Microsoft is seeking a delay to replying to new issues raised by the European Commission with the U.S. software giant, a European Union soruce said on Tuesday. Microsoft has approached the Commission for a delay in its reply to a statement of objections issued in August, the source said.
The company had no comment on the reports of the request for a delay, but earlier in Rome its European Chief Executive Officer Jean-Philippe Courtois had said the company wanted to take as much time as it could get to put together a reply.
"We expect to reply in the next few weeks or months," he told reporters at a conference in Rome on Tuesday.
Microsoft is unveiling a new program that offers $250 million in grants for schools worldwide that want to develop a technology curriculum for their students. The new Partners in Learning program also offers participating schools steep discounts on buying Microsoft software.
The program comes as government and educational agencies worldwide have been switching to or considering software from Microsoft competitors, including Linux software. The open-source software, which is freely available and can be improved upon by an open community of developers, has been gaining favor with agencies including France's ministry of education, China's post office, the city of Munich and others.
Microsoft introduced 802.11g-based wireless networking gear Tuesday, catching up with rivals Cisco Systems Inc., Netgear Inc., and D-Link Systems Inc. New in Microsoft's wireless LAN line are an 802.11g access point with four-port Ethernet switch, the Microsoft Wireless Base Station MN-700, and wireless cards for portable computers and desktops, the Wireless Notebook Adapter MN-720 and Wireless PCI Adapter MN-730, respectively, Microsoft said in a statement.
The Redmond, Washington, vendor also introduced an adapter for the Xbox game console, the Xbox Wireless Adapter MN-740. This 802.11g adapter allows gamers to make their Xbox part of a wireless network, removing the need to run cables to the game console for the Xbox Live online gaming service, Microsoft said.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said Monday the company will make any necessary improvements in its software to try to thwart viruses and other attacks that have recently hobbled computers around the world.
"We are in many ways humbled by the developments of the last few weeks," said Ballmer, in a speech at the Churchill Club, a Silicon Valley business networking group. "Windows (operating system) is the most popular platform in the world, so every security incident with it is just magnified and magnified and magnified across so many more systems than with any other platform."
The Blaster, or LovSan, worm, exploited a flaw in nearly all versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system. The worm infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world. Just last week, Microsoft disclosed new flaws, almost identical to that exploited by the Blaster worm, in Windows.
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer warned Monday that recent security vulnerabilities represent a "new and growing challenge to innovation" and conceded that his company is under attack from "thieves, con artists, terrorists and hackers."
In response, the Redmond, Wash., software giant plans to develop new means for thwarting such attackers and aims to shut down the invasions before they wreak the havoc seen with recent viruses such as MSBlast.
"The most important technology area we are focused on is shield technology," Ballmer said in a speech to the Churchill Club, a gathering here of Silicon Valley businesspeople. "We know bad guys keep writing viruses. The goal is to block them before they get on PCs. "
Controversial software seller The SCO Group fired back against Linux leader Red Hat on Monday, filing a motion to dismiss the Linux company's suit against SCO. In a motion filed late Monday in U.S. District Court in Delaware, SCO argues that Red Hat has no grounds to sue SCO, as SCO's actions against the open-source Linux operating system have not specifically targeted Red Hat.
"Red Hat's legal action does nothing more than seek general guidance for the marketplace as to the legal rights SCO has with respect to Linux software," according to the motion. "This is an impermissible use of the Declaratory Judgment Act."
Bling Bling! Halo for PC has officially "gone gold". Time to roll out the welcome mat! After what must seem like an eternity, Master Chief is coming home. Home to the PC that is. When Microsoft acquired Bungie Studios and annouced that Halo would become an Xbox title, the promise was made to gamers everywhere that eventually the game would indeed surface on the PC. Today, Bungie Studios, in conjunction with Gearbox Software, has delivered on that promise. (the Mac version isn't too far behind either... more on that later)
For the past few weeks we've been getting regular updates from Bungie Producer Michel Bastien on the state of the project and its progress. Now that the game is gold and is only a handful of days away from hitting retail shelves, there really isn't much updating to be done. So, Michel has put together this special update which answers questions submitted by Halo fans over at halo.bungie.org.
Microsoft Game Studios, Bungie Studios, and Gearbox Software have today announced that the PC version of Halo has gone gold and will be available in stores from September 30. The game, which has been developed by Gearbox Software in conjunction with Bungie Studios, improves upon the Xbox original through the introduction of numerous additional features.
The majority of the new features in the PC version of Halo can be found in the game's multiplayer mode, and these include online play, specially designed maps, extra vehicles, and new weapons.
Microsoft on Monday released an update to its Tablet PC operating system that allows a device to habla espanol and at the same time parle francais. The software maker has already trained the handwriting-recognition software to read a number of languages, but the new Multilingual User Interface and Recognizer Pack adds the ability to write in more than one language at time.
The update to the Tablet OS, which is a custom version of Windows XP, covers French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and American and British English. With the latest update, customers can also quickly switch menus and dialog boxes to a different language.
On Monday, Microsoft and Motorola put an end to the worst kept tech secret in recent days by announcing a joint deal in which Motorola will sell smart cell phones based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile Smartphone software. Microsoft says the new Motorola MPx200 will run on AT&T's wireless network and offer consumers in North America a unique solution when it goes on sale later this year. The Motorola deal marks a huge milestone for Microsoft, which had previously met much resistance from the telecommunications industry.