Aaron Dobbins

German-based Infineon has reported the successful development of a new chip technology that will boost current RAM speeds as much as five times. The new RAM, magnetic random access memory, is currently being developed in conjunction with researchers at IBM. According to Bijan Davari, IBM Fellow and Vice President of Technology and Emerging Products, "MRAM has the potential to replace today’s memory technologies in electronic products of the future."

Along with greater speeds, the new MRAM will also decrease power consumption by as much as 50% according to research done at Big Blue.

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Microsoft today released the first beta of XML for Analysis specifications, a new protocol to combine the Redmond Giants business intelligence strategy with the Visual Studio .Net vision of Web services. The new specs have been collaborated on by 50 of the industry's biggest players, and is built on XML, HTTP, and SOAP.

Many cross-platform data analysis developers praise the protocol as the "first cross-platform solution designed to address the unique challenges of analytical data access and manipulation."

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For those of you who may not have seen screenshots already, one BetaNews reader was kind enough to send in a few images from Microsoft's Visual Studio .Net, currently enjoying Beta 1 status. Newly redesigned menus add a little spice to the otherwise boring every day interface, along with a host of new features and functions make Visual Studio .Net very promising for developers everywhere. View the screenshots here: Splash Screen, Program Bug, Bug Reporting, Development Environment 1, Development Environment 2. Enjoy!

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News.com is reporting that Sony's PSOne, the newly released redesigned version of the original Playstation, is topping this years best-selling game console list. One would have to imagine that if supplies could keep up, the PS2 would top that list, but because the new console is virtually impossible to locate for a decent price, the old Playstation reigns. Reports show that Dreamcast sales are on the rise however, after Sega dropped the price to $150 a few months ago, and released a special black "Sports Edition" console. For more information visit News.com.

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Bloomberg reports Micron today signed a six year agreement with Microsoft to provide the DDR SDRAM for the upcoming XBox gaming console. When the console premiers next year it will feature 64MB of memory to compete with Sony's PlayStation2, which uses Rambus memory, and Nintendo's next console still currently in development. The memory being supplied by Micron will be a bit speedier than the standard memory in consumer PCs.

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Headlining the press release, Microsoft touted "New Independent Study Shows That Windows Media Player Is Now Preferred By Three Out of Four Digital Media Users" as the Redmond giant released today the special bonus pack for Windows Media Player 7. Just to celebrate both the season and the release of the new Bonus Pack users can get a special animated skin celebrating the Christmas season. Microsoft officials also boasted Windows Media Player is "the best way for all users to enjoy digital media."

Included in the Bonus Pack is an MP3 converter, which converts MP3 files to WMA files to, "double the amount of music stored on their PC quickly and easily." Also in the pack is a Winamp skin converter to turn your favorite Winamp skins into Windows Media Player compatible skins.

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Computer Associates, maker of the popular anti-viral software InnoculateIT have introduced a scaled-down version of its flagship software to suit Palm handhelds. The software currently protects your Palm against three known Palm virii: Palm OS.Liberty.A, Palm OS.Phage.A and Palm OS.Vapor A. As a special introductory offer the software is currently free to download, and can be found here. For more information visit Computer Associates.

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With the new toolbar being developed by Google, the site with some of the best search results on the net, you can instantly find what you are looking for. In its early beta stage, the toolbar allows you to search the site you are currently on for a myriad of information including specific keywords. You can also view the sites page ranking according to Google, and if the page is unaccessible, you can view a cached version stored by Google. For more information and to download the toolbar, visit Google.

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One BetaNews reader sent in a link with some Office 10 Beta Build 2202 screenshots if you are interested in seeing what it looks like. The site is in Chinese, but you can see the thumbnails for the images in question. A sum total of five screenshots have been posted, including two from Excel (1,2), one from FrontPage (1), and two from Word (1,2). You can visit the site by clicking here.

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Microsoft sent word that it is now beginning driver testing for inclusion in the next version of Windows, codenamed Whistler. According to the release, those who are interested in submitting drivers for consideration must be a member of the Whistler beta testing program, and can sign up for the Windows Whistler DDK beta here.

The DDK beta program is restricted to companies actively developing software for the operating system. Drivers are tested at Microsoft on a first come first serve basis, and only a limited number of drivers will be included in the RTM of Whistler.

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As of January 19, 2001 users of the online instant messenger software PowWow will no longer be able to send messages to people on their buddylists. eWeek is reporting that CMGion, who recently acquired Tribal Voice and is currently working on a new messaging platform, will close down PowWow for good. PowWow features will then be integrated into the new network-messaging software the company is developing. For more information check out eWeek.

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Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet has the lead on the latest information concerning the Opera Web browser, a popular alternative to Internet Explorer and the many other Web browsers on the market today. The feature list has yet to be learned, but the software will be released free of charge, possibly supported by advertising within the program. Opera will announce the new features on December 6, so stay tuned for that information when it arrives.

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Stephen King has pulled is Web-based novel "The Plant" from his site due to an excessive number of users downloading the parts of the novel without paying for them. The experiment began in late July when the first installment was released against the wishes of Mr. King's publishers.

While King also told reporters that he was stopped working on the novel to pursue other works at this point, the main reason for dropping the project was the lack of honesty in the "honor system" set up by the acclaimed author.

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EMusic has reportedly sent about 1,000 names to Napster claiming those users have infringed on the music company's copyrights. Using a new "virtual tail" the company has been able to track which users are illegally trading its music files via Napster. EMusic has asked that Napster cancel the user accounts, though no action or comment has been officially noted at Napster. Stay tuned to BetaNews for more, or check out ZDNet for further details as they develop.

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Microsoft has announced the release of Service Pack 2 for its popular Microsoft Office productivity suite. Paul Thurrott is reporting on his site WinInformant that this release is a "patch-only" fix that will not come pre-installed on new computers with Office 2000. The new service pack is aimed mainly at the corporate environment according to Thurrott's article, and requires that SR1a be installed before a successful SP-2 installation can occur. For more information and to download the service pack visit Microsoft.

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