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ARCHIVES 2008 H1 |
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| Microsoft reconfirms - Windows 7 in 2010. Period ! |
| April 9th, 2008. Chris Flores, the head of Microsoft Featured Communities confirmed to Neowin by stating "As most of you are well aware, there has been quite a bit of recent speculation about Win7. While I am not at liberty to discuss the details of Win7 (yet) I do want to set the record straight that we are still shooting for 2010 - 3 years from the launch of Vista." |
| Earlier too Microsoft had confirmed to WinVistaClub that Windows 7 was slated for a 2010 release. |
| Once again, idle speculation has been laid to rest ! Such idle speculation is being carried on, purely from the point of view, of attracting HITS ! |
| Webware 100 Award Winners. |
| April 22th, 2008. The 100 top Web apps for 2008 have been announced. These are the 100 best Web 2.0 applications, chosen by Webware readers and Internet users across the globe. Over 1.9 million votes were cast to select these Webware 100 winners. |
| Amongst the winners are Microsoft Office Live Workspace and Windows Live Hotmail. |
| Microsoft Yahoo Drama Thickens ! |
| April 10th, 2008. Three fast developments appear to have taken place ! |
Microsoft Said to Be Talking With News Corporation About Joint Yahoo Bid
News Corporation is in talks with Microsoft about joining in its contested bid for Yahoo, according to people involved in the discussions. The combination, which would join Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN and News Corporation’s MySpace, would create a behemoth that would upend the Internet landscape. If News Corporation throws its weight behind Microsoft’s offer, that could allow Microsoft to raise its bid, putting even more pressure on Yahoo and its shareholders. At the same time, the alignment of Microsoft and News Corporation would remove a possible alternative for Yahoo, leaving it with fewer opportunities to escape Microsoft’s grasp. |
Yahoo Provoking Microsoft With Google AdSense For Search ?
Yahoo! Inc. a leading global Internet company, announced today that it will begin a limited test of Google Inc.'s AdSense for Search service, which will deliver relevant Google ads alongside Yahoo!'s own search results. The test will apply only to traffic from yahoo.com in the U.S. and will not include Yahoo!'s extended network of affiliate or premium publisher partners. The test is expected to last up to two weeks and will be limited to no more than 3% of Yahoo! search queries. |
AOL Pursue Yahoo Deals.
Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations, a move aimed at thwarting Microsoft Corp.'s effort to acquire Yahoo, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday. The AOL-Yahoo deal under consideration would include the repurchase of some Yahoo shares at a price above Microsoft's offer. Taken together with a possible search-advertising pact with Google Inc., the plan could give Yahoo an alternative to a Microsoft takeover -- although many analysts and investors believe Microsoft will ultimately win out. At the least, Yahoo's efforts could give it more leverage to negotiate a higher price from Microsoft. |
| Microsoft to deliver Live's 'Killer App' Mesh in April. |
April 23rd, 2008. Live Mesh is now available.  |
| April 8th, 2008. Microsoft is planning to make available to a private group of external testers a first beta of Live Mesh by the end of this month, according to sources claiming familiarity with Microsoft’s plans. |
| Live Mesh is the future of synchronized storage ! Live Mesh would seem to specifically supersede Foldershare; and SkyDrive would of very limited value in such a scenario. Offering a seamless mesh of devices all tied together, including a cloud storage piece allowing for access to information even without access to your devices (kiosk, friend's house, etc.), collaboration on files with the conflicts handled painlessly, and access to a mesh of devices, it could solve lots of problems in a world that increasingly not only uses computers but many types of devices, all with a desire to be in sync. |
| Yahoo's Reply To Microsoft's Ultimatum ! |
| April 7th, 2008. The Board of Directors of Yahoo! Inc., today sent a reply to Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation. |
| The response letter states "At the same time, we have continued to make clear that we are not opposed to a transaction with Microsoft if it is in the best interests of our stockholders. Our position is simply that any transaction must be at a value that fully reflects the value of Yahoo!, including any strategic benefits to Microsoft, and on terms that provide certainty to our stockholders." |
| The letter also states : "We consider your threat to commence an unsolicited offer and proxy contest to displace our independent Board members to be counterproductive and inconsistent with your stated objective of a friendly transaction." |
| In short, either Microsoft pays more for a peaceful takeover, or prepares itself for a Corporate War ! |
| Microsoft readies for Proxy Battle ! |
| April 6th, 2008. Microsoft has sent a letter to the Yahoo! Board of Directors. Extract: |
Dear Members of the Board:
"It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy.
... we believe now is the time for our respective companies to authorize teams to sit down and negotiate a definitive agreement on a combination of our companies that will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders, creating a more efficient and competitive company that will provide greater value and service to our customers. If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board... " |
| April 5th, 2008. Microsoft Corp is evaluating its bid for Yahoo Inc because the Internet company may have lost value since Microsoft made its offer, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The news, sent Yahoo shares down more than 5 percent in extended trade. |
| After weeks of silence, recent comments from various sources to journalists suggest the software maker is hardening its stance and pushing Yahoo for action. The sources told Reuters that Yahoo has lost key personnel, making the company less valuable, while generous severance packages it handed out to executives and full-time employees in the case of a takeover have made it more expensive. |
| Who uses MS Live Search? |
| April 3rd, 2008. ". . . it’s mostly people that are searching for files on their own hard drive who accidentally click the ’search the net’ button." If that theory is correct almost all Live Search sessions would come from Windows systems running IE. Sure enough, they found that an overwhelming 99.82% of all Live Search sessions are Windows machines running IE. |
| A 90% market share is good for something.
It kept the Live Search market at 2.4% last month. IE’s market share is 75%. If Firefox, 18% market share, users were just as likely to use Live Search as any other search engine, you’d expect to see 18% of Live Searches on that browser. |
| Search is THE problem as storage capacities grow. Microsoft’s weak showing means they aren’t going to beat Google at the current game. MS needs to put it’s substantial muscle finding the Next Big Thing in search. It also suggests that taking over Yahoo won’t help either; they haven’t had any better luck against Google, either!
