Microsoft Support & Discussions

By Paul Thurrott Three years after Yahoo fended off a mammoth $45 billion purchase bid from Microsoft, the company has unceremoniously fired the CEO it put in place since that effort: Its board of directors yesterday informed Carol Bartz that her services were no longer needed. Source: Win Super Site

Microsoft acquired natural-language search vendor Powerset in 2008. On September 5, Powerset’s CEO left Microsoft to become an angel investor. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Sector chief is following its head of enterprise sales out the door, though not in the same manner. Linda Zecher is joining Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as CEO. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft and Twitter have signed a deal via which real-time search results from Twitter will be displayed via Bing. The pair aren’t disclosing further details or terms. Source: All About Microsoft

By Paul Thurrott Next week, Microsoft will host its inaugural BUILD conference, which has one aim and one aim only: To reveal Windows 8 to the world. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott According to a post on the Windows For Your Business Blog, Microsoft will deliver the second major version of its cloud-based PC management service, Windows Intune 2, on October 17. The company previous said this release would happen by the end of 2011. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott My Windows Secrets co-author, Rafael Rivera, has examined the claims made in a recent lawsuit against Microsoft for its supposed tracking of user locations via Windows Phone and has found them lacking. He also noted that none of the authors of news reports and blog posts about this event even went to the effort of finding and evaluating the legal claims. So he did so himself. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott Before I had serious Google problems to complain about--like Android--I use to complain that the online giant suffered from "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" disease, where it would appear to just release, willy-nilly, any web service or application that some random employee came up with over a weekend. Apparently this is changing under new CEO Larry Page. Source: Win Super Site

Microsoft’s Mediaroom 2.0 IPTV platform is taking shape, according to one employee’s blog. Here’s the latest on the Rome, Taos and Monaco components. Source: All About Microsoft

A new version of Microsoft’s PC security and management service, Windows Intune, is due out on October 17. Source: All About Microsoft

By Paul Thurrott This week on What The Tech: Did HP back peddle after announcing changes to their WebOS and PC operations? Paul discusses HP’s handling of their announcement. Should HP have bought Palm? Amazon is rumored to be launching an Android tablet. Could we finally see an Android tablet to rival the iPad? Andrew and Paul discuss the future of tablet devices. Microsoft shows off more changes in Windows 8, including a ribbon interface for Windows Explorer. Paul gives us his take on Steve Jobs leaving Apple to Tim Cook. And the US Department of Justice moves to block AT&T

By Paul Thurrott In the wake of a lawsuit alleging that its Windows Phone OS software silently tracks the location of the handsets, Microsoft has, for the second time this year, denied it is doing any such thing. The complaint was made by a Michigan resident, Rebecca Cousineau, who says that Windows Phone has violated her privacy rights by tracking the location of her phone. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott There’s been a lot of talk this year about Amazon’s presumed iPad competitor (or competitors as the case may be), and I’ve been arguing for a while now that if any company can take on Apple, it’s Amazon. The reason is simple: Only Amazon offers the full suite of ecosystem services--digital music, TV shows, videos, eBooks and audiobooks, apps, and other content--that Apple does. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott In the latest episode of Windows Weekly, Mary Jo and I were joined by special guest co-host Iyaz Akhtar. We discussed more Windows 8 news ahead of BUILD, the DOJ’s lawsuit to prevent AT&T from purchasing T-Mobile, a new release of the Azure social gaming toolkit, more Microsoft executive resignations, Steve Jobs’ retirement as Apple CEO, and why August 2011 was the biggest month ever in tech history. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott Dilbert takes on the Google, Apple, and Microsoft mobile patents wars, to comic effect Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott According to a report, Amazon is planning to release an Android-based, Kindle-branded tablet this November. It features a full-color, backlit, 7-inch capacitive multi-touch screen and could be followed up with a 10-inch brother in 2012 if the first one sells as well as expected. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials is a simple and elegant server that promises seamless integration with online services like Office 365. But until more preconfigured SBSE servers and the required Office 365 add-in appear, this product is essentially unfinished. I expect the situation to improve by the end of the year. Source: Win Super Site

By Paul Thurrott The Modern Warfare 3 Limited Edition Xbox 360 console is timed to the release of the concluding chapter in the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" series, with a look that matches the gritty, wartime equipment found in the game, as well as some additional perks. Source: Win Super Site