A new proof-of-concept application from Microsoft's research arm integrates elements from the Windows OS and its Windows Azure cloud infrastructure to let users share files from their desktops with Web users via social networking.
In addition to leveraging Windows and Windows Azure, the Social Desktop also uses Silverlight, Microsoft's cross-browser runtime and player for sharing multimedia files. Users must be running Silverlight in a browser to view the items that people using Social Desktop choose to share.
Microsoft has followed up on the release of its Windows 7 Beta by rolling out another build of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. This build, published on Monday, now supports the use of the MAP toolkit on PCs running the Windows 7 Beta, according to Microsoft's announcement.
MAP is a migration assessment tool for the Microsoft stack. It inventories computers in an IT shop and suggests hardware upgrades, if necessary. MAP will also check for supporting driver availability. MAP Build 2315 can be accessed here, although the product description wasn't updated at press time to say that it now works with the Windows 7 Beta.
sMicrosoft's Razorfish has chosen Rackspace to host the development of new Web sites and applications rather than wait for
its parent company to release its own cloud-hosting platform Windows Azure.
Rackspace, formed in 1998, was a private company until it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange last August. The company
offers a range of managed-hosting and cloud-hosting services.
Cloud computing and hosted services are becoming an increasingly attractive options for companies that don't want the hassle
or expense of building out their own IT infrastructure, particularly now as the global economy is in a recession.
In the latest sign that Windows 7 may be completed sooner rather than later, Microsoft has released a trial version of software that will allow users of its next operating system to securely share files with other PCs they own or with computers used by friends, family, or business associates.
Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5 beta links users' Windows Live IDs with their Windows 7 user account, creating a secure connection between hard-drive resident files and data stored online in Windows Live.
Beyond accessing his own files across multiple devices, a user could provide third parties with access by adding associates' Windows Live IDs to the Windows 7 homegroup feature.
Microsoft's Exchange Labs is changing its name to Outlook Live and adding new e-mail features, according to a Thursday announcement by Microsoft. Exchange Labs/Outlook Live is a component of Live@edu and functions as an R&D environment for Microsoft's new e-mail developments. The service is free for academic users.
Live@edu is Microsoft's portal, communications, and collaboration suite for education and includes e-mail features and 25 GB of personal data storage. It also incorporates Office Live Workspace, a Web-based feature of Microsoft Office that allows for collaboration and sharing of documents.
Just weeks before the trial on whether or not Microsoft tricked millions of customers into buying PCs incapable of running Windows Vista back in 2006, the judge Wednesday removed the plaintiff's "class action" status.
The court stopped short, however, of dismissing the case altogether.
What the ruling means to the case ? known as the "Vista Capable" lawsuit ? at this point is unknown. However, a loss in a class action suit with potentially millions of class members could result in millions or even billions in damages.
Although most of the attention these days is focused on where things are with Windows 7, Microsoft is getting closer to releasing the next update for Windows Vista.
On Wednesday, Microsoft offered some technical testers a near-final "release candidate" version of the Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2. The company did not say when that version might be made publicly available.
"We continuously engage with our partners and testers on the development of service packs and we will track customer and partner feedback from the beta program before setting a final date for distribution," Microsoft said in a statement.
LG Electronics said it has chosen Microsoft's Windows software as its primary platform for smartphones. The deal comes a few months after the companies signed a technology collaboration deal, and it means LG will bring out 50 smartphones over the life of the deal. LG said it would release up to 26 Windows smartphones by 2012.
"New LG phones running Windows will take advantage of the excitement in this dynamically growing market," said Yong Nam, LG's CEO, in a statement. "The Windows platform brings flexible and customer-friendly software that ties into the Web and the PC, giving our phones a wide range of new capabilities to address an increasing number of segments and markets."
It's always interesting to note where Bill Gates is putting his money.
Fortunately, his Cascade Investment arm details his largest holdings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to regulatory filings made on Wednesday, Gates' Cascade Investment arm now holds, among other things, a 5.2 percent stake in Eastman Kodak.
It's not the first photography-related investment for Gates, who owns stock photography company Corbis.
Barron's reporter Eric Savitz also noted Gates holdings in companies ranging from $1.28 billion worth of Canadian National Railway to $391 million worth of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. TechFlash's Todd Bishop notes that list of holdings also includes a $3.7 million stake in plastic shoemaker Crocs.
Prithvi Raj, a product manager for Microsoft, demonstrates the new Windows Mobile 6.5 running in an HTC touch-screen handset at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona.
Microsoft is trying to sell the world on the notion of a "Windows phone."
The first part of that effort is simple. It's a rebranding exercise. Although Microsoft will continue to sell its Windows Mobile operating system, it is going to put its marketing muscle behind the term "Windows phone" to describe the devices that run its software.