| MacUpdate Weekend Sale | :This weekend MacUpdate has slashed prices on Painter 12 and Painter Lite. Painter 12 retails for $429, but has been reduced by 54% to $199. Painter Lite has seen a 58% price cut from $69 to $29. Hurry, because these deals are only available until May 19th 2013. |
Users of Microsoft's Bing will now have access features integrating the search engine with popular image-sharing service Pinterest. Microsoft tipped the new feature in a post to the Bing Search Blog last week, noting that the ability to share to Pinterest flowed out of previous meetings the company had had with lifestyle and design bloggers at Bing headquarters last fall.
Microsoft has launched five Bing apps for the just-released Office 2013. Each of the new apps integrates tightly with Office in order to add a range of useful functions to each of Microsoft’s core Office apps. The new Bing apps for Office includes Image Search, Finance, Maps, Dictionary, and News with each leveraging Bing’s search capabilities.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has blasted Google over privacy concerns, claiming the search giant would not agree to certain terms demanded by the social network for its new search tools. Facebook also has dodged questions surrounding the backbone of its new Search Graph feature, however Zuckerberg explained that Microsoft will remain a close partner for web search via Bing integration.
Microsoft will be adding information from social questioning site Quora into the results for its Bing search engine. The new addition was announced today in a post from the Bing Team. The addition of Quora marks another step in Microsoft's continuing effort to grow market share for its search engine, which so remains in the shadow of market leader Google.
Microsoft has brought on Mark Penn, former manager of Senator Hillary Clinton's ill-fated 2008 Democratic primary campaign, to head up strategic and special projects at the company. The pollster, who was the worldwide CEO of public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and CEO of polling firm Penn Schoen Berland, will now focus on consumer initiatives. Bloomberg carried news today of the appointment, which is likely aimed at ensuring that the Redmond-based software giant is able to maintain an attachment to the common consumer mindset as it prepares to launch a number of important software and hardware products.
Following last year's Microsoft partnership with Nokia, Bing Maps is the latest product to see a benefit. Starting today, users in 24 countries will be able to view active traffic data in Bing Maps as a result of Nokia services integration. United States traffic coverage will include side street traffic as well as freeway information. Behind the scenes, Nokia's geocoding services are now being used to offer improved turn-by-turn directions.
Microsoft has rolled out a redesign of the search results page for its Bing search engine. Users will now find a less-cluttered results page, bordering on minimalist and dominated by open space.
A new report from the New York Times delving deeper into the Facebook buy of patents from Microsoft reveals that Microsoft at one point considered selling its Bing search engine to the social network. There is speculation in the industry that Facebook wants to start its own Internet search engine fed by the data it gathered from its millions of users in order to make money from online advertising. This would be a threat to Google more so than Microsoft, as the former is more dependent on such revenue.
Microsoft saw its Windows unit partly return to form on Thursday as it once again reported gains. Following Windows division losses in the fall, the group has seen its revenue go up four percent to just over $4.6 billion. The segment succeeded mostly on the back of business desktops and infrastructure, Microsoft said, suggesting that home users and pro notebooks were still struggling.
Microsoft warned Thursday that it would start asking a monthly fee for using its Bing Search app programming interface (API). Apps and devices that use the official code will have to pay a minimum $40 per month for 20,000 searches. Those who need Bing will use the Azure Marketplace Microsoft uses for its cloud services to manage what they're paying.
Amazon has a hefty update available for the Kindle Touch. The upgrade to 5.1, released today, enables switching from portrait to landscape orientation and Bing powered language translation of highlighted text.
Yahoo confirmed rumors of large-scale layoffs by dropping 2,000 workers. Focusing mostly on the product division, the exits would include some immediate layoffs as well as gradual transitions away. The positions were being dropped to return to a "core purpose" of "users and advertisers," CEO Scott Thompson said.
The European Commissioner's competition head Joaquin Alumnia on Wednesday postponed a decision on possible antitrust charges versus Google. He pushed back from a promise of late March or early April until after April 8, or after Easter. Investigators had asked for "some more days, even weeks" to accommodate the holidays while still conducting a proper investigation.
