Building on its slow-but-steady growth over the past few months, Bing saw slight gains again in January in its U.S. search engine share, while Yahoo continued to slide, according to comScore's latest figures.

In December 2011, Microsoft sites -- primarily Bing -- surpassed Yahoo in their share of U.S. searches for the first time, with 15.1 percent versus Yahoo's 14.5 percent.

In January 2012, according to comScore, Microsoft sites had 15.2 percent of U.S. searches, while Yahoo went down to 14.1 percent.

Google went up too in January -- from 65.9 percent in December to 66.2 percent in January.

Here's comScore's chart:

Microsoft announced the U.S. launch today of the MSN for iPad app, available in the iTunes store.

The app offers MSN content in an interactive online magazine format. In addition, there's an offline mode to allow readers to access content even without Internet connection, and a "Lasso" feature that lets users circle a word or phrase with a finger and launch a search for that word or phrase via Bing.

The app, available in the U.S. today, has already been available for users in Canada, Germany, France and the UK.

Windows President Steven Sinofsky offers some long-awaited details on Windows 8 on ARM via a new post on the Building Windows 8 blog.

Among the highlights, as detailed by Sinofsky:

• Windows on Arm (WOA) "has a very high degree of commonality and very significant shared code with Windows 8."
• "Using WOA 'out of the box' will feel just like using Windows 8 on x/86/64. ... You will have access to the intrinsic capabilities of Windows, from the new Start screen and Metro style apps and Internet Explorer, to peripherals, and if you wish, the Windows desktop with tools like Windows File Explorer and desktop Internet Explorer."
• WOA PCs are still under development. The goal is for PC makers to ship them the same time as PCs designed for Windows 8 on x86/64.
• Metro style apps in the Windows Store can support both WOA and Windows 8 on x86/64.
• WOA includes desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (codenamed "Office 15") and supports the Windows desktop experience including File Explorer, and Internet Explorer 10 for the desktop.

The complete blog post is here.

[Update 1:52 p.m.: Al Hilwa, an analyst with research firm IDC, offers his take on Sinofsky's post. Among the things that stood out for Hilwa, he said in an email, was this:

Windows 8 on ARM will not run old apps even if they are recompiled. Microsoft will control both Metro-style and Desktop apps for WOA through its app store and will require developers to rewrite existing apps to the new APIs for the desktop as well. This means there may well evolve a side-loading under-world similar to what we see on the iPad. It is not clear what exceptions Microsoft will make for businesses on this or how hard it will push WOA for businesses at all.]

Amid what appears to be interminable rounds of patent feuding, Microsoft, Apple and Google each produced statements or letters on where they stand regarding patents.

Microsoft issued a statement today saying it "will always adhere to the promises it has made to standards organizations to make its standard essential patents available on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms."

Microsoft said that means it would not seek an injunction against any firm on the basis of those "essential patents," and that the company's approach to such patents is to license them to other firms without requiring cross-licensing ("except for any patents they have that are essential to the same industry standard").

"Our approach is shared by Apple, Cisco and many others in the industry," Microsoft VP and Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner wrote in a blog post.

Heiner also outlines what "standards essential patents" are: That as technology evolves, new standards are developed (for instance, those technologies used in cellphones or computers) that often involve patented inventions.

Heiner says:

Firms benefit from having their ideas included in new standards, and in exchange for this, firms usually make a promise: that if they have any patents they have that are "essential" to implementing a standard, they will make these patents available to all. In particular, these firms typically promise that they will make these "standard essential patents" available to any firm that wishes to implement the standard on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms.

Microsoft's policy, though, doesn't prevent the company from suing to get compensation for the use of its essential patent or from taking action against firms that Microsoft believes infringe on its non-industry-standard patentsa Bloomberg article points out.

The Wall Street Journal reports, meanwhile, that Apple had sent a letter to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to set basic rules governing how companies license their essential patents.

And Google has sent a letter to another regulating body -- the IEEE -- "intended to assure you and any potential licensees that, following Google's acquisition of MMI {Motorola Mobility), Google will honor MMI's existing commitments to license the acquired MMI Essential Patent Claims on RAND terms." (The term RAND is used interchangeably with FRAND. They are acronyms for "reasonable and non-discriminatory" and "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory.")

Google's letter is posted on the Foss Patents blog written by intellectual-property consultant Florian Mueller. Mueller, who has been commissioned by Microsoft to conduct a study on the worldwide use of FRAND-committed patents, also includes his analyses of the various companies' patent statements and letters on his blog.

The statements and letters don't appear to change anything, though, in the ongoing patent disputes between the various tech companies.

Laura Ipsen, formerly a senior vice president at Cisco, is joining Microsoft as corporate vice president of its Worldwide Public Sector organization.

As such, she will head Microsoft's sales and marketing to government, public safety and national security, education and non-privatized healthcare in more than 100 countries, according to a Microsoft news release.

At Cisco, Ipsen was most recently senior vice president and general manager of Connected Energy Networks, leading the company's Smart Grid Business unit, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She also established and managed Cisco's Global Policy and Government Affairs division, according to Microsoft's news release.

Ipsen will report to Susan Hauser, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Enterprise & Partner Group.

(Photo of Laura Ipsen from Microsoft)

Microsoft has sent out invitations for a Windows 8 Consumer Preview event to be held on February 29th in Barcelona, Spain.

"Windows 8 Consumer Preview" is the name Microsoft is giving to the beta version of its new flagship operating system, which the company had already said would be released at the end of this month.

The event is being held at the Hotel MIramar in Barcelona at 3 p.m. Feb. 29.

It coincides with Mobile World Congress, which takes place Feb. 27 to March 1 in Barcelona, but is a separate event from MWC.

Microsoft employees, aided by the company's match program, raised a record $100.5 million for more than 18,000 community organizations last year.

That topped 2010's $96 million -- the previous record.

Giving was up across the board in 2011, with more employees donating time and money than ever, according to a Microsoft News Center article. Employees donated 426,671 hours to community organizations worldwide last year.

Year-round, Microsoft matches its U.S. employees' donations up to $12,000 a year and/or their volunteer time at $17 per hour up to $12,000 each year.

During last year's Giving Campaign -- the company's annual, concentrated monthlong fundraising effort that takes place each October -- more than 64 percent of employees gave either time or money. Including the company match, employees raised $55 million in October 2011's Giving Campaign.

[Update 11 a.m.: In a note sent out to employees, the company said these organizations organizations received the most Microsoft employee donations in Washington state:

1) United Way of King County
2) World Vision International
3) Seattle Children's Hospital Foundation
4) Hopelink
5) Northwest Harvest
6) Asha for Education
7) KUOW
8) Humane Society for Seattle-King County
9) Overlake School
10) Seattle's Union Gospel Mission]

Some two months after OneNote was made available for the iPad, and about a year after its availability for the iPhone, Microsoft announced today that OneNote is now ready for download from the Android marketplace.

OneNote Mobile allows users to create notes and keep them synced with a PC or other devices through Microsoft's free SkyDrive personal cloud storage. (In addition to iOS and Android, OneNote Mobile is also on Windows Phone.)

OneNote Mobile for Android is free to download and use for up to 500 notes, according to Microsoft's official OneNote Blog. Those exceed the limit can upgrade for a one-time $4.99 fee for unlimited use.