America Online is poised to announce the creation of a joint venture company with Legend Holdings Limited, the leading PC manufacturer in China. The move marks the first important milestone toward delivery of AOL services to the Chinese mainland. Each company will reportedly contribute $100 million USD to the joint venture, initially providing support services for Legend customers through its FM365.com Web portal. Upon China's accession to the World Trade Organization, the joint venture plans to take an equity stake in Legend's ISP business, establishing the operation of AOL Internet service in China.

With over 22 million people online in China and the Chinese language quickly approaching a majority on the Internet, Legend makes a powerful partner for AOL. Legend is the top distributor of new PCs in the Asia Pacific region, paving the way for wide adoption of joint services via inclusion of AOL software. FM365.com also provides significant reach for AOL, peaking at 25 million daily page views.

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In a significant turn of events, corporate behemoths AOL and Microsoft have decided to play nice and finalize a deal to bundle AOL client software with Windows XP. BetaNews has learned AOL representatives were invited up to Redmond for a three-week integration session at the end of this month, a step the company internally feels "is a big win to aid our bundling efforts." AOL hopes to include Steppenwolf, the XP compatible version of AOL 6.0, in the October 25 release.

The original agreement to bundle AOL with Windows ended January 1 of this year and both parites failed to reach a compromise on renewal. Fears within AOL about the future of their client surfaced last month, as the company began to investigate alternatives to working with Microsoft.

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3Com Beta Test Services is looking for qualified ADSL participants to a test a next generation ADSL IAD with VoDSL capabilities (this is not the PSTN splitter that is included in some ADSL systems). 3Com asks all applicants to "include in the comments section, that you want to test this product, your service provider's name and address, which DSLAM they are using to supply your
service, and which VoDSL Gateway your service provider supports. If you do not know this information, please find out from your service provider, or you will not be considered."

Qualified applicants should be able to meet the following criteria:

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With a retail launch date set for May 31, MSDN subscribers have been given an early look at Office XP. Microsoft this week posted Office XP Professional and Developer editions for download. MSDN Subscriptions is a service that delivers essential programming information and the latest Microsoft software and tools, for a price. Non-subscribers may register to attend the Office XP launch event and view an interactive demo for a taste of what's to come. To download or find more information on the program, visit MSDN Subscriptions.

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Microsoft today announced plans regarding the upcoming release of Windows for Intel's 64-bit Itanium processors. Windows XP 64-Bit Edition will debut with 32-bit versions on October 25, but will be first available through an 'Early Deployment Program' for developers. The 64-bit Windows Advanced Server Limited Edition will become available upon general availablity of Itanium systems. Microsoft toyed with the idea of releasing a 64-bit version of Windows 2000, but held off due to delays surrounding the Itanium.

"The 64-bit Windows platform is the best choice for customers who want to combine powerful, 64-bit computing with great price/performance and manageability, unmatched scalability, and broad hardware and software support," said senior vice president of the Windows Division, Brian Valentine, in today's press release.

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EXCLUSIVE BetaNews has received an updated release schedule for Windows XP, placing RTM between August 8 and August 28. Microsoft has not set a firm date for a release to manufacturing according to an internal schedule sent to partners last week, however the company plans to launch Release Candidate 1 (RC1) on June 20 and follow with RC2 on July 18. While still in limbo, RTM is now expected to occur around mid-August, one month later than previous reports had stated.

This latest schedule coincides with last week's announcement by Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, that XP will ship on October 25.

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The interview has been updated to reflect a slight miscommunication. The corrections are highlighted in red.

Much animosity has surfaced recently over a new product activation feature set to debut with Windows XP. In an effort to dissuade piracy, activation acts like a secondary product key, registering each system with a central Microsoft clearinghouse. But privacy groups and many Windows users are concerned about the implications surrounding such a feature. BetaNews
recently sat down with Allen Nieman, Product Manager of Activation at Microsoft, to clear up confusion and sort fact from fiction.

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Wednesday's opening of E3 marked an important day for giants Nintendo and Microsoft, both announcing availability plans for their highly anticipated next-generation gaming consoles. Nintendo's GameCube will hit stores on November 5, with Microsoft's Xbox arriving on the 8th for $299 USD. GameCube pricing has not been officially announced, but the console is expected to run around $199 USD.

Microsoft is expected to ship approximately 800,000 units for the launch, hoping to avoid shortage problems Sony experienced with last year's PS2 debut. A marketing blitz is expected from the Redmond giant shortly, sporting a $500 million budget over the first year and a half.