Some extra sleuthing has confirmed that OpenStreetMap is getting more support from major companies than Apple. Microsoft not only hired OpenStreetMap's founder Steve Coast as its main designer for Bing Mobile but has been in a two-way supply of content deal. Bing provides some map data for the project but also draws on OpenStreetMap to fill out its map content.
The FTC's widening antitrust investigation of Google is now collecting information from Apple, insiders tipped on mid-Tuesday. A pair of Bloomberg sources understood the US agency to be subpoenaing Apple for the deals making Google the default search engine on iOS devices. It's presumed, though not certain, that concerns may exist Google is unfairly using its search dominance to cut out Microsoft's Bing and others from getting the pre-selected position.
Microsoft has released a new beta version of its Bing Maps SDK for Metro Style apps. With it, developers will be able to begin writing code to integrate Bing generated mapping of local urban areas into applications running Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which was made available last week. The new SDK lets developers write in JavaScript, C#, C++, or Visual Basic.
Microsoft on Wednesday hoped to turn Google's FTC troubles against it by hiring one of the FTC's senior lawyers, Randall Long, on Wednesday. The former deputy assistant lead for the Competition Bureau will manage Microsoft's regulatory relations. He will take the new position in late March and should be based out of Washington, DC.
Foursquare on Wednesday detailed a major change in map sources on the desktop. It now taps OpenStreetMap's crowd-sourced data to generate the maps, letting it get continually updated geographical info without depending solely on an outside provider or paying for a map license. Its version is customized to match the Foursquare look, with MapBox's help, and lets them use Leaflet's JavaScript platform to run the maps.
Designers with Bing Maps and Nokia Maps have coordinated with the Windows Phone team to bring a unified look to maps across both services, now available on the desktop and mobile version of Bing and Nokia maps. The goal was to update the color palette to better distinguish roads from rivers while keeping overlaid information, such as traffic, distinct. The redesign extends to collaboration across services on fonts, labelling and readability.
An exceptional run on Apple stock over the past few days has made Apple's stock value worth more than either of its two most direct rivals combined. A comparison has shown that, as of mid-day Thursday, Apple's market cap of about $456 billion was greater than both those of Google ($198.9 billion) and Microsoft ($256.7 billion). As noted by AppleInsider, Apple was taking advantage of both Google missing targets and bruising its share as well as Microsoft's historic inability to excite shareholders.
Microsoft has started running a slew of full-page newspaper ads in an attempt to scare users over Google's simpler privacy policies. It claims that Google's attempts to simplify and clarify its policies are disingenuous and that the real goal is to "connect the dots" between Google's services and track users. It goes on to insist that the policy makes it difficult to back out.
The Nokia brand will begin showing up on non-Nokia devices running Microsoft's Bing Maps app. CEO Stephen Elop revealed in a recent conversation with Pocket-lint that Microsoft had agreed to the cross-promotion as part of its Windows Phone deal. The news means that the Nokia brand will begin appearing on competing products such as BlackBerrys and Android phones.
EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia in a discussion late Tuesday raised the possibility that a formal antitrust dispute with Google could start in late March. He informed Reuters that comments from investigators would come in near the end of the quarter, which ends that month, and that he didn't "expect anything sooner" for a full complaint. Leaks had tipped an early 2012 filing, if it went ahead at all, but hadn't been corroborated directly until now.
(Update: more to come?) Yahoo on Tuesday said that its co-founder Jerry Yang was leaving the company. He had immediately resigned both from the Board of Directors and "all other positions" at the search giant, including a board spot at Alibaba. He sought to "pursue other interests" beyond the company but cast it as an amicable leap, putting his confidence in new CEO Scott Thompson.
The IPv6 Internet addressing standard will get a more formal launch by its backers on June 6, which is being devoted World IPv6 Day. Seven global ISPs will back the new standard then, including AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner. Also onboard are heavily trafficked websites, including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft's Bing, as well as hardware makers Cisco and D-Link.
