Microsoft has today announced that it will invest 5.8 billion dollars into the Microsoft Partner Network in fiscal year 2012. The expenditure will be a combination of “tools, training and incentives.” This announcement caps a busy week for Microsoft and its partners, as the company has been pitching itself, and its coming line of products for several days at the Worldwide Partner Conference. Partners contribute a large portion of total Microsoft revenue, and so the company is keen to keep them on board to ensure that it’s bottom line remains untouched....

It was not a surprise, but today Microsoft announced sweeping updates to Hotmail in a bid to combat Gmail, and hold onto its crown in the webmail market. Hotmail, despite losing every ounce of its sheen in recent years, remains the most popular webmail client. But it is being eaten alive by Google’s competing product, which has become established as the world’s preeminent browser-based email solution. In aninterview with WinRumors, Microsoft admitted to becoming lost with Hotmail:...

Microsoft’s having a busy week. After announcing Windows 11 wouldroll out starting October 5, the company today sent invites to a virtual Surface event on September 22 at 11 AM ET. Well, technically the invite said the company “will talk about devices and Windows,” which could include partner devices, but the imagine in the invite made it clear that there will besomekind of Surface news. You’re invited. Learn more about the#MicrosoftEvent:https://t....

We are live at Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 event, learning about thenew featuresthat the Redmond-based company has baked into the next iteration of its Windows Phone 7 software, codenamed Mango. Not only has Microsoft embedded over 500 new features but it has also announced partnerships with three new manufacturers which will launch devices later this year. Vendors adding to a prestigious list including Samsung, Dell, HTC and LG are new OEMs Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE....

Today in court, the Department of Justice and several states raised no objections before a judge over the expiration of the Microsoft antitrust settlement with the United States government. The deal is set to expire on May 12, 2011. By not stating objections to the ending of the settlement, the deal will nearly certainly expire on time. Microsoft has invested significant resources to the maintenance of its provisions. Accordingto InformationWeek, “[Microsoft Snr....