Microsoft Corp. Monday said it would offer free technical support to small businesses that buy new PCs with Windows Vista in the next three months, its latest attempt to convince users that moving to Vista is a good idea.

Microsoft launched a comparative shopping feature in its Live Search engine on Wednesday. The service offers consumers a rebate on purchases made through the site, a scheme that could lure shoppers from Google and Yahoo.

Laszlo Systems this week unveiled an enhanced version of Laszlo Webtop, which the company refers to as "The Web 2.0 Desktop." The company also is partnering to add VOIP capabilities to the platform.

The latest version of Oracle Corp.'s flagship database offers better security than earlier versions, but development errors have left vulnerabilities that attackers can use to steal data, an expert warned Monday.

Microsoft Corp. has partnered with handset manufacturer Nokia Corp. to deliver some of its Windows Live services on wireless handsets in Europe and the Middle East.

Microsoft Corp. is joining Ask.com in offering Web surfers a way to use its search engines anonymously, and the two companies are now calling on the search and online advertising industry to develop a common set of privacy practices.

More than a month after Symantec Corp. knocked out 50,000 Chinese PCs with a bad software update, the company is ready to offer compensation. But Chinese users eligible for the offer have to act fast; it's only good for a couple of weeks.

Microsoft Corp. will soon submit a new photo format to an international standards organization that it says offers higher quality images with better compression, the company said on Thursday.

Vista's user interface suffers from more "friction" than its predecessor XP, a French analyst said Monday, and is actually a step back for Microsoft Corp. in its pursuit of Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X.

Hewlett-Packard Co. reached for the consumer market Monday with two new PCs that allow customers to control Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista OS with a touchscreen interface instead of a mouse.

Microsoft Corp. released the commercial version of its software for robots on Wednesday, hoping to shape the market much as it did for PC software a few decades ago.

Intel Corp. has started to produce samples of a quad-core processor called Penryn that offers faster clock speeds and larger cache sizes, an executive said Thursday.

Mobile phones will undergo a dramatic transformation over the next few years, incorporating more powerful processors and more storage, as well as new technologies, a Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. research and development (R&D) executive said Monday.

Sandisk Corp. now offers a small, lightweight portable device that allows consumers to record all types of video input, including live TV, to a range of flash memory cards.

Logitech Inc. introduced an array of new products on Monday designed for VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) users, including a keyboard with dedicated call management buttons and a speakerphone.

Microsoft Corp. has released a new beta version of Exchange Server 2007 and the beta for an accompanying antivirus product, Forefront Security for Exchange, it announced on Monday.

Plextor, perhaps best known to Mac users for its external optical drives and personal video recorder (PVR) devices, has entered the Network Attached Storage (NAS) market with the introduction of its PX-EH line. Prices start at US$299.

If you're a producer for a third-rate variety television show, you're not going to like PCs with Intel Corp.'s Viiv logo, according to the head of the company's digital home group.