Microsoft is stepping up its campaign against piracy with a program that requires Windows users to show their copy of the operating system is authentic before they can receive many online software updates.
The program, known as Windows Genuine Advantage, has been in public testing for the past 10 months, but the authentication process was previously a voluntary option for users wanting to download updates. Today, that authentication becomes a requirement in most cases.
People using the Microsoft Update and Windows Update sites will no longer be able to download Windows add-ons and updates -- including security fixes -- from those sites without first going through an automatic online validation process.
Motorola unveiled a slim smart phone with a QWERTY keyboard and Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 at its analyst conference this week, but details of the company's mobile music deal with Apple Computer are still waiting in the wings.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Zander showed off the Q smart phone at the Motonow event Monday night in Rosemont, Illinois, monitored via Webcast. It has a design similar to the popular Razr clamshell phone, though without a hinge, and should ship in the first quarter of next year, says Ron Garriques, executive vice president of Motorola and president of mobile devices at the company. The Q will include Bluetooth, a one-handed navigation thumbwheel, and a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, according to Motorola.
Some third-party applications are encountering problems introduced by the cumulative Windows 2000 Update Rollup that Microsoft introduced in late June.
There have been reports of problems with Sophos, Panda, RealSecure and BlackICE security products among some Windows 2000 users. And there also have been reports of compatibility problems between the rollup and Citrix Systems' MetaFrame product, for which Citrix recently introduced hot fixes.
Following in the footsteps of Google, Microsoft's MSN division on Monday launched a beta of its Virtual Earth mapping tool. The service will allow users to view satellite imagery, as well as traditional map locations, and perform local search functions based on the area in focus.For example, Virtal Earth will have the capability to visually point out locations for ATMs, restaurants, and gas stations. Google's Maps service has been able to do the same function since it was bolstered with satellite imagery in April of this year.
Microsoft showed in Tokyo on Monday some of the latest previews of games being worked on for its Xbox 360 console. The Xbox 360 is scheduled to launch in Japan, North America, and Europe before the end of this year.
Headlining the game previews at the event was Bizarre Creations' "Project Gotham Racing 3." The Liverpool, England, games house showed a stunning preview that was quite unlike any current computer game in terms of graphics, sound, and level of detail.
Version three of Start.com was release in early June, following a version two release in April, and the initial Start.com bits in March. The most recent batch of Start.com updates added tabbed search results, new style sheets, and the ability to close modules with just the "ESC" button.
MSN's aggregator appears to be a competitor to Web portals such as Google's personalized home page released in May of this year, and Yahoo's April 2005 release of My Web.
AOL released a Web browser? That's shocking, right? Well check this out: Unlike, say, the newer Netscape browsers, AOL's browser isn't horrible. And get this: The browser is based on IE. Called AOL Explorer (what else?), the new browser features a sleek look, well-designed tabbed browsing, Web page thumbnails, and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed aggregation. All in all, it's pretty swell, and I don't say that lightly, having suffered for years under the horrible yoke of the company's online service. AOL Explorer is available for free, and I have to say, you might just want to give it a shot.
Windows users will have to prove they have a legitimate version of Windows starting Tuesday, July 26 if they want to download any software from Microsoft's site, a Microsoft executive in India told reporters there.
According to the "Hindu Business Line," Rishi Srivastava, the director of Microsoft's Windows client group in India, confirmed that Windows Genuine Advantage, the anti-piracy program that Microsoft's been running in pilot form since September 2004. WGA, which is aimed at stemming the flood of pirated copies of its operating systems, requires users to verify they own a paid-for copy by entering a product number in an ActiveX control that appears before allowing downloads from Microsoft's Download Center.
Microsoft announced the go-to-market name for the next-generation version of its Windows operating system: Vista.
The company said it expects to release a test
of Windows Vista Beta 1, targeted at developers and IT professionals, by August 3rd. But expectations are that it could leak out sooner. In a video announcement broadcast online this morning, the company said Longhorn, the codename for the past couple of years for the beta, has been put out to pasture.
According to the company's Website, Vista is expected to arrive in 2006, a time frame analysts and company-watchers have long questioned since key features in Longhorn have been delayed or nixed since it was first unveiled in 2003.
Microsoft increased its pace of hiring in the past year, adding nearly 4,400 employees worldwide, and said it plans to continue expanding at about the same clip in the year ahead.
But more than half that employment growth occurred outside the United States. Microsoft added about the same number of people in the Puget Sound region -- 1,481 in all -- as it did the year before. (Note: A less precise number was cited in the original version onf this article.)The pace is still about half Microsoft's annual growth rate at the peak of the tech boom. But it suggests continued stability in the company's business. It also illustrates Microsoft's continued ability to find and hire large numbers of employees that meet its famously rigorous employment standards.