Stories by Ian Paul

Netflix's newfound love affair with original content isn't disappearing any time soon: The company reportedly wants to double its original programming slate in 2014.

Windows 8 was rebuilt from the ground up with a finger-friendly focus. That proved to be a problem during the operating system's early days. In the months immediately after launch, touchscreen Windows devices cost an arm and a leg, and that's if you could even find one; during the 2012 holiday season shoppers were hard-pressed to find a touch-based laptop.

Microsoft's Windows Phone may be struggling to gain a foothold in the US, but the software giant and Nokia are starting to see results on a global scale: Windows Phone was the third-most popular mobile smartphone operating system worldwide between January and March.

Computers just aren't selling like they used to, and many critics, analysts, and longtime Windows users point the blame finger at one culprit in particular: Windows 8. Nobody's using Windows 8, they say. It's worse than New Coke, they say. PC shipments are cratering and it's all Windows 8's fault, they say.

More than a year ago, Microsoft invested $US300 million in Barnes & Noble's plan to spin-off its Nook business. At the time, the deal promised a few tablet-centric possibilities. Would Nook tablets dump Android in favor of Windows? Would the Nook catalog be part of an entertainment-centric device like the still-mythical Xbox Surface?

Ever since Microsoft introduced Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions in January, we've been wondering when Microsoft might give up on packaged versions of Office.

I'm all in with Microsoft. I've got Windows 8 running on my primary work machine, I subscribe to Office 365 Home Premium , and I use almost every online consumer service that the company offers.

Would you pay an extra $US50 for a pint-sized tablet if it ran Windows 8 instead of Android? Asus thinks you might.

A wide variety of games are already available for Android devices on Google Play, but several hints suggest the status quo may not be good enough for the search giant.

The great Hotmail migration is over. Microsoft recently announced that Hotmail as we've known it for yours is gone baby gone, and all its users have been transitioned to Outlook.com, which now boasts more than 400 million users worldwide.

It's been two years since Chromebooks running Google's Chrome OS appeared on store shelves. So far, Google's plan - to turn your Web browser into an operating system and websites into desktop-app replacements - does not appear to be catching on

In just a few weeks, Intel's one-chip-fits all family of core processors will finally meet Microsoft's one-design-fits all operating system, Windows 8. The chip maker recently announced it will unveil the first round of Haswell Core processors on June 3.

Nokia offers a wide array of Windows Phone 8 handsets to woo smartphone users, from the fully-loaded Lumia 920 flagship phone to the budget-friendly Lumia 620, and every one sports a colorful, elegant exterior. But for all its efforts, Nokia devices are struggling to gain a foothold in North America.

BlackBerry is mad as hell and it's not going to take it anymore. The smartphone maker came out swinging Friday, one day after several market analyst reports said the company's first BlackBerry 10 handset, the touch-centric Z10, is not selling well in the U.S. The Z10 arrived in the U.S. in late March.

Smartphone connoisseurs may be anticipating the upcoming release of the HTC One, but the rest of the world can't stop talking about another HTC phone due out Friday, the First.