Microsoft launches a new wave of interoperability initiatives
Microsoft surprised everyone today, rolling out a huge set of initatives around interoperability between non-Windows software -- including open-source -- and its own. Is Microsoft bowing to pressure from the European Commission?
Pointing to reasons that go beyond compliance with US and European legal and legislative decisions, Microsoft executives this morning unveiled a sweeping set of interoperability initiatives. The focus today was on standards support, document formats, and playing nice with non-Microsoft products, including open source software.
T-Mobile announces new UMA 'landline'
T-Mobile has announced an addition to its Hotspot@Home service with the Talk Forever Home Phone add-on plan which comes with the WRTU54G wireless router geared toward the fixed, home user, utilizing the company's UMA technology.
At a cost of $10 per month (plus taxes and fees), the plan includes: unlimited nationwide calling, call forwarding, 3-way conferencing, voice mail, hold, and call waiting. Signup requires an existing T-Mobile single line plan of $39.99 or more, or family plan of $49.99 or more.
Vista SP1 breaks ZoneAlarm, Trend Micro apps, among others
Microsoft has presented a list of applications which are adversely affected by the problematic Vista Service Pack 1, some of which cease to function entirely.
The problem apps are categorized in three groups: those that are blocked from starting, those that lose functionality, and those that do not run at all following the installation of Service Pack 1.
RIAA ex-defendant has counterclaim dismissed
One of the few RIAA defendants to have their cases dropped ran into some trouble in her effort to countersue the organization over its actions during the course of the case.
A federal judge dismissed Andersen's complaint on Tuesday, but gave her the option to refile within 30 days with the requirement that her attorneys be more specific as to which laws they allege the RIAA and its partner MediaSentry violated.
Sony BMG signs new mobile music deal
Sony BMG said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Thumbplay to add about 7,000 pieces of content to the mobile media service.
Altogether the service has about 80,000 ringtones, wallpapers, games, videos, and voice-tones among other items. Sony said it will add content from its artists across most of those categories.
MySpace mulls launching digital music service
MySpace is reportedly looking into offering a digital music service in conjunction with record labels, possibly as a joint venture.
The social networking site declined to confirm its plans to BetaNews, only saying it "is not commenting on the rumors." However, several Web logs and the Associated Press are quoting sources within News Corp. claiming that the initiative is a reality.
HP shows more success in PCs, servers and storage than in printers
Hewlett-Packard is off to a great start for 2008, on the whole, turning in first quarter results that show growth across PCs, storage, servers, and most other product categories.
But surprisngly, revenues from printers -- traditionally the mainstay of HP's business -- actually showed a drop of two percentage points in consumer unit sales from the beginning quarter of 2007.
Analyst: Evidence of a backlash against mobile convergence
Research released today by analysis firm In-Stat reveals US businesspeople are not quite ready to move from using multiple portable devices to a single converged device, even though demand for such a device appears to be on the increase.
Manufacturers describe "convergence" almost as a force of nature, and the driving incentive behind the design of almost every category of CE. They say customers are the ones pushing convergence, but today's research from In-Stat actually suggests otherwise.
One thousand Xbox Live games expected by year-end
In its annual demonstration of programming prowess at GDC on Wednesday, representatives of the Redmond company announced seven new community-created games for free via Xbox Live, and promised more...for the Zune.
Microsoft expects explosive growth through community-created games, stated its corporate vice president in charge of Xbox Live, John Schappert today. That growth would put some 1,000 plus games on Xbox Live by the end of this year, far exceeding its competitors' catalogs.
New news aggregator site has a metaphorical approach to relevance
The popularity of Digg, Techmeme and other news aggregators has triggered a new wave of startups. Yesterday, one more site added itself to the ocean of second-source news: Newspond, with an intriguing -- if somewhat secret -- method of differentiating itself.
"Introducing the most advanced news site on the planet," Newspond's "About" page boasts. "At the heart of Newspond lies a self-sufficient news engine. This machine intelligence continually watches over and reads hundreds of different web sites, including everything from major news portals, to the tiniest blog or forum."
Microsoft divides 'small' from 'medium' businesses for its next servers
With fewer businesses purchasing server software a la carte, Microsoft has generally been successful with pre-packaging its multiple server products in attractive combinations. Its newest sets of options, however, take some explaining.
Just when you were getting used to the abbreviation "SMB" (small-to-medium business), comes the time Microsoft decides to divide the category...and even subdivide the divisions. At next week's launch event in Los Angeles, Microsoft will be showing off four sets of packaging options for its next generations of server software, with two pairs of packages divided among small and "mid-size" businesses.
New SDK offers program control through the user's scalp
At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Emotiv is showing off its headset controller, the EPOC, a unit which reads cognitive actions and facial expressions.
The device works through a series of electromagnetic sensors which contact the wearer's scalp. Depending upon the application, the sensors may be used to read emotion, facial expression, cognitive action, and the abstract category of "visualization." It currently has the capability to recognize 30 discrete conditions. For emotions, the device acts as a sort of primitive mood ring, using brainwave patterns to tell whether its wearer is excited, calm, tense, or frustrated.
CTP for SQL Server 2008 now available
Its final release has been pushed back to as much as six months after Microsoft's big launch party for it, which is still slated for next week. In the meantime, potential customers are being given a taste of some new and game-changing functionality.
Yesterday afternoon, Microsoft posted its Community Technology Preview for SQL Server 2008, which will be general businesses' first, best look at the next edition of what analysts perceive to be Microsoft's fastest growing product line -- faster than even Windows itself.
NAND Flash to cool off significantly in 2008
After projecting a 27 percent rise in revenue growth in NAND previously, iSuppli has abruptly lowered their projections, saying a single digit rise is much more likely.
The problem will extend to DRAM chips as well, a market already significantly softened during 2007. While many NAND manufacturers have the capability to switch to DRAM as a safe haven, struggles there will not provide much solace.
ARM announces software for 3D graphics on phones
Mobile device CPU manufacturer ARM today announced Mali-JSR297 software, which takes full advantage of OpenGL ES 2.0 standard GPU and allows for 3D graphics processing on mobile platforms.
OpenGL ES has been appearing with increasing frequency in handsets, such as nVidia's recent prototype phone and Symbian OS devices.
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