Windows 8

Lenovo has bumped up the specs on its latest home theater PC but kept it as compact as ever.

Announced today, the new mini IdeaCentre Q190 is an upgrade to Lenovo's current Q180. And based on its features, it does qualify as a true upgrade.

The Q190 offers a 3rd-generation (Ivy Bridge) Intel Core i3 processor, a hard drive as large as one terabyte, a 24-gigabyte SSD cache, and as much as 8GB of memory. The PC can also be outfitted with Windows 8 Pro.

In comparison, the Q180 comes with an Atom chip, a 750GB hard drive or … Read more

Hewlett-Packard isn't overly impressed with Microsoft's Surface tablet.

Speaking in an interview published yesterday with IDG Enterprise, HP PC business chief Todd Bradley said that his company could "hardly call Surface competition," adding that the Microsoft-branded tablet is quite flawed.

"One, very limited distribution," Bradley said, listing what he feels are the Surface's greatest flaws. "It tends to be slow and a little kludgey as you use it....It's expensive. Holistically, the press has made a bigger deal out of Surface than what the world has chosen to believe."

Microsoft … Read more

Former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky has sounded off on claims that he tried to take over the company's Windows Phone and developer businesses.

Hal Berenson, president of True Mountain Group, a company that provides technology and management consulting, wrote in a blog post earlier this week that he'd heard from Microsoft employees that Windows chief Sinofsky was waging battles over the last several months to take control of the company's Windows Phone and Developer divisions. His actions were turned away by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other top executives, leading to his departure, Berenson claims.

Sinofsky rebutted … Read more

In conversation with LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman at a Churchill Club event, Steve Ballmer gave his assessment on Microsoft's competitors in the mobile space. "The ecosystem of Android is a little wild," he said, noting compatibility and malware issues due to the fragmentation that comes from having multiple variations of Android, on devices from Amazon, Samsung, Google and other hardware makers.

Read: Ballmer praises Sinofsky's "amazing contributions," sheds no light on exit

"Conversely, Apple's system looks highly controlled and quite high prices," the Microsoft CEO … Read more

From various reports, it appeared that Steve Ballmer had reached his limit with Windows chief Steven Sinofsky. He had rolled out Windows 8 and the Surface with some success, but it was time in the organization for a different leadership style. After 23 years, Sinofsky was sent packing, or decided make his own exit. The company said the decision was mutually agreed upon by the two longtime colleagues.

In a conversation with Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist, at a Churchill Clubevent, Ballmer was asked about future directions with the management change but didn't shed much light … Read more

Stars can be difficult, especially when you do ads with them.

No matter how much you pay them, some like to have input on the scripts. The bigger the star, sometimes the bigger the input. Sometimes, though, the stars just take the money.

So when rumors began to roll that Microsoft was launching Windows Phone 8 with ads featuring Gwen Stefani -- and, as the rumor had it at the time, Jay-Z -- I wondered whether the ads would follow the template of the one pleasant, but slightly pedestrian ad already released.

It featured British TV presenter, Holly Willoughby (embedded … Read more

Microsoft's digital book pact with Barnes & Noble is already bearing fruit.

A little more than a month after the two companies officially formed a partnership geared toward digital reading, Nook apps for Windows 8 and Windows RT have arrived at the Windows Store. B&N CEO William promised last month that a Windows 8 app was "imminent," but it was not available at the time of the new operating system's launch last month.

As part of the two companies' pact, Microsoft agreed to invest $300 million for a 17.6 percent stake in a … Read more

As Microsoft goes through a major corporate shakeup, it seems to have made some other shifts and changes in its leadership recently. A company spokesperson told CNET that Microsoft quietly moved mobile guru Andy Lees to the head of corporate development and strategy about a month ago.

Lees has been with the company for more than 20 years. Less than a year ago, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer changed Lees from being president of the Windows Phone division to a vaguely described job that had Lees focusing on a set of projects with Windows Phone and Windows 8. In this role, … Read more

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer decided he had had enough of Windows Division President Steven Sinofsky.

Sinofsky had developed a stellar reputation for shipping quality products on time. And he streamlined the management structure in the gigantic Windows division so that it hummed and produced the latest version of the company's flagship product on a tight deadline to solid, if not spectacular, reviews.

But a day after Sinofsky's sudden departure from Microsoft, it's also clear that Ballmer recognized that the Windows leader was too divisive of a figure to continue on at the software giant, where … Read more