Bill Gates tells Charlie Rose and Stanford University audience at TechNet conference that 'we're at the beginning of something important again' in development of technology -- just as in the 1980s with the advent of the PC.
"Yes, it's later than we planned. But we want it to be right. It reminds me of when we released Windows 95 late that year, taking much longer than we planned. Its code-name had been Chicago. So when it finally came out, one of our competitors took out a full-page ad in the newspaper that read: "All Flights Are Late to Chicago."
Bill Gates knows that when it comes to the Zune, Microsoft has some catching up to do. The success of the iPod has been described as "phenomenal, unbelievable, fantastic." And that was just Gates talking about it on Wednesday.
But despite coming from behind, Gates thinks that Microsoft can win some pocket share for its own media player, over time. While today's music players are largely islands, the Microsoft chairman paints a picture of a future in which all manner of devices--from cars to music players to digital cameras--all share data.
Microsoft is expected to announce a strategic partnership with Sprint that would highlight the company's Windows Live offerings, BetaNews has learned. Sources close to Microsoft say the two companies would initially offer Redmond's Windows Live Search as early as Thursday, with additional services to come.
Sprint's implementation is believed to not only allow for searching of location-based results, but also to search Sprint's own catalog of services, including ring tones and the like. Additionally, targeted advertising opportunities would be available for businesses.
The Internet-based software for businesses, which offers features such as Web site building and hosting, e-mail accounts and customer management tools, became generally available in the United States on Wednesday morning. It had been in beta since February 15.
In addition to the free Basics version, Microsoft is selling premium versions with more services for a monthly subscription fee: Microsoft Office Live Essentials for $20 per month and Microsoft Office Live Premium for $40 per month. The software is available via the Office Live site.
Microsoft has until November 23 to provide European antitrust regulators with the technical documentation third parties require to make their products interoperate with Microsoft software.
The European Commission announced its deadline Wednesday, noting it has yet to receive "complete documentation" for technical information requested by EC in its March 2004 antitrust order against Microsoft. Among its stipulations, the order required the software giant to share protocol information with third parties, even rivals, so that their products could be designed to work with Microsoft's software.
Microsoft just can't seem to pull the plug on Software Update Services 1.0. The Redmond, Wash., company was all set to retire the patch distribution software on Dec. 6, 2006, but after listening to what it is described as "customer feedback," Microsoft has extended support for SUS 1.0 for another seven months.
The extension means that IT managers have until July 10, 2007, to migrate to WSUS, the new enterprise patch-management platform currently being beta tested.
Microsoft released WSUS to manufacturing in June 2005 and has spent the last few years prodding users to upgrade, but, for a myriad of reasons, patch management administrators have struggled to migrate.
Struggling to catch up in the wireless online advertising market, Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will launch a Wi-Fi pilot program to cover Portland, Ore. The advertising-supported service, to be deployed by MetroFi Inc., will be free for Portland residents and, Microsoft hopes, will give it a leg up on its search engine competitors.
Beginning next month when users log onto the service, they will be greeted by a Microsoft MSN screen as well as messages with a Portland orientation like weather forecasts, local news, and restaurant reviews. The service will deliver speeds of up to 1 Mbps downlink and 256 Kbps uplink. MetroFi will offer a faster and ad-free service for $20 a month.
Microsoft made several milestone announcements regarding its database products Wednesday at its SQL PASS conference in Seattle.
Among those milestones, the company released a community technology preview of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2. SP2 will provide support for data compression, additional business intelligence capabilities, and security updates relating to Common Criteria. It also includes manageability enhancements, as well as support for Windows Vista and Office 2007. The CTP for SQL Server 2005 SP2 is available here.
An increasing number of European Web hosting companies are moving part or all of their environments away from Linux and Unix and onto Microsoft Windows to facilitate faster development time, cost savings and more product offerings.
That is good news for Microsoft, which sees the Web hosting environment as a potential big growth area, particularly with regard to higher value services.
"We are looking at how we can enable these higher value services down the road. More than 90 percent of our revenue is driven by partners, so helping them deliver innovation to their customers helps us," Bill Hilf, Microsoft's general manager for platform strategy, said in a session at IT Forum here Nov. 15.
Microsoft's top executives stated their case Tuesday for the company's long-term growth prospects, while facing questions from investors on subjects including dividend plans, antitrust troubles and product strategy.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, speaking at Microsoft's annual shareholders meeting in Bellevue, expressed confidence that the company's emerging online and entertainment initiatives would serve as "new growth engines" in the future -- supplementing its traditional PC software and computer server businesses.