Pedro Hernandez

It’s a big week in social media, and Microsoft’s Bing search engine is getting in on the act. Following the unveiling of Facebook’s new real-time Graph Search component, Microsoft rolled out a new update to Bing’s social sidebar that integrates more Facebook data into search results. Bing director Bill Hankes describes the update as a […]

Microsoft may be playing it coy with the Surface Pro’s exact launch date, but indications are that the tablet’s arrival is generally in line with the timetable set by the company when it was first announced last summer. Microsoft unveiled its Surface tablet in June during an invite-only event in Los Angeles. Microsoft announced that […]

Microsoft unveiled a free mobile app on Jan. 16 called HelpBridge that is designed to act as a communications tool or a lifeline when a disaster strikes. HelpBridge is available now for Windows Phone, Android and iOS. Developed by Microsoft Citizenship’s Technology for Good program, the app provides smartphone owners with a mobile notification system […]

When it comes to growing the Windows Phone 8 application inventory, Microsoft is betting that the prospect of fame and presumably fortune can be a strong motivator for developers that are on the fence about supporting the mobile operating system. Todd Brix, senior director of the Windows Phone Apps Team, unveiled Windows Phone Next App […]

Microsoft isn’t exactly setting sales records with its Surface RT tablet. But that doesn’t necessarily spell doom for the software giant’s mobile ambitions. The company’s first stab at the tablet market, the Surface RT, failed to excite tablet buyers, according to Brent Thrill, an analyst for UBS. Thrill’s estimate indicates an encouraging burst of early […]

Microsoft is hoping to lure mobile app developers to its Azure cloud platform with a fresh batch of service offerings and resources. Nick Harris, technical evangelist for Windows Azure, pointed out in a recent blog post the strides his company has made since it first launched the Windows Azure Mobile Services public preview last year. […]

Microsoft’s big gamble is paying off, according to Windows executive Tami Reller. Reller, who is chief marketing officer and chief financial officer for Windows, revealed that the company sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date. Reller revealed the statistic during the J.P. Morgan Tech Forum at the CES trade show in Las Vegas this […]

It’s official. Microsoft is shutting down its Live Messenger service March 15. Come mid-March, Messenger’s estimated 100 million users—with the exception of those in mainland China—will be fully transitioned to Skype, the popular voice over IP (VOIP) service that Microsoft acquired in 2011. Similar to rival platforms like Google+ Chat, Live Messenger provides instant messaging […]

While Microsoft may no longer have an official presence at CES, unofficially its hardware partners are keeping the torch alive. Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and even Vizio, a company better known for its HDTVs than computing devices, are flooding the Las Vegas trade show with Windows 8 machines. Today, the field grows even more crowded with new […]

Microsoft may be gone, but it’s definitely not forgotten. The software giant announced in late 2011 that it would give up its coveted CES keynote and quit erecting a huge booth starting with this year’s event. Instead, Microsoft would focus on select conferences and stage its own events, like this past summer’s Surface unveiling in […]