Eight biofuels groups are forming a coalition to coordinate messaging to combat calls to limit a federal mandate for renewable fuels because of the drought. The groups said the drought has raised the profile of the renewable fuel standard, which requires 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be blended Various…

Microsoft on Monday announced new keyboards and mice optimized for tablets and laptops running the Windows 8 operating system. The new devices are lighter and more mobile, and will work with tablets running the latest versions of Windows 8 and RT, which are due for release on October 26. The new Microsoft’s new…

The preview of the free online Office web apps gives them the same Metro look as the Office 2013 desktop apps and a handful of the same features, including the Touch Mode button for spacing icons out to make them easier to tap with a finger and turning on the The…

Microsoft is in the process of killing-off its much maligned Hotmail web-based email and replacing it with Outlook.com. Outlook is the name of Microsoft’s email application that’s part of the Microsoft Office suite which is heavily used in large enterprises and by millions of consumers. The move is part…

On day three of my series of Outlook.com tips, another way for former Gmail users to more easily make the transition to Outlook.com: Enable Gmail-style keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts are one of several Outlook.com features that help this web app work like a native Windows application, and I…

Microsoft officially ships the final master of Windows 8. The launch date is still officially October 26, but MSDN and Technet subscribers can download it on August 15. The Redmond company also stealth launches Outlook.com a replacement for its web-based Hotmail client and an improvement over Windows Live Mail. We also talk…

When it comes to web based mail, Yahoo and Gmail tend to be the key providers. Most people tend to have one or even both. But then you had other providers like Microsoft with their Hotmail service, which became the laughing stock of the Internet despite how many people actually…

The fortunes of hotmail.com have drifted south and Microsoft is feeling the heat from competing free email services, such as Google’s Gmail, taking away valuable market share. Microsoft plans to do something about this by throwing out the old and bringing in the new with Outlook.com. Not new…

(This story is running in the print edition of The Seattle Times Aug. 1, 2012.) Back in the day, Hotmail was, well, pretty hot. It was one of the first free Web-based email services available, instantly attracting a lot of users. It still has hundreds of millions of users worldwide. But it’s…

As Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) closes the curtains on its Hotmail email service, the new mail overhaul called Microsoft outlook.com spells a lot of hope for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). With regards to an official tweet by the company, outlook.com has signed a million people in less than a…