Excite@Home Status Unclear, AT&T First to Go Dark
UPDATED 850,000 AT&T broadband customers are the first to lose service as Excite@Home determined it would not be able to reach an agreement with the telecommunications giant. Service is limited to 86,000 subscribers in Washington and Oregon who are in the vacinity of an AT&T owned and operated backbone. Exite@Home is still in negotiations with its other cable partners. AT&T assures customers they will have service restored within 10 days. The comapny was previously in negotiations to purchase Excite's assets.
Millions flocked to cable modems with the promise of a fast, easy connection that is always on. Forty-five percent of cable modem users in the United States may suddenly find themselves regressing back to dialup this weekend following Excite@Home creditors' successful bankruptcy court petition that allows the troubled Internet provider to terminate service contracts.
Microsoft To Enter CRM Business
Baseline Magazine's Mary Jo Foley has uncovered details on Microsoft's planned entry into the customer resource management marketplace. Known internally as MSCRM, the software is expected to emerge in the first quarter of 2002, and will be focused toward mid-sized companies. A professional edition for small enterprises is expected to follow shortly thereafter.
This push by Microsoft comes nearly one year after it purchased Great Plains Software – a specialist in small business applications. The company has also worked to bolster its bCentral product line which serves nearly 100,000 customers. Microsoft's bCentral faces direct competition from, among others, the world's number two software maker Oracle.
First IE6 Service Pack Begins Testing
Testers have reported the first beta build of Internet Explorer 6 SP1 has been released for evaluation. The service pack will be the first major upgrade to IE 6 since it went gold in late August. Various bug fixes and feature enhancements, as well as an accumulation of security fixes will be included in the release.
Internet Explorer 6 marked a departure from the traditional IE interface, bringing about a new look and behavior. Enhanced features such as Explorer bars, media playback, and automatic picture resizing were the main incentives to upgrade for non-Windows XP users.
Microsoft Sheds Light on eHome
Today's guest at the bi-weekly Silicon Valley Speaker series is expected to clearly define the vision behind Microsoft's fledging eHome Division – although nothing major will be announced. Vice President Mike Toutonghi, who began speaking at the event at 12 PM PST, heads up the company's effort to provide customers with the same degree of gadgetry as found in Bill Gates's 60 million dollar home.
Technologies developed by the eHome group represent an extended vision of technologies aimed to improve quality of life. Upcoming products revolve around experiences with digital media and home audio. These include a system to download movies from the Internet to be played on TV sets, and intelligent searches for audio tracks and radio stations based upon personal tastes. The Microsoft Home is included within the division and is an ever changing prototype of what the group hopes to achieve.
Beta Testers to Receive XP in December
While Windows XP has enjoyed retail sales slightly under that of Windows 98, beta testers who contributed to the overall success of the product have yet to receive their own complimentary copies. Communication ceased following XP's release to manufacturing when the closure of newsgroup discussion boards left testers in the dark. BetaNews was told that Windows XP test sites will be notified of the delay, and given an approximate ship date – although testers have indicated that no such announcement has been made to date.
According to Microsoft, sales are exceeding the initial sales of Windows 95 and Windows Millennium Edition. NPD Intelect reported that retailers surveyed during the first week of sales did not expect to see a recurrence of Windows 98's success. At the Windows XP launch event, Microsoft's Jim Allchin indicated that this success was due in part to the company's pool of beta testers while thanking them for their hard work.
Details Emerge on McAfee Professional Firewall
Last week at COMDEX Fall 2001, McAfee announced a new edition of its personal firewall software. As previously reported by BetaNews, the consumer edition features integrated intrusion detection, a graphical trace utility, and integration with hackerwatch.org – a site that audits security and tracks the activities of hackers. At the same time the company teased users by mentioning the future availability of a professional version without detailing the product's specifications. BetaNews sat down with Sam Curry, McAfee's chief firewall architect to discuss the differences between the two releases.
The advanced intrusion detection feature gathers information needed to allow customers to analyze and identify traffic that is attempting to bypass their firewall. It also lists the type and frequency of attacks being waged. Many firewalls, including McAfee's product offerings, filter outbound traffic to protect against Trojans and other malicious code.
Gobe Comes to Windows
Despite the relative failure, gobeProductive for BeOS -- an all-in-one productivity suite once bundled with Be's now defunct operating system -- has marched on. Currently in beta, a port of Gobe's popular solution has been announced for Windows bringing about yet another alternative to Microsoft Office. Much like the rumored Webdocs project within Microsoft, Gobe consolidates common tools and applications within a single document window.
gobeProductive's product team consists of several programmers who developed ClarisWorks, which is now known by the moniker AppleWorks. Existing BeOS customers can upgrade to the newly minted Windows version that marks the third release of the suite at a discounted price.
