Bill Gates Senior: Bill Junior Was a Brat

Experts offer healthy dose of skepticism

(NEWSER) - After Facebook's IPO filing on Wednesday, analysts are abuzz over a suggested $75 billion to $100 billion valuation. If the social network is to live up to the hype, it'll have to be "the next Google—or better," experts tell MSNBC . Opinions from around the web:

• Sure, 845 million active monthly users and $3 billion in yearly revenue is nothing to sniff at. But a $75 billion valuation would make Facebook worth 40% of Google, whose profits are 11 times the social network's—whose growth may already be slowing, MSNBC notes.

New set of standards could make email more trustworthy

(NEWSER) - A new anti-phishing effort, backed by the big email service providers as well as banks, PayPal, social networks, and other companies, could dramatically reduce the number of scam emails you get in your inbox. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL are backing the new plan; 15 companies in total have come together to create DMARC.org, which officially launches today and will promote standard technologies to authenticate email. The hoped-for end result? If you get an email that claims to be from paypal.com, you could trust that it is actually from paypal.com. If it works, companies would be able to communicate with customers in new ways, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Bill Gates offered to pay for Arfa Karim's medical care

(NEWSER) - A computer prodigy known as "Pakistan's girl wonder" has died at the age of 16 from complications caused by an epileptic stroke. Arfa Karim was just nine years old when she became the youngest person ever awarded the "Microsoft Certified Professional" title for mastering the company's programs, the Daily Mail reports. She was invited to visit Microsoft's US headquarters, and met execs including Bill Gates. More»

It's got some 'just plain great' products, writes Farhad Manjoo

(NEWSER) - Believe it or not, 2012 could be the year of Microsoft. No, really. "I'll say it: I'm bullish on Microsoft in 2012," writes Farhad Manjoo of Slate . "For the first time in forever, Microsoft has a couple major products that are not merely good enough. They're just plain great." He thinks Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 are showstoppers. The former happens to power the sexiest phone at CES, Nokia's Lumia 900, and the latter has a touch-friendly, tablet-ready interface. More»

Microsoft revamping service

(NEWSER) - The latest competition aiming to replace your cable box: Xbox Live. Microsoft is ramping up its online entertainment service starting tomorrow, allowing subscribers to watch a variety of television from their Xbox 360. In addition, rather than the tedious process of using a remote control to search for shows listed on a cable box program guide, Xbox Live users will be able to search with voice commands and hand gestures, if they also have a Kinect. Tomorrow, services that are already available to subscribers—including Netflix and Hulu Plus—will be available via the new retrieval system. More»