Pedro Hernandez

Hon Hai, Foxconn’s Taiwanese parent company, and Microsoft announced April 16 that they have entered into a patent-licensing agreement covering devices that run Google’s Android mobile operating system and Chrome OS. Specifics are being kept under wraps, but Microsoft did reveal that Hon Hai would be paying royalties to the software titan. To date, Microsoft […]

Microsoft’s answer to Amazon’s Linux-friendly, sprawling cloud services platform officially launched on April 16 following months of work and previews since it first publicly debuted. As its name suggests, Windows Azure Infrastructure Services is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) play that pits the software giant against market leader Amazon Web Services in a bid to lure enterprises […]

Pebble, one of biggest crowd-funding successes on Kickstarter, helped catapult wearable IT back into the limelight last year. Now, Microsoft is reportedly eyeing a smartwatch of its own. The e-paper-based, Bluetooth-enabled Pebble smartwatch, which can link with iPhone and Android handsets, hauled in over $10 million by its May 18, 2012, deadline. Among its many […]

Microsoft is giving Excel users a new way to explore data: GeoFlow. The technology, which sprang from a stargazing project at Microsoft Research, is capable of generating animated 3D visualizations on a globe or map powered by Bing Maps. GeoFlow allows data analysts to embark on eye-catching flyovers and flythroughs, where data points can sprout […]

Microsoft is looking to cash in on the booming market for small tablets by revamping its Surface tablet portfolio. Currently, the Surface product family includes just basic two models: the ARM processor-based Surface RT and the Intel i5-powered Surface Pro. According to The Wall Street Journal, a “mini” version of the Surface is in the […]

One of the major recurring themes during the Yammer on Tour event in New York City on April 9 was disruption. It’s not a term that’s typically associated with Microsoft, but since the software titan acquired Yammer in June 2012 for a whopping $1.28 billion, it is beginning to define the direction of its entire […]

On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will end support for its venerable Windows XP desktop operating system, along with Office 2003. In a year, users will face the choice of upgrading to more recent versions or risk running software that will no longer be patched to counter newly unearthed vulnerabilities and the security threats that inevitably […]

Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson announced on April 8 that it is in the process of acquiring Mediaroom, Microsoft’s Internet protocol television (IPTV) division. While the companies have yet to officially disclose Mediaroom’s price tag, Ericsson Vice President Ove Anebygd did give Reuters some clues as to the deal’s worth. Anebygd told the news organization, […]

Windows RT may have stumbled a little bit out of the gate, but Microsoft seems intent not let it fade further into obscurity by preparing a version of its Outlook email client for the tablet OS. Since its launch Oct. 26, sales of Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet have languished and other makers of Windows RT […]

In what should come as no surprise to anyone witnessing the effect of the bring your own device trend on the IT industry, the tablet market is poised to make huge gains within the next few years, according to a new forecast from research firm Gartner. That’s giving Microsoft’s rivals—Google and Apple, for the most […]