In-game advertising 'enhances realism,' says focus group
Microsoft subsidiary Massive Inc. teamed up with media research firm Interpret LLC to study the efficacy of in-game advertising, and today released its findings.
The study was commissioned by Massive's customers, including Adidas footwear and three unnamed other companies, which represented a "quick service" restaurant, a candy company, and a movie studio. All four companies had a new product that they wished to test by serving ads to connected gamers.
Intel unveils new 4 series chipset at Computex
At the Intel keynote today at Computex, EVP Sean Maloney officially unveiled the new 4 Series chipsets and prognosticated a bright, high definition future delivered via WiMAX.
Intel Executive Vice President Sean Maloney was "more optimistic than ever," about the future, thanks to all the innovations on the Computex show floor in Taipei, Taiwan. Perhaps he's not so much giving credit to the industry as giving himself a high-five for the sheer mass of Intel-powered hardware being shown off this week.
Newest Windows Installer will enable multiple package installs
Managing a massive Windows installation has already been likened to administering a colossal database. Today, Microsoft added new functions to its Installer for setup packages, that really does start treating Windows like one.
Toshiba looking to get high-def out of standard DVDs
Despite its exit from the next-generation DVD race, the one-time champion of HD DVD is not giving up on the promise of high definition on optical disc. Rather, it seems to be working to improve standard DVDs.
Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida has said that his company has no plans to market optical disc players compatible with Blu-ray, according to a citation that appeared last week in Japan's Daily Yomiuri.
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 now slated for August
Citing heavy customer feedback, Microsoft officials as high up as Bill Gates himself revealed today that the next public beta of IE8 won't be going home with Tech·Ed attendees this year.
Though the beta roadmap for Microsoft's next release of Internet Explorer has never been quite clear, one of the key "takeaways" from Bill Gates' keynote address at Tech·Ed 2008 in Orlando this morning -- other than this week's pending release of Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 -- is the fact that testers and developers won't get a chance to see the next public beta of IE8 until late this summer, at the earliest.
AT&T settles suit over third-party ringtone downloads
AT&T has agreed to settle a class action suit issued against it in Georgia, for allowing third parties to charge customers on unclear or wholly undisclosed terms for downloads.
The settlement received preliminary approval in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia on Friday. The final hearing for the settlement will not occur until December 8th, giving customers approximately six months to file their claims.
Facebook releases its open source platform
After last week's confirmation of plans to make its developers' platform an open source project, Facebook this week followed through by releasing most of the code that runs its platform, including the most frequently used methods and tags.
"This release is just a first step in providing you a look into Facebook Platform, and we hope you'll help us [to] iterate and improve on it," wrote Facebook's Ami Vora, in a blog post celebrating the official launch of the new Facebook Open Platform.
Live Search to become the latest to try 404 redirects
In its scramble to avoid sliding to as low as fifth on the scale of search engine providers this year, Microsoft today has begun grabbing misspelled URLs pointing to its own hosted domains, and redirecting those users to Live Search.
A Microsoft spokesperson has informed BetaNews that customers of Microsoft-hosted domains -- which should include subscribers to its Office Live Small Business Web hosting service -- will notice changes in how their sites behave. Specifically, when a user types in a URL for a non-existent page, rather than the 404 message she would expect to receive from her Web browser (or her add-on toolbar), she'll be redirected to a page on Microsoft's Live Search.
Unsealed documents add to Yahoo-Microsoft drama
Newly uncovered documents in Yahoo shareholders' battle with the company allege that CEO Jerry Yang worked actively to undermine a deal with Microsoft, perhaps in some cases unethically -- and possibly illegally.
Yahoo expressed disappointment that Delaware State Court Judge William B. Chandler, III decided yesterday to unseal the documents, which originally had appeared in redacted form a month earlier, though it maintained the suit was without merit.
Microsoft reports security problem with Apple's Safari
Microsoft, of all companies, has issued a security advisory warning users about a possible security exploit involving Apple's Safari for Windows browser.
In Microsoft Security Advisory 953818, posted last week, Microsoft does not pinpoint exactly how it learned of the security vulnerability. But users are told, "Microsoft is investigating new public reports of blended threat that allows remote execution on all supported versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista when Apple's Safari for Windows has been installed."
Next Silverlight 2.0 beta to appear this week
Developers going home from TechEd 2008 in Orlando (just as the admin folks arrive for the following week's demos) could find a delightful surprise in their annual tote bags: the newest plug-in for Visual Studio.
A very brief notice appearing on the blog of Microsoft .NET developer evangelist G. Andrew Duthie early this morning confirmed news coming from Tech·Ed 2008 for Developers in Orlando: The company's corporate vice president S. Somasegar told attendees that he expects the next beta of Silverlight 2.0, the company's portable graphics platform, before the end of this week.
Acer launches new netbook, promises WiMAX
Call them sub-notebooks, netbooks, UMPCs, or what one clever Engadget poster deemed them: "Liliputers," the biggest hardware launches at Computex in Taipei this week fall into the umbrella category of "smallest."
The specifications for Acer's Aspire One are now official as of today: With a profile of 9.8" x 6.7" x 1.14", a weight of under 2 pounds, and an LED display with 1024 x 600 resolution, the Aspire One is about on par with its fellow netbooks in size.
Analysts: Hundreds of billions in wireless productivity gains
Last Friday, an Ovum Research report added an additional $260 billion to its 2005 forecast of $600 billion in productivity gains that wireless technology is expected to add to the American economy over the next ten years.
In an interview with BetaNews Monday, Ovum analyst Roger Entner attributed some of the disparity between the two numbers to "faster adoption and more applications than originally expected," and the rest to a slight difference in the time frames studied in the two reports.
Yahoo's latest Messenger beta goes its own way
It's clearly not a button-down, businesslike IM client: Having experimented with a special Vista version that apparently didn't go over well, Yahoo now is adding personalized polish to its latest free personal messenger, still in beta.
Download Yahoo Messenger for Windows beta build 9.0.0.1389 from FileForum now
Microsoft releases its latest Dynamics for ERP
Microsoft today released Dynamics AX 2009, a major update that adds Role Centers, increased business intelligence, and myriad other new features to what many consider to be the best of Microsoft's four products in the ERP space.
AX 2009, also known to some as Axapta 5.0, represents the latest edition of enterprise resource planning software originally acquired by Microsoft through its Axapta acquisition.
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