OpenDocument debate resumes in the Netherlands
While Microsoft's Office Open XML format slowly makes inroads towards acceptance as an international format, the Dutch government debates whether the software behind that format must also be open-source.
A Dutch news service is reporting this afternoon that Microsoft has issued formal objections against a junior economic affairs minister's proposal last September, which would mandate that the Netherlands government restrict itself to the use of open source software that specifically uses the OpenDocument Format.
IDC: Fewer desktop PCs to be sold from now on
Emphasizing the declining role of the desktop PC form factor in worldwide sales, the analysts of IDC's Quarterly PC Tracker now predict portable PCs will constitute 65% of US PC sales by 2011.
The time of the desktop-bound computer has peaked in the United States, concludes Loren Loverde, Richard Shim, and the analysts of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker report this morning. In figures the team released this morning, they predict 38.2 million desktop-based PCs and x86-based servers will have been sold in the US in 2007, a decline of just over 3% from 2006.
Office 2007 SP1 goes live, Windows XP SP3 RC1 follows along
As anticipated and without much fanfare, Microsoft this morning made active links for downloads of Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 1, as well as the complete Office 2007 Service Pack 1.
A Knowledgebase article detailing the contents of O2K7 SP1 had also been made available this morning, though BetaNews noticed that just before noon today, Microsoft removed that article, perhaps for editing purposes. The link to the download itself however remained active. The Office service pack is not a beta; it is a complete release.
Debate over telco immunity rages on between DNI, Senate
Setting up a fiery public showdown between the justice and intelligence communities and the Congress, the country's highest-ranking intelligence official argued publicly in favor of immunity for telcos that turned over private data.
In an op-ed piece published in The New York Times yesterday, US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell asked readers to support an extension of the terms of the Protect America Act (PAA), a temporary measure for authorizing electronic surveillance on persons outside the United States, due to expire next February 1. One of three key reasons for extending its provisions, the Director argues, is to continue to provide immunity for telecommunications companies that have cooperated with the US Government in surveillance operations.
Improved startup repair tool, media throttling among Vista SP1 changes
To reassure customers that it really has been addressing consumers' concerns about Vista, Microsoft has made its change log to Windows Vista SP1 publicly available early.
Microsoft has released early its final change log for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 -- an indication that the release of the software itself could be imminent. Among the changes and additions which the company has confirmed are several that directly address customer complaints, including one of the big ones: system slowdowns while running multimedia files.
Toshiba enters the solid-state disk arena
Nearly a full year after leading flash memory producer Samsung presented its first solid-state drives, flash producer Toshiba plans to follow along behind with three models that take advantage of its exclusive design.
By next February, Toshiba plans to begin sampling 32 GB and 64 GB embedded solid-state disk drives for small, portable equipment. After having stayed out of the market to this point, the manufacturer plans to ramp up production quite rapidly from there, with a goal of producing 128 GB SSDs in the 1.8" and 2.5" form factors by next May.
Office Live Workspace beta goes public
Since October, Microsoft has been busy working to hang its Office shingle in "the cloud," where users can save documents somewhere to the Web. Now it's ready for the general public to try out the cloud.
The consumer side of Microsoft's hosted service strategy steps up to the next gear this morning, as it unveils the official beta of its Office Live Workspace service to the general public. Unlike its Office Live Web-based applications, the Workspace service creates a Web location for storing traditional Office documents, as a way of ensuring portability.
AMD quad-core 'erratum' creates problems for early adopters
A "design and process tuning step" is being blamed for the first quad-core AMD processors at 2.4 GHz being shipped with a BIOS fix, containing a workaround for what now appears to be a serious erratum.
An AMD spokesperson told BetaNews this afternoon that the first wave of its quad-core Opteron server CPUs and Phenom desktop CPUs were shipped on the November 19 launch date with a known erratum -- a documented bug. Customers received CPUs along with a BIOS fix that includes a workaround.
Declaring AT&T's GSM network 'open' could be premature
A comment by the CEO of AT&T's wireless division was interpreted to mean the company was following up Verizon Wireless in opening its services to the customer's choice of handsets. But that may not be what he really meant.
"You can use any handset on our network you want," AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega is quoted by USA Today as having stated, adding later that his company does nothing to police its customers and that has already established itself as the most open of US carriers.
PDF 1.7 on its way to ISO standard status, not there yet
Adobe's quest to establish its full PDF format as an international standard cleared a major milestone yesterday, passing a preliminary ISO ballot overwhelmingly. Now its backers have just 205 technical issues to address.
On the 100-point scale of a standard's lifecycle established by the International Organization for Standardization, the publication phase is status 60.60, and the post-review confirmation phase is status 90.93. Yesterday, according to the ISO's official itinerary, Portable Document Format version 1.7 was advanced to status 40.60 (Close of Voting).
Windows Server 2008 moves to RC1 status
The second release candidate (thus the number "1") for Windows Server 2008 is slated for availability this afternoon, and this version will finally include a new tool that Microsoft took an interest in back in 2005.
The latest RC1 for Windows Server 2008 will finally incorporate a tool Microsoft has had in its stable by way of acquisition for well over a year: What was once sold separately as PolicyMaker Standard Edition -- a tool for extending the range and function of group policy objects -- will now be incorporated into Windows Server, as Group Policy Preferences.
SoundExchange says new satellite royalties aren't enough
Publicly splitting with the panel that had, up until yesterday, backed its proposed royalties hikes entirely, the agency that collects performance royalties said this morning the newly agreed-upon rate is unfair to artists.
"This result once again highlights the inequity of a rate standard that forces creators of music to subsidize certain music services with below market rates," stated SoundExchange's executive director John Simson this morning, in response to new performance royalty rates agreed upon yesterday by XM Satellite Radio and the US Copyright Royalty Board.
XM agrees to higher performance royalties
In what could signal the beginning of the end of the performance royalties debate, XM says it has agreed to an annual fee based on a gross revenue scale -- what Internet streamers would prefer -- rather than a listener-hour scale.
XM Satellite Radio today agreed with the US Copyright Royalty Board to a performance royalties rate that's an escalating flat percentage of its adjusted gross revenues. Up to this point, the service was paying a third of a cent for every listener who pays attention for an hour.
Samsung to sample nearly four times faster graphics memory
Next February at the industry's leading symposium on semiconductor technology, Samsung is preparing to present a dissertation and perhaps a sample on a new class of graphics memory with 375% the data rate of today's GDDR3.
Along the way, someone at some point decided to skip a number: It will be called GDDR5, and unless someone else steps forward really soon, Samsung may be the only manufacturer (unless Rambus steps up to the plate) to present not only a technical explanation but also working samples to a solid-state circuits conference in San Francisco in February.
Vista SP1 to replace 'Reduced Functionality' with nagware
A service originally designed to compel unpaid Vista users to obtain genuine licenses is apparently being scrapped in Service Pack 1, to be replaced with a more "in-your-face" approach.
In a prepared Q&A released by Microsoft this morning, corporate vice president for Windows product marketing Mike Sievert divulged that Reduced Functionality Mode (RFM) -- a service that disables certain features of Windows Vista until the user activates the system, assuming she can -- will be scrapped in Service Pack 1. In its place will be something that reduces the user's experience instead.
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