Microsoft, Ipad | featured news

According to a report by the Verge today, Microsoft is planning to release Office for the iPhone, iPad and Android in early 2013. Relying on inside sources, the Verge reports that Office Mobile will be offered as free apps that allow Android and iOS users to view Microsoft Office documents on mobile devices. The Verge also notes that Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents will all be supported, but edit functionality will only be enabled with an Office 365 subscription, which can be purchased using the app.

In its biggest-ever push into the hardware business, Microsoft unveiled a tablet computer called Surface that is designed to challenge Apple’s iPad. At an event here, the company showed off the device, which is about the same weight and thickness as an iPad, with a 10.6-inch screen. The tablet has a built-in “kickstand” that will allow users to prop it up for watching movies, and a detachable cover that will serve double duty as a keyboard.

The device, running a new version of the Windows operating system, would be the first computer of the company’s own design — and would be aimed squarely at Apple’s iPad.

We live in a post-something era. This much, Microsoft is willing to concede; the iPad's thundering success changed the landscape. It has shown that the buyer is willing to imagine a different form factor than the PC commanding her principal information delivery platform. Apple has yet to conquer that platform, but it has fired its third round of volleys and the castle walls have been breached.

Windows 8 is now available for anyone to download, and it already shows a ton of potential. Here are the top 10 ways Windows 8 is better than the iPad right now.

Microsoft Corp is set to report a dip in earnings on Thursday, a year after the launch of its Windows 7 operating system blew away Wall Street estimates, as sales of personal computers lag expectations and Apple Inc's iPad eats away at the fringes of its core market.

Unleash the tablet PCs! Asustek is planning on launching a whole pack of tablets. As Joe Stalin once said, sometimes quantity has a quality all its own. Research In Motion’s Playbook tablet is coming early next year. Samsung will start selling the Galaxy Tab in November. Now Asustek Computer President Jerry Shen says he plans to launch five — FIVE! — tablets next year. Take that Steve Jobs.

A new Microsoft SEC filing published late Thursday revealed that the company punished its CEO Steve Ballmer for his inability to turn around the company's struggling mobile efforts so far. The proxy statement notes that his total compensation of $1.35 million, including a $670,000 base salary and a matching bonus, was lower than in 2008 due to the "unsuccessful launch of the Kin" and "a loss of market share" for Windows Mobile. The Compensation Committee singled out the absence of a real Windows tablet rival through a need to "take advantage of new form factors."

Companies do all kinds of studies all the time for all sorts of reasons. Seeing as the iPad is currently one of the hottest devices on the market, it should be no surprise that companies want to know about how users are using it.

In an effort to counter Apple's iPad-fueled momentum in the personal computing market, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company plans to introduce a full range of Windows 7-based slate PCs "over the course of the next several months."