Source: ZDNet. |
| Microsoft's Vista Blogger Quits. |
| April 3rd, 2008. "They say all good things must come to an end, and that is the case today: I want to share with you the bittersweet news that I am moving on to a role outside Microsoft. It's a bit deflating to know that this constitutes my last post to the Windows Vista Team blog. But by the same token, I'm thrilled, amazed and humbled at the success that this blog has become. Our aim has always been to share the Windows story in an open and approachable manner. Given the role we play today as a community resource, I'd wager that we're doing pretty well in that regard." |
| Over the past several months, Nick White's Windows Vista Blog has been a significant source for Microsoft watchers. Microsoft in many instances used the blog to announce major initiatives or product milestones, including the arrival of Windows Vista SP 1. |
| Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2008 Released. |
| April 3rd, 2008. The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2008 has been released. There are two key product updates in this release I'd like to highlight that I think IT Pros will find very useful - Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 6.0 (DaRT) and Desktop Error Monitoring 3.0 SP1 (DEM). |
| For those of you not familiar with DaRT, it provides a set of tools for IT Pros to debug and troubleshoot unbootable PCs. DaRT 6.0 brings in some new tools worth taking note of. Tools such as Locksmith can reset a local administrator password, while Hotfix Uninstall can remove a bad hotfix. This is especially useful if the hotfix was the cause of the PC crash. Perhaps one of the simplest uses for DaRT is to recover files from the PC, even if they have been removed from the recycle bin. One of the new features in DaRT 6.0 is the Standalone System Sweeper, an antimalware product that runs while the Windows operating system is unbootable. |
| Singapore Vistas: Desktop Wallpapers From Microsoft Singapore. |
| April 2nd, 2008. On this Microsoft site, you will find a gallery with the best wallpaper submissions to the concluded PhotoVista Competition. |
| While there, you can also check out Singapore Vista Gadgets page were you can find sidebar gadgets specifically designed for Singapore! |
| Microsoft Surface - Set For Commercial Launch. |
April 2nd, 2008. AT&T will become the first company in the world to bring Microsoft Surface to life in a retail environment, giving customers the ability to explore their mobile worlds using touch and device recognition technology. Microsoft Surface is the first commercially available surface computer from Microsoft. Beginning April 17, customers can experience Microsoft Surface in select AT&T retail locations, including stores in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco. Based on the success and learning from these initial pilot deployments, plans for further expansion across AT&T’s 2,200 U.S. retail stores will be determined Microsoft PressPass. |
Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch table-like display that gives individuals or multiple people the opportunity to interact with devices and content in a way that feels familiar, by using touch, gestures and placement of devices on the display. In essence, it’s a surface come to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more. |
| Low Cost Laptops : Microsoft Paints Itself Into A Corner ! |
| April 1st, 2008. As the release of low-cost laptops based on Intel's upcoming Atom processor draws near, Microsoft is getting boxed into a corner. The software company plans to stop selling most Windows XP licenses after June 30, yet most of these low-cost laptops won't be powerful enough to run Vista when they arrive later this year. |
| Windows Vista isn't a viable option in this product segment! It's too expensive and does not work on the stripped-down hardware configurations required to keep prices low. That leaves Microsoft executives with a choice: Do they extend the availability of Windows XP for low-cost laptops, or possibly concede this nascent market to Linux? Source: ITWorld. |
| Yahoo launches Shine website for women. |
| April 1st, 2008. Yahoo on Monday began wooing women with a Shine website focusing on subjects such as love, money, beauty, home and parenting. The website features nine categories the California Internet pioneer believes appeal to the approximately 40 million women ages 25 through 54 that use Yahoo monthly. |
| "Yahoo Shine speaks to you as a friend, telling you the secrets and tips to simplify your life," said website editor-in-chief Brandon Holley. "You can count on us to bring attitude and personality, and find humor in almost every topic we cover, whether it's a post on men who wear skinny jeans, how you can get back into your skinny jeans, or whether you'll be taken seriously if you wear jeans to work." |
| 'Microsoft Videos' Silverlight Website To Launch In April. |
| March 31st, 2008. Microsoft is readying a new video site. Microsoft Videos Beta, will launch in April with United States content at first. In the coming months they will be adding videos from Microsoft subsidiaries around the world. |
| "You will be able to scan our Quick Picks for the latest videos, enter a search, or choose a category from our Video Guide," it says on the website ... "Then tell us what you think by rating what you've watched. If you like what you see, you can share it with a friend or colleague, or link to it in your blog using one of our community features." |
| Vista hacked on 3rd day through Adobe Flash. |
| March 30th, 2008. After Mac was hacked in 2 minutes (read below) at the CanSecWest Conference, it was now the time for Vista to get hacked on the 3rd day. Vista's security was compromised through the very popular 3rd party Adobe Flash Software. |
| "The contest, which saw a MacBook Air get hacked on Thursday, relaxed the rules even further. On the first day of the contest, only the operating system could be targeted, but on the second day that was expanded to include standard applications. An undisclosed Safari flaw led to the MacBook Air's downfall through the OS X operating system." |
| The MacBook Air went first; a Fujitsu laptop running Vista was hacked on the last day of the contest; but it was Linux, running on a Sony Vaio, that remained undefeated as conference organizers ended a three-way computer hacking challenge Friday at the CanSecWest conference. |
| Vista Goes Pink ! |
| March 29th, 2008. Microsoft has in Japan, combined Windows Vista Home Premium with Windows Live OneCare in one eye-popping hot pink box. |
| As a special promotion for the Japanese market, an upgrade version of Windows Vista Home Premium is bundled with a year’s subscription of Windows Live OneCare and a copy of a Vista tips and tricks book. The pink flowers are called sakura (cherry blossoms) and this is being released for the Sakura or ‘Cherry Blossom’ season, which is a BIG event in Japan. Source. |
| What next ? A Red box for sale in China ?! |
| Gone in 2 minutes: Mac first to get hacked in contest. |
| March 28th, 2008. It may be the quickest $10,000 Charlie Miller ever earned. He took the first of three laptop computers, and a $10,000 cash prize, Thursday after breaking into a MacBook Air at the CanSecWest security conference's PWN 2 OWN hacking contest. |
| Within 2 minutes, he directed the contest's organizers to visit a Web site that contained his exploit code, which then allowed him to seize control of the computer, as about 20 onlookers cheered him on. He was the first contestant to attempt an attack on any of the systems. |
| Miller was quickly given a nondisclosure agreement to sign, and he's not allowed to discuss particulars of his bug until the contest's sponsor, TippingPoint, can notify the vendor. Source: Yahoo News. |
| Causes For Vista Crashes. |
| March 28th, 2008. Microsoft's data strongly indicates that NVIDIA drivers were the cause of over 479,000 crashes, or just under 29 percent of all the crashes Microsoft logged. Microsoft's own drivers follow, at 17.9 percent, and the "Unknown" category takes third place at 17 percent. ATI is in fourth place (9.3 percent), Intel in fifth place (8.83 percent) and Webroot in the sixth place (7.95 percent), according to documentation on page 47 of this PDF report. |
| The data points in the table cover an unspecified period in 2007, and Microsoft makes no attempt to break the aggregate data down into which device drivers, specifically, returned the highest number of crashes. |
| If the number of failures were split by month and then graphed, we'd presumably see the number of NVIDIA driver failures per month decreasing as the company slowly brought its driver issues under control. Source. |
| Black Hat: Apple lags behind Microsoft in patching security holes. |
| March 28th, 2008. Apple's teasing commercials that imply its software is safer than Microsoft's may not quite match the facts, according to new research revealed at the Black Hat conference on Thursday. |
| Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology looked at how many times over the past six years the two vendors were able to have a patch available on the day a vulnerability became publicly known, which they call the 0-day patch rate |
| They analyzed 658 vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft products and 738 affecting Apple. They looked at only high- and medium-risk bugs, according to the classification used by the National Vulnerability Database, said Stefan Frei, one of the researchers involved in the study. |
| What they found is that, contrary to popular belief that Apple makes more secure products, Apple lags behind in patching. |
| Millions register .asia domains. |
| March 27th, 2008. The latest internet domain, the .asia registry, has been switched on and new domain names are now available on a first-come first-served basis. Over 150 million names have already been registered. |
| Xavier Buck, chief executive at EuroDNS, explained that, during the general registration process, the registry awards the .asia domain name to the first person who submits the domain. "In contrast to the previous Sunrise and Landrush phases, there will not be any auctions this time. Our new AsiaDNS/EuroDNS website platform is ready to receive all applications," he said. Source: Neowin. |
| Microsoft Prepares 'Albany' to Compete with Google. |
| March 27th, 2008. Microsoft is planning a new package of low-end productivity software and hosted services to battle back against Google Docs and Google Apps. Facing pressure from hosted productivity suites such as Google Docs and Google Apps, Microsoft is planning a new package of low-end productivity software and hosted services through a secretive project code-named Albany. |
| Project Albany puts together a combination of Office, Office Live Workspaces, Windows Live OneCare and the Windows Live suite of services in one package that eventually is expected to be available in retail outlets. Source: PCWorld. |
| Apple says you cannot use Safari on Windows ! |
| March 27th, 2008. "In using Apple Software Update to slip his Safari browser onto millions of Windows PCs, Steve Jobs didn't just undermine "the security of the whole Web". He's made a mockery of end user licensing agreements." |
| As spotted by our Italian friends at setteB.IT, Apple's Safari license says that users are permitted to install the browser on no more than "a single Apple-labeled computer at a time." This means that if you install Safari for Windows on a Windows PC, you're violating the license. |
| According to Jonathan Kramer, a tech-minded attorney with the Kramer Telecom Law Firm, you aren't in any legal danger if you install Safari for Windows on a Windows PC. Apple can't enforce a contract clause that doesn't make sense. "We call this an impossibility issue," Kramer told us. "You can't enforce a term that's impossible." Source: theregister. |
| The Plot Thickens ! Yahoo joins Google's OpenSocial ! |
| March 25th, 2008. In response (?) to Microsoft announcing its new interoperability deal (see below) with 5 social networking sites, Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn, Yahoo announced that it has joined the Google-backed OpenSocial social-networking intiative ! |
| Yahoo: "We announced today that we've joined forces with Google and MySpace to create the OpenSocial Foundation, and will also begin supporting the OpenSocial standard. Industry consortiums such as this often start slowly and evolve over time. So far, OpenSocial is rapidly growing and adapting, but still in the early stages. We feel that this is the right step at this stage in its evolution. It’s no longer a trial balloon — it’s for real. We are taking this opportunity to help ensure websites and developers feel confident using OpenSocial as the building blocks for their new social apps." Yahoo PressRoom. |
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| Google: "Today we're pleased that Yahoo! has announced its support for OpenSocial. We're looking forward to having Yahoo! users join the hundreds of millions of people who will soon enjoy OpenSocial applications. This addition means even more distribution for developers, encourages participation by even more websites, and, most importantly, results in more features for users all across the web." The Official Google Blog. |
Fresh battle lines, appear to have been drawn, in the Microsoft - Yahoo Takeover War!
