Here's what happened in the Redmond campus in the last 7 days

May 25, 2013 15:01 GMT  ·  By

The Softies clearly deserve a rest this weekend, as it's been one of the most important weeks for Microsoft since the public debut of Windows 8.

The company officially debuted the new Xbox One this week, showing everyone that in addition to the operating system world, the company also cares about gaming and consoles.

Leaving this particular subject aside, Microsoft has continued its usual business by launching some new attacks at its rivals, inviting the Cupertino-based Apple to join the fun.

The company rolled out a Windows 8 ad that pokes fun at the iPad, suggesting that tablets powered by its new operating system are basically a lot more powerful. While this is only up to users to decide which one is better, it was the first moment in a long time when Microsoft publicly attacked Apple.

Google, on the other hand, isn't quite a stranger of Microsoft attacks, so it came as no surprise this week when a Softie stepped in front of the media to state that the Mountain View-based search giant is the kind of corporation that's not using deodorant.

At the same time, a Google security engineer was trying to work together with Microsoft staff to patch a security flaw in Windows 7 and Windows 8. The problem is that Microsoft is apparently very hostile with security researchers, so Google's employee decided to make the vulnerability public.

As far as Windows 8.1 is concerned, no other major reports emerged this week, but some sources familiar with the matter hinted that Microsoft may actually try to bring more Bing Metro apps in the future operating system. That pretty much makes sense, especially because some new Modern tools have already been spotted in the leaked build of Blue so far.

Either way, more info will be provided in just a few weeks, as the public preview of Blue is set to be unveiled on June 26 at BUILD.

Last but not least, Microsoft rolled out a new series of mice on Friday, all specifically optimized for Windows 8. Believe it or not, but they're all equipped with a Start button, obviously supposed to provide Windows 8 users with some new ways to interact with the operating system.