Stuart J. Johnston

Microsoft this week showed off several research technologies for photo manipulation at a major conference for computer graphics researchers, and also announced its first venture into licensing some of its technologies in the games and entertainment industries. The technology demonstrations and papers were presented by members of the Microsoft Research (MSR) division at SIGGRAPH 2007, […]

A federal judge in Seattle Tuesday declined to dismiss a consumer’s lawsuit against Microsoft who claims that the company’s “Windows Vista Capable” logo program was deceptive and misleading. That means that the suit will go forward for now. The lawsuit revolves around the logo program that Microsoft instituted last year when it became clear that […]

Microsoft  and Nokia  announced Monday they are extending their collaboration on digital rights management (DRM) to include support for the software company’s PlayReady technology on the handset maker’s popular S60 and Series 40 mobile phones. The first devices and services to emerge with support for the new DRM technology are due out next year, the […]

Microsoft  disclosed Thursday that the next major release of Office for the Apple Macintosh has been delayed until at least early next year. The company announced in January that it planned to get Office 2008 for Mac out in the second half of this year. “Office 2008 for Mac will be released to manufacturing (RTM) […]

Microsoft won a small victory in its strategic campaign to make its Office Open XML (OOXML) file formats into a global standard when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts issued its expected endorsement of the formats Wednesday. The acceptance of a two-standard approach came even though the state received 460 comments – mostly negative — during a […]

Microsoft  this week shipped the second preview version of SQL Server 2008, and company officials said that the product is on track for release in the second quarter of next year. Microsoft released the first community technology preview (CTP) of SQL Server 2008 on June 4 at its TechEd conference and is shooting to issue […]

On the eve of a new trial to determine whether Microsoft’s Internet Explorer infringed a patent held by a small startup and a major university, the opposing sides have agreed to try negotiations instead. At stake: a $521 million judgment against Microsoft that is literally hanging in the balance. The trial, which was scheduled to […]

Talk about getting antsy. Microsoft has only just begun Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2008, but it’s already preparing the first community technology preview, or CTP, of that product’s successor. Visual Studio 2008 — previously codenamed Orcas after an island in Puget Sound north of Seattle — officially entered its second beta test phase last […]

Microsoft announced Tuesday that it has submitted Windows Vista’s HD Photo file format to the Joint Photographic Experts Group, known as JPEG, and that the standards body has agreed to take it on as a work item. If adopted, the up and coming photo file format will be officially known as JPEG XR – short […]

Microsoft’s  new top technology visionary presented a more down to earth view of the company’s growing software-plus-services initiative on Thursday than he has to date, but it was still a vision with only sketchy details. Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect, made the presentation to analysts attending the company’s annual financial analysts meeting on its […]

A billion computers will be running Windows worldwide by the end of the current fiscal year, which ends next June 30, company CEO Steve Ballmer told the audience Thursday at Microsoft’s annual financial analysts meeting. The company reported last week it had broken the $50 billion mark in revenues during fiscal 2007. Besides reaching an […]

More than half of all adults who cruise the Internet say they have used the Web to either watch or download video content, according to a new report. The Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted what the report’s author, senior research specialist Mary Madden, says is the organization’s first major survey of online video […]