A judge in Iowa's Polk Country District Court granted preliminary approval on Wednesday to a settlement in one of the last
class-action lawsuits faced by Microsoft in the wake of the antitrust case brought by the U.S. government in the 1990s.
The agreement dismisses antitrust and damage claims that had been raised in the Iowa case, which could have amounted to $1
billion or more, according to Microsoft.
"This case concerned issues that have long since been resolved, and we're very pleased to put this chapter behind us and to
focus on the future," said Rich Wallis, associate general counsel for Microsoft, in a statement.
Microsoft and PC maker Lenovo said Wednesday that they will build a joint research and development lab in China, marking the first time that the software maker has built such a facility with another company.
The center will focus on technologies for the China market and concentrate in two areas: mobile devices and on ways to build products on top of Microsoft's software.
"Today's announcement signifies another step in Microsoft's continuing efforts to build stronger collaborations with local partners, and foster a flourishing innovation ecosystem in China," Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie said in a statement.
After years of being decked out in monochromatic stripes, the bar code is going color. The bar code has already undergone some changes. Though the standard, striped variety is still ubiquitous on supermarket goods, two-dimensional bar codes have become commonplace on shipping labels, airline boarding passes and all over the place in Japan.
Now, Microsoft is hoping to take things a step further by adding color to the mix. "We use color to store more information," said Gavin Jancke, director of engineering for Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., research labs. Jancke is the creator of the new bar code format, which uses either four or eight hues to pack more data into less space. The new bar code also uses small triangles, as opposed to the squares used in the 2D black and white bar codes and the alternating thin and thick lines used in traditional UPC symbols.
Microsoft, as part of its outreach to the open-source community, has released a new official Windows Media Player plug-in
for Firefox 2.0 that resolves problems with the older one.
The plug-in enables Windows Media Player to work on Firefox for Windows Vista and resolves known issues with the old one,
wrote Hank Janssen, the program manager for Port 25, Microsoft's software lab that works with open source, on a company blog Monday.
The plug-in, available on Firefox's add-on site, is compatible with the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the XP SP2 and Vista OSes.
Microsoft has added several new messaging offerings to its latest Action Pack.
Eric Ligman, a Microsoft manager for the Small Business Community Engagement, wrote in a blog posting that Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 64-bit and Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager have been included in the April Action Pack shipment.
Action Packs are software bundles available to members of the Microsoft Partner Program. Aimed primarily at small businesses, Action Packs are not-for-distribution software that offer partners thousands of dollars of software at enormous discounts.
A New York-based company that is one of a handful developing fuel cells for consumer electronics devices says it has started commercial production of a fuel cell-based recharger for Microsoft
Medis Technologies Ltd. produced the first Microsoft-branded rechargers on Friday, it's CEO, Robert Lifton, said in an interview with IDG News Service.
"It's the first commercial sale for our company and we believe the first commercial sale in quantity for the industry," he said.
Fuel cells produce electricity through a chemical reaction, typically involving methanol, however Medis says its devices use a proprietary alkaline fuel. One day researchers hope to fit fuel cells inside products like cell phones and music players enabling the devices to be recharged in much the same way a lighter is replenished with a squirt of fuel.
Microsoft has consolidated some of its efforts to help Web hosting companies offer software-as-a-service into a new program tailored for offerings to independent software vendors.
The Microsoft SAAS Incubation Center Program is set to debut Monday. The program provides both infrastructure and services that Web-hosting companies can offer to ISVs to help them turn their applications into SAAS offerings, said Michael van Dijken, a marketing manager in Microsoft's communications division.
Microsoft already gives hosting companies infrastructure and services to help them offer SAAS enablement. The new program puts some of those offerings under one umbrella for Web hosters, and tailors them specifically to turning ISVs into SAAS providers, he said.
Microsoft has given a go-to-market name for its cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in for delivering the next generation of user experiences and rich Internet applications for the Web. The technology formerly known as WPF/E is now known as Silverlight.
Microsoft announced Silverlight at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas on April 16. The NAB announcement highlights Silverlight uses for media users. The software company will announce further details about the technology at its own Mix07 conference, which starts at the end of April and runs through May 2 in Las Vegas.
Google has agreed to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash, an acquisition that strengthens Google's status as an online
advertising powerhouse.
DoubleClick's network of advertisers and Web publishers, as well as its technology to serve ads and manage campaigns, is expected
to boost Google's ad business, specifically for display and rich media advertising, which aren't Google's specialties.
Google generates most of its revenue from search engine, pay-per-click advertising, which are text ads that link to advertisers'
Web sites, but it has lagged behind Yahoo and others in banner, graphical, and video ads.
Will Microsoft Profit from Office 2007 and Vista?
Goldman Sachs expects Microsoft Business Division to generate more revenue during fiscal 2007, which ends on June 30, than Windows client -- 31 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
"About 40 percent of Office revenues are from fully packaged product and volume license agreements, 40 percent are from annuity contracts, and 20 percent are from OEM sales, compared with about 5 percent, 15 percent, and 80 percent for [Windows] client revenues, respectively," Friar wrote.