Microsoft Unveils Content Management Server 2001
Another .NET enabled product has left the stables at Redmond. Content Management Server 2001 promises customers an easy deployment of Web site applications while claiming to offer a scalable and stable solution. The software formerly known as Ncompass by Ncompass Labs is the latest member of Microsoft's highly touted .NET Enterprise Server Family. Recently, thousands of Microsoft powered servers were infected with the 'Code Red' worm leading to significant disruptions in Internet traffic and monetary damages.
Vice President of Microsoft's .NET Solutions Group Chris Atkins stated, "Customers looking for a content management product built for the Microsoft platform now have a clear choice." He continued, "We are extremely excited to bring this high-quality product to a worldwide market, making it easier for customers to quickly and cost-effectively build and deploy dynamic Web sites."
Novell Offers Up Netware 6 Beta
Novell has made available for purchase Netware 6.0 Beta 3. Based upon Internet standards such as XML, WAP, JAVA, and HTML, Netware 6.0 provides access to resources over any device - delivering on the promise of the company's One Net initiative. Using Novell's new iPrint and iFolder technologies, files can be reviewed and printed from any given location through a browser. Besides the Internet-centric features, new functionality includes portal services and the ability to support up to 32 clustered servers. Scalability and performance are key concerns in this release.
Gone is the requirement to install software on a client in order to gain access network resources. Novell's Network Storage Service (NSS) has been upgraded to allow servers to boot from NSS formatted volumes, and plug in modules are available to easily support non native file systems. Netware will be able to unify networks whether or not they run differing platforms.
Sparcs Fly as Sun Redesigns Processor
Upping the ante in its quest to keep Intel from being considered a serious candidate in high end computing, Sun Microsystems has tweaked its UltraSparc III processor for improved speed. With the addition of copper metal interconnects, 0.15 micron process technology, and several other modifications, Sun has achieved its best performing chip ever. Running at 900 Megahertz, the chip will become available in October for use in workstations and, after a slight wait, will be deployed in servers. A close partner to Sun, Texas Instruments has been tapped to continue manufacturing of the processors.
The introduction of Intel's 64-bit Itanium microprocessor has for the first time given Intel a window of opportunity to invade the high-end server market. Sun's product offerings have included a 64-but chip for some time, and they continue to dominate sales of UNIX-powered servers. With the upcoming McKinley, the second generation 64-bit processor from Intel, Sun is taking no chances given the chip giant's penchant to quickly accelerate clock speeds.
Maxtor Introduces Ultra ATA/133
Maxtor has announced a new iteration of its highly successful Ultra ATA 100 technology. With transfer speeds of up to 133 MB/s, the Ultra ATA/133 interface, or "Fast Drives," promises to deliver breakneck speed at an affordable price. The Fast Drive interface is designed to provide seamless storage and playback of digital audio and video. Several partners have already signed on to license the technology and begin shipping products later this year.
According to the press release, Ultra ATA/100 technology already makes up 90 percent of all hard drives, CD-ROMs and DVDs. The new specification is available under non-disclosure agreements to selected hardware manufacturers. The company has plans to submit an open standard to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) T13 group during the final quarter of this year. Ultra ATA/133 is fully backward compatible with existing ATA products.
AT&T Speaks Naturally
The capability to duplicate the human voice, ranging from famous personalities to generic vernacular, is becoming a reality. Today, AT&T Labs announced several new technologies aimed at making computer synthesized speech sound ordinary. AT&T's Natural Voices Text-to-Speech is divided into an "engine" that includes an archive of voices, and a solution to create customized voices for customers. The telecommunications giant has a long history of developing speech technologies; even still, the company faces stiff competition in order to achieve dominance in the field.
Whether it be resurrecting the voice of a famous celebrity to become a corporate spokesperson, or bringing back Gene Hart as the voice of the Philadelphia Flyers – a new market for sound technologies is opening up. In today's announcement, AT&T Chief Technology Officer David C. Nagel illustrated the company's intention to grab a huge portion of the emerging market. Nagel said, "We're going after the lion's share of what will be a billion-dollar market for text-to-speech systems in five years."
Intergraph Escalates Legal Battle Against Intel
In continuation of its legal onslaught against Intel, Intergraph Corporation is now alleging that the chip giant has violated two of its patents that have been held since 1993. That same year, Intergraph and Intel initially partnered to create Windows NT workstations, and Intergraph ceased development of its C5 Clipper chip. On Monday, the Eastern District Court of Texas received a filing which targets Intel's new IA-64 EPIC architecture, core of the long awaited Itanium processor.
The lawsuit stems from Intel's use of parallel instruction computing in the IA-64, technology that Intergraph says it developed while designing the Clipper microprocessor. Although they revolve around Clipper, these claims are unrelated to an existing lawsuit filed in 1997 in an Alabama court. Specifically, the recent complaint addresses the techniques used to convey compiler-recognized parallelism to the hardware and the novel approach of routing instructions to any of the processing units.
BMG to Test Copy-Protected CDs
The fight to Napster-proof audio CDs has entered the next round of development. Record industry giant BMG Entertainment is set to begin testing a technology which it hopes will thwart the illegal creation of compact discs. Partnering with SunnComm Incorporated, BMG will deploy its own in-house copyright protection measures along side SunComm's MediaC1_Q Digital Cloaking Technology. SunComm refused to disclose details on the inner-workings of the protection.
