James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Young hackers blast Microsoft and Sony for being ‘retarded monkeys’ after ruining Christmas for Xbox and PS4 users
We did it for the “lulz”, said a barely-out-of-high-school hacker who was reportedly partly responsible for a world-breaking denial-of-service (DOS) attack against Microsoft and Sony Corp. during the holidays. In an interview with The Daily Dot, Vinnie Omari, a spokesperson for the group who brought down Xbox Live and Playstation Network services worldwide, lambasted both tech giants for ...
Microsoft and Google team-up against hotels blocking personal Wi-Fi
In an effort to block hotel chains controlling Wi-Fi at their locations, Google and Microsoft have formed an unlikely alliance. The two tech giants, as well as other tech companies, are lobbying in opposition to a petition by the hotel industry, including large chains such as Hilton and Marriott, to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) ...
A changing tide in tablet sales? New Microsoft site pushes Surface Pro 3 on MacBook users
In the consumer tech days of yore when the now mighty Apple Inc. was still playing catch-up to the seemingly insuperable Redmond giant Microsoft Corp. it was the former who were often seen tempting people to ‘switch over’ to their products by implementing informational acts of persuasion into their marketing regime. Microsoft, having found itself ...
Microsoft axes free website service from SharePoint Online as part of Office 365 ‘evolution’
As was expected, but not officially confirmed until now, Microsoft Corp. is discontinuing the SharePoint Online Public Website service, a feature enabling users to create public-facing websites in SharePoint. The discontinuation will be effective January 2015. While new customers won’t have access to the service, existing customers will be able to use the feature for ...
Winning the West: LINE buys Microsoft’s MixRadio, competes with WhatsApp
Japan’s super-cute and massively popular messaging service LINE recently announced the acquisition of Microsoft’s MixRadio for an undisclosed price. This move comes just a week after Line Corp. entered into a deal with Sony Music Entertainment Inc., and Japanese record label Avex Digital Inc, to start streaming music. LINE took messaging into a different direction ...
Microsoft blushes after senior employee goes on Google Apps ‘knucklehead’ rant
“We’re sorry, but we can’t find the page you are looking for” is all that remains of a rather contentious and highly amusing Microsoft Office Blogs post in which a senior product manager for Office 365 writing under the name of Tim Carroll waxes lyrical on why he is opposed to Google Apps. The cached ...
Breakthrough or big flop? Arcadia is Microsoft’s secret weapon in game-streaming
Recent reports suggest that Microsoft’s ‘next big thing’, a game and app-streaming service codenamed Arcadia, is moving along. The service will allow Windows devices to stream games from the Azure cloud platform. The rumors surfaced following a report by ZNET’s Microsoft expert Mary Jo Foley, in which she writes about the discovery of job postings ...
Ditching the wait list, Microsoft shares new Sway app with all
Microsoft yesterday reported that as of now there is no waiting list for Office’s new interactive content presentation app, Sway. A bunch of new features have also been added to the application, which was first released in preview October 1st this year. If you’re not already familiar with Sway it’s basically a tool which enables users on any ...
Our digital privacy at stake: Microsoft fights U.S. government in landmark case
When Mark Zuckerberg controversially revealed his thoughts on what he called ‘the end of privacy’ in 2010, his comments didn’t sit well with a large proportion of the global media that landed in the entrails of his remark. Following Zuckerberg’s arguably brazen assumption, Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations cast another shadow over the U.S. government, as ...
Xbox One finally overtakes PS4 in U.S. sales: Clever marketing or better pricing?
As we expected, Microsoft’s Xbox One outsold Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 4 in the month of November according to the NPD Group, the first time this has happened since the two consoles went on the market in 2013. Although the PS4 started off way out in front, outselling Xbox One by a wide margin, the Microsoft ...