Wi-Fi Graduates to the Fast Lane
Transfer rates for wireless devices using the Wi-Fi, or 802.11b standard will increase up to 54 megabits per second under a new standard approved late this past Thursday. Wi-Fi's successor, 802.11g operates within the frequency spectrum utilized by existing products – making it fully backward compatible with hundreds of current devices. Under the former standard, transfer rates were limited to 11Mb per second.
Reports published by Reuters indicate that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) faced difficulty arbitrating an agreement on 802.11g between Texas Instruments and Intersil. However, a compromise was reached finding middle ground between each company's wish list of competing technologies that were to become the standard.
A Day on the Xbox Circuit
After a long wait, Microsoft's Xbox game console went on sale today amid a background of fanfare and uncertainty. Xbox is the first console to include a hard drive, and features a formidable array of hardware placing it in a respectable position among its well established competitors. Today, BetaNews hit the streets to gauge the public's reaction to gaming's freshmen brand.
Several delays led to speculation that Xbox was an unstable platform not ready for primetime. Faulty demos and rumors of hardware issues combined with delays raised questions about the console's overall quality. However, a community formed around Xbox and later demos ran without bother.
Sun Tests Next Generation Grid Engine
Since its inception, Sun Microsystems has stood by the mantra of "The Network is the Computer." However, the concept of distributing the balance and load of complicated tasks over groups of computers -- harnessing unconventional levels of processing power -- has for the most part remained delegated to academia. Today marked the release of Sun’s Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition 5.3, an updated beta version of the company’s widely adopted resource allocation software that already manages in excess of 118,000 CPUs.
A new policy management function allows users to allocate tasks across different machines, bringing Sun one step closer toward commercializing its technology. Peter Jeffcock, Group Marketing Manager for Technical Marketing Products at Sun told BetaNews, there are three clear stages of development in grid computing: cluster grids, campus grids and global grids. Today's release brings Sun one step closer to realizing functional campus grids.
Visual Studio .NET Launch Date Announced
In last night's opening keynote address at COMDEX Fall 2001, Bill Gates chimed in that February 13, 2002 will be the official launch date of Visual Studio .NET. Launch events will be held in cities strewn across the United States and at worldwide locations. Visual Studio .NET is a crucial component of Microsoft's strategy to push developers toward XML Web services.
Beta 2 was released on June 19th coinciding with the tenth anniversary of Visual Basic, a language that stood as the basis for an entire generation of Windows applications.
McAfee to Debut New Firewall
McAfee has introduced a new edition of its personal firewall (MPF) that it has dubbed as the "next generation" of its anti-intrusion software. The firewall's defenses have been bolstered by integrated advanced intrusion detection, and a graphical trace utility that can provide geographic information on attackers. Background information obtained on intruders will be integrated into hackerwatch.org - a massive online database that monitors hacking and rogue network activity.
The advanced intrusion detection feature gathers all necessary and prudent information needed to allow customers to analyze and identify traffic that is attempting to bypass their firewall. It also entails a listing of the type and frequency of attacks being waged. Many firewalls, including McAfee's product offerings also filter outbound traffic to protect against Trojans and other malicious code.
Gates to Unveil Producer in COMDEX Opening
Bill Gates will draw on the spotlight of tonight's opening keynote address at COMDEX FALL 2001 to illuminate a new digital media authoring tool for PowerPoint 2002, dubbed Microsoft Producer. Aimed at the everyday user without proficient authoring skills, Producer unifies and synchronizes audio, video, slides, and images into rich media content through a wizard based tool. Presentations can be viewed across the Internet through a Web browser, over networks, or on CDs.
BetaNews was given an early look at Producer in June when it was first demoed at Streaming Media West and subsequently made publicly available on the Web as a technology preview for Office XP users. Since its introduction, corporate customers such as Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Marathon Oil, Mellon Financial Corporation, PPG Industries, RadioShack Canada and Unisys have adopted the solution. Gates is expected to showcase these companies during tonight's address.
Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 Begins Testing
Within days, testers will begin to receive Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 test kits for evaluation. The kits include useful information about the release, its installation, and the issues that it addresses. As previously reported by BetaNews, the service pack will not include any new features, as Microsoft is focused on sustained development. Target areas include setup, application compatibility, operating system reliability, and numerous security issues.
Microsoft's support knowledge base reveals a listing of 200 identifiable issues that have been uncovered since the last service release alone. Credentialed beta testers can log into BetaPlace –- the company's centralized test site –- to report bugs and participate in Newsgroup discussions.
States Wrestle Over Antitrust Proceedings
A coalition of 18 states has been given until Tuesday to decide whether or not the federal government's settlement with Microsoft provides an adequate remedy for the company's antitrust law violations. The states are beginning to resemble a far less cohesive group than in the past, bounded by rumors that Illinois, New York, North Carolina, and Utah are pushing to settle.
Other states have displayed vocal opposition to accepting what they consider to be an agreement crammed with gaping holes and exceptions. South Carolina and Massachusetts have already indicated that they will push the court case into the post settlement era.
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