Online services

Windows users can grab some Angry Birds and a host of other games when Microsoft's Windows Store opens for business later this month.

The new store is slated to launch in preview mode by the end of February at the same time the Windows 8 Consumer Preview debuts.

Citing a "source familiar with Microsoft's plans," The Verge has spilled the beans on which games will be among the first titles to pop up in the store. Though Pinball and Solitaire will automatically come with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, several other games will be available for … Read more

Microsoft is pouncing on the recent bad press about Google in an attempt to win over more customers.

Frank Shaw, corporate VP for Microsoft's Corporate Communications group, boasted in a blog today that Microsoft offers people a safer choice than Google, which has been buffeted by worries over its new privacy policies. The company also plans a bigger ad campaign to exploit what it sees as Google's recent missteps.

Google's woes follow its move to alter its privacy policies to share user information across different products and services. The company has even been forced to justify its decision to Congress, … Read more

Microsoft is carving out a new niche for itself on the Amazon Kindle Fire.

A free mobile app for the company's Hotmail service is now available in the Kindle store for all Fire tablet owners.

Microsoft already offers an app for Google Android devices, which is up for grabs in the Android Market. But some tweaks were needed to make the software compatible with the Fire since Amazon uses its own customized version of Android.

The Hotmail app for the Fire boasts at least one advantage over the tablet's native e-mail app, according to a Microsoft blog. The … Read more

Windows 8 users will face fewer headaches managing their Wi-Fi and cellular connections, says Microsoft.

Setting up and maintaining Wi-Fi and 3G/4G connections in Windows is frequently a challenge. Wi-Fi users often bump into conflicts between the software provided by the third-party vendor and the software built into Windows. And mobile broadband users sometimes have to scramble to find the right drivers for their cellular setup.

In the latest Building Windows 8 blog, Billy Anders, a group program manager on Microsoft's devices and networking team, explained how Microsoft has tweaked the mobile experience in Windows 8 to help … Read more

Microsoft designed its Windows 8 app store to make it easy to find and download content. But that goal proved challenging given the variety of apps expected.

In a Microsoft blog published Friday, Jonathan Wang, a program manager on the company's Store client team, took readers on a tour of the store, covering everything from browsing to searching to downloading.

For its look and feel, the store set out to be clean and uncluttered, letting the apps take center stage so that people could more easily focus on what they need.

But to pull folks into the store, Microsoft'… Read more

Microsoft has finally won second place among search engines.

Carving out 15.1 percent of the market in December, Bing narrowly outstripped the 14.5 percent share eked out by Yahoo, according to data released yesterday by market researcher ComScore.

Of course, Google still led the search engine market with a whopping 65 percent share.

But December was the first month in which Microsoft outshone its competitor and partner Yahoo, according to a Citi analyst cited by TechCrunch. As always, ComScore's numbers include only explicit core searches that people manually enter on a Web page.

Under the hood, Microsoft … Read more

Move over Siri. Windows Phone now has its own voice assistant, dubbed Ask Ziggy, and it seems to be a hit.

Except for some negative comments here and there, many reviewers on the MarketPlace page for the free app christened it with 4- and 5-star ratings, resulting in an average of 3.5 stars.

"Off to a great start," said one commenter. "As a proof of concept it's funny to see how Apple's 'amazing' interface can be rivaled by a single developer. Looking forward to future updates."

I ran a quick, informal competition between … Read more

Microsoft finally disclosed what its rumored So.cl project is, and it's not a Facebook killer after all.

The site, details of which leaked last month, is designed to give students the ability to network with their peers to share information, "transforming the web and social networks into the new classroom," according to a post on the Microsoft Research Web site.

The project, which comes from Microsoft Research, is specifically designed for university students, and not intended to compete broadly with consumer social networks such as Facebook.

"So.cl has been designed for students studying social … Read more

Microsoft is bringing its Internet storage service, SkyDrive, to iTunes, as well as to the Windows Phone marketplace.

The free app, launched today, lets users tap into their Web repository to retrieve documents, notes, photos, and videos. SkyDrive is one of a growing list of apps from Microsoft to make their way into the iTunes Store, including Bing, Messenger, and OneNote, which was launched as an iPad app yesterday.

"We believe you should have access to your personal content no matter which device you use," wrote Mike Torres, group program manager of Microsoft's SkyDrive Devices and Roaming … Read more