Apple's Jobs Returns to Work
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is back on the clock following his recent bout with a treatable form of pancreatic cancer. Despite having faced his own mortality, Jobs has come out of the gate in good spirits, with his trademark zeal. In August, Jobs notified Apple employees of his illness via e-mail and temporarily relinquished some of his duties as CEO. Apple Vice President Phil Schiller filled in for Jobs at public exhibitions.
Virtual PC 7 Arrives
As expected, Microsoft has publicly unveiled Virtual PC 7 following its September release to manufacturing. Virtual PC 7 for Mac emulates Intel Pentium type processors, bridging the divide between the Windows and Mac OS X operating environments so that customers can run Windows and PC-based software directly on their Macs. Virtual PC 7 was originally intended to arrive late summer but was delayed due to work on Windows XP Service Pack 2.
MSN to Release Updated Chat Client
Next week Microsoft will launch a new beta version of MSN Messenger. MSN Messenger 7 borrows personalization options from Microsoft's ThreeDegrees test bed, improves contact management and features keenly honed integration with MSN Search. What's more, Redmond is taking the training wheels off of new transactional services.
The ThreeDegrees concept was the brainchild of Microsoft's maverick NetGen product group and was developed with the goal of facilitating social interaction within a group of friends or family members so that "they can do fun things together." Pleased to be of service, the ThreeDegrees group has given the MSN product team a "wink" and a "nudge."
IBM Regains Supercomputing Crown
IBM has regained its position at the top of the Top500 Supercomputer Web site list, effectively ending NEC's nearly unchallenged three year reign. IBM's "BlueGene/L" has inched past NEC's Earth Simulator by a margin of 0.15 teraflops. What's more, Big Blue claims that BlueGene/L occupies one hundredth of the space and consumes one twenty-eighth of the energy that is required by the dethroned Earth Simulator.
Today's reigning supercomputers -- manufactured by IBM and NEC -- achieve a whopping 36.01 and 35.86 teraflops, respectively. In comparison to today's technology, CRAY 1, the word's first supercomputer, sustained a top speed of 133 megaflops.
AT&T Offers Unlimited Mobile IM with Ogo
AT&T Wireless has launched Ogo - a first of its kind device and service that changes the economics of real-time communications services. Ogo is targeting the teen and young adult market segment with price plans that offer unlimited instant messaging and e-mail access from AOL, MSN and Yahoo. Rest assured that AT&T hasn't overlooked grown-ups: Parents can rejoice in the possibility that Ogo will 'free up' the home computer.
Ogo's clamshell-like case unfolds to reveal a full QWERTY keypad joypad with "hot keys" that pull up major instant messaging functions, and an 8-way navigational joystick pad. Although the Ogo concept was homegrown and primarily directed by AT&T, IXI Mobile Inc. was tapped to develop the device's hardware and software design; with middleware provided by OZ. The combination of IXI Mobile's Personal Mobile Gateway technology and OZ's device interoperability technology ensures a consistent experience between major service platforms.
Yahoo! Freshens Up its Image
Tuesday Yahoo! unveiled beta versions of its Front Page and My Yahoo! personal start page. The pages enhance both the design and functionality of the site; updating content and easing navigation. Enhancements include more frequent content updates, improved search functionality, greater levels of personalization and an easier to use index of Yahoo! services. Yahoo! also announced its support for content syndication standards such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and Atom.
"The Yahoo! Front Page and My Yahoo!, the most popular start pages on the Internet, just got better so that it is even easier for consumers to start the tasks they want and get them done the way they need," said Geoff Ralston, chief product officer, Yahoo! Inc. "By leveraging customer insights, Yahoo! is delivering innovative products that respond to what consumers want and need. We became the number one site on the web by always listening to consumers and delivering quality products and services that reflect their evolving needs."
Microsoft Seeds Developers with More Longhorn Concepts
Microsoft is offering yet another glimpse at its oft-delayed Longhorn edition of Windows. Two new concept videos have been posted to the MSDN Web site that demonstrate potential real-life scenarios for the software giant's next generation operating system.
