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/ 10 February 2008

Obama routs Clinton in White House race

Senator Barack Obama swept the board on Saturday, pummelling Hillary Clinton in three Democratic nominating contests as Republican Mike Huckabee gave John McCain a run for his money. Obama, who is locked in a battle with Clinton for the party’s nomination, won big in Washington state, Nebraska and Louisiana, outscoring the former first lady by two to one.

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/ 22 January 2008

Microsoft braces for virtualisation

Microsoft on Monday announced several moves it says will help its business customers take advantage of a technology called virtualisation, and in the process help the software maker catch up with VMware, the front-runner in that area. Virtualisation allows one physical computer to house multiple ”virtual machines”.

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/ 12 September 2007

Microsoft issues four security updates

Microsoft released four software patches on Tuesday to fix security flaws, including one that could allow hackers to take over computers running the company’s instant messaging programs. Only one of the flaws carried the company’s most severe ”critical” rating, and it only applies to the Windows 2000 operating system.

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/ 4 September 2007

Microsoft announces first Vista service pack

Microsoft says it will release a major package of updates and fixes for the Windows Vista operating system in the first half of 2008. The company says a ”beta” test version of Service Pack 1 will be released ”in a few weeks to a moderate-sized audience”. The pack fixes some common problems that cause computers to crash or freeze.

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/ 9 July 2007

Is Microsoft’s Xbox 360 overheating?

Microsoft will not say what went wrong inside its Xbox 360 video-game consoles that could lead to -billion in repairs, but bloggers and their online readers seem to have their own answer: heat stroke. Frustrated gamers have been going to blogs and forums to swap horror stories and voodoo-like solutions for problems with the consoles.

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/ 6 July 2007

Microsoft extends Xbox 360 warranty

Microsoft announced on Thursday it will extend the warranty on Xbox 360 video-game consoles to three years, and said too many of the machines have succumbed to ”general hardware failure”. ”We don’t think we’ve been getting the job done,” said Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division.

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/ 4 July 2007

Amazon goes for HD DVD format

Amazon.com will begin selling high-definition independent films in the HD DVD format through its on-demand DVD-printing service, the company said. The web retailer said it will waive processing fees for the first 1 000 films it accepts for production by its CustomFlix Labs subsidiary.

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/ 26 June 2007

Microsoft desktop search spooks Google

Google says in a court filing that it is pressing for an extension to the United States Justice Department’s oversight of Microsoft’s business practices, most of which is set to expire in November. Over the past year, Google has complained to state and federal regulators about Microsoft’s ”Instant Search” program.

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/ 10 May 2007

Microsoft signs web video deals

Microsoft has signed deals with Volvo and whisky maker Chivas Brothers to support two new web-only video series from Reveille, the production company behind TV shows The Office and Ugly Betty. The two new shows will arrive on Microsoft’s MSN website in the next six months.

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/ 24 April 2007

New deal to buck Wi-Fi convention

In a big win for a little Wi-Fi startup called Fon, Time Warner Cable will let its home broadband customers turn their connections into public wireless hot spots, a practice shunned by most United States internet service providers (ISPs). Fon has forged similar agreements with ISPs across Europe.

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/ 23 March 2007

Small computers, big problems

Watching users fumble and nearly drop an early version of the FlipStart compact PC practically gave Robin Budd a heart attack. The culprit was the three-key sequence, Control-Alt-Delete, required to log off or reboot a Windows PC. When the shrunken-down laptop goes on sale later this month, early adopters might get a kick out of FlipStart’s solution.

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/ 9 November 2006

Windows Vista soon on the shelves, says Microsoft

Microsoft’s Windows Vista, the software giant’s first major upgrade of its operating system in five years, is complete and will be available to retail customers on January 30, a senior executive said on Wednesday. In the first year of release, Vista will be installed on more than 100-million computers worldwide, according to research firm IDC.

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/ 6 November 2006

Microsoft’s Office 2007 ready to ship

Microsoft said on Monday it has completed the software code for its Office 2007 suite and will begin to offer the world’s most popular package of desktop software to corporate customers on November 30. The new Windows Vista operating system and 2007 Exchange e-mail server will also then be made available to business customers.

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/ 22 March 2006

US professor killed by crocodile in Botswana

A professor at the University of Washington Medical School who moved to Botswana to help alleviate a shortage of doctors there, was killed when a crocodile dragged him from a canoe, his family and colleagues said. Richard Root (68) was on a wildlife tour of the Limpopo River in remote north-eastern Botswana with his wife, Rita O’Boyle, on Sunday when it happened.