Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation /ˈmaɪkrəˌsɒft, -roʊ-, -ˌsɔːft/ (commonly referred to as Microsoft) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup. It is the world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies.

Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created three billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires among Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.

Microsoft Studios

Microsoft Studios is the video game production wing for Microsoft, responsible for the development and publishing of games for the Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Games for Windows, Steam, Windows Store, and Windows Phone platforms. They were established in 2002 as Microsoft Game Studios to coincide with the already released Xbox, before being re-branded in 2011. The subsidiary had also been known as Microsoft Game Division and simply Microsoft Games before 2002. Microsoft Studios develops and publishes games in conjunction with first and third party development studios under their publishing label.

History

2007

Xbox One

The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced on May 21, 2013, it is the successor to the Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox family. It directly competes with Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's Wii U as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles. The Xbox One was released in North America, several European markets, Australia, and New Zealand on November 22, 2013, and in 26 other markets, including Japan, the remaining European markets, and the Middle East, in September 2014. It is also the first Xbox game console to be released in China, specifically in the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone. Microsoft also marketed the device as an "all-in-one entertainment system", also making it a competitor to other digital media players, such as the Apple TV and Google TV platforms.

Moving away from the Xbox 360's PowerPC-based architecture—back to the x86 architecture used in the original Xbox—the console features an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) built around the x86-64 instruction set. The Xbox One places an increased emphasis on cloud computing and entertainment integration, offering the ability to overlay live television programming from an existing set-top box with an enhanced program guide, split-screen multitasking of applications, and improved second-screen support. The console optionally includes an upgraded Kinect sensor, providing richer motion tracking and voice recognition for use in its graphical user interface (GUI) and games. The Xbox One also offers the ability for users to record and share highlights from or live-stream gameplay. The console's controller was refined over that of the Xbox 360, with a redesigned D-pad and triggers capable of delivering directional haptic feedback.

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows (or simply Windows) is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. It consists of several families of operating systems, each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry. Active Windows families include Windows NT, Windows Embedded and Windows Phone; these may encompass subfamilies, e.g. Windows Embedded Compact (Windows CE) or Windows Server. Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x and Windows Mobile.

Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984. However, since 2012, because of the massive growth of smartphones, Windows sells less than Android, which became the most popular operating system in 2014, when counting all of the computing platforms each operating system runs on; in 2014, the number of Windows devices sold were less than 25% of Android devices sold. However, comparisons across different markets are not fully relevant; and for personal computers, Windows is still the most popular operating system.

The Know

The Know is an Australian talk show on Max. The pop culture show features Yumi Stynes, musician Jimmy Barnes and actress Lisa Hensley as the main show hosts along with former Machine Gun Fellatio keyboardist, Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab. The show discusses and reviews movies, music, television and the creative arts.

Former Panelists

External links