Microsoft and the Department of Justice have formally requested that the final judgment issued in the U.S. antitrust litigation against the software giant be modified.
The proposed changes will reflect the two-year extension of the provisions related to Microsoft's licensing program for communications protocols in the Windows desktop operating system.
A joint motion in this regard was submitted on Aug. 30 in the latest of a series of Joint Status Reports to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who issued the final consent decree in 2002.
Microsoft on Tuesday launched in beta Windows Live QnA, a search engine that lets users ask and answer questions, and then vote on the best response.
Other features in the new service include a tagging system that enables users to attach their own keywords and phrases to their questions to make them easier to find by others. Questions with adult content can also be tagged to keep them away from people who don't want it.
The service has been integrated with Spaces, Microsoft's blogging service, so bloggers can list questions they have asked and answered. In addition, the service offers notification via email when someone has answered a person's question, or when others have voted on a best answer.
And just like that, Windows Vista rebounds. Years of delays, broken promises, and reduced expectations have dogged the Windows product team, which has been portrayed as hapless, indecisive, and unable to ship products. But the recent release of a surprisingly good Vista pre-Release Candidate 1 (pre-RC1) build, combined with internal information about the expected completion today of the actual Vista RC1 build that will ship in early September, suggests that the doomsayers suddenly have a lot less to talk about.
Slightly later than planned, Microsoft on Wednesday released a trial version of a free parental-control tool for Windows XP.
Windows Live OneCare Family Safety is designed to help keep Web content that parents deem inappropriate from reaching their children. The beta version of the tool, available to the general public, updates an earlier preview version of the tool made available to about 3,000 testers in March.
"Child safety parental control is really a top-of-mind issue. It just keeps getting bigger with all the coverage around social networking and MySpace and things like that," said Alan Packer, a product unit manager at Microsoft. "There was an expectation from our customers that we should be doing more to help keep them safer online."
'Agora,' the soon-to-be-unveiled one-stop shop for Windows Live services, is expected to take its cues from Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace. Expect some kind of 'points' system, plus third-party and/or user-developed services to be part of the new site.
Microsoft is expected to field a public beta of its new "Windows Live Marketplace" site, possibly as early as August 28.
Code-named "Agora" ? the Greek term for "marketplace," the new one-stop shop may supersede the current "Windows Marketplace" site, according to information from Liveside.Net.
Microsoft on Tuesday made available for public download 100,000 copies of a "pre-Release Candidate 1" of Windows Vista hoping to enlist the aid of additional beta testers to swat down any last-minute bugs.
The latest beta version, which Microsoft released to a small number of beta testers last week, will only be on the company's site until the 100,000 limit is reached.
"Our goal in offering this build publicly is to help identify and track issues before RC1 is designated for release," according to Nick White, a Vista product manager, in posting an entry on the group's blog. "Despite being so close to the actual release date of RC1, the download, installation and usage feedback you send us on this build is still extremely important; otherwise, we'd not be spending resources on this interim build," he wrote.
Amazon.com has posted pre-order prices for Windows Vista that also claim the new operating system will be available on Jan. 30, 2007. Tuesday, the e-tailer confirmed that it got the prices from Microsoft price sheets, but said that the delivery date was its own estimate "based on conversations with both Microsoft and others."
Analysts said that the date was probably on the money.
According to Amazon, the retail versions of Windows Vista will ship the second-to-last day of January, with prices set to range from $99.95 for the Home Basic upgrade to $399 for the full version of Ultimate. As of mid-day Tuesday, the pre-order listings remained viewable on Amazon.
Microsoft's answer to Apple's iPod will be built by Toshiba, the software company confirmed Friday.
The gadget, which will be one of the products marketed under Microsoft's "Zune" brand, will let people share songs, photos, music playlists and other content with others via a wireless connection. One feature will allow a person to act
as a DJ, sending music to up to four other devices.
Toshiba's role was disclosed Thursday when the electronics company filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission. Kyrsa Dixon, a spokeswoman for one of Microsoft's public relations firms, confirmed Friday that Toshiba will make
the device.
Microsoft's latest Windows Live offering is for the most part not a new service at all, but rather a one-time download that includes a subset of the available Live applications, much like the Google Pack.
Called Windows Live Essentials, the program also features a new application called Windows Live Dashboard. The Dashboard would show the user what Live programs are installed and what is available for download, rather than requiring the user to visit the Windows Live Ideas Web site.
Microsoft late Thursday began distributing the newest build of Windows Vista to a select circle of testers. The new version, dubbed "Pre-RC1" by the Redmond, Wash. developer, immediately got the thumbs-up from several prominent Windows enthusiast sites.
Officially pegged as Build 5536.16385, the preview of Release Candidate 1 marks significant progress toward the final, Microsoft claimed. "We have made a lot of progress since Beta 2 and 5472, and we think you will notice the quality improvements that we've been seeing in the daily builds," wrote Nick White, a Vista program manager, on the group's blog.