meetings

Tens of thousands of Microsoft's workers took a field trip today, heading to Seattle's Safeco Field, where the company is just wrapping up its annual employee meeting.

Amy Sedaris provided comic relief as emcee. (Past hosts include Seth Meyers of "Saturday Night Live" and Rainn Wilson of "The Office.") As usual, the focus was on the series of speeches and demos from company executives. Microsoft issued a no-tweeting edict, but some tipsters were kind enough to send a long a few tidbits.

Among the highlights were a demo of a business intelligence app for … Read more

There may be a category of business apps on the iPad, but most people I've spoken with struggle to see how a tablet is currently relevant as a standalone business device the way that a laptop or even a smartphone is. Fuze Box (operated by CallWave) is attempting to bridge the gap with Fuze Meeting HD, a free audio conferencing app for the iPad that joins the company's other mobile apps for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry.

As with most Web conferencing tools, Fuze Meeting HD has audio and visual components. You can both host and participate in meetings, … Read more

Pear Note is a clever app that helps you type traditional notes while simultaneously recording--and integrating your notes with--any audio or video source, whether a lecture, a meeting, or a narrated PowerPoint (or even a video that you've imported later). Pear Note captures every keystroke and tracks exactly what was happening as you were typing, so you can go back later and easily see what you were typing at a particular point in the recording.

Pear Note's pleasingly minimal interface has gotten even cleaner in recent updates, with an easy-to-use, two-pane window: the main area is devoted to … Read more

Meet Gatsby, the service that plays matchmaker to nearby strangers using geosocial network Foursquare, now works with Facebook, too.

Making use of Facebook's recently-introduced Places feature, when a user checks in on either Facebook or Foursquare, it alerts Meet Gatsby, which will find others nearby with similar interests. Then (as before), it sends both parties a text message telling both users about each other, then provides a link for them to meet up.

In an e-mail to CNET, Meet Gatsby's co-founder Will Tsui said that "Gatsby's matches have been getting better and more proximate as our … Read more

Pester is a freeware alarm clock utility that provides a simple way to set timed reminders, along with a few cool extras.

Of course, you can use iCal and other scheduling software to alert you to upcoming events, but sometimes these apps are overkill--like, for example, when you're just putting something in the oven, or you're trying to remember to catch a bus. Pester occupies a middle ground between iCal and more bare-bones timers (such as egg-timer widgets), letting you quickly set an event, name it, choose a countdown or a specific time for the alert, and then (… Read more

REDMOND, Wash.--Steve Ballmer made the case Thursday that Microsoft not only gets the consumer market, but is set to grow its business there.

Speaking at the company's financial analyst meeting here, Microsoft's CEO began his speech by talking about the current state of the company's consumer business. His talk follows Kevin Turner's chat earlier in the day focusing on momentum with business customers.

"Our biggest consumer product, no question is Windows," Ballmer said, noting that most computers these days are sold to individuals, rather than businesses.

"Suffice to say I didn't … Read more

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft kicked off a daylong meeting with analysts on Thursday as the company looks to reassure investors that its future is as bright as its past.

The company began the event touting its recent quarterly results which resulted in double-digit revenue growth in all of its business segments and noting that Windows 7 has now sold 175 million copies.

"That was a great result for us," said Bill Koefoed, general manager of investor relations for the software giant.

Ahead of the meeting, Microsoft announced a trio of cloud-computing deals, noting that Dow Chemical, Hyatt Hotels, and … Read more

Thursdays are always special on The 404 Podcast because Natali Del Conte drops by to help us discuss stories, but today we say TTFN to our Loaded friend as she takes time off to take care of our little co-host-to-be. Since today is the last time she'll be on the show for awhile, we make a solemn oath to leave pickles, Inception, and iPhones out of the day's news rundown.

Remember Chatroulette, the Web site that uses your webcam to put you in a video chat sesion with a person on the Internet? It might be so three … Read more

Microsoft Office 2010 is now available for purchase. We wrote our review for the Office 2010 Professional RTM version, which is identical to the final public release, when Microsoft released it to businesses on May 18. If you didn't get a chance to check out the beta version or an  earlier release of Office 2010, you can now download a 30-day trial version to see which version best fits your needs.

Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student ($149.99) includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft OneNote.

Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business ($279.99) includes … Read more