WinInsider

Macintosh users running Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac will be able to download the first service pack for that product via AutoUpdate on Tuesday. The service pack addresses potential security issues and bugs.

SP1 for Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac is a cumulative set of security and critical updates that have been tested, along with fixes for problems found by Microsoft Corp. or through data provided by customers and through customer support calls.

Another candidate in the growing list of exploits on instant messaging clients and servers arrived in the wild. Called W32.Funner, the worm on Monday circulated to attack on the Windows Messenger platform.

At the same time, Microsoft's MSN Messenger service was unavailable much of the day Monday and several online sites wondered if the worm was implicated in the problems.

Microsoft officials confirmed the outage of its MSN services for most of Monday. A spokeswoman said that following system maintenance over the weekend, MSN "began experiencing some issues with the MSN Messenger service that may have affected customer's ability to log in to the service or exchange IMs."

Nearly three years have passed since Microsoft released the last full version of Windows, the Redmond company's most important and profitable product. But when Bill Gates takes the stage tomorrow morning at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, he won't be launching a new generation of the flagship operating system.

Microsoft is expected to use the event to unveil a series of new and overhauled digital media products, including a revamped version of its specialized software for watching and recording television and other digital media on a computer.

Under a judge's orders to disclose sensitive details about some of its software, Microsoft Corp. wants to publish the information in a protected electronic format that is awkward to use and can be viewed only using Microsoft's own Web browser software, the government complained in court papers yesterday.

Microsoft said it was cooperating to resolve such concerns within the next 60 days, adding it needs to keep the sensitive information from falling into the hands of companies that haven't agreed to license its technology.

This story is so full of irony that I don't know where to begin. How about an obvious jab? You know that Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) has one foot in the grave when AOL--which basically ushered Netscape to an early, undeserved grave--is developing a Web browser product based on--yep, you guessed it--IE. That's right, folks. Just as the planet is finally starting to move to more constantly updated Web browser products such as Firefox, Mozilla, and Opera, AOL is getting off its technology-averse patootie and making its own browser ... that's based on IE. Why not just create a new PC based on the Commodore Amiga? Or a car based on the Packard? These ideas were good in their time, but as you know, the world has moved on. Even Microsoft doesn't seem to be concerned about making IE any better than it was in 1998. Why anyone else would bother, either, is unclear.

Web services are becoming increasingly popular for linking software programs. Now, Microsoft and some other big companies are pitching the technology as a way to manage everything from big corporate servers to mobile phones.

On Friday, Microsoft, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Dell and Sun Microsystems put their weight behind a Web services management specification designed to simplify network administration across a wide range of devices. The Web Services Management (WS-Management) specification is a technical blueprint that they intend to establish as an industry standard.

Microsoft is expanding its efforts to move from a "trade secrets" company to one that banks on sharing its intellectual property and benefits from being seen as a more cooperative and open-industry player. Almost a year after announcing a new IP licensing policy and the formal licensing of two technologies, the software giant is set to announce new formal program licenses within the next two months, according to David Kaefer, director of business development, for Microsoft's Intellectual Property and Licensing Group.

Microsoft is taking its SMB show on the road. The software giant is using recreational vehicles to tour the United States, bringing in partners of Hewlett-Packard and Cisco. The goal is to meet with 1 million customers and local solution providers at 250 stops throughout the country by next June.

The company officially launched its Microsoft Across America at the TechXNY show in New York on Tuesday. Starting initially with a single vehicle -- larger than an 18-wheel truck -- the company intends to acquire three more and an additional three in the spring. The vehicles will be making stops at rural locations as well as in small and large cities. The fleet of RVs will be equipped with HP printers, servers, storage, and PCs and Cisco networking gear and its IP-based telephone gear.

Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled its next-generation MSN TV 2 Internet & Media Player, a set-top box that displays on your television set Internet content such as the Web and email and digital media content from your networked home PCs. MSN TV 2 comes with a wireless keyboard and remote control and requires a subscription service to take advantage of its Internet-related functionality.

"The new MSN TV 2 Internet & Media Player frees consumers from their home offices so that they can enjoy Web or PC-based photo slide shows, music, or videos with their families in their living rooms," Microsoft General Manager of MSN TV Sam Klepper said.

Microsoft has suspended the beta testing of the next version of its MSN Messenger client because of a potential security problem, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday. Testers discovered a potential security issue in the early version of MSN Messenger 7 shortly after Microsoft made the instant messaging client available to a select group of testers over the weekend, according to postings on MSN Messenger enthusiast Web site Mess.be. The problem lies in a new MSN Messenger feature dubbed "winks" that allows users to send each other sound animations. The feature can be abused to overwhelm a user's system, according to Mess.be.