SunComm hopes that the exposure it has received from this partnership will lead to industry adoption of its own technology rather than its competitor's offerings. Thus far, no fool proof method of protecting copyrighted material on CDs has been found, and the music industry has gone to great length to block the exposure of flaws in existing copyright technologies.
Palm Spins Off OS Group
In a move reminiscent of 3Com's initial Palm spin off, the handheld manufacturer has announced plans to jettison its Platform Solutions Group. By year's end, Palm Inc. will fully segregate its OS development team from the rest of the company, refocusing to include more comprehensive solutions for licensees of the Palm OS. The company's recent decision to switch to ARM chip architecture promises to extend the capabilities of its operating system, providing a more robust platform for development. It is possible a new company will be formed to counteract Microsoft's push into the wireless arena.
According to Alan Kessler, Palm general manager of the Platform Solutions Group, "This is another important step to strengthen our technology and deliver powerful and elegant solutions for our Palm OS licensees."
Microsoft to Announce WMP for Mac OS X
On Thursday morning, Microsoft will announce a version of its Windows Media Player built specially for Mac OS X. MacWorld attendees in New York will be able to catch a glimpse of a working prerelease demonstration, and experience the "carbonized" Windows Media Player for themselves.
Citing consumer demand for Windows Media, Microsoft has developed the player with Mac users in mind, featuring Apple's highly touted Aqua user interface. Built on Apple's Carbon API, Windows Media Player will run natively, taking full advantage of OS X's capabilities such as multi-processing. In short, Microsoft has programmed the software to look, feel, and operate consistent with other Mac OS applications.
ISP Requests Testers, Offers Free Net
Competing ISPs offer Internet connections ranging from high-end DSL and cable, to dialup. With very little means to distinguish themselves from one another, some Internet providers must result to unorthodox tactics in order to stay a head above the rest. Beta testers who sign up to trial ErieX's nationwide network will find just that - a unique way of getting online.
One thousand testers will be selected for the test, consequently receiving free Internet access. In return, users will provide regular
feedback on the company's software client and service. ErieX has included the ability to perform routine system maintenance into its
program, such as defragmenting or running scan disk on a hard drive. Another focus of the test is the software's interface, which is simplified to provide easy one-click access to programs such as media players.
Win Prizes with Atmosphere Beta
Beta testers who have become proficient at designing rich, virtual 3D worlds with Adobe Atmosphere can put their skills to the test in Adobe's Beta Design Contest. At stake is up to $3500 dollars, with a secondary prize of $1500. Additionally, all winning entries will be showcased in an online gallery.
Adobe Atmosphere authors three dimensional "worlds" that are reminiscent
of Microsoft's shelved Chromeffects software, and competitive toward Wild Tangent's current product offerings. The Atmosphere beta is available for download via FileForum.
The Hidden Costs of XP Home Networking
In order to provide home and small business users with instantaneous networking solutions, Microsoft is including native support for Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) Internet gateways in Windows XP. Teaming up with leading manufacturers, the software giant is making certain that future product offerings remain UPnP compliant. This announcement underscores the software giant's push for small Windows XP powered networks.
According to today's press release, "Universal Plug and Play is a key
element in Microsoft's vision of home networking, in which smart devices, PCs and the services they provide are "peers" on a network and communicate via a digital information exchange." With UPnP compatibility, standalone devices connect seamlessly with one another even across multiple vendors. But despite embracing this industry initiative for fast and easy connectivity, Microsoft's own policies may add bottlenecks to the process.
Sun Releases Final J2EE Beta
A second beta version of Sun's Java 2 Enterprise Edition version 1.3 was unveiled on Monday. eWEEK reports that this build will be the final beta prior to a September release of the finished code. As Sun moves closer to fulfilling its latest Enterprise JavaBeans Spec, new features
and enhancements have been included in this release.
The most significant features include a query language for rapidly finding and exchanging information, a push for Web services via expanded support for XML, easier integration of legacy information systems, and integration with Java Messaging Service (JMS) through Message Driven Enterprise JavaBeans, for legacy data and multi-client interoperability.
Microsoft Unveils XP Add-ons for MP3, DVD
Dodging accusations that it was including only rudimentary support for MP3 ripping in favor of its own WMA format, Microsoft today announced
plans to release two multimedia add-on packs for Windows XP. The first pack adds support for high quality MP3 ripping from a CD directly through Windows Media Player, as well as other enhanced features. Redmond's sudden embrace of third party plug-ins for its proprietary Media Player comes at a time when the company is attempting to settle its antitrust woes.
The second pack allows for software-based DVD playback on systems that do not have actual DVD decoders. Microsoft has partnered with Cyberlink Corp, Intervideo Inc. and RAVISENT Technologies to author the extension to Windows.
Full screen controls and support for All Media Guide's DVD metadata will be included as well.
Unauthorized XP Copies Slip Out - Again
For the second time within one week, security for the Windows XP public beta was breached. Several readers reported the vulnerability to BetaNews late last night, confirming that it was possible to download the pre-release code. The server configuration was not fixed until 3:30 PM EST today. A mistake was made when Microsoft hosting partner Conxion attempted to filter an earlier leak of the preview. While the servers successfully blocked access to a lowercase URL, pirates quickly noticed a failure to block uppercase versions, a feature inherent to Microsoft's IIS.
A Conxion official attributed the glitch to, "an inconsistency in filtering user access." Once again, no activation keys were made available to hackers who downloaded the software. Conxion maintains that services for its paying customers did not experience a disruption as a result of the flood of unauthorized downloads. The company remains the primary Microsoft partner that oversees the software giant's mass downloads.
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