Skype users in the U.K. now have the option to make audio and video calls directly from their Outlook.com Inboxes.
The Microsoft-owned VoIP service provider announced in a blog post on Monday that a preview version of Skype for Outlook.com is now available to all Skype users living in Great Britain. And it will roll out to the U.S. and Germany in the coming weeks.
The new feature will be available to all Outlook.com users within this year, wrote Simon Longbottom, Senior Director of Product …

Microsoft cofounders Bill Gates and Paul Allen recreate an iconic photo from back when their company was still relatively young.
The photo below is from 1981, just six years from when Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1981 was the year when IBM bought a license for MS-DOS from Microsoft. The photo shows Bill Gates and Paul Allen surrounded by computers.

Yesterday, Allen tweeted the following photo saying it’s so much fun catching up with computing pioneers at the Living …

Hot on the heels of closing a deal with marketing data giants Acxiom, BlueKai, Datalogix, and Epsilon, social networking firm Facebook has approved a new agreement to procure a popular advertising service.
According to an official blog post on Thursday, Facebook will acquire the Atlas Advertiser Suite from Microsoft for an undisclosed amount.
Microsoft’s Atlas is an industry leader in handling campaigns and providing analysis for marketers and advertising agencies.
The social network …

Advocates of privacy and transparency are pushing Microsoft into hot waters.
Forty-five campaign groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Reporters Without Borders, signed and sent a letter to Microsoft asking the software giant to disclose information on the confidentiality of Skype’s user data.
Below are some of the groups’ requests for information that Microsoft should release.
1. Information on the number of requests from governments worldwide that Microsoft had received …

Microsoft introduces Socl, a new social networking which looks more like Pinterest than Google Plus or Facebook. Microsoft’s Socl allows people with similar interest to connect and share videos, images and web pages that they all enjoy real-time. Socl also aims to improve the searching ability of users and improve their communication

The Microsoft Surface Pro will be released next month and will start at $899, Microsoft has revealed.
The information was shared by Microsoft’s Panos Panay, general manager of Microsoft Surface, in this post on the Microsoft Blog.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been just over a month since Surface with Windows RT hit the market. The response from Surface customers has been fantastic and exciting to see. In addition to sharing the terrific results that Microsoft is seeing with Windows 8 at a …

The Microsoft Surface Pro will have about half the battery life of the Surface RT, Microsoft has revealed.
Basing on the battery life of the Surface RT, that translates to about 4 hours of run time.
The information comes from Microsoft’s own Surface Twitter account.
In an answer to a question, the account says:
#Surface pro will have approximately half the batter life of Surface RT.
@shahroom Hey Shahroom, #Surface pro will have approximately half the batter life of Surface RT.
— …

Microsoft has announced that Outlook.com already has more than 25 million users.
Not only that, Microsoft says that Gmail users “loved” trying out Outlook.com.
The development comes just four months since Microsoft switched its Hotmail service to Outlook.com.
MORE: Microsoft Hotmail is now Outlook.com
Although a big number, 25 million pales in comparison to the initial uptick of users on Outlook.com.
Two weeks after its launch, Microsoft revealed that more than 10 million users have signed …

Amazon and Microsoft are both making smartphones in-house and they will be tapping iPhone-maker Foxconn to build it for them.
That is according to DigiTimes in a report that cites unnamed individuals involved in Foxconn’s “upstream supply chain” as sources.
According to DigiTimes, Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) has received handset orders from both Microsoft and Amazon.
The software giant based in Redmond, Washington and the internet commerce powerhouse based in Seattle, Washington …

Details about software support for Microsoft’s newest tablet, the Surface with Windows RT, have been revealed.
First noticed by ZDNet in a report, Microsoft has revealed that it will support the software of Surface with Windows RT for four years.
The detail was revealed by the Redmond, Washington-based software giant on a product lifecycle document.
For the Surface with Windows RT tablet, its lifecycle started on October 24, two days before it was officially released by Microsoft.
Mainstream …