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| Microsoft Partners with Top Social Networks. |
| March 25th, 2008. Microsoft has announced some significant developments to the Windows Live platform that demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to data portability and giving users a choice of how to use and control their information. |
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| Microsoft has partnered with some of the world’s top social networks on contact data portability. Starting today, and will be working with Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn to exchange functionally-similar Contacts APIs, allowing us to create a safe, secure two-way street for users to move their relationships between our respective services. Along with these collaborations, Microsoft is introducing a new website at www.invite2messenger.net that people can visit to invite their friends from Microsofts partner social networks to join their Windows Live Messenger contact list. |
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| Sony charges $50 to remove laptop bloatware; Retracts Later ! |
| March 22nd, 2008. Sony is offering to remove some of the trial software it crams onto the hard disks of new laptops, for a fee. Buyers of the configure-to-order versions of its Vaio TZ2000 and Vaio TZ2500 laptops can opt to have Sony remove the some of its own applications, in addition to trial software and games. |
| The "Fresh Start" option, billed as a software optimization, costs $49.99, and is only available to customers choosing to pay an additional $100 to upgrade the operating system to Windows Vista Business from the Windows Vista Home Premium edition offered as standard. |
| Crapware or Bloatware, poses problems because it reduces system performance and available hard disk space, makes it harder to maintain a consistent software image across PCs from different sources and may introduce additional security vulnerabilities or, in the case of games, unwanted distractions for workers. |
| Blogs erupted with outrage at the planned charge, with Engadget opening a headline with "Sony Hates You." |
| Responding to a tidal wave of outrage, Sony has reversed a plan to charge $50 to remove all the pre-installed applications — often derided as "bloatware" or "craplets" — from its high-end TZ-series notebooks. "There will be no charge for Fresh Start" said the company spokesman. |
| Apple keen to push Safari 3.1 on Windows users. |
| March 22nd, 2008. If you run iTunes or QuickTime or any Apple software on your Windows PC, but not Safari, you might have seen an uninvited guest show up in the Apple Software Update earlier this week. Yes, Apple thinks you need yet another browser. They tried to slip the new Safari 3.1 in for iTunes owners, a move that has some Windows users up in arms. |
| The program is usually used for updating Apple software, and so getting new software with the deal wasn't something a lot of users expected. And users who don't do anything but the default, are basically going to be getting software they didn't plan to have. Thanks: Tuaw. |
| Global Representation At Microsoft MVP Summit 2008. |
| Mar 17th, 2008. An interesting tidbit. A Microsoft MVP, from Australia has created a Virtual Earth map showing where all the MVPs attending Microsofts Annual MVP Summit are coming from. You can see the result at SoulClients. |
| This map visualises where MVPs will be travelling from to attend Summit this year. The MVP who created this is Windows Live Platform MVP, John O’Brien, from Brisbane Australia. The page is hosted by Soul Solutions which is run by John and fellow Windows Live Developer MVP Bronwen Zande. |
| OneCare, Forefront, Stirling To Include Stonger AntiRootkit Capabilities. |
| March 21st, 2008. Microsoft announced its acquisation of Komoku, a company that offers advanced rootkit detection capabilities. Founded in 2004, Komoku is a startup backed by the U.S. governments Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Navy and the Department of Homeland Security. |
| Microsoft, has said that it will build Komuku's technology into future versions of both its Windows OneCare consumer security products, Forefront, its line of security software for businesses, as well as Stirling, its next generation of Forefront. |
| Are Apple ads hurting Microsoft's brand? |
| March 20th, 2008. A new ranking of global brands shows Microsoft's reputation sinking in recent years. Among the possible factors: Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads. |
| Microsoft lands at No. 59 in the rankings for 2007, down from No. 11 in 2004, according to the survey from CoreBrand released Wednesday. "The effect of Apple's 'Hi, I'm a Mac' advertising campaign may have taken its toll on Microsoft," CoreBrand CEO James Gregory said in a statement. |
| In fairness to the folks in Redmond, they have fared far better in other recent brand studies. They were No. 1 on a list of Britain's top "superbrands" last year, and No.2 in an August BusinessWeek ranking of top global brands. Source. |
| I am not sure how much importance is to be given to this, but it sure makes an interesting read. |
| WLM MTBot Breaks Down Language Barrier In IM Chatting ! |
| March 18th, 2008. The MTBot Prototype was released in May 2007, by the Microsoft Research Machine Translation Team. This technology, makes it possible to combine Machine Translation Technology, with Instant Messaging. Windows Live Messenger users can now use this IM Bot, to not just translate; It also now speaks ! |
| The MT Bot can speak with, in both English and Spanish! And now German Too! Try this: invite the bot and start the conversation in English (say "hello"). Select "es" for Spanish and try something like bot*say And you? Do you speak Spanish? Give the bot some time, and you'll get the the pointer to a Comcast personal site. |
To use this Bot, just add MTBot-en_us@hotmail.com to your contact list, and send it one of the following messages:
- Hello: activates the bot to translate from English to any of the available languages
- Hallo: activates the bot to translate from German to either English or French
- Oi: activates the bot to translate from Portuguese to English
- 你好: activates the bot to translate from Chinese Simplified to English
- こんにちは: activates the bot to translate from Japanese to English |
| It will then display the list of languages it can offer its services in. Choose the one which you want. Language will no longer be a barrier in IM chatting. |
| Microsoft research on theory of Six degrees of separation in IM. |
| Mar 15th, 2008. Those who may be wondering, “What is this Theory of Six degrees of separation”; Six degrees of separation, is a theory which suggests, on average, every person on this world is connected to each other by just 6 steps. You may obtain a detailed explanation at Wiki, which says: Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person he or she knows and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is an average of six “steps” away from each person on Earth. |
| A recent research by Microsoft conducted over world wide net gives a boost to this idea. computer scientists at Microsoft Research Redmond lab have logged a full month of instant messengers using, llogically, Microsoft Messenger. ‘The compressed dataset occupies 4.5 terabytes, composed from 1 billion conversations per day (150 gigabytes) over one month of logging,” according to the researchers. The dataset which was collected in June 2006 contains summaries of 30 billion conversations among 240 million people. And they were very surprised to find that the average number of jumps to get from one random user to another was 6.6.” This is very close to the old ’six degrees of separation’ idea which states that everyone on Earth is six ’steps’ away from anyone else. Read more at ZDNet. |
| Blews : Microsoft's Upcoming News Aggregator Site. |
| Mar 15th, 2008. BLEWS, a research project based on a platform provided by Microsoft's Live Labs. While typical news-aggregation sites do a good job of clustering news stories according to topic, they leave the reader without information about which stories figure prominently in political discourse. It uses political blogs to categorize news stories according to their reception in the conservative and liberal blogospheres. The Blews Project was announced by Microsoft last week. |
