Microsoft's released a preview build of Windows 8 to some of its partners - and several of those partners have helpfully released it to the press, revealing a new ribbon interface. The ribbon is similar to that used previously in Microsoft Office, and replaces drop-down menus with a tabbed toolbar at the top of the page. Some people will love it for its clarity; others may object that it takes up an awful l ...

Entrepreneur and investor. Born in 1954, in Seattle, Washington. While attending the Lakeside School outside Seattle, 14-year-old Paul Allen met 12-year-old Bill Gates, a fellow student and computer enthusiast. Less than a decade later, in June 1975, Allen and Gates, both college dropouts; Allen from Washington State University founded Microsoft with the intention of designing software for the new wave of p ...

Even if you're just now getting used to Windows 7, guess what is inevitably on the horizon? Microsoft has already begun shipping out initial test versions of its next operating system to original equipment manufacturers. This is a sign that the OS is on development schedule as planned and is still on track to come out with a final release in late 2012. Although not much is known about Windows 8, it's believ ...

Microsoft, which only recently figured out how to do cut and paste with WP7, is apparently planning to equip its next-gen smartphones with NFC (near field communication) technology. The embedded feature would allow users to pay for items in participating stores simply by bumping or waving a Windows Phone 7 device against a compatible cash register. Now Microsoft wants NFC-enabled smartphonesAccording to Blo ...

As promised, Microsoft has released the latest version of Internet Explorer, adding new feature to help it better compete with Firefox and Chrome. The date was set to correspond to the SXSW show in Austin, Texas. It barely fits into the company's earlier promise to release IE9 in the first quarter of the year. The new browser is now low, and soon it will try to push the download to Windows Vista and Windows ...

An online scam went viral over the weekend, allowing users to manipulate a proprietary Xbox.com website to generate free Microsoft Points. The scam reportedly ended up doling out more than $1.2 million in digital currency in a matter of hours. The hack originated via a forum post at a website called The Tech Game on Sunday. A very creative user who goes by the handle "Dark" found a way to generate legitimat ...

Earlier this week, Intel said reports of MeeGo's unceremonious death at the hands of Nokia and Microsoft had been greatly exaggerated. Although it doesn’t seem like MeeGo will be winning the smartphone or tablet war anytime soon, the nascent OS was recently spotted running on a 10.1-inch netbook. According to Nicole Scott of Netbook News, the (DNS) device - which is targeted at the Russian market - features ...

It took Microsoft a while to nail down an official date for the release of its next Web browser, but it has done just that now in setting March 14 as the official launch date of Internet Explorer 9. The date was set to correspond to the SXSW show in Austin, Texas, where Microsoft is hosting an event on March 14. It barely fits into the company's earlier promise to release IE9 in the first quarter of the yea ...

Microsoft's brought out a new weapon in its ongoing trademark battle with Apple - typography. Microsoft has been attempting to prevent Apple from trademarking the term 'App Store'. And it now claims that the font used in Apple's response to its opposition is too small. It's also too long, it says. "Apple's response brief is 31 pages, including the table of contents and table of authorities, and on informati ...

Guinness World Records has added the Kinect to its roll of honor - not for sitting in a tub full of baked beans for a record time, but for being the fastest-selling electronic device in history. It says that the Kinect for the 360 sold an average of 133,333 units per day, giving it a total of eight million units in its first 60 days on sale from 4 November 2010 to 3 January this year. Sulky Apple execs are ...