Microsoft and Eolas Technologies Inc. have settled their high-profile patent dispute over technology in Internet Explorer, according to a letter to Eolas shareholders from Mark Swords, the company's chief operating officer. The agreement resolves a case in which Microsoft was previously hit with a judgment of more than $500 million.

Ending court oversight of Microsoft's business practices in November would not allow enough time to consider the antitrust implications of the new Windows Vista operating system, a group of states said in a filing Thursday. ...

The California group said the January launch of Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, changes the game.

"As a practical matter, termination of the Final Judgment means ... plaintiffs will not be able fully to assess the impact in the marketplace of Microsoft's recent introduction of Vista," the group wrote.

Art of Office is for Mac users pushing the boundaries of what can be done in Mac Office. Explore. Contribute. Reuse. Remix. Add your best work. Take what you like (giving credit where it's due) and make it yours.

Today Microsoft Corp. announced it has agreed to acquire Chicago-based Parlano, maker of MindAlign, a leading application for enterprise group chat. Microsoft expects to add Parlano’s group chat functionality as a new feature of Microsoft® Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator, Microsoft’s server and client software for presence, instant messaging, conferencing and VoIP.

Halo 3 for Xbox 360 has gone Gold! That means we delivered a final version to our internal certification group that passed all the tests and is now being whisked away to top secret manufacturing locations to be turned into retail versions of the game – and eventually packaged and sent to stores in various cases, tins and cat-helmets. We can’t wait to share it with you guys on September 25th and 26th, but we have to say thanks.

JuxtaComm is alleging that the companies in question—which include a number of prominent business intelligence and application integration companies—have infringed its patent for a system that transforms and exchanges data between distributed heterogeneous computer systems.

MSNBC.com and CondeNast's online arm CondeNet said Wednesday that they've formed a partnership that will allow MSNBC.com to feature content from such publications as Style.com, Vanity Fair, GQ, Vogue and Glamour.

How did this happen in the first place?

Nothing more than human error started it all. Pre-production code was sent to production servers. The production servers had not yet been upgraded with a recent change to enable stronger encryption/decryption of product keys during the activation and validation processes. The result of this is that the production servers declined activation and validation requests that should have passed.

Microsoft Corp. will distribute free software to nonprofit groups to boost charity in India, a company official said Monday.

The software donation will be routed through a technology assistance program that India's NASSCOM Foundation is offering in partnership with TechSoup, a San Francisco-based group that partners in charity work with companies like Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Symantec.

Social-networking Web site Facebook Inc. is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves.

Eventually, it hopes to refine the system to allow it to predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area. ...

But Facebook's new plan faces hurdles. It could upset Microsoft, which is itself trying to build technology to make it easier for advertisers to place targeted ads on Facebook. A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment on this issue.

comScore, Inc. , a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the launch of comScore qSearch 2.0, the second generation of search measurement. Previously, the search universe was defined as searches occurring at the major Web search engines. With search becoming a more ubiquitous activity across the Web, comScore is expanding the market view of the search universe to encompass other searches that occur on the Internet.

Xbox 360 Console: 349.99 Euro, £249.99
Xbox 360 Core Console: 279.99 Euro, £179.99
Xbox 360 Elite Console: 449.99 Euro, £299.99
Xbox 360 120GB HDD: 179.99 Euro, £129.99

Internally labeled as "Vega" (possibly referring to the star and not the Street Fighter weirdo), the service is expected to launch in early November with 10-20 games. The portfolio of Live-enabled casual titles will match the taxonomy of Xbox Live Arcade and hopes to be bolstered by 2-4 new games every month following launch. Potential users will be funneled to the service from numerous Microsoft outlets, including MSN Games and the official Xbox website. Much like Live Anywhere, Vega contributes to Microsoft's goal of spreading the Live experiencing across multiple linked platforms -- and likewise aims to entice more and more people with Live subscriptions.

At Gamefest 2007, however, Microsoft's official line was less clear. To deliver user generated content, developers can take advantage of what's called Xbox Live Silver Platform (XLSP), where the data transferred runs through the publisher's servers, not Microsoft's. Publishers then become responsible for what runs through it, monitoring and policing offensive content, etc. Taking advantage of it, however, requires Microsoft approval.

Here's where Microsoft comes in: As part of the ruling (PDF, 102 pages) U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball wrote that SCO must "account for and pass through to Novell the appropriate portion" of royalty payments by Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, related to the specific Unix technologies to which Novell retained rights.

Shareholders of aQuantive approved the company's acquisition by Microsoft this morning, clearing the way for the completion of the biggest deal in the Redmond company's history. It's expected to close in a matter of days.

CNET readers were so impressed with Sync, the in-car media application developed by Microsoft for Ford, that they voted it the winner of the People's Voice award for Best of CES 2007. Today Ford released details on how much the people are going to have to fork over to choose Sync on select 2008 Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln models: a pretty reasonable $395.

As the countdown continues for the entertainment event of the year -- the launch of "Halo® 3" -- the video game continues to set records and establish new precedents for an entertainment launch. Today, Microsoft Corp. announced that preorders in North America for the exclusive Xbox 360(TM) title have exceeded the 1 million milestone. In addition, Microsoft unveiled the first exciting details of upcoming promotions from leading consumer brands, including Mountain Dew, 7-Eleven, Pontiac, Comcast and Burger King Corp.

In a strategy utilized in other big entertainment launches, retailers around the world have begun taking preorders, enabling consumers to order one of the three versions of "Halo 3": Standard Edition, Limited Edition and the ultra-collectible Legendary Edition. In fact, demand has been so strong for the Legendary Edition of the game that it is expected to be sold out by the time the game launches on Sept. 25. Retailers have also noted that the presales for "Halo 3" are the fastest in video game history.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that John Schappert, most recently executive vice president at Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), will be joining the Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) in a newly created position as corporate vice president of LIVE, software and services.

Schappert’s latest role in central development services at EA included oversight of central technology, operations, EA online and the office of the chief creative officer. Previously, Schappert held several senior-level positions at EA including chief operating officer of worldwide studios, group general manager, and general manager of EA Canada and EA Tiburon. He will be joining Microsoft as a corporate vice president running the LIVE, software and services group. Schappert will report to Don Mattrick, the newly named senior vice president of IEB, which includes the Xbox 360™ and Games for Windows® businesses.

Building on the company’s 17-year history of delivering award-winning financial management solutions, Microsoft Corp. today launches Microsoft® Money Plus, the latest release of the popular Money product line. Money Plus debuts innovative new tools that enable consumers to effortlessly manage all their finances. With customizable “Insights,” Microsoft Money Plus delivers important financial information right to the desktop, without the need to open the Money program. Consumers can personalize Insights to alert them when they are close to preset spending limits or when bills are coming due and can also quickly and easily check accounts to see balances and cash flow.