Microsoft's online store has a US$150 ($212) price tag on its upcoming Kinect controllers for Xbox 360 videogame consoles.
The US technology colossus was taking pre-orders for Kinect, advising buyers that the device for adding gesture-sensing capabilities to Xbox 360 consoles would not be available until "on or after" November 4.
If your business is still running Service Pack 2 of Windows XP, security problems are lurking around the corner, according to new research from IT services vendor Softchoice stating that almost 80 percent of organizations surveyed risk a security breach if the do not upgrade to SP3.
Microsoft has teamed up with the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), with the support of Accuity, the American Bankers Association, Anti-Phishing Working Group, Citizens Bank, eBay, Federal Trade Commission, National Consumers League and PayPal, to launch a new programme that is designed to help mitigate potential losses due to online fraud and account compromise.
Microsoft's project Natal may possibly be called “Kinect” when it launches later on this year. Microsoft filed for a patent on April 26, 2010, attempting to register the trademark “Kinect.”
As Neowin reported back in May, Microsoft's code-named '”project Natal” would sell for $149 and be rebranded with a new name before it's debut. This name is expected to be announced at E3 later this month.
Two security researchers have claimed there is a major security flaw in the way Windows 7 interacts with the hardware of its host machine. They argue it could be extremely difficult to fix the issue.
The problem involves Direct Memory Access. That’s a computer feature by which part of the chipset on the motherboard is able to directly access the computer’s memory. The main advantage of doing so is that data can be transferred from one device to another without needing to be routed through the CPU and soaking up processing power.
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) issued one of its biggest security fixes on Tuesday, including a repair to its widely used Excel spreadsheet for flaws that could allow hackers to take control of a user's PC.
Adobe Systems Inc (ADBE.O) separately said that it would issue an update to its Flash Player on Thursday to address a vulnerability in the current version that hackers were exploiting to secretly gain remote access to computers.
When Office 2011 for the Mac ships this holiday season, it will be available as a 32-bit product only, Microsoft officials said in a blog post on June 8.
Microsoft is attributing the decision to the fact that it hasn’t transitioned the Ribbonized Office 2011 user interface completely to Cocoa yet. (Microsoft officials are saying they didn’t manage to do this because they’ve been consumed with trying to make the Mac and Windows versions of the products more compatible with the forthcoming release.) From the post:
Microsoft today said it will deliver 10 security updates next week to patch a record-tying 34 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, Office and SharePoint. The patches will also quash two bugs that Microsoft acknowledged in February and April.
"I'd actually call this a moderate month," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. "Looking at the criticality of the bulletins, and the fact that the number [of bulletins] is low, it doesn't look like a huge month to me."
Microsoft has released a list of bulletins and patches for the upcoming Patch Tuesday. 10 security updates will be distributed next Tuesday, patching a record-tying 34 vulnerabilities. The update will patch vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, Office and SharePoint.
Out of the 10 bulletins, three were labeled as “Critical,” Microsoft's highest severity level, the other seven patches were labeled as “Important,” the next level down from Critical. The patches will address remote code executions (RCE), elevation of privileges and tampering.
IT started with a report that web giant Google had decided to give up using Microsoft Windows for security reasons.
New staff at the web giant were told they could only use Linux or Mac OS on their computers, several employees told the Financial Times. "We're not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort," one worker said.
