Elvis Still Hasn’t Left the Building: Ballmer’s Farewell Letter to Microsoft Shareholders

On his seemingly endless farewell tour, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can cross another one off the list: His final letter to shareholders as the leader of the software giant. But, unlike this emotional goodbye to the employees of Microsoft two weeks ago, Ballmer’s letter in the 2012 annual report was largely devoid...

By: Unknown On 6:47 AM

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Microsoft Denies Report of Ad Data Being Harvested From Xbox One’s Kinect

Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.com It’s still a month and a half away from launching, but Microsoft’s next-gen gaming console kicked up another messaging controversy over the weekend when Advertising Age reported that the Kinect camera, mandatorily bundled with the system, could be used to harvest marketing data about users. But...

By: Unknown On 2:47 PM

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Give Kinect data to marketers? Microsoft might—but not today

No "active work" on Kinect ad targeting, but that could change in the future.  by Kyle Orland Since Microsoft announced that the Kinect would be a central, packaged part of every Xbox One sold, some have expressed concern that Microsoft might use the device to gather information about...

By: Unknown On 9:36 AM

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AllThingsD in the Media: Microsoft’s Next CEO (Maybe) and a New Video Chat App

Another busy week of tech news — and when was the last time it wasn’t a busy week? — meant AllThingsD’s personnel was equally busy in the media. Early in the week, on Sept. 30, Kara Swisher was on CNBC to talk about the still-unfolding story about the...

By: Unknown On 12:31 AM

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Rumor: Microsoft offering to drop Windows Phone license fee for HTC

Form an orderly queue for your free Windows Phone license.  by Jason Inofuentes Just a mock-up, but awfully pretty. Aurich Lawson It's hard to see an area at Microsoft that isn't going through some degree of transition, and Windows Phone is definitely no exception. Having carved out a...

By: Unknown On 8:29 AM

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VIDEO: Microsoft Bings on a challenge to Google in search

Jefferson Graham previews Google's new Search and sees how it stacks up to Bing. It's Microsoft vs Google in search: Bing is vastly improved, but Google, well, out Googles it. by Jefferson Graham Jenny Cameron prefers Google to Bing. (Photo: By Sean Fujiwara) Microsoft has its work cut...

By: Unknown On 12:39 PM

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Microsoft investors call for Bill Gates to step down as Microsoft chairman

Three top 20 investors think that Gates will block adoption of new strategies.  by Peter Bright Reuters is reporting that three of Microsoft's 20 largest investors want company founder Bill Gates to step down as chairman of the board. The investors claim that Gates as chairman blocks the adoption of...

By: Unknown On 11:59 AM

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Microsoft: “System processing” takes up 10 percent of Xbox One GPU time

Game developers will be able to use that GPU time in the future, though.  by Kyle Orland The Xbox One's ability to run up to four apps in the background (or on the side via Snap mode) during gameplay and to switch from a game to those apps...

By: Unknown On 10:16 AM

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Microsoft touts browser gaming with Web-based relaunch of Win95’s Hover

Nostalgic revamp shows power of games built for Web standards.  by Kyle Orland Microsoft is using a bit of Windows-95-era nostalgia to try to once again convince Web users and developers that gaming inside of a browser can be performance-competitive with native applications. The company today released a browser-based...

By: Unknown On 7:25 AM

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