Stuart J. Johnston

Microsoft over the weekend released a beta test suite of tools for linking its robotics software developers kit (SDK) to Microsoft’s increasingly popular Kinect 3D games controller. “This release of the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Robotics Developer Studio 4 (RDS 4) Beta … has extensive support for the Kinect sensor hardware through the Kinect for Windows […]

With the release of the technical preview of Windows 8 this week, Microsoft officials made much about the fact that the next generation operating system will run on two very different chip architectures instead of just one, and they made an effort to reassure developers and customers that applications will be compatible with previous versions […]

In the first hours after Microsoft made the developers’ preview of Windows 8 available, developers had already downloaded 500,000 copies of the pre-beta code, the company’s chief executive told attendees at Day Two of Microsoft’s Build conference in Anaheim Wednesday. That’s just the beginning of the company’s initial push to build momentum behind Windows 7’s […]

As rumor sites predicted, Tuesday Microsoft told attendees at its Build developers conference that they will be going home this week with prototype tablet computers from Samsung running the first technical preview of Windows 8. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) had been expected to release the Windows 8 technical preview at its sold out Build conference in […]

Few things in computing aggravate users and developers alike as much as waiting — particularly waiting for Windows to start up or shut down — especially in comparison with, for instance, Apple’s MacBook Air. With Windows 8, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) hopes to ameliorate that slow boot problem, according to a post this week on the […]

Microsoft’s newest enterprise resources planning solution clearly targets a global audience, with support for almost two dozen languages. Four months after it began beta testing, the software giant says it has shipped the latest update of its Dynamics AX ERP package as promised. Microsoft this week released the latest update to its Dynamics AX enterprise […]

With the ouster Tuesday of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and the announcement that the search firm will embark on an overall strategic review of its business, a lot of questions are left unanswered. For instance, what will happen with Yahoo’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) much vaunted search deal to use Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Bing search and advertising […]

The first significant update to Microsoft’s cloud-based PC management service for small and medium-sized businesses will be publicly released on October 17, the company said in a blog post Tuesday. Initially released as a commercial service in March, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) began beta testing the first major update to what it calls Intune at its […]

In a new post to its recently launched Building Windows 8 (B8) blog, Microsoft revealed how difficult supporting an emerging standard can be — specifically Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 — in an emerging new operating system like Windows 8. While Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) said Windows 8 will support USB 3.0, the post also highlighted […]

Not yet a part of Microsoft’s burgeoning social networking empire, real-time video conferencing and voice communications firm Skype is already making plans for growth, the company announced Monday: it plans to acquire mobile group messaging service GroupMe. Skype aims to combine GroupMe’s sophisticated text-based group communications capabilities with features that enable users to stay in […]