MICROSOFT

Mac users have been able to play with Apple's newest big cat, OS X Mountain Lion, for exactly one week now. While most users report a seamless, fluid experience, the fact remains that this is the fourth time in one week that I've needed to publish a story about new bugs, problems and issues that new Mountain Lion adopters are experiencing with their Macs.

Software Giant Microsoft announced Wednesday that it had released its much-awaited touch-based Windows 8 operating system to manufacturers.

Microsoft's Windows 8 release has created quite a stir in the gaming community. When Valve's Gabe Newell called the new operating system 'a catastrophe,' his comments sparked a wave of criticism across the PC gaming space.

Microsoft's Outlook.com, the successor to Hotmail, is just a few hours old, but the new metro style email service has already got more than one million people signing up for it, according to official figures tweeted just over six hours after it was announced Tuesday.

Google's Nexus Q, the spherical black media device that played a big role in the Google I/O keynote in June, is apparently off to a shaky start. The company announced Tuesday that the launch of the Nexus Q had definitely been delayed as it was still working on the device for further improvements.

Apple announced Monday that downloads of the latest OS X, Mountain Lion, had exceeded three million in just four days, making it the most successful OS X release in the company's history.

Microsoft's Surface tablet has an official release date of Oct. 26, the same day the company's Windows 8 operating system will roll out.

Even when Apple didn't create "insanely great" products, the one thing Apple could always do was create compelling and clever advertisements. No longer.

Windows Phone 8 is expected for a release date close to the Windows 8 rollout, and Samsung has just unveiled at least two potential devices it will be manufacturing. One will be called “Odyssey” and the other will be called “Marco.”

A new investigation confirmed some suspicious rumors about Microsoft's next-generation videogame console, the Xbox 720, following a leak of the console's preliminary software development kit.

After considering formation of a strategic relationship for over a year now, Apple and Twitter are reportedly back in talks about Apple investing in the short-messaging service, Twitter, to gain a toehold in the social-media world. According to the New York Times, Apple is reportedly considering an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in Twitter, which would raise Twitter's value to $10 billion -- more than $1.5 billion more than its valuation last year.

As Microsoft Corp gears to take on the leaders in the handheld devices market with the Oct 26 release of Surface, its tablet answer to competitor offerings, the software maker has strengthened its war chest with the launch of the wireless mice and keyboard.

OCZ Technology Group, Green Dot, Exelixis, Mellanox Technologies, Nokia Corp, Synacor, Microsoft Corp, Statoil ASA and JPMorgan Chase & Co are among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Monday.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), and his wife Mackenzie Bezos have pledged $2.5 million to help defend same-sex marriage in Washington state. Will this move affect Amazon as did forays into the culture wars made by Chick-fil-A Inc., Kraft Foods Inc., and other companies?

Ever since the head of Valve slammed Windows 8 in a recent interview, content creators have questioned Microsoft’s upcoming operating system. But Valve isn’t the only video game industry force to feel opinionated on the matter. An executive at Blizzard Entertainment recently endorsed statements made by Gabe Newell that describe Windows 8 as “a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space.”

The release date for Windows Phone 8, said to be code-named “Apollo,” is likely to come in the fall, but some of the smartphone’s features have already surfaced online. On Wednesday, the software kit for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 leaked via Chinese website WPXAP, and revealed new camera improvements and 3D maps.

The SDK for the upcoming Windows Phone 8 was leaked on Thursday through the Chinese website WPXAP. Information contained in the document included details on improved apps for the phone's camera as well as 3D Nokia maps and expanded capabilities for third-party developers.

Google has added another feature to its versatile search engine, a scientific calculator. Less than a day after the calculator launched, Google’s IM service, Google Talk experienced an outage for over four hours.

Mac users have been able to play with Apple's new big cat, OS X Mountain Lion, for roughly 24 hours at this point. Though the initial reviews were overwhelmingly positive, we mentioned that it was still early in the day, and as Apple users had a chance to explore Mountain Lion, they would inevitably find some bugs and errors. And that's exactly what happened. Mac OS X Mountain Lion: Apple Users Report More Bugs, Errors, And Incompatibility Issues

Nintendo reported another loss Wednesday, saying its revenue has decreased nearly 10 percent year over year. But upcoming releases including the Wii U and the handheld 3DS XL could jump start the troubled company this fall.

Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB), the world's largest social networking platform, is expected to post a profit in its first quarter as a publicly traded company following revenue growth in the April-through-June period.