After lining up several big-name telecommunication service providers to offer its new IPTV technology, Microsoft is now following up with a list of companies to provide optimized set-top boxes, and with a new system-on-chip component targeted at consumer electronics manufacturers.
At the International Broadcasters Convention in Amsterdam, the U.S. software company announced on Friday the availability of the first set-top systems supporting Microsoft TV IPTV Edition. The IPM11xx products, jointly developed by Thomson and Intel, are now shipping to customers, Microsoft says. The products support a range of video codecs, including MPEG-2, Windows Media Video 9, and MPEG-4 AVC, and are equipped with a 1.4-GHz Intel 854 processor.
With the forthcoming launch of the Xbox 360, Microsoft's online gaming service Xbox Live is taking center stage. The next-gen console will come with a free basic, or Silver, subscription to Microsoft's online community, but the company has also announced offerings for those who want multiplayer features.Silver Xbox Live users can create their own gamertag and personalized profile, along with sending text and voice messages to other players. In addition, Silver members receive access to the Marketplace where they can purchase game add-ons such as weapons, new levels, and additional characters.
Gateway showed off the latest addition to its line of notebook computers Wednesday at the Microsoft Small Business Summit in Redmond, WA. The CX200, Gateway's new convertible notebook with a 14-inch display, also comes in at a competitive price compared with other Tablet PCs at $1099 USD.The company says it is aiming the notebook at students and home users rather than business users that have predominantly been the target market for tablets.
Microsoft will take aim at rival Google next week with a new Web development plan.
The software company plans to open access to its MSN and other public Web sites to let developers assemble new applications that build on those sites--a technique used successfully at Google and at other Web companies to promote their properties.
Microsoft will detail its "Web platform" strategy at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles next week, company executives told CNET News.com. It intends to publish the application programming interfaces, or APIs, to some of its public Web sites, including MSN Search, and deliver better tools to write those applications.
Taking aim at Intuit's QuickBooks, Microsoft on Wednesday announced new accounting software for small and midsize businesses. The company's Small Business Accounting 2006, which has been in the works for some time, comes in two flavors. The standalone accounting software sells for $179, though Microsoft is offering a $30 rebate at launch. And the Small Business Management product bundles the accounting software with Office components, including Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. For new customers, the package costs $569, after a $100 rebate. It's available for $399 after a $100 rebate for existing Office customers.
Citing a "huge commitment to business applications," Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates on Wednesday sketched out a mid-market strategy that emphasizes role-based user interfaces and tight integration with Microsoft Office.
Gates and other Microsoft officials detailed the company's plan at the Microsoft Business Summit.
Focusing on mid-market shops -- those with 50 to 1,000 employees -- the officials touched on aspects of Microsoft's business applications plan that feature revamped ERP and CRM packages under the new nameplate, Dynamics.
Microsoft has filed a fresh appeal of the European Commission's decision forcing it to make Windows desktop communications protocols available to competitors.
The application for annulment was filed on Aug. 10 with the EU's Court of First Instance and made public on Wednesday. It follows an earlier agreement that Microsoft's broader case with the CFI should decide the finer points of the protocol licensing issue.
"We are taking this step so the court can begin its review now of this issue, given its far-reaching implications for the protection of our intellectual property rights around the world," said a Microsoft spokeswoman.
The realignment of the Microsoft Business Solutions product set previously referred to as "Project Green" got its official name Wednesday -- Microsoft Dynamics.
The announcement came out of Microsoft's new Business Summit on the Redmond campus, where the company is focusing on the needs of medium-sized businesses, which the company defines as having 25 to 500 PCs.
In an executive e-mail sent early Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer framed the problem by saying that in doing market research at midsize companies, Microsoft found that "today's business software doesn't look enough like today's businesses."
Attorneys for Microsoft and Google faced off before a state court judge here Tuesday, arguing whether former Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee should be allowed to start work for the search company before a trial determines whether he violated a noncompete contract.
Microsoft's lawyer, Jeffrey Johnson added that Lee's efforts to help Google began while he was a vice president at Microsoft and still on the company's payroll. That included helping Google with recruitment and advising the search giant on job candidates, and forwarding to Google executives a Microsoft paper that discussed Redmond's China strategy.
Microsoft is bringing the power of its .Net technology to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, delivering a system to help locate people displaced or missing since the hurricane.
A group of Microsoft technologists quickly deployed to contribute their time and talent to the relief effort, and decided to develop a Web site and supporting applications to help Katrina evacuees reach out to relatives and friends and also enable families to locate people they have not heard from since the hurricane hit, said Jim Carroll, chief architect and project manager for the system, known as KatrinaSafe.