This afternoon, Microsoft issued a heads-up to reporters that its chief of the data and storage platform division, Ted Kummert, will be providing new details on the next version of SQL Server, currently code-named "Katmai," tomorrow during a company business conference.

Besides finally pinning a year (2008) onto the product name, perhaps the most important detail we may learn tomorrow is the role the new SQL Server will play in the next generation server environment, which still has its old code-name, "Longhorn."

Continue reading →

Although networking companies have for a year been selling 802.11n branded gear, which promises much faster speeds and less interference at longer distances, the standard is not yet set in stone. Thus, companies are now rolling out updates based on the 2.0 draft of the standard.

D-Link is the first to release firmware upgrades to its customers in order to bring the hardware up to the latest specification. In addition, the company has obtained certification for compatibility with Intel's Centrino systems with Wireless-N networking. Changes primarily related to protection of the legacy devices, as 802.11n has the capability to cause problems with 802.11g, b and a hardware.

Continue reading →

For May's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft corrected a total of 19 security flaws across its consumer and business product lines, with an update for IE fixing five remote code execution vulnerabilities. A highly-publicized DNS flaw was also patched.

Seven critical security bulletins were issued, three of which affect Office. MS07-023 fixes three separate flaws in Excel that could lead to remote code execution, while MS07-024 does the same for three vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word.

Continue reading →

As part of a renewed content agreement that puts CareerBuilder as the job listing provider on its MSN properties, Microsoft on Wednesday took a minority stake in the company. The equity investment comes as CareerBuilder was chosen to power MSN's international job sites as well.

The deal will last through 2013, and primarily include MSN properties in the United States and Europe. CareerBuilder began expanding its international presence last year, and is now the largest recruiting destination online by revenue. "Taking an equity stake in the most prominent job site in the U.S. presents a unique opportunity to enhance our business relationship," Microsoft said in a statement.

Continue reading →

During a Strategic Account Summit meeting in Seattle for investors and analysts yesterday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates downplayed the role of Asynchronous JavaScript (AJAX) technologies in future Web development. Gates said this immediately following a demonstration of Silverlight created for Major League Baseball, one of whose principal virtues is that its back end is written entirely in C#, to run within the .NET Compact Framework.

"Over the last three or four years, people have been really finding the limitations of HTML to be very problematic," Gates told the audience, according to Microsoft's official transcript, "and they've been trying some browser capabilities that we had really going back over five years with Internet Explorer 4.0. But even though so-called AJAX-type technologies have forced very complex development, and they don't integrate into the traditional HTML very well. They've been experimenting with things that you download that let you do more interactivity and media."

Continue reading →

The promise of the OpenID system is to enable an individual to essentially have his or her user account recognized by multiple Web sites - a single sign-on for a community of content providers. This while at the same time providing central repositories for that identity, that can serve as a certification center. Yesterday, Sun Microsystems announced its intention to begin experimenting with OpenID by establishing one of its own trust providers for its 34,000 employees.

This, while at the same time, Sun's own high-profile director of Web technologies, Tim Bray, continues to poke holes in the system's execution, enumerating what he perceives as fundamental flaws on his personal blog. One such problem with an OpenID, Bray puts it, "is that, well, having one doesn't mean very much; just that you can verify that some server somewhere says it believes that the person operating the browser owns that ID."

Continue reading →

Google Analytics, arguably the best free tool for webmasters and marketers to analyze site traffic and track campaigns, has received an overhaul just in time for the Emetrics Summit in San Francisco. The reporting interface has been redesigned for better customization and collaboration.

Businesses and Web site owners can now access and share custom reports, as well as create a "custom dashboard" containing the data they need most. In addition, users can choose different time periods to compare performance in real time, and send personalized reports over e-mail. Current Google Analytics accounts will be upgraded over the next few weeks, Google says.

Continue reading →

Touting the collaboration between the two companies, Microsoft today released a patch it developed with Apple to correct problems Windows Vista users are having with iPods. While Apple already updated iTunes, issues remained with iPods becoming corrupted when ejected.

