Pedro Hernandez

In the wake of the National Security Agency ( NSA) Prism controversy, Microsoft wants to come clean on how it handles national security requests for user data. Citing a First Amendment right to release such information, Microsoft joined a chorus of other big tech firms in getting the official go-ahead from the U.S. government. Now, […]

Is another battle between Cupertino and Redmond brewing over gesture and voice control? Apple is in early talks to acquire for $280 million Israel-based PrimeSense, a specialist in 3D sensors and gesture-based technology, according to a report in the Calcalist. Microsoft licenses PrimeSense’s tech for it popular Xbox and Windows peripheral, the Kinect. According to […]

U.S. intelligence agencies had methods of circumventing the security and encryption safeguards placed on popular cloud services from Microsoft, including SkyDrive, Skype and Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail), alleged a July 11 report from The Guardian. Microsoft played a key role in facilitating access to user data by cooperating with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and […]

Microsoft helped the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) bypass the encryption safeguards on some of its popular cloud services, according to July 11 report in The Guardian. The claims are the latest in the continuing NSA spying controversy, which made international headlines after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked top-secret documents and thrust the PRISM intelligence-gathering […]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced on July 11 that the company he helms is undergoing a profound transformation to meet the challenges posed by the post-PC era. The restructuring efforts will enable the company “to innovate with greater speed, efficiency and capability in a fast changing world,” he said in an internal email to employees. […]

NEW YORK—Following its shift to contract-free cellular plans in March, T-Mobile announced during a press event here its latest efforts to further the company’s “un-carrier” approach to wireless communications. On March 25, the company unveiled a contract-free smartphone plan with unlimited talking, texting and 500MB of 4G data (subject to slowdowns after that limit is […]

Microsoft Office is on a roll, said Julia White, general manager for the software giant’s productivity technology unit. And to keep the momentum going, the company is banking on a growing Office apps ecosystem and new business intelligence capabilities, she told eWEEK. Using the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston (WPC 2013) as a backdrop, […]

Microsoft is shuttering its MSN TV service, formerly WebTV, on Sept. 30, 2013, the company announced on its Website and in an email to current customers. Microsoft acquired WebTV Networks in 1997 for $425 million. Long before smartphones, tablets and smart TVs, WebTV set-top boxes offered consumers a comparatively low-cost alternative to PCs, enabling them […]

Microsoft kicked off July with a preview of what the company has in store for the small-business version of Windows Server 2012. The company announced on July 1 the launch of the Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials Preview. While working on the update, one of Microsoft’s goals was to ease the path to virtualization for […]

Microsoft announced July 2 that the newest edition of its customer relationship management (CRM) software, Dynamics CRM 2013, along with its cloud-based counterpart, Dynamics CRM Online Fall ’13, will bow in the fall. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 will allow businesses to better engage with today’s smarter, hyper-connected consumers, says Microsoft Dynamics CRM Vice President Bob […]