Microsoft on Thursday announced the availability of its Windows 8 Release Preview. The near-final build is offered in 14 different languages and is the final pre-release before the operating system is sent to manufacturing partners. The Preview includes Internet Explorer 10, support for Adobe Flash and new Windows 8 apps for connecting to Hotmail, SkyDrive and Messenger, among others. “Since our first preview release last September, millions of people now use the pre-release product on a daily basis...

Microsoft is currently planning to release an Office suite for Apple’s iPad, and quite possibly the iPhone and iPod touch. BGR last week exclusively reported details regarding Microsoft’s intentions to bring Office to iOS and even Google’s Android OS in November. According to a new report from The Daily, the development team for Office Mobile finished work on the project last month and the efforts of the design team will soon be completed too. Once approved by the usability team, the app will be...

Yusuf Mehdi, the CMO of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Division, announced on Tuesday that more than 67 million Xbox 360s have been sold since the console launched in 2005, and it has generated more than $56 billion in sales. The motion sensing input accessory, Kinect, has sold more than 19 million units and the company’s Xbox Live service now boast 40 million members. Xbox users are spending more time on the system and are averaging 84 hours of usage each month. Mehdi also revealed that M...

Amazon announced on Tuesday that its Prime Instant Video service and access to “Your Video Library” is now available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers. The streaming service, which is available as a part of Amazon Prime for $79 a year and offers customers free two-day shipping, features more than 17,000 movies and TV episodes, including hundreds of Paramount films. “Working with Amazon.com marks a significant milestone in our mission to make the entertainment you love more amazing on Xbox,” said R...

Microsoft announced that its Windows 8 Release Preview will be available during the first week of June, possibly after the company’s Computex keynote on June 6th. A Chinese edition of the Release Preview, however, has been circulating around the Web prior to the software’s official debut. The build reportedly includes new Metro-style Sports, Travel, and News apps, along with an updated boot screen, cursors, wallpapers and multiple monitor desktop improvements. Microsoft’s latest operating system...

In its latest Transparency Report, Google has included information about takedown requests related to copyright infringement for the first time ever. According to the data from this past year, nearly 8,000 copyright owners have contacted Google with requests to remove search results that lead to copyright infringing websites. Microsoft led the charge with more than 500,000 removal requests across 9,108 domains during this past month alone, and a total of 2,554,475 takedown request across 23,485 domains over...

A German regional court on Thursday issued an injunction against newly-acquired Motorola Mobility for infringing one of Microsoft’s patents, according to FOSS Patents. The manufacturer is banned from selling its Android-powered devices that infringe Microsoft’s EP1304891 patent, which covers “communicating multi-part messages between cellular devices using a standardized interface.” The sales ban, for the time being, is subject to additional confirmation. If confirmed however, it is en...

BGR has learned from a reliable source that Microsoft is currently planning to release the company’s full Office suite for not only Apple’s iPad, but for Android tablets as well. The company is targeting November of this year for both launches. Additionally, our source has seen Microsoft Office running on an iPad first-hand and has said that it looks almost identical to the previous leak from The Daily a few months back, despite the fact that Microsoft flat out denied that the app was authentic. ...

Microsoft plans to launch its next-generation Xbox video game and home entertainment console ahead of the holidays next year, according to a recent report. The Los Angeles Times on Monday published a developer contract between Acitivision Blizzard and famed Halo developers Bungie. The firms are currently working on a new Massively Multiplayer Online franchise called Destiny, which will be a first-person shooter with a science fiction theme. While the fact that the companies currently have four titles planne...

Microsoft is betting big on its upcoming Windows 8 operating system, which looks to bridge the gap between smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Tuesday called the operating system a “rebirth” of the Windows brand and described it as the ”deepest, broadest and most impactful” Windows software ever created, Agence France-Presse reported. “It’s really, in some senses, a dawning of the rebirth of MS Windows… It’s certainly the ...

Despite the fact that Windows 8 is expected to launch in October, Microsoft still has high hopes for its Windows 7 operating system. The software giant predicts that 350 million Windows 7 devices will ship by the end of 2012, Bloomberg reported. “It makes Windows the most popular single system,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at a forum in Seoul, South Korea, although he didn’t provide any figures for comparison. Windows 7 was released in October 2009 and within two years, the operating system surpass...

Microsoft is looking to bolster sales of Windows-powered computers this summer by offering students a free Xbox 360 video game console with a qualifying PC purchase. Beginning on May 18th in Canada and on May 20th in the United States, students who purchase a PC for at least $599 CAD in Canada or $699 in the U.S. will receive a free 4GB Xbox 360. Purchases must be made from participating retailers including Best Buy, Dell.com, Fry’s Electronics, HPDirect.com, Microsoft Stores and NewEgg.com in the U.S., a...

Microsoft’s Kinect motion and voice-based controller accessory was launched with gaming in mind, but researchers have taken the technology in a number of different directions. German researchers transformed the Kinect into an interactive augmented reality X-ray machine, and Microsoft Research is now in the process of trialing the use of its Kinect sensor as a surgical assistant. (more…)

Analysts repeatedly harp on how important China is for Apple’s iPhone. The Cupertino, California-based consumer electronics giant’s iPhone 4S launched in China earlier this year but despite reports of continuing negotiations, China Mobile — the world’s largest telecom carrier — still does not offer Apple’s iPhone to its massive subscriber base. But as Apple continues its efforts to make headway in the world’s largest smartphone market, an underdog has reportedly taken an ear...