Microsoft

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Microsoft’s sleazy “Scroogled” campaign continues with “email privacy” microsite

Ben Lovejoy Nov 5 2013 - 4:58 am PT

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Microsoft’s continued attempts to make itself look like the good guy against Google continue with a microsite called keepyouremailprivate.com.

In a blatant attempt to liken Google’s automated scanning of email keywords to generate targeted advertising to the NSA scandal, Microsoft refers to it as an ‘invasion of your privacy.’

Google goes through every Gmail that’s sent or received, looking for keywords so they can target Gmail users with paid ads. And there’s no way to opt out of this invasion of your privacy.

Microsoft has reportedly spent a seven-figure sum on its Scroogled campaign. Perhaps if it had invested a bit more cash on modernizing its offerings a few years ago, it wouldn’t need to be spending so much on this embarrassing nonsense today …

• Google
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft
• Windows
• Microsoft Windows

Google extends Chrome support for Windows XP users until April 2015

Jordan Kahn Oct 16 2013 - 7:34 am PT

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Microsoft might be officially ending support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014, but Google announced today that it plans to support the operating system for much longer than Microsoft for its Chrome users. While Google notes that the majority of desktop applications will no longer be supported for XP, it will continue to issue regular updates and security patches for Chrome on XP “until at least April 20, 2015”:

We recognize that hundreds of millions of users, including a good chunk of current Chrome users, still rely on XP. Moreover, many organizations still run dozens or even hundreds of applications on XP and may have trouble migrating. Our goal is to support Chrome for XP users during this transition process. Most importantly, Chrome on XP will still be automatically updated with the latest security fixes to protect against malware and phishing attacks.

• Google
• Search
• Microsoft
• search
• Search Engines

Microsoft is David battling Google’s Goliath Monopoly, says outgoing CEO Ballmer

Ben Lovejoy Sep 20 2013 - 5:11 am PT

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Photo: gamechup.com

In what must surely win some kind of award for irony, Steve ‘dead man walking’ Ballmer repeated his call for Google to face greater scrutiny from competition authorities, describing the search giant as a “monopoly.”

Speaking at an analysts briefing yesterday (via The Verge), the outgoing Microsoft CEO responded to questions about Google’s plans to generate money from online services saying:

Google does it. They have this incredible, amazing, dare I say monopoly that we are the only person left on the planet trying to compete with. We’re the only guys in the world trying.”

Microsoft of course faced numerous anti-trust suits back in the heady days of its dominance of the PC industry, and always dismissed them with the view that consumers make their own choices.

Microsoft’s search service Bing has 17.9 percent of the US search market, a distant second to Google at 67 percent. The disparity is often greater internationally though Google does have competition from Yandex in Russia and Baidu in China.

• Android
• Google Play
• Microsoft
• xbox
• Personal computer

Microsoft releases Xbox Music for Android with ad-free music streaming and cross-platform syncing

Jordan Kahn Sep 9 2013 - 6:45 am PT

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Microsoft released a brand-new Xbox Music app for Android this evening. The app features ad-free streaming from Microsoft’s massive song catalog, with custom stations built around specific artists, songs, or albums. These playlists can be synced to your other Xbox Music-capable devices, such as an Xbox 360.

The app requires an Xbox Music Pass to work, which comes in both free or paid varieties. The app description doesn’t state that a paid subscription is needed, but free accounts are limited to only ten hours per month after the first six months of use. Microsoft also notes that offline listening is coming in a future update.

The Android app is available now for free on Google Play.

A full list of features in the app via Google Play below:

• YouTube
• Microsoft
• Windows Phone

Microsoft’s updated Windows Phone YouTube app blocked by Google

Scott Buscemi Aug 15 2013 - 10:13 am PT

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After Microsoft’s first attempt at a Windows Phone YouTube application was blocked by Google for violating the Terms of Service, this morning the company’s second attempt has also been blocked due to the same issue, according to The Verge. This is despite the two companies working together to build the HTML5 application.

The Verge posts the following quote from a Google spokesperson:

“Microsoft has not made the browser upgrades necessary to enable a fully-featured YouTube experience, and has instead re-released a YouTube app that violates our Terms of Service. It has been disabled. We value our broad developer community and therefore ask everyone to adhere to the same guidelines.”

