Microsoft has opened a preview of its virtual lockbox that saves rights management keys for downloaded software, letting users re-install purchased programs without needing to search for authorization codes.
Dubbed "Digital Locker," and available from Windows Marketplace Labs, the preview has only a handful of third-party Windows titles for sale and download, but when the site and service go live, Microsoft promises "a full functionality shopping catalog" of products.
Digital Locker uses Microsoft's own Passport authentication for account access, and relies on a small utility, Digital Locker Assistant, to handle downloads. The virtual lockbox stores information about each title purchased, the licensing information associated with each program, and links to the software retailer's customer support.
Microsoft put major updates to Office 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services on its Web site today, officials said Tuesday.
Service Pack 2 builds on the features and bug fixes discovered since the first service packs for the two products were released. In addition to security and performance bugs already addressed in previous updates, including SP1, SP2 aims to correct security, stability and performance deficiencies.
Office 2003 SP2, for example, includes three previously addressed security bulletins affecting the Windows platform and nine Office 2003-specific security and feature fixes.
"We'll make sure it's a big, big hit," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said at the news conference, adding that he sees a "market of many tens of millions" of so-called smartphones. "This is a high-growth market. In our view, every professional will have a phone that connects up to their e-mail."
Gates and Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan said that by putting Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system on Palm's popular Treo, buyers will get speed dialing, the ability to decline a call with a text message explaining why it's inconvenient to answer, and single-button controls for managing multiple voice-mail systems. E-mail will be "pushed" to the phone, with no need to call in and retrieve it.
Microsoft and JBoss announced a cooperation agreement on Tuesday in what is Microsoft's first official embrace of open source.
Under the agreement, the two companies will "explore" ways to enhance the interoperability between JEMS and Microsoft Windows Server products. Another goal is to enable JEMS to better support the Windows Server operating system.
Bill Hilf, director of platform technology strategy at Microsoft, told internetnews.com that, while the collaboration will be similar to those the company has done with other ISVs, this is the first time Microsoft has worked with a vendor of open source software.
Intel and Microsoft have agreed to back Toshiba's HD-DVD as the next-generation DVD standard. The companies had waited to extend this backing while Toshiba wrangled with Sony in an attempt to combine HD-DVD with Sony's Blu-Ray, a competing next-generation DVD contender. But after those talks fell apart, Intel and Microsoft elected to support HD-DVD, which they feel has a better chance of replacing DVD in the market.
Microsoft on Tuesday moved a step further into the data storage market with new software for backing up corporate data.
The company said it has shipped its Systems Center Data Protection Manager software, which lets companies back up data from file servers to disk-based storage servers. Microsoft says the software can help companies transition from decades-old tape-based backup systems to faster and, ultimately, cheaper disk-based systems.
"The move away from tape as a primary means of restoring data, and using tape for archiving purposes, we think is going to become very broad in the industry," said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the company's Windows Server division and the executive in charge of the company's storage strategy.
S. "Soma" Somasegar, Microsoft's corporate vice president of the developer division, and Paul Flessner, the company's senior vice president of server applications, are responsible for the Visual Studio 2005 tool set and SQL Server 2005 database platform, respectively.
As Microsoft moves toward a Nov. 7 launch of both products, along with BizTalk Server 2006, the two leaders sat down with eWEEK Senior Editor Darryl K. Taft to discuss the origins of the products, as well as the deep integration between them, including placing the Microsoft CLR at the core of both.
Microsoft on Monday announced the launch of its new paid-search service for MSN in France, after last month's rollout in Singapore, saying the service will allow advertisers to target their audience based on parameters such as time, location, age and gender through direct and display ads.
First announced in March, adCenter has been running since Aug. 31 in Singapore, according to Microsoft. Trials in the U.S. will begin in October.
In an acknowledgment that the market for the Palm operating system has run out of steam, the maker of the popular Treo cell phone on Monday unveiled a version that runs Windows.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates joined Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan and Verizon Wireless CEO Denny Strigl to demonstrate the device at a press event here. Although enthusiast sites have been calling the product the Treo 700w, Colligan said the company was not yet announcing the name and dubbed it simply "Treo for Windows."
The move unites two companies, Palm and Microsoft, that have been significant rivals in the market for software that powers handhelds and other mobile devices.
The Windows operating system may have defined Microsoft since its inception, but it will be services, not software that give the world's largest software company its claim to fame in the future, according to analysts.
Microsoft, which celebrated its 30-year anniversary with a party at SafeCo Field in Seattle Friday, fundamentally changed the computer industry with an operating system that now runs more than 90 percent of PCs in the market.
But that ubiquity itself poses a problem for Microsoft, said Joe Wilcox, analyst with Jupiter Research, because it means the company is facing the difficult task of trying to outdo itself.