Paul Thurrott

Microsoft on Wednesday confirmed reports that it would purchase online calendar maker Sunrise. And in a separate development, Microsoft will reportedly buy Surface Pro 3 pen maker N-Trig too.

Microsoft released a sweeping set of 56 security fixes described across nine bulletins as part of its regularly scheduled “Patch Tuesday” updates yesterday. But fully 41 of those fixes are for Internet Explorer.

Microsoft and Samsung have quietly settled a major contract dispute that threatened Samsung’s use of the Android mobile OS on its smart phones and tablets. The bad news: Absolutely no details about this agreement have been made public. It doesn’t get any terser than this statement: “Microsoft and Samsung have agreed on settlement terms that…

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler this past week took the bold step of revealing that his agency intends to invoke its legal authority to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility. This move was immediately cheered by Net Neutrality backers, but it has also raised the hackles of Internet service providers like Verizon, which successfully…

As part of an announcement about the February 2014 updates to Intune, Microsoft also announced that it would now rapidly add new capabilities to the cloud PC and device management services “at cloud speed.” More specifically, Intune will now receive new features every month going forward. Not that February’s update isn’t big news in and…

In this week’s other news, Satya Nadella celebrates year one as Microsoft CEO but I raise questions, Radio Shack bites the dust, and Obama’s iPhone preview.

According to a report in TechCrunch, Microsoft’s manic bid to dominate mobile productivity continued this week with an as-yet-unannounced $100+ million purchase of online calendar maker Sunrise. The Sunrise calendar is notable for a number of reasons, including its pervasive support for third-party data sources. And this purchase complements an earlier $200 million purchase of…

Google has pulled three adware-distributing apps from its Play Store, but only after several millions devices were infected with the malicious software.

While “mobile first, cloud first” has caused some confusion and even fear with fans and users of Microsoft’s client systems, the impact of this strategy on the firm’s on-premises servers is no less dramatic. With worries about the future mounting, Microsoft this week finally began addressing how and when it will update its servers for…

It will come as no surprise that Android and iOS continued to dominate the global smart phone market in 2014, with Windows Phone stuck in a very distant third place. But there are big questions for 2015. Can Apple’s fourth quarter gains turn into something non-temporary and reverse the firm’s historic market share slide downward?…