Microsoft has just released an updated design for itsDownload Center. There are two reasons why this story matters: Microsoft is continuing to incorporate the ‘Metro’ design aesthetic into its every property, be it an application, website, or mobile user interface, and that the one billion people per year who land on the Download Center webpage will now, at last, have something less ugly to work with. Today’s redesign, of which there is an image at the bottom of this post, is yet another falling domino in the rise of Metro at Microsoft....

Today, at BlackBerry World 2011, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer took the stage to announce that all default maps and search apps on future BlackBerry devices will be powered by Bing. Going forward, Bing’s search and mapping technologies will be integrated with RIM operating systems on BlackBerry devices.According to MobileBurn, Bing will provide a social network-based link rating system as well. One Tweet just sums it up so nicely… Update: video of Bing on Blackberry in action:...

Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite for governments (BPOS-Federal)has receivedFederal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification. Microsoft also announced that, due in part to this new certification, the United States Department of Agriculture willmove its 120,000 employees’“e-mail and productivity applications to Microsoft’s [BPOS-Federal] cloud infrastructure.” The USDA is the first cabinet level Federal agency to move to the cloud, according to the Redmond giant. FISMA certification is a hot topic in the enterprise and governmental software worlds....

Microsoft’s misfires in cloud computing, mobile phones and tablet computers have triggered Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer to consider extending a management reshuffling aimed at adding senior product executives with an engineering background. According to aBusiness Weekreport, two people, who wish to remain unnamed, said that changes might be announced as early as this month. Since May last year, four top executives have already left the company. Last month, Ballmer pushed out server division president and 23-year company veteran Bob Muglia, saying the company needed new leadership that could focus on areas such as cloud software....

If you can remember all the way back to the 16th of December, you must recall a very interesting story that broke about a Microsoft led consortium that was out to buy$450 million in Novell patents. Novell is being acquired by Attachmate, but its patent portfolio was supposed to head elsewhere under the terms of the deal. CPTN Holding, the group led by Microsoft that included Apple, EMC and Oracle, was supposed to pick up over 800 patents for a cool half billion dollars....