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Microsoft

2012
Skype 3.0 For Android Gets Tablet-Focused Boost With Microsoft Log-In
November 22, 2012 at 1:57 pm 0

Redmond, Washington - Released just after its debut on Windows Phone 8, Microsoft-owned Skype on Tuesday updated its Android app, and the update boasts a brand-new design for tablets, the ability to sign in and merge with a Microsoft account, and better audio. (more…)
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2012
Microsoft Launches Skype-Centered Hub For Entrepreneurs And Startups
November 12, 2012 at 12:43 pm 0

Redmond, Washington -- Microsoft has embarked on a latest initiative, rolled out a commercial networking site enabling small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs to promote their products and expertise and interact with potential customers and partners primarily using Skype on a global scale.

The new website, called Skype in the workspace (SITW) available for public use, is free and already being used by about 500 small businesses that began participating in it during its six-month beta period, Microsoft said over the weekend.

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2012
Microsoft Confirms Axing Windows Live Messenger In Favor Of Skype
November 8, 2012 at 2:51 pm 0

Redmond, Washington -- Confirming rumors that started swirling around yesterday that said Microsoft's 13-year-old Windows Live Messenger will soon be just a memory. After many years of trying to brand its Live Internet services, Microsoft has finally announced that it is bidding adieu to its Live Messenger chat service, and migrate almost all of its users to Skype, which the company had acquired a year ago and was the focal point of the Windows Phone 8 launch event, the company announced in a blog post.

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2012
Microsoft Sued For Patent Infringement Over Windows 8 “Live Tiles”
November 2, 2012 at 5:54 am 0

Redmond, Washington -- Barely days after launching its much touted Windows 8 Operating System and Windows Phone 8, the software titan Microsoft has been slapped with a patent infringement lawsuit over its use of dynamic “live” tile icons in Windows, including in the newly launched Windows 8 OS for PCs and tablets and in the Windows Phone 8 OS for smartphones, by a US Maine-based company named Surfcast alleging that it had patented the concept of Live Tiles as far back as the 90s.

SurfCast, filed a complaint on Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, claiming that Redmond's Windows Live Tiles on the company's smartphones and PCs infringe on one of its patents, and is asking Microsoft to pay an undetermined amount of money in damages and attorneys' fees.

Microsoft's recently launched Live Tiles concept is an integral feature of the company's interface since the launch of Windows Phone 7 two years ago, and were recently integrated into Windows 8 and the upcoming Windows Phone 8, which refers to self updating dynamic tiles that have replaced the familiar start menu.

As a matter of fact, according to SurfCast's complaint, the company alleges that Redmond is stepping on a patent issued in April 2004. The patent covers the ability to select multiple information sources, each assigned to a different tile and updated periodically. The company repeatedly pointed to Microsoft's own patent for a “tile space user interface for mobile devices” -- saying that it was used as a reference during SurfCast's patent application in 2000.

A statement on the SurfCast website from Ovid Santoro, designated as the CEO of the company read, “We developed the concept of Tiles in the 1990s, which was ahead of its time. Microsoft's Live Tiles are the centerpiece of Microsoft's new Operating Systems and are covered by our patent.”

(Download the PDF of the lawsuit)

Surfcast Complaint

In question is the U.S. Patent 6,724,403, titled “System and Method for Simultaneous Display of Multiple Information Sources,” which SurfCast was awarded in 2004. Further, it has four patents, with more pending. Its website explains the Tiles concept as “dynamically updating icons” that are selectable and live, with refreshed content providing real-time or near-real-time information.

According to The Next Web reports, these patents are identical. They both consists “systems and methods for providing a user interface mobile devices enable data and services available through mobile device to be represented as a set of tiles maintained as a display space.” Apart from that, Surfcast said that Microsoft's permitting developers to build Windows 8 apps, which are then submitted to the Windows Store, also infringe on its patent.

In a statement, Microsoft firmly said it was “confident” it would prove in court that SurfCast's claims are without merit and that Microsoft has created a “unique user experience.”

Nevertheless, Windows is a minor player in tablets and smartphones, whose sales have been booming in the past three years. Google's Android and Apple's iOS are the main OSes used in tablets and smartphones.

Microsoft is a late comer to the party officially released its Windows Phone 8 OS in San Francisco on Monday, which will be available first in Europe starting Nov. 3, with a late November launch in the U.S. and elsewhere.

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2012
Microsoft Unfurls Windows Phone 8
October 30, 2012 at 1:27 pm 0

San Francisco -- After recently launching its Windows 8 platform, Microsoft at an event in San Francisco on Monday, unfurled its Windows Phone 8, the new version of its smartphone operating system, after offering a brief sneak peek back in June to showcase some of the new platform enhancements, which now represents the software giant's latest move to challenge the market leaders of Apple and Google.

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2012
Microsoft Unveils Windows 8 Globally In ‘Defining Moment’ For Steve Ballmer
October 26, 2012 at 2:26 pm 0

New York -- Taking on competition from Apple and Google's Android, officially inaugurated what may be the company's most challenging marketing effort yet, Microsoft has unveiled its next generation operating system, Windows 8, in New York City, a radical reinvention of the world's best-selling computer operating system for the touchscreen age, in what many believe could be chief executive Steven Ballmer's last stand.

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2012
Microsoft To Launch All New Skype App For Windows 8 On October 26
October 25, 2012 at 6:12 am 0

Redmond, Washington -- It goes without saying that Microsoft has already loaded Windows 8 with a bunch of apps from the get-go, and just in the nick of time for the launch of Windows 8, Skype is getting a new modern-style app to reap the benefits of all the operating system's features when Microsoft is lifting the curtain on the new client due October 26.

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2012
Microsoft Enters Into Marketing Automation Race With MarketingPilot
October 19, 2012 at 1:24 pm 0

Redmond, Washington -- In an attempt to meet the needs of growing social, email, and mobile channels, and just ahead of its Q2 2013 earnings announcement, Microsoft on October 17, announced that it has completed the acquisition of marketing automation software company 'MarketingPilot' for an undisclosed amount, which now becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft.

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2012
Microsoft Acquires Cloud-Storage Appliance Provider StorSimple
October 18, 2012 at 1:47 pm 0

Redmond, Washington - In the race against stiff competition from Amazon EC2 and Rackspace, Microsoft is expanding its new 'devices and services company' mission to heart on the enterprise side of the house, too. It just announced today that it has acquired cloud-integrated storage device, StorSimple, the compliment to its cloud-based infrastructure, Azure. (more…)
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2012
Microsoft Drags Google Into Motorola Patent Case In Germany
October 16, 2012 at 6:12 am 0

Munich, Germany -- Trouble is brewing for Google-owned Motorola Mobility. The Redmond Vole has been waging war in a German courtroom against Motorola Mobility, over the weekend confirmed that it will expand an infringement case against none other than Google, the smartphone maker's parent company for an ongoing patent case against Motorola in Germany. (more…)
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