Yahoo confirmed rumors Wednesday and picked PayPal president Scott Thompson as its new CEO. The nomination of the eBay division head followed months of uncertainty at the company following the firing of Carol Bartz in September. Thompson takes the position January 9.
When Google and Mozilla renewed their search royalty deal earlier this week, they didn't reveal that Google will pay $300 million per year, AllThingsD learned. For this amount of money, Google will be the default search engine in Mozilla's Firefox browser. The numbers are a sharp increase from the previous arrangement because of the new competition from Yahoo and Microsoft.
Google kept Firefox active after Mozilla said that it was renewing a deal to make Google the default search in Firefox. A "significant and mutually beneficial" deal will keep Google as the default for a minimum of three years. Neither side would reveal what the terms of the deal were.
Microsoft has gone public with details on its So.cl network service. The "research experiment" is an attempt to help people learn informally from their friends and colleagues by integrating more closely Internet search and social networking. Microsoft has been beta testing the project with about 150 students, but is planning on inviting up to 1,000 more students and academics to participate.
In sync with the fall Xbox 360 Dashboard update, Microsoft has provided a listing of TV providers that will be ready to go this week. Along with existing access to ESPN, Hulu, and Netflix, the December 6 update will also bring EPIX authenticated video in the US, Lovefilm in the UK, MediaSet's Premium Play in Italy, Sky Go in Austria and Germany, Telefonica España's Movistar Imagenio, and MSNBC's Today in the US.
"iPhone" was the top search term on Yahoo during 2011, the company has announced. Most of the top 10 list consists of celebrities, the second- and third-place spots in fact belonging to Casey Anthony and Kim Kardashian. Yahoo remarks that a piece of electronics hasn't dominated the list since 2002, when Sony's PlayStation 2 occupied the top spot. The last technology-related term to peak was filesharing service KaZaA in 2003.
Microsoft on Tuesday narrowed down a firm date for its fall 2011 Xbox 360 Dashboard. The Windows Phone-derived revamp should go live on December 6, about three weeks after beta testing began. The update is expected to go live worldwide, although not every feature will follow suit due to the need for local deals.
Microsoft this week updated its Bing app for Android (free, ) and iOS (free, App Store). The Bing for Mobile version 3.0 app now supports HTML5 for a consistent experience whether using the app or Bing from the browser. It will also make the experience very similar, if not identical, across multiple platforms.
Mozilla has taken its relationship with Microsoft and its Bing search engine up to another level. It is now offering to add Bing to its Firefox browser, with the add-on setting the Microsoft search engine as the default and Bing as the homepage. The add-on for the latest version of Firefox also includes the Awesome Bar, Mozilla's hybrid search and address bar. Older versions of Firefox need to be upgraded, and doing so includes the switchover to Bing as the default search engine.
Microsoft posted record results for the summer that were nonetheless muted. Its profit was up six percent from year to year but was enough to get it a new high of $17.37 billion in pure revenue, up seven percent, and a six percent hike in profit to $5.74 billion. Most of this came from the Business and Server groups, which grew eight and ten points each to make $5.62 billion and $4.25 billion each.
On cue, Microsoft has started up its Xbox Live Public Preview for the fall 2011 Xbox 360 Dashboard. Gamers who sign in with a Windows Live ID and register for Microsoft Connect should be entered into the running to be included in the public phase of testing in the last few weeks before the official launch. Access isn't guaranteed, although Microsoft hasn't said what if anything affects a user's chances.
(Update: possibly no) Fresh leaks have hinted that Microsoft is entertaining the idea of buying Yahoo again. Tipsters told Reuters that Microsoft was taking advantage of the disruption at Yahoo to take over the early search pioneer. It might get a partner to help out, such as an equity partner.
While it's no secret that Yahoo is looking for buyers, the latest unofficial update has its long-time advisers, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Allen & Co, readying to give out financial information to potential buyers. An unnamed source for Reuters said various types of companies have been making various creative offers for Yahoo and its various businesses. Just this past weekend, Alibaba's CEO said he was interested in buying all of Yahoo.
