Microsoft

You may want to dial back your expectations for Microsoft's oft-rumored smartwatch. According to sources speaking to the historically well-informed Paul Thurrott, the wearable isn't intended as a watch -- it's a Gear Fit-style health tracker that happens to deliver phone notifications and timekeeping. The tipsters also back earlier rumors, suggesting that there will be a host of fitness sensors along with support for Android, iOS and (naturally) Windows Phone.

On Friday, Microsoft told security notification subscribers that the service would halt operations on July 1.

From the email:

    As of July 1, 2014, due to changing governmental policies concerning the issuance of automated electronic messaging, Microsoft is suspending the use of email notifications that announce the following:

        Security bulletin advance notifications
        Security bulletin summaries
        New security advisories and bulletins
        Major and minor revisions to security advisories and bulletins

Microsoft will suspend a 12 year-old email mailing list that offers news of security updates, in a decision possibly tied to tougher Canadian anti-spam laws.

As of July 1st 2014, sysadmins and infosec bods will get their news from a Redmond RSS feed to receive update of new Microsoft security alerts.

"As of July 1, 2014, due to changing governmental policies concerning the issuance of automated electronic messaging, Microsoft is suspending the use of email notifications that announce [security bulletins and notifications]," the email read.

It has finally come: Microsoft's all-new Surface Pro 3—all-new in the sense that it's third in a trilogy of devices. Where the second was actually just a rehashing of the original, the third is showing some promise of striking out on its own. Good for you, Surface Pro 3! Time to confirm or deny the only way we know how—it's teardown time.

Alternative names that Microsoft probably considered for the Surface Pro 3:

Microsoft developers have fortified Internet Explorer with new protections designed to prevent a type of attack commonly used to surreptitiously install malware on end-user computers.

On Tuesday, Microsoft warned that it was issuing an emergency patch to fix a dangerous flaw in its software.

This is notable for a few reasons. Microsoft rarely releases these kinds of urgent patches, only nine of them so far in 2014. It normally saves all patches for one mega patch day once a month.

SocialChorus, an "advocate marketing" company, has been offering to pay bloggers for promoting Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser.

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington posted to his Uncrunched blog on June 17 a note he received inviting him to blog about IE for pay.

Microsoft officials are distancing themselves from the paid-promotional campaign. An Microsoft spokesperson sent the following statement when asked about the SocialChorus invitation:

Hearing from folks on the Cortana team is always fun and interesting, and today we can enjoy a few more insights from inside Microsoft. A video shows Marcus Ash, Group Program Manager for Cortana, talking about the assistant’s beginnings and, more importantly, her future.

Speaking at a conference last week in Seattle, Ash answers some questions about how Cortana first came to be and how Microsoft’s product stands up to the competition. But, intriguingly, Ash also explains some of the team’s future plans for Cortana.

For more than three years now, Microsoft has held to the line that it has loads of patents that are infringed by Google's Android operating system. "Licensing is the solution," wrote the company's head IP honcho in 2011, explaining Microsoft's decision to sue Barnes & Noble's Android-powered Nook reader.

In the wake of last year's National Security Agency spying revelations and after the discovery of the high-profile "Heartbleed" vulnerability, security has become a top priority for cloud services providers.

Microsoft, for its part, is hardening its Azure Web Sites service with support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), announced Erez Benari, an Azure Web Sites program manager. Azure Web Sites is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that enables customers to quickly spin up and scale Websites and applications.