The demos -- one geared towards telecoms and the other toward governments -- take a detailed look at longhorn's core technologies and discuss its promised benefits. Longhorn is expected to ship sometime in 2006; although, pundits are questioning Microsoft's ability to deliver on its key components like the WinFS file-storage system and the Avalon graphical subsystem.
Virgin Joins Online Music Fray
Sir Richard Branson has dabbled in everything from music to hot air ballooning to operating a trans-Atlantic airline - even space tourism. That said, it should come as no surprise that Branson did not want to be the last one on the block to own an online music store.
Branson's Virgin Digital service, which is available as a free download, capitalizes on the strength of the Virgin record label to offer customers a "virtual Virgin Megastore" stocked with over 1 million songs for download.
Microsoft Heats Up the Forge with Open Source
Microsoft Watch has revealed that Microsoft is preparing to donate some more of its source code to the SourceForge code repository. Microsoft Watch editor Mary Jo Foley reports that on Tuesday, the software giant will come forward bearing gifts under the umbrella of the open source Common Public License (CPL). Foley has speculated that tomorrow's release may be the Microsoft Enterprise Library from its Patterns & Practices Group. Previous contributions include Microsoft's Windows Installer XML (WiX) and the Windows Template Library.
Money 2005 Customers Feel Short Changed
Just days after product's official release, customers who placed their transactions to purchase copies of Microsoft's Money 2005 financial management software are alleging that they were short changed.
Microsoft support newsgroups are rife with displays of cognitive dissonance and customer dissatisfaction over what are alleged to be serious quality control issues - primarily concerning online bill paying features.
Microsoft Banks on Money 2005
Microsoft is taking Money back to the "essentials". The software giant is banking on having successfully met customers' requests for a simple financial solution that is powerful enough to address their three primary areas of concern: account balances, monitoring spending and paying bills.
Conventional wisdom is that households today have less time to spend picking through their finances than they did in the past. Microsoft seized on this notion as its inspiration for designing a clearer distillation of its Money family of products.
Microsoft Enters Data Backup Business
Microsoft is entering the disk-based backup and recovery market. The software giant has revealed an open beta of Microsoft Data Protection Server (DPS), a continuous disk-based backup and recovery solution. The software promises rapid, reliable and efficient recovery in minutes -- not hours -- for the Windows 2003 Server System customers.
Redmond has stepped up to the plate with a cadre of no less than 20 industry storage partners which include backup and recovery independent software vendors (ISVs), original equipment manufactures (OEMs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) lined up in its bullpen.
VMware has ACE up its Sleeve
When is comes to securing enterprise desktop management, VMware has an ACE up its sleeve. VMware has announced a beta release of a new product dubbed VMware ACE that enables desktop IT managers to apply enterprise IT policies to virtual machines that contain data, applications and operating systems. VMware claims that ACE creates an isolated PC environment also known as an assured computing environment.
VMware ACE is endowed with Virtual Rights Management (VRM) technology which forces compliance with IT policies. VRM has built-in copy protection controls as well as automated encryption to prevent theft, tampering and the unauthorized duplication of applications and data.
New AOL Service Moves Past Passwords
For some AOL users, passwords have just become the computing dinosaurs. America Online has partnered with RSA Security to create AOL PassCode, a premium service that secures and manages AOL ScreenNames.
AOL PassCode utilizes RSA's SecurID two-factor authentication scheme where a random six-digit numeric code is generated in intervals of 60 seconds from a keychain sized device. AOL claims that this added safeguard provides a second level of account protection.
Macromedia Brings Flash to AIM
Macromedia has updated Central 1.5, code-named "Gemini", to link up with America Online's AOL Instant Messenger service through a free software development kit.
Gemini is the lynchpin of Macromedia's strategy to break free of its familiar status as a ward of the Web so that Flash content and applications can thrive both on and off the desktop, with OS specific functionality and platform independence.
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