“Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 has exited its beta phase and entered Release Candidate phase…”

Microsoft Tuesday unveiled the first release candidate for Windows XP service pack 3 (SP3), moving the long awaited final batch of tweaks and fixes for XP closer to reality. As usual, it is now available for download publicly.

The move marks the first opportunity for all users of the six-year-old operating system to try out its final upgrade. Previously, several thousand users were given access to test builds of SP3 only by Microsoft’s invitation.

After suing one Google acquisition for $1bn, US media behemoth Viacom has now divorced another, leaping headlong into the arms of Microsoft…

“In a significant boost for its Internet unit, Microsoft has reached a long-term deal to work with media giant Viacom on content and advertising distribution, an agreement worth an estimated US$500 million…”

First group gets access to online file storage and sharing space, but full public beta is weeks, possibly months, away…

“With Google Docs, Zoho, and others beating them to the punch, Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace, the company’s latest foray into the world of Web-based office productivity, is going live…”

CNBC has picked Microsoft to be the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising in the U.S. for the CNBC.com Web site…

“Microsoft Corp., competing with Google Inc. for online advertising sales, struck an exclusive agreement with business news channel CNBC to provide ads for its Web site…”

Seattle -- Microsoft Corp. and CNBC on Monday announced a strategic alliance in which the two companies will collaborate to bring relevant advertising to more than 2.6 million unique monthly visitors to CNBC.com.

Microsoft rolls out ads tailored for its MSN Mobile portal vying with Google, Yahoo, AT&T and Verizon Wireless…

“Microsoft began displaying advertisements to mobile users of its MSN site with premier advertisers…”

Redmond, Wash., -- Microsoft on Monday began displaying mobile advertising to MSN Mobile customers for the first time, in hopes of generating additional revenue from the budding business.

“Microsoft is growing its global footprint again, this time putting a geographic stamp on Europe by buying Multimap, a leading British online mapping company, for an undisclosed sum…”

New York -- Continuing an ongoing string of acquisitions, Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it snapped up “Multimap,” one of Britain’s top providers of location and mapping services for Europe, North America, and Australia.

Microsoft India has announced to unveil a new email domain named live.in for Indians…

“Apart from e-mail, the Live.in domain will let its users to enjoy the benefits like access to Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Spaces as well as the next generation of Windows Live services…”

As part of its worldwide roll-out, Microsoft India has introduced a new email domain at “live.in,” exclusively for India.

Not to be outdone by Google or Yahoo, Microsoft lifted the lid on two new search marketing tools and an accreditation program called adExcellence…

“Microsoft is playing catch-up against Yahoo and Google -- its chief competitors in the booming online advertising market -- with a new program called adCenter Excellence introduced Monday…”

Redmond, Wash., -- Microsoft Corp. on Monday said it has created two new utilities, one designed to improve the way partners in the company’s adCenter online advertising system generate revenues from paid search and the other to optimize Web sites for Microsoft Live Search.

Michael Toutonghi is headed back to Microsoft after selling his Seattle based social networking site WebFives to the software giant…

Software giant Microsoft has revealed that they are acquiring a Seattle-based social networking Web site called “WebFives,” which provides a Web-based file-sharing service for Internet and mobile video, photos, audio, and blogs, according to a message posted on the startup’s Web site.

Founder of the company Michael Toutonghi would now join Microsoft. He said about this deal: “I am happy with the outcome.”

Finally the Windows Mobile users will be able to work with the files created with Microsoft Office 2007…

“Close to a year after the introduction of both Windows Mobile 6 and Office 2007, Microsoft has finally gotten around to enabling you to manage documents created using the latter’s new Open XML (Extensible Markup Language) file formats on devices that run on the former…”

Microsoft has issued an update for Office Mobile to enable compatibility with Office 2007 documents. Office 2007 introduced a new file format based on the controversial Office Open XML (OOXML) specification, for which Microsoft has been trying--seemingly in vain--to gain global acceptance. The would-be standard’s main competitor is the fully open-source OpenDocument Format.

Dominance continues with a six percent increase over last year…

“Search engines continue to fight for a larger slice of the search marketing pie, but Google appears to be firmly in the lead. According to a new report from Hitwise Google accounted for 64% of US searches in October…”

Microsoft has tapped a former Sun Microsystems and IBM executive to lead its North American sales and marketing…

“Microsoft on Monday named industry veteran Robert Youngjohns as its new head of North American sales and marketing, finally filling what had become one of the more puzzling executive vacancies in the IT industry…”

The newest buildings on Microsoft’s main campus reflect the company’s newest businesses and products…

“Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker is in the midst of a massive expansion to its Seattle area campus and has a new strategy for the design of its buildings that reflects the software giant’s changing business…”

A new Word plug-in called “Save as DAISY” will allow users to convert OpenXML documents into a format structured to help the blind navigate text…

“A new plug-in will enable Microsoft Word users to save Open XML-based documents into Daisy XML format, designed to make the content accessible to blind or visually impaired users…”

Barcelona -- Microsoft has joined forces with the non-profit Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Consortium are working together to create a text-to-audio translation plug-in for visually impaired users of Open XML-enabled Microsoft Word documents, the company announced Tuesday.

“Addresses the growing need of largest U.S. consumers’ now owning more than one computer who wishes they could manage the security and performance of all their home computers from a single PC…”

Redmond, Wash., -- Microsoft on Thursday officially released version 2.0 of their “Windows Live OneCare” security and PC performance suite, enhancing a number of current features and adding a few brand-new twists, simplify the way consumers secure and care for all their PCs.

Software giant to acquire mobile music service provider Musiwave to boost its consumer mobile offerings…

“The Zune maker intends to buy the French company Musiwave SA, a provider of mobile music entertainment services to operators and media companies…”

Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced its intention to buy France-based mobile music services provider “Musiwave SA,” in a move that could dramatically boost the software giant's presence in the cell phone music space.

Microsoft has unveiled major changes to its Live Search service intended to give it a better foothold in its ongoing battle with Google…

“Seeking to narrow the gap with Google, Microsoft Corp. unveiled a retooled Web search service that aims to deliver more relevant results and combines text, video and other information onto a single page.”

Publishers expressing confidence in combined Microsoft/aQuantive entity…

“Microsoft is taking solid aim at a business that is arguably outside its core competence: Advertising. And it is deliberately facing off against a specialist, Google.”

Redmond, Wash., -- Microsoft Corp. recently announced that it has added more than 20 new advertising clients to its portfolio since its acquisition of the internet advertising company aQuantive was completed six weeks ago.

“Independent of financial suitors, Facebook is reportedly developing its own advertising system that will target ads based on users’ profile information.”

San Francisco -- Microsoft Corp. is negotiating to acquire as much as 5% stake of “Facebook,” in a deal that could value the fast-growing online social network company at $10 billion or more, for a price between $300 and $500 million, according to a report published Monday in the Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft and Philips claim new testing shows no interference between unlicensed broadband use and television channels…

“Based on a new round of field trials, Microsoft and Philips are asking the FCC to renew testing on devices that can access the Internet using empty buffer spectrums—known as white spaces—between television channels.”