Get outspoken insights and expert advice on the products and companies that define today's tech landscape, from a source who knows these technologies inside and out.
Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications.
A new study that measures app usage on Windows 8 PCs finds that Metro style apps are gaining traction slowly. But a surprising result suggests that app developers who deliberately break Microsoft's design guidelines are most likely to win users over.
It was five years ago this month that Microsoft officially dropped its plan to acquire Yahoo for $47.5 billion. In hindsight, losing that battle was the best thing that could have happened to Microsoft.
Microsoft’s best-kept email secret is an online tool that allows you to connect any custom domain to its shiny new Outlook.com back end, for personal or business mail. It’s free, and it works amazingly well.
A group of security researchers in Germany found some suspicious traffic on their web servers after a Skype instant messaging session. After a single experiment, they concluded that Microsoft is snooping on its customers. But a closer look at the facts suggests that this is a well-documented security feature at work.
Servers are big boxes of stuff just waiting to break. Over the weekend I got to play network administrator, and the experience has convinced me it's time to get rid of my dedicated server and move everything to hosted services.
Details of the first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet have leaked, after Amazon.com prematurely published a listing for a new Acer device. The tiny tablet could be ready before Microsoft's much anticipated Windows update (code-named Blue), which is due this summer.
The latest worldwide usage statistics from NetMarketShare are out. What do they say about Windows 8 and Windows RT? Spoiler alert: Don't believe everything you read.
All Office editions are not created equal. Microsoft's support lifecycle for Office on Windows provides for 10 years of support. But Office for Mac doesn't qualify for extended support. That means a widely used Office version has reached the unsupported phase sooner than you might expect.
If all you ever read is the tech press, you probably think Microsoft is doomed, and you probably can't understand why Apple's stock has plunged over the last six months. Maybe it's because the press is only seeing a tiny slice of the pie.
A new report from Soluto uses data from its massive online database of PC crashes, hangs, and performance metrics to identify the 10 most reliable Windows PCs you can buy today. Surprisingly, a MacBook Pro is at the top of the list. Even more surprising is who's not included.