Making Sense of Technology
Advertising rates and a variety of new placement spots are now available on The Loop. Visit our advertising page for more information.
You can follow The Loop to get the latest important updates. You can also follow Jim Dalrymple’s personal messages.

Microsoft on Tuesday posted on its blog that A/V support expected in 2009 for Messenger would be delayed until March 2010.

Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) is offering U.S. college and graduate students a considerable discount if they purchase Office for Mac Business Edition.

Microsoft’s MacBU on Tuesday said it is offering a few deals on Office for Mac over the holidays.

We all know that Microsoft blatantly copied the Apple retail store strategy, but Microsoft wasn’t content with stealing something that worked, they felt the need to add to it.
I was reading The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs tonight and noticed that Microsoft released a new TV ad for its Bing search engine.

Microsoft on Thursday confirmed that “most, if not all” data from the catastrophic server failure affecting Sidekick users has been recovered.
If you use Office 2004 because of its VBA support, you’ll be glad to hear Microsoft is extending support for the suite of applications until January 10, 2012.

Microsoft is beginning to look to Apple for more than just inspiration for its retail stores, the company is now also starting to hire away its retail employees.
Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) on Thursday announced Office Business Edition for Mac and confirmed the next version of Office is coming next year during a conference call held for members of the press.

In the next couple of months, Apple and Microsoft will both release upgrades to their operating systems. While they are both considered to be maintenance releases, the upgrade paths are incredibly different.

Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit will hold a special press conference call next Thursday, the company said in an invitation sent to press on Tuesday.
Microsoft and Yahoo inked a deal on Wednesday that will see the two companies team-up to take on search giant, Google. I see this as a clear win for Google.
Microsoft, I feel bad. Honestly, I do.
First you copy everything that Apple does and you fail miserably (don’t even ask me or I’ll bring up the Zune) and now you want to copy Apple’s retail strategy. I took you to task for the earlier today, but I really didn’t offer any alternatives.
I really need to stop being so surprised at the lengths companies will go to to copy the success of Apple’s products, culture, and now apparently, even its retail stores.

Instead of worrying about phone calls from Apple concerning its “Laptop Hunter” ad campaign, maybe Microsoft executives should worry more about their business.

Microsoft admitted on Friday that it changed its “Laptop Hunter” ads, removing any mention of the price for the MacBook Pro.

A big deal was made last week about a phone call from Apple legal to Microsoft asking them to stop running its “Laptop Hunter” ads. The way it was portrayed was that Apple was feeling the pressure from the ads and was trying to get them pulled. I don’t think so.

Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit on Monday released a major update for Office 2008 for Mac, adding several new features and improving the speed and stability of the applications.

So, Microsoft has announced they will begin opening retail stores this fall. I actually laughed out loud when I heard the next part–they will put some of them right next to Apple retail stores.

Google on Wednesday announced Chrome OS, a netbook optimized operating system that will be released sometime next year. However you view the news, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber brings up a good point in his latest article: where is it?