Microsoft will soon ship a free add-on for Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005 that will let you access your Hotmail account from your TV screen. Why anyone would want to do this is unclear--we only have to point to the weak MSN Messenger client in MCE 2005 as proof that text-based applications don't translate well to the Media Center environment. But heck, this is Microsoft, so the add-on will only let you read email, not respond to it, delete it, or edit new email. Why not just turn it into a screensaver? That makes about as much sense.
Microsoft has pulled back from a plan to exclude rival media players from portable music devices using its software. Details of the plan--and the reversal--were contained in a quarterly status report that Microsoft and the Department of Justice filed on Thursday with the federal judge that oversees the company's landmark antitrust settlement.
Microsoft has been trying to find ways to make portable music players that run its software compete better in a market dominated by Apple Computer's iPod player and companion iTunes software. Under the program Microsoft had proposed, device makers that included a CD with Windows Media Player and other software would have had to agree not to include any other software, including rival media players.
Microsoft announced a seven-figure sponsorship deal Thursday with the owners of Wembley Stadium in London, home of the England national soccer team.
The five-year deal makes Microsoft the stadium's first "founding partner," a title the stadium is reserving for only its largest sponsors and which comes loaded with perks.
Wembley will be wired up with the latest information technology from Microsoft as it enters the final stages of its $1.3 billion rebuilding.
In return, Microsoft's logo will be seen by millions passing through the stadium's turnstiles when it reopens in May, as the deal allows the company to place 100 branded plaques around the stadium.
Researchers at Microsoft have created the prototype for new Wi-Fi software that allows a user on a PC with a single network card to connect to multiple local area networks concurrently via "virtual mirrors."
Wi-Fishort for wireless fidelityis meant to be used generically when referring of any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11b, 802.11g, dual-band, etc. The term is promulgated by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
"VirtualWiFi is a virtualization architecture for wireless LAN WLAN cards," lead researcher Ranveer Chandra told Ziff Davis Internet.
Twenty-six software companies, including giants such as SAP and Microsoft, have joined forces for what they say is Europe's first industry association focusing on ISVs (independent software vendors).
At a launch in Brussels on Thursday, the chairman of the newly formed ESA (European Software Association, not to be confused with the European Space Agency), Jeremy Roche, said the group would aim to overcome the "fragmentation" of Europe's software industry. The ESA will aim to promote the interests of European software companies at the level of EU (European Union) government, lobbying the European Commission and the European Parliament, the ESA said.
Microsoft has quietly backported one of the security improvements slated for the new Internet Explorer 7 browser into IE 6.0, but the giveaway comes with a small catch.
The Microsoft Phishing Filter, which is being embedded into IE 7, will now be available in IE 6 but only via an add-on to the MSN Search Toolbar.
A free 1.3MB download of the anti-phishing add-on is now available in beta form for IE 6/MSN Search Toolbar users running Windows XP SP2.
Samantha McManus, a business strategy manager at Microsoft, said the toolbar add-on uses the same back-end technology as the phishing protection built into IE 7.
A new Microsoft Office Communicator client for Windows mobile devices entered beta testing on Thursday.
The mobile client is based on the interface of Microsoft Office Communicator 2005, which was also known by the code-name "Istanbul." Microsoft shipped the desktop Office Communicator client in June. The desktop version is Microsoft's preferred client for Live Communications Server 2005, replacing Windows Messenger.
Office Communicator adds substantial functionality to Windows Messenger, especially in the areas of presence extensibility and communication through voice, video, telephony and access to Web conferencing.
Microsoft has created a $1.2 million fund for academic research that focuses on putting computing into the hands of those less familiar with technology and with little access.
Under the company's Digital Inclusion program, academic researchers worldwide can use funds to find ways to make computing more affordable, accessible and relevant, the company said Thursday. The software giant is particularly interested in projects that focus on applications for mobile devices, bringing connectivity and "culturally relevant" computing applications to people in areas without existing networks.
About 350 problems with Microsoft's technical documentation remained at the end of September, after a judge ordered the software company to share its proprietary communications protocols as part of an antitrust settlement in late 2002, according to a status report released Thursday.
A technical committee assigned to work with Microsoft has identified 550 problems with the protocols' technical documentation since a new documentation project began in March, said the report, part of U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's ongoing monitoring of Microsoft. Kollar-Kotelly approved an antitrust settlement between U.S. Department of Justice and Microsoft
in November 2002.
Yesterday, Microsoft shipped its final pre-release version of Windows Server 2003 R2 ("release 2") to the public. The Release Candidate 1 version of R2 is what Microsoft is now calling its "final development milestone," suggesting that a final release is imminent. It offers no new features when compared to the previous pre-release version, RC0.
"Windows Server 2003 R2 is an update release built on Windows Server 2003 [with Service Pack 1] and provides improved platform capabilities, branch office server solutions, identity and access management and storage management," a Microsoft representative told me. "The final version of the product is slated for delivery by the end of the year."