Microsoft has officially sold 10.4 million Xbox360 consoles to retail stores, which is over 400,000 consoles more than they expected to sell. Microsoft is expected to announce this tomorrow night, along with their plans for "IPTV", or Internet Protocol TeleVision. Whether or not Microsoft plans on becoming a provider of IPTV, only time will tell. However, the plans for IPTV coincide very nicely with the new Xbox 360 "Zephyr", which has a 120GB hard drive for storing all that television, and an HDMI port for acting like a set top box.

Microsoft has sponsored a study into its latest operating system and the new Aero theme, which has come to the conclusion that it doesn't slow PCs. Apparently the new interface "had little or no negative impact on Vista's performance". Matt Ayers, a program manager at Microsoft, wrote "We put quite a bit of effort into making sure that the new visuals were as efficient as possible, and it really paid off," continuing "You can run Aero without guilt!" Many people have criticised the resource-hungry Windows Vista which has put some gamers off using it, and this report may make people sceptical as to why Microsoft recommends a noticeably more powerful system when running the Aero interface. Although the report comes to this conclusion, it does not appear to contain any benchmarks related to gaming or 3D applications.

Microsoft has recently been competing with search giants such as Google for advertising money. And so, like what Google does in Gmail accounts, Microsoft is adding 'behavioral targeting', or personalized ads, to it's advertising campaign. What that means is that Microsoft will report their users' search habits, sorted by demographics, to advertisers. The advertisers can then use this data to create advertisements based on what the demographics search for. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo also use personalized advertising.

In order to equal its rivals, Microsoft has decided to extend the warranty on the Xbox 360 from a mere 90 days to a more satisfactory one year, the general standard for most electrical appliances nowadays. The company has also decided to refund the cost of any repairs done in the last twelve months, which should be done automatically over the next ten weeks.

On November 15th, we reported that the Microsoft Zune music player was not Vista-ready. Microsoft has patched the Zune installer so that it will not only allow installs on Windows Vista, but add a performance increase for people who do so. Microsoft also patched various security issues in the installer they refused to elaborate on. You can download the updated software here.

New firmware for Microsoft's Zune player has been released. Apparently, it does not add any new features, but it has improved stability and performance. For devices being upgraded from Zune firmware version 1.0, this update includes the enhancements provided in Zune firmware version 1.1. Click here if you don't know how to update your Zune firmware.

According to a number of bloggers, the boss of Microsoft himself, Bill Gates, has said that DRM (Digital Rights Management) "Is not where it should be." Microsoft itself uses DRM to protect music, with it being used by online services such as Napster and the Zune Store. His recommendation is to "buy a CD and rip it", which will allow users more freedom in moving their music between computers and MP3 players. Gates is reported to have said this to a group of invited bloggers at Microsoft's headquarters in Seattle.

Microsoft Website gets a faceliftIf you take a look at www.microsoft.com you will notice that the site now has a new layout, giving it a more modern and fresh look (old shown on the left, new on the right). Pages based on a similar template have been appearing for newer software such as Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Vista for some time now, but Microsoft have only now transferred it to their main page. They seem to be aiming for a simpler design to make navigation easier for the average user. If you want to read the frequently asked questions about the new site take a look here.

Super-analysts at Gartner have something to say about Microsoft and its Windows software. For those of you unfamiliar with the company, Gartner is the largest IT industry analyst firm in the world, and it got there for a reason - it's pretty good at its guesses.

Gartner estimates that Windows Vista will be the last Windows as we know it. The company predicts that it is too difficult and expensive to keep pushing box sales for new versions.

Perhaps a modular architecture, where you download updated versions of modules that piece together the OS, is on its way?

Earlier this week, one Hotmail user logged into their account to find that all of their emails had been removed by hackers, with the only email remaining demanding money in return for the deleted emails. According to Websense, this is a variant of "ransomware" which holds your files using methods such as encryption and demands money in return for the password. The cause of this is believed to be a computer in a Spanish Internet Cafe which was infected with spyware, therefore Hotmail users needn't worry too much at present. Hopefully MSN should be able to restore the missing emails and this should be an isolated incident, although it could be a sign of the future.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq "MSFT") and HP (NYSE "HPQ," Nasdaq "HPQ") today announced a three-year agreement to deliver an expanded portfolio of solutions for enterprise customers around the world. HP is the first premier global partner to deliver comprehensive solutions for the People-Ready Business, Microsoft's vision for how people, armed with the right software, are the key to driving business success.

Yesterday, Microsoft patched seven problems with Windows XP SP2. The three updates that were marked "critical"-

• An update to Windows Internet Explorer 7
• Windows Media Player patch
• Visual Studio 2005 fix

The last four updates marked "important" fix flaws in Outlook Express, the SNMP network management protocol, fix privelage problems, and patch a problem with remote installation services. You can read a full rundown of December's Patch Tuesday here.A recent flaw discovered in Microsoft Word remains unpatched.

Microsoft is looking to dominate the future of technology when it unveils its first commercially available operating system for robots. Yes, you did read that correctly. Named "Microsoft Robotics Studio", this Windows-based platform intends to let people program their robots in a simple way. If you're thinking "will this work with my robot?" then you may be glad to hear it works with such hardware as iRobot's Roomba or Lego Mindstorm's NXT Tribot. It will be free for non-commercial use, but if businesses want to take advantage of it they will have to pay $399 for a license. So when someone learns how to hack your robot you could soon see it running out of the house with your wallet.

Back in August, we reported that Microsoft would let amateur game programmers have a go at making games for the Xbox360. Based on Visual C# 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft .NET framework, XNA Game Studio Express allows anyone running a computer with Windows XP to make Xbox360 games. Of course, for the games to actually run, the author has to be a member of the XNA Creators Club, which costs $99 a year through Xbox Live. Members of the XNA Creators Club get the ability to publish games on Xbox Live, forum support, and various assets. You can download Game Studio Express and the framework required from MSDN.

Microsoft has had a goal since the beginning of 2006 to sell 10 million consoles. A spokesperson for Microsoft said in a press release "This holiday, we expect to have sold in excess of 10 million units worldwide." By "sold", Microsoft refers to the amount of Xbox360s that it has shipped to retailers and OEMs. It should not be very difficult for Microsoft to achieve it's goal. They are already reporting that sales for Xbox360 are way higher then the Xbox's sales, and can sell about one million consoles a month.

Microsoft sued Belkin in August for illegitimately using "U2 technology", which allows keyboard and mice to detect what type of connection is needed. Today, Microsoft is "pleased to announce" that they have reached a settlement. As part of the settlement, Belkin will take a license for U2 technology. Microsoft has been trying to get Belkin as a licensee for over 2 years.