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"It is Friday, which means that it is time for us to gather around the fire and talk about the last seven days of Microsoft. Oddly, most of the juicy stuff this week has occured in the past few days, so if you have been absent recently, prepare for a minor deluge.\r\n\r\nAs always, we implore you to send in suggestions on how to improve or tweak this weekly roundup. Submitted ideas have shaped it thus far, and we expect future input to only better the format. This week's question is as follows: What is the the version of Office that has passed, that you miss the most?\r\n\r\nNow, make sure that you are following you best friends at TNW Microsoft on Twitter, and Facebook, and we will cut with the throat\u00A0clearing\u00A0and get into the news.\r\nMicrosoft nails another Android vendor\r\nJust another brick in the wall: Quanta Computer this week signed an intellectual property payment plan with Microsoft that forces it to fork out royalties for shipping devices with Android on them. Microsoft thinks that Android steps on its IP toes, and thus if you ship it, Microsoft wants a check, or you get a lawsuit.\r\n\r\nGiven that Redmond has lined up HTC, Samsung, and a host of smaller providers, it seems to have a case. Only Barnes and Noble and Google are pushing back. Google, obviously, has the most to lose.\r\n\r\nWhatever the case, Quanta is going to be pushing Android, and royalties. Meet Microsoft, the most profitable player in the Android market.\r\nThe Mango falling\r\nYou knew that Mango had to have some sort of flaw, or delivery error, right? There was no way that the release and use of the new software was going to be free of all hitches. It would have been a miracle. This week, we found out what was going wrong:\r\nMicrosoft is currently, and officially, looking into issues that users of its mobile line that have executed the update are having with accessing Office 365 and Exchange 2003. According to reports, the SharePoint Online part of Office 365 is causing problems.\r\n\r\nRoughly half of all extant (sold before Mango was completed) WP7 handsets have been upgraded to the latest edition of the software. Assuming that this problem is endemic, and not sporadic, it is an issue that Microsoft must correct, especially given the enterprise history and legacy that its mobile devices have; in other words, Windows Phone devices sell on their cohesion with Microsoft\u2019s enterprise products, and so if it fails, the problem is even more acute.\r\nBut since Microsoft knows about it, they will issue a fix soon, right? Let's hope.\r\nBing goes flat\r\nBing did not grow in September, in terms of market share. Ouch. That after six months of consistent growth. For the millions that Bing lost Microsoft in the last month, this must be a serious annoyance.\r\n\r\nEven more, Yahoo shed market share, so Bing ended up powering a smaller than before slice of the search market. Ain't that the bee's knees. Anways, Bing proper is not shrinking, but certainly took a breather on progress. Perhaps now that school is back in session everywhere, Bing will find some search term growth. Or perhaps Microsoft needs to ramp back up that ad spend. Bing needs to grow, for Microsoft to be able to sign off on the losses.\r\nWindows 8 changes\r\nGood news Windows 8 fans, changes, and the good kind, are coming. Microsoft, releasing its usual novel-length post on its forthcoming operating system, explained that after much whining it is making changes:\r\nThe company responded piece by piece to a full grip of issues, enough that we are not going to attempt their summary. If you want to go fully granular, head\u00A0here. If you want to know the broad strokes, stick with us. Let\u2019s begin with the App Screen.\u00A0Microsoft has revamped the App Screen in Windows 8 to support the display of apps ingroups\u00A0as opposed to being purely in alphabetical order. Also, the company is making the app density greater, so more total content is displayed. This is crucial for powerusers and neatfreaks alike. Also, it was much requested.\r\n\r\nFor enterprise customers, Microsoft pointed out a nice little carrot in its operating system: \u201CFor Windows 8, we support deployment scenarios that include Start screens with a layout of tiles that matches their business group\u2019s needs, allowing for an even greater number of pinned apps to be pre-defined for their users. We also support the managed lockdown of customization of the Start screen so that it is consistent across the corporation.\u201D That is a big, slobbery kiss that every enterprise customer should enjoy.\r\nIn other words, Windows 8 remains very much in flux, and can\u00A0be swayed by strong comment. So get talking. Now.\r\n\r\nOh, and Windows 7 finally beat XP."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/10/14/this-week-at-microsoft-android-mango-and-windows-8/>