From InfoWorld: Microsoft unveiled on Wednesday refreshed versions of its Windows Azure software development kit and Azure tools for Visual Studio, which support the planned Windows Azure cloud services platform.

The refreshed releases offer improved integration with Visual Studio...

From CNET News.com: Google, having reduced its hiring rate, is also reducing its hiring staff.

The company said on its corporate blog that it's cutting about 100 jobs.

"Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring," said Laszlo Bock...

From CNET News.com: Apple has confirmed that CEO Steve Jobs will step down from his CEO post while recuperating from a hormone imbalance. His absence will stretch until the end of June.

Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, will run the company during Jobs' absence, according...

From X-bit Labs: Toshiba Corp., a maker of various electronics, is reportedly in the final stages of discussions to acquire hard disk drive (HDD) business of Fujitsu. The move will expand potentially profitable business for Hitachi and will take the money losing unit away from...

From InfoWorld: Microsoft issued its first patch for the just-released Windows 7 beta on Tuesday, but it passed on plugging a hole in an important file-sharing protocol that it fixed in older versions of the operating system.

Earlier Tuesday, Windows Update, Microsoft's primary...

From PC World: Blockbuster and Sonic Systems are teaming up to make digital content available on a wider range of electronic devices, the companies said on Wednesday.

Sonic Systems, perhaps best known for its Roxio disc-burning software, will provide a back-end digital content...

From PC World: Google will launch on Wednesday a reseller program for the paid version of its Apps hosted collaboration and communication suite.

The program will allow, for the first time, third parties to resell Apps Premier, which costs US$50 per user per year.

Resellers can be...

From CNET News.com: Psystar is still tilting at legal windmills in its battle against Apple, this time asserting its right to do whatever it wants with products obtained legally from Apple.

After a judge rejected Psystar's antitrust argument--considered its best chance of continuing...

From CNET News.com: Intel is planning price cuts to its lower-end mainstream quad-core processors on January 18.

Barron's Tech Trader Daily first reported the news, citing Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell.

These cuts are happening because of the recent introduction of...

From DailyTech: 50 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold in North America. Despite being nine years old, the console is still selling well and is the most played console of 2008 according to a Nielsen study. In November, 206,000 PlayStation 2 units were sold.

According to...