Microsoft on Thursday unleashed an all-new version of its popular Skype messaging application for iOS, bringing a visual overhaul that matches the app to its Windows Phone counterpart and a number of improvements to speed and stability.

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Team Microsoft bested Team Apple on a different kind of financial battlefield this week, as former Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer is said to have outbid a group including Laurene Powell Jobs -- the widow of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs -- for the rights to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA.

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Over one year after word of a Microsoft-built smartwatch first surfaced, a report on Thursday says the Redmond, Wash. company's offering will be compatible not only with its own Windows Phone, but also Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

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When recent reports suggested Apple was considering bringing iTunes to Android to help boost flagging music sales, skeptics scoffed at the thought of the iPhone maker supporting a competing platform. But with its $3 billion purchase of Beats, Apple has now revealed it plans to keep the Beats Music subscription apps alive not only on Google's Android, but also Microsoft's Windows Phone.

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Microsoft on Tuesday introduced the world to a new real-time translation feature for popular Skype voice over IP software, which the company says will debut in beta form on Windows later this year with support for other platforms to follow.

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In a presentation that frequently mentioned the iPad and MacBook Air, Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled the Surface Pro 3, a device it hopes will contend with both Apple's popular tablets and thin-and-light notebooks with one converged device that will start at $799.

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Microsoft on Tuesday announced that consumers will soon be able to purchase a cheaper, Kinect-less Xbox One bundle and won't be forced to subscribe to Xbox Live Gold in order to use media services like Netflix or MLB.TV on their consoles, bending to price pressure from Sony's PlayStation 4 and streaming boxes such as the Apple TV.

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After a highly anticipated launch in late March, Microsoft's Office for iPad suite of productivity apps is still going strong in the iOS App Store after having accumulated some 27 million downloads as of Monday.

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When Apple announced its most recent quarterly earnings, the worst news out of Cupertino was that sales of iPads weren't greater than in the year-ago quarter, a fact that a few pundits have now jumped on to declare that "Apple's iPad Businesses Is Collapsing." That's wrong, here's why.

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Businesses that license Microsoft Office company-wide are wasting money because few employees actually make significant use of the programs, according to the results of new app usage study.

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Microsoft's Office for iPad now ties even more tightly into Apple's ecosystem, as the touch-friendly productivity suite has been updated with support for the wireless AirPrint standard, along with a few other new features and assorted bug fixes for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

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After taking over Nokia's handset operations on Friday, Microsoft has released a new a new ad that presents its phones as "Not Like Everyone Else," distinguished primarily by the iPhone 5c-like colors of Apple's top selling middle-market iPhone.

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Pricing on Microsoft's Office 365 service became a little more affordable for individual users on Tuesday, as the company launched a new "Personal" subscription plan priced at $69.99 per year.

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Prominent patent buyer Intellectual Ventures won't be able to count Apple among the participants in its latest IP purchase, as the iPhone maker has apparently opted out of its latest investment.

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Just days after officially announcing Cortana, a Siri-like personal digital assistant for Windows Phone, Microsoft has revealed a substantial and wide-ranging artificial intelligence program it hopes will leapfrog similar offerings from Apple and Google.

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Software giant Microsoft is planning to revamp its in-car offerings after suffering setbacks with the existing Sync platform, unveiling a new "Windows in the car" initiative at the company's annual Build conference in San Francisco.

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Microsoft on Thursday announced Office for iPad downloads hit the 12 million mark after just one week of availability, illustrating pent-up demand for an iPad port of the software giant's productivity suite.

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Software behemoth Microsoft on Wednesday showed off the latest update to its Windows Phone mobile operating system, refining several areas and officially unveiling Cortana, Microsoft's answer to Apple's Siri.

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Earlier this month, Gartner reported worldwide tablet sales for 2013 that depicted Apple's iPad as slipping into obscurity with just 36 percent market share left. Why would Microsoft target Apple's minority tablet platform with its new mobile Office apps over Google's Android, which supposedly owns a 61.9 percent marketshare?

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About 24 hours after debuting on the iOS App Store, Microsoft's Office for iPad productivity suite has taken over the first three Top Free Apps seats, with the fourth going to the redesigned OneNote.

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