Visual Studio 2008, .NET 3.5 Reach Beta 2; Silverlight 1.0 Hits RC
No fewer than five major announcements in the development field are being issued by Microsoft this afternoon, the timing of which is by no means coincidental: On the top of the list, Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2008 -- which is quickly losing touch with its old code-name "Orcas" -- will be made generally available for download by this Friday, along with Beta 2 of .NET Framework 3.5.
But what developers have been itching to finally try is building applications for Silverlight - the company's new cross-platform graphical front-end module - under the auspices of Visual Studio.
Target to Push Blu-ray Over HD DVD
Sony has scored another win in the war for high-definition dominance, signing a deal with Target to promote Blu-ray players and movies exclusively in its retail stores. Sony is paying a fee to have Blu-ray featured in end-of-aisle displays, and Target will not carry the $179 HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360.
Target will continue to offer HD DVD products on its Web site, and did not specify why it had selected Blu-ray only for its brick-and-mortar locations. The HD DVD Promotional Group said the move by Target was not important, as its Toshiba players are already featured at Circuit City and Best Buy. It's also not clear if Target customers, who are typically not high-end shoppers, will be willing to spend $499 for Sony's Blu-ray player with HD DVD players available elsewhere for $299.
ABC.com Adds HD Video Streaming
ABC.com is now beta testing a player that will allow it to stream television shows in high-definition. The player is produced by Move Networks, and recommends a 2Mbps or faster broadband connection, 128MB of video RAM, 1 GB of RAM, and a resolution of at least 1300x770 pixels.
Only four episodes from four different shows are currently available from "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," and "Ugly Betty." Other shows will be added soon, ABC says. All episodes are shown with what ABC calls "limited commercial interruptions," although viewers are not permitted to skip those commercials that do exist.
Microsoft HD DVD Add-on Now $179
Aiming to stay competitive with Sony, Microsoft cut the price of its HD DVD add-on for Xbox 360 by 10 percent, as well as including five free movies through a mail-in offer.
The free disc offer is similar to an offer that Toshiba has been using to promote its own set-top HD DVD players. The price will be dropped in the United States from $199 to $179 USD beginning August 1, and the promotion will run from that date to September 30.
Intel Speed Breakthrough Points to a Post-Motherboard Era
Up to now, when photonics have been used in silicon-based alternatives to electrical semiconductors, loose electrons altering the refractive index of the silicon have prevented high speeds. Now Intel engineers claim they've found a way around the problem, perhaps eliminating a principal obstacle to the development of optical interconnects at hundreds of gigabits per second and beyond.
The typical reason engineers like to design devices with as many components as possible on a single board seems obvious: Separate the components into separate parts, and you'd need to engineer some way for the parts to communicate with one another. Technically speaking, intra-system networking has been a feasibility for several years, but the latencies it would introduce are certainly measurable.
Apple Posts Record Mac Shipments, Quarterly Profit
Apple posted another strong quarter of revenues, with record profits that nearly doubled over the year ago quarter, as well as setting a new record for quarterly Mac shipments.
1,764,000 Macs were shipped during the company's fiscal third quarter, up a third over the year ago quarter and 150,000 more than its previous record. iPods were also up 21 percent to 9,815,000 units sold during the quarter.
Massive Signs Deal with EA for Ad Placement
Microsoft's in-game advertising subsidiary Massive said Wednesday that it had penned a deal with Electronic Arts to place its ads in several popular games. Titles included in the deal are Madden NFL 08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for Xbox 360 and PC, as well as NASCAR 08, NHL 08, and SKATE for the Xbox 360.
Massive will bring dynamic ads into each of the EA titles and allow for advertisers to keep their ad presence in games fresh and relevant. "The addition of EA's leading titles to our network represents a tremendous opportunity for brands targeting the youth demographic and sends a clear message that in-game advertising has arrived as a compelling medium for marketers," Massive CEO Cory Van Arsdale remarked.
Microsoft Signs Ad Deal with Digg
Following a deal last August in which Microsoft agreed to handle all ad sales for popular social networking site Facebook, the Redmond company has signed a similar agreement with social news site Digg. Microsoft is working hard to establish itself in the ad industry, but faces stiff competition from Google.
