The world’s largest software vendor, Microsoft Corporation, today announced the company has set up a massive $250,000 fund for its Blue Hat contest as part of the company’s latest efforts to challenge developers to enhance security for the world’s most popular operating system, Microsoft Windows.

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The top software-maker in the world, Microsoft Inc., released a new Android developers package to make it easier for developers to port their applications to the Windows Phone platform.

The Android developers kit provided by Microsoft includes two primary tools, an Android to Windows Phone API mapping tool, and a ninety page white paper (“Windows Phone 7 Guide for Android Application Developers“).

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The world’s largest software company, Microsoft Corp., outlined new features for its cloud-based SkyDrive service that will be included with Windows Phone “Mango” that will bring deeper integration of the service on Windows Phone.

New features would allow users to easily keep photos and videos in sync between multiple devices, including their Windows Phone and PC. Every photo or video stored on SkyDrive will automatically be accessible from Windows Phone, and any changes that take place on Windows Phone will automatically be synced with SkyDrive.

SkyDrive albums have also been integrated into the messaging and email hubs, which bring the ability to easily attach media to messages. Microsoft has even added an option to upload every album from Windows Phone to SkyDrive for a more seamless sync experience.

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TORONTO — The Waterloo-based maker of the popular BlackBerry smartphone, Research In Motion Ltd (RIM), recently launched its first tablet computer, the BlackBerry PlayBook, over six months after the company first announced the product.

RIM has largely been criticized for releasing the BlackBerry PlayBook without key features when not paired with a BlackBerry smartphone, such as a native e-mail client, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) support, and native calendar support, among other key features that would be expected in a new high-end tablet.

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The world’s largest software vendor, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), today showcased various new web technologies at the MIX11 tech conference in Las Vegas, but most notably, the company announced the newest forthcoming features of Windows Phone.

Microsoft largely focused on the developer side by showcasing a comprehensive look at the newest development platform codenamed Mango of Windows Phone. The upcoming version will include many new features, including both under-the-hood enhancements and improvements to the user interface of the platform.

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The world’s largest carmaker, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp (TMC), announced a new non-exclusive $12-million partnership with the world’s largest software vendor, Microsoft Corp, that will see telematics systems in upcoming Toyota hybrid vehicles powered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing platform.

From 2008 to 2009, global production of vehicles declined by 13.50-percent to almost 70-million cars manufactured in 2009, the biggest decline in over a decade, as demand fell amid the global financial crisis.

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In a move not seen very often, NASDAQ OMX Group, the company that owns and operates the Nasdaq stock index announced today the company would re-organize the weightings of certain securities in a bid to lower volatility.

Technology stocks that are traditionally more volatile will be adjusted to new lower weightings, and other stocks that are less volatile will now represent larger weightings.

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The Waterloo, Ontario-based maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, Research In Motion (RIM), today announced a cloud-based data storage partnership with the world’s largest software vendor, Microsoft Corp.

RIM will use Microsoft servers and software to provide cloud-based storage solutions for clients, as more of them shift their data to the cloud.

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The world’s most popular online search engine, Google, lost an immaterial amount of market share in February 2011 over the previous month, according to a new report published by the research firm HitWise.

The decline in Google market share was the result of a marginal gain in the combined market share of top rivals, Microsoft and Yahoo.

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Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Mark Stanley from the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a non-profit public interest organization based in Washington, D.C. For more on online privacy, visit CDT’s Take Back Your Privacy page.

For online privacy, the pressure is mounting in Washington, D.C. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a highly anticipated privacy report. The 122-page report was the subject of much discussion, with particular interest focused on the endorsement of an online “Do Not Track” mechanism.

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