WinInsider

I get this feeling from Microsoft that they'd like to keep CEO Steve Ballmer locked in a box sometimes, because when you put this guy in front of a microphone, he just can't shut up. In a recent trip to London, he babbled about some upcoming Microsoft secrets around their upcoming Windows Cloud OS--which was to have originally been unveiled late this month at PDC. He spilled the beans on a new version of Office Live that will include Web versions of Office applications, another announcement planned for PDC. And he also said that his company's Zune software would soon end up on Windows Mobile devices, verifying a long-time rumor. Maybe it's time for one of those Hannibal Lector-style face masks. Or at least a 30 second delay.

Hewlett-Packard plans a foray into the booming consumer smart phone market with an iPaq touch screen powered by the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system.

Hewlett-Packard is the latest company planning to crack the consumer smart phone market pioneered by Apple's iPhone.

With an initial release in Europe by the end of the year, HP is reportedly combining its enterprise-centered iPaq line of devices with a touch screen and Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system.

According to the Wall Street Journal, mobile carriers will sell the device through retail outlets in a departure from HP's traditional marketing approach to iPaqs, which have been sold directly to enterprises. HP iPaq sales have lagged enterprise smart phone sales from Nokia and Research In Motion.

Microsoft's Cashback program, which offers people discounts on products purchased through the company's Live search engine, is attracting visitors, research firm Hitwise said Friday.

The Cashback program is attracting attention of visitors to Microsofts search sites, Hitwise reported.

"We see an interesting trend where the share of visits to the Cashback section of MSN Live is increasing," said research director Heather Dougherty on the company's blog. "Eleven weeks ago, MSN Cashback represented 3.75 percent of the traffic to Live.com and grew to 6.29 percent last week. This rise in Cashback's traffic underscores the interest in the program, which is likely to be getting a boost from shoppers looking to save money and stretch their budgets given the current economic climate.

Microsoft this week stopped supporting Deepfish, its mobile browser research project that was an example of the company's software-plus-services strategy.

The Deepfish browser displayed Web pages on Windows Mobile phones just like they look on a PC and then let users zoom in and out of parts of the page they were interested in examining closer. The browser worked in conjunction with Microsoft servers that delivered the Web pages to the phones.

Microsoft first announced that it was working on the project in 2007 but started developing the browser the previous year.

Microsoft on Friday said it is reviewing its hiring plans amid the economic uncertainty, but denied a report that it has instituted a companywide hiring freeze.

IDG News Service reported Friday that Microsoft had instituted a hiring freeze, citing a source who had seen a company memo. A source close to the company said that report is not correct, but said Microsoft did send out guidance this week that it plans to tighten up hiring amid signs of a weakening economy. The company still expects to add jobs overall, however.

Faced with the question of whether to build its European search technology center in France, Germany or the U.K., Microsoft's answer is "all three," CEO Steve Ballmer said during an event in Paris on Thursday.

Microsoft had been hinting since earlier this year that it would pick one of the three countries to build a research center to develop new search technologies. However, Ballmer said the company will conduct the research in London, Munich and on the outskirts of Paris so as to be closer to customers and to attract the best staff.

Ballmer was coy about how much the company will spend on the new search centers, saying only that it will recruit several hundred engineers to work in them.

Microsoft has indicated for some time that it sees a Zune future in the cell phone arena, but the company has been hard to pin down on just what its plans there are.

There would seem to be two main scenarios--the rumored ZunePhone, or just making Zune software for Windows Mobile or other phone operating systems. A magazine interview with CEO Steve Ballmer suggests that Microsoft at least plans the latter approach.

Asked why the Zune is important to Microsoft, Ballmer told the magazine that it was about more than just the the device itself.

The International Association of Managed Service Providers and Microsoft today said they are joining forces to better educate and certify companies using Microsoft IT management tools.

Charles Weaver, president of the MSPAlliance, described the relationship with Microsoft as a kind of "reciprocal recognition" -- for the MSPAlliance's Managed Services Accreditation exam and Microsoft's IT infrastructure certification.

"When a company takes our exam and specifies they have achieved Microsoft IT certification, they will receive credit for that, whereas today they do not," Weaver explained. "Conversely, Microsoft is promoting the Managed Services Accreditation exam to their partners worldwide" a big win for us."

Enterprises can now buy a networking appliance from Cisco Systems that runs basic Windows Server 2008 functions, a product designed for use in branch offices, Cisco and Microsoft announced Wednesday. The companies said in February that they were working on a way for enterprises to run Windows Server 2008 services locally at a branch office on Cisco's Wide Area Application Services networking appliance.

The alternative for many companies is either to use a full Windows Server at every branch, which could be overkill, or run all functionality centrally, which could result in slow performance for branch workers.

As a sign of how desperate Microsoft is to draw U.S. Internet users to its Live Search site and away from rival Google, the company is now offering frequent flyer miles to frequent searchers -- but only if they surf with Internet Explorer: Users of Firefox, Chrome or Safari are out of luck.

Frequent flyer miles with companies including American Airlines, Delta and US Airways are just some of the perks Microsoft is offering in a new reward program called SearchPerks. The company desperately needs to attract eyeballs to its search sites, as it is continuing to lose market share to Google.