Microsoft

Back in the earliest days of home gaming, Nintendo used to employ a little gold merit badge it called the "Nintendo Seal of Quality". It was a nice way for young and new gamers to navigate the enormous 1980s NES games library. Got the seal? It's ... probably decent. No seal? Avoid at all costs. Many companies have tried a similar campaign, with Microsoft's Vista logo now appearing on certain software programs deemed the most compatible with the company new operating system (OS). One industry insider recently blogged that when he found himself shopping for a TV tuner for his PC, there was a tough ... (view more)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is offering the first affordable PCs with English and Spanish versions of Microsoft Windows Vista Basic and Home Premium to Spanish-speaking consumers and small businesses. "With this expansion of our PC portfolio, we are ... delivering products our Hispanic customers have told us matter most to them," said Mark Sanchez, vice president and general manager, Consumer Computing -- North America, HP. "This community is the fastest growing segment in the United States, and HP is committed to providing them with ready access to technology to work, play and connect with others." Two ... (view more)

Mozilla, the organization behind the popular Firefox Web browser, launched a new version of its free to download Thunderbird 2 email program, challenging Microsoft's Outlook email program. Scott MacGregor, Lead Engineer for Thunderbird at the ... Mozilla Foundation noted in a written statement that the program "has powerful new features and proven security, delivering an improved email experience to users worldwide." (Source: cbc.ca ) The Mozilla Project, which began in 1998, is dedicated to promoting Web innovation and developing open source Internet client software. Like the organization's ... (view more)

We've known for some time that the future of industry and technological development lay in Asia, especially within the massive (and still growing) populations of India and China. Now, head of Microsoft and famed billionaire Bill Gates is weighing in ... on the issue, recently telling the media that it's his own research centers in the region that he believes will lead the growth of the globe's tech infrastructure. He's proving it by doing as any businessman should, in good times -- by doubling Microsoft's workforce in Beijing and Shanghai. (Source: washingtonpost.com ) Speaking in front of an ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced its plans to offer its Office software to developing countries. The cost? Only $3. The new plan contrasts the OLPC effort, which aims to equip classrooms in developing countries with an entirely new platform. Rather than ... offering any hardware, Microsoft is expected to rely on the upcoming Intel Classmate PC to run its software. Microsoft is offering Windows XP Started Edition, Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Editions, and various other educational programs. (Source: dailytech.com ) Microsoft has dubbed this effort "Unlimited Potential," a title which reflects ... (view more)

Dell has announced that it will begin offering Windows XP on some of their consumer systems due to significant customer demand. The company said many customers have been asking for XP as part of the Dell IdeaStorm project, which asks customers to ... help the company come up with product ideas. "We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell said on its Ideas in Action page. Users vote on various suggestions. Bringing Windows XP back received over 10,000 votes. Interestingly, adding Linux received over 123,000 votes. Starting ... (view more)

Since last November and even before that, Microsoft has been aggressively hyping the features and virtues of Vista. We've all seen it talked about in the printed media, on television, and on web sites, including Infopackets. Is Vista the latest and ... greatest Windows operating system ever produced? The jury is still out on that. Even I, the local Linux 'geek', look upon Vista and can see where there are seeds of potential greatness, but only the potential. It's just too soon to say for sure if will attain greatness. Why So Much Memory? On the technical side, the reasons for the expanded ... (view more)

Since Vista was released early this year, there has been no shortage of analyses judging the success of sales of the new operating system. But months have passed, and there still doesn't seem to be a consensus on how Vista is doing. Even Microsoft ... CEO Steve Ballmer seems to have changed his mind a few times. A few weeks ago, Ballmer said: "We think in the next three months we'll probably sell five times as many copies of Windows Vista as we ever did [Windows 95] in the equivalent period of time... We'll probably go double what we did with Windows XP." But last week, it sounded like he changed ... (view more)

In what appears to be a last ditch effort to sell more of it's newest operating system (OS), Microsoft has notified computer manufacturers that by the start of 2008, they will no longer be allowed to ship PCs loaded with Windows XP. "The OEM version ... of XP Professional goes next January," said Frank Luburic, senior ThinkPad product manager for Lenovo. "At that point, they'll have no choice." "Dell recognizes the needs of small business customers and understands that more time is needed to transition to a new operating system," Dell said on its Direct2Dellblog . Dell plans to continue offering ... (view more)

Online advertising company DoubleClick is looking for a buyer, and many analysts speculate that Microsoft is going to spend the big bucks necessary to acquire the company. In 2005, the private-equity firm Hellman ... (view more)