While touch-screen smartphones like Apple's iPhone 3G and Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm are popular, many business users just want a slim handset that makes typing out messages easy and quick.
With this is in mind, HTC is bringing its S740 smartphone to the United States, and its small size and powerful features could make it attractive for mobile professionals.
Physically, the S740 bears a slight resemblance to the HTC Touch Pro, but the S740 isn't as wide and doesn't have a touch screen. At about 1.7 inches, the smartphone looks like a skinny remote control. The handset does have a bit of bulk to make room for the slide-out, four-row keyboard, but at 4.9 ounces it's not too heavy.
At a press conference at CES 2009 Tuesday evening, Asus introduced the Eee 131, its first netbook with a built-in 512 GB hard drive. Asus has been working closely with Microsoft, so that the new Eee will run Windows 7.3:47 pm PT: It is a "highly reactive" keyboard, Shih said, with a five-inch touchscreen display built-in. You can use this keyboard or a touchpad in any room in the house.
"You've never seen Windows run this fast," said Dave Fester, Microsoft's marketing manager for OEM products, speaking at this afternoon's conference. Later, Asus previewed its Eee PC T91 touchscreen notebook, which features a built-in TV tuner and a built-in GPS. Asus Chairman and CEO Johnny Shih described this Eee as a "next generation" netbook, with a "superset" of features for mobile computing.
Microsoft on Tuesday said it would launch new Mac software later this year that will let Office 2008 for Mac users collaborate
with people running the Windows version of the application suite.
"Entourage Exchange Web Services and the Document Collaboration Companion lets Mac Office users connect with counterparts
on a PC," said Eric Wilfrid, the general manager of Microsoft's Mac business group, in a separate statement. "These releases
are the first step in harnessing the power of software plus services on the Mac.
"
Entourage will also be beefed up this year, promised Microsoft, so that it's more equivalent to Outlook, the Windows e-mail
client, in enterprises.
A long time ago, Bob Muglia worked on a Microsoft project designed to offer a variety of services in the cloud. That effort, known as Hailstorm, didn't exactly go gangbusters, and Muglia's career took a detour.
Bob Muglia
But both Muglia and Hailstorm are back. On Monday, Microsoft elevated Muglia to divisional president, a recognition of the success he has enjoyed as head of Microsoft's server software business.
As for Hailstorm, the name is gone, but many of the concepts are back, as part of the Windows Azure platform that Microsoft announced in October. Last month, I had a chance to talk with Muglia about Windows Azure, the cloud in general, as well as the economy.
A court in southern China convicted 11 people Wednesday of violating national copyright laws and participating in a sophisticated counterfeiting ring that for years manufactured and distributed pirated Microsoft software throughout the world.
The men were sentenced by a court in Shenzhen to between 1 1/2 and 6 1/2 years in prison, according to court papers released late Wednesday.
Microsoft applauded the sentence in a statement released late Wednesday Beijing time, saying they were the stiffest sentences ever handed down in this type of Chinese copyright infringement case.
Spotted on The Drudge Report last week, an ad linking to stayathomeserver.com, a site advertising, "Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House?"
That's the title of a book released this year by Microsoft's Windows Home Server marketing team.
Marketing team? Yes, it's a little difficult to tell, considering that the byline on the cover is "Tom O'Connor, Ph.D." Open the book, though, and the secret is revealed on the flip side of the title page:
The fine print: "Just so you know, Tom O'Connor does not actually have a Ph.D. He is also not actually a person. And the entire premise of this book is fictional. But on the bright side, a Windows Home Server is a real product. Perhaps you'd like to buy one!"
Pirated copies of a Windows 7 build pegged by many as the beta Microsoft will release next month have leaked to the Internet, according to searches at several BitTorrent sites today.
Users first reported the newest Windows 7 leak on Neowin.net's forums Friday, with the opening message and screenshots coming
from someone identified as "+fivestarVIP," who said he was from Beijing, China.
Build 7000 is what Microsoft will issue next month as Windows 7 Beta, according to other reports by Windows bloggers who have copies. Paul Thurrott, for example, posted a review and screenshots of Build 7000 today on his "SuperSite for Windows" site, naming it as the Beta build.
Online retailing giant Amazon.com reported on Friday that it has experienced its "best ever" holiday sales period, bucking industry trends and providing a bright spot in an otherwise disastrous economy. That said, Amazon didn't provide many specifics: It did note, however, that on its best day, December 15, customers ordered more than 72.9 million items per second.
"We are very grateful to our customers," said Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos in a message very reminiscent of the one he provided a year earlier after a similar announcement.
"On behalf of Amazon.com employees around the globe, we wish everyone the very best for the coming year."As is its custom, Amazon provided some interesting factoids about its holiday sales.
Microsoft applied last week for a patent that spells out a "pay-as-you-go" concept where users would be charged for both the software they run and the computing horsepower they use.
Fees would be lower for low-performance chores, such as writing e-mail or surfing the Internet, and higher for high-performance
tasks.
For consumers, Microsoft said, the advantage of such a model would be a lower price at the outset for a powerful PC. Computer
makers would gain the ability to standardize on higher-end systems, it added. But the company admitted that the overall cost
to the user might be higher.
"Although the cost of ownership over the life of the computer may be higher than that of a one-time
purchase, the payments can be deferred and the user can extend the useful life of the computer beyond that of the one-time
purchase machine," Microsoft contended.
We suppose it happens in families too, where one twin seems charmed from the start while the other lives under a shadow. Certainly
that's the case with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, the one almost universally heralded and the other widely snubbed. Still, isn't it odd? How do two operating systems, born together and sharing so much DNA, arrive to such different fates?
Other improvements benefit end users. The new Terminal Services Gateway, for example, connects clients via an HTTPS tunnel,
simplifying access for users while providing full
security and auditing. The supporting Remote Desktop Client (version 6.x) is bundled with Vista, but also downloadable for
XP.