| It visualizes information about which stories are linked to from conservative and liberal blogs, and it indicates the level of emotional charge in the discussion of the news story or topic at hand in both political camps. BLEWS also offers a “see the view from the other side” functionality, enabling a reader to compare different views on the same story from different sides of the political spectrum. |
| As an illustration, in the above image, blue indicates the Liberal links and Conservative links are red. The Story is in white in the middle. The dots around the edges indicate the emotional charge of the particular commentary. More on this at Blews HomePage and Microsoft Research Community Blogs. |
| Tafiti Site Refreshed. |
| March 22nd, 2008. Tafiti, the experimental search engine based on Silverlight, was updated recently and now offers more Windows Live Services integration. The update includes the use of presence and P2P messenger APIs that allow you to now share your search favorites with your IM buddies. To see this new feature in action, you'll need to sign into Tafiti with your Windows Live ID. If you're already signed into Messenger on your PC, you'll be signed out there and then signed into Messenger on tafiti.mslivelabs.com. Check it out for yourself ! Source: on10. |
| India Rejects Microsoft's OOXML Format. |
| March 20th, 2008. The BIS LITD 15 Committee has rejected Microsoft's document format OOXML. According to sources, out of 19 members, five of them did not attend the meeting, one of them abstained, five voted in favour of OOXML and the rest voted against. The meeting took place today in Delhi at the BIS office. |
| Microsoft has released a statement which says, "While we are disappointed with the decision of the BIS LITD 15 committee, we are very encouraged by the support of IT industry players like NASSCOM, TCS, Wipro and Infosys who voted in favour of Open XML becoming an ISO standard. Further, the Indian Government, industry stalwarts and trade bodies have supported multiple standards and technology neutrality. We will therefore continue to work with the Government to address any concerns they may have; and to achieve its stated goal of technology neutrality. We are committed to working towards what is best for the Indian IT industry." Source. |
| 'Get Green Stay Green' From Windows Live OneCare. |
| March 18th, 2008. The Windows Live OneCare Team is kicking off a brand new campaign : Get Green Stay Green.
The Get Green Stay Green campaign is designed to make sure Windows Live OneCare users are staying "green" - meaning their PC Health Status. |
| Users can also visit www.getgreenstaygreen.com and find out what it takes to keep their PC "green". Source: WindowsVistaBlog. |
| New Microsoft adCenter Blogs & Forums Go Live. |
| March 18th, 2008. The adCenter Community Team is ready to unveil the next evolution of 'advertiser enablement' with the launch of its new site for the adCenter Blogs & Forums www.adCenterCommunity.com ! Get all advertiser related information here; from feature reviews and how-to's to adCenter news and info on tools such as the adCenter Add-in for Excel 2007 and adCenter Labs. |
| "We’ve tried to build a community portal that encourages interaction so that not only can you get information, updates and assistance from Microsoft employees, but also from each other, as some of the most knowledgeable users of our products and services are our customers! Be sure to check out our user forums as they grow into a robust resource on everything adCenter and more." |
| Gates Predicts Big Technological Leaps. |
| Mar 15th, 2008. Bill Gates said Thursday he expects the next decade to bring even greater technological leaps than the past 10 years. In a speech to the Northern Virginia Technology Council, Gates speculated that some of the most important advances will come in the ways people interact with computers: speech-recognition technology, tablets that will recognize handwriting and touch-screen surfaces that will integrate a wide variety of information. |
| Gates also said the coming years will bring rapid changes in media as television increasingly becomes a targeted medium, where viewers can select niche content for news, sports and entertainment. "TV will be based on the Internet; it will be an utterly different thing," he said. Via Neowin. |
| Gates Foundation to get Gandhi Peace Prize. |
| Mar 15th, 2008. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will receive the prestigious Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2007 for "its pioneering and exemplary philanthropic work around the world and in India in health, especially in helping fight disease, illness and poor health conditions in the developing world." "Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Foundation is an inspiring example of what can be achieved through a combination of exceptional generosity and excellent management," a release issued by the international jury of the award said on Friday. Source : Yahoo. |
| Microsoft and Yahoo meet to discuss merger. |
| Mar 14th, 2008. Microsoft and Yahoo met on Monday to discuss Microsoft's takeover offer for the Internet company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. |
| The meeting was said to be the first since Microsoft made its unsolicited offer for Yahoo, worth nearly $42 billion, on January 31. Yahoo rejected the offer as inadequate last month. The session was intended to allow Microsoft to present its vision of a combined company, and Yahoo executives mostly listened, the Journal quoted one of the sources as saying. Source : Reuters. |
| Microsoft Live@edu Suite. Website Refreshed. |
| Mar 14th, 2008. Live@edu is the ultimate suite of applications, mobile, desktop and web-based, to help students collaborate on campus, and create a community that lasts a lifetime. The Microsoft Live@edu program provides institutions of higher education and K-12 with a set of free hosted and co-branded collaboration and communication services for students, alumni, and applicants, leading with an offer of Windows Live™ Hotmail®, a hosted e-mail service, and Office Live Workspace, an online space to collaborate on Microsoft Office documents. Although Microsoft hosts the e-mail, the institution maintains control: you continue to create, delete, and store institution e-mail addresses for your constituents, as you do today. The website needs SilverLight. |
| Once a student/alumni has an active ID they have access to the whole set of Windows Live services. For example, if an institution issues Joe Student the e-mail address joe.student@panthers.contoso.edu, Joe can use that e-mail address to authenticate on a number of Windows Live services, all of which are opt-in and free unless noted otherwise. Here are just a few: Office Live Workspace, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live for Mobile, Windows Live Expo, Windows Live SkyDrive™, etc. GetLiveAtEdu. LiveAtEdu FAQ. More related information at Microsoft PressPass. |
| The IE8 Favorites Bar. |
| Mar 14th, 2008. The Favorites bar, previously known as the Links toolbar, has been updated with great new functionality that helps you get information from your favorite websites quickly and easily. The new IE8 Favorites bar still has your favorite links just one click away, but also allows you to add WebSlices and feeds to the Favorites bar, facilitating your navigation experience. The WebSlices and feeds on the Favorites bar will check for updates to content on your favorite websites without requiring navigation to those websites. |
| The new IE8 WebSlice feature enables you to see when updated content is available from your favorite websites. A WebSlice is a piece of a webpage (a “slice”) that you can subscribe to. When you subscribe to a WebSlice, it appears as a shortcut on the Favorites bar. Note that WebSlices will only appear on webpages that provide support for WebSlices. As of today, websites such as Ebay, Facebook and Stumble Upon have added support for WebSlices. Source BlogsMSDN Via Bink.nu. |
| Get Stardocks MyColors - Free ! |
| Mar 14th, 2008. MyColors lets you personalize your Windows desktop by applying MyColors themes. There are hundreds of MyColors themes already available with more being made all the time. This is a limited time offer. |
| To Get MyColors with a free theme enter your email address below and click the "Get Theme" button. You will be given a Serial Number which you can use for registration. Go HERE ! |
