Microsoft officials supposedly have decided on the final name for Windows Blue. The final decision, one of my sources told me, is that it will be Windows 8.1.

The client version of Blue, codenamed Windows Blue, is a refresh of Windows 8. It is expected to be released to manufacturing around August of this year. As I've blogged a few times, Microsoft is planning to position Blue as part of the Windows 8 wave, not as Windows 9.

On Twitter this morning Roman L. (a k a @AngelWZR) posted a screen shot of what appears to be a build of Windows Blue that postdates the one that leaked a week ago. The week-ago Blue build was 9364; the new one is 9375. It is labeled in AngelWZR's screen shot as "Windows 8.1 Pro."

"Well maybe that's not an April Fools' joke," AngelWZR tweeted.

My Blue source said that the top-level branding will be "Windows 8" when Microsoft releases the 8.1 update -- similar to the way that Microsoft's Windows Phone officials talked about the "Mango" (Windows Phone 7.5) release as part of the Windows Phone 7 family.

Read More: Windows Blue poised to become Windows 8.1

Microsoft has acquired Netbreeze, an analytics company whose social-monitoring tools Microsoft plans to integrate with its CRM offerings.

Microsoft officials made the acquisition announcement on the opening day of the company's annual Convergence CRM/ERP conference in New Orleans. Microsoft executives declined to discuss the price or other particulars of the purchase.

The Softies also shed light on the next two updates to its Dynamics CRM offerings during the keynote presentation.

The first update, code-named "Gemini," will be an updated version of the MarketingPilot marketing-automation technology that Microsoft acquired last fall when it bought MarketingPilot. The new version, known as MarketingPilot 15, will feature a simplified user experience and robust business-intelligence functionality, allowing users to plan and track customer interactions across digital, social, and traditional marketing channels. A connector that will integrate MarketingPilot with Dynamics CRM will be available simultaneously.

The new version of MarketingPilot will be available to U.S. customers in March, with international availability coming later this year.

Read More: Microsoft buys analytics firm Netbreeze, readies CRM updates

Up until last year, it seemed to be an unwritten (or maybe written) policy that the Windows client team wouldn't pay developers to write apps for Windows 8.

But that edict seems to have been rescinded. Microsoft is now offering developers $100 for each Windows 8 and/or Windows Phone 8 app they write, up to a total of 10 apps per Store. This limited-time promotion -- which started March 8 and runs until June 30, 2013 -- is known as the "Keep the Cash" offer. (Participants must live within the 50 United States and be at least 18, according to the fine print.)

Microsoft has paid for the development of Windows Phone apps in the past. As The Verge's Tom Warren noted, not everyone thinks paying for app development is a sound idea.

I've spoken with some business app developers writing apps for Windows 8 who've said Microsoft didn't pay directly for them to write for the platform but did still indirectly fund app-development work.

Read More: Microsoft offers developers $100 per Windows 8 app

As Microsoft marches toward its early April 2013 end-of-free-support deadline for Windows 7, the company is planning to update automatically some of those who still have yet to install the first (and seemingly only) Service Pack for the operating system.

As announced yesterday on the Microsoft "Blogging Windows" blog, Microsoft plans to begin rolling out Windows 7 SP1 automatically, via Windows Update to Windows 7 users who still are running the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version without SP1 installed. This process will begin on March 19.

This automatic update will be applied only to Windows 7 consumer PCs that are not managed via other Microsoft management tools like System Center Configuration Manager or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), the post noted. Some admins have chosen to block temporarily their users from getting SP1 until they've tested it to their satisfaction. Those in that category won't be getting SP1 pushed to them starting tomorrow.

Windows 7 RTM, with no service pack installed, will no longer be supported as of April 9, according to a February 14 post on the Microsoft Springboard Series blog.

Read More: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 heads to users March 19

Microsoft has put an end date on its support for Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8.

The company's support page lists both operating systems, and says that Windows Phone 7.8 will be supported through September 9, 2014, while Windows Phone 8 will receive support through July 8, 2014.

The difference is based on Microsoft's life cycle start date and its decision to support platforms for 18 months. Microsoft pegs the Windows Phone 8 start date at December 14 and Windows Phone 7.8 at February 9.

