Appeals Court Says 'No' to Microsoft, DOJ
A federal appeals court today denied a request by Microsoft to reconsider part of its ruling, and concurrently refused a Justice Department motion to bypass the waiting period required before the antitrust case returns to a lower court. The U.S. government and 18 states had sought to speed up the case seemingly with plans to seek an injunction delaying the October release of Windows XP.
The legal battle is set to resume later this month unless Microsoft opts to appeal to the Supreme Court, an option the company is reviewing.
Novell Offers Up Netware 6 Beta
Novell has made available for purchase Netware 6.0 Beta 3. Based upon Internet standards such as XML, WAP, JAVA, and HTML, Netware 6.0 provides access to resources over any device - delivering on the promise of the company's One Net initiative. Using Novell's new iPrint and iFolder technologies, files can be reviewed and printed from any given location through a browser. Besides the Internet-centric features, new functionality includes portal services and the ability to support up to 32 clustered servers. Scalability and performance are key concerns in this release.
Gone is the requirement to install software on a client in order to gain access network resources. Novell's Network Storage Service (NSS) has been upgraded to allow servers to boot from NSS formatted volumes, and plug in modules are available to easily support non native file systems. Netware will be able to unify networks whether or not they run differing platforms.
Sparcs Fly as Sun Redesigns Processor
Upping the ante in its quest to keep Intel from being considered a serious candidate in high end computing, Sun Microsystems has tweaked its UltraSparc III processor for improved speed. With the addition of copper metal interconnects, 0.15 micron process technology, and several other modifications, Sun has achieved its best performing chip ever. Running at 900 Megahertz, the chip will become available in October for use in workstations and, after a slight wait, will be deployed in servers. A close partner to Sun, Texas Instruments has been tapped to continue manufacturing of the processors.
The introduction of Intel's 64-bit Itanium microprocessor has for the first time given Intel a window of opportunity to invade the high-end server market. Sun's product offerings have included a 64-but chip for some time, and they continue to dominate sales of UNIX-powered servers. With the upcoming McKinley, the second generation 64-bit processor from Intel, Sun is taking no chances given the chip giant's penchant to quickly accelerate clock speeds.
Maxtor Introduces Ultra ATA/133
Maxtor has announced a new iteration of its highly successful Ultra ATA 100 technology. With transfer speeds of up to 133 MB/s, the Ultra ATA/133 interface, or "Fast Drives," promises to deliver breakneck speed at an affordable price. The Fast Drive interface is designed to provide seamless storage and playback of digital audio and video. Several partners have already signed on to license the technology and begin shipping products later this year.
According to the press release, Ultra ATA/100 technology already makes up 90 percent of all hard drives, CD-ROMs and DVDs. The new specification is available under non-disclosure agreements to selected hardware manufacturers. The company has plans to submit an open standard to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) T13 group during the final quarter of this year. Ultra ATA/133 is fully backward compatible with existing ATA products.
AT&T Speaks Naturally
The capability to duplicate the human voice, ranging from famous personalities to generic vernacular, is becoming a reality. Today, AT&T Labs announced several new technologies aimed at making computer synthesized speech sound ordinary. AT&T's Natural Voices Text-to-Speech is divided into an "engine" that includes an archive of voices, and a solution to create customized voices for customers. The telecommunications giant has a long history of developing speech technologies; even still, the company faces stiff competition in order to achieve dominance in the field.
Whether it be resurrecting the voice of a famous celebrity to become a corporate spokesperson, or bringing back Gene Hart as the voice of the Philadelphia Flyers – a new market for sound technologies is opening up. In today's announcement, AT&T Chief Technology Officer David C. Nagel illustrated the company's intention to grab a huge portion of the emerging market. Nagel said, "We're going after the lion's share of what will be a billion-dollar market for text-to-speech systems in five years."
PC Makers in Middle of Desktop Bounty Hunt
Microsoft changes the rules as AOL offers OEMs up to $125 per registration in its war for desktop real estate.
When new computers ship with Microsoft's Windows XP this Fall, desktop space will go to the highest bidder - and AOL is willing to pay handsomely. In a letter sent to partner OEMs, AOL looks to extend upon current agreements to secure exclusive desktop rights. Adding a new twist to the saga, Microsoft responded to AOL's moves late Monday, revealing that PCs shipping with any desktop icons must include one for MSN Internet as well.
Intergraph Escalates Legal Battle Against Intel
In continuation of its legal onslaught against Intel, Intergraph Corporation is now alleging that the chip giant has violated two of its patents that have been held since 1993. That same year, Intergraph and Intel initially partnered to create Windows NT workstations, and Intergraph ceased development of its C5 Clipper chip. On Monday, the Eastern District Court of Texas received a filing which targets Intel's new IA-64 EPIC architecture, core of the long awaited Itanium processor.
The lawsuit stems from Intel's use of parallel instruction computing in the IA-64, technology that Intergraph says it developed while designing the Clipper microprocessor. Although they revolve around Clipper, these claims are unrelated to an existing lawsuit filed in 1997 in an Alabama court. Specifically, the recent complaint addresses the techniques used to convey compiler-recognized parallelism to the hardware and the novel approach of routing instructions to any of the processing units.
