Business

According to a new report, Microsoft may be considering reviving the Windows Start Button with the release of Windows Blue , its next major update for the Windows 8 operating system (OS). The report comes to us from ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, a ... prominent industry insider with sources at Microsoft. Foley says she's learned that Microsoft may bring back not just the Start Button -- a landmark navigation tool found in virtually every single previous Windows operating system -- but also the ability to boot straight to the desktop. (Source: pcworld.com ) If true, this would mean a major overhaul of ... (view more)

New reports indicate that Microsoft may be jumping on the 'smart watch' bandwagon. According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft suppliers are currently preparing a "watch-style device" prototype. To build the prototype, Microsoft has reportedly ... ordered 1.5-inch displays. Microsoft has not yet commented on the rumor and it remains entirely possible that the firm will decide that marketing a smart watch device is not a good idea. (Source: digitaltrends.com ) Microsoft Smart Watch: Second Attempt It's worth noting that the Redmond, Washington-based firm has explored the idea of developing a ... (view more)

Microsoft recently announced a 15 per cent price cut on Windows 8 for businesses looking to move away from Windows XP. However, experts are now saying that Microsoft faces a tough task in trying to move everyone off the aging operating system (OS). ... Microsoft's "extended support" window for Windows XP ends on April 8, 2014. That gives the firm almost a year to shift between 30 and 40 per cent of all computer users away from the OS. (Source: pcpro.co.uk ) Large Firms Slow to Spend Cash But Betty Junod, director of desktop product marketing at US-based VMware, says that will be a near-impossible ... (view more)

Not sure which Internet search engine to use? Maybe this will affect your decision: according to a new report, Bing search results produce five times more malware-ridden sites than Google search results. The findings come from German antivirus firm ... AV-Test, which says it recently evaluated several search engines, including Google, Bing, Yandex, Blekko, Faroo, Ask Jeeves' Teoma, and Baidu. The security company carried out its tests over a year-and-a-half period and wrapped things up this past February. Popular Twitter, News Topics Used As Search Terms AV-Test used topics found on Twitter, ... (view more)

Samsung is under investigation for allegedly paying people to post bogus comments online. However, the fake reviews didn't talk up Samsung products but instead attacked devices from rival smartphone manufacturer HTC. News of the alleged dirty tricks ... came from a Taiwanese website that published a document from a marketing firm hired by Samsung. The document lists numerous online discussion forum posts made by people acting on behalf of the marketing firm and, in turn, Samsung. Some of the posts simply praised Samsung products. Others included comparisons between Samsung and HTC smartphones ... (view more)

Plans for a summer 2013 release of the Apple iPhone 5S have reportedly been delayed as the company looks to put the finishing touches on a few new features. Among those features providing a delay: fingerprint-sensing technology that is appearing on ... a smartphone for the very first time. Originally it was believed the iPhone 5S would ship in June. Now, experts are suggesting component problems could delay a launch to late summer or even the fall. (Source: forbes.com ) According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo, the problem stems from interference between the touch sensors that appear on ... (view more)

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has warned that privately-owned drone aircraft could pose a threat to civil liberties. It's a somewhat ironic comment given Google's controversial Street View operations. Schmidt discussed the dangers posed by ... drones in a recent interview with The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. Schmidt says such drones have a long operating range and can transmit data wirelessly to the person controlling them, even passing on live video footage from an on-board camera. At the moment, federal rules allow only approved law enforcement agencies to operate ... (view more)

Microsoft is urging users of its Windows 7 operating system (OS) to immediately uninstall a recently-released patch that is reportedly crashing customers' PCs. In some cases, users have been faced with constant system reboots. The patch was released ... Tuesday, April 8, 2013, and was part of Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday security update . It was issued by Microsoft's Windows Update service but has since been pulled because of reported issues. Unfortunately, many users would have had the update installed automatically by Windows 7's Automatic Update feature. Microsoft says those users should ... (view more)

According to a new report, the number of PCs sold around the world dropped by almost 14 per cent last year. Even the gloomiest forecasts failed to predict such a slump that many experts are blaming on Windows 8. The figures come from analyst firm ... IDC and combine reports from the major PC manufacturers. These reports cover the first three months of 2013 and compare them to the same period last year. The numbers actually refer to how many PCs the firms have sent to stores rather than how many have been bought by consumers and businesses. That can make it difficult to compare one quarter to the ... (view more)

Google says it will allow users to decide what should happen to their data after they die. It will allow users to have data deleted or passed on to somebody else. The new feature is called 'Inactive Account Manager' and is accessed through the main ... account settings page for your Google account. It's an opt-in service, so it will only take effect if you actively set it up. (Source: google.com ) The feature isn't triggered by your death, but by you failing to carry out any actions that require you to be logged into an account, such as checking emails. You can set the feature to activate after ... (view more)