Microsoft Corp. today announced it has acquired Teleo Inc., a provider of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) software and services that enable the placement of phone calls from PCs to traditional phones and that deliver this technology in unique ways through a variety of software and Web applications. Microsoft expects to combine the technology and expertise of Teleo with the existing VoIP investments of MSN to further develop products and services that connect consumers to the people and information that most matter to them. Financial details were not disclosed.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in San Francisco, Teleo is a privately held company whose initial planned service offering, also called Teleo, was designed to allow customers to use their PC to make phone calls to cell phones, regular phones or other PCs. Through its integration with Microsoft® Outlook® and Microsoft Internet Explorer, the Teleo service was designed to facilitate click-to-call dialing of any telephone number that appears on-screen, for example through a Web site or via search results or e-mail.

VoIP technology already is prominently featured in MSN® Messenger as well as other Microsoft products and services. Microsoft plans to incorporate and expand upon Teleo technologies, integrating them into the infrastructure that supports MSN and ultimately projects delivering new VoIP consumer applications in future releases of MSN services.

Microsoft has its eyes set on something more like Net phone company Skype's service, however. A key part of Teleo's technology is focused on making calls from a computer to an ordinary telephone, a feature that company executives said would start finding its way into MSN Messenger before the end of 2005.

Microsoft may open a glitzy retail store in New York City's Times Square to raise its profile and showcase consumer-oriented products such as the new Xbox.

One possible site is a four-story space at One Times Square, a billboard-covered building where the famous ball is dropped during the New Year's celebration.

A retail store would dovetail with Microsoft's recent efforts to raise its profile in New York, an area that generates more than $1 billion a year in business-software sales for the company. New York is also home to the media giants Microsoft is courting with its software for distributing and protecting music, movies, games and television.

We devote significant resources to improving the security design and engineering of our software. Nevertheless, actual or perceived vulnerabilities may lead to claims against us. While our license agreements typically contain provisions that eliminate or limit our exposure to such liability claims, there is no assurance these provisions will be held effective under applicable laws and judicial decisions.

Authorities in Morocco and Turkey have arrested two people believed responsible for a computer worm that infected networks at U.S. companies and government agencies earlier this month.

Farid Essebar, 18, was arrested in Morocco, while Atilla Ekici, 21, was arrested in Turkey on Thursday, Louis M. Riegel, the FBI's assistant director for cyber crimes, said Friday. They will be prosecuted in those countries, Riegel said.

Featuring song titles such as “Stroll Through the PARC,” “A Revolution Starts with One,” “Let’s
Merge” and “I’ve Gotta Lotta Money,” NERDS is an outrageous epic take on the parallel stories of computer pioneers Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, two technological geniuses, as they blaze a path from “garage inventors” to warring titans of the computer revolution!

Microsoft Corp. will soon make available to the general public a tool for warning users about "phishing" scams that could lead to identity theft.

Currently, such a tool comes only with the Internet Explorer 7 browser, which is available in tests only to a select group of developers.

But within a few weeks, Microsoft will incorporate it into a toolbar for older versions of IE. While still officially a test, the anti-phishing tool will be available to anyone running the Windows XP operating system with the Service Pack 2 security upgrade from last summer.

Microsoft and movie magnates Fox and Universal reconfirm 2007 target date; film based on Xbox's biggest seller set for that summer.

If all goes according to plan, Master Chief may be accepting an Academy Award in January 2008. Variety (subscription required) is reporting that Fox and Universal have targeted the summer of 2007 for one of the small screen's biggest heroes to make his anticipated debut on the big screen.

Elements of Sparkle—also known in some circles as a "Flash killer"—ultimately could become a set of system application programming interfaces (APIs) in the Windows operating system. Specifically, these APIs could become part of the WPF graphics engine, which will be part of the upcoming Windows Vista and available for Windows XP as a service pack.

The dispute involved an initiative called Microsoft Intellectual Property Ventures, under which the software company offers patented technologies from its research unit for license. When the program started in May, Microsoft offered one of the technologies, a biometric ID program, under the name BioCert.

Artemis filed suit in July, and shortly thereafter Microsoft removed references to BioCert on the Microsoft IP Ventures Web site. Childers said at the time that he was surprised Microsoft had used a trademarked name for the technology, down to the capitalized letters "B" and "C."

Are you confounded by particular Internet Explorer features? Are you interested in exploring features you may never have known existed? Here you will find answers to the riddles and mysteries of Internet Explorer from the various members of the Internet Explorer Development Team.

He then said something like "cool, nice to meet you. It's nice to see that you're copying our stuff." Ouch. But then Dean invites him to see the rest of Internet Explorer and Windows Vista and says we have a few innovations to show him. Steve graciously hands over his email address and invites us over.

It's interesting to contrast the behavior of these two much-loved companies with the media attitudes of the company everybody loves to hate—Microsoft. Unlike Apple, it encourages its employees to blog—and some even sometimes criticize the company on its own blogs.

... when it comes to understanding the changing role of media in covering business, it's way ahead of its two biggest rivals—Apple and Google.