"The long and short of it is this: Apple and Windows have partnered together to ensure a great experience in using Windows Vista with iTunes and the iPod, and both companies recommend you download this update," said Vista product manager Nick White. The download is available now, and will be automatically downloaded for Vista users beginning May 22.

Continue reading →

At this morning's session of the JavaOne conference in San Francisco, executives of Sun Microsystems are expected to announce the near-term availability of a version of Java exclusively geared to rich Internet application (RIA) developers. Commandeering Microsoft's leftover, unused brand name (".NET FX"), Sun is said to have dubbed this new system "JavaFX."

Its target market, based on information Sun gave exclusively to the trade press and which was leaked early, will be the developers of Web-enabled applications outside the browser. Although that was Java's target market to begin with, Sun appears to be concentrating on the portable graphics developer, in an attempt to fill in the gaps between Java and Flash. In recent years, Adobe's Flash has become the platform of choice due to its ability to scale graphics onto multiple devices, which is now beginning to include cell phones and handsets.

Continue reading →

Comcast officially announced Tuesday what customers around the United States have been noticing for months: no bandwidth caps when uploading files less than 10MB. The feature, called PowerBoost, follows a similar upgrade in download speeds last year.

Customers will be able to upload at speeds reaching 2 megabits per second, far greater than the standard limit of 384 kilobytes. The service is being rolled out on a market-to-market basis, with the entire Comcast network expected to be upgraded by the end of the year. Comcast customers already see download speeds of 12Mbps to 16Mbps for files under 10MB.

Continue reading →

Unbeknownst to many, Microsoft put the nails in its Portable Media Center coffin last year, telling licensees it would no longer develop the platform, opting instead to focus on Windows Mobile. The final word came in a public newsgroup posting Friday.

"With the re-investment of resources in media experiences on connected Windows Mobile powered devices, Portable Media Center 2.0 is the last version of our Portable Media Center software under the Windows Mobile brand. We do not plan any future Portable Media Center software upgrades or marketing activities," wrote Microsoft's David Bono.

Continue reading →

Robert Love, a key Linux programmer and Chief Architect of Novell's Linux Desktop efforts, has announced he is leaving the company and taking a position at Google. Love will join the search company's Open Source Program Office, which manages projects including the Summer of Code and Google APIs.

Love's resignation from Novell comes after another Linux programmer, Jeremy Allison, also left the company for Google. Unlike Allison, however, Love says he is not leaving due to Novell's recent patent covenant with Microsoft; rather, he feels it was simply time to move on after three and a half years.

Continue reading →

Without disclosing how much money changed hands, Amazon has settled a patent lawsuit brought against it by IBM in October of last year, by apparently purchasing a license for doing what many online retailers may have thought didn't require a one: providing an interactive program online featuring a catalog, including ads, from which users can purchase goods.

These principal business methods were patented by IBM as far back as 1988. After Amazon.com devised an online business model for worldwide warehousing without thinking to check first whether IBM or another computer manufacturer had patented the idea first, IBM evidently sought to sell Amazon a license. When it declined negotiation, based on IBM's description, it declared that "IBM's property is being knowingly and unfairly exploited," and filed suit against Amazon for IP infringement.

Continue reading →

IBM on Tuesday continued offloading its stake in Chinese manufacturer Lenovo, which bought the company's PC business and ThinkPad brand name in 2005, becoming the #3 computer maker in the world. IBM is selling 223 million shares, nearly one-third of its 7.4 percent stake in Lenovo.

The move follows the sale of 300 million Lenovo shares by IBM in February. As part of the initial $1.75 billion deal, IBM was allowed to shed a third of its stake each year, but under an agreement reached last year, it can now completely separate from Lenovo in November 2007.

Continue reading →

A spokesperson for Hewlett-Packard confirmed to BetaNews this afternoon that it will be including a hybrid Blu-ray / HD DVD disc reader and Blu-ray disk writer/re-writer drive as one of the options of its new high-performance Pavilion series PCs, with online availability confirmed for Wednesday.

Though HP would not confirm the brand specifically, it will most likely be using an LG "Super Multi Blue" hybrid disc component, which is the only one available that meets the specifications HP gave us this afternoon.

Continue reading →