Microsoft on Monday officially opened its San Antonio, Texas, data center, the latest in a string of giant facilities aimed at powering Microsoft consumer and business online services.
The company said the data center occupies nearly half a million square feet and cost $550 million to establish.
Microsoft touted some of the environmental features of the facility, including the fact that it is using 8 million gallons of recycled water per month as part of its cooling system.
Microsoft's downloadable Windows Live tools all got an update last week, but the "Wave 3" enhancements to its online services will take longer to crest.
The online tools, things such as Windows Live Skydrive, Windows Live Spaces, and so forth will all get updates in the coming weeks, though general manager Brian Hall declined to offer a specific timeline in an interview earlier Monday.
The new Windows Live Messenger beta lets you use a short video as your display picture, as well as change your display picture to match the emoticon you type. He did let slip that Windows Live Hotmail will be the first of the services to get an update--sometime this week.
At the High Performance on Wall Street conference, Microsoft's high performance computing honcho, Bill Laing announced Windows HPC Server 2008. Microsoft's goal is to take HPC mainstream and make Windows an alternative to Linux and Unix for HPC customers, particularly in the financial sector.
Underscoring the importance of the financial sector in the push to take high performance computing mainstream, Microsoft announced the release to manufacturing of its latest entry into the HPC arena, Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008, at the High Performance on Wall Street conference here.
Windows Vista has been a tragedy on many levels for Microsoft. First, it was marked with compatibility issues and annoyances with its User Access Control feature that started a firestorm of epic proportions. But once those issues improved, Microsoft ran into an even bigger issue: it wasn't able to satisfy vendors, nor was it able to satisfy the geeks.
And that's where the biggest issue with Vista really is. The technology space is looked at by many in the mainstream as a higher-level industry that simply can't be understood by the average person. Software? Hardware? Huh? Because of that, it's the geek that filters opinions and creates a trickle-down effect in the space. Let's face it--if you don't know what you're talking about and you know that your friend does, wouldn't you take their word for it at the least or verify what they're saying at the very most?
And speaking of things that have rocked the Apple world this week, imagine the shock over in Cupertino when the Apple promoters (sorry, "reviewers") at the "Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times" actually wrote this week that Microsoft's oft-ridiculed Zune MP3 player is, in fact, a better device for digital music than Apple's ubiquitous iPod. That these reviewers ape a call I've been making this week as well is A-OK, because it's a simple fact: Yes, the Zune may lack much of the niceties of the wider iPod ecosystem, which includes a much broader range of functionality than anything possible with the Zune. But when it comes to music, especially new music discoverability, the Zune is the place to be. Funny how things come around, isn't it? Apple has spent so much time turning the iPod into an uber mobile device that it's left its core music-listening demographic behind.
Relax, computer users, after only two weeks, Microsoft will stop teasing you as the company begins the next phase of an ambitious -- and risky -- $300 million campaign intended to make over its tarnished image.
The campaign, which begins Thursday and carries the theme "Windows. Life without walls," will move away from the enigmatic teaser commercials that featured Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in offbeat conversations about shopping, shoes, suburbia and the potential of computing to improve life.
A beta version of the next version of the Windows Live suite, the start of the so-called "Wave 3" Windows Live release, has leaked to the Web. The downloadable suite of applications shows advancements across the board and gives credence to rumors that Microsoft will continue debundling applications from its core Windows OS.
The new suite includes several major components, all of which are updated or new to this release. They are: Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Toolbar, Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Live Family Safety, Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.
InternetNews
Visual Studio 2008 is barely a year old and already Microsoft is discussing the next generation of its flagship developer toolkit, currently titled Visual Studio 10.
A lengthy blog post by a VS program manager sheds light on where the company is going with the next release, which has no release date as yet.
Visual Studio has moved well beyond just being a code compiler into assembling the many parts and components Microsoft has introduced over the years. This includes the .Net framework and the numerous frameworks used to build applications, as well as UI elements like Silverlight.
MCP Magazine
Microsoft won't say when the first public beta release of its Windows 7 operating system will occur, but some possible dates have been anonymously leaked. The successor OS to Windows Vista is currently undergoing private testing. That release to testers, plus two upcoming Microsoft events happening in the fall, may be driving the speculation.
Events where we might expect to hear more about Windows 7 include Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (Oct. 27 to 30) and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (Nov. 5 to 7), both to be held in Los Angeles.
Microsoft and Pioneer on Tuesday signed a cross-licensing agreement that covers a range of consumer and automotive products, including Microsoft software and Pioneer's TVs and auto navigation units, the companies said.
The agreement gives each company greater access to the other's patent portfolios and expand the relationship between the two companies to incorporate the patented technologies in their respective products, they said in a statement.The companies indicated that Microsoft will be paid a fee by Pioneer, although specific financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.