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Attention Star Wars junkies who've always longed for the day when transmitting holographic messages is as commonplace as a la Princess Leia's "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Your day is nigh. At a recent tech forum, Microsoft Research unveiled a prototype of an augmented reality application called Holoflector.

Discovery comes just days after Web giant was found to be sidestepping the user privacy preferences in Apple's Safari. Read this blog post by Steven Musil on Security.

Microsoft has unveiled its Windows 8 logo, and explained its design in detail on Friday. The company wanted to incorporate parts of its new Metro design principles while retaining some classic aspects.

Microsoft Corp has put its talks with media companies about an online subscription service for TV shows and movies on hold, according to people familiar with the discussions.

One of the bigger, if expected, events at today’s CES Press Day was the announcement (three times) that AT&T will offer the Microsoft Windows-based Nokia Lumia 900 smart phone. AT&T announced the news Monday morning at a meeting for developers – with a hand from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer; Nokia then discussed it at their own event; and then Ballmer discussed the launch again at his keynote Monday night.

A month ago, Google's three-year effort to push its Web browser, Chrome, took a major step when analysts said it had passed Mozilla's Firefox to become the second-most popular tool of its kind on the Internet. Today, that climb continues and has some tech observers wondering whether Chrome could do the unthinkable and topple perennial leader Internet Explorer from atop the browser rankings.

As far as years in technology go, 2011 was one for the record books. It wasn’t just about big battles like Apple vs. Samsung, Microsoft vs. Google, AT&T vs. the world, or Hewlett-Packard vs. itself. It wasn’t just about the growth of apps and the ever-increasing pervasiveness of the Web in our daily lives, though there were plenty of amazing developments both these realms. It wasn’t just about hardware or software. And it wasn’t just about towing the line or trying to hold onto it.

Novell Inc. sued the software giant in 2004, claiming Microsoft duped it into developing the once-popular WordPerfect writing program for Windows 95 only to pull the plug so Microsoft could gain market share with its own product. Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.

Nokia is getting back into the U.S. smartphone business with an entry-level model powered by Microsoft's latest Windows software and sold by T-Mobile USA. The Lumia 710, one of two models that Nokia has launched in Europe, is slated to go on sale Jan. 11 for $50 after a rebate and a two-year contract. The Lumia 710 retails for €270 ($351) in Europe.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan are building the world's biggest plane to help launch cargo and astronauts into space, in the latest of several ventures fueled by technology tycoons clamoring to write America's next chapter in spaceflight. Their plans, unveiled Tuesday, call for a twin-fuselage aircraft with wings longer than a football field to carry a rocket high into the atmosphere and drop it, avoiding the need for a launch pad and the expense of additional rocket fuel.