One of Microsoft's lead intellectual property law firms has asked the United States Patent & Trademark Office to open a new reexamination of the Eolas patent.
The Eolas patent covers "a system allowing a user of a browser program on a computer connected to an open distributed hypermedia system to access and execute an embedded program object." Eolas Technologies, the tiny University of California spin-off that received U.S. Patent No. 5,838,906 in 1998, claims that it covers plug-ins, Java applets, scriptlets and Microsoft's ActiveX Controls.
Microsoft has big plans for the trusty old C:\ prompt. For its upcoming Windows Vista operating system, the company is developing a new command-line interface, or shell--the text-based controls typically accessed by clicking Command Prompt in Windows XP.
Code-named Monad, the new shell will enable a host of new programs known as scripts--something at which rival Unix operating systems have historically excelled. While these new commands and scripts will interest primarily administrators and power users, less-technical types may benefit from Monad scripts that could circulate on the Internet as Unix scripts do. For example, a Monad script might quickly reorganize files and directories based on their name or creation date--a task that can take a fair bit of manual labor in Windows Explorer.
Feeling lucky? Microsoft is offering a fun contest in which you guess the date it will launch Windows Vista during 2006. Winners will receive an exclusive invitation to the launch event with all expenses paid, and the company is offering various Xbox 360 related prizes as well. Find out more at the Microsoft Web site.
With a wave of new products on the way, this is the year that Microsoft has been talking about for years.
But will the company's big bets pay off? That's the question as Microsoft seeks to launch new versions of Windows and Office, get a head start in the game console business, come from behind in portable media, improve its foothold in the living room, get its software onto more mobile devices, turn its unprofitable divisions into moneymakers, counter the rise of Google, and readjust -- again -- to the challenges of the online world.
When Microsoft says that the next version of Office is the most important revision in over a decade, it's not kidding. Both new XML-based default file formats and a major interface revamp are intended to make the market-dominating productivity suite more flexible and accessible than ever. Veteran users may find the changes in the new version, code-named Office 12, unsettling, but they seemed well worth the adjustment in my tests of the first beta release. The final edition is slated to ship sometime in 2006.
The rest of the world calls them contractors, temps or contingent workers. But among the rank and file at Microsoft, they're known by the color of their badges.
Wu is trying to do something about it. He has launched an online forum, OrangeBadges.com, that is one of two new efforts to bring together Microsoft contractors, people who work temporary stints at the company. But unlike other initiatives among Microsoft contractors, organizers of both groups say they aren't trying to create unions.
Several Web blogs and Web sites Tuesday reported that Lenovo, known for its ThinkPad laptops, will be releasing a smartphone based on Windows Mobile 5.0 in March.
The report originated with a Chinese-language site called PhoneDaily. The site said that the Lenovo ET980 will support GPRS, be able to play MP3 files and will have a MiniSD slot for additional storage. It also reportedly will have a 4 megapixel camera.
In addition, the site says the device will measure 110 by 20 by 60 millimeters. Other sites reported that the device will run on a 312 MHz processor and have 64 MB of internal RAM. The device reportedly will be available in China, Japan and Korea. There was no mention of when or whether the device will be available in North America or Western Europe..
The state government official who had been moving Massachusetts away from Microsoft's digital document formats has resigned. Peter Quinn, Chief Information Officer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will quit his position, effective Jan. 9, according to an internal memo obtained by the IDG News Service.
Quinn had been behind a drive to change state computers so that they would no longer store documents in proprietary formats such as those used by Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes.
MSN Messenger users who may think they're getting a sneak peak at the latest version of Microsoft's instant messaging client are in for a nasty surprise, a Finnish security firm warned Tuesday. A variation of the Virkel instant messaging virus has been circulating amongst MSN users, posing as a leaked beta version of MSN Messenger 8, according to F-Secure
The virus uses the MSN Messenger client to send download links to all of an infected user's contacts, and connects the user's machine to a second "botnet" server, which could then could be used to install unauthorized software on the machine. Victims are being infected by clicking and installing the BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE file that is being distributed via these download links, F-Secure said.
Users of Microsoft's upcoming Outlook "12" will be able to monitor Really Simply Syndication feeds from within the e-mail client,
according to a Microsoft official's Weblog.
RSS is an XML-based syndication protocol that has been gaining in popularity in recent years as more news sites add feeds to send information updates to subscribers and with the explosion of Weblog usage.
Outlook doesn't currently have its own RSS aggregator and reader. So third-party developers have come out with an array of readers, including Outlook plugins like NewsGator, Attensa and IntraVnews, which let users access RSS feeds from within Microsoft's e-mail client.