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Skype hopes to make its international connections easier — though perhaps still a little awkward — with a new feature that automatically translates conversations almost in real time.Parent company Microsoft unveiled the new technology at the Code technology conference on Tuesday, where Skype vice president Gurdeep Pall made small talk in English with a German-speaking Skype manager in Europe.After saying a sentence in English, an automated voice translated his words into German. (You can watch the video here.)It’s not quite the real-time universal translator that characters on “Star Trek” used to speak to alien life forms. And inevitably for a technology...

Microsoft Corp showed off a test version of a real-time, spoken-word translation service for Skype calls on Tuesday, the first time the world's largest software company has demonstrated the breakthrough technology publicly in the United States. Skype Translator, as it is currently called, allows speakers in different languages to hear the other's words spoken in their own language, according to a demo introduced by chief executive officer Satya Nadella at the Code Conference technology gathering in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Mcrosoft's Surface Pro 3 event earlier this week showed the company at its strength. For the first time in many years, it's got most of its ducks lined up; hardware and software finally in unison. Yet, the company still finds itself in a losing battle against Apple in the tablet world and fighting ever declining PC sales. Despite Microsoft being in perhaps its best position yet, its event this week showed that the way it is going about selling the Surface is still problematic. It’s still failing at the tablet war and the Surface Pro 3 might not be the...

Microsoft might be preparing to give the public its first taste of Windows 9 between the second and third quarters of 2015, according to a newly leaked document. Tech blog Myce has obtained a leaked internal Microsoft document from a source in China known as FaiKee.The document, first spotted on Myce's website by Windows blog WinBeta, lists both Windows 9 and Windows Phone 9 as scheduled for a release preview between Q2 and Q3 2015. Here's a screenshot of the document: Myce A release preview is exactly what its name suggests. It's a nearly finished version of the software that the public...

It turns out that support page name-checking the Surface Pro 3 wasn't a typo after all. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced the all-new Surface Pro 3, but this version is more than a mere spec boost over the Surface Pro 2: It's a whole new entry in the Surface lineup, and one designed "to replace your laptop." The Surface Pro 3 blends full Core i7 power—Surface head Panos Panay calls it "the thinnest Core product ever created," designed in close conjunction with Intel—with true tablet sleekness, sheer screen size aside. The Surface Pro 3 measures in at a mere 0.35-inch thick...

Opinion: Two recent cave-ins leave no doubt they are done for With two major cave-ins in the past few weeks, Microsoft is screaming at the top of its lungs about how irrelevant it is. If you didn’t understand the fall of Microsoft from powerful monopolist to computing afterthought, let SemiAccurate explain it to you. For the past few decades, Microsoft has been a monopoly with one game plan, leverage what they have to exclude competition. If someone had a good idea, Microsoft would come out with a barely functional copy, give it away, and shut out the income stream of...

Three months ago Microsoft announced that long-time Microsoftie Satya Nadella would become the company's third-ever CEO.That has turned out to be a very smart choice.In a few short weeks, the company has a fresh outlook and a more respectful attitude toward all of its constituents, its customers, developers and, most especially, its competitors.The sunny outlook is infectious. Microsoft's stock is trading at a 14-year high, hovering around $40 share.A quick tour of what's been going on at Microsoft shows the company making changes at a feverish pace.Within the past few days ...Nadella proved that Microsoft's war with Apple is over....

In one of Monday's extraordinary announcements from Microsoft during its TechEd conference in Houston, program managers both announced and demonstrated the ability to build applications for multiple computing platforms, including iOS, using the .NET Framework once heralded as the crown jewel of Windows--specifically, to build and deploy applications that compile to those platforms' native code, without requiring plug-ins or interpreters. "One of the most exciting aspects of .NET going forward is that we are truly embracing openness," declared Habib Heydarian, a program manager for Microsoft's .NET team, during a demonstration Monday. "You can leverage your existing assets, your existing skills,...

We've long known that Microsoft is working on a smart watch device, but we had no idea what to expect when it comes to design or features. Now, due to a patent filed by the software company back in 2012, and grant this week, this smart watch could turn out to be something special. The diagrams show that this device will rely a lot on sensors that are designed to read heart rates among other things. Not surprising, because almost every current and future smart watch we know of are designed with reading the user's heart rate in mind. The...