Few details are known at this point, although Digg creator Kevin Rose says it's "similar to the one Facebook signed with Microsoft last year." This means that Digg will turn over control the site's advertising exclusively to Microsoft and its adCenter platform.
World of Warcraft Bigger Than New York City
Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft now counts a subscriber base of over 9 million, more than the population of New York City, the company announced Tuesday. The virtual world has become so popular that it has remained a top-seller since its debut in November 2004.
The "Burning Crusade" expansion for World of Warcraft sold 3.5 million copies in its first month, and is preparing to bring the add-on to mainland China where it expects to add even more subscribers. World of Warcraft is offered in seven languages and is played around the world in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Britain Refuses to Extend Music Copyrights
The British government Tuesday refused to endorse an effort to change the copyrights on sound recordings to last at least 70 years, a move that has critics claiming the UK isn't supporting their artists. Currently, individuals can receive royalties for 50 years after the date a song was released.
United States artists receive copyright protection for 95 years, while Australian law dictates 70 years. The British government would have had to convince the European Union Commission to increase copyright expiration, but it said such a change would not benefit most artists and would incur additional costs. Representatives from British music industry groups said they would continue to push the EU directly on the issue.
EFF Sues Universal Music Over Yanked Baby Dancing Video
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is defending a Pennsylvania mother whose YouTube video of her daughter dancing in her kitchen to a Prince song during the last Super Bowl halftime show, was yanked in response to a fair use complaint. Ms. Stephanie Lenz is suing Universal Music Group, with EFF's assistance, demanding reparations.
The basis of Lenz' suit, filed yesterday in US District Court for Northern California, is that her 29-second portrayal of her daughter dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" constituted "a self-evident non-infringing fair use under 17 U.S.C. [section] 107."
29,000 Sex Offender Profiles on MySpace
The problem of sex offenders on MySpace now appears to be much larger than the company initially suggested.
The social networking site said earlier this week that it had deleted 29,000 sex offender profiles, far more than the 7,000 it had initially said it found in May of this year. The site holds about 180 million profiles.
Nintendo Profits Soar on Strong Wii Sales
Nintendo continued to impress investors, posting another solid quarter thanks to strong Wii sales. Its strength was apparent in recent surveys that show during the month of June, the Wii outsold the PS3 by 4 to 1 and the Xbox by 2 to 1 in the US market. In Japan, where Sony is traditionally strong, the numbers were even better. The Wii managed to outsell the PS3 there by a 6 to 1 margin.
Nintendo's profits skyrocketed to 80.3 billion yen ($669 million USD) from 15.6 ($129 million USD) in the year-ago quarter. Such strong results have led Nintendo to raise its full year profit forecast to 245 billion yen from 174.3 billion yen. Altogether, Nintendo has sold 9.3 million Wii consoles worldwide, and may soon overtake Xbox 360 for the lead in sales. Microsoft has sold about 11 million units worldwide, according to reports.
US Standards Board Still Indeterminate on OOXML
Earlier this week, the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS - despite its name, a US technical advisory group for ANSI) confirmed what BetaNews reported a week ago: A two-thirds majority has yet to be reached among the committee's V1 technical review board, with regard to whether Microsoft's Office Open XML suite of formats should be recommended for approval to its Executive Board.
That approval would be a next critical step towards OOXML being officially recommended by the US delegation to the International Standards Organization, which is currently considering OOXML for worldwide adoption. For the Executive Board to recommend it, the V1 committee must approve it first. Though unofficial reports say more voting members currently approve than disapprove, INCITS requires a two-thirds majority vote of V1 members.
XM CEO Panero to Leave in August
The fate of XM CEO and co-founder Hugh Panero was finally revealed late Tuesday as the satellite radio company said he would be leaving the company in August. No reasons were given for his departure. Nate Davis, currently XM president and Chief Operating Officer, will serve as interim CEO. Panero had no position in the proposed merger of XM and Sirius, leading some to question his future with XM and the combined company.
Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin will serve as the new CEO, and XM's Chairman Gary Parsons will become the chairman of XM/Sirius. The deal is still awaiting regulatory approval, however both sides have repeatedly said that they expect the merger to close by the end of the year.
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