| Top 10 Pirated Software. |
| Mar 14th, 2008. OK, this may be a little old, but I seem to have missed this rather interesting read. SIIA has released, as follows, two Reports in Feb 08 listing the most pirated software for 2007. More at InformationWeek. |
| Now all Vista users can Dream !!! |
| Mar 14th, 2008. Windows Vista Ultimate users are no longer the only ones who can run animated wallpaper on their desktop. Software developer Stardock has released a free preview of DeskScapes 2.0 which enables all users of Windows Vista to run .DREAM animated wallpapers. Last year, Microsoft released Windows DreamScene as a Windows Vista Ultimate. Stardock developed some of the animated wallpapres for Windows DreamScene as well as provided DeskScapes 1.0 which allowed DreamScene to run the new .DREAM animated wallpaper format. DeskScapes allowed for not just video dreams but dynamic dreams as well which use virtually no CPU whatsoever by putting the animation purely on the video accelerator. |
| Neowin will have some exclusive .DREAM content coming out this Summer. Stay tuned. Source : Neowin. |
| Gates presses US lawmakers for relaxing H-1B visa cap. |
| Mar 13th, 2008. The ''counterproductive'' US immigration policies should be revamped to allow more people to get into the country on H-1B visas aimed at highly-skilled professionals, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has said, arguing that hiring an 'A'-grade student from India creates spin-off employment for 'B' and 'C' American students. |
| ''It makes no sense to educate people in our universities, often subsidised by US taxpayers, and then insist they return home,'' Gates said. ''Today, knowledge and expertise are the essential raw materials that companies and countries need in order to be competitive. We live in an economy that depends on the ability of innovative companies to attract and retain the very best talent, regardless of nationality or citizenship. Source- EconomicTimes. Thanks RagsHyd. |
| Microsoft Adding Sony Blu-ray Support To Windows. |
| Mar 12th, 2008. Microsoft is working on Windows device driver support for the Blu-ray high definition movie format and is dveloping software that will add native support for devices that play Sony's Blu-ray high definition movie format to the Windows operating system. |
| Microsoft until recently used Toshiba's HD DVD format to add HD movie playback to its Xbox 360 gaming console. That practice abruptly ended last month when Toshiba announced its decision to kill HD DVD after virtually all major Hollywood studios threw their weight behind Blu-ray. More At Neowin. |
| Exit stage left for Microsoft's Yahoo bid? |
| Mar 12th, 2008. Watching the Microsoft-Yahoo show? Here are two figures to watch in the coming weeks: $1.32 billion and 11 cents. |
| Yahoo is projected to generate $1.32 billion in revenue and earn 11 cents a share for the first quarter, according to analysts' estimates collected by Thomson Financial. |
| Anything less than that when the company reports its first-quarter results on April 22 could apply greater pressure on Yahoo to accept Microsoft's unsolicited buyout bid that was initially valued at $31 a share. This especially holds true if no other white knights emerge to make a deal with Yahoo. Source: ActiveWin. |
| IE8 Me.dium Add-in available. |
| Mar 12th, 2008. Me.dium is releasing a special version to support the first public demonstration of IE8 today at 1 p.m during the Open Space Session. The new Me.dium features were specifically designed to highlight the new functionality introduced in IE8, including “Webslices” and “Activities.” |
| Me.dium is a member of the MSFT Start-Up Accelerator Program. Me.dium’s browser-sidebar-extension is the recommended add-on for IE on Windows Market Place. IE8 Beta users can download the Me.dium Discovery Activity for IE8 from here. |
| More At WindowsConnected. |
| New look for Live Search! Has Rome arrived? |
| Mar 12th, 2008. Looks like a LiveSide member has stumbled upon the new look for Live Search, which appears to be live now. |
| "First glance shows that the new search is very responsive, hard to tell right off the bat whether it is faster or not, but it seems so. One feature seems to be the scratchpad in images. Pictures can be dragged from the Image results window to a collection, and collections can be named and multiple collections can be opened at once. Not sure at this point how these collections will be shared, etc. at this point.Also of note is the new header, with a much smaller header bar and a new search icon" Source : LiveSide. |
| Microsoft Nocturnal : Web Search, With a Little Help from Your Friends. |
| Mar 12th, 2008. Nocturnal, is a collaborative, personalized Web-search tool, from Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, built of two essentially independent components. One is a generic infrastructure for sharing information in a very large network, built over the Windows Live™ Messenger network structure. The second component is an enhanced Web-search tool. It retrieves information from Live Search but reorganizes it and sorts it based on information that you’ve shared about recommendations about Web sites with your Messenger contacts. |
| In addition, Nocturnal lets users tag pages with keywords. When a user searches the Web, Nocturnal retrieves pages visited by the user’s social community based on a match between the search keyword and tags, complementing the reorganized Live Search results. |
| DeepZoom & PhotoZoom From Microsoft. |
| Mar 9th, 2008. Microsoft announced new features in Silverlight 2. One of the most exciting new features is DeepZoom. This capability allows users to explore collections of super high resolution imagery, from a 2 or 3 megapixel shot from a digital camera to gigapixel scans of museum pieces, all without waiting for huge file downloads. |
| Deep Zoom is based on the same Seadragon technology that you have seen in our demos and in the Photosynth preview. |
| PhotoZoom is an experimental project developed by a small group of Microsoft developers, and it is definitely not an official, supported Microsoft product. PhotoZoom is a web site where anyone can upload their photos and turn them into zoom-able, pan-able albums, using the Deep Zoom technology in Silverlight 2 Beta 1. |
| Three new Search Projects from Microsoft. |
| Mar 7th, 2008. Microsoft Research has unveiled three new search projects aimed to enhance your search experience. Here are the details: |
SearchTogether: SearchTogether is an IE plugin for social search. It lets you and your friends search together via an IE sidebar. The plugin, which will be available in Spring 2008 features page rating, split searching, shared summaries, chat, and more.
CoSearch: CoSearch lets users who are using the same computer at the same time search together by using multiple mice or cell phones. Yes, cell phones! A person using a phone could move the cursor on the screen and transfer data to the phone.
Searchbar: Searchbar is an IE sidebar that lets you save your searches, organize them, and add notes about them. Source: on10. |
| Security Hole Allows Windows PC To Be Unlocked. |
| Mar 6th, 2008. A security consultant, Adam Boileau, based in New Zealand has released a tool that can unlock Windows computers in seconds, via a Firewire port, without the need for a password. |
| With this tool, called Winlockpwn, one could "unlock locked Windows machines or login without a password ... merely by plugging in your Firewire cable and running a command". |
| The hack, which affects Windows XP computers but has not yet been tested with Windows Vista, was first demonstrated, at a security conference in Sydney in 2006, but Microsoft has yet to develop a fix. |
| But now that a couple of years have passed and the issue has not resolved, Boileau, decided to release the tool on his website. Source: theage. Thanks Nightmare. |
| Update 1 - Apparently, this has been demonstrated on Mac OSX also ! |
| Update 2 - FireWire Attack Also Defeats Windows Vista. Microsoft may not address the "winlockpwn" authentication bypass issue because it's not technically a vulnerability. |
| Windows Live FolderShare Gets New Features. |
| Mar 11th, 2008. FolderShare, has been updated, and an all-new FolderShare Website has been launched. |
The new features and updates include:
• A new website designed to make managing your FolderShare libraries and computers even easier.
