Microsoft researchers are developing a new operating system that's designed from the ground up to support Internet-based computing and multicore architectures and which could one day replace the company's storied Windows franchise.
The operating system, which currently goes by the development name Midori, is being built to solve problems that are beyond the scope of Windows, a so-called fat OS that was first developed before the Internet came into widespread use and most PCs had only a single processor.
Microsoft's move into online services is shifting into the car.
The company says it will offer a version of its Live Search engine to automakers that use its entertainment and information technology system in cars and other vehicles. The technology will work via voice commands, on an in-car screen or a combination of the two, depending on what individual automakers decide.
It's the first in a series of online services to be offered by the company's Automotive Business Unit, said Velle Kolde, a Microsoft senior product manager. The unit has so far focused primarily on software for playing music and communicating from inside cars and other vehicles.
Microsoft is working on a way to combine all of its online services under a single Web page, rather than continue on with its confusing online presence involving multiple brands and services reached through many different portals. The change will happen along with a streamlining of the branding, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, in response to a question from an analyst during the company's annual analyst get-together on Thursday. Microsoft has been criticized for the introduction of the Live brand, which didn't fully replace the MSN brand, resulting in a confusing online presence for the company.
A beta release of Office Outlook Connector 12.1 adds syncing between Windows Live Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. As with previous versions, the connector will sync a user's Hotmail account and contacts with Microsoft's Office productivity suite. The addition of calendar support rounds out the service, and offers functionality akin to Apple's MobileMe.
Microsoft Office users could get calendar sync in previous versions, but this required a subscription above and beyond the free Outlook Connector download.Microsoft said the functionality works with Office Live and Windows Live Custom Domains, in addition to standard Windows Live accounts.
On August 24, 2001, Microsoft released to manufacturing the final version of Windows XP. 6 years and 11 months later, a new version of XP has gone gold, this time for the OLPC XO computer, also known as the "$100 laptop."Originally designed to run Linux, the OLPC XO laptop is targeted at developing nations and those too poor to afford proper computers for education. The device, which went on sale publicly in November for $200, features wireless connectivity, a built-in camera and a keyboard designed to change languages.
This year, the biggest crowd at lunch during Microsoft's analyst meeting was at CEO Steve Ballmer's table, with people standing two rows deep around the lucky few who actually scored a seat. In past years the honor would have gone to Bill Gates, who stopped working full time at the company last month. But although Gates wasn't at the meeting in person, at least one project that has been near and dear to his heart still made it into the presentations.
Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, showed off some futuristic ideas for a natural user interface -- one of Gates' favorite themes over the past few years. Mundie demonstrated a future application for Surface, Microsoft's multitouch tabletop computer.
There was a time when open source was the antithesis of everything that Microsoft stood for. But these days, that's no longer the case, it says.
Sam Ramji, senior director of platform strategy at Microsoft, took the stage here at OSCON, offering the promise of collaboration with the software giant while announcing a number of new, open source initiatives.
His biggest news is that Microsoft is joining the open source Apache Software Foundation as a platinum sponsor.
"We think this opens up a new chapter for Microsoft," Ramji said. "This is a big thing -- it's an endorsement of the Apache way."
It has to make you laugh out loud, unless of course you're one of those iHaters who was convinced that Windows Vista really was a piece of junk. Microsoft this week rounded up Windows XP users who professed to have negative impressions about Vista and put them in front of a "new" operating system, codenamed Mohave, showed off its new features, and then gauged their reactions. Over 90 percent of them loved it, which is really interesting, because Mohave is ... get this ... Windows Vista. Which just goes to show you, perception really does go a long way. A tip of the hat to CNET's Ina Fried for breaking the news on this one. It's just good stuff.
Microsoft on Thursday plans to delve deeper into Ruby programming, with plans to ship Ruby libraries and participate in a
testing project for the language.
The libraries are akin to any other software library, helping developers build software.
The company at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention also will announce intentions to participate in the RubySpec project, which features a standard test suite used to define a compliant Ruby implementation.
In a prepared statement, Microsoft's John Lam, program manager for the company's Dynamic Language Runtime team, stressed the
company's Ruby backing.
Microsoft and Facebook strengthened their existing partnership Thursday with the announcement that Microsoft would be powering the social network's Web search and sponsored links.
The announcement was made at Microsoft's annual financial analysts meeting in Redmond. Sources indicate the search services will be integrated into Facebook without many changes to the overall site design.
Facebook will begin using an API from Microsoft some time in the fall. The move mirrors a similar deal between Google and MySpace made almost two years ago. The search giant paid $900 million for MySpace's search box and ads.