Microsoft hit with another class-action suit over scratched 360 discs

Microsoft hit with another class-action suit over scratched 360 discs Posted Jul 19th 2007 10:40PM by Nilay PatelFiled under: Gaming Reports of Xbox 360 consoles scratching discs have have been widespread for several months now, leading the EU to launch an official investigation into the matter -- and Americans to deal with it Uncle Sam style: by filing lawsuits. Mirroring the Florida suit filed earlier this month, two California plaintiffs have filed a class-action suit against Microsoft, alleging the negligent design of the 360 causes damage to game discs and asking for damages in the neighborhood of $5M. Based on how widespread this issue seems to be and the legs it's had, expect to see some speedy settlements involving a lot of tedious paperwork for affected consumers and a lot of green for the plaintiff's lawyers.source : engadget.com

Google Down and Microsoft Up in Online Searches

The latest figures from comScore are in and Microsoft is picking up speed.While long standing search leader Google continues to dominate by a large margin, comScore reports Google losing some ground in June, while MSN saw a noticeable increase.Latest figures for Google show a drop to 49.5%, down 1.2% from May. Yahoo also saw a decline of a little over a percentage point down 1.3 to 25.1%. Meanwhile Microsoft had a significant gain, up from its low 10.3 to a higher low of 13.2%. Ask remains unchanged at 5%.In June Americans performed 8.0 billion online searches, which are up 6 percent from May, and up 26 percent from June 2006.Interestingly enough, while both Google and Yahoo both saw a decrease in their percentage share for the month of June both search engines actually saw an increase in the actual number of searches conducted. With Microsoft's nearly 3% jump, along with an increase in American searches, Microsoft experienced a spike in search volume up 36% over May, a substantial in

Microsoft Announces New Privacy Policy

Close on the heels of Google's boost in privacy features for its search engine users, Microsoft has announced an enhanced set of privacy principles for Live Search and online advertising data collection, on use and protection.According to Microsoft, the principles outline new, enhanced steps to help protect the privacy of Microsoft Windows Live users, including making search query data anonymous after 18 months by permanently removing cookie IDs, the entire IP address and other identifiers from search terms. Microsoft says it will also work to give customers more control over what information it uses to personalize their online search experience. In connection with its efforts to support a common industry approach to privacy issues, Microsoft also announced that it will join the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) later this year when it begins to offer third-party ad serving broadly.Peter Cullen, chief privacy strategist at Microsoft said, "We have been thinking deeply about privacy

Microsoft vs Opensource

Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith told Fortune that open source software violates 235 Microsoft patents, it sent tremors through the tech industry. It's ironic that Microsoft is making these... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Linspire/Microsoft

Linux: Linspire/Microsoft Agreement Useless to Users Posted by Zonk on Monday July 23, @03:29AM from the par-for-the-course dept. Stephen Samuel writes "Groklaw host PJ has dissected the 'patent peace' agreement between Linspire and Microsoft, and has determined that what Linspire agreed to is next to useless for many users. Essentially, under the agreement Linspire software is almost unusable: 'You can't share the software with others, pass it on with the patent promise, modify your own copy, or even use it for an "unauthorized" purpose, whatever that means in a software context. You must pay Linspire for the software, but then the "covenant" says to use Linux, you must also pay Microsoft. That payment doesn't cover upgrades. Linspire said it was absorbing the initial fees, but I don't know about upgrades. New functionality means you lose your coverage or presumably must pay again.'"source : slashdot.org

Articles : Microsoft Learning Announces Prometric as Exam Delivery Provider (Worldwide)

We’re pleased to announce that Prometric will be the exam delivery provider for Microsoft professional certification and Microsoft Dynamics exams. Microsoft Learning is confident that this model will allow us to provide you with a better testing experience. We anticipate increased speed to market for exam innovations, improved consistency in your test-taking environment, and excellent [...]

Microsoft to Compete with Google Analytics

Microsoft has offered a glimpse of its upcoming competitor to Google Analytics, which currently goes by the code-name "Gatineau." The service promises to offer features beyond Google's and Beta 1 is expected to go live later this summer.