Microsoft has issued a patch for a security vulnerability in Internet Explorer to all versions of Windows, including Windows XP, despite claiming it would release no more patches for the outdated operating system after 8 April 2014. Earlier this week, both the UK and US governments advised citizens to consider using alternatives to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, after the company discovered a vulnerability that could allow hackers to gain access to users' computers and steal their data. The vulnerability made headlines because it coincided with the end of support for Windows XP, meaning that anyone still running the 13-year-old operating...

Microsoft is helping the estimated hundreds of millions of customers still running Windows XP, which it stopped supporting earlier this month, by providing an emergency update to fix a critical bug in its Internet Explorer browser. Microsoft Corp rushed to create the fix after learning of the bug in the operating system over the weekend when cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc warned that a sophisticated group of hackers had exploited the bug to launch attacks in a campaign dubbed "Operation Clandestine Fox. ...

It's not often that the US or UK governments weigh in on the browser wars, but a new Internet Explorer vulnerability that affects all major versions of the browser from the past decade has forced it to raise an alarm: Stop using IE. The zero-day exploit, the term given to a previously unknown, unpatched flaw, allows attackers to install malware on your computer without your permission. That malware could be used to steal personal data, track online behavior, or gain control of the computer. Security firm FireEye, which discovered the bug, said that the flaw is being used with a...

In a rare move that highlights the severity of the security hole in one of the Web's most popular browsers, the Homeland Security Department's Computer Emergency Readiness Team says to stop using Internet Explorer until Microsoft can fix it. Security firm FireEye said that it is currently being used to attack financial and defense organizations in the US via Internet Explorer 9, 10, and 11. Those versions of the browser run on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, although the exploit is present in Internet Explorer 6 and above.

Microsoft says a security gap in Internet Explorer could allow an attacker to take complete control of a computer if the user clicks on a link to a malicious website. The vulnerability affects versions 6 through 11 of the Web browser. …

On the day that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) told a local newspaper that she believed amnesty legislation could be brought to the floor by August, she met with Satya Nadella, the new CEO of Microsoft. “I believe there is a path that we get a bill on the floor by August,” House GOP Conference Chair McMorris Rodgers said last Friday. “We’re going to have to push that this is a legal status, not amnesty." That same day, she tweeted a photo of herself with Nadella from her verified @cathymcmorris Twitter account.

A new zero day vulnerability that resides in all versions of Internet Explorer has been spotted in the wild, Microsoft confirmed late Saturday. The vulnerability, which could allow remote code execution, is being used in "limited, targeted attacks," according to an advisory issued by Microsoft. While all versions of the web browser, IE 6 through 11, are affected by the vulnerability, attacks are currently targeting IE versions 9, 10 and 11, according to security firm Fire Eye, which first reported the flaw Friday. The attack leverages a previously unknown "use after free" vulnerability -- data corruption that occurs after memory...

For its fiscal third quarter, which ended March 31, Microsoft beat analysts’ expectations. The company posted earnings per share of 68 cents on revenue of $20.40 billion. It reported $5.66 billion in profit. Analysts had expected Microsoft to report third-quarter revenue this year of about $20.38 billion, and earnings per share of 63 cents, with profit of $5.26 billion, according to a Bloomberg consensus estimate.

REDMOND, Wash. (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday he wished he were not the world's richest man. "I wish I wasn't. There is nothing good that comes out of that," said Gates, whose personal fortune sank by billions since last week when the software giant disappointed investors by saying new investments would crimp earnings. The corporate leader who made Microsoft into the world's largest software maker - and who is also one of the biggest philanthropists - is seen as a man who does not like publicity. He explained that he did not like the attention of...

(CNN) -- The "kill switch," a system for remotely disabling smartphones and wiping their data, will become standard in 2015, according to a pledge backed by most of the mobile world's major players. Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft, along with the five biggest cellular carriers in the United States, are among those that have signed on to a voluntary program announced Tuesday by the industry's largest trade group. All smartphones manufactured for sale in the United States after July 2015 must have the technology, according to the program from CTIA-The Wireless Association. Advocates say the feature would deter thieves from...

Microsoft has been on a roll lately. Office for iOS (and soon Android), free Windows licenses for small devices, universal Windows and Windows Phone apps, Siri rival Cortana, even a promise to eventually return the start menu before Windows 9. But when it comes to Windows 8, it seems the company has a permanently loaded pistol aimed squarely at its feet. So it fits that just one week on from the launch of “Windows 8.1 Update 1” (the smart upgrade mouse and keyboard users have long awaited) stupidity would strike once again. “Windows 8.1 Update is a cumulative update to...