According to sources, Microsoft is developing a voice activated iPhone application. The application, Tellme, is designed to offer voice activated search. Tellme is already available on a variety of other smart phones including RIMM's Blackberry. The application faces one issue in that Apple does not have button for the application to use for push-to-talk. It is expected the software to include a... More

All three large companies announced a plan Monday to buy back shares of the companies at a time that most companies have been slowing the rates of share buy backs in order preserve capital. Microsoft announced a $40 billion buy back, HP announced a $8 billion, and Nike announced plans to buy back $5 billion in company stock.

Microsoft has released a new I'm A PC advertisement as part of its new ad campaign.

As part of Microsoft's strategy to catch-up with online competitors including Google and Yahoo, Microsoft has agreed to acquire Greenfield Online Inc. for $486 million. Greenfield operates popular shopping sites in Europe. Microsoft, who currently has 9 percent global search share, has an even lower share overseas. The move is aimed at helping Microsoft provide more services to help consumers find... More

Microsoft's new 3d photo imaging service slowed to a crawl its first day as the new website received over 286,000 upload requests. Users created over 7,500 new "synths," which allow users to mold multiple images together into a single three-dimensional rendering.

In an attempt to challenge Apple's advertising "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC," Microsoft has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Jerry Seinfield. The advertising campaign is designed to change public perception that Window's Vista is difficult to use when compared to Apple's Mac OSX.

Microsoft announced Wednesday that it is increasing its partnership with Novell. Microsoft is planning to purchase an additional $100 million worth of Novell Linux support certificates, which the company plans to offer to its customers for a premium. Microsoft also stated that it plans to work with Novell to develop tools to help its customers deploy Windows and Linux in mixed environments.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 console beat the Sony PS3 in Japan weekly sales for the first time two weeks ago. Sales were driven up by the launch of Namco Banai's "Tales of Vesperia." A Japanese role playing game for the Xbox 360.

Microsoft's Office Open XML Format, the XML format used to save documents in Microsoft Office 2007, has gained approval from the International Organization for Standardization. The news is good for Microsoft as having an approved standard is required for gaining many government contracts.

Facebook will be announcing a complete revamp of the analytics system provided to developers later today. The new system allows developers to better gauge the performance of their applications on the Facebook platform.

Microsoft officially released its next version of its SQL Server database software. The new version offers several new features aimed at bridging the feature gap between its database server and Oracle's. The new version supports spatial data for non-uniform data and a new filestream data type designed to store files and documents efficiently.

Although, many analysts questioning Microsoft's moves to continue to lose money in online services; Steve Ballmer stated that the company needs to increase its ante in order to stay in the game. Ballmer stated Microsoft will need to spend at least $1.2 to $1.5 billion in 2009 in just the area of online search to help the company "reinvent" its search.

Joined with Carl Ichan, Microsoft has made a new offered to acquire Yahoo. Microsoft gave Yahoo 24 hours to respond to its new offer, and Yahoo again declined the offer. Yahoo stated that the new offer was better than the previous offer; however, still came up short compared to what the company is worth.

Bill Gates official says his farewells at Microsoft today. He built up the company to become the most valuable technology company, and he led the company to successful meet its goal of placing a computer onto every desk in every home.

Microsoft has agreed to acquire Navic for an undisclosed amount. Navic Networks sells television advertising technology. Its technology is used to allow viewers to vote in reality shows, learn more about advertised products, check theater times, and even order pizzas.