Microsoft officially took the wraps off of its new social network for students on Thursday. The service is called So.cl and was developed by Microsoft Research’s FUSE Labs division. It’s currently in “experimental” stages and is available to students attending the University of Washington, New York University and Syracuse University. So.cl allows users to log-in with their Facebook accounts and offers a similar set of features. In addition to adding status updates, photos and links, us...

It’s certainly not going to knock any socks off this year, but Apple has finally kicked off its annual back to school sale. A day behind schedule, Apple on Thursday announced that students making qualifying Mac purchases will receive a complimentary $100 iTunes gift card. The offer applies to college students and those accepted into college, and any MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac or Mac Pro purchase will qualify for the gift card. Apple’s promotion this year offers less than half the back...

Earlier today, while speaking to a group of students and journalists at the London School of Economics, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed that there will indeed be iPad-competing slate products running Windows by Christmas. The catch? Steve didn’t clarify whether these products would be shipping, or just announced, nor who would manufacture them. With HP most likely changing course to offer a webOS-based tablet as opposed to a Windows 7 slate, we’ve got to wonder who will end up being first in ...

Cloud-based productivity suites are popping up left and right these days and each new product poses a new level of competition to Microsoft’s Office Suite, which at one time had reached monopoly-like status. It’s still certainly at the top of the pile of course and Microsoft is planning to embrace the cloud at some point, but the company has a more immediate need to invigorate current Office offerings. The solution? Get ‘em while they’re young. Regularly priced at $679.95, Microsoft ju...