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Microsoft today announced a Windows Media 7.1 update for Media Player, Encoder, and SDK. According to the software giant, "these version updates offer a way for consumers, digital media professionals, IT professionals and software developers to take full advantage of the breakthrough audio and video quality of the latest Microsoft Windows Media Audio and Video 8 codec technology released in March." Updates include the addition of CD ripping, transcoding, automated encoding, and a Media Format Component SDK.

Windows Media Player 7.1 supports CD ripping using the latest audio codec. Microsoft touts CD-quality music at 64 Kbps, half the size of MP3 files. 'Snart Transcode' is now also offered, a technology allowing users to lower the size and quality of files when transferring to portable devices.

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After Windows XP interim build 2469 arrived Friday, more than just testers were able to experience the beta. A leaked login to the tester-only Windows Beta Web site quickly surfaced, and spread like wild fire throughout IRC and over instant messenger. Sources confirmed the breached account was active for approximately seven hours, resulting in mass unauthorized downloads of private beta releases. The bandwidth strain is said to have crippled Redmond, forcing Microsoft to shut down the beta site and other services.

Windows Beta is the secure Web site where XP testers retreive the latest code from Microsoft. The site acts much like a front end to the previous NTBeta FTP site, allowing testers to browse directory structure and download ISO images of beta releases. Along with 2469, Friday's pirates were able to access Beta 2 build 2462 and interim build 2465, as well as documentation and special XP utilities.

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UPDATED While an official announcement has yet to be made, the long-awaited second service pack for Windows 2000 is now available from Microsoft. As always, this latest service pack incorporates updates to improve security, application and hardware compatibility, Windows setup, and system stability. SP2 does not include any new features according to the software giant, simply fixes and updates. Expect more information shortly on the SP2 Web site, and here on BetaNews. Update: Microsoft has posted SP2 release notes and installation information. The 101MB Network install and the much smaller Express install are now available via FileForum.

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The recent closure of 3Com's Ergo Internet division and subsequent recall of its Audrey Web appliance might indicate a market-induced failure, but behind the scenes an important feat took place - the beta test. As one of the select group, I was able to see the true importance of Audrey; not the device itself, but rather the extensive process behind developing such a product.

Organized by Beta Test Services, a division of 3Com, the test began last November and was expected to span over a year. 3Com had already gone to market with an initial version of Audrey, but planned to add a vastly improved feature set. Test units downloaded upgraded firmware over the Internet throughout the beta, adding new channels and correcting bugs.

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Microsoft has a new suggestion these days for network administrators managing Windows servers: ask your MOM. Microsoft Operations Manager 2000, or MOM as the company fondly brands it, is a suite of tools developed to aid in the management of Windows 2000 Server. According to the software giant, "MOM allows administrators to collect and view event information from one location, to monitor servers and applications to prevent problems, and to automatically escalate and resolve problems when they do occur."

Microsoft aims at making servers running Windows as easy to manage as those running UNIX. Customers can now use MOM to troubleshoot and correct remote problems much quicker, from any platform. MOM will be extended onto Linux, UNIX, Novell, Oracle, and others through Extended Management Packs.

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Yesterday's arrival of Mozilla 0.9 is an important milestone for the browser's development team, another step towards the long-awaited release of 1.0. Mozilla.org hopes to accomplish this feat by the end of this year, but admittedly there always will be delays. Milestone 0.9.1 is currently slated to debut in early June and will provide the first test base for browsers that embed Mozilla's engine, including Netscape 6.5.

An open source Web browser, Mozilla was born from Netscape's Communicator suite in 1998. Many products are now driven by the re-written Mozilla, the most prominent of which being Netscape 6. The code is available for use free of charge under the Mozilla Public License.

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When it was announced that the upcoming "Whistler" Server product family would bear the name Windows 2002, BetaNews was just as perplexed as many of our readers. After all, a single code base was finally established for all Windows flavors and Microsoft had broken down the wall separating its consumer and business divisons. For the sake of avoiding confusion alone, it seemed to make more sense to follow the XP naming scheme. Many users seeking to upgrade their desktop OS ended up purchasing Windows 2000 rather than Me after years of exposure to date-oriented product releases. We at BetaNews had questions, and Microsoft's Mark Perry, Senior Director of Windows Server Marketing, had answers.

According to Perry, "Windows 2002 is an evolutionary product. We expect the marketplace of enterprise server customers will embrace the logic of naming-continuation, as the upcoming release of server family products is the evolutionary continuation of the Windows 2000 server family." But isn't Windows XP is also the "evolutionary continuation" of Windows 2000?

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