Software giant Microsoft has released its financials for its fiscal year ended June 30, 2007. No surprise, the company earned scads of money during its most recent quarter and during the entire fiscal year, even with reception to Windows Vista and Office 2007 not exactly being a rampage, and taking a $1 billion charge on the chin to cover Xbox 360 warranty issues. But what’s surprising is just how much money Microsoft managed to make anyway: $13.37 billion for the most recent quarter, and $51.12 billion for the fiscal year.
“Surpassing $50 billion in annual sales is a testament to the innovation and value that our product groups delivered into the marketplace, as well as the outstanding execution by our field sales, marketing teams and partners to bring that value to life with our customers,” said Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, in a statement.
Overall, Microsoft’s earnings represent a 13 percent increase over the same quarter a year ago, and a year-to-year increase of 15 percent, and the company is forecasting continued double-digit revenue growth during its 2008 fiscal year. key elements of Microsoft’s business were Windows clients, including Windows Vista and Office 2007, although the company has declined to provide shipment numbers for either Vista or Office. Other significant contributors to the bottom line were SQL Server, Windows Server, and the Xbox 360, although the latter is responsible for am $0.08 per share hit in the forth quarter as the company socks away $1.16 billion to extending the gaming console’s warranty to three years.
Microsoft’s optimism for fiscal 2008 seems justified, having already announced it planned to ship Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 208, and Visual Studio 2008 during its next fiscal year—and let’s not forget the impending marketing deluge surrounding the September release of Halo 3, the latest installment in Microsoft’s blow-up-the-aliens shoot-em-up game franchise.
Microsoft plans to offer considerably more detail about its 2007 financial results next week at a meeting for financial analysts.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.