Microsoft next month plans to release a toolkit to help business customers begin testing their existing applications for compatibility
with Windows 7.
Though companies will have a considerable amount of time to test existing applications for compatibility with Windows 7 ahead
of its release, it should be a less painful process if they've already done Vista testing. According to the roundtable transcript,
applications compatible with Windows Vista should already be compatible with Windows 7 since the two OSes "share similar design
frameworks."
"The [OS] kernel ... is updated with Windows 7, but is based on the same underlying architecture [as Vista]," according to
the transcript.
Microsoft on Tuesday announced new additions to its hardware accessory lineup that address users' increased preference for portable computers over their desktop brethren. The company announced two new products, a notebook cooling base and colorful options for its popular Arc Mouse.
The new Microsoft Notebook Cooling Base is a titled platform with a built-in fan that will elevate laptops to a more comfortable typing angle while keeping the device cooler. Like other similar devices, its powered by one of the laptop's USB ports and requires no batteries. It also includes a cable management clip. The Microsoft Notebook Cooling Base will ship in July, according to the company, and will retail for $29.95.
Twice a year, the team at Microsoft's Live Labs meets to vote on what new projects they should work on over the course of the next six months.
What would add value to Microsoft's Web initiatives? What would have the most strategic impact? What could be the next Photosynth, the 3-D photo stitching application, which Live Labs launched to wide acclaim last summer?
In mid-February, right after Live Labs had chosen its latest set of projects, the Seattle P-I stopped by for a tour at Live Labs headquarters in downtown Bellevue. The process Alex Daley, the group product manager for Microsoft Live Labs, explained that Live Labs projects are divided among three general groups: research, engineering and incubations.
Under pressure from popular phones from Apple and Research in Motion, Microsoft hopes it has put in place changes that will
help it meet that mobile competition faster, said CEO Steve Ballmer on Wednesday.
One of the challenges Microsoft faces is that Windows Mobile supports various kinds of form factors, Ballmer said. "In general,
I'll make the argument that having diversity of form factor serves the broadest set of the population," he said. "The question
is how simple can we make it to write an application that runs in multiple modalities.
"
Microsoft is working with the mobile industry to define classes of form factors that might make it easier for Windows Mobile
to run with the highest level of capabilities across a variety of form factors, he said.
For months and months, Microsoft kept silent about Windows 7.
After a limited demo last May, the first public comments started trickling out last August in Microsoft's Engineering Windows 7 blog, and the floodgates opened by the end of October at the company's Professional Developers Conference. It's all been part of the plan, and a far cry from how Microsoft handled Windows Vista before its release.
Windows boss Steven Sinofsky is known for his controlled, on-time delivery of products, most notably the well-received Office 2007 suite. His strategy has been hypercontrolled this time around. While a number of prerelease builds have leaked, Windows 7 hasn't been the start-and-stop, leak-heavy development cycle that Windows Vista was.
Reports are again circling once again around a crucial Microsoft product delivery milestone that, if accurate, signals the imminent arrival of Internet Explorer 8.
Malaysian tech enthusiast site TechArp is reporting Thursday that Microsoft plans to release Internet Explorer 8 to manufacturing the week of March 16. In Microsoft parlance, "release to manufacturing," or RTM, is the final step before a product actually ships.
With the latest version of its browser, Microsoft is aiming to try to retake some of the market share IE has lost in the past three years, since Mozilla Firefox and other competitive browsers have been challenging its dominance. It also tries to satisfy the European Commission by defaulting to using Web standards, thus making it easier for other browser makers to compete.
Microsoft on Tuesday provided a strategic update at a financial analyst meeting in New York, describing prospects for the company's second half of the fiscal year, which ends in June. Executives suggested that the bad economy would shadow all of Microsoft's business segments.
Chris Liddell, Microsoft's senior vice president and chief financial officer, cited deteriorating PC sales, a deteriorating situation on the server side and a gloomy outlook for Microsoft's online search business as ad sales come under pressure.
Windows 7 will include features specifically developed for enterprise customers and partners in an unprecedented number of
technology early-access programs Microsoft is offering for the forthcoming OS.
The company invited 4,000 enterprise customers in the U.S., Germany, Brazil, Japan, India, and China to provide feedback as
part of extensive research as well, she said.
Enacting this unprecedented level of early customer engagement, combined with an effort to make the development process more
predictable in general, were aimed at avoiding missteps the company took as it built Vista. Features Microsoft promised early
on in Vista's development didn't make it into the final code, and the process itself was shut down and restarted midway through.
The European Commission has said it will stop actively monitoring Microsoft to check that the software maker is complying with a 2004 antitrust ruling. In 2005, the Commission appointed an independent trustee to assess whether Microsoft was supplying interoperability information for Windows with workgroup servers to software rivals. The Commission told CNET News sister site ZDNet UK on Wednesday that it will no longer require a full-time monitor, and that it will use "ad hoc assistance" to provide it with advice on any issues arising from the ruling.
Microsoft is going out of its way to ensure that Windows 7 meets with the kind of public enthusiasm and business uptake which has eluded Vista.
It's striking to watch as the folks at Redmond seemingly re-architect their corporate DNA and act like, well, you'd expect them to act in an era when your customers really are your partners. That was the vibe I caught last week, when Microsoft invited me to a briefing in New York City. A group of extremely knowledgeable -- and likable -- product managers provided a deep-dive in the enterprise features of Windows 7.