Articles tagged "microsoft"

News

For music buffs, Zune HD strikes right tune

by Etan Horowitz [The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)]

[18.Oct.09] :. In the two years I’ve been reviewing gadgets, I’ve never tested Microsoft’s digital music and video player, called the Zune. The device only accounts for a tiny fraction of the...

PopWire

News

New Microsoft Zune HD is lovely, but not perfect

by Brier Dudley [The Seattle Times (MCT)]

[1.Oct.09] :. SEATTLE — Apple fans can’t sneer at the Zune anymore. The new Zune HD is the latest evidence that Microsoft can design and produce lovely hardware, especially if it’s given a few...

PopWire

News

What’s to become of Microsoft’s answer to the iPod?

by John Letzing [MarketWatch (MCT)]

[30.Jul.09] :. SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp.‘s quarterly earnings report last week featured a number of grim statistics, including a relatively overlooked, albeit steep decline related to its Zune...

PopWire

News

Google’s Chrome OS a direct shot across Microsoft’s bow

by Elise Ackerman [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[10.Jul.09] :. SAN JOSE, Calif. — Google’s dramatic announcement that it is developing its own operating system seems designed to target Microsoft squarely in its Achilles’ heel: the shift to...

PopWire

News

Google may rule, but Bing shows zing

by Brier Dudley [The Seattle Times (MCT)]

[4.Jun.09] :. Bing won’t replace Google as the world’s default search engine, but it does a few things well. Well enough that Microsoft’s new search engine may be worth a try the next time...

PopWire

News

Microsoft to eliminate the need for game controllers

by Troy Wolverton [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[4.Jun.09] :. LOS ANGELES — The days when video game playing required mastering a complex controller may soon be a thing of the past, if Microsoft has its way. At the E3 video game conference here, company...

PopWire

Microsoft push into mobile just beginning

by Benjamin J. Romano [The Seattle Times (MCT)]

[20.Feb.09] :. Microsoft’s mobile efforts are facing a critical stretch. After a lull in activity, the company this week formally announced a marketplace for mobile applications, a new backup-and-restore...

The Maw

by Thomas Cross

[11.Feb.09] :. The only major problem with The Maw is the pacing and speed of gameplay. Unfortunately, it's a crippling sort of problem.

A year after Microsoft buyout offer made, Yahoo struggles to define itself

by Elise Ackerman [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[2.Feb.09] :. SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Soon after he was named chief executive of Yahoo, Jerry Yang turned to Steve Jobs for advice. On stage before several hundred senior Yahoo executives, Yang asked the Apple CEO...

Gears of War 2

by Ryan Smith

[18.Dec.08] :. Gears of War 2 is a sequel with nearly perfect gameplay sullied by silly, derivative and downright ridiculous story and dialogue.

Too Human

by G. Christopher Williams

[15.Oct.08] :. Too Human is more or less a Diablo clone.

New crop of MP3 players hits the market

by Troy Wolverton [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[24.Sep.08] :. Just in time for late back-to-school or early holiday shopping, Apple, Microsoft and others have unveiled a new crop of digital media players. Some have radical design changes. Many have neat new...

Microsoft takes another stab at Apple’s iPod

by John Letzing [MarketWatch (MCT)]

[9.Sep.08] :. SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. has released the latest versions of its portable media player, designed for the daunting task of challenging Apple Inc.‘s market-dominating iPod. In recent days...

Microsoft’s Xbox price cuts are welcome, but make sure you do the math

by Victor Godinez [The Dallas Morning News (MCT)]

[9.Sep.08] :. This week’s price cuts on the Xbox 360 console are a smart move by Microsoft. Overdue, but smart. In case you missed the announcement, here’s the skinny: The Xbox 360 Arcade dropped...

Microsoft releases beta version of Internet Explorer 8

by Benjamin J. Romano [The Seattle Times (MCT)]

[3.Sep.08] :. SEATTLE - Microsoft last week released a broadly available test version of its latest Web browser, Internet Explorer 8, including a tool to cover one’s tracks across the Web. Its browser was...

Zune player forum makes teen a fortune

by Jan Norman [The Orange County Register (MCT)]

[26.Aug.08] :. SANTA ANA, Calif. - Young entrepreneur Hansup Yoon, 15, recently sold his creation ZuneBoards, an Internet forum devoted to Microsoft’s Zune media player, for $62,000. The teenager, who lives...

Digital films coming to Xbox Live

by Benjamin J. Romano [The Seattle Times (MCT)]

[25.Jul.08] :. Microsoft is co-producing a series of digital short films for distribution over the Xbox Live - another sign that online gaming networks are becoming more like all-in-one digital-content distribution...

No one’s a winner in E3’s console wars

by Victor Godinez [The Dallas Morning News (MCT)]

[22.Jul.08] :. Worst. E3. Ever. I wasn’t expecting much, but what transpired in Los Angeles at the annual video-game conference last week was a pretty big waste of time. MICROSOFT Microsoft scored...

Ninja Gaiden II

by Ryan Smith

[18.Jul.08] :. If you're worried that video games are becoming a little too "arthouse" or highbrow, there are always titles like Ninja Gaiden II.

Firefox heats up new browser war against Microsoft

by John Letzing [MarketWatch (MCT)]

[26.Jun.08] :. SAN FRANCISCO - The debate over whether Microsoft Corp. unfairly used its market position to prop up its Internet browser petered out at the turn of the century, when the company locked down the...

