Microsoft has confirmed that the licence conditions under which the software will be sold will allow people to downgrade.

According to a variety of sources, the talks are preliminary and wide-ranging, focused on what kind of commercial relationship Yahoo and Microsoft could have in the future.

Microsoft has said it settled a patent dispute over car navigation technology with TomTom NV for an undisclosed amount. Under the terms of the five-year settlement, TomTom will pay the software maker for use of eight patents.

Dutch navigation device maker TomTom filed a countersuit against Microsoft Corp, accusing the US company of violating its patents related to car navigational technology and other computing functionality.

The financial crisis is taking its toll on the world's richest people, wiping 332 names off Forbes magazine's "rich list" of world billionaires.

Much to the chagrin of the largest high-tech companies whose products have served as the foundation for computing for the past 30 years, the microprocessor is breaking free of the chains that bind it. ARM is a microprocessor manufacturer that is taking advantage of advancing technology's steady destruction of those chains forged by the likes of AMD, Intel, and Microsoft.

The European Commission said it no longer needed a full-time monitoring trustee to make sure Microsoft Corp. was obeying an EU order to share technical information with rivals that would help them make products compatible with Microsoft servers.

Microsoft may create up to 3,000 jobs as it raises investment in research and development by $1 billion this year amid a financial crisis that has also taken its toll on the software giant.

Google has added its voice to the case against Microsoft as the European Commission probes antitrust charges related to the software giant's Internet Explorer browser. In January, European regulators brought formal charges against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, which is used in 95% of the world's personal computers.

Microsoft has finally confirmed what much of the evidence was pointing to: there will indeed be six editions of Windows 7, just like there were for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Customers will be able to choose from Windows 7 Starter Edition, Windows 7 Home Basic Edition, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition, Windows 7 Professional Edition, Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, and Windows 7 Enterprise Edition.

Even as the economy skids, Google keeps on rolling—just a little more slowly than it used to. Bucking the stalling economy and worsening outlook for online advertising, the search advertising titan on Jan. 22 reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. The numbers suggest Google will keep grabbing more of the online ad market from traditional media and from struggling online rivals such as Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Microsoft and Primax Electronics has announced that the patent infringement case brought by Microsoft against Primax in the US District Court in Northern California and before the International Trade Commission (ITC) has been settled, and that Primax has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement covering Microsoft's patents for U2 and Tilt Wheel technology. The agreement covers both past and future sales of the relevant products in the US. Terms of the agreement are confidential.