• A new FolderShare with a better setup, a better system tray menu, and better performance on Windows Vista.
• Improvements on the backend to keep FolderShare running more smoothly and reliably. |
| Source : FolderShare Team Blog. Download: For Windows/Mac. |
| Microsoft launches new website for Vista Ultimate users. |
| Mar 5th, 2008. Microsoft has launched a website for its Vista Ultimate consumers, UltimatePC. Here, Microsoft is hosting "blueprints" of the best PCs available and exactly what one can achieve with them. |
| The UltimatePC website will also offer Ultimate Exclusives. The new “Ultimate Exclusives,” which will join “Ultimate Extras” as added value to Windows Vista Ultimate users. Whereas Ultimate Extras are add-ons that extend certain OS capabilities, Ultimate Exclusives provide Windows Vista Ultimate customers with unique products and services at special discounts to enhance the computing experiences and enable users to do more with their PC.According to Microsoft these are not meant to replace Ultimate Extras. The new site will, hopefully, also provide a place for the Ultimate Team to communicate to the Vista Ultimate community its plans. |
| "Opera Most Insecure - IE Least Insecure" - Cenzic Security Report. |
| Mar 4th, 2008. While Microsoft has been claiming throughout 2007 that Internet Explorer has the smallest volume of vulnerabilities compared to all rival products, A Report by Cenzic appears to support this claim. |
| Judging strictly by the number of vulnerabilities, Opera is the most insecure browser, having been impacted by no less than 38% of vulnerabilities. The next in line is Safari with 15% and then Firefox with no less than 32% of vulnerabilities. Cenzic revealed that only 10% of all browser security flaws in 2007 impacted Internet Explorer. More at Softpedia. |
| Microsoft Expands MOS to ALL. |
| Mar 4th, 2008. Microsoft will offer 'Microsoft Online Services' to businesses of ALL sizes, now. This announcement marks a significant step for Microsoft toward expanding its software plus services strategy. |
| Microsoft has also opened a limited beta trial of the new services; U.S.-based companies can register for the trial at MOSBeta. The new services are scheduled to be generally available to businesses of all sizes in the second half of the year. Microsoft PressPass. |
| Microsoft launches New MSN 'SilverLight' Toolbar. |
| Mar 3rd, 2008. Microsoft has launched a reincarnation of MSN Toolbar in beta form, codenamed Salsa. The toolbar is powered by Silverlight, which adds an extra dimension to the features on offer. |
| This enables the drop-down MSN chanel previews, showing the latest content from within the MSN portal without requiring the user to move from the internet page they are currently browsing. From the same preview pane users can also chose to search that part of the site, which brings us onto the other main feature - Live Search. There's a breaking news feature, bringing the latest news direct to your browser. HomePage. |
| MySong From Microsoft Research. |
| Mar 2nd, 2008. MySong is a new technology from Microsoft Research . It records your singing through a microphone and systematically generates an instrumental accompaniment for your song. |
| The technology has been developed by Ian Simon, Dan Morris and Summit Basu. Source: Activewin. |
| Windows Vista Quiz : Fact Or Fiction ! |
| Feb 29th, 2008. Microsoft Australia has put together an online “Fact or Fiction” quiz about Windows Vista. Every person who participates, will get a certificate of completion & if you are an OEM System Builder, you will also get a Windows Vista Advisor Polo Shirt. |
| Every participant will also get to enter a draw to win gift/s worth $15,000. All you have to do is answer the '10 question' online quiz about Windows Vista. |
| Microsoft To Drop Vista Prices ! |
| Feb 29th, 2008. Microsoft has decided to cut the price for several flavors of Windows Vista. The reductions are to coincide with the late March release of Vista SP 1. |
| The price cuts will 'affect' both full and upgrade versions of Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. As detailed by Microsoft the price decrease will be between 20 and 48%. More at Microsoft PressPass. A good time as any , to upgrade from XP to Vista ! |
| Vista Update to Detect Pirated Vista Copies. |
| Feb 26th, 2008. Microsoft has released an Update 940510 for Windows Vista to run without ever having to be activated. Activation exploits make alterations to key Windows system files. These exploits affect both system stability and security. |
| When the update is installed, no functionality of your operating system will be affected. If no exploits are detected, the update silently exits. If exploits are detected, you will be provided a link to a Web site that describes how you can remove the exploits. |
| Microsoft Launches Digital Advertising Platform In India. |
| Feb 25th, 2008. Microsoft has announced the launch of a unique Digital Advertising Platform in India that aims to simplify digital advertising and create a larger eco-system connecting advertisers and publishers. |
The company has roped in four leading publishers, Bollywood Hungama, EquityMaster, HDFC Securities and Facebook; as well as a video advertising platform with MSN Video. Microsoft will provide display, rich media, contextual and video advertising solutions for partners on the platform. NDTV Media, the exclusive sales partner for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, will bring advertisers to the new platform. Download MicrosoftDigitalAdvertisingSolutions.pdf |
| Microsoft also announced the launch of its mobile advertising initiative in India. Advertisers will now be able to buy Search keywords on Live Search deployed on Vodafone Live and also display banners on MSN Mobile. For every Rs 100 spent by advertisers, Rs 91 is spent on television and the print media. |
| Microsoft Launches HealthVault Be Well Fund. |
| Feb 25th, 2008. Microsoft today bolstered its commitment to improving people’s health through software innovation with the announcement of the Microsoft HealthVault Be Well Fund and request for proposals. The $3 million initiative is designed to empower providers with targeted funding to stimulate the research and development of online tools that improve health. |
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| The Microsoft HealthVault Be Well Fund is designed to assist academic and research health organizations in the creation of innovative online health applications for patients. |
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| Microsoft To Release Vista Update to block Grace Timer & OEM BIOS Cracks ! |
| Feb 22nd, 2008. Microsoft has announced an update, which will be pushed through WU, shortly, which will block Vista Cracks. One of the cracks refered to as Grace Timer, extended Vista's activation grace period, upto 2099. The other called as OEM BIOS, modified system files and the PC's BIOS to mimic the product activation done by computer-makers at the factory. |
"It's important to note that this update does not disable the exploits it finds," said Alex Kochis. "It simply alerts customers that exploits exist." At the same time it rolls out the crack-detection update, Microsoft will also post a separate removal tool for download, Kochis added. "In the future, we will integrate the removal of the exploits with the detection," he said. |
| Windows Live SkyDrive ... 5GB ... 38 Countries ... NOW ! |
| Feb 22nd, 2008. The SkyDrive team has announced that they are increasing the amount of free storage from 1 GB to 5 GB. With this new release of the service, some other improvements to the site have been made to make the service faster and more reliable too. |
| SkyDrive is also available now in 38 countries/regions. In addition to Great Britain, India, and the U.S., SkyDrive is live in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey. |
| Yahoo Buzz Launched. |
| Feb 28th, 2008. Yahoo has added a Digg 'kind of a' functionality to its site that will help highlight popular news, articles & blog posts. This will be based on Search Patterns & User Votes. |
| The Yahoo Buzz extension counts the 'BuzzScore' for news stories, videos, images and blog posts. A story's Buzz Score is based on your votes, searches, emails, and more. Content with the most votes is then considered for placement on Yahoo.com. Check out : Y! Buzz. |
| Google Gets Into Web Sites Building Business. |
| Feb 28th, 2008. Google, is aiming to become the go-to place for creating Web sites. It is taking its first step toward that goal, with the debut of a free service designed for high-tech neophytes looking for a simple way to share information with other people working in the same company or attending the same class in school. |
