Computerworld - Microsoft today announced it's struck a deal with Best Buy to create 600 stores-within-stores in the U.S. and Canada to sell customers on Windows 8, the Surface tablet line, and new PCs and devices from other OEMs.
The move, which Microsoft characterized as a strategic partnership but declined to disclose details of its financial commitment, earned cautious praise from analysts, some who saw it as long overdue. - More
Google on Wednesday downplayed its role in a secret government surveillance program, detailing for the first time how it typically hands over data to federal officials.
When faced with a court order, the tech giant said, it uses surprisingly simple and low-tech methods, including the delivery of information by hand or by using relatively common techniques to transfer files from one computer to another. - More
Here are a few tech stocks to watch on Tuesday, June 11: Round One to Sony?
Though the convention floor had yet to open, Microsoft and Sony both showed off their new consoles in press conferences at the Electronic Entertainment Expo Monday.
Both companies came into the day surrounded by a lot of buzz, but it was Sony that wowed the gaming community by making an aggressive play to undercut its chief competitor. - More
Hewlett-Packard co-CEO Meg Whitman said on Wednesday that revenue growth was "still possible" for the computer maker in its next fiscal year but that the performance of the overall PC market was a wild card.
HP shares rose 4 per cent to $25.22 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading after Whitman's comments in an interview on a private news channel. - More
Google is now the owner of a lot more traffic information.
The search giant today announced that it has acquired Waze, the popular iPhone and Android mapping app that works based off of crowd-sourced traffic data.
"To help you outsmart traffic, today we're excited to announce we've closed the acquisition of Waze. - More
The imminent takeover of the personal computer by tablets has been well documented, but the Pew Research Center today revealed that for the first time ever, one-third of American adults own tablet computers.
In one year, the number of people 18 and older who own some iteration of a tablet — Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus, Kindle Fire — has almost doubled, from 18 percent in 2012 to 34 percent this year. - More
Stocks, bonds and commodities fell around the world as the Bank of Japan disappointed investors by failing to expand monetary stimulus and concern grew that the Federal Reserve will scale back debt purchases.
The MSCI All-Country World Index lost 0.2 percent as of 8:14 a.m. in London.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid 0.6 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slipped 0.2 percent. U.S. Treasuries declined for a third day, while yields on German, Spanish and Italian bonds all climbed. - More
U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs in May, maintaining the slow but steady gains of recent months and easing worries about a summer slowdown in the U.S. economy.
The unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.6% in May from 7.5% in April, as more people entered the workforce, the Labor Department said Friday in its monthly employment report. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast that payrolls would rise by 169,000 and that the unemployment rate would hold steady at 7.5%. - More
The U.S. Treasury said it plans to sell 30 million additional shares of General Motors Co. stock that it acquired as part of the 2009 bailout of the automaker.
The stock will be sold later this month in a public offering in conjunction with GM’s inclusion to the S&P 500 index effective as of the close of trading on Thursday. - More
Automatic Data Processing Inc. ADP -1.42% reported that private-sector employment increased by 135,000 jobs in May, up from 113,000 in April.
A prior April estimate pegged private job gains at 119,000, and economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires expected ADP to report a 170,000 increase. U.S. stock futures SPM3 -0.32% extended losses after the ADP data.
The Labor Department separately reported the biggest drop in labor costs since at least 1947. - More
Business eNews 
