Microsoft said it will release Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server, its data warehouse and collaboration software, to manufacturing today.
Team Foundation Server lets developers match project management and software design to ensure that applications meet business requirements.
The software collects information on project history, including impact analysis, capacity planning and resource management, a spokesperson said in a statement.
To alleviate customer concerns about compliance and auditing, Team Foundation Server also lets companies collect information to create customized reports that help address the government regulations.
Microsoft and Epic Records announced an agreement to offer one year of free music and music videos to all Xbox 360 gamers, as part of its Xbox Live efforts. The service, which launched Thursday, will showcase 12 artists through the Xbox Live Artist of the Month program.
Users of the service will be able to download the featured music videos from the Xbox Live Marketplace and receive other benefits, such as artist interviews, that can be viewed from their Xbox 360 system. Details are not yet available on whether Microsoft plans to charge for the service after the one-year promotion is completed.
Microsoft said in a court filing Thursday that it is has taken new steps to meet obligations under its 2002 antitrust settlement with the U.S. government. A federal judge and prosecutors recently criticized the company for sluggishness in developing technical documentation for licensees of its Microsoft Communications Protocol Program, designed to assist third-party developers in building server software that works with Windows.
Microsoft said it had shipped prerelease versions of parsers, along with instructional materials, to each of its 26 licensees and had recruited additional technical support staff to field questions. It said it also had assigned additional engineers to addressing bugs in the ongoing parser development, which it hopes to release in final form by July.
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates on March 15 mocked a $100 laptop computer for developing countries being developed with the backing of rival Google Inc. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The $100 laptop project seeks to provide inexpensive computers to people in developing countries. The computers lack many features found on a typical personal computer, such as a hard disk and software.
"The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen," Gates said at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington.
In a move designed to attract the type of video gaming audience that would more typically choose a Nintendo device, Microsoft this week revealed the first in a series of Xbox 360 game titles that is aimed at children. Dubbed "Viva Pinata" (seriously), the game will be accompanied by a children's animated TV show, music, and more traditional toys. Microsoft calls it a "product collection."
"We're doing a fabulous job with first-person shooters [and] driving games," says Peter Moore, the corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business, Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "What we've not done well with in the first generation is to give a 10-year-old a real reason to buy an Xbox. That's what this is about."
If Paul Flessner and his SQL Server team have their way, traditional beta releases may soon be a thing of the past. And they aren't the only Softies who are pushing to overhaul the way Microsoft builds software to more closely emulate the open source process.
Consider the beta.
Beta testing has been the cornerstone of the software development process for Microsoft and most other commercial software makers for as long as they've been writing software. But if certain powers-that-be in Redmond have their way, betas may soon be a thing of the past for Microsoft, its partners and its customers.
Microsoft is going public with some of the hacking information discussed at its Blue Hat Security Briefings event. On Thursday, just days after the end of its third Blue Hat conference, the software vendor posted the first blog entries at a new Web site.
Microsoft is also promising to publish more details on the secretive invitation-only event.
The Web site will include Microsoft staffer's "reflections on BlueHat 3" as well as photos, podcasts, and video interviews with some of the presenters, said Security Program Manager Kymberlee Price in a blog posting. "We sincerely hope that our BlueHat 3 speakers (and BlueHat 1 & 2 speakers) will post their comments to the site as well and share their BlueHat experience," she wrote.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates sketched out a vision for the future in which a cell phone will become a "digital wallet," able to get e-mail and even scan business cards, while computers and TVs will merge.
Microsoft, the world's largest computer software maker, also wants to "redefine the way that citizens think about how they work with government and how efficient communication takes place," Gates told about 300 political, business and academic leaders from Canada, Latin America and the United States at the company's Government Leaders Forum.
Microsoft released more details of its VoIP plan for Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Search and Windows Live Messenger.
Microsoft said in a statement it plans to enable Windows Live Mail customers to right-click on their contacts' names in order to start a PC-to-PC or PC-to-phone voice or video conversation.
They are also planning on enabling some Windows Live Search customers to place a call to a search result directly from their PC.
Working with partners, including Royal Philips Electronics NV and Uniden America, Microsoft said it also plans to introduce new phones that connect to PCs, allowing consumers to make PC-to-PC and one-way, PC-to-phone calls using Windows Live Messenger.
Microsoft announced a $500 million marketing initiative Thursday aimed at competing with IBM for corporate spending on information technology.
In doing so, Microsoft continues on its traditional course of persuading businesses to spend money on desktop-bound software, even as rivals are emphasizing more Web-oriented applications that aren't as firmly tied to Microsoft's Windows operating system.
The $500 million, to be spent over a year to buy ads and expand its sales force, is the largest business-oriented marketing campaign ever for the company, said Jeff Raikes, president of the business division.