Disney and Microsoft Partner on Windows Media Efforts
Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald have some new friends in the magic kingdom: Bill and Steve. The powers that be at Disney have given the green light to a long term deal with Microsoft to cooperate on digital media initiatives.
Under the agreement, Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) will securely deliver high definition video into the home and onto PCs, optical media and portable devices.
Mozilla Foundation Previews Rebranded 'Firefox'
The Mozilla Foundation is previewing its next generation "Firefox" Web browser. Formerly named Firebird and prior to that, Phoenix, Firefox is the latest stop on the Mozilla development roadmap that has included two name changes due to conflicts with other open source projects.
A multitude of new features have made their debut in the latest release, including a new download manager and improvements to bookmarks and the handling of extensions. In conjunction with its preview of Firefox 0.8, Mozilla has announced a preview of the Thunderbird e-mail client which is also available for download.
MSN Beta Testers Receive One Free Year
Beta testers of Redmond's latest rendition of its MSN client have a secret admirer: Microsoft itself. Testers have begun to receive valentines from the MSN butterfly, complete with a pass for one free year of the service.
In an interview last month, Lisa Gurry, MSN Group Product Manager, told BetaNews that over 25,000 customers participated in the early access program resulting in over 150,000 pieces of feedback.
Windows XP 'Light' Readied for Thailand Program
From Atkins to South Beach, diets have swept the globe on a monumental scale. This trend has not passed by the rolling lawns of Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft has joined the dieting craze.
In order to participate in the Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) program crafted by the government of Thailand to help low-income earners afford PCs, Microsoft is busy readying a "light" version of its Windows XP operating system - tailored to suit the needs of first-time PC buyers.
Sun Brings StarOffice 7 to Solaris x86
Sun Microsystems has ported its StarOffice 7 productivity suite to the x86 platform edition of its Solaris operating system, while reporting that momentum is being gained in the fight to displace Microsoft's market leading Office System.
StarOffice provides word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation, and drawing functionality in a value-priced open source package that supports Microsoft's file formats.
iChat Beta Links with AIM for Video Messaging
America Online and Apple have worked to ensure that users of AOL Instant Messenger and Apple's iChat can now link up for live video conversations. The video messaging feature in AIM 5.5 is fully compatible with Apple's new iChat AV version 2.1. Updates to both clients that enable this interaction were launched this week.
AOL's 5.5 upgrade was in beta testing for several months. The most recent betas delivered on the company's longstanding promise to add rich media to AIM.
OASIS, AMD Push Open Identity Management Standard
Trusted identity management just got a new complement: trusted asset management. While commonly viewed as two distinct but overlapping disciplines, new technology promises to usher in an alternative to proprietary identity and data management systems by lassoing both together into a single solution.
This breakthrough enables rich software and hardware scenarios - specifically in the realms of rights management and trusted computing. By being an open standard, these solutions are delivered to the masses all while skirting corporate patent portfolios.
Microsoft Issues Business Portal 2.0
Microsoft's Business Solutions unit has announced the general availability of Business Portal 2.0. Business Portal 2.0 assimilates code acquired from Great Plains into the company's broader product portfolio. As part of this overall transition, Microsoft Office SharePoint Services serve as the foundation of the release.
In addition to being further integrated into the Microsoft product family, changes have been made to enhance the Human Resource Management (HRM) Self Service Suite.
Revamped MSN Search Beta Previewed
There is a new choice for those of us who sift and scour through millions of sites just to find the one page we seek, and it comes from a surprising source.
Setting its sights onto a basic function of the Web, Microsoft is busy readying a new algorithmic search engine engineered to take on competitors such as Google and make relevant search results its number one priority.
Microsoft Refrains from Changing IE for Eolas Patent
Yet another twist is unfolding in the ongoing Eolas patent saga. Microsoft has announced that it will forego altering its Internet Explorer Web browser until an appeals court resolves whether or not to uphold a district court's final ruling on the case.
Eolas holds exclusive rights to a University of California patent over a mechanism that is used by developers to embed and invoke interactive programs such as an ActiveX control into Web browsers.
U.S. Rolls Out National Cyber Alert System
You've got: an advisory from the U.S. government. The newly ordained Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has asked its National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) to roll out the National Cyber Alert System. The system is intended to provide timely and actionable information to Americans with the explicit purpose of assisting the public in securing their computers and minimizing emerging threats.
Threats are aggregated, analyzed, and graded by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), which is a cooperative effort between the government and the private sector intended to secure cyberspace. U.S. Citizens, or anyone else who joins the mailing list, can sign up to have e-mail alerts sent directly to their inboxes.
Microsoft to Strike Passwords from URLs in IE
Due in large part to December's highly publicized URL spoof attacks, Microsoft intends to release a patch for Internet Explorer that will modify the way the browser handles user credentials.
According to a recent knowledge base article, support for user names and passwords will now be stricken from URLs.
ISA Server 2004 Reaches Beta 2 Milestone
Microsoft's Security Business and Technologies Unit (SBTU) has taken the wraps off Beta 2 of Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004.
According to Redmond officials, the three pillars of ISA Server 2004 are: advanced protection, ease of use and high performance. ISA Server is designed to augment existing security infrastructure, and has been billed by Microsoft as a "must consider" for "any company that puts network security at a premium."
MSN Blocks Pop-ups with Toolbar Beta
Taking a page from search rival Google, Microsoft has issued its own MSN Toolbar for testing. A beta release of the toolbar featuring a pop-up blocker, highlighter search tool and MSN Web services is now available for download.
Like similar wares provided by its competitors, buttons on the MSN toolbar provide one-click access to Hotmail, MSN Messenger, the My MSN Home Page, MSN Search, and MSNBC.com.
Potentially Devastating New Worm Makes Rounds
A virulent new worm is stuffing inboxes across the Web. Novarg.A, otherwise known as "Mydoom" or "MIMAIL.R", began showing up on the radar screens of antivirus vendors on Monday with a frequency that alarmed security experts.
Early reports indicate that Novarg may soon eclipse the devastating Sobig.F virus should it continue to spread at its current pace.
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