| With a few clicks, just about anyone will be able to quickly set up and update a Web site. All sites created on the service will run on one of Google's computers. Google acquired many of the Web-site tools when it bought a Silicon Valley startup, JotSpot, last year. The tools are the latest addition to a bundle of applications that Google offers to consumers and businesses as alternatives to similar products sold by Microsoft Corp., one of Google's fiercest rivals. Source: AssociatedPress and GoogleSites. |
| Microsoft HealthVault Unlocked ! |
| Feb 22nd, 2008. The Health Solutions Group is reinforcing its commitment to interoperability with the public disclosure of three things: |
| First, Microsoft is demonstrating our commitment to cross-platform development by establishing a set of open "wrapper" libraries that facilitate HealthVault development across a broad set of environments. |
| Second, over the next few months (late Spring) we will be releasing our complete .NET SDK on Codeplex under the Microsoft Reference License. |
| Finally, and most importantly, we will release the HealthVault platform XML interface protocols. More at Activewin. |
| Microsoft Makes Strategic Changes in Technology and Business Practices. |
| Feb 21st, 2008. Microsoft today announced a new initiative designed to open up its products and foster better interoperability with competing products and technologies. "These steps are designed to further increase the openness of our products and to drive great interoperability and choice for our partners and our competitors" said Ballmer. |
| There are 6 high-volume products that will be covered by this Interoperability Initiatives. Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007, and Office SharePoint Server 2007. Microsoft will make the APIs & communications protocols available for those products royalty & license free. Visit Microsoft Interoperability Website. |
| Microsoft adCenter Affiliate program to cease ! |
| Feb 21st, 2008. Google Adsense 'referral ad units', for non-US countries was stopped recently. Now comes the news that Microsoft adCenter Affiliate program too will cease to exist for non-US countries wef February 29th, 2008 ! Source. |
| The program was launched rather recently actually ! So I wonder what could be the reason !? ... Or maybe, the adCenter Affiliate Program is proposed to be integrated with Yahoo Publisher Network when, and if, they become one ! |
| Microsoft to Authorize Proxy Fight at Yahoo. |
| Feb 20th, 2008. In an escalation of its fight for Yahoo, Microsoft will authorize a proxy fight at the Internet company this week, people briefed on the matter told DealBook. Unless Yahoo quickly reverses course and enters into talks, Microsoft would then seek to nominate a slate of directors to Yahoo’s board by March 13, the final deadline for nominations, and pursue a lengthy campaign to oust the board. More at NYTimes. |
| Whether Microsoft intends to take its case to Yahoo shareholders, and maybe raise its offer in so doing, remains well within the company's rights. Nonetheless, Bill Gates has said that it does not intend to increase its offer ! |
| Microsoft DreamSpark. |
| Feb 19th, 2008. Bill Gates has unveiled a software giveaway program that will ultimately provide millions of college and high school students around the world with access to the latest Microsoft developer and designer tools at no charge to unlock their creative potential and set them on the path to academic and career success. |
| The Microsoft DreamSpark Student Program makes available, at no charge, a broad range of development and design software for download. The program is now available to more than 35 million college students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Source. |
| Yahoo Board Bucks Yang ! |
| Feb 18th, 2008. While Yahoo! chief Jerry Yang desperately seeks an alternative to Microsoft's $44.6 billion hostile takeover, an independent group of Yahoo!'s board members are taking the lead in shaping the company's future. The informal group is being led by Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock and includes other board members and billionaire Ron Burkle. |
| The independent committee is worried that the Yang group might act out of emotion rather than their fiduciary duty, thereby exposing the board to shareholder lawsuits. "The emotional part of Yang would rather do anything but sell to Microsoft, but he doesn't have the cards to come up with a value-creating, competitive alternative for shareholders." More at NYPost. |
| Microsoft to Launch Open Value Subscription Program in March 2008. |
| Feb 17th, 2008. Microsoft will be launching the Microsoft Open Value Subscription Program, on March 3rd, 2008, in both the U.S. and Canada. This is an exciting new offering for SMB Partners and customers in these countries! Microsoft products available through this program include Microsoft Office Small Business, Office Professional +, Windows Vista Business Upgrade, Small Business Server Client Access License (CAL), Core CAL, Desktop Professional Suite, and Small Business Desktop Suite. |
| The Microsoft Open Value Subscription Program provides a way for SMB customers to “subscribe” to the Microsoft software they want to utilize in their businesses in a “lease-like” fashion. This option provides the up-front cost-saving benefits of a lease-type model where they can pay to use the software for a set period of time with the flexibility to increase or decrease in size as their business size does year over year. At the end of the initial term, clients have the options to continue the subscription, buy out the subscription to own the licenses, or to end the subscription. It costs about a third of the license-only expense for the current licensing program open to small business. Download OVS. |
| Microsoft Launches New Versions Of Its Forums ! |
| Feb 16th, 2008. Microsoft has launched its forums in new Avatars! |
| Microsoft has been running forums & newsgroups, to provide community support for all its products. In fact, its these very forums that form the breeding ground for many of its MVP's, where they are among the top contributors ! |
| Initially, Microsoft used Community Server from Telligent to host its forums. But now, Microsoft is revamping the same, on to its own code. There seems to be an entire Community Platform emerging with blogs, tags, forums & wikis within Microsoft. The migration from the old to the new will be done in a phased manner. |
The new forums are available at:
http://forums.technet.microsoft.com/
http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com/
http://forums.community.microsoft.com/ |
| Microsoft launches MyBytes. |
| Feb 14th, 2008. Microsoft has launched an interactive Web site, MyBytes, where kids can develop their own intellectual property and assign usage rights by mixing music online to create a custom riff that they can download as a ringtone. |
| The site has been launched as a part of its “Intellectual Property Rights Education” initiative geared towards students. |
| Microsoft Launches Amalga. |
| Feb 14th, 2008. Microsoft today announced the Microsoft Amalga Family of Health Enterprise Systems. The Microsoft Amalga family of Enterprise Health Systems is built on Microsoft technology, offering a comprehensive range of solutions to meet the needs of your health enterprise. |
| LiveStation : Broadcasting Over Broadband. |
| Feb 13th, 2008. Livestation is a free software application that provides a range of live news television channels and radio stations that can be received on a computer anywhere with a basic broadband connection. You can watch television on your desktop, or on your laptop, at home, at work, on the move, or in a hotel room, provided you have a broadband internet connection or wireless access. |
| It is based on technology, Skinkers acquired from Microsoft, in exchange, giving the software giant a stake in its company. The player is based on Microsoft’s Silverlight and only available for Windows right now. LiveStation integrates Microsoft Silverlight with Skinker’s P2P technology to provide a good quality video. The Technical Trial for LiveStation is NOW open. |
| Yahoo formally rejects Microsoft offer ! |
| Feb 11th, 2008. Yahoo Inc. has formally rejected Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid as inadequate. The response had been expected after Yahoo's intentions were leaked over the weekend. |
| Many analysts expect Microsoft to raise its offer by $5 billion to $12 billion to entice Yahoo to sell. |
The decision could provoke a showdown between two of the world's most prominent technology companies with Internet search leader Google Inc. looming in the background. |
| Microsoft Responds to Yahoo! Announcement : It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties ..... The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal. |
| Windows Anytime Upgrade : Digital Distribution To End ! |