Suit aims to get at soul of James Brown photo rights

by Ameet Sachdev [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[28.May.08] :. A long-running feud between the late “Godfather of Soul” James Brown and a photo archive owned by Bill Gates, the father of Microsoft, has fallen into the laps of Illinois lawmakers. The...

The Power of the Meta

by Mike Schiller

[23.May.08] :. Is it wrong to be a little bit uneasy about the use of Metacritic as part of the criteria with which to cleanse Xbox Live?

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom

by Ryan Smith

[23.Apr.08] :. There are so many head-scratchingly puzzling things about this Xbox 360 game that it's hard to know where to start.

Yahoo’s high price for coddling Google

by Elise Ackerman and Pete Carey [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[20.Mar.08] :. Almost eight years ago, Yahoo decided to lend a little start-up a helping hand, featuring its search technology on the Yahoo home page and giving it money at a critical juncture. In cut-throat...

Microsoft’s Gates says computers not cure-all

by Eric Benderoff [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[28.Feb.08] :. Some people see baldness as a big issue. Not Bill Gates. And not because he has hair. “Malaria kills 1 million people a year; baldness hasn’t killed anyone yet,” he said last week,...

How Yahoo went from Web star to Microsoft prey

by John Letzing [MarketWatch (MCT)]

[20.Feb.08] :. SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Two years ago, Yahoo Inc. acquired a vast patchwork of commercial lots in the heart of Silicon Valley, a prime location that local officials hoped would become home to thousands...

Yahoo, AOL Microsoft striving to stay relevant

by Eric Benderoff [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[20.Feb.08] :. In the 1990s, the Internet portal was the gateway and the gatekeeper to the Web, a place filled with a variety of content, from reprinted magazine articles to choppy playback of movie...

Microsoft stretches online domain with Yahoo interest

by Victor Godinez [The Dallas Morning News (MCT)]

[5.Feb.08] :. Microsoft’s proposal to buy Yahoo for $45 billion doesn’t mean much directly for gamers. But it does illustrate just how small-potatoes the Xbox business is for Microsoft. Oddly, that...

What’s next for Xbox?

by Victor Godinez [The Dallas Morning News (MCT)]

[8.Jan.08] :. Who’s ready to start talking about the next Xbox? Yeah, I know, it sounds idiotic - didn’t the 360 just come out? But one glance at a calendar suggests it won’t be long before we...

Mass Effect

by Ryan Smith

[4.Jan.08] :. One of the major themes of Mass Effect is xenophobia and the reasons that certain species hate or mistrust the others.

Microsoft wants to add Silicon Valley as a friend

by Scott Duke Harris and John Boudreau [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[31.Oct.07] :. SAN JOSE, Calif. - Time was that Silicon Valley loved to hate Microsoft, casting it as a ruthless monopoly whose tactics richly merited antitrust lawsuits from the Justice Department, state attorneys...

Microsoft invests $240 million in Facebook

by Scott Duke Harris and Mark Boslet [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[25.Oct.07] :. SAN JOSE, Calif. - Microsoft has acquired a minority stake in Facebook in a landmark deal that puts a stunning $15 billion valuation on the social networking Web business and highlights...

New goodies heighten ‘Halo 3’ thrill factor

by Victor Godinez [The Dallas Morning News (MCT)]

[27.Sep.07] :. Halo 3 isn’t the greatest game ever made. Heck, it might not be the best game released this year. But it is a lot of fun to play, and I’ve got the haunted, sleep-deprived stare to prove...

‘Halo 3’ promos troubling

by Brier Dudley [The Seattle Times (MCT)]

[19.Sep.07] :. Microsoft is saying its upcoming “Halo 3” video game “will make entertainment history.” I wonder, though, if the company will make another kind of history by releasing a...

A climate change in the software environment

by Benjamin J. Romano [The Seattle Times (MCT)]

[29.Aug.07] :. SEATTLE - Consumers are getting used to retrieving their digital information and collections - contacts, photographs, e-mail, documents - on practically any computer and a growing number of mobile...

Shadowrun

by Ryan Smith

[3.Aug.07] :. Shadowrun feels like a briefly entertaining speed bump on the road to Halo 3.

Consoles may get price cut

by Victor Godinez [The Dallas Morning News (MCT)]

[12.Jun.07] :. There’s a pretty good chance both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 will see price cuts of at least $100 by year’s end. That’s because Microsoft and Sony are running out of options in the...

One stage, two tech titans: Microsoft’s Gates, Apple’s Jobs

by Troy Wolverton [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[30.May.07] :. SAN JOSE, Calif. - Bill Gates and Steve Jobs will share a stage Wednesday night for the first time in more than 20 years to talk about technology’s present and future, but it’s their...

Beta ‘Halo’ glitch plays havoc with gamers

by Kim Peterson [The Seattle Times (MCT)]

[17.May.07] :. SEATTLE - That collective wail emanating across the Web on Wednesday was the sound of video gamers denied. Microsoft had promised to debut a beta, or test, version Wednesday of multiplayer elements...

Talk of Microsoft-Yahoo merger peters out

by Elise Ackerman and Jack Davis [San Jose Mercury News (MCT)]

[6.May.07] :. SAN JOSE, Calif. - Friday’s dramatic bounce in Yahoo’s stock on reports of a deal with Microsoft - later discredited - reflects the pressure facing the third- and second-largest Internet...

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

by Sean Trundle

[10.Mar.04] :. From the first minute of the opening cinematic, when our protagonist chases down a plane on foot and then jumps on to catch it, you know that any notion of 'realism' will be taking a back seat in this game.