Microsoft's Business Solutions unit and its partners are testing new Web-service add-ons to Microsoft's enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications by making code available under various Microsoft Shared Source licenses.
Microsoft quietly has been posting these add-ons to work spaces on its GotDotNet source-code hosting site since fall. Like the MSN business unit, MBS is testing potential new products and code samples by sharing them via "Sandbox" test sites, company officials said.
As rumors unfurl about a new gadget upcoming from Microsoft, the company's Origami Project is starting to take shape as a very small tablet computer, one perhaps affordable enough to appeal to mainstream consumers.
The concept, which Microsoft plans to detail next month, is built on top of the Windows XP operating system but aims to be a new kind of device, rather than a replacement for existing PCs, according to sources familiar with the effort. With a screen bigger than that of a handheld but smaller than a notebook PC screen, Origami devices won't fit in the pocket, but they'll make it into purses and even the smallest of backpacks, sources said.
For the past few months, little noticed by the outside world, a team on Microsoft's Redmond campus has been running tests with one of the swankiest machines ever to use the company's software.
Rather than sitting on a desk, this piece of hardware gets parked in a garage.
It's a 2006 Alfa Romeo 159, and it represents a new step in Microsoft's effort to spread its technology beyond personal computers. At the Geneva Auto Show this week, Fiat Auto plans to announce the availability of an in-car entertainment and information system that uses Microsoft software in four upcoming Alfa Romeo and Fiat models.
Microsoft hopes to quadruple Internet advertising sales within three years using technology that links ad purchases among online products, including MSN search and Xbox games.
Microsoft, which trails rivals Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. in Internet ad sales, is testing software called adCenter that will sell and display promotional links next to MSN search results. The software also will be used to sell ads in computer games and on the Microsoft home page, Joanne Bradford, a Microsoft corporate vice president, said in an interview.
Microsoft on Friday responded to a written report filed by the South Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) that outlines the agency's December 2005 decision to fine the company and order it to offer two different versions of Windows in South Korea.
The FTC's decision, made last December, is not supported by facts and if it is allowed to stand it will have "a negative effect on Korean consumers and Korean innovation," Microsoft said.
Microsoft is appealing the FTC's ruling, in which the agency fined Microsoft 33 billion won ($32 million) and ordered the company to offer a version of Windows without Windows Media Player and Microsoft's instant messaging software. The company also must include links to Web sites that allow consumers to download media player and messaging software from competitors in the version of Windows that includes the software.
And I thought these guys were good only for making video game microprocessors. This week, IBM researchers described a new method of microprocessor creation that will result in chips less than one-third the size of today's microprocessors. The new microprocessors will be denser, storing far more data in the same amount of space as today's chips. You'll see hardware become smaller, better performing, and cooler running. However, remember we're talking about IBM, where there's a big gap between research and real-world applicability. It will be interesting to see which companies actually best take advantage of this technique.
Microsoft is testing a new Web-based service that will allow parents to control their children's online activity and block access to sites that are not appropriate for kids.
Several Microsoft-watcher blogs, such as Liveside.net and Neowin.net have reported that a service called Windows Live Family Safety Settings is currently in beta. The service allows parents to monitor, control and filter online activity by creating specific accounts for their children, according to an e-mail invitation to the beta of the service posted on Neowin.net.
Microsoft's Windows program became the top-selling operating system for running the server computers that anchor corporate networks and Web sites for the first time in 2005, according to market research company IDC.
Windows servers accounted for $17.7 billion in sales, passing the $17.5 billion garnered by the Unix operating system sold by companies including Sun Microsystems Inc. Unix has been No. 1 for more than a decade, IDC said Wednesday.
The worldwide server market rose 4.4 percent to $51.3 billion in 2005, its highest level in five years, IDC said. Demand for servers that use processors to run personal computers is fueling the growth of Windows and Linux operating systems.
Microsoft is is no hurry as it evaluates China for a possible launch of the Xbox 360, the company official in charge of the game console for the region said Thursday.
";We're working with the government pretty actively in trying to understand what it is we need to do," said Alan Bowman, general manager of entertainment and devices for Asia Pacific and Greater China. "We're taking a very careful approach in China." He was speaking ahead of the launch Friday of the Xbox 360 in South Korea. Similar launches are planned for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore on March 16.
Microsoft's soon-to-be-released Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server initially will be limited in how users can access it over the Internet, according to a Microsoft blogger.
Due in March, the product will provide collaboration as part of the company's Visual Studio 2005 Team System ALM (application lifecycle management) platform. Upon its release, Team Foundation Server will support Integrated Windows Authentication, allowing for access via Windows credentials.
"Integrated Windows Authentication is an ideal choice for most deployment scenarios in a corporate environment, but it is not an optimal choice in Internet scenarios, due to limitations resulting from proxy servers, firewalls, and trusted connections," said Rob Caron, content architect for Visual Studio 2005 Team System.