WinInsider

Microsoft aims to score with sports fans with the launch Monday of its first add-on service for so-called smart watches. The company unveiled its MSN Direct data service in June, delivering news headlines, weather forecasts and other updates to smart watches. The add-on promises to provide MSN Direct subscribers with the latest information on basketball teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I teams.

Microsoft's event marketing is in full March-madness swing with big shows across the U.S. this week. Get a quick preview and details here. Convergence, which kicks off today in Orlando, Fl, is Microsoft's annual SMB customer conference for the Microsoft Business Solutions division. The InfoSec World security conference, also in Orlando, starts Monday, as well. Microsoft is one of the main sponsors of that one.

Microsoft is hot on the trail of location-based services for cell phones. On Monday at the CTIA Wireless 2004 show here, the software giant announced partnerships with U.S. cell phone service provider Sprint and with Bell Mobility in Canada to sell services, mainly to businesses, that exploit a mobile phone's ability to broadcast its exact location.

The Canadian carrier is already selling new services based on Microsoft server software, also introduced here Monday, that lets developers plug directly into the "geotracking" databases of cell phone service providers. Sprint, meanwhile, is set to unveil location-based services based on the Microsoft initiative by midyear, according to Steve Lombardi, technical evangelist and product manager for Microsoft's MapPoint Web Service.

Lindows.com Inc. and Microsoft are set to argue their sides in the latest twist of a prolonged, international trademark battle before a Seattle judge Wednesday. Lindows said Monday that U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenour had granted it an expedited hearing for a motion seeking to stop Microsoft from suing the company abroad until the case had been decided in the U.S. and to declare an Amsterdam judge's preliminary injunction against it as unenforceable and non-recognizable.

In its motion, Lindows claimed that "U.S. courts have the power to enjoin persons subject to their jurisdiction from prosecuting a foreign lawsuit." Lindows said that the U.S.court has jurisdiction over Microsoft and may stop the company from "filing and maintaining parallel foreign lawsuits."

An EU decision to fine Microsoft and force it to change how it does business in Europe may upset Microsoft, but is unlikely to threaten EU-U.S. ties as some past decisions have done.

The EU-U.S. relationship has also been volatile over the past two years due to differences over the Iraq war, the fall of the dollar, privacy protection and genetically modified food.

Today, the U.S. antitrust division is headed by R. Hewitt Pate. GE-Honeywell was history when he took over and the controversial Microsoft remedies package was crafted by his predecessor. Pate, with his easy manner, has a good personal and professional relationship with Mario Monti.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has donated $13.5 million to help fund the search for extraterrestrial life. The California-based SETI Institute, which is dedicated to the search for life beyond Earth, said the donation from Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, would be used to create a radio telescope array of more than 200 satellite dishes that will measure signals from space.

"An instrument of this magnitude ... will result in the expansion of our understanding of how the universe was formed, and how it has evolved and our place therein," Allen said in a statement.

A federal judge Friday ruled that the U.S. Department of Defense and several IT companies must let lawyers for Oracle view their trade secrets, but only under certain conditions.

Representatives with the Department of Defense and Fidelity Employer Services -- both premier customers of Oracle's -- as well as rivals like Microsoft, SAP, Siebel Systems, Sungard Bi-Tech and niche software vendors such as Lawson Software and QAD have asked the court to block certain parts of their business technology and best practices from being entered as evidence. The documents could contain detailed data on customers, competitive bids on contracts, pricing details, budgets and product information.

Just days before the European Union (EU) is set to announce its final ruling against Microsoft for alleged antitrust abuses, EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said he was considering a second probe into the software giant. Prompted by complaints from the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a trade organization compromised of Microsoft competitors, the EU will likely investigate whether Windows XP violates European antitrust laws by locking out competition.

In Alisa Blomstrand's dating game, Microsoft men are the only players. She's not one of the countless single women who vow they will neeeeeeeever go out with a Microsoftie, who label them workaholics or computer geeks. Rather, she is one in a contingent of single females bent on finding Mr. Microsoft Right.

For years, Microsoft has been seeping into the Eastside's culture and demographics. It also has secured a domain in the dating world, and some women are banking on it as a way to find their ideal mate.

Microsoft Corp. is facing a world of troubles.

The European Union is on the verge of imposing burdensome sanctions against the company, as antitrust challenges nag the software titan at home and in Asia. Plus, stiffer competition looms from open-source products, led by the Linux operating system.

"I think they're a pretty resilient company and they tend to rise to the occasion," said David Smith, an analyst with Gartner. But, Smith says, serious issues exist that could end up hurting Microsoft's business.