Even opponents of Microsoft could not have predicted it would happen this quickly, but their Kin smartphone is already dead. Microsoft announced yesterday that it is killing both the Kin One and Kin Two. After only two months of sales, the software giant has halted production on the phone and will not ship it to Europe, as was planned. Microsoft and Verizon did not release actual sales numbers, but estimates put the sales above 1,000 but far less than 10,000, a drop in the pond compared to many of the top-selling smartphones. Critics of the device believe Microsoft should not be surprised. Although it was labeled a smartphone, it...

Microsoft Office 2010 Office 2010, which was made available for businesses last month, is on the retail shelves today, Tuesday, June 15, 2010. This is the first time Microsoft is also offering Web-based versions of the Office suite along with its desktop version. The online version of Office 2010 has been available for a couple of days and can work on any computer that uses a good web browser and has internet access; although it has fewer features than the desktop software. There are several versions of Office 2010: Office Home Office Home & Business 2010 Student 2010 Office Professional 2010. Office Mobile 2010 ...

The speculation ends with Microsoft finally revealing its much anticipated new camera-based motion control system on Sunday night. This system requires no controller and is being claimed to be a big adrenaline shot for Xbox 360. Kinect, previously dubbed Project Natal was first demonstrated at the E3 show in 2009 and the new moniker is confirmed just a few hours ago on Sunday night. Steven Tolouse, Xbox Live Directory of policy and enforcement said in a blog post, that the name means “kinetic” and “connection,” implying what the technology achieves. He said, “It’s interesting to me how much is put into a technology’...

Windows Help and Support Center offers Web-based technical support to users. A Google researcher, Tavis Ormandy, not only found a zero-day vulnerability that he says makes things easy for a remote attacker, but also publicly demonstrated how the error works. This error is said to be in the Help and Support Center, which supports remote links to help with the use of hcp://addresses. Windows XP SP2 introduced a system where the program runs in a restricted mode where links from addresses on a special whitelist only are given access. But the flaw allows bypass of this whitelist. Tavis Ormandy disclosed this error to the public. Acco...

Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Today, Microsoft announced the availability of Microsoft Expression Studio 4. This is the latest version of Microsoft’s professional suite of design tools. This software is currently available to MSDN subscribers, and will be available in retail later. Expression 4 allows designers and developers to create dynamic applications using their current tool set and existing skills. Expression Studio 4 comes with several new features: Expression Blend – Lets designers create XAML designs that can be used with both Windows Presentation Foundation applications and Silverlight. With this, Microsof...

Microsoft, a company known for amassing boatloads of money, announced Friday that it will be ending its futile efforts to give some of that money away.  The Bing Cashback program, which shared advertising revenue with Bing customers, did not generate enough interest, according to the Bing blog. "In lots of ways, this was a great feature – we had over a thousand merchant partners delivering great offers to customers and seeing great ROI on their campaigns, and we were taking some of the advertising revenue and giving it back to customers. But after a couple of years of trying, we did not see the broad adoption that we had hoped for,"�...