Microsoft told TechCrunch that they are “working with [Google] to resolve the issue.”

We’ll update this post as more details arise.

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft
• Office
• default
• editing

Microsoft Office file editing now on by default in latest Chrome OS dev build

Jordan Kahn Aug 13 2013 - 7:31 am PT

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After rolling out the ability to edit Microsoft Word and Excel files for the developer build of Chrome OS back in June, Google Chromium evangelist François Beaufort today notes that the feature is now on by default in the latest build:

Microsoft Office files editing is now enabled by default in the last Dev Update of Chrome OS. As we can see below, the UI has been slightly updated since the first time we’ve seen it. Moreover if you encounter any issue, don’t forget to open the “Help” Menu and click on “Report an issue”.

Previously the feature had to be enabled by the user, but it appears that Google might be getting closer to introducing the functionality in the stable build of Chrome OS in the near future.

Earlier this year, Google released a Chrome Office Viewer beta allowing users to view Office files in the browser, but not yet the ability to edit the documents.

• Google
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft
• security
• Chromium

Google increases bug bounties up to fivefold after paying out $2M to date

Ben Lovejoy Aug 13 2013 - 4:11 am PT

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Google is increasing the bounty it pays to security researchers who discover and report bugs in Chromium by up to 500 percent after announcing that it has paid out a combined total of $2M in bug bounties across Chromium and Google-owned websites in just three years.

Today, the Chromium program is raising reward levels significantly. In a nutshell, bugs previously rewarded at the $1,000 level will now be considered for reward at up to $5,000. In many cases, this will be a 5x increase in reward level! We’ll issue higher rewards for bugs we believe present a more significant threat to user safety, and when the researcher provides an accurate analysis of exploitability and severity. We will continue to pay previously announced bonuses on top, such as those for providing a patch or finding an issue in a critical piece of open source software.

This follows earlier similar increases for reporting website vulnerabilities back in June.

Although the sums of money offered for reporting vulnerabilities are substantially lower than could be made by selling the info on the black market to those who would use it for nefarious reasons, the thinking behind bug bounties is it encourages those who would never dream of misusing the info to file prompt reports. Many large tech companies offer bug bounties, with Microsoft – a long-time hold-out – joining in a month ago.

• Android
• Google
• YouTube
• Microsoft
• Windows Phone

Google issues takedown notice to Microsoft over lack of ads on YouTube for Windows Phone (Update: Microsoft Responds)

Zac Hall May 15 2013 - 1:24 pm PT

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via CNN

Last week we showed you the native YouTube app Microsoft built for Windows Phone 8, but it appears today that Microsoft never had Google’s consent to produce the app.

Google reportedly sent Microsoft a cease and desist letter today, which The Verge has obtained, citing the lack of ads on the YouTube app for Windows Phone.

“Unfortunately, by blocking advertising and allowing downloads of videos, your application cuts off a valuable ongoing revenue source for creators, and causes harm to the thriving content ecosystem on YouTube.”

Windows Phone users will have to rely on third-party YouTube apps in the meantime until Microsoft and Google work things out.

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• Google Apps
• Microsoft
• Canada
• Office 365
• apps for government

Canada’s national broadcaster CBC switches 12,000 employees to Google Apps

Jordan Kahn May 14 2013 - 12:54 pm PT

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Just a few days after we learned that the city of Boston had dropped Microsoft and switched 20,000 employees to Google Apps, Canada’s national broadcaster CBC announced today on Google’s Canada Blog that it has transitioned 12,000 employees to Google Apps in just 90 days.

CBC’s Senior Enterprise Architect made a point of noting that the company looked at both Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps before making the decision to go Google:

With a company-wide goal to reduce infrastructure and a need for better messaging and collaboration, we decided to look at public cloud solutions such as Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365. It was clear that Google Apps was the right solution for us based on cost, proven service level and availability guarantee and the breath of tools the platform offered for collaboration. We also had great support from the media groups in our company (about 70% of our employees), as many of them had been using personal Google accounts to communicate already with external users. Once we decided to “go Google” we were able to complete a smooth 90-day deployment with the help of Google Apps reseller, Onix , by March 1, 2013.