Things continue to look up for Windows Phone, as good news mounts in successive reports. Today Microsoft announced that the Mango update roll out process isahead of schedule, and due to the lack of issues thus far in its delivery, has made it available to 50% of eligible handsets. Earlier todaywe reportedthat both Samsung and HTC are bullish on Windows Phone, and the Mango update in particular. At last, Windows Phone seems to have found a tailwind....

Turkey economy minister Zafer Çağlayan has approached Microsoft and Apple to help with the distribution of 15 million tablets among students in the country as part of its FATIH Project, according toa report by theHurriyet Daily News. In a statement to the newspaper, he said that an unnamed senior VP at Microsoft had expressed interest in the project and was willing to send teams from the company to help Turkish authorities deploy its software among the students....

There was a time, not too many years ago, when nearly every strategic decision that Microsoft made seemed to be pure folly. Then Microsoft woke up one day, put all that aside, launched Windows 7, and never looked back. However, even a company on a roll can make a boo-boo now and again. Today,news came forththat seems to point to an upcoming mistake by Redmond: the rebranding or reorganizing of its Zune music product into something altogether different....

The new Microsoft.com is now live. The refreshed design was shown off earlier in the year, and draws heavily from the popular Microsoft design ethos called ‘Metro.’ Metro can also be found on and in Windows Phone 7 and Zune products, two parts of the Microsoft empire that have always received plaudits for their strong UI design. The new design also features integration with the ‘pinning’ functionality of Internet Explorer 9, something that the company has been touting recently to developers as a way to boost site engagement....

The Xbox 360 and its ecosystem continue to give Microsoft new stats and figuresto brag about. Today’s new installment: “While people are still playing a ton of video games, 40 percent of all Xbox activity now is non-game.” That’s right, nearly half of all Xbox activity is now not a teenager trying to beat on a friend in a virtual deathmatch. Instead, non-game entertainment is creeping up as a main component of Xbox 360 use, and according to the same post by Microsoft, every Xbox plays an average of 30 hours of video a month....