Blizzard Tests World of Warcraft MMORPG
Blizzard Entertainment invites users to grab a mug of ale, form a guild and convene with friends in the World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft is Blizzard's latest massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG); now open for beta testing in North America and Korea. Upcoming phases of the test will add support for certain European and Asian-Pacific languages.
A new chapter is dawning in the saga of Warcraft. An introduction on the game's Web site reads, "Four years have passed since the aftermath of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and a great tension now smolders throughout the ravaged world of Azeroth. As the battle-worn races begin to rebuild their shattered kingdoms, new threats, both ancient and ominous, arise to plague the world once again."
AOL Denies Talks of Acquisition by Microsoft
A rumor first reported by the New York Post sent shockwaves through the industry Friday afternoon. The Post claimed to have the inside track on secret negotiations between America Online and Microsoft discussing the latter's acquisition of the former.
When asked to elaborate on the rumors of a potential buyout, a Microsoft spokesperson immediately rushed to say, "As Microsoft's policy is not to comment on rumors and speculation, we have no information to provide regarding Microsoft's acquisition of AOL," while an AOL spokesperson told BetaNews, "no comment."
MSN Messenger, Passport Experience Second Outage
For the second time in nearly a week, MSN experienced major network outages that left scores of users in the dark. From roughly 12:30 PM to 3:45 PM EST, Microsoft's MSN Messenger and Passport authentication service were unavailable to some customers due to what a spokesperson described as an "internal issue."
Microsoft claims that the service interruption was not due to a denial of service attack or other malicious activities.
StarOffice Sales Surpass One Million in Germany
Sun has eclipsed its recent announcement of a 10,000 seat contract with the United India Insurance Company. Sales of its StarOffice productivity suite in Germany through OEM software distributor Markement have now exceeded one million units. Markement distributes PCSuite, a software bundle, to OEMs and retail chains.
The StarOffice suite is billed as a value-priced alternative to Microsoft Office and features word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation, and drawing functionality while supporting Microsoft's file formats, Adobe PDF and XML. StarOffice is the retail cousin of the OpenOffice.org open source project.
Customers to Preview Windows XP SP2 Beta
To encourage broad consumer testing and forestall incidents of "broken" applications due to the bevy of changes integrated in the update, Microsoft is launching a Windows XP Service Pack 2 technical preview program.
Under the preview, Windows XP SP2 Release Candidate 1 will be made available to customers through a new TechNet portal beginning Friday, March 19.
Microsoft to Demo 'Indy' Management Tool
As first reported by Microsoft Watch, Redmond is preparing to unveil a new system management tool at this week's Management Summit.
The utility, called "Indy," is a product of Microsoft's research efforts designed for capacity planning and performance monitoring of customer's hardware, software and server systems.
Sun Readies 'Rave' for JavaOne Release
Now that the "Rave" is over, Sun is focusing its energy on delivering a public preview of its Sun Java Studio Creator. Java Studio Creator, formerly known by the code-name Rave, is Sun's response to developers who are seeking for an alternative to Microsoft's .NET framework.
Sun's programming suite offers developers that create Java and J2EE-based Web applications a user friendly and productive drag-and-drop programming interface similar to Microsoft's Visual Studio. Application editors are synchronized to ensure consistency no matter what programming methodology a developers favors.
Apple Issues 10.3.3 Update for Panther
Apple has updated its Mac OS X "Panther" operating system to version 10.3.3. Panther was un-caged in October of last year, introducing over 150 new and redesigned features.
The 10.3.3 update pulls the thorns out of Panther's paws. Some of the chief networking sore spots the release eases out include support for wireless networking PC cards, .Mac synchronization, as well as many more issues related to connectivity and browsing.
Adobe Beta Tests 'Designer' XML Form Tool
Adobe has begun external beta tests of Adobe Designer 6.0, a graphical XML form design tool. Designer falls into the "generation" branch of Adobe's Intelligent Document Platform strategy, and automates form-base workflows. The Intelligent Document Platform generates, processes, and secures documents in the enterprise.
When combined with other Adobe document products and services, Designer connects to backend systems to automate business processes and collaboration between internal and external users.
Napster Optimizes File Sharing with IBM
The old dogma that file sharing soaks up bandwidth may find itself challenged. Napster has partnered up with IBM to create its "Super Peer" application. Napster is offering ISPs, businesses and universities on-site managed servers designed to free up network resources for mission critical applications, dynamically manage bandwidth, and improve security.
Super Peer uses Big Blue's support services and eServer BladeCenter hardware running Linux, and an active cache-management system to deliver authorized digital content through a centrally served application. This design has allowed the University of Rochester to offer its students access to Napster's music store while capping file demand and reserving resources for teaching and research applications.
Sun Inks StarOffice Deal with India
Sun Microsystems is claiming another victory in its ongoing campaign to oust Microsoft Office from its position as market leader. The Indian State of Haryana has standardized Sun's StarOffice open source software as its primary productivity solution throughout all state government offices.
With this decision, India joins Brazil, England, Germany, and Israel in their collective shunning of Microsoft in favor of thriftier open source alternatives.
Intuit to Test 'Zephyr' Helpdesk Software
Intuit is beginning beta tests on a new build of its Track-It! Software code-named "Zephyr." Zephyr is the second test Intuit has conducted since it obtained the product by acquiring Blue Ocean Software.
Track-It! is helpdesk software that permits small and medium sized businesses to maintain infrastructure consistency by automating what are often time consuming, manual processes.
Leading ISPs File Six Lawsuits Against Spammers
Armed with the CAN-SPAM act, leading Internet service providers have banded together to collaborate and coordinate their anti-spam efforts. The first step in this approach was announced today by senior executives of America Online, EarthLink, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, who collectively sued hundreds of the United States' most prolific spammers.
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act outlaws tactics favored by spammers to flood inboxes with unsolicited mail, while also providing new enforcement mechanisms for law enforcement. The law went into affect January 1, 2004.
WordPerfect Vies for a Comeback
With the introduction of its revitalized WordPerfect Office 12 productivity suite Corel has climbed to the top of the mountain, and proclaimed "WordPerfect is back!"
After a long hiatus, WordPerfect has received suite-wide compatibility enhancements to work better with Microsoft Office, and an updated assortment of features. The final product is expected to ship in April of 2004.
Grand Theft Auto Comes to San Andreas
Take-Two Interactive's Rockstar Games unit has announced the expected shipping date of the next iteration of its blockbuster Grand Theft Auto franchise. Although Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is roughly eight months away from completion, Rockstar executives are promising to exceed customer expectations - customers who own Sony's PlayStation 2 game console. San Andreas will be exclusive to the Sony.
Grand Theft's winning formula has thus far relied on a disorderly mix of unruly car chases, scantily clad women, and gratuitous violence. Over 30 million units of the Grand Theft Auto franchise have been shipped to date; producing all-time record high sales for its retail partners. If the series were a movie, its gross sales would rival box office hits including Jurassic Park.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.