The seemingly never-ending saga between Microsoft and the European Union took another turn on Wednesday as the EU Commission's antitrust division warned the software company not to return to its old ways with Windows Vista. The body is concerned about Vista's built-in Internet search functions and new document features.

While the Commission has not yet opened up an investigation into Windows Vista, it has asked Microsoft to respond to its concerns. If the EU finds evidence of anti-competitive behavior, a new case against the Redmond company could be made.

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Panasonic will launch its first Blu-ray disc player in September, the company said Tuesday. The release of the DMP-BD10 would come in conjunction with its first 1080p plasma displays and a new high-definition receiver. The company expects the player to retail for less than $1,500 USD, but pricing has not been finalized.

"With the DMP-BD10, Panasonic proves its commitment to providing the best high definition entertainment experience for the home," Panasonic merchandising vice president Reid Sullivan said in a statement. "Our goal is to focus on the total solution for an uncompromised high definition experience."

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The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) on Tuesday paved the way for the next-generation of Bluetooth, which will be capable of transferring data over 100 times faster than current devices. The wireless technology will be used for the streaming of audio and video in the home.

The WiMedia Alliance's multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) version of ultra-wideband (UWB) was chosen for the new Bluetooth standard. Tech industry heavyweights such as Intel, Microsoft, Sony and Nokia are among those supporting the effort.

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MSN continued to fall farther behind its rivals in terms of search query market share, according to data released Tuesday by research firm ComScore. Microsoft's chief competitor Google increased its lead, grabbing a little over 42 percent of the search market in February.

MSN made it a publicly stated goal last year to increase market share on rivals Yahoo and Google, even unveiling a new version of its search portal that mimicked Google's simplicity. While the company pointed to the increased relevancy of its search results, so far users have not responded.

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While AOL is raising prices for dial-up subscribers in an effort to entice users to switch to broadband, MSN said Tuesday it would do the opposite. Through June 30, MSN would allow new subscribers to sign up for a free month of dial-up service, followed by 12 months at $17.95 USD per month. After that period, the monthly charge would return to the normal dial-up rate.

Currently, MSN charges $21.95 USD per month for dial-up access. In comparison, AOL currently charges $25.90, up from $23.90 USD previously. "As longstanding AOL dial-up subscribers begin exploring alternatives to a monthly price increase, Microsoft believes that this new competitive offer will give consumers an incentive to switch to MSN Dial-Up for their dial-up provider," a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews.

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Fujitsu on Monday said it would deliver in May the world's largest notebook hard drive, capable of storing 200GB of data without utilizing perpendicular recording technology. However, the three-platter enclosure is larger and heavier than standard portable drives.

The Fujitsu MHV2200BT features a Serial ATA-150 interface, 8MB buffer and speed of 4200RPM -- slower than 7200RPM notebook drives currently on the market. The new drive is designed for high-performance portable and home media devices, where size is less of a concern. Fujitsu did not offer pricing details for the MHV2200BT.

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Watch out TiVo -- Cablevision has plans to make the popular digital video recorder and other hard drive-based models a thing of the past. The company will soon introduce a box that would store recorded programming at the cable facility, rather than in the home.

According to Cablevision, the new service is expected to cut down on the costs associated with installing and repairing hard-drive based DVRs. The cable operator says these DVRs are not as prone to malfunction, and would operate through current set-top boxes without additional equipment.

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Citing fears of espionage, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) said Monday it would call for a probe into the plans for Lenovo to supply 15,000 computers to the U.S. State Department. The USCC said the computers could be bugged to spy on the U.S. government.

The group's reservations about a deal highlight the increasing concern among those in the United States of foreign companies' dealings with American firms. However, Lenovo is not standing in the group's way, and invited an investigation saying it had "nothing to hide."

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While Microsoft debates whether to release a critical update for Internet Explorer before the next Patch Tuesday on April 11, security firm eEye Digital Security has released its own patch. The flaw, discovered last week, puts IE users at risk of code execution simply by visiting a malicious Web site.

A problem exists in how IE interprets the "createTextRange()" method used for radio button controls in HTML forms. From there, the flaw can be exploited to allow program flow to be redirected to the heap. When this occurs, the attacker can then exploit the vulnerability to execute code on an affected computer.

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Apple's lead software engineer Avadis "Avie" Tevanian will leave the company at the end of March, it was confirmed Monday. Tevanian followed Steve Jobs to Apple after the company's acquisition of NeXT in February 1997.

Initially, Tevanian served as vice president of Software Engineering, however he received a promotion to chief software technology officer in 2003. No reasons were given for his departure, and Apple said he would "pursue other interests."

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Bertelsmann is close to selling its stake in the music venture Sony BMG, the Financial Times reported on Monday. A sale would help finance a buyback of shares owned by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), which owns a 25 percent stake in the company.

Sony BMG is most remembered in the technology industry for placing rootkits on its music CDs as a copyright protection mechanism. Fallout surrounding the discovery resulted in several lawsuits -- including one from the state of Texas -- and a public relations nightmare for the music giant.

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At the Convergence 2006 in Dallas Monday, Microsoft announced it has released to manufacturing BizTalk Server 2006, which serves as a management tool that links business processes and applications. The release includes adapters for popular applications such as SAP, Siebel, Peoplesoft, Oracle, and JD Edwards.

New features in BizTalk Server 2006 include advanced management and deployment capabilities, real-time alerting functionality, and a new business activity monitoring (BAM) portal. The release integrates with Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005, which both debuted in November.

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The delayed launch of Windows Vista will have a limited effect on PC shipments in 2006, and may actually help to boost sales slightly in 2007, research firm IDC said Monday. Overall, PC shipments should grow at a ten percent or higher rate through 2008, the firm said.

IDC's comments came as part of its Quarterly PC Tracker forecast of the industry. The firm is now more optimistic about sales through 2008, saying growth should remain above 10.5 percent. Previously, IDC had expected growth to fall below 10 percent beginning in 2007.

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Microsoft this month joined the INCITS/V1 Technical Committee, according to press reports. While on the surface the news sounds rather benign, the group is responsible for the reconciliation of votes to make the OpenDocument Format a worldwide standard.

The Redmond company is currently pushing its response to ODF, called Office Open XML, through the ECMA. It is also expected to look to receive International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification.

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Taking a page from Mozilla's playbook, Microsoft on Friday launched the Internet Explorer Feedback Web site, a public database that enables users to submit bugs and make suggestions for the ubiquitous browser. The system will be used for IE7 and all future releases.

Built atop the Connect platform Microsoft uses for beta testing, Internet Explorer Feedback will track issues discovered in IE7 much like the open source Bugzilla software used with Firefox. A Passport account is required, but a forthcoming update to the site will enable anyone to view existing bugs without logging in.

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