Microsoft

Anyone perusing porn sites at home will appreciate Microsoft's latest efforts at browser privacy, but it's not clear it will do much for the enterprise. Internet Explorer product manager Andrew Ziegler discussed the new privacy features of IE8, currently in its second beta, in an extensive blog post Monday. Users of the new software will be able to turn on Microsoft's InPrivate Browsing and Blocking features.

After more than six years of disputes and battles between Immersion and Microsoft, the companies are waving white flags. After suing Microsoft for patent infringement on Xbox controller technology and winning, and then suing again for breach of a confidentiality agreement, Immersion will now pay Microsoft $20.75 million of the $26 million it received in a previous settlement.

Immersion Corp. said Tuesday that the company has paid $20.75 million to Microsoft to settle litigation dating back to 2003.

San Francisco - With its new JavaFX technology for rich Internet applications, Sun Microsystems hopes to leverage the strength of the Java development base and Java's ubiquitous presence on devices to make a strong run in a race it has entered very late -- and where Adobe Systems and Microsoft have a huge head start.

(Reuters) - Immersion Corp , which develops and licenses touch feedback technology, said it will pay $20.75 million to software maker Microsoft Corp as part of the settlement of a litigation.

Microsoft on Monday revealed some new privacy features for Internet Explorer 8, the next version of its market-leading Web browser. The features address the concerns of consumers and privacy advocates, who called the plans a positive step.

Want to keep your Web browsing history secret? The next version of Internet Explorer (IE8) will include privacy functions for anonymous Web surfing.

San Francisco - Mainsoft, which enables developers to leverage Microsoft Windows development skills to build applications for other platforms, on Monday is introducing updates to development products for Java, Linux, and Unix, adding support for Microsoft's Visual Studio 2008 IDE.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - As the world's best athletes compete in Beijing, the summer Olympic games are setting the stage for a battle between Microsoft Corp and Adobe Systems Inc over the Internet's next big competition.

Microsoft will pay comedian Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to advertise its Windows Vista operating system. In all, the campaign, which includes a series of ads featuring Seinfeld and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, will cost $300 million.

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp.'s new digital photo sharing site spent most of its first day offline as its servers strained to handle a flood of traffic.

SEATTLE - Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will appear in Microsoft Corp.'s next Windows advertising campaign.

In a move to compete with Apple's attention-getting "Mac vs PC" ads that spotlight Apple's so-called coolness factor, Microsoft is looking to comedian Jerry Seinfeld to pep up its advertising.

SEATTLE - Digital cameras have liberated awe-struck travelers and proud parents from worrying about the price of film processing. But showing off those megapixels of memories is still reminiscent of tedious living room slideshows — and perhaps now worse, because instead of one blurry photo of the Eiffel Tower or the high school musical, there might be 50.

San Francisco - Embarcadero Technologies next week plans to unveil next-generation CodeGear rapid application development (RAD) tools for Windows, featuring support for Microsoft's Silverlight technology for media and rich Internet applications

Microsoft has elected to jettison certain licensing restrictions that previously discouraged its customers from moving the software giant's server applications within a server farm at will.

Microsoft laid out its "catch Google" strategy at the Search Engines Strategies Conference and Expo in San Jose Tuesday. Appearing as the second keynote, Satya Nadella, senior vice president for search and advertising, vowed that additional investment and new deep-search techniques will allow the company to gain share over market behemoth Google.

WALTHAM, Mass. - Microsoft Corp., expanding on an alliance with Novell Inc., has agreed to buy as much as $100 million more for subscription certificates for Novell's Linux products, Novell said Wednesday.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp plans to pay software maker Novell Inc up to $100 million in additional subscription fees due to strong demand for Novell's open-source Linux software that partners with Microsoft's proprietary Windows software.

San Francisco - Microsoft on Wednesday is expanding its agreement to supply Linux support certificates from Novell, which originally was part of a controversial arrangement set in late 2006.

San Francisco - While the company only has a 10 percent share of the search market with its Live Search technology, Microsoft has big plans to enhance its platform regardless of what happens with its now-dormant proposal to buy Yahoo.

San Francisco - When Microsoft stopped selling new licenses to Windows XP on June 30, it gave users and PC makers a "downgrade" loophole so that those who wanted XP could still get it, even though they still had to buy a Vista license.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 beat Sony Corp's (6758.T) PlayStation 3 in Japan weekly sales for the first time two weeks ago, riding robust demand for a recent Xbox 360 title produced by Namco Bandai Holdings (7832.T), a magazine publisher said.

Microsoft has launched a new blog page for discussions with customers and partners about the next Windows operating system. "We strongly believe that success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way, discussion," said Windows 7 development engineers Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky.

For all talk the about the mammoth Patch Tuesday this week, there was little discussion surrounding a new set of ActiveX kill bits Microsoft also released. The update includes kill bits for third-party software applications Aurigma Image Uploader and HP Instant Support.

GENEVA - The format used by Microsoft Corp.'s Office 2007 programs to save documents will become an international standard after appeals against the move failed to gather sufficient support, the International Organization for Standardization said Friday.

LOS ANGELES - Gamers with a hankering to watch music videos will have more choices after Warner Music Group Corp. announced Thursday it is adding its library of videos to Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 game console.

SEATTLE - Yahoo Inc. shelled out $36 million in the first half of 2008 to the outside advisers that helped the company navigate stormy buyout talks with Microsoft Corp. and the ensuing proxy threat from activist investor Carl Icahn.

HONG KONG - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday that the dramatic growth of the Internet would eventually spark a software-writing revolution.

San Francisco - Microsoft on Monday released the first service packs for the Visual Studio 2008 software development platform and the accompanying .Net Framework 3.5 programming framework, offering improvements for building client, Web, and data-driven applications.