Zillow, Lucid take home Webby Awards for internet innovation

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Things continue to move fast for Seattle-based Zillow, and now the online real estate company can add two Webby Awards to its resume. Competing in the real estate portion of the 17th annual Webby Awards, an Oscars-style bash for Internet innovation, creativity and other wacky stuff, Zillow won both the People’s Voice Award and Webby Winner… Read More…

Microsoft’s IE10 to run Flash by default on Windows 8, RT

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Microsoft announced this afternoon that it’s updating the Modern UI (formerly “Metro”) version of Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 and Windows RT to support Adobe Flash by default. Previously this version of the browser was set to not play interactive Flash content by default, unless the site in question was on a Compatibility View whitelist…. Read More…

The price of Microsoft’s European browser screwup: $732M

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The European Commission this morning fined Microsoft 561 million euros, approximately $732 million, for neglecting to include a required “browser ballot” in Windows 7 for the better part of a year —the first time the commission has fined a company for failing to comply with an antitrust ruling. That’s almost 1 percent of Microsoft’s annual revenue… Read More…

Report: EU set to fine Microsoft over bungled browser update

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Apparently it’s going to take more than trimming Steve Ballmer’s bonus for Microsoft to make things right with European antitrust regulators. Citing unnamed sources, Reuters reports that EU officials are preparing to fine Microsoft this month for falling short of its obligations under its 2009 antitrust settlement. Regulators have been investigating the company over its… Read More…

Microsoft releases IE10 for Windows 7, sticks to its guns on ‘Do Not Track’

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Microsoft this morning released a finished version of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7, the operating system that now runs on more than 40 percent of desktop PCs around the world. IE10 had previously been available for Windows 8, and only in preview mode for Windows 7. The new browser is available for download here,… Read More…

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team wants to make web developers’ lives easier — really

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Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has not exactly been the web developer’s friend in years past, with quirks aplenty and “standards” all its own. But the IE team has improved the situation considerably with its latest releases, and the step it’s taking today might just make up for some of that bad karma from years ago. The… Read More…

Pogs, Tamagotchis and Lunchables: New Microsoft IE ad takes a trip down memory lane

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Oh, man. My 22-year-old self just watched the new Microsoft advertisement above and the nostalgia is flowing like a Capri Sun. Everything kids in the 90s grew up with — The Oregon Trail, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Super Soakers — are all featured in a clever new advertisement that hopes convince people to use Internet Explorer again,… Read More…

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team pokes fun at haters with ‘comment troll’ video

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Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team is back with an updated version of its “Browser You Love(d) To Hate” online campaign, including the video above. It’s a clever way of challenging the company’s critics while touting some of its latest milestones (real and imagined). So how is the browser doing? Microsoft points to the recent release of… Read More…

Microsoft releases IE10 preview for Windows 7

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If you wanted to try out Internet Explorer 10 but are holding off on Windows 8, Microsoft is answering your call. The Redmond software giant today released an IE10 preview for Windows 7 users. IE10 was previously only available on Windows 8. Last month, Microsoft blogged about this and followed up on its promise of… Read More…

Which browser for that web app? Browsium’s new tool lets the IT team decide

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Browsium, a Redmond company run by a team of former Microsoft managers, has developed a new tool that lets companies assign certain websites to specific browsers on user computers — making sure that older sites and apps open in browsers that support them, which often means older versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The tool, called… Read More…

EU escalates Microsoft case, issues Windows 8 warning

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The European Commission this morning took another step toward a possible fine against Microsoft and delivered a public warning to the company over a component of Windows 8, two days before the release of the new operating system. Antitrust regulators say they have reached a preliminary finding that Microsoft failed to comply with its promises under… Read More…

Microsoft holds its ground as big advertisers blast IE10′s default privacy settings

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Microsoft’s decision to prevent Internet Explorer 10 users from being tracked online, by default, is getting an extraordinary response from some of the world’s largest advertisers, in the form of a letter to the Redmond company this week from the Association of National Advertisers, objecting to to the plan. The letter was signed by representatives of… Read More…

Report: EU preps complaint vs. Microsoft over Windows screwup

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Microsoft is in hot water in Europe, again, after failing to include a required browser “ballot” in Windows 7 for the better part of last year. Bloomberg News reports today that European regulators are preparing a complaint against the company, formally known as a statement of objections, as a possible prelude to additional antitrust fines. EU… Read More…

Is that a PC inside your Atari 2600? Well, yes, it is

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Building on the recent Internet Explorer/Atari link up, in which they built eight classic Atari games using HTML5, Hard Drives Northwest has created a limited number of Atari 2600 consoles retrofitted with modern PC internals. And just look at them—time warp!  Bellevue’s Hard Drives Northwest repurposed many of the original functions, so watch that “game reset” switch—now it’s hooked… Read More…

Pulse news site shows potential of Microsoft’s IE10

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Pulse, the popular news app for iPad, iPhone and Android, released a new version of its service for the web today, working with Microsoft to provide a glimpse of the potential for the new Internet Explorer 10 browser, particularly on touch-enabled Windows machines. Microsoft points to the site as an example of apps transitioning back… Read More…

Is Internet Explorer up or down? Microsoft and research firm in stat spat

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Web analytics firm StatCounter, which has been reporting a steady decline in Internet Explorer market share, has issued an extensive defense of its research techniques in an open letter to Microsoft’s Roger Capriotti, the IE product marketing director who previously challenged the research company’s statistical methods. StatCounter contends that its numbers are a more accurate… Read More…

Chrome passes Internet Explorer, but can the stats be believed?

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Google’s Chrome has surpassed Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the world’s most widely used browser, according to the latest numbers from StatCounter. The trend shows a steady decline for IE over the past year overall, and a strong increase for Chrome, with more than 32 percent market share. However, separate stats from NetApplications for the desktop… Read More…

Researchers: Internet Explorer declines have ‘stabilized’

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Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser has seen its overall market share decline from upwards of 90 percent a decade ago to something closer to 50 percent today, with the specific numbers varying depending on which market research firm is doing the counting. But the last few months show IE’s decline ending and even starting to… Read More…

Google: Microsoft’s IE gotcha based on outdated, little-used privacy protocol

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Google has issued a detailed rebuttal to Microsoft’s claims that Google is sidestepping a privacy protection in Internet Explorer. The search company says Microsoft neglected to mention that the IE protocol Google is accused of circumventing is outdated, impractical and also ignored by many other websites. Google also notes that has long been transparent about… Read More…

Lessons from Om Nom: How ‘Cut the Rope’ shows the future of Windows and the web

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Om Nom is a lovable little monster, a character who can keep people playing “Cut the Rope” for hours under the simple premise of trying to satisfy his sweet tooth. But behind the scenes, the game by ZeptoLab is anything but basic. Swinging ropes, floating bubbles, a subtle realism and other complexities require an underlying… Read More…