Consumer software and hardware

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Microsoft is, indeed, working on an iPhone application.

As I predicted, it is the company's Tellme unit that is actively developing a program for Apple's iPhone. Tellme offers voice-activated search for a variety of phones, including the BlackBerry.

Although the company created an early alpha program in a matter of weeks, senior director Dariusz Paczuski said it will probably be a couple of months before a public version is ready. He said it will definitely happen within the current fiscal year, which runs through June.

"I'm not sure we can squeeze it out … Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company may be the only one with a chance to rival Google in search over the long term, but acknowledged that it will take several more years and a whole lot of money.

"It's going to take us a while," he said, during a speech at the Churchill Club. "We've got a lot to do."

Venture Capitalist Ann Winblad, who was moderating the talk with Ballmer, noted that when Ballmer addressed the club in 2006, he said search was a five-year battle.

"It's … Read more

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie on Thursday offered a long-term view of where Microsoft and the world of computing are heading over the next few decades. Speaking at the MIT Emerging Technology Conference here, Mundie envisioned a 3D virtual world populated by virtual presences, using a combination of client and cloud services.

He called this next generation "spatial computing" and listed numerous attributes: many-core processors; parallel programming; seamlessly connected and fully productive; context-aware and model-based; personalized, humanistic, and adaptive; 3D and immersive; and utilizing speech, vision and gestures.

Mundie gave a few examples … Read more

Microsoft confirmed on Wednesday that developers attending a Microsoft conference next month will get an early version of Windows 7 to take home.

In a blog posting, Microsoft said that those at the Professional Developers Conference, scheduled for Oct. 27-30 in Los Angeles, will get a pre-beta version of Windows 7.

"With Windows 7 at PDC2008 you will see advances across the full range of Windows--including the kernel, networking, hardware and devices, and user-interface," Microsoft said.

One thing that won't be part of Windows 7--as first confirmed by CNET News earlier this week--are the e-mail, photo-editing … Read more

Microsoft has informed some of its partners that it has had to delay Windows Mobile 7, a much anticipated update to its cell phone operating system.

Although Microsoft has not publicly said when to expect Windows Mobile 7, partners who had expected to have a final release in their hands by early next year have been told now that it won't be ready until the second half of next year, sources told CNET News.

The delay is a significant blow for the software maker, which has been counting on the next version of Windows Mobile to enable devices that … Read more

Microsoft has decided that Windows 7 won't include built-in programs for e-mail, photo editing, and movie making, as was done with Windows Vista, CNET News.com has learned.

The software maker included Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Mail, and Windows Movie Maker as part of Vista, but later chose to offer separate downloadable Windows Live programs that essentially replaced those components with versions that could connect to online services from Microsoft and others.

Microsoft told CNET News late Monday that it has decided to remove those features entirely from Windows 7 and instead offer only the service-connected Windows Live versions … Read more

Microsoft's downloadable Windows Live tools all got an update last week, but the "Wave 3" enhancements to its online services will take longer to crest.

The online tools, things such as Windows Live Skydrive, Windows Live Spaces, and so forth will all get updates in the coming weeks, though general manager Brian Hall declined to offer a specific timeline in an interview earlier Monday.

He did let slip that Windows Live Hotmail will be the first of the services to get an update--sometime this week. Hall said that the main focus of the update is speedier performance … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--One of the nice things about Microsoft's new Zune is that it can download or stream songs at a hot spot. The downside: the music player won't work at just any hot spot.

The big limit is that the Wi-Fi locale not only has to be free, but also of the variety that doesn't pop up a browser window before letting users online. That's because unlike the iPod Touch, the Zune has no browser.

To get a sense of just how big a limitation that was, I decided Wednesday to put on my sneakers and head all over town to see where I could and couldn't get new tunes. I was sure I would have better luck than when I went across town two years ago in search of another Zune.

I loaded up the Zune with a few albums and videos the night before. I also selected a few "channels"--essentially playlists programmed by others that get updated on a regular basis. Among the channels I included were Billboard's top Latin hits, as well as one programmed by KROQ--the LA-area radio station I listened to throughout high school.

Apparently, though, I hadn't synced the channels to the Zune, so I had to wait 45 minutes while it downloaded the 112 tracks over my home Wi-Fi connection.

I wrote a blog as the last of the KROQ channel made its way to my Zune. At 9:45 a.m., as the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun" played in my headphones, I walked out the door, and headed to my first stop--the independent Nervous Dog Coffee, one of my personal favorites. The Zune didn't immediately find any Wi-Fi.

Assured by the staff that indeed, there was free and unprotected Wi-Fi, I gave the Zune a reboot. I guessed correctly that you needed to hold down the left-most button while pressing down on its touchpad. Sure enough, that did the trick and I sat down with my chai and started reading that day's copy of The Wall Street Journal.

With nothing but depressing headlines about the financial meltdown, I decided I simply had to listen to R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)." So I downloaded that using the Zune Pass subscription graciously loaned by Microsoft, along with the player. (The 16GB player will set you back $199, while the Zune Pass costs $14.95 a month.)

With my new party trick working, I walked back up to the counter to show Joe Belen, the coffee shop's ever-jovial owner. I asked him to pick an artist and he opted for Tears for Fears. As I struggled to enter the name using the Zune's scrolling mechanism (it has no keyboard or touch screen) he quipped, "Is that too long? Should I pick Cher?" … Read more

Some purported screenshots from a new build of Windows 7 have Microsoft watchers ruminating on the forthcoming version of the operating system and the company's take that the less said, the better.

The blog ThinkNext.net has posted a large set of screenshots that it says represent Windows 7 M3 Build 6780, from the start menu and the control panel to the media player and (how could they skip this one?) the error page. Wording on the post is terse, to say the least--the screen images are there for you to behold and for you to make of them … Read more