ICANN Again Delays .XXX Domain
ICANN late last week delayed a decision on the final approval of the .xxx domain name, which was intended to create a "red light district" for the Internet. The Bush administration formally asked ICANN to stop the process last month after receiving nearly 6,000 complaints.
It's not clear when ICANN would take up the issue again, but said it was seeking changes to an agreement with the company that was selected to manage the domain's registrations. The organization did, however, approve a new .CAT domain for promoting the Catalan language. Catalonia, an area in eastern Spain that includes Barcelona and extends into France, has long pushed for independence and cultural recognition.
Microsoft Opens Up Beta Development
The days of waiting six months for a new Windows beta release are over, Microsoft declared at PDC 2005 in Los Angeles. Learning from its community technology preview (CTP) programs, the company will issue monthly test releases of Windows Vista moving forward.
The intention of more frequent updates is to bring beta testers "into the kitchen," Windows lead product manager Greg Sullivan explained to BetaNews. In turn, Microsoft will be able to solicit additional feedback throughout the Windows development process and more quickly address bugs that hinder ongoing testing.
Images: Nintendo Revolution Controller
In his keynote address Friday at the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata took the wraps off a complete redesigned wireless controller for the company's forthcoming Revolution game console. The controller works like a remote control in one hand, with an optional analog unit for two-handed gameplay.
Third parties can extend the Revolution controller with add-ons and game developers can choose to use as many features as they like. "The feeling is so natural and real, as soon as players use the controller, their minds will spin with the possibilities of how this will change gaming as we know it today," said Iwata.
Next Windows Server Gets Modular
It may not have a name yet, but Longhorn Server features were detailed Thursday at PDC 2005 and the watchword was "modular." Microsoft has broken down its server OS into components, and the system installs only the services required to fill a specific role.
At its core, Longhorn Server will contain no graphical user interface and boot directly to a command prompt. The Server Core simply contains networking, security and management services, along with Active Directory.
IIS 7.0 Learns a Few Tricks from Apache
Microsoft senior vice president Bob Muglia took the PDC 2005 stage Thursday morning to discuss the future of Windows Server. In addition to announcing Compute Cluster Edition Beta 1 and the first Longhorn Server CTP, Muglia introduced IIS 7.0 - complete with a modular architecture.
"We've learned from Apache," acknowledged Bill Staples, product unit manager for IIS. Version 7.0 takes the IIS feature set and breaks it down into individual components, or modules, that can be loaded on an as-needed basis. The result is a Web server with much less overhead.
Yahoo Search Gets Instant Answers
Yahoo on Thursday unveiled a new beta feature on its Web search that checks to see if there is a single, relevant result to a query and pops up the answer in a "search bubble" using advanced AJAX scripting. For example, weather information or recent news headlines can be displayed instantly without submitting a search.
"Instant Search represents an experience that's different from what most of us expect from a search engine, so it takes a little getting used to. But once you start using it, it's hard to stop," says Instant Search product manager Stephen Hood. "For example, in the past I would typically hit Enter as soon as I finished typing in my search, but after using Instant Search I now find myself pausing to look for the 'bubble'."
Images: Windows Vista Build 5219
Microsoft issued to PDC 2005 attendees this week the first of its monthly CTP builds of Windows Vista, which includes a number of improvements over Beta 1. The version distributed to attendees does not include the new Windows Sidebar, but Microsoft did highlight the feature at PDC.
To take full advantage of Vista's new capabilities quite a bit of computing and graphics power is required. Click the image on the right to view Vista in its full glory.
WinFS Examples in Action at PDC
Although WinFS won't ship until after Windows Vista hits store shelves, the new file system is garnering the attention of PDC 2005 attendees who want to see the capabilities that a relational file system will bring. Microsoft on Wednesday showed off a few examples of WinFS in action.
WinFS isn't a new concept at Microsoft; the company has long made what it calls "integrated storage" a top priority. The new file system was first unveiled at PDC 2003, but many assumed the effort was dead once Microsoft announced WinFS would not be included in Vista.
AOL Launches Podcasting Site, Search
AOL on Wednesday unveiled a new podcasting section on its AOL.com portal, which highlights the best podcasts and a Podcasting 101 guide on how to get started with the emerging technology. Along with its hosted podcasts, AOL offers a search utility powered by iPodder.
Visitors will also receive access to streamed content from AOL properties including CNN, as well as third parties such as NASA, Grape Radio, Gamespot.com and others. AOL plans to introduce more in-house podcasts in the coming months from its AOL Music, Moviefone and RED services.
Yahoo Begins Testing New Web Mail
Yahoo on Tuesday began a limited beta test of a new Web mail system, which includes a redesigned interface that mirrors desktop-based clients like Microsoft Outlook. Drag and drop features are supported through DHTML, and a new search engine brings added support for attachments.
Yahoo said in June it was planning to launch a new version of Yahoo! Mail that would feature an instant preview pane. Many of the changes in the beta were taken from the company's acquisition of Oddpost last year. Users who dislike the new version will be given an option to switch back to the traditional interface.
Google Launches Blog Search Beta
Google on Wednesday took the wraps off a new search engine devoted to Web logs, or blogs, which is also integrated with the company's Blogger publishing tool. The Blog Search uses RSS feeds to index blog content, and Google says it intends to include as many blogs as possible, including those in foreign languages.
"Whether you're looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice," Google says. Soon the company will offer a form for bloggers to manually submit their site, if it isn't automatically picked up.
Samsung: 32GB Flash Memory Coming
Samsung on Monday unveiled a new high density flash memory chip that paves the way for portable devices with much larger capacities. The 16-gigabit NAND chip is equivalent to 2GB of storage, and can be packaged in quantities of 16 to create a 32-gigabyte flash memory product.
The new chips are expected to be mass produced beginning in the second half of 2006. That means devices like Apple's new iPod Nano could see considerable storage bumps in the coming future. Apple did not say whether it plans to use the new flash memory, but the company has purchased a huge stake of Samsung's chips for the iPod.
VMware Workstation 5.5 Released
VMware on Monday introduced version 5.5 of its desktop virtualization software, which adds 64-bit support for the latest AMD and Intel chips. The upgrade also adds virtual SMP support that makes it possible for a virtual machine to span two processors, and an enhanced importer.
With version 5.5 VMware has added an enhanced command line interface for automating repetitive testing tasks. "VMware Workstation 5.5 gives developers a powerful platform to accelerate the development, testing and support of their next-generation applications," said Karthik Rau, director of product management at VMware. The new release is available for $189 USD in electronic download form.
Oracle Buys Siebel for $5.8 Billion
In another major acquisition of a rival software maker, Oracle on Monday said it will buy up Siebel Systems in a deal valued at over $5.8 billion. Siebel, a maker of customer resource management software, will provide Oracle with 4,000 new customers and 3.4 million CRM users.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said the deal was intended to give Oracle an entire ecosystem of enterprise application software, and was pushed by companies such as General Electric who only wanted to deal with a single vendor.
Mozilla Patches New Firefox Flaw
Mozilla developers acted fast to patch a new security vulnerability in Firefox, which slipped its way into the first beta build of Firefox 1.5 and exists in earlier versions as well. However, the patch simply disables the buggy feature while a permenant fix is worked out.
The vulnerability relates to Firefox's handling of IDN, or international domain names, and can be exploited by long Web links that contain dashes. The flaw causes a buffer overflow and opens the door for malicious code to be run on a PC. No code to exploit the problem has surfaced, but Mozilla developers say they are taking it seriously.
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