It was all planned this way! Seriously. That's the spin Microsoft is giving, as it's been announced that the nearly universally panned Microsoft commercial series involving Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld is about to bite the dust.

Perhaps stung by the criticism of their first Seinfeld - Gates commercial, Microsoft on Thursday night showed off their second in the series during CBS' Big Brother. The ad was simultaneously uploaded to YouTube, and is titled "New Family -- Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates (Long Version)."

Last week's Xbox 360 price cuts in the U.S. have resulted in (unsurprising) a spike in sales in the U.S., with some (surprisingly!) seeing up to 600% higher sales of some models between September 5th and September 7th (the weekend of the drop). Overall, retailers are showing a doubling of sales of all Xbox models combined (according to Microsoft, natch).

When I wrote about Microsoft's new BlueTrack optical sensor system, introduced on Tuesday for their upcoming Explorer Mouse with BlueTrack Technology and Explorer Mini Mouse with BlueTrack Technology(whew, those are mouthfuls!), I said they definitely weren't gaming mice. Well, Microsoft had something in its pocket for Wednesday: their first wireless gaming mouse, and it will feature the BlueTrack system.

As you probably know, Microsoft has launched a series of high-profile ads, starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, hoping to re-energize the image of the corporation as a whole and Windows Vista in particular.

They are here. I wrote earlier about Microsoft's new ad campaign, scheduled to start on Sept. 4th and to feature Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. The first ad aired during the opening game of the NFL season between Washington and the New York Giants. It's titled "The future, delicious," but I have to say "yuck."

To think that prior to 2005 there wasn't any page up / page down functionality. After all, that's when Microsoft filed a patent application for "Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments."

Microsoft Corp. announced the release to manufacturing of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, the new version of the company’s acclaimed data management and business intelligence platform.

Researchers at Microsoft Corp. have confirmed the popular theory that only seven steps are required to link every one in the world according to report from Microsoft Corp. Researchers said they used instant messaging data to carry out the study.

Available today from T-Mobile USA Inc., the new T-Mobile® Sidekick® powered by Danger (a subsidiary of Microsoft Corp.) introduces innovative software, services and hardware customization that improve an already celebrated mobile experience.

Microsoft Corp. and ESRI today announced that ESRI ArcGIS users will have access to the robust mapping and imagery content provided by the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform inside ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server.

To address the growing security and management needs of today’s new PC user, Microsoft Corp. is working with 11 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Sony Corporation of America and Toshiba Asia Pacific to preinstall trial subscriptions of Windows Live OneCare on select new PCs across North America, Europe and Asia.