windows

Microsoft exec: We don't need to build a Microsoft phone

NEW YORK -- Microsoft sees no need to build its own smartphone to help kick-start sales of devices running its Windows Phone operating system, a company executive said today.

Terry Myerson, a vice president at Microsoft working on the Windows Phone team, told All Things D reporter Ina Fried at the Dive into Mobile conference here this morning, that the company feels its device partners Nokia and HTC are doing just fine when it comes to building smartphones using the Windows Phone operating system.

The precedent for moving directly into phone hardware lies in Microsoft having built its own tablet, … Read more

Windows 8, take 2? Let's see Start button, boot to desktop

What if Microsoft relented and granted users who are lukewarm about Windows 8 two of their biggest requests: Allow those who want to boot straight to the desktop, and bring back the Start button with Windows Blue, a.k.a. Windows 8.1?

Though supposedly not part of the original plan for Blue, these two UI options are looking more likely.

Reports from a couple of different forums from this past weekend raised the possibility that Microsoft might be moving toward allowing users to skip booting into the Metro-Style Start menu and instead start their PCs in desktop mode. (Winbeta.org noted the thread about this … Read more

Facebook in talks to bring Home to iPhone, Windows Phone

Facebook is reportedly in talks with Apple and Microsoft about the possibility of creating versions of its Home launcher for the iPhone and Windows Phone.

The social network is in negotiations with the companies about expanding the platform to their smartphones, Adam Mosseri, Facebook's director of product, told Bloomberg, noting that talks are ongoing and nothing has been finalized.

"We've shown them what we've built, and we're just in an ongoing conversation," Mosseri said.

Mosseri said the skin could arrive on Apple's platform with a different name and appearance than the one that'… Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions about whether it is possible to install Windows on an external hard drive for use in Boot Camp, how to set up Time Machine to back up home folders stored on secondary drives, and how to disable the yellow tooltip popups that appear over URL links in many OS X applications. I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Using Windows 7 … Read more

A fix for the multifile-selection glitch in Windows 7 and 8

Sometimes you wish Microsoft would let customers decide when to delete a feature. Reader Dan Baechlin depends on Windows Explorer's ability to retain the selection of multiple files after changing the sort order. The feature has been removed from the version of Explorer in Windows 7 and 8. As Dan explains:

My job requires the ability to highlight multiple files or folders in a directory, and to retain that highlighting while re-sorting them by different fields (modification dates, thematically-based titles, etc.) Windows provided that feature -- until version 7. My work unit indexes, manages, and compares policy documents that … Read more

How Dish's deal could improve Sprint

CNET Update dishes the details:

Dish has made a $25.5 billion unsolicited bid to merge with Sprint. Today's video explains what this deal means for consumers and how it might improve Sprint's network.

Also in this tech roundup:

- Microsoft reportedly is considering making a smartwatch

- Windows 8 apps for news and maps get updates

- Electronic Arts will shut down Sims games on Facebook

- This 55-inch Panasonic plasma is the first television to get a 5-star rating from CNET

Watch CNET Update in the video above, and subscribe to the podcast via the links … Read more

Windows RT demand is weaker than hoped, Dell exec says

Microsoft had grand ambitions for its Windows RT operating system, but more signs are pointing to trouble.

A Dell executive today said demand for the company's first Windows RT device, the XPS 10, has been weaker than hoped, largely because consumers still don't really know what the operating system is or what it can do.

"Demand is not where I would like it to be at this point in time," Neil Hand, head of Dell's tablet and high-end PC business, told CNET. "The amount of market information about it is not good enough, and … Read more

Nokia's next flagship to have 41-megapixel camera, quad-core?

Nokia could at long last migrate the gigantic lens from its 808 PureView Symbian smartphone over to a more modern smartphone design.

According to the latest Nokia smartphone rumor, obtained from a source by My Nokia Blog, the company's forthcoming "Eos" is intended to feature a 41-megapixel camera sensor. On the 808 PureView, this lens captures incredible detail and provides lossless cropping.

The Eos could also possess a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, though after testing, My Nokia Blog posits that Nokia could release it as a dual-core device after all.

Other rumored features include a 1,280x768-pixel … Read more

Nokia Lumia 520 review: One of the best budget phones around

When Nokia first unveiled its Nokia Lumia 520 this past February, the Windows Phone proved that Nokia could achieve new lows.

That's only when it comes to price, though, not features. As CNET UK discovered while fully reviewing the Lumia 520, Nokia has managed to create a very inexpensive handset that will sell in the U.K. for about 100 pounds at full retail price.

In U.S. currency, that translates to just under $200 without a contract. Luckily for us Yankees, a variant of this 520 is coming to T-Mobile in May, off-contract, as the Nokia Lumia 521.… Read more

Microsoft updates Windows 8 News, Maps, other apps

Microsoft has updated its various Bing apps for Windows 8 in a move designed to make them quicker to use and easier to customize.

The News app now lets you manage the different news categories that appear in the app. You can add or remove categories for world news, technology, politics, business, and entertainment, and sort the order in which they appear. You can also add a particular news source or RSS feed to your featured sources and to the Windows Start screen so that you can more quickly access their stories.

The News app's app bar has also … Read more