Microsoft today announced a small but important update to its popular Surface Laptop. As predicted by rumors last month, the device does not come with much in the way of aesthetic updates, but instead offers users an upgraded set of components. Most notably, the Surface Laptop 4 lets you readily choose between an Intel or AMD chipset, the latter which was only offered on the 15-inch model before. The 13-inch model gives you the most variety....

Yesterday, we brought you the news that Microsoft hadmade new commentsthat pointed to a quickly approaching publicly available build of Windows 8. We called it a beta, but new information seems to point to it being a developer preview edition of the forthcoming operating system instead. To refresh your memory, Microsoft said that it would deliver a“pre-release version over the coming months.” That ‘coming months’ time frame is widely expected to occur at the upcoming BUILD event in September....

Microsoft hassent a letterto US Senator Patrick Leahy to express its support for the ‘Uniting American Families Act,’ H.R. 1537. In its letter Microsoft expresses support for the bill’s provision to provide immigration benefits for same-sex couples. The company supports the bill for both personnel and business reasons. In regards to the potential personnel conflicts that arise from the current exclusion of same-sex couples from receiving immigration benefits, Microsoft said the following:...

The Internet is abuzzwith reportsthat Microsoft is set to close a deal to acquireSkype, the popular VoIP company, for as much as $7 billion dollars, with a possible announcement coming early Tuesday morning despite suggestions the deal was in late-stage negotiations and had not yet been finalised. Buying Skype, Microsoft would acquire its 650+ million users, its operating losses and thousands of staff across the world. The Redmond-based company would also inherit Skype’s office spaces, which are amongst some of the most beautiful and vibrant offices in the world....

Microsoft’s biggest announcement from its last night’s Ignite event was definitely thelegless-metaverse. However, there was another funky one that caught my eye: Microsoft Loop. I know, from its name, it’s not apparent what the hell it is.I’d make a snarky joke, butTechCrunchcaptured it the best — it’s Google Wave. For folks who’ve accessed the internet only through smartphones, Wave wasa much-hyped Google project for collaborationthat died in a year. Loop — built on the Fluid framework — is aseries of content components that will be synced across its Office suite of productivity apps....