The long, slow march toward end of life of Microsoft currently most popular operating system is underway. As of October 30, 2013, Microsoft ceased selling boxed copies of Windows 7 at retail. ZDNet Ed Bott posted back in April of this year about the pending October 30 cut off date, but a few stories have popped up this week about it, so this is just a reminder. This October 30 cut off date mean that OEMs or retailers are no longer selling PCs with Windows 7 preloaded. I can verify after a trip...

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday might be a distant memory, but Microsoft is creating 12 days of deals at its own retail stores to continue the bargains in the run up to Christmas. The first day of sales commences on Monday, with Microsoft Stores selling Dell’s Venue 8 Pro tablet for just $99. It’s an incredibly good deal for an 8 inch tablet running a full copy of Windows 8.1, but there’s a slight catch: there’s only 20 at each of Microsoft’s 58 stores across the US...

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It’s pretty much a brick, says Pawn Stars’ Rick Harrison as he rejects aSamsung Chromebook brought in by an actor playing a customer. Microsoft really doesn’t want you buying this thing. In many ways, 2013 has been the year of the Chromebook for Google. FromAcer’s $199 C720 2848 toHP’s $279 Chromebook 11, Mountain View has attracted traditional Windows PC makers to build a variety of low cost laptops in time for the holidays. While Microsoft had largely ignored the...

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Hey, folks! Im Jared Neuss, the Producer for Peggle 2 here at PopCap Games. Were incredibly excited to announce that Peggle 2 will be coming to Xbox One next Monday, December 9! The team and I cant wait for you to meet the brand new Peggle Masters, learn their magical powers and, well, just have a great time. Weve got tons of new levels, hundreds of objectives to complete and a whole bunch of ridiculous surprises lined up for you. We think youll love it. Recently, our friends across Lake...

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My ZDNet colleague Steven J. Vaughan Nichols has been pounding the table for Chromebooks since their launch more than two years ago. Back in June 2011, he called the Chromebook a Windows killer, predicting that Microsoft is facing real trouble in the market for desktop PCs. Last April I wrote that Chromebooks are struggling in the market, based on real world usage figures. That an illusion, according to Mr. Vaughan Nichols, who argues today that Chromebooks have been selling like hotcakes on a...

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A couple of my contacts have confirmed that Microsoft Executive Vice President Terry Myerson recently mentioned the Threshold codename in an internal email about plans for his unified operating system engineering group. If all goes according to early plans, Threshold will include updates to all three OS platforms Xbox One, Windows and Windows Phone that will advance them in a way to share even more common elements. The codename Threshold, for those wondering, derives from the planet around which...

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In just over four months, Microsoft is scheduled to stop supporting Windows XP after over 12 years. Now it appears the government of China would like for the company to reconsider its support cut off date of April 8th. In a report on the Chinese language TechWeb site, Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of China’s National Copyright Administration, is quoted as saying that the shut down of Windows XP support could lead to more security threats and increased use of pirated software. He stated,...

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According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden and brought to light today by , the NSA has been monitoring online gaming communities since 2008 and has even been sending real life agents into online RPGs posing as players. Xbox Live was apparently one of the biggest services to be targeted, while and also came under some degree of scrutiny. It not totally clear why the NSA, along with its UK equivalent the GCHQ, thought such operations were necessary, but there seems to have a general sense...

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