Adobe and Microsoft today each independently released security updates to fix critical problems with their products. Adobe issued patches for Adobe Reader/Acrobat, Flash Player and AIR, while Microsoft pushed nine security updates to address at least 37 security holes in Windows and related software.
With support for Windows XP now ending, many people are concerned about whether their computers are still secure. Some of those people will also have been relying on Microsoft Security Essentials to protect their PC, as it's freely available.
The good news is that Microsoft will continue to support the XP version of the software up until July 2015. The bad news is that is was never much cop to begin with, with other free anti-virus options performing far better in our tests, and even a Microsoft employee admitted it was supposed to be a 'baseline' product.
Microsoft's been awfully busy at this year's SIGGRAPH conference: <embers of the company's research division have already illustrated how they can interpret speech based on the vibrations of a potato chip bag and turn shaky camera footage into an experience that feels like flying.
Look at the list of projects Microsofties have been working on long enough, though, and something of a theme appears: These folks are really into capturing motion, depth and object deformation with the help of some slightly specialized hardware.
Microsoft's Nokia division has revealed its latest mobile phone – but rather than a high-end flagship number designed to take on Apple, it's taking aim squarely at the bottom of the market.
It's no less than a plastic mini-mobe that will sell for no more than €19 ($25) before taxes and subsidies.
Billed in the company's marketing materials as "an ultra-affordable mobile phone with music and video player," the Nokia 130 targets the kind of pre-iPod media consumers that have all but vanished from developed markets with the advent of smartphones.
Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft's CEO six months ago, on Feb. 4, 2014. While that six months seemed to have gone a lot quicker than the gestation period prior to Nadella's coronation, it's plenty long enough for us to get a bead on the kind of supremacy it will be in Redmond.
At this point, it's hard to say exactly what's going on in Microsoft's patent contract dispute with Samsung. The two companies may just be fighting out their contract terms or it could be the first shot at Microsoft's Android patent portfolio.
Microsoft's heavily redacted lawsuit was filed on August 1st in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York. In a blog posting by David Howard, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, claimed that the two companies have "a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract."
Earlier this week, we reported that Google had reported an individual to the police after discovering a large quantity of child abuse images on his Gmail account. After the police obtained a search warrant, they found a considerable stash of similar content on his home computer, and the person was arrested.
For the longest time, Microsoft had something of a poor reputation as a software developer. The issue wasn't so much the quality of the company's software but the way it was developed and delivered. The company's traditional model involved cranking out a new major version of Office, Windows, SQL Server, Exchange, and so on every three or so years.
Microsoft has emitted a new version of EMET – its Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit.
Redmond often recommends deployment of EMET as a frontline defence against attacks, so the release of a new version is noteworthy.
The big two enhancements that Microsoft is talking up the loudest are an improved Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) tool “... configured to block some modules and plug-ins from being loaded by Internet Explorer while navigating to websites belonging to the Internet Zone”.
Microsoft is rolling out beta versions of its Cortana personal digital assistant in China and the U.K. the week of August 4, as part of its Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 release, officials disclosed on July 30.
The company also is rolling out Cortana to a few other countries -- Canada, India, and Australia -- earlier than planned. It will make Cortana available in "alpha" form in these three regions as of next week. Alpha means Cortana will be opt-in for these "early adopter" users and will use U.S. and U.K. English at this point.
