Do you mean Google? Awkward...

It's ridiculous. Both this action by Motorola (Google) and the patent system in the U.S. Do you really think it's good ban all sales of XBOX360 because there is (supposedly) some video playback algorithm used in XBOX360 that Motorola has patents for?

Microsoft's point is also perfectly good. Banning Xbox360 will do serious damage. If you want to play any current generation AAA games, then your choice is Sony's PS3. There is Wii, but it doesn't have the games. Google is evil. Ridiculous.

Other animals most definitely have personality too. I have a gecko family living on my balcony. They are all quite different, and actually remarkably wise too. You know the sound that gecko does (sounds like their name exactly, 'gecko'). It's used to call other geckos and their family members and friends.

I also have a mutual, good relationship with them. They can live in peace on my balcony and roam inside my apartment from the little space under the balcony door as they want, as long as they don't hang around here all the time. In turn, they take care of getting rid of any possible insects and flies. They seem to respect that quite well. Apart from the baby gecko who gets himself stuck somewhere and then calls his parents. Usually I just help him out and then he roams back to the balcony.

Quora also has a discussion about some of these -> http://www.quora.com/Microsoft-Research/What-products-have-come-out-of-Microsoft-Research

And these are exact, high-profile products that have come out of Microsoft Research. You have to remember that they work on many smaller things that will be then integrated into other Microsoft products, or do work 'just for science' (which is pretty amazing from Microsoft).

Actually, many Microsoft Research projects do make it into final products, but they're usually one part of them. Their job isn't to develop complete products but new or improved technology. Then teams at Microsoft's business areas take those when fit and integrate into their own projects, and those are the ones you see.

This is different to Google as many Google's "research" projects will be instantly turned into actual products, and then most of them shortly afterwards abandoned.