Microsoft founder Bill Gates expressed his vision Wednesday for a future in which advanced software will seamlessly connect personal computers with mobile phones, watches and other small devices.
The software, which Gates predicted would be widespread by the end of this decade, would also be smart enough to let users know if and when it should alert them--and on which device--with new information such as weather forecasts or sports scores.
He dismissed predictions that mobile phones one day would replace PCs as they evolve into data-processing devices.
Microsoft on Tuesday released an update for Word 2003 to fix several glitches in the word processing application that was introduced in October last year as part of Microsoft's Office System launch. Arguably the most serious glitch fixed by the update can cause Word to freeze or crash when auto saving, saving, printing or even closing a document that includes an OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) object, such as an image or multimedia elements, according to Microsoft knowledge base article 832858.
Microsoft, which is trying to compete with Sony in video-game consoles, will try to design the next version of its Xbox machine with cheaper parts because the current model won't ever be profitable.
"With the current cost of goods, there's no way to make money with this generation of the console," Chief Financial Officer John Connors said at a Microsoft investor presentation in Boston.
He didn't say when the company would introduce a new Xbox. Analysts expect the next one in 2005 or 2006. Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, had a loss of $874 million in the division that includes Xbox in the year that ended June 30, 2002, and a $924 million loss the next year.
Microsoft plans to start testing a new version of its Windows XP Media Center edition, a customized operating system designed for entertainment-oriented PCs.
The software, code named Symphony, is likely to make its way later this year onto new entertainment-oriented PCs, according to analysts. Microsoft recently sent a request seeking beta testers to put an early version of Symphony through its paces.
Microsoft released a beta, or test version, of its Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 software on Tuesday. The product is designed to offer an improved application-layer firewall, a stronger virtual private network (VPN), and expanded Web-caching capabilities, in order to provide users with increased network security and performance.
The company said the package will make corporate networks more secure against outside harassment from hackers in particular, as application-layer security has become a popular point of entry for Internet attacks. Microsoft promised that the software offers more advanced security policy adjustment settings, customizable protocol and network routing relationships, and a number of ease-of-use upgrades.
As Microsoft prepares developers and independent software vendors for Longhorn, the next version of its Windows operating system, the company wants to wean them off older Windows programming models.
Speaking at the Developing Software for the Future Microsoft Platform conference in Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre here Monday, Microsoft software architect Don Box said the company will not invest much more in Component Object Model (COM) and Distributed Compound Object Model (DCOM)--Microsoft's mechanisms for sharing objects between programs.
"To say a system is secure because no one is attacking it is very dangerous," said Gates, referring to operating systems that have a smaller share of the desktop market, such as Apple's Mac OS and the open-source software Linux.
Noting the large number of major virus epidemics during the past two years, Gates said that in some ways "hackers are good for maturation" of the platform, because they have forced the company to develop new inspection techniques for the code.
Microsoft has added reporting capabilities to its SQL Server 2000 database, rounding out its business intelligence platform with a feature long sought by some of its customers. SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services allows users to program their databases to generate reports, such as a breakdown of sales by region, and then helps manage and distribute those reports. It can pull data from multiple sources including databases from Microsoft, Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp., as well as line-of-business applications from SAP AG and others, said Thomas Rizzo, director of Microsoft's SQL Server management team.
RFID (radio frequency identification) tagging technology continues to gain in inventory tracking uses, as Monday Microsoft, IBM and Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV announced projects for developing and promoting it as a cost-saving tool for retailers.
RFID chips, computer chips equipped with miniature antennae, store data for transmission to nearby receivers, and are increasingly being used as wireless tags to track goods. One advantage to the wireless tags is that, unlike bar codes, RFID tags can be read at any angle and from a distance. Large retail companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Tesco PLC of the U.K. and Germany's Metro AG, have been using the RFID technology and are already planning to push the technology beyond the pilot stage.
Microsoft is committed to the SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) market for CRM (customer relationship management) software, and is working with partners on hosted versions of its product to make it more accessible, Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said Monday.
Gates took the stage at a U.K. partner and customer event promoting the company's Business Solutions CRM 1.2 software for SMEs Monday, and spoke about Microsoft's commitment to the CRM market.