On Tuesday, Tumblr released a dedicated app for Windows Phone 8 app which will enable the Tumblr users to experience the social blogging platform on software giant Microsoft's mobile operating system, complete with live tiles and several other noteworthy features.

US based American software giant, Microsoft has been named the most attractive employer in India for third year in a row.

A new survey by HR service firm, Randstad said that Microsoft again topped the list of attractive employers in the country ahead of Hewlett Packard in the second position and Google India in the third position.

The Verge has revealed in a recent report, citing unidentified sources, that Microsoft's new version of Windows 8 - the Windows 8.1; or `Windows Blue,' as it is also called - will feature an option for booting to the traditional Windows interface, rather than the `Metro'-style Start Screen which is being used in the current Windows 8 OS version.

In what apparently is Microsoft's biggest licensing deal thus far, the company has worked out a patent-licensing agreement with Hon Hai Precision Industry, the parent company of Taiwan's Foxconn which manufactures nearly 40 percent of the world's consumer electronic devices.

With Google and Microsoft having been involved in a spat of sorts over office business, Google is apparently set to announce its latest triumph on that front; with the company having bagged a contract from Weather Channel's parent company, The Weather Company.

The Internet search giant will, on Friday, announce the contract win, when it will reveal that The Weather Company is going Google; highlighting the fact that Google's Apps version of Office - which is housed remotely in the cloud - is now being used by the 1,200 employees of The Weather Company.

In an evident move towards greater transparency, software giant Microsoft launched a Patent Tracker web tool on Thursday; thereby enabling the users of the tool to check out the patents owned by the company, and also download a list of all the Microsoft-owned patents in CSV format.

The state government in Maharashtra is partnering global software giant, Microsoft to develop apps related to social and civic issues.

The company will help the Government of Maharashtra in creating a platform for the civil service authorities to connect better with the citizens of the state and address their needs from the government departments. The initiative is a part of the government's plan to use technology for social good and tackle challenges.

Washington, March 22 : US tech giant Microsoft has disclosed that it and its main video chat service Skype received more than 75,000 requests last year from government law enforcement agencies in the US and four other countries to provide customer user data.

"In recent months, there has been broadening public interest in how often law enforcement agencies request customer data from technology companies and how our industry responds to these requests," Brad Smith, a Microsoft executive vice president and the company's general counsel, said in a blog post Thursday.

According to Chinese media reports, Beijing-based enterprise IT service provider and Microsoft customer Baihui Zongheng Technology has sought proof from Microsoft to confirm that it has legal permissions for operating in the country; and has also said that the software giant could otherwise face the risk of Office 365 being blocked.

Software giant Microsoft has come up with a new promotion which can be of great benefit to students, particularly those who need Microsoft's apps --- the company is giving the students a `free of charge' six-month trial of its cloud-based app suite, Office 365.

According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, citing reliable unidentified sources, Microsoft has, since "late February," been giving substantial discounts for Windows 8 to its OEM partners who manufacturer touchscreen-enabled devices.

The WSJ report said that, as per its anonymous sources, Microsoft has discounted its $120-priced copy of Windows 8 to its OEM partners to as much as $30 - marking a highly notable 75 percent discount - till the time the price reduction continues to be in effect.

London, Mar 7 : Microsoft has been hit with a 485 million pounds European Commission fine.

The fine was imposed on the software giant after a botched update to the Windows operating system meant it broke a legally-binding commitment to offer consumers a choice of web browser.

The company indicated that it would not challenge the penalty, announced by Joaquín Almunia, the Competition Commissioner, the Telegraph reports.

A Microsoft spokesman said that they take full responsibility for the technical error that caused this problem and have apologized for it.

In a launch which will help Indian businesses to share data across a number of devices - including personal computers, tablets, and mobile handsets - using cloud computing technology, software giant Microsoft rolled out its Office 365 software for businesses in India.

As a result of the launch of Office 365 in India, companies can now make use of the software suite for Rs 330-1,200 per user per month. Under the Office 365 licensing, the suite can be installed on up to five devices for one single user.

In a recent blog post, coming after the last-week outage of Windows Azure Storage, Microsoft's Steven Martin said that the software company will refund the outage-affected Windows Azure customers.

Citing the reason behind Microsoft's decision to refund the Windows Azure customers affected by the outage which was caused due to an expired SSL certificate, Martin said in the brief blog post the scope of the disruption had prompted the refund move by the company.

In an announcement which underscores potential new competition for Google's Gmail email service, Microsoft has revealed that its new webmail service - Outlook. com - has come out of beta testing, and is now available to all users.

Microsoft's revamped Outlook. com webmail service was introduced nearly seven months back in a limited preview mode; as a replacement for the company's longtime email offering, MSN Hotmail, which has been online since 1997.

Software giant, Microsoft has said that its new Outlook. com e-mail service is now available for the users around the world.

The company said that its Outlook. com email service has now moved out of its preview stage. The service was first introduced by the company in July, 2012 as an answer to rival Google's Gmail service, which has emerged as the dominant email service across the world.

Even though Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is more involved in his philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation rather than the day-to-day-activities of the Microsoft, he has still expressed displeasure at the software company's performance in the mobile market.

During the course of an interview with CBS This Morning, Gates said that Microsoft has not been innovative enough with regard to the present-day mobile-computing era; and termed the company's initial approach in this direction as "clearly a mistake."

According to a note in ComputerWorld, software giant Microsoft has increased the price of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011; and has also discontinued the sale of multi-license packages of the office-tools suite.

The hike in the cost of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 comes at a time when Microsoft is pushing for its cloud-based Office 365, which is the company's subscription-based plan. As a result of the hike, the cost of Office for Mac 2011 is now at par with Office 2013 for Windows.

In a move which marks a substantial shift in Microsoft licensing, the software giant recently confirmed that a retail copy of Office 2013 suite will be tied to a particular personal computer (PC) forever.

As a result of the new retail licensing change, Office 2013 suite will be permanently tied to the first PC on which it is installed; thereby implying that customers will not be able to delete the suite from one PC and install it on another.

With some earlier reports having revealed that Microsoft's Surface Pro 128GB model had sold out soon after becoming available, a February 15 post on the Surface Blog said that consumers who want to order the sold-out Surface model via the Microsoft online store in the US can now place orders for the device, which will be shipped to them in two or three weeks.