Daniel Ganea

Offbeat: Steve Ballmer signs MacBook Pro - running Windows, of course

While on a visit to Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tenn., this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer put his John Hancock on a MacBook Pro, and the event was captured on video.

Microsoft loses patent appeal, must halt sale of Office by Jan. 11

Microsoft on Tuesday lost an appeal to be able to continue selling its popular Word software, which has been found in violation of a patent related to XML.

Microsoft was originally ordered to stop selling Word in August, after i4i Inc., of Toronto, Ontario won a suit over the program’s ability to open .XML, .DOCX and .DOCM files, based on custom XML included in the file types. The court agreed to allow Microsoft to keep selling Word as the appeal went through the court. But Tuesday, that was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Microsoft Modifies European ‘Browser Ballot’ to Eliminate Safari’s Advantage

In mid-October, it was reported that Apple’s Safari for Windows browser was slated to receive prominent placement on a “browser ballot” designed to allow Windows users in Europe to select which Internet browser they wished to use. The ballot process was included by Microsoft to address anti-competitive concerns there, where the company has been found at fault for its integration of Internet Explorer with Windows.

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft has revised its plans for the browser ballot, and among the revisions was a change that will randomize the list of top five browser each time the list displayed.

Under the modified settlement, computer users with Windows will see a “ballot screen” that randomly lists the top five Web browsers that compete with Internet Explorer, the people said. Users would then click on a browser’s icon and the program would be downloaded from the Internet.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, agreed to changes in the ballot screen following complaints from Opera, Google Inc., and Mozilla Corp., maker of the Firefox browser, according to the people.

Despite the change, Apple still stands to gain from the inclusion of Safari on the primary ballot screen. Safari 4 for Windows held only a 0.29% share of the total worldwide market, suggesting that Apple may have much to benefit from in its inclusion with other major Windows browsers on the ballot.