In a surprise announcement, Microsoft has said that it is to buy LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash. The $196 per share deal is expect to close by the end of this calendar year having been unanimously approved by both companies' Boards of Directors.

Following the acquisition, LinkedIn will retain its current branding and Jeff Weiner will remain on as CEO, reporting to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. LinkedIn will become part of Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes segment.

Following prolonged talks with the Bangladesh government, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have all agreed to do more to remove 'inappropriate content' from the internet. State Minister for Telecoms, Tarana Halim, said: "After intense discussion with Facebook, Google and Microsoft, it has been agreed that they will respond to requests within 48 hours".

Agreeing to the Bangladesh government's demands comes just weeks after major tech companies agreed to a new code of conduct to combat online hate speech. In this instance, however, it has not been made entirely clear what constitutes inappropriate content, and the announcement will raise questions about the tech trio bowing to governmental demands.

While E3 2016 doesn't officially begin until June 14th, gaming news is starting to come fast and furiously. For example, the new Xbox One S console has leaked prematurely; I am sure Microsoft is not happy about this.

Electronic Arts and Respawn on the other hand, have chosen to intentionally release information early regarding one of its fan-favorite franchises. Titanfall 2, the sequel to the wildly popular shooter, will be coming to Xbox One and PC this year. The title will also come to PlayStation 4; this is significant, as the original did not come to Sony's console. Curious of the release date? Read on for more info!

Rumors have been circulating for some time about the arrival of a new Xbox One console, and now an image of the new model has leaked out. Known as the Xbox One S, the updated console is not just slimmer than the current Xbox One, but also boasts additional features.

Widely expected to be announced at the E3 expo which kicks off on Tuesday, Microsoft describes the Xbox One S as 'sleeker, slimmer, sharper'. At the moment no details of pricing or launch date are known, but the leak does gives up interesting titbits.

An eagle-eyed Reddit user has noticed that code run through Visual Studio 2015 C++ compiler make calls to Microsoft's telemetry services. Microsoft has already upset a large number of people with the privacy and telemetry issues in Windows 10, and there is now a busy thread on Reddit discussing the company's thinking behind including this 'feature'.

Coders have expressed concerns that Microsoft appears to be inserting calls to its telemetry service into binaries as they are compiled. Calls to telemetry_main_invoke_trigger and telemetry_main_return_trigger raised a few eyebrows having been found in both debug and release versions of the software. The good news -- maybe -- is that telemetry can be disabled.

It’s been a couple of weeks since we last had a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build released to the Fast ring, but today the wait is over as new Windows Insider chief Dona Sarkar has pushed the button to roll out Build 14361 for both PC and Mobile.

This new release includes new features, some improvements to existing features, and plenty of fixes. The release date for the big Windows 10 Anniversary Update is edging ever nearer, so the quest is on to fix as many problems as possible before then.

Microsoft is preparing to increase its commitment to the open-source Apache Spark big-data processing engine this week at the Spark Summit in San Francisco.

At the summit, officials from Microsoft will be offering further insight into its support for Spark with the company’s HDInsight, Cortana Intelligence Suite, Power BI and Microsoft R Server.

To help its users stay on task and manage their assignments more easily, Microsoft has just launched a new project management tool for teams using Office 365 called Planner.

The company initially released a preview of its new tool in December 2015 and now it will begin rolling it out worldwide to all Office 365 users including those using Office 365 Enterprise E1-E5, Business Essentials, Premium and even its Education subscription plan.

The first Surface tablets struggled to find an audience -- to put it politely -- but with Surface Pro 3 (and then Surface Pro 4) Microsoft finally got things right.

The company wants its range of slates to be a viable alternative to iPads for businesses and so has quietly introduced a membership plan that will allow firms to get the latest Surface devices, upgrade when available, and pay for things monthly.

To keep enterprise users happy, Windows 10 includes both Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer may be included for legacy support, but just like non-enterprise customers, Microsoft is keen to get everyone shifted across to Edge or at least ensure the two browsers work well together.

To help encourage this migration, Windows 10 Anniversary Update brings support for a number of new management policies in Microsoft's newest browser. There's a clear need to continue to support legacy line of business (LOB) applications, but Microsoft also wants to make management as easy as possible.

The world is becoming increasingly mobile first and businesses need to ensure that their data is protected however it’s accessed.

Mobile security specialist Lookout has announced that it's partnering with Microsoft to deliver integration of its Lookout Mobile Threat Protection with Microsoft's Enterprise Mobility Suite.

Windows 10 is a great operating system from a usability standpoint. Unfortunately, between the privacy issues and Microsoft's unethical upgrade tactics, more and more folks are turned off to it. Luckily, thanks to Linux, users don't have to tolerate the company's shady behavior.

If you want to switch to Linux, please know that while Ubuntu is a great operating system, it is not the only OS based on that kernel. Quite frankly, there are too many distributions, but I digress. Another fairly easy-to-use Linux-based operating system is Manjaro. For many folks leaving Windows, the default UI should be an inviting sight. Today, version 16.06 code-named "Daniella" becomes available for download. Will you format your Windows drive and join the Linux community?

Microsoft has announced the general availability of its SQL Server 2016 product, after releasing a preview build late last year. The offering comes with a couple of novelties, including the updateable in-memory column stores and advanced analytics through deep integration with R Services.

SQL Server 2016 also offers advanced analytics and machine learning models in the database, which Microsoft says will have a hundred-fold speed-up in time to insight, compared to similar deployments outside the database.

Microsoft won’t be building its own autonomous vehicle, but it will be present in the market, it was confirmed at a conference recently.

Speaking at the Converge Asia conference, Microsoft’s head of business development, Peggy Johnson, made these claims. Instead of building its own car, the company will team up with existing car makers and see to it that the devices get powered by Microsoft’s products.

If you’re unhappy with the way Microsoft is forcing Windows 10 onto people who really don’t want it (including plenty of people who don’t even know what it is), then you’re not alone.

A new Change.org petition is seeking supporters in order to have the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) investigate Microsoft for "malicious practices regarding Windows 10".