes & Noble and other investors, according to internal documents.  In this plan, Microsoft would redeem preferred units in Nook Media, which also includes a college textbook division, leaving it Continue Reading →

Social ranking company Klout is offering a new way to boost your score: sharing opinions on the subjects in which you already have some influence, and using the data to help answer questions on Bing.  In an expanded partnership with Microsoft, Klout will bring answers from its new “experts” service to the top of Bing Continue Reading →

Adobe announced that it would be discontinuing the boxed versions of its Creative Suite software. The only way to purchase that software from now on will be through a subscription to the company’s Creative Cloud service, which can cost anywhere from $20 a month to $75 a month depending on what software you need and Continue Reading →

Have you ever been sitting on your couch, in the middle of a marathon Gears of War gaming session, when the urge to have pizza overwhelms everything else? But your phone’s out of reach, and having to drive to pick up a pizza would cost you valuable gaming time. What to do? Thanks to a Continue Reading →

Speaking at the Wired Business Conference, Windows chief Julie Larson-Green confirmed Microsoft will ship a developer release of Windows 8.1, codenamed Blue, at the end of June. The release will be available during the company’s Build conference, Larson-Green confirmed.  Microsoft is expected to ship a public preview of Windows 8.1 during Build, with a final Continue Reading →

After passing 60 million license sales in early January, Microsoft says it has now sold over 100 million Windows 8 licenses. The company has been rather quiet about its risky product bet recently, choosing not to disclose numbers during the recent quarter and the software’s own six month anniversary, but that radio silence has finally Continue Reading →

Considering Microsoft’s efforts to rebrand, redesign and rebuild its Windows platform, it’s no surprise to hear the company is tweaking the visual aesthetics of its other brands, too. Speaking at Design Day 2013, Wolff Olins creative director Todd Simmons and Windows Phone design studio manager Albert Shum talked about the challenges of rebranding a company Continue Reading →

When Microsoft first unveiled its IllumiRoom technology at CES, it did so in an unusual way. The software giant traditionally reveals its research projects in short, scrappy videos accompanied by research papers and a lot of technical jargon. IllumiRoom was different. The chief technology strategy officer at Microsoft, Eric Rudder, joined the Samsung keynote to Continue Reading →

Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox video game and home entertainment consoled will be unveiled in less than a month on May 21st, and we should expect a steady flow of rumors and leaks leading up to the official debut. The latest report comes from Forbes, which claims that the next Xbox may launch as the “Xbox Infinity,” Continue Reading →

Microsoft on Thursday announced the launch of Bing Offers in the US. The site aggregates deals from “a broad set of partners” including what the company claims are many of the “leading local deal providers.” Bing Offers’ features are as follows: All your favorite deals in one place: You no longer need to browse through Continue Reading →