Microsoft has designs on your living room. The software giant's new game console — Xbox One — uses speech-recognition technology and physical commands. Not just to control games, but also your TV, Skype and recorded video. Microsoft demonstrated the new device Tuesday.

Microsoft has had few blockbuster successes in recent years. On Tuesday, when the tech giant is scheduled to introduce its new Xbox, it will be targeting more than just hard-core gamers. Analysts say Microsoft will also be aiming to make its console the center of entertainment in your living room.

On Wednesday the company launched All Access, a paid subscription service that will put it in direct competition with Spotify and Pandora.

Consumers already have an abundance of choice when it comes to entertainment and news subscriptions. But analysts say it's still early days for all the digital subscription offerings we'll have to pay for.

Audie Cornish talks to Laura Sydell about the tech week ahead. They cover YouTube's new subscription service.

Only about 20 percent of all computer programmers are women, but one pioneering CEO is trying to change that. Blazing Cloud's Sarah Allen hopes that making women in the field more visible to each other will help young women see a path for themselves in this fast-growing profession.

The Canon-sponsored Project Imaginat10n used social media to crowdsource images and ideas to produce five short films. It's an idea director Ron Howard says other artists would be foolish to ignore.

BioShock Infinite uses a mix of history and fantasy to create a world dominated by a racist fundamentalist Christian cult. The latest installment in the video game series drew praise from critics as proof that games could be more than just computer graphics. Can the genre really reach the heights of great art?

T-Mobile announced Tuesday that it's eliminating its two-year contracts in an effort to make its plans more transparent. Subscribers can pay off their phones in two years, and the cost of their plans will go down. T-Mobile is currently the No. 4 carrier.

Audie Cornish and Laura Sydell discuss the tech week ahead. They cover the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The first tweet was posted seven years ago. Since then, the social media site has been used as a free speech platform to spread information, report on the Arab Spring and stay connected with millions worldwide. But critics say that as Twitter has grown, it has sometimes compromised its principles.

Founded by Chris Strachwitz, the California label has been recording and distributing hard-to-find blues, Cajun and Mexican-American music since the early 1960s.

A deputy editor for social media at Reuters has been indicted by the Justice Department for helping the hacker group Anonymous gain illegal access to the Tribune Company's servers. During the period in question, Matthew Keys had just been fired from a Tribune-owned TV station.

This week is the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. It's where the big thinkers of the tech industry get together; this year's hot topics include 3-D printing and cat videos.

Hardware is a hot topic this year at the Texas-based festival famous for launching startups like Twitter and Foursquare.

The Leap Motion Controller senses and tracks hand motions to allow users to browse the Web, play games and open documents. It represents another step in a goal of computer scientists: to make interactions with machines feel natural and easy, and to take away the barriers between humans and computers.

Audie Cornish talks with Laura Sydell for a preview of South by Southwest Interactive. The tech event, one of the most popular showcases for tech startups and emerging technologies, starts later this week in Austin.

Audie Cornish talks with Laura Sydell about Yahoo's recent decision to end telecommuting.

Facebook has a long history of upsetting its users by suddenly announcing a change to its privacy settings. In 2009, as a way to quiet the critics, Facebook set up a system for its customers to vote on changes. If enough of them were unhappy, the company would back down. Now, Facebook wants to get rid of the voting.

The streaming music service offers millions of songs to millions of users, but it's not yet a reliable source of income for musicians.