The contract has been signed. Skype will soon be part of Microsoft. You may soon be able to place calls from your Xbox console or from within Word.

According to a recent survey, software from an outsource firm is not subjected to the same level of testing as that developed in-house. The lack of quality control affects security and customer satisfaction.

If you liked the "reality" PC ads from Microsoft, be prepared for their return. This time the "real life" series begins with a couple thinking of replacing their old PC.

Many companies block access to file-sharing sites, citing a variety of reasons. Now researchers at the University of Leuven have completed a study of just why you shouldn’t use such sites.

Office Live is scheduled to be replaced by Office 365. Sadly, while Office 365 is still in beta, Office Live seems to have developed some access problems.

Microsoft is offering Azure for the cloud. Amazon offers AWS. Google, Apple, and Oracle are all making clouds. And, predictably, virtually all of it is proprietary.

The "Mango" update, scheduled for sometime this fall, is expected to add a number of features "missing" from WP7. Two items recently added to the list are turn-by-turn directions and speech-to-text messages.

The Bing Maps iOS SDK lets developers create iPhone and iPad applications using Bing. You need to sign up for a free Bing Maps Key before downloading the SDK.

IncognitoRAT, a newly discovered botnet, attacks both Windows and Mac OS users. The malware might offer a "white screen of death" if it crashes your PC.

Windows Defender is part of the software bundled with Vista and Win7. It’s a real-time anti-virus program, one that looks at each file as you open it. If you’ve decided to use another anti-virus program you may want to remove Defender.