Pedro Hernandez

Microsoft is narrowing the performance gap between its Xbox One console and Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 4. While the game systems, both set to launch this fall, are architecturally similar—both sport AMD “Jaguar” architectures—Sony claims a slight advantage in hardware specifications, and thus performance. In a an interview with Microsoft’s Xbox Live director of programming, Larry […]

SkyDrive, Microsoft’s popular cloud file storage service, will undergo a name change following the software giant’s defeat in a trademark case brought by the British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB). BSkyB launched legal proceedings against Microsoft in the United Kingdom, asserting that Redmond’s SkyDrive brand infringed on its Sky trademarks. On June 28, Justice Sarah Asplin […]

After releasing the Office Mobile app for Apple’s iPhone a month and a half ago, Microsoft announced on July 31 that a native version for smartphones running Google’s Android mobile operating system is finally available on the Google Play Store as a free download. A big caveat applies, however. As with Office Mobile for iPhone, […]

Microsoft is betting that its upcoming Windows 8.1 update will help unleash the inner high-end tinkerer in many of the operating system’s users, or at least help the 3D printing movement become mainstream. Among the most surprising features being baked into Windows 8.1 is a 3D printer and file format support. The company is paving […]

Analysts aren’t the only ones underwhelmed by Surface RT’s impact on the tablet market. As the clock ticks to the device’s first anniversary, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer seems to have come to terms with the tablet’s lackluster sales. The Verge reported July 26 that during an internal town hall meeting, Ballmer addressed slack Surface RT […]

In preparation for the official launch of Windows 8.1 and IE11 later this year, Microsoft has released the Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) Developer Preview for Windows 7. IE 11 is one of several upgrades and enhancements that are set to be included in the highly anticipated “Blue” update to the Windows 8 operating system. While […]

App stores are all the rage, and Microsoft is reportedly interested in bringing the software self-publishing model to its upcoming Xbox One console. First, the company will make moves to dismantle a restrictive policy that kept some independent game developers from offering their wares on its predecessor, the Xbox 360. Currently, independent studios must contract […]

Syncing folders full of photos and multi-megabyte documents can take a healthy bite out of a device’s hard drive or solid-state drive (SSD). Microsoft wants to help its Windows 8.1 users to reclaim some space with an upcoming version of SkyDrive, which is already fairly well integrated into the current OS. In a July 22 […]

Surface RT, Microsoft’s ARM-based Windows tablet, darkened the company’s latest earnings, overshadowing some generally positive results from most of the company’s other business units. Microsoft reported on July 18 that the company had hauled in $19.9 billion during its fourth quarter, which ended June 30—a 10 percent gain over the same quarter a year ago. […]

New advances in software and increasingly more powerful hardware are paving the way for a computing renaissance, of sorts, according to Microsoft’s influential co-founder and current chairman, Bill Gates. In a July 15 address at Microsoft Research’s Faculty Summit in Redmond, Wash., Gates said, “I think it’s fair to say that we’re in a golden […]