The Internet Explorer folks have teamed up with Fox Studios to create an interactive "training center" tied to the upcoming film "Prometheus."

"Prometheus," which hits theaters June 8, is set in the "Alien" universe and is directed by "Alien" director Ridley Scott. It centers on the crew of the spaceship Prometheus and clues to to humankind's beginnings.

The Internet Explorer team has created what it calls the Project Prometheus Training Center, "giving fans the chance to demonstrate they are capable of being a crew member on the Prometheus ship," according to the official Exploring IE blog.

The training center, designed entirely in HTML5, includes physical and cognitive assessment tests and the site will feature the tests' top performers each day.

The site can be accessed using any modern browser, though IE (of course) recommends IE 9.

You can access the site here.

A promo for "Prometheus," by the way, featuring actor Michael Fassbender as the robot David, is one of the most wonderfully creepy trailers I've seen this year. Have a look:

(Photo of Project Prometheus Training Center from Microsoft. Video of "Prometheus" promo from YouTube user Prometheus6812.)

Your living room television is becoming one of the most important sites in the next big consumer platform battle -- a battle that Microsoft is winning, according to research firm Forrester.

James McQuivey, a Forrester analyst, writes in his blog:

The TV battle is important for reasons you already know: TV consumes more time than anything else and it generates annual revenues from $140 to $160 billion each year in the US alone.

But the stakes of the battle have risen sharply. The fight over the TV is really a fight over the next massive consumer platform that is coming up for grabs.

Microsoft has more than 70 million Xbox consoles in households worldwide and its Xbox 360 is the most-watched Internet-connected TV device in the U.S., McQuivey notes, adding that, with so many consoles in households, "Microsoft can rapidly drive new video services into tens of millions of households."

He found that, currently, 32 million U.S. households watch online video on a TV set, up from 25 million last year -- many of them via a game console, especially the Xbox 360. More people use a game console to watch online video than use a set-top box that connects the TV to the Internet such Roku or Apple TV, he said.

McQuivey's full report can be found here (fee required).

The worldwide market share of Windows Phone, which has struggled to gain traction, fell in the first quarter this year, putting it behind Samsung's Bada operating system, which runs phones sold in international and emerging markets.

That's according to research firm Gartner, which says the share of smartphones running Microsoft's operating systems -- including Windows Phone and the outdated Windows Mobile -- fell from 2.6 percent in the first quarter of 2011 to 1.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

That puts Microsoft's smartphones in sixth place behind market leaders Android with 56.1 percent and Apple's iOS with 22.9 percent.

Here's Gartner's chart:

Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users declined 2 percent from a year ago to 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012. But sales of smartphones grew 44.7 percent to 144.4 million units.

Among vendors, Nokia, which has a partnership with Microsoft in which the Finnish phonemaker uses primarily Windows Phone on its smartphones, saw its share of the smartphone market drop to 9.2 percent. (Its mobile handset sales decreased 22.7 percent from a year ago.)

Samsung was the No. 1 mobile handset and smartphone vendor, with 86.6 million units of mobile handsets sold and 38 million smartphones sold. Samsung's Android-based smartphones represented more than 40 percent of all Android-based smartphones sold worldwide, according to Gartner.

Here's Gartner's chart on sales by vendor:

The full report (fee required) is available at Gartner's website.

Some of the nation's highest profile CEOs are gathering in Redmond this week for Microsoft's annual CEO Summit, where they will talk about emerging trends shaping global business.

More than 130 CEOs and business leaders are attending this year's summit, which runs Tuesday through Thursday and is closed to the news media. Among them are Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway, Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post Media Group, Alan Mulally of Ford Motor, Jeff Immelt of General Electric and Mike Duke of Wal-Mart Stores.

This is the 16th year for the summit, which began in 1997 when Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recognized a need for business leaders to gather, share experiences and learn about new technologies, according to the company.

Among the topics on this year's agenda are moving beyond the age of personal computers and into the world of personal computing, building brands in the 21st century, and the changes taking place in China.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is scheduled to speak Wednesday at the summit. According to the company, here's what he'll be speaking about: "Periodically, a company will break through with a new product or service and captivate the hearts of the masses. Breaking through repeatedly requires focus coupled with discipline, passion and tenacity. Steve will explore these principles and discuss Microsoft's journey pursuing a new phase of growth."

