Microsoft Corp

Video game players with less-than-dexterous thumbs will soon stand a fighting chance, with Microsoft Corp. on Monday promising a new method for controlling the action with full body movements. The Redmond, Wash., software giant unveiled a technology for its Xbox 360 video game console that, as early as next year, could let people toss aside the baffling 12-button controller. Instead, the system's camera and sound sensors detect movement of faces and body joints as well as voice commands.

Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software maker, said that Seamus Blackley, co-inventor of the Xbox video-game console, is leaving the company four days after it slashed its sales targets for the device. Blackley, who helped persuade Chairman Bill Gates to build the money-losing Xbox, plans to form a new gaming venture. James Bernard, a spokesman for the Redmond, Wash., company, declined to say who would assume Blackley's responsibilities.

It's being billed as the biggest day in entertainment history. When "Halo 3" comes out Tuesday, the video game is expected to pull in more than $150 million in sales in 24 hours. By comparison, "Spider-Man 3" blitzed box-office records when it took in $151 million at theaters during its three-day opening weekend in May. So are games really a bigger business than movies? Not quite.

Microsoft Corp. estimates it lost about $14 billion last year to software piracy -- and those may prove to be the most lucrative sales never made. Although the world's largest software maker spends millions of dollars annually to combat illegal copying and distribution of its products, critics allege -- and Microsoft acknowledges -- that piracy sometimes helps the company establish itself in emerging markets and fend off threats from free open-source programs.

As Google and Microsoft battle for dominance in technology, a skirmish in Los Angeles City Hall is offering a rare public glimpse into a rivalry that could help determine the fortunes of both companies -- and, quite possibly, how workers in the future will communicate. The two tech giants are clashing over a $7.25-million contract to replace L.A.'s outdated e-mail system. The stakes are high enough that both companies have fielded teams of lobbyists and executives to press their case in City Hall.

Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang chose the name of his company in part because it referred to someone who is rude, unsophisticated and uncouth -- not the starchy executive jockeying for splashy deals. The 39-year-old billionaire has relished the title of Chief Yahoo that he picked up after he and friend David Filo started the Internet search company in 1995 as graduate students at Stanford University.

Microsoft Corp. and OpenX Technologies Inc., a Pasadena-based Web advertising start-up, have struck a deal that would enable both companies to expand the reach of their online ad businesses. OpenX, which operates one of the nation's largest independent online advertising networks, develops software that enables marketers to funnel ads to websites that are visited by the type of buyers they are targeting. Similarly, advertisers use Microsoft to create and distribute ads, be they for flowers, movies or Maseratis.

Enylson Camolesi has only to look at his teenage daughter to understand the challenges of overcoming addiction. He's gently trying to help her kick the habit, grimly aware that the difficult task at home is what he's attempting to replicate, on a massive scale, throughout the Brazilian government. But he and other officials are determined to succeed.

Almost no one found Microsoft Corp.'s last attempt at a new operating system, Windows Vista, very entertaining. So when it came time for the software giant to create the sequel, it hoped a little Hollywood touch would bring audiences back to its screens. Jonathan Wiedemann, the former managing director of Propaganda Films, which made groundbreaking MTV videos as well as films such as "Wild at Heart" and "Madonna: Truth or Dare," has for the last three years been leading a team responsible for a key feature on the Windows 7 operating system, the much-hyped upgrade to Vista that Microsoft will begin selling today.

As an opening gambit, Microsoft's campaign for its new Bing search engine accuses Google of causing global economic ruin. That's cheeky. The 60-second commercial titled "Manifesto" (JWT Worldwide), which began airing last week, opens with scenes of random YouTube nuttiness (videos of Perez Hilton, the keyboard-playing cat, OK Go's treadmill shtick, etc.). Then the mood darkens. The narrator says: "While everyone was searching, there was bailing. . . .

For Microsoft Corp.'s earnings, a new set of Windows made a huge difference. Boosted by the arrival of its Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft had a 14% rise in sales in its fiscal second quarter that ended Dec. 31, the software giant said Thursday. That helped make for a 60% jump in profit to $6.7 billion, or 74 cents a share, compared with a year earlier when the Redmond, Wash., company had net income of $4.17 billion, or 47 cents. Revenue increased to $19 billion from $16.6 billion.

