Windows Vista SP2 beta, WS2K8 SP2 beta released
Download Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta from FileForum now.
The first public tests of Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and Windows Server Service Pack 2 (both have the same kernel) were released this morning, and you can download them for yourself now.
Microsoft acquires Yahoo from the inside out, appoints Qi Lu
The man who could very well have given Yahoo the keys to the kingdom of online advertising, is now a very senior executive at its arch-enemy and would-be suitor. But will Microsoft do more with Dr. Lu than it did with aQuantive?
In a move that, by now, surprised precisely no one, the man who helped Yahoo get its next-generation advertising platform off the ground has now officially joined Microsoft. Dr. Qi Lu, the principal architect for the Yahoo advertising platform first known as Panama, then Apex, then AMP, then finally APT, is now Microsoft's President of Online Services.
Stinging from a revenue shortfall, Adobe to shed workers
Today, Adobe is joining the passing parade of corporations everywhere -- not just in technology -- shedding headcount to save expenses. But a check of its numbers may make some ask why so drastic a move.
That Adobe isn't seeing the level of revenue it would have liked to see from its fiscal fourth quarter thus far, should not be a surprise to anyone. So this morning's filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, stating it plans to shed 600 workers, was certainly sad but maybe not shocking.
Microsoft seeks 'community' help to make IE8 Standards Mode work out
If users install their first Internet Explorer 8 updates, and they notice their favorite Web pages look like scrambled egg soup, will they blame the browser? That's the dilemma Microsoft is facing as it cautiously embraces "Web standards."
As testers of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 are already aware, the new default rendering mode for Web pages is one that promises compliance with standards officially set forth by committees such as W3C. But the big problem major Web sites have all experienced (guilty as charged) is that they must support the somewhat standards-skewed rendering mode of previous versions of IE, up to version 6, in order to accommodate a majority of browser users.
First beta of Windows 7 may (or may not) be handed out next Tuesday
As Microsoft's annual MSDN Developers' Conference nationwide tour begins next week, attendees will be among the first to receive a DVD of Windows 7 Beta 1, according to an online invitation the company posted yesterday.
Every year, Microsoft sends a handful of its most popular conference presenters on a nationwide tour, at special MSDN events that are usually held in small conference arenas or hotels, or sometimes rented movie theaters. Attendance is $99 for the one-day event, and with this tour, attendees are promised a big giveaway package that includes Windows 7 Beta 1.
Microsoft: Vista SP2, Windows Server SP2 betas Thursday
Not one half-hour after Microsoft responded to BetaNews' inquiry, the company reversed its position, effectively announcing that the first public betas of Vista SP2 not in February, but next Thursday.
The word of a December 4 public beta release officially came from Microsoft Corp. Vice President Mike Nash at 4:23 pm this afternoon, moments after our story about rumors of a Q1 2009 beta release went live.
Another confusing split decision in Broadcom / Qualcomm spat
Perhaps one of the sternest reprimands of a US corporation in history, handed down last year, may be chopped in two and watered down as a result of a federal appeals court decision yesterday.
A decision rendered by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals late yesterday in the perpetual intellectual property dispute between Broadcom and Qualcomm, around which much of the health and well-being of the entire semiconductor industry now directly depends, once again has both sides claiming victory this morning.
Intel tries to turn the tables on AMD in document discovery dispute
Two years after being embarrassed by charges that it wasn't handling its own documents properly during the discovery process, Intel is readily assembling an eerily similar case against AMD.
Almost two years ago, the Special Master appointed to handle the discovery and acquisition of documents in AMD's European antitrust case against Intel, found that Intel must turn over certain documents that AMD might be able to use in arguments against it, even if those documents are deemed inadmissible later. In the ensuing months, Intel had trouble finding everything AMD had asked for.
Palm to restructure yet again, may cut more jobs
In what could be its last hope at survival, after the markets closed Monday evening, Palm announced it would implement a program to reduce its costs by another 20%, on top of a program that was already under way.
Last year at this time, Palm trimmed its workforce by about 100, and gambled the future of the company on the success of its low-end Centros. The plan worked, though it backfired in an odd way: Specifically, the success of, and high demand for Centro drove the company's margins lower, which made its expenses weigh more than they would have otherwise.
Less bad news than anticipated for the semiconductor industry in 2008
What's being absorbed as bad news -- a 2.0% overall decline in revenue for the entire semiconductor industry for 2008 -- could actually be blamed on just a few players, if you go behind iSuppli's recent numbers.
Sure, the barometer for growth in the global semiconductor industry turned south, especially since last September. But when looking at the world's top 20 producers collectively, as hardware analysis firm iSuppli is doing now, the news could be made to seem worse than it actually is.
DTV broadcasters could make another transition to mobile next year
With surprising speed, a coalition of US broadcasting interests and Korean manufacturers has completed a "release candidate" for a mobile digital TV standard that could displace everything else tried in America thus far.
At this time last year, the buzz heading into CES was about which of the two competing cell phone video standards would make its way to American handsets first. The contenders being discussed were: MediaFLO, a delivery mechanism championed by Qualcomm, one of the world's major suppliers of handset equipment; and DVB-H, already decreed by law to be Europe's national mobile TV standard.
Apple uses DMCA as a weapon against an open source iTunes hack
A simple effort by an open source developer to make his iPod's data legible by a Linux-based program, could balloon into a test of copyright so important that the fate of global trade agreements could hang in the balance.
In the fall of 2007, as a way of protecting the link between its iPods and iPhones and the iTunes music store databases (iTunesDB) stored on those devices, Apple began employing a hashing algorithm. The result was that transactions between a device and the music store were masked, with a side benefit being that iPods could only conduct transactions through iTunes using only Apple's software -- which is a big problem for computer users with Linux.
Mozilla developers readying one more beta cycle for Firefox 3.1
Serious issues evidently remain with recent builds of the latest edition of Firefox, leading developers to propose a new Beta 3 cycle, but with the aim of not delaying the new browser's final release.
With quality assurance tests now under way for Beta 2 of Mozilla's open source, cross-platform Web browser, the general public may see the latest fruits of developers' labor the second week of December, according to the findings of an organizational meeting yesterday. That's a few weeks later than originally anticipated, though delays of that short a period are not unprecedented.
Faster page loads for Opera Mini 4.2
The launch two weeks ago of a new server park in the US gives graphical mobile browser users the promise of faster performance. Since that time, the makers of Opera have been finalizing their 4.2 edition for various smartphones.
Today, Opera's Web page officially recommends using version 4.0 with the BlackBerry 8830 we're using as a test system (still with BlackBerry OS v4.2, since v4.5 won't be ready until Q1), although we'd already been using version 4.1. Seeing that we could download the final edition 4.2 anyway, we gave it a shot.
Successor to Samsung's Instinct lands on Verizon - not Sprint, not AT&T
The Instinct phone has been one of Sprint's bigger success stories of 2008, a year of struggle and at least an attempt at a comeback. But now, Verizon looks poised to pull the rug out from under Sprint here too.
The original formula for an "iPhone killer" in the marketplace has been a device which really does look like Apple's model on the surface, really does slide those tiles around the main screen, and really does present Web pages that look like Web pages. With 2009 around the corner, the formula is diverging into something less like a work-alike and more like real competition: How can a high-class phone address the customer who wants something that the iPhone and AT&T cannot provide?
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