Windows Live Image Search and a new social-bookmarking project are among the agenda items on the Microsoft Research Faculty docket.
Microsoft will show off some of its Windows Live search projects at the annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit next week.
On July 17 and 18, Microsoft researchers, product group engineers and architects and invited academic researchers from around the world will convene in Redmond, Wash., to discuss everything from bioinformatics and e-science, to nomadic computing and mesh networking.
Think of it as Antitrust 2.0 -- a new generation of potential legal problems for Microsoft But this time, the company says it wants to resolve them in advance.
Microsoft has faced past legal challenges for incorporating programs into Windows to browse the Web and play digital media. Now, as the company prepares the first full Windows upgrade in five years, rivals and regulators are focusing on new areas of the PC operating system.
European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, announcing a $357 million antitrust fine against Microsoft last week, reiterated that the commission is also looking at Windows Vista, the new version in development.
On July 27, Intel will unveil its Core 2 Duo microprocessor, a release that puts the final nail in the coffin of the venerable Pentium line of processors. Compared to the Pentium-based chips they replace, the Core 2 Duo chips offer better performance and lower power consumption. More important, they even outperform AMD's well-regarded microprocessors, a feat that Intel hasn't been able to accomplish in years. The desktop oriented version of the Core 2 Duo, codenamed Conroe, will be the big focus of the July 27 launch. But Intel is also planning Core 2 Duo processors for notebook computers and servers, which are due in August and September, respectively. Could Intel be staging a sudden comeback? I think they just might.
Microsoft partners won't see much, if any, new revenues from Microsoft's growing Live family of services in the next year. But throughout the coming decade, the Live tide will transform the kinds of products and services that Microsoft and its partners will be selling, according to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer described Live as "all about using the Internet to remake the software business itself."
Ballmer included as part of his presentation a demonstration of a couple of new Live services. The Dynamics Live CRM demo received the most applause during his remarks. Another new service about which Ballmer offered very little information -- a service known alternatively as both "Windows Live Search Center" and Windows Live OneView -- will go to beta later this month, Ballmer said.
Microsoft released a new version of its operating system for businesses this week that extends the life of older PCs
by effectively turning them into thin-client computers.
Called Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, the software is offered only to customers on Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing
and maintenance program. It's not a full-featured OS, but it improves the security and manageability of PCs for customers
with systems that are too old for Windows XP and who aren't ready yet to upgrade their hardware, Microsoft said.
Palm will collaborate with Vodafone Group PLC and Microsoft to create a new smart phone, the device maker said
on Thursday.
The Treo phone will operate on Vodafone's 3G network and will run Windows Mobile 5.0. It will be aimed at enterprise customers
who will be able to receive push e-mail on the phone.
Palm said the Treo will initially be offered to Vodafone customers in countries including the U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy
and the Netherlands before the end of the year.
Researchers at Microsoft have developed a tool to scrub search engines of major Web sites that pollute search results and ultimately help clean the Web of spam.
Called Strider Search Defender, the tool is designed to dig out Web pages that are a front for spam Web sites, according to a paper published by Microsoft researchers on Thursday. These Web pages typically reside on blogging sites and other services that provide free Web space, the researchers said.
Spammers soil the Web with countless links to their spam fronts in order to gain a higher ranking in search engines. "By cleaning up Web search, hopefully we can discourage spammers from cluttering the Web with spam," Yi-Min Wang, principal researcher at Microsoft, said in an interview.
Branch office rarely if ever have quite the resources of headquarters, but Microsoft wants to help fill the technology resources gap. Microsoft has launched the Branch Infrastructure Promotion, a collection of server technologies meant for the remote office where IT support is typically minimal to non-existent.
The Branch Infrastructure Promotion includes Windows Server 2003 R2, Internet Security and Acceleration Server, Virtual Server 2005 R2 and System Center System Management Licenses, sold at a 10 percent discount on the total value of solution.
November 1998:The EU's antitrust agency looks into a complaint from Sun Microsystems that claims Microsoft had failed to provide information needed by the Solaris operating system to interoperate with PCs running Windows.
August 2000: European Commission formally charges that Microsoft withheld technical information from rivals so it could dominate the server software market.
August 2001: Commission levels second charge at Microsoft -- that it violates antitrust laws by tying its Windows Media Player with the OS in an attempt to freeze out RealNetworks' RealPlayer -- and merges it with the server accusation of the year before.
Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner kicks off Thursday's sessions with the opening keynote at the software company's partner conference in Boston. Turner sat down recently at the company's Redmond, Wash. headquarters with CRN Editor Heather Clancy, Industry Editor Barbara Darrow, Senior Writer Paula Rooney and Senior Editor Stacy Cowley.
Turner, who joined the software giant nearly a year ago after 20 years with Wal-Mart, talked about the company's "People Ready" campaign, how it applies to partners, and other topics. Edited excerpts follow.