James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
The death of the business card and killer contact app
The bulky, finicky, business card arguably has no place in today’s fast-approaching paperless world. Carrying around a stack of identities you’ll likely never get in touch with not only seems anachronistic in view of environmental concerns, but is impractical, too. According to statistics in the U.S. alone 10 billion business cards were printed in 2012, ...
Microsoft toughens on U.S. cybercrime, still struggles overseas
Microsoft is presently going after a member of the public who has been spotted by the company’s cyberforensic department for activating a suspicious amount of pirated copies of Windows 7 and Office 2010. The Redmond giant has filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court in Seattle, WA, and has asked the court that the ...
A smartphone in a pear tree: Microsoft unveils 2nd deal in 12 days of Christmas promo
On December 8th Microsoft unveiled its first of 12 deals in 12 days for its Christmas sales promotion. In 2013 the same event included some notable discounts on smartphones, tablets, games, and so this year we’re thinking the Redmond company will offer similarly delectable gifts suitable for most age groups. The deal behind yesterday’s door was ...
Price dictates console sales as Xbox One duels with PS4
For some time now Microsoft’s Xbox One sales have been catching up to Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 4, due to price incentives and, in some part, Microsoft’s improved Xbox marketing strategy. When both consoles went on sale late last year PS4 was leading in sales figures by about 2-1, according to market industry experts NPD. But since ...
Microsoft ends failed partnership with Barnes & Noble
When Microsoft invested $300 million in Barnes & Noble Inc’s Nook Media LLC e-book division in 2012 it looked at the time to be a solid investment following a few years of progress from Nook as it raced to compete with Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle and Apple Inc’s iPad. In spite of Nook’s efforts, that included ...
Satya Nadella’s salary higher than Steve Ballmer: New Microsoft CEO makes top 10 highest paid tech execs
Is Satya Nadella being paid too much? Seventy-two percent of Microsoft’s shareholders don’t think so. The company CEO’s $84 million a year pay package was approved yesterday after it was first scrutinized by ISS, an investor advisory group, who came to the conclusion that the man seemingly pushing Microsoft towards a merrier future was being paid too much. ...
New co-opetition in cloud wars: Edit Microsoft Office files directly in Google Drive
You can now edit Microsoft Office files directly in Google Drive thanks to a new update for the search giant’s cloud-based file management system. Simply click on “edit with Google docs”. Multiple users will be able to access and edit files from anywhere once saved in the cloud, keeping track of changes, and are also ...
Leaked photos of Lumia 1020 successor suggest Microsoft’s mobile hardware plans
What seems to be a prototype of Microsoft’s new Lumia device appeared online recently on the Chinese auction site Taobao. The photos, which we can’t promise are the real deal, could possibly show a device made for the purposes of testing, or even be a version of the Lumia 1020 that didn’t make it all ...
Did Microsoft just give away its newest acquisition, a revolutionary email app?
A post on Microsoft’s official blog, that has since disappeared, suggests that the company might be about to purchase the email start-up company Accompli. The post, which was written by Microsoft’s corporate vice presidentRajesh Jha, was headed ‘blank post please delete,’, although as can be seen in a screenshot made available by TechCrunch, the text ...
Will Apple dump Google and move in with Bing or Yahoo?
Mozilla Corp. had already kicked its longtime search partner Google to the curb last week, begging the question, will Google suffer another major rebuff in 2015? The next break up could be from Apple Inc., a partner reportedly collecting a staggering $1 billion a year from Google to keep their iOS device relationship intact. A recent report by ...