| Feb 11th, 2008. "In an effort to streamline the Windows Anytime Upgrade experience for our customers and open the program to additional markets worldwide, Microsoft and its partners have decided to end digital product key distribution on February 20, 2008." |
| With Windows Anytime Upgrade, customers could upgrade to another version of Vista by purchasing a digital product key. Microsoft has now decided to stop distributing product keys online. Those who now want to upgrade, will have to buy a Windows Anytime Upgrade Kit from a local retailer or from Microsoft. |
| Vista Patch, Is NOT Meant To Enhance The Compatibility Of A Rogue ! |
| Jan 13th, 2008. I have seen some talk, about how a Windows Vista Update/Patch KB943302, supposedly enhances the Program Compatibility for WinAntivirus Pro 2007 v5.0.356, a program considered as a Rogue ! |
| The Windows Vista Application Compatibility Update, being referred to may a little old, being dated Dec 2007, but it just appears to have been updated or reviewed on January 11th 2008. |
| However people seemed to have missed the point. The Article mentions that "...this update improves application compatibility in Windows Vista by implementing a block on the application, by providing a notification that the application is not Windows Vista-compatible, or by providing an update to improve functionality..." So in effect while the update will improve compatibility for legit programs it is planned to block some ! |
| Spread The Love ! |
| Feb 10th, 2008. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, enlist the help of the 'Love Family' ! 30 cool emoticons to make any heart beat faster. |
| Download these emoticons directly to your WL Messenger from MSN. |
| As was mentioned here earlier, you can also Create and send a Valentines Card using Silverlight. |
| Yahoo takes risk in rejecting Microsoft. |
| Feb 10th, 2008. Unshaken by a two-year losing streak, Yahoo is poised to take its biggest gamble yet by rejecting Microsoft's unsolicited bid to buy the slumping Internet icon for $44.6 billion. |
| Yahoo's board decided to spurn the takeover bid, originally valued at $31 per share, after concluding the company is worth substantially more. |
| Rejecting Microsoft also raises the risk of a disruptive takeover battle that could culminate with Yahoo's 10-member board being bounced from their jobs later this year. |
| Most analysts suspect Microsoft held back on its initial bid, knowing Yahoo would hold out for more money. Source : USA Today. |
| Yahoo! Live Launched ! |
| Feb 9th, 2008. Quietly, very quietly Yahoo has launched Y! Live. |
| "We’re excited to share with you Yahoo! Live, a new experiment in live video from the Advanced Products team at Yahoo!. Y! Live was dreamed up as a way to make it possible for anyone to create their own live video experience. Broadcast the concert you’re at. Webcast your own live DJ set. Lifecast. Build your own live video speed dating application. We’ve created a website and an API that lets you do all these things and many more." YLiveBlog. |
| Keep in mind that Y! Live is an experimental release. The Advanced Products team is a small incubation team at Yahoo! Visit Y! Live now. |
| Silverlight Game on miniclip.com |
| Feb 8th, 2008. Miniclip now has a Silverlight puzzle game on their site. Probably the first ! Its a pretty interesting game ! This game is built using Silverlight 1.0. Do check out Zombomatic ! Thanks meraTechPort. |
| Note : 15th Feb. 2008. One reader, musicman1968, has had this experience while visiting this site : "My kids went on the site in question and it tried to hijack my IE 7 browser, according to my PC Tools Spyware Doctor. So again I had another look, just in case it was wrong. While tryin' my Mozilla nothing happened; went back to IE7 and yes it was being attacked!" |
| Citigroup : Microsoft's Yahoo bid likely by year end. |
| Feb 7th, 2008. Microsoft's Yahoo bid may happen by year's end. Yahoo Options show that traders see 60 percent odds that Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid will be completed before January and a 37 percent likelihood before July, Citigroup said. |
| In an e-mail to employees, Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang said Yahoo has a "wide range" of strategic alternatives. The message was included in a regulatory filing today. He urged employees to stay focused as Yahoo pursues its "transformation strategy". |
| Google, Yahoo Going After Microsofts Outlook ! |
| Feb 6th, 2008. Business software units of Yahoo and Google are introducing beefed-up versions of their Web-based software that compete with Microsoft Outlook, offering yet another clue why Microsoft made a $45 billion unsolicited bid for Yahoo. |
| While Microsoft views Yahoo as its path into the lucrative Web advertising market dominated by Google, Tuesday's software announcements by Yahoo and Google demonstrate that Microsoft also needs to fend off potential challenges to its business software franchises. |
| Yahoo's new Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 5.0 allows users to read Microsoft Outlook e-mail alongside Yahoo Mail or Google's Gmail or Zimbra's own branded e-mail. Source: eWeek. |
| Left Vs. Right : A New Political Search Engine From Live Search. |
| Feb 3rd, 2008. Left Vs. Right is a new political search engine powered by Windows Live Search, designed for & by Political junkies, and ready for the 2008 American Presidential Elections ! |
| Microsoft doesn't recommend using vLite. |
| Feb 2nd, 2008. Microsoft has in an email to CNET said that : "Microsoft does not recommend using any tool to strip out applications from Windows Vista prior to installing it on your system, as it may affect your ability to download future Windows updates and service packs, and may cause your system to become unstable". |
| vLite is a tool for customizing the Windows Vista installation before actually installing it. With it one can choose to install only select components of the OS. |
| Microsoft Bids For Yahoo! Again. |
| Feb 2nd, 2008. Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft’s proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008. More at Microsoft Presspass. |
| Is Vista Really, Better, Faster, Safer !? |
| Jan 21st, 2008. When choosing a new operating system, the first thing many people ask is, "What will it help me do?" The second thing many people say is, "Prove that it's better." |
-The majority of Vista-based PCs boot in less than a minute, which can be an improvement over XP boot times.
-The vast majority of all Vista-based PCs resume from sleep in less than 6 seconds.
-Vista PCs that are equipped with 512 MB memory experience a performance boost of up to 40 percent with ReadyBoost.
-Out of the box, Vista performs as well, or better, than XP on common home and business tasks.
-Vista users generally experience 20 percent fewer application "hangs" than those running XP
-Superfetch helps your computer adjust to your schedule, so your apps are ready to go before you even launch them.
-Based on their first 180 days of availability, Vista has been shown to have fewer vulnerabilities than XP or MacOS X 10.4. Get the facts at Microsoft. |
| Windows Vista Market Share crosses 10%. |
| Jan 9th, 2008. Throughout 2007, according to reports by Net Applications, Vista managed to grab 10.48% market share. Windows XP lost 8.39%, Mac OS increased its market share by 3.15% while Linux increased by 0.26% its share of the OS market share in the same time period. At the end of December 2007, the share of major OS's are as follows: Windows XP - 76.91%, Windows Vista - 10.48%, Mac OS - 7.30%, Windows 2000 - 2.66%, Windows 98 - 0.70%, Linux - 0.63%. Source: Neowin. |
| Windows Vista Hits 100 Million Licenses. |
| Jan 7th, 2008. At the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and Microsoft President of the Entertainment & Devices Division Robbie Bach today unveiled several new entertainment services and partnerships, including new deals with Disney-ABC Television Group, NBC Universal and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), that demonstrate how software is improving people’s ability to connect with their favorite content and communities through new and expanded forms of entertainment experiences. |
| During the keynote, Gates talked about the ongoing transformation of the personal computer and he shared sales figures for Windows Vista that indicate that the PC and the Windows platform remains a central catalyst for the advances of the Digital Decade. According to Gates, the company has sold more than 100 million Windows Vista licenses to date. |
| “For more than 25 years, Windows has unlocked the power of personal computing,” Gates said. “Now we are expanding Windows to go where you want to go and do what you want to do on PCs, the Web and mobile devices. The result is connected experiences that extend across people’s lives, interests and communities, at home and at work.” Source: |
