With innovation one of the biggest buzzwords across the technological industries, it’s a little ironic that Microsoft has opted toclosethe doors to its Seattle-based Pioneer Studios, a ‘skunkworks’ initiative launched a little over three years ago. A perhaps more Microsoft-esque moniker would be a Consumer Development Unit…which is what it was, and it was Microsoft’s attempt at creating a fertile breeding ground for new and exciting projects. As reported onZdnet, Pioneer Studios was the idea of former Microsoft man J....

Microsofthas closeda rather obvious privacy loophole in its geographic location positioning service. The issue came to light afterCNET pointed out the flaw. The issue revolved around Microsoft collecting, and then storing, the location of millions of devices around the world. Anything with a WiFi connection was potentially implicated, including laptops, mobile phones, and so forth. The problem was that the database that contained all the information was insecure, and was therefore open to viewing by anyone with enough savvy....

Microsoft was a hostile place to work in its early days if the company’s co-founder Paul Allen is to be believed, after excerpts from his new book were published by theWall Street Journal. The book, entitled “Idea Man: A Memoir by the Co-founder of Microsoft,” takes aim at Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who is accused of seeking to take shares from his partner in the company’s early days, whilst implying that Gates was not appreciative enough of Allen’s work within the company....

This is one of those posts in which the title nearly says it all: Microsoft has confirmed the existence of a coming application store (ala Apple’s App Store) for Windows 8. The truth came out inan entrythat Microsoft posted on its new blog that focuses on Windows 8. While it has been generally known in the market for some time that such an app store was being built, today’s revelation is the first completely ironclad mention of the product’s existence....

As we reportedearlier today, Halo 4 is real. Microsoft confirmed that fact at today’s E3 event by playing a short trailer of the game and by presenting its eventual release time frame: Holiday 2012. Halo and its various versions are stalwarts of the Xbox brand, and have been often credited with the success of the initial Xbox console, as they drove hype around its market presence. What follows is the demo that Microsoft showed at E3, via ourfriends at WinRumors, for you to enjoy....