Despite killing off the Zune HD line (effectively) and telling people to buy Windows Phones instead, Microsoft todayreleased a spateof new applications for its old music player line. Why would it do that? We have no idea. Oddly, the company is already planning to port Zune HD apps to Windows Phone (again, why?), so whatever it releases now will entail more work later. Just so we can get it out of the way, these are the apps that Microsoft put out:...

TNW Quick Hit: Microsofthas releaseda Photosynth application for the iOS platform, causing consternation among Windows Phone owners miffed that a Microsoft product has again been released for the Apple mobile line before its own. The application itself takes the popular Microsoft Photosynth technology and makes it mobile. Photosynth is a tool that takes several photos and ‘stictches’ them into a three-dimensional experience. As with all modern applications, the app is social, allowing for the posting of the created images to Bing Maps or Facebook...

Today Microsoft released its fourth quarter earnings for fiscal year 2011. For the quarter, Microsoft posted $17.37 billion in revenue. That compares favorably to the same quarter last year, in which Microsoft did $16.04 in revenue. Operating income was $6.17 billion, up from $5.93 billion in the same quarter. For the same time frame, net income was $5.87 billion, up from $4.52 billion, and diluted earnings per share was $0.69 per share, up from $0....

In line with expectations, Microsoft today released the third community test preview of the forthcoming ‘Denali’ edition of its SQL Server product. You can find the download in both 32 and 64 bit versionshere. The software is available in eleven languages. The first CTP of Denali was released in late 2010, and Microsoft promised that this third CTP would be available during the current season. While it is unknown at this time exactly what Microsoft has baked into the latest community technology preview build, Microsoft claims that the final product will deliver a “highly available and scalable platform” that will “lower TCO” and boost “ease of use....

If you are a developer that installed and has subsequently run a pre-RTM version of Mango on your Windows Phone 7 handset, Microsoft has an update for you. In preparation for the coming release of the Mango update to the general public, Microsoft is working to ensure that its earliest adopters have a smooth path to the full upgrade along with the rest of its userbase. As we reported previously, it is widely expected that AT&T, and perhaps other carriers, are set to release, or begin torelease Mango, on Tuesday, the 27th....