Windows Phone 8 is the latest and most featured-packed version of Windows Phone. Windows Phone 7.8 was the option Microsoft offered to former Windows Phone 7 owners who didn't want to buy a new device. There's no clear upgrade path to Windows Phone 8 from Windows Phone 7, so Windows Phone 7.8 provides some, but not all, of the features in Microsoft's operating system.

Read More: Microsoft to end Windows Phone 7.8 and 8 support in 2014

Microsoft's first PC, the Surface Pro, has survived Round One.

A report this week said 400,000 Surface Pros were sold in about a month since its release. That's a decent start (contrary to the media's take).

Remember, this is an $899-$999 tablet (though I prefer to describe it as a full-blown Windows PC compacted and stuffed into a tablet's chassis), not a $199 Nexus 7 or $329 iPad Mini.

Also remember this is just the start. The Pro should evolve to the point where you can have a 1.5 or 2 pound tablet with all-day (at least) battery life -- and still get all of the performance of a mainstream Windows 8 laptop.

And that's the deal-closer for me. It's fast. Don't believe me? Check out these benchmarks.

"Surface Pro is easily the fastest tablet on the market today," Anandtech said.

The basic point being that Intel's Ivy Bridge silicon crushes Apple's A6X-based iPad and ARM-based Android tablets in most benchmarks.

And it's not just numbers -- you feel it. Everything pops and there's almost none of the lag you invariably run into with other tablets.

I know this because I've been using the Pro and its speed is addictive -- despite the comparative heft and shorter battery life compared with other tablets (though I wouldn't call 2 pounds "heavy" and battery life isn't as bad as reviewers make it out to be if you tweak Windows 8 settings).

Read More: Microsoft's first PC lives!

Samsung mobile chief J.K. Shin offered some less-than-stellar observations about Microsoft in an interview published last night.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Shin said his company sees "lackluster demand for Windows-based products in Europe." And elsewhere around the world, he said, Microsoft's software efforts in smartphones and tablets are not going so well either.

"Smartphones and tablets based on Microsoft's Windows operating system aren't selling very well," Shin told the Journal, ostensibly referring to both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. "There is a preference in the market for Android."

It's hard to argue with Shin's comments. According to research firm IDC, Android owned 70 percent of the smartphone market in the fourth quarter, easily topping Apple's 21 percent market share. Windows Phone could only muster 2.6 percent market share. The latter's market share, however, was up 150 percent compared to the same period in 2011.

Despite Samsung's concerns with Windows Phone and Windows itself, the company still seems committed to the platforms. Samsung offers products running Microsoft's operating systems and has not made any indication it will stop.

Shin's comments come just a day after Samsung unveiled its latest handset, the Galaxy S4. That handset is considered the company's best smartphone yet. It runs Android.

Read More: Samsung calls demand for Windows 'lackluster'

Microsoft is moving a lot of Surface Pros, considering the high price for the device.

Microsoft has sold 400,000 Surface Pros since launch, according to a Bloomberg report.

That's not a bad start for a very pricey tablet -- starting at $899 -- considering that the Windows 8-based Pro launched only about a month ago.

"That's a respectable number and it leads me to believe that Surface Pro will end up outselling Surface RT," Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at IDC, said in a phone interview.

O'Donnell is referring to the RT version of Surface, which is less expensive, starting at $499, but it is not compatible with older Windows software.

"It's something that we've predicated all along because of the compatibility that Surface Pro offers," he said.

In total, Microsoft has sold about 1.5 million Surface devices, including both Pro and RT, according to Bloomberg. Surface RT was announced more than three months ago.

While the RT version initially sold out, Microsoft was able to meet demand quickly. That hasn't been the case for the Pro. The high-end 128GB Pro has been chronically sold out since its release on February 9. Only in the last week to ten days has the high-end model become readily available.

Of course, the Pro's numbers pale in comparison with the iPad. Apple sold more than 20 million iPads in the quarter ending December.

But, like Surface RT, the 9.7-inch Retina iPad starts at $499, while the iPad Mini is even cheaper, starting at $329.

The Surface Pro essentially squeezes a mainstream laptop into a 2-pound, 0.5-inch thick tablet. Pro packs a 1,920x1,080 resolution 10.6-inch display, Intel Ivy Bridge processor, 4GB of memory, and a full-fledged solid-state drive (not the slower flash drives found in Apple and Android tablets).

Read More: Microsoft Surface Pro sales hit 400K in a hurry