Microsoft is developing a new front-end application for its upcoming Live Communications Server 2005 instant messaging server that links LCS 2005 with end-users' telephones. That way, the new application, code-named Istanbul, adds another way for reaching LCS users, on top of existing avenues such as instant messaging and voice and video.
"This is a big change. For the first time, end-users will be able to think of their enterprise PBX phone as part of the overall real-time collaboration infrastructure," said Ed Simnett, lead product manager at Microsoft for Istanbul. Istanbul can also be configured to dial cell phones and lines outside of a company's internal switchboard, he said. "Any phone becomes an addressable end point to LCS."
Customers that use the dual-core processors that Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are expected to begin shipping next year will not need to buy extra licenses for Microsoft software, the software maker will announce Tuesday.
Until Tuesday, Microsoft had declined to comment on how it would license software for chips with more than one core, but under a revised software licensing policy, set to be published Tuesday, Microsoft will now consider dual or multicore processors as if they are a single chip, said Cori Hartje, director of marketing and readiness with Microsoft's worldwide licensing and pricing group. "What we're trying to do here is make sure that customers can upgrade to this new technology without having to pay a premium for software costs," she said.
Microsoft on Monday revealed a revamp of its online global support site. Executives said the changes were driven by direct customer feed-back about what was needed from the site and the company.
The updated site provides more support options for customers, including a new solution center, which brings together in one place information and support options by product. The solution center also includes a new feature that allows customers to browse through content on Microsoft's highest-volume products.
Microsoft said in court yesterday that it had been prepared during settlement talks to share more software code with its rivals than the European Union ultimately demanded.
Nevertheless, the company argued that it would still face irreparable harm if forced to comply with a landmark antitrust ruling.
Judge Bo Vesterdorf grilled EU officials about whether "less forceful" means could have achieved the same effect as they defended their order during the first public hearing in the more than 5-year-old case.
Combining two previously released Plus! Packs, Microsoft this week announced the Plus! SuperPack for Windows XP, available at retail for $29.95 in the US. Plus! SuperPack for Windows XP combines the features from Plus! Digital Media Edition and Plus! for Windows XP.
"Plus! for Windows XP and Plus! Digital Media Edition have received consistently high ratings from our customers, and Plus! SuperPack takes the value of these products to a whole new level," says Dave Fester, the general manager of the Windows Consumer Division at Microsoft.
Cisco Systems and Microsoft are teaming up to make their security architectures interoperable in an effort to keep worms and viruses off corporate networks. On Monday, the companies plan to announce a partnership that will allow them to share technology and integrate security features on Cisco's networking gear and Microsoft's server and desktop products.
Earlier this year, each of the companies introduced its own "end to end" security architecture. Unfortunately for customers, the proposed architectures were not interoperable. Because the companies had not officially pledged they would work together, customers feared they would be forced to choose between a Cisco implementation or one from Microsoft.
Setting the stage for what it hopes will be a "breakout year" for its server operating systems, Microsoft on Monday announced it will ship the first Release Candidate of its Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003 by year's end as well as a SDK for the High Performance Computing version of Windows Server in November. Amidst the typical collection of bug and security fixes, a new feature in SP1 is the Security Configuration Wizard, designed to help administrators define or redefine a specific role for a server, or a collection of servers that all do the same thing.
Microsoft is building on its 2002 buy of Danish business application developer Navision A/S with the release Monday of its first major product built on the Navision software suite. Dubbed Microsoft Navision 4.0, the software is aimed at strengthening the Redmond, Washington, company's position in the business application market targeting small and medium-sized businesses . Microsoft has been trying to carve a niche in the category over the past few years, investing $2.4 billion to enter the market with its buy of Navision and U.S. midmarket business application provider Great Plains Software Inc.
The Office System lineup, which includes mostly client offerings such as Word, Excel and Visio, is slated to get an InfoPath server in the Office 12 2006 time frame, sources said. An InfoPath server, which would ease forms distribution among far-flung users, likely will be just one in a series of server-side offerings carrying the Office moniker.
It is no secret that Microsoft wants to refresh its Office franchise. While the desktop applications have a stranglehold on the market, many users remain on old versions--and still see no reason to upgrade a year into Office 2003's release.
Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 is going through a new incremental beta round starting now. The anxiously-awaited database is now slated to ship in the summer of 2005. That opens the door for another delay. Since March, Microsoft had said to expect the database in the first half of 2005.
Specifically, Microsoft is releasing what it calls the first Community Technical Preview of the database. CTP is the latest Microsoft jargon for a beta release, and this one is described by some insiders as Beta 2.5.