microsoft

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16% Of Australians Use Smart Phones

12:00PM Angus Kidman | Once you’ve used a smart phone, it’s hard to imagine how you survived without one. But despite the undoubted convenience of access-anywhere Internet, documents and contacts, only one in six Australians currently uses a smart phone. More »
Work

Windows 8 May Include Sleep/Hibernate, Core Security Boosts

11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft watcher extraordinaire, looks around what’s being said and whispered, about the next version of Windows after 7 and finds a few job listings, resume lines and discussions that offer a few clues. More »
Communicate

Who Are The 4.5 Million Windows Live Messenger Users?

3:00PM Angus Kidman | Windows Live Messenger (aka MSN Messenger, aka Microsoft’s ad-laden IM client) turns 10 this week, and Microsoft calculates that 4.5 million Australians use it each month. I have a simple question: why? More »
Work

Microsoft May Announce Web-Based Office Monday

12:30AM Kevin Purdy | A TechCrunch blogger examined tech gadfly Robert Scoble’s FriendFeed chatter and determined that, between all the no-it’s-not-quite-that clues, Microsoft is probably rolling out the web-based aspects of its Office line. Further clues? Office.com announces that it won’t be available as of July 31, 2009—likely because somebody with enough cash to buy such a hot URL is taking it over. In the meantime, you can look back at early Office webapp screenshots from an Oct. 2008 developer’s conference. [TechCrunch]
Work

Nine Must-Have Features We Want To See In A Google OS

7:15AM Kevin Purdy | What’s inside Google’s just-announced Chrome Operating System? How does it work, exactly? Nobody outside Google knows. We can, however, build a dream operating system from the ground up, and that’s what we’re doing with some help from the hive mind. More »
Fix

Microsoft Security Essentials (AKA Morro) Available For Download

1:20AM Adam Pash | Windows only: We’ve been keeping you up to date on Morro, Microsoft’s free anti-malware now officially known as Microsoft Security Essentials, since it first hit the rumor-mill. If you’re eager to try it out, it’s available for download now. The catch is, Microsoft is capping MSE downloads at 75,000, and not offering it outside the US — though you might be able to pull off a few proxy-related tricks if you’re keen. [Microsoft Security Essentials [Microsoft via ZDNet]
Work

Windows 7 Reality Check: It Can Still Suck Big Time

10:30AM Angus Kidman | There’s a prevailing opinion that Windows 7 is a big improvement on Vista — but my own experience of the Windows 7 RC so far suggests that it can be just as bad, if not worse. More »
Work

Making The Most Of The Microsoft Office 2007 Ribbon

1:04PM Angus Kidman | Microsoft’s Ribbon interface represents a radical change from standard menu-based applications, but if you’re a regular user of Office 2007, you need to come to grips with it. Here’s some handy strategies to make the transition easier. More »
Work

Fix Problems With Page Numbers In Word

10:42AM Angus Kidman | Adding a simple page number in a Word document is pretty straightforward, but once the formatting gets complex, so do the solutions. A stressed-out Microsoft staffer offers some solutions to common problems. More »
Organise

Bing Goes Live—Here’s What You Can Do With It

9:30PM Kevin Purdy | Bing, Microsoft’s newest take on web search, is open to everyone this morning. What makes it different from its really, really well-known competition, and what unique features does it offer? Let’s take a look at early reviews and discoveries. More »