Los Angeles -- In its most strategically significant nudge so far into the hardware industry, software maker Microsoft Corp on Monday unfurled its own line of tablet computers called “Surface” at a much-hyped press event in Los Angeles, that is intended to challenge Apple's iPad, finally craving a major strategic shift for the software giant as it struggles to compete with Apple Inc and re-invent its aging Windows franchise.

Redmond, Washington -- In a surprising turn of events, Microsoft's Bing is revving up its search game by adding some heavy artillery thanks to Yelp. Relentlessly striving to out-pace its arch rival Google in the search advertising business, Microsoft and Yelp this week announced the partnership, which will incorporate social review site's content to Bing search results.

Redmond, Washington -- Barely a month has passed when Microsoft caused considerable rumble in the open source community when it declared that the free, Express version of its forthcoming new Visual Studio development software would no longer offer support for desktop-style applications, however, Microsoft did what appears to be an about-turn and said that a new, free-of-charge “Windows Desktop” version of the software--which has since been renamed Visual Studio Express 2012--will support desktop-style applications after all.

Redmond, Washington -- Hot on the heels of Google's Knowledge Graph announcement, software behemoth Microsoft's Bing in its quest for knowledge, last week announced that it has partnered with Encyclopedia Britannica to work on a new feature that will integrate Britannica Online on the search results pages of Bing when they search.