A pre-release T-Mobile Germany promo banner for Nokia's Windows Phone hardware uncovered Friday could point to Nokia having a special turn-by-turn GPS app. Called Nokia Drive, it would be an adaptation of Nokia Maps with 3D buildings and voice-command navigation, WinRumors saw. Windows Phone 7.5 has better GPS mapping than before, but 3D and direct voice navigation aren't part of Microsoft's official feature set.
Google's representing attorney Susan Creighton in a follow-up Senate hearing was unclear on the financial incentives Google might have given Apple to become the default search engine on the iPhone. Following earlier testimony by Eric Schmidt, she acknowledged that Google had made a deal with Apple but that she 'didn't know' if it involved paying Apple to choose one over the other. She admitted that it "wouldn't surprise" her if cash had traded hands.
Microsoft complaints against Google have led the FTC to launch an investigation into Google's practices, says an unnamed person as he's not authorized to comment publicly. Google allegedly illegally raised Microsoft's advertising rates by a factor of 50, AdAge reported. Other allegations against Google regarding advertising will also be looked into and are part of a larger antitrust Google probe.
AOL and Yahoo are considering merging in the wake of Carol Bartz' ouster from Yahoo's CEO spot, according to leaks. AOL chief Tim Armstrong purportedly believes uniting the two would strengthen them and was in talks with Yahoo advisors. He may have wanted a deal as early as last year, Bloomberg's Emily Chang said, but was shot down as long as Bartz was in the lead.
Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz today said she had been fired from the top spot. Using her iPad to send the news, she told staff that the Chairman of the Board Roy Bostock had dropped her "over the phone." A copy gleaned by TechCrunch showed a terse note without indications of who would take over or the reasons why.
South Korea's Fair Trade Commission raided Google's offices in Seoul on Tuesday over questions of anti-competitive search practices in Android. The objective of the raid was kept secret but is believed to be checking claims from local search engine makers Daum and NHN that Google was unfairly restricting what default search options phones could use. Google in a statement said it would cooperate but reiterated its position that Android was reportedly open.
Microsoft has released a new social location app from Bing for Windows Phone. The We’re In app is designed to help users organize social gatherings more easily by also integrating Bing maps within the app. The app works by a user inviting their friends to a meeting place, and when they accept, the user’s location is revealed as are the friend’s who have accepted the invitation.
Microsoft's Windows Phone Partner Group program lead Reid Kuhn said in a response Monday that his company would desensitize its location tracking system. Following a discovery online that the system had published the locations of phones and notebooks on a public map, Microsoft would no longer guess at the position of a source when only one MAC address (hardware ID) appears in the system. The company had been in direct conversation with the finder, Elie Bursztein, to curb its location checks.
Microsoft is currently internally testing live tiles, or small windows, that remain fixed while users scroll down the screen to keep navigation tabs in view for the HTML5 version of Bing, WinRumors reports. The tiles will enable animated pictures and automatically-generated slideshows so users can visually explore a search query. They depend on a user's location and provide weather information, local news, mapping, targeted advertising and trends.
Microsoft has announced an update to its Bing app for the iPad. The latest version adds a new feature, referred to as Lasso, that enables users to quickly select text to use as a search. Rather than relying on the traditional copy-and-paste process, Lasso automatically begins a search after touch gestures are used to encircle a group of words.
Google has suddenly and quietly stopped its Realtime Search service. The move comes after the two-year contract with Twitter, the primary content provider for this particular search engine, expired. There is no indication if a new arrangement is under discussion at this time.
Microsoft is looking to shake up its marketing strategy with the launch of Windows 8, a new hire's position has uncovered. It has just recently hired Disney's former brand strategy director Jay Victor to serve in the same role at its project. While he hasn't outlined his plans, Victor's job listing has him developing the marketing and positioning for all the major brands, including Windows, Bing, Office, and the Xbox.