(This post has been updated to include the names Microsoft uses to refer to the columns in the new Bing search results page.)

The dramatic overhaul of Bing, in which results from a user's Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks are featured in a column on the search results page, is expected to go live shortly after 3 p.m. today for U.S. users to try out at www.bing.com/new.

Microsoft announced last week that the new Bing search results page will be divided into three columns.

The column on the left displays standard search results.

The middle column -- which Microsoft refers to as "snapshot" -- displays tasks or possible actions associated with the search (for instance, pulling up a map and reviews of a restaurant or the option to make a restaurant reservation if you searched for local restaurants).

The column on the right -- which Microsoft is dubbing the "sidebar" -- shows actions your friends have taken related to the topic you queried: liking a particular restaurant, for instance, or offering an opinion on best restaurants in the city. And users can post questions and friends can respond from either Facebook or Bing. The sidebar will also list experts and enthusiasts in areas related to the search topic.

Here is a video from Microsoft about the new Bing:

Check out this Associated Press interactive on Yahoo's history, including its partnership with Microsoft.

Customer satisfaction with Microsoft software fell this year amid an overall dip in satisfaction with computer software, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which released its annual survey today.

Microsoft's customer satisfaction score dropped 3.8 percent from a high last year of 78 (out of a possible 100) to 75 this year.

"The lessening of customer satisfaction may prove challenging for Microsoft as sales of its Windows software stall amid a shrinking PC environment and a growing mobile computing market," the ACSI said.

Overall, customers continue to be more satisfied with computer software compared to other information industries, according to the study, but it too dipped in the customer satisfaction score -- down 1.3 percent from 78 last year to 77 this year.

The ACSI, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., surveys thousands of customers annually to measure customer satisfaction. Its May report covered eight industries: cell phones, computer software, fixed-line and wireless telephone service, motion pictures, newspapers, subscription TV service, and TV news.

Customer satisfaction with the cell phone industry dipped 1.3 percent to 74, and satisfaction with wireless services dropped 1.4 percent to 70.

Among cell phone manufacturers, Apple's iPhone scored 83 in the survey; Nokia, HTC and LG Electronics scored 75; Samsung scored 71 and RIM brought up the rear at 69.

Viewer satisfaction with network and cable TV news programs dropped 3.9 percent to 74. The newspaper industry fared worst, with a 1.5 percent drop in score to 64 this year.

You can read more about the survey here.

A federal judge in Seattle who last month temporarily prohibited Motorola from enforcing any injunction against the sales of Microsoft products in Germany has converted that temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction.

Judge James Robart of the U.S. District Court in Western Washington wrote in today's order granting Microsoft's request for a preliminary injunction that:

Based on the evidence before it, the court finds that Microsoft has shown that a German injunction enjoining the sale of Microsoft Software and the Microsoft Xbox in the country of Germany will result [in] irreparable harm. Microsoft has provided this court with convincing evidence that it will lose market share, which will be difficult to regain, and suffer harm to its business reputation.

Judge Robart also wrote that "Motorola faces little injury by an anti-suit injunction. By issuance of an anti-suit injunction, this court is in no way stating that Motorola will not at some later date receive injunctive relief, but only that it must wait until this court has had the opportunity to adjudicate that issue."

While this decision has little immediate practical effect to speak of -- Microsoft currently can sell and will be able to continue selling Xbox and Windows in Germany -- it does mean the prohibition against Motorola remains intact until the U.S. District Court here makes a decision on the case. (That's because the TRO is supposed to be a short-term solution, after which it is dissolved or turned into a preliminary injunction.)

Two related court cases -- one in the U.S. District Court here and one in Mannheim, Germany -- are at issue in this patent battle between the two companies.

Judge Robart's decision today stems from a case Microsoft filed in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in November 2010. That lawsuit claims Motorola breached its contract to provide, at reasonable rates, use of its patented technologies that have become standard in online video viewing and wireless usage.

Motorola's case in Germany, filed there in July 2011, claims Microsoft violates some of Motorola's patents involving those same technologies. That court decided earlier this month that Microsoft does indeed infringe on those Motorola patents and issued an injunction. But because of the Seattle judge's ruling, Motorola is unable to enforce that injunction.