Red Hat, 3G Lab Developing Wireless OS
Popular Linux company Red Hat and UK-based 3G Lab announced Monday plans to create an operating system to be run on wireless devices. Based around Red Hat's eCos, the embedded configurable operating system, the new OS will power Web-enabled mobile phones. The software will be open source, thus allowing developers to download the API and create applications designed for the OS.
The new software is slated to be dubbed eCos/M3, and will have specific features geared towards improving battery life and ensuring smooth streaming media content. While suggested to be the first "wireless Linux," the OS will in fact not be based on Linux or any derivative. eCos is able to run on devices with a much smaller memory footprint than that needed by Linux.
BMG to Test Copy-Protected CDs
The fight to Napster-proof audio CDs has entered the next round of development. Record industry giant BMG Entertainment is set to begin testing a technology which it hopes will thwart the illegal creation of compact discs. Partnering with SunnComm Incorporated, BMG will deploy its own in-house copyright protection measures along side SunComm's MediaC1_Q Digital Cloaking Technology. SunComm refused to disclose details on the inner-workings of the protection.
SunComm hopes that the exposure it has received from this partnership will lead to industry adoption of its own technology rather than its competitor's offerings. Thus far, no fool proof method of protecting copyrighted material on CDs has been found, and the music industry has gone to great length to block the exposure of flaws in existing copyright technologies.
Mac OS X 10.1 Betas Leaked
Recent development builds of Mac OS X 10.1, code-named Puma, have begun leaking onto the Internet. Thus far, three different builds, 5D15, 5F7 and 5F24, have appeared on IRC and various locations on the Web. Rumors about a fourth beta build are surfacing, just days after the latest leak.
Many of the new features announced during Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote are available in the recent betas. The most visible change is a speed increase throughout the entire OS, including application launch time and menu responses.
Palm Spins Off OS Group
In a move reminiscent of 3Com's initial Palm spin off, the handheld manufacturer has announced plans to jettison its Platform Solutions Group. By year's end, Palm Inc. will fully segregate its OS development team from the rest of the company, refocusing to include more comprehensive solutions for licensees of the Palm OS. The company's recent decision to switch to ARM chip architecture promises to extend the capabilities of its operating system, providing a more robust platform for development. It is possible a new company will be formed to counteract Microsoft's push into the wireless arena.
According to Alan Kessler, Palm general manager of the Platform Solutions Group, "This is another important step to strengthen our technology and deliver powerful and elegant solutions for our Palm OS licensees."
Windows XP Reaches RC2
Microsoft today announced the arrival of Windows XP Release Candidate 2, the final milestone before the upcoming operating system is released to manufacturing next month. Sporting build number 2526, RC2 is available for download from WindowsBeta, but will not be sent out on CD. The release will soon be made available to Windows Preview Program participants, but on an incremental basis in order to avoid previous problems. Ecstatic with XP's progress, the software giant proclaimed in an e-mail to testers that, "The end is in sight."
Despite its importance, very little is new in RC2. Microsoft has added an option to uninstall Internet Explorer and has removed the infamous Smart Tags, but claims the code is practically complete. "RC2 is simply a final checkpoint on the way to the final RTM. We are close to release and want to continue to get feedback, but there will be very few if any significant changes between RC2 and RTM," Windows product managers wrote in an e-mail to testers.
AOL Preps Open Messaging System
America Online has indicated plans to institute a new messaging system allowing users of competing services, such as Microsoft's MSN Messenger, to communicate with AOL members. The near-complete technology is set to begin beta testing later this summer. This decision comes after increased pressure from the FCC to make future generations of the AOL instant messaging service compatible with third-party clients.
AOL plans to begin the testing phase in union with an undisclosed leading technology company in the next month. Two servers will be linked between the businesses, and a series of trials will be run to test the stability and compliance of the new software.
Microsoft Betas USB 2.0 Support
In collaboration with USB Implementers Forum, Microsoft has released USB 2.0 beta drivers for Windows XP. The next generation USB 2.0 specification touts performance boosts of up to 40 times current hardware capabilities. The drivers will be available via Windows Update, and a developer beta program has been established to test support on other platforms, including Windows 2000. This release marks a major milestone towards full USB 2.0 adoption.
The USB 2.0 specification went final in April 2000, and subsequent efforts to develop the technology have experienced repeated delays. Microsoft decided not to incorporate USB 2.0 directly into Windows XP due to a lack of supporting devices on which to test. Critics were quick to blast Redmond for its apparent lack of support, but the company has remained adamant that it is committed to the project.
Microsoft Continues Wireless Push With MSN Mobile 4.0
In a continued push to the mobile devices market, Microsoft announced today the release of MSN Mobile 4.0. The service is designed to work in conjunction with mobile communication devices, offering access to MSN Hotmail, as well as MSN Messenger in many popular wireless formats including SMS. This newest incarnation of the MSN Mobile service promises more customization and better functionally along with the added features.
"With this update to MSN Mobile, we are extending our capabilities to offer mobile operators an immediate opportunity to generate revenue based on two-way SMS, providing MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger to consumers," said Vinay Kumar, Director of MSN Wireless Services at Microsoft. "Our popular communications services gives us a strategic advantage over our competitors."
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