Stuart J. Johnston

Microsoft researchers demonstrated a Surface-type multitouch computer this week, one with significant additions to the device’s graphics and touch capabilities. But don’t look for them as new features on commercial versions of Microsoft’s Surface any time soon because Microsoft has no immediate commercial plans for what is a research prototype named “Second Light.” The demo […]

Microsoft feels that Internet Explorer, especially upcoming version 8, isn’t getting the respect it deserves when it comes to talking about speed. So IE officials have done what any good Web-savvy netizen might do — they’ve made an online video demonstrating that IE8 is as fast as competitors. In the video, and in an accompanying […]

Microsoft still hasn’t shipped a public “release candidate” for Windows 7 – that’s expected next month – but another preliminary version of the code has leaked to BitTorrent sites. A release candidate, RC for short, is the final test version of the code before Microsoft releases the product to manufacturing and delivers the final product […]

Windows developers take note: Microsoft has announced it plans to ship a toolkit for testing users’ applications for compatibility with Windows 7 next month. The news was in buried in an online Q &A posted Monday. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has had versions of its Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) for years. Now, as the company gets […]

It’s nearly D-day (for ‘done’) for developers who want to write Microsoft Silverlight applications but want to pursue development using Eclipse. A senior Microsoft executive announced on his blog Friday evening that an open source project that the company funded last year is about to bear fruit. Now the firm doing the development, Soyatec, is […]

Reports are again circling once again around a crucial Microsoft product delivery milestone that, if accurate, signals the imminent arrival of Internet Explorer 8. Malaysian tech enthusiast site TechArp is reporting Thursday that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) plans to release Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) to manufacturing the week of March 16. In Microsoft parlance, “release to […]

Is this a new Microsoft? Two bloggers say they’ve found evidence Microsoft plans to give users the ability to easily disable and delete the Internet Explorer 8 browser in the forthcoming Windows 7. The bloggers identified the feature in a recent build of a pre-release version of Windows 7. If true, the disable and delete […]

Microsoft’s top lawyer informed a U.S. Senator Tuesday that when it comes to its layoffs, the software giant won’t be cutting its visa-carrying foreign workers before it cuts U.S. citizens. Instead, the ax will fall where it’s needed, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) general counsel Brad Smith said in a letter today to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). […]

Microsoft may be preparing to release the first and possibly the only “release candidate” for Windows 7 in March or April, the final stage in the development cycle. Thus far, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has maintained the party line that Windows 7 will ship in the first quarter of 2010. Steven Sinofsky, the executive leading the […]

This will not help accusations that Microsoft copies Apple’s good ideas. Microsoft Thursday quietly announced it is opening its own chain of company-branded stores. Very quietly. Disclosure of the store strategy was almost hidden in plain sight as part of a press release Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) issued Thursday afternoon announcing the hiring of a “corporate […]