By Bill Rigby and Vidya L Nathan

(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp’s new Surface device signals the software company’s hunger to join the three-way battle for the tablet market with Apple Inc and Google Inc, even if its longstanding hardware partners are not quite ready.

The company’s unprecedented move into PC design was a slap for traditional PC makers – which have fallen behind Apple in creating attractive machines that blend smoothly with software – but may primarily be a wake-up call for its partners rather than a long-term attempt to compete.

By Bill Rigby and Vidya L Nathan

(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp’s new Surface tablet looks promising, but many questions need to be answered before it can be considered a rival to Apple Inc’s iPad, analysts said the day after the company made its first foray into the computer hardware business.

The shares of the world’s largest software company jumped almost 3 percent as Wall Street and investors welcomed Microsoft’s move. But analysts had questions about the lack of enthusiasm among developers for creating applications that run on the new Windows 8 operating system and the absence of hard details on pricing and availability.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – As Microsoft Corp prepares to show the world what its new Windows 8 can do on the next generation of high-powered tablets, initial reviews of the new operating system on existing hardware underscore the challenges the company faces with the radical redesign of its flagship product.

The world’s largest software company says millions of people are already using a downloaded pre-release version of Windows 8 on PCs, laptops and touch-devices ahead of its full introduction this autumn. At a media event in Los Angeles on Monday, the company is expected to discuss its plans to take on Apple Inc’s all-conquering iPad this holiday shopping season.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Shares of Zynga Inc fell more than 9 percent on Tuesday, to their lowest level since going public last December, on increased concerns that the craze for games on Facebook has already passed its peak.

The San Francisco-based producer of games such as “Farmville” and “Hidden Chronicles,” which are played by millions of Facebook users, is suffering as gamers switch to their mobile phones for entertainment.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The young interns, some of the nation’s best and brightest in technology, business and design, had plenty of enthusiastic words to describe their summer employer.

Fun. Cool. Special. A giant start-up. Revolutionizing the world. Facebook, perhaps? Or Twitter? Or Google?

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The young interns, some of the nation’s best and brightest in technology, business and design, had plenty of enthusiastic words to describe their summer employer.

Fun. Cool. Special. A giant start-up. Revolutionizing the world. Facebook, perhaps? Or Twitter? Or Google?

, June 6 (Reuters) -
T wo influential Federal Reserve officials say they are prepared
to take even more policy action to boost the erratic U.S.
economic recovery, but neither want to pull the trigger now.

Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart and John Williams, of
the San Francisco Fed bank, pointed on Wednesday to Europe’s
brewing crisis as a main threat to the United States, where weak
jobs growth has compounded expectations that the central bank
will act.

BELLEVUE, Wash (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve must stand ready to take even more policy action to boost the ailing job market, the head of the San Francisco Fed said on Wednesday, but he stopped short of calling for monetary easing now.

John Williams, president of the Fed’s regional San Francisco bank and a voter on policy this year, lowered his GDP growth forecast and warned that Europe’s debt crisis and tighter fiscal policies in the United States are “wild cards” for the domestic economy.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp appears to be on track to release its new Windows 8 operating system in time for the crucial U.S. holiday shopping season after making a “release preview” of the new code available for download on Thursday.

Windows 8 is the latest version of the flagship product, which still provides almost half of the world’s largest software company’s profit. It is the first version that will run on tablet computers as well as PCs, providing Microsoft’s first real challenge to Apple Inc’s iPad.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The lawyer representing Robert Bales, the U.S. Army staff sergeant accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers, is objecting to a routine background check required by the military.

Seattle-based attorney John Henry Browne, a self-described ex-hippie who has been married seven times and used to play bass in a rock band, said he has no secrets to hide but is opposed to the check on principle.