Licensing Program Offers Up Microsoft IP
Microsoft has sought to streamline its licensing programs in order to provide the IT industry broader access to its IP portfolio. In addition, Redmond is pledging to maintain royalty-free terms with the academic community - provided there is no commercial use of its software.
Companies licensing the technology will pay what Microsoft deems "fair and reasonable terms" for access to more than 4,000 items of intellectual property.
Microsoft Updates Speech Server, SDK
Microsoft has announced the newest versions of its Speech Server and Speech Application Development Kit (SASDK). According to Redmond, the products constitute its efforts to establish comprehensive speech platform for developing, deploying, testing and managing Web-based speech-enabled telephony and multimodal applications.
July marked the Beta 1 release of the server as well as the third SDK beta.
Hotmail Refreshed With Interface Makeover
Microsoft's MSN product team has turned up the heat by revitalizing its Hotmail Web service. A refresh of the site has gone live complete with a makeover of its overall air. It adds new task oriented icons that make Hotmail appear consistent with Office 2003's Outlook Web access utility, and features improved spam filtering.
The update marks the first major alteration of the Hotmail user experience since the service launched.
Outlook Connector for MSN Set for Beta
After demonstrating a prototype in July called Outlook Connector for MSN, Microsoft is finally ready to invite customers into the beta program.
The beta is designed to seamlessly integrate Microsoft's Outlook 2003 productivity software with MSN services ranging from photo sharing and contact management to online scheduling. The test is scheduled to run throughout the month of December into January.
SP2 Beta Prepped for .NET Compact Framework
The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework product team is seeking dedicated testers to assist in the development of Service Pack 2 for its 1.0 product milestone.
The compact framework is a managed code environment targeting an array of smart devices ranging from embedded hardware to Pocket PCs and cell phones.
Phoenix Sounds Death Knell for BIOS
Phoenix Technologies is sounding the death knell for BIOS - the bread and butter of its current operations. While Phoenix is comparatively the "Microsoft" of the BIOS world, it has spent years endeavoring to modernize the aging standard.
If all goes according to plan, a new product the company dubs Core System Software (CSS) will serve as the foundation of PC architecture.
Microsoft to Phase Out NetMeeting
After six years of service, Microsoft is officially retiring its NetMeeting conferencing software. Instead, the company's Office Live Meeting software, based upon PlaceWare, will fill the void left by the gradual phase out of NetMeeting.
Currently, both MSN and Windows Messenger utilize NetMeeting technology to power application and whiteboard sharing. Development is indefinitely frozen, however, and Microsoft's IM clients will be migrated to drive Live Meeting services.
Sun Selected to Power Desktops in China
Sun Microsystems has struck a deal with the People's Republic of China, granting it the right to establish its Java Desktop System as the nation's standard desktop software.
The agreement was reached with two government ministries and the China Standard Software Co., Ltd. (CSSC), a consortium of state run technology companies assigned with the task of bridging the digital divide among China's 1.3 billion residents - specifically between the eastern and western portions of the country.
Microsoft: 'Lonestar' Will Improve Tablet PC
Microsoft is hedging its bets that the "Lonestar" upgrade to its Tablet PC series will shine. The Lonestar release of the Tablet PC operating system is composed of three pillars: improved ink to text, integration with Office 2003 and a newer, more advanced SDK for developers.
The upgrade will ship mid-2004 free of cost to existing users, and be preinstalled on new systems.
MSN Readies Music Service, Tests 'Newsbot'
There is more excitement brewing at Microsoft's MSN division these days than just beta builds of its upcoming software and rosy quarterly financials.
Following Apple's lead, MSN will deliver an online music store sometime next year. A beta version of an automated news service from MSN Search was also discovered to be functioning online under the company's UK brand. Both developments demonstrate Microsoft’s desire to evolve well beyond the traditional role of service provider.
Gates Unveils Microsoft 'Stingray' in COMDEX Opener
In Las Vegas, Nevada, Bill Gates stung the audience at COMDEX 2003 by demonstrating Microsoft's next generation Internet Security and Acceleration Server code-named "Stingray."
The first public beta will be distributed in early 2004, delivering on the company's "securing the perimeter" promise of new security initiatives.
IBM Delivers 'Teraflop in a Box'
IBM has unveiled what it dubs a "Teraflop in a box." Big Blue's researchers have engineered a prototype supercomputer roughly the size of a 30-inch television set and capable of 2 teraflops, or 2 trillion mathematical operations per second. Its capacity to crunch numbers has earned IBM the 73rd spot on the Top500 Supercomputer project's cumulative list of the world's fastest computers.
The full scale Blue Gene/L machine, being built for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is expected by IBM to top the list when work is complete in 2005. The recent announcement is simply the precursor for this much more ambitious goal, and a showcase of the fruit of IBM's research and development efforts.
Microsoft Enlists Customers to Improve Servers
Microsoft is asking customers to do their part to improve its software. The company is seeking to reward volunteers who tested out the Web-based Microsoft Reliability Service (MRS).
Through this service, network administrators can monitor the uptime and availability of their servers, as well as better identify the causes of unplanned downtime.
Novell Ratchets Up Linux Support
It could be said that Novell has unofficially christened November "Linux Month." The embattled software maker has placed its eggs squarely in the Linux basket, having announced its acquisition of the popular German Linux vendor SuSE this past Tuesday and the general availability of Ximian Red Carpet Enterprise 2 earlier this week.
Buying SuSE enables Novell to offer a full array of Linux products and services from enterprise servers to the desktop. It also makes Novell the sole billion-dollar Linux distributor with a presence felt around the globe.
Trademark Office to Examine Eolas Plug-In Patent
At the insistence of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the US Patent and Trademark Office will re-examine the validity of a notoriously contested patent held by the University of California.
The patent, licensed exclusively to a small software company named Eolas, was used as the vehicle to successfully litigate a federal court case against Microsoft, in which the software giant was ordered to cough up a hefty $521 million in damages.
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