Microsoft officially took the wraps off of its new social network for students on Thursday. The service is called So.cl and was developed by Microsoft Research’s FUSE Labs division. It’s currently in “experimental” stages and is available to students attending the University of Washington, New York University and Syracuse University. So.cl allows users to log-in with their Facebook accounts and offers a similar set of features. In addition to adding status updates, photos and links, users can also join “video parties” to watch movies and chat with a group of friends. “So.cl is not meant to replace existing full-featured search and social networking tools,” Microsoft said o

Microsoft has bought video discovery service Videosurf to “evolve search and discovery of entertainment content” on Xbox 360. The press release sent out by Microsoft this morning in the US confirms the company will be integrated into Xbox 360 “ecosystem” in some form, noting that it’ll “evolve search and discovery of entertainment content” via Xbox Live. “This holiday we will launch voice search across our entertainment partners on Xbox Live. Over time, as we integrate VideoSurf’s technology into our system, we are excited about the potential to have content tagged in real time to increase the speed and relevance of the search results,” said Xbox Live director, Alex Gar

Steve Jobs thoughts on Microsoft from his official biography reveal that he felt Google and Microsoft were similar. Speaking to Walter Isaacson in a series of over 40 interviews, Jobs said “Microsoft and Google have a lot in common.” He described Microsoft’s lack of humanity and labeled Microsoft as a pure technology company. “They just didn’t get it, even when they saw the Mac they couldn’t even copy it well. How dumb do you have to be to not see it, once you see it you know, but Google is the same way. They just don’t get it.” Jobs also spoke about Gates in one of his interviews, describing him as wealthy but questioning whether that was his aim. “Bill ended up the wea

Skype joins Microsoft under a new division headed by Skype CEO Tony Bates. British born Bates assumes a new title as president of the Skye division. Microsoft’s finalization follows U.S. and EU regulatory approval. “Skype is a phenomenal product and brand that is loved by hundreds of millions of people around the world,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “We look forward to working with the Skype team to create new ways for people to stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues — anytime, anywhere.” Microsoft is promising to integrate Microsoft products to increase Skype’s reach. Skype employees will continued to be located in their offices around the world,

Microsoft has officially confirmed the death of its Zune player devices. The software giant removed references to the Zune HD from its Zune site on Monday and later claimed that the removal was “a mistake.” It appears that the reference removals may have been planned for later but were mistakenly pushed early. A new support article on Microsoft’s Zune support pages makes it very clear: “We recently announced that, going forward, Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy, and that we will no longer be producing Zune players. So what does this mean for our current Zune users? Absolutely nothing. Your device will continue to work with Zune services just a

Microsoft revealed on Wednesday that the company plans to issue its Windows Phone 7.5 update to existing devices in the next two weeks. Squashing rumours and speculation, Microsoft’s general manager of customer experience engineering, Eric Hautala, revealed that the company is making “solid progress” on the Windows Phone 7.5 update. “We now expect to start rolling it out in the next week or two,” said Hautala in a blog post on Wednesday. “At that time, we’ll also refresh the Where’s My Phone Update? table to reflect the worldwide rollout status,” he added. Microsoft warned users not to install leaked copies of Windows Phone 7.5. “Every Windows Phone will also receiv

Kindel joined Microsoft in 1990 and worked in a support role initially. He went on to work on Internet Explorer 3, Windows NT 4, Windows ME and Windows Phone 7. Kindel announced his departure in an email to colleagues on Monday noting that he might stop using some Microsoft products after he quits the company on September 1. “I may stop using some Microsoft products now that I’m out of here,” said Kindel. “But not Windows Phone. The BEST product Microsoft has ever built. Do not let up!” Kindel is leaving to work on a new startup based in Bellevue. He joins a long list of veteran employees who have quit Microsoft recently. Mich Matthews, Microsoft’s former marketing chief, quit

Microsoft is preparing to release Avatar Kinect next week. Avatar Kinect will be released as part of the company’s Xbox Kinect Fun Labs product. Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie revealed on Monday that the company plans to issue Avatar Kinect next week: Company insiders familiar with Microsoft’s plans revealed to WinRumors that the software maker is planning to release Avatar Kinect on July 27. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer originally introduced Avatar Kinect using his own Xbox LIVE avatar at CES earlier this year. Avatar Kinect is a unique way for Kinect users to interact with each other. Kinect supports facial tracking and even facial expressions that will

Microsoft announced two new key Hotmail security features on Thursday. The software giant is introducing a “My friend’s been hacked!” feature alongside banning commonly used and weak passwords. The hacking alert system will allow users to simply report accounts that have been compromised. “When someone’s account gets hijacked, their friends often find out before they do, because the hijacker uses their account to send spam or phishing email to all their contacts,” explains Microsoft’s Dick Craddock. The Hotmail team has built a specific feature to combat this. The “mark as” menu in Hotmail now contains “My friend’s been hacked!”. Hotmail users can also report hacked

Microsoft took the wraps off its cloud based productivity suite on Tuesday. The software giant held a number of media events around the world to announce the general availability of Office 365, the company’s latest cloud service. Office 365 is now available in 40 countries and unites Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Exchange Online and Lync Online. Microsoft introduced the original beta of Office 365 last year. Over 200,000 organisations signed up to test Office 365 and more than 20 service providers worldwide have plans to offer Office 365 to their customers this year. “Great collaboration is critical to business growth, and because it’s so important, we believe the best collabo