News


Amazon Breaks Silence on Cloud Outage, Offers Explanation and Credit

Amazon Web Services on Friday issued a detailed postmortem explaining the cause of last week's massive outage of its cloud services that left numerous customers crippled.

Blog Bytes: When 'Tracking' Isn't Really 'Tracking' (According to Apple)

Tech watchers and armchair legal eagles raked Apple over the coals this week over reports that the company keeps track of customers' locations through its iPhone.

Microsoft Rides Strong Office, Xbox Kinect Sales To Beat 3Q Estimates

Led by gains from its Office, Xbox and Kinect products, Microsoft has recorded $16.4 billion in earnings in its fiscal third-quarter, the company reported on Thursday.

Survey: Despite Flagging XP Support, Windows 7 Migrations Stay Tepid

Half of the respondents of a recent Unisys poll indicated that they "haven't started" migrating or are "not migrating" to Windows 7.

Barnes & Noble Shoots Down Microsoft's Patent Infringement Claims

Barnes & Noble has fired back at Microsoft's patent infringement claims by releasing its legal defense brief on Monday.

Telecom Giant CenturyLink Acquires Cloud Provider Savvis

Telecommunications heavyweight CenturyLink on Wednesday said it has agreed to acquire managed hosting and cloud provider Savvis for $2.5 billion.

Will Hyper-V Work with New Intel Chips? It Depends (UPDATED)

According to a Microsoft blog post on Tuesday, the company's Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 cannot perform server virtualization using Intel's new second-generation Core vPro processors, formerly code-named "Sandy Bridge."

Google Apps No Longer Free for Small Businesses

Google on Tuesday said it is changing the terms of its free service for small businesses, requiring any organization with more than 10 users to subscribe to its paid Google Apps for Business.

Microsoft: Internet Explorer 9 Less Prone to Add-On Problems

Microsoft is making inroads against Internet Explorer 9's add-on problems, the company announced on Monday.

Amazon Restores Cloud Services, Promises Postmortem

Amazon Web Services (AWS) said it has restored service for a majority of its customers after an outage left numerous organizations crippled for more than three days.

Inside Google's Datacenter: How Google Keeps Its Cloud Secure

Also, with Earth Day falling on the same day as Google's presentation, the focus has fallen once again on whether the cloud is truly the energy-saver its big-name proponents, including Microsoft, insist it is.

Microsoft BPOS for Gov Gets FISMA Clearance

Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), a cloud-based suite of productivity applications, is now certified for government use under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

Amazon Cloud Outage Cripples Multiple Social Media Sites

Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced outages on Thursday that Amazon claims are due to connectivity and latency issues in its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Relational Database Service.

Microsoft, Nokia Sign 'Definitive Agreement' in Windows Phone Alliance

Microsoft and Nokia have signed a definitive agreement on Windows Phone production, the two companies announced on Thursday. The agreement solidifies the strategic alliance Microsoft and Nokia entered in February.

Microsoft-Sponsored CPTN Bends to DoJ in Novell Patent Acquisition

To appease antitrust concerns held by the Department of Justice (DoJ), CPTN Holdings LLC, a holding company composed of Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and EMC, has altered the terms of its original plan to acquire patents held by Novell.

Microsoft Panel Urges XP Loyalists To Migrate to Windows 7

Microsoft has assembled a panel of MVPs, consultants and product managers to make the case for migrating to Windows 7 from Windows XP.

Microsoft Extends 'Community Promise' to Windows PowerShell

A recent licensing change makes it easier for developers on non-Windows platforms to adapt Microsoft's Windows PowerShell for their use.

Analysis: Why Won't Internet Explorer 10 Work on Vista?

Microsoft released the Internet Explorer 10 platform preview last week during its MIX 11 conference, but the company did not mention that the new browser will not run on Windows Vista.

Microsoft Releases Public Beta of Office 365

Microsoft on Monday released the public beta of the widely anticipated Office 365, the company's cloud-based productivity suite, as well as announced the Office 365 Marketplace.

Microsoft Takes 'Patent Reform' Arguments to U.S. Supreme Court

Eight U.S. Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments from Microsoft on Monday, the latest turn of events in the company's long-running patent infringement dispute with Canada-based i4i LLP.