Twitter Inc. will make about $25 million from Internet-search deals with Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced in October, enough to push the site into profitability, people familiar with the matter said. A deal that made Twitter's messages searchable on Google's site will generate about $15 million, the sources said, while a similar pact with Microsoft's Bing search engine will earn Twitter about $10 million. As a result, Twitter is expected to make a small profit in 2009 after paying operating costs of about $20 million to $25 million a year.

Escalating the battle between traditional newspapers and online news providers, media mogul Rupert Murdoch lashed out at Google Inc. and other Web companies Tuesday, accusing them of looting news articles and contributing to the industry's decline. "There are those who think they have a right to take our news content and use it for their own purposes without contributing a penny to its production," Murdoch said at a Washington forum on the future of newspapers. "Their almost wholesale misappropriation of our stories is not fair use. To be impolite, it's theft."

Microsoft Corp. and OpenX Technologies Inc., a Pasadena-based Web advertising start-up, have struck a deal that would enable both companies to expand the reach of their online ad businesses. OpenX, which operates one of the nation's largest independent online advertising networks, develops software that enables marketers to funnel ads to websites that are visited by the type of buyers they are targeting. Similarly, advertisers use Microsoft to create and distribute ads, be they for flowers, movies or Maseratis.

It seemed edgy when Microsoft Corp. said it would team with "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane on a variety TV show airing next month. The software giant was going to be the only advertiser on the show and would collaborate with MacFarlane and his partner, Alex Borstein. The pair would write jokes and skits into the show that would promote the Redmond, Wash., software maker's latest operating system, Windows 7, which came out last week. Now comes word that Microsoft has pulled out. Apparently "the content was not a good fit," according to a statement the company released Monday.

Can Windows 7 repair Microsoft Corp.'s reputation and trigger enough sales to pull the technology sector out of its financial funk? That seemed to be the overriding question Thursday as Microsoft officially took the wraps off its latest operating system, much of which was already public knowledge, with more than 8 million testers having used it since January. In the past, thousands of technology companies could count on each release of a new Windows operating system to deliver its own economic stimulus: Millions of consumers would rush out to buy faster computers and companies would splurge on more powerful computer systems.

Almost no one found Microsoft Corp.'s last attempt at a new operating system, Windows Vista, very entertaining. So when it came time for the software giant to create the sequel, it hoped a little Hollywood touch would bring audiences back to its screens. Jonathan Wiedemann, the former managing director of Propaganda Films, which made groundbreaking MTV videos as well as films such as "Wild at Heart" and "Madonna: Truth or Dare," has for the last three years been leading a team responsible for a key feature on the Windows 7 operating system, the much-hyped upgrade to Vista that Microsoft will begin selling today.

Apple Inc. has made significant upgrades to its venerable iMac computers and several other products. The announcement of the new wares came Tuesday, which is perhaps not coincidental. On Thursday, Microsoft Corp. is set to unveil its Windows 7 operating system, and concurrently reveal several new computers created with the system in mind. Here's a look at what Apple brought forth, and what's known about the Win7-friendly computers about to debut. Apple The new products, most made available upon the announcement, didn't mark a big-enough change to warrant one of the firm's Steve Jobs-hosted events.

The unusual case of the missing Sidekick data may be nearing its conclusion. Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that most or all users of its Sidekick mobile device might indeed see their lost data again. The announcement came after worries that users' contacts, notes, photos and other virtual property may have been lost for good when company servers failed. "We plan to begin restoring users' personal data as soon as possible," Roz Ho, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Premium Mobile Experiences, said in a statement, adding that the company now believes the outage affected a minority of Sidekick users.

Microsoft Corp. is going back in time to promote its new Windows 7 operating system. Taking its inspiration from Texaco Star Theater, a Milton Berle-hosted 1950s variety show that was television's first big hit, the computer giant is teaming with "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane to sponsor a 30-minute show to air on the Fox network next month. The show will run without commercials, and promises to feature "unique Windows 7-branded programming that blends seamlessly with show content."