destinyland writes “Apple is closing in on Microsoft’s share of operating systems among the computers of incoming freshmen at the University of Virginia, confirming earlier reports of an ongoing trend. A yearly survey shows that among 3,156 freshman who own computers, Microsoft’s share is just 56% (down 6%), with Apple’s share rising to 43% (up 6%), continuing a six-year pattern. In 2004, it was Microsoft 89% vs. 8% for Apple. ‘It seems likely that (more…)

A Microsoft identity guru bit Apple and smacked Google over mobile privacy policies. In fact, Microsoft’s Chief Identity Architect accused Apple and Google of trying to bury privacy alive.

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The easiest way to explain the situation is to show it. Here’s what Kudo Tsunoda, creative director for Kinect at Microsoft, has to say regarding the often difficult task of explaining Kinect in written form:

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E3 kicked off today, and Microsoft took advantage of its early keynote presentation to show off a ton of new games and features for the Xbox 360. The biggest news for the very near future is that they’re releasing a smaller, revamped version of the console, with immediate availability. It’s black, it comes with a 250GB HDD and built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi support, and it’s priced at $299. Microsoft also put a release date on Kinect, the motion control scheme (more…)

It’s that time of the year again, folks! No – not the new iPhone. It’s time for E3, gaming’s most important conference, where Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony announce their latest hardware, games and services. Fanboy battles will rage, marketing execs will boast – but if all goes according to plan, gamers will find out what will dominate their time.

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Microsoft really, really wants you to play in the Game Room a lot. There’s less than a week left until it releases on March 24, so we’ll see then if an enticement like this pays off. You’ll get points every three medals, and even some points for just spending time in the arcade (36 hours total).

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An editorial at Eurogamer delves into what Sony and Microsoft hope to achieve with their upcoming console motion control systems, despite entering the market several years after Nintendo set the standard. “The cards Sony has placed on the table this week suggest one answer to that question. It sees PlayStation Move as being an upgrade path for Wii owners — an invitation to the tens of millions of consumers who have invested in Nintendo’s platform (more…)

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Microsoft for fraudulent handling of Xbox Live’s Points system.

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Dan Jones writes “Kiwis have built an entire school IT system out of open source software, in less than two months, despite a deal between the New Zealand government and Microsoft that effectively mandates the use of Microsoft products in the country’s schools. Albany Senior High School in the northern suburbs of Auckland has been running an entirely open source infrastructure since it opened in 2009. It’s using a range of applications like OpenOffice, (more…)

An anonymous reader writes “PJ of Groklaw is working on putting the documents from Comes v. Microsoft online, to make them searchable and accessible to everyone. If you don’t remember their history, the plaintiffs got these documents from Microsoft during discovery after fighting the lawyers tooth and nail. After realizing how embarrassing the documents were to Microsoft, they put them online and later got a very large settlement from Microsoft by (more…)