Microsoft plans to give users of the next version of its Windows operating system touch screen controls as one option for controlling the software, its top executives said on Tuesday. Chairperson Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer showed off new Windows features based on software it calls ”multi-touch” that will be part of Windows 7.
Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates on Wednesday played down the chances of a fresh takeover bid for Yahoo!, saying the United States software giant would focus on an independent strategy. "We put a lot of effort into talking to Yahoo! and the conclusion was reached that we should pursue our own independent path," he told reporters during a visit to Tokyo.
The ”American dream” of unashamed wealth and the opportunity for all to acquire it has reached a crisis point before: in the Depression, the oil shock, in the ”greed is good” Eighties and the madness of the dotcom bubble. But America’s relationship with wealth — uncomfortable as it has sometimes been — has always been built on the same foundation.
Savvy office workers frustrated that their on-the-job computer tools don’t function as smoothly as, say, an Apple iPod are taking matters into their own hands. No longer are they relying on company technicians, or information technology (IT) administrators, to choose the software needed to get the job done.
Three South African names appear on this year’s Forbes World Billionaires list, released late on Wednesday. The names include Nicky Oppenheimer, Anton Rupert and mining magnate Patrice Motsepe — this country’s first black billionaire. Nicholas Oppenheimer is placed 173rd on the list, while Rupert is in 284th place and Motsepe is at number 503.
It must count among the world’s most genial rivalries. Two of the planet’s richest men regularly play epic games of online bridge and collaborate over handing out their billions. But Warren Buffett has unseated his friend, Bill Gates, to become the wealthiest individual on the globe.
Microsoft announced on Monday that it is expanding the range of business software it makes available as a service on the internet. The move comes as people increasingly use writing, accounting, email and other programs online instead of buying packaged software and installing it on their own machines.
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/ 19 February 2008
Microsoft unveiled a new initiative on Monday that will give college and high school students around the world free access to technology tools used to develop and design software. The development and design tools are available immediately to college students in the United States, Western Europe and China.
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/ 14 February 2008
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (News Corp) is negotiating to rescue embattled internet company Yahoo! through an alliance that could set up a heavyweight business showdown between the Australian-born media mogul and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. News Corp has begun tentative talks about merging its online division with Yahoo!.
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/ 6 February 2008
Funny, isn’t it, how we have come this far in the United States election campaign, reaching the milestone of results from 24 states in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and still a mystery remains. What, exactly, do these warring candidates stand for?
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/ 2 February 2008
With a market value of -billion, Google’s power has become awe-inspiring. Its profits rocketed by 40% to ,2-billion last year and it swallowed the popular video-sharing website YouTube. Through Microsoft’s ,6-billion takeover bid for Yahoo!, the technology establishment hit back at Google’s seemingly unstoppable rise.
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/ 23 January 2008
The annual Davos gathering of the world’s political and business elite opened on Wednesday with the fragile state of the world economy and stock-market turmoil casting a pall over the glitzy get-together. In recent years the annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort has been held against a backdrop of bumper corporate profits, strong economic growth and tame inflation.
After Microsoft founder and chairperson Bill Gates gave what he said was his last keynote address to the Consumer Electronics Show late on Sunday night, it’s worth bearing in mind that he has often been dramatically wrong about where he thought technology was heading.
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/ 13 September 2007
Fuelled by last year’s Nobel Prize for a man nicknamed ”banker to the poor”, microlending to small businesses in the world’s poorest countries is booming as individuals discover they can be their own mini World Bank. And you don’t have to be Bill Gates to get in on the act.