Computer users have grown accustomed to checking appointments, e-mail and other information on regular PC screens. But a new Microsoft technology will let people see that kind of content on a closed laptop lid, as well.
Not to mention a TV remote control. And maybe even a watch, or a refrigerator door.
The technology, Windows SideShow, can send snippets of information from a computer to a variety of small, secondary screens. The key question: How many people really want to tap into their computers that way?
A new IDC report on the impact of Windows Vista on the industry claims Microsoft's business partners stand to benefit more financially from the operating system than Microsoft itself will in 2007.
According to the report on the U.S. economic impact of Vista, for every one dollar Microsoft makes on Vista in 2007, Microsoft partners that offer software, hardware, and services related to Vista will make $18.
New PCs Get Vista First
"If there's a surprising thing to people, it's how extensively a Microsoft piece of software ripples out through the ecosystem," said John Gantz, one of the IDC analysts who wrote the report. "Microsoft, as a software vendor, casts a bigger shadow than its revenues."
IDC analysts Al Gillen and Marcel Warmerdam co-wrote the report, released today, which was commissioned by Microsoft.
Microsoft released Exchange Server 2007 to manufacturing yesterday, according to a late-day post on the Microsoft Exchange Team blog.
Also available: Evaluation copies of Exchange Server 2007 and Forefront Security for Exchange Server.
Microsoft launched the products last week, along with Office 2007, SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows Vista. Microsoft also offers evaluation copies of Office 2007 from the Office Online Website and Windows Vista through the Microsoft Developer Network.
Also yesterday, Microsoft released several updates for Exchange Server 2003: Migration Wizard for Lotus Notes, Connector for Lotus Notes and an update for correcting Outlook Web Access problems related to Internet Explorer 7.
Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard Co. and other high-tech companies are preparing to push for data-privacy legislation next year to replace what they consider an outdated patchwork of state and federal laws that are inconsistent and burdensome.
"We think the time has come for a comprehensive privacy bill that would protect consumers' personal information while still allowing the flow of information needed for commerce online," Ira Rubinstein, a Microsoft lawyer, said this week.
An Xbox 360 owner has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging that his video-game console and many others were rendered unplayable by an update to the company's online system.
The complaint, filed on behalf of California resident Kevin Ray, says Microsoft isn't properly paying the shipping costs to repair or replace consoles damaged by the update. Those costs, it says, can run as high as $140.
Microsoft acknowledges that there was a problem with the initial version of the Oct. 31 update, before it was resolved and redistributed the next day. The company says that, contrary to the suit's assertion, it is paying shipping costs to fix or replace all Xbox 360s affected by the initial problem.
Microsoft has released its Microsoft Developer Network Wiki for developers.
In a blog post on Dec. 7, S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft's developer division, said Microsoft has unveiled a release candidate of MSDN Wiki, which is part of the MSDN Library.
MSDN Wiki is an effort to enable developers to help write documentation for Microsoft's developer tools and products. The goal of the effort is to deliver Microsoft developer documentation through a wiki format.
The benefits of wikis are being widely recognized, and they are spreading in enterprises. Click here to read more.
Microsoft and newly merged Alcatel-Lucent have partnered to deliver Internet-based television technology to Singapore Telecommunications
, the companies said Thursday.
But it's not business as usual: the two partners could be headed to court over alleged patent infringements and, depending
on the outcome of their dispute, may choose to go their separate ways.
SingTel is the second Asian carrier to test Microsoft's IPTV software, bringing the total number
of operators either trialing or commercially deploying the technology to 16.
Hackers are distributing a file that they say lets users of the corporate version of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system get around the software's anti-piracy mechanisms.
Windows Vista must be "activated," or authorized by Microsoft, before it will work on a particular machine. To simplify the task of activating many copies of Vista, Microsoft offers corporate users special tools, among them Key Management Service, which allows a company to run a Microsoft-supplied authorization server on its own network and activate Vista without contacting Microsoft for each copy.
As businesses start to kick the tires on Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007, and consumers get ready to gear up for Vista in particular, Microsoft understandably is preparing for the inevitable onslaught of support calls.
The company recently provided a summary of what it has been doing to prepare for that mayhem. Over the past year, Microsoft?s Customer Service and Support organization has revamped its infrastructure and processes, tailored support information to better meet customers? needs, improved its online support options and expanded its global availability, according to statements posted online.
Two tower cranes on the Microsoft campus were shut down Wednesday after a crane operator found a weld on one that didn't appear to be fused properly, a company spokesman confirmed.
The cranes were working on buildings in the first phase of a $1 billion expansion on the company's Redmond campus. One crane was working on Building 99, on the northeast corner of 148th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 36th Street.
"At no time did they feel there was a safety issue," spokesman Lou Gellos said.
Both cranes are new, he said. GLY Construction Inc., the general contractor on the site, will oversee an inspection of both cranes today.