Microsoft MapPoint Technology can help you get where you want to go, anywhere, anytime and on any device. With products and websites featuring MapPoint Technology, you are assured high quality maps, accurate routing and easy-to-use location services.
Experience an early showcase solution featuring the MapPoint .NET platform technology today. With MSN MapPoint you can quickly and easily pinpoint an address, get driving directions, locate points of interest or just browse the globe. Print clear maps with easy to read driving directions or email them to friends or colleagues.
MapPoint Links:
Microsoft MapPoint
MapPoint .NET
Philosophically, most computer industry visionaries now agree that Web services--intelligent, XML-based data snippets that abstract the difference between running code locally on one's PC and on specially designed Internet servers--will ultimately prove to be a viable business model. For this reason, Microsoft should be awarded the innovator tag for its early push to .NET, during which time the company educated consumers, businesses, and other customers about terms like XML, SOAP, and Web services, placing them for the first time into common use. But the company is also undergoing an educational campaign of a different stripe, as it is also trying to tie this new software delivery paradigm to a new subscription model, in which it will levy scheduled fees to its customers. Thus, if .NET is successful, it will also mark the end of store-bought cardboard boxes containing one or more CD-ROMs, containing code that's frozen in time. Instead, code will be live, and updated as needed all the time.
In August, Sun continued its anti-Microsoft jihad by paying for full page ads in major US newspapers demanding that Microsoft include Sun's Java technology in the upcoming release of Windows XP. The company also asked major PC makers to include the technology in their new PCs. Microsoft, predictably, was not amused. "It is ironic that we spent 3 years in litigation with Sun over [its] attempt to stop us from shipping Java in Windows, and now [the company is] complaining that we are not shipping it by default in Windows XP," a Microsoft spokesperson said. But the irony, of course, was that Microsoft was the single biggest distributor of Java technology because of its inclusion in IE and Windows. With the removal of Java from XP, this is no longer the case. Sun's efforts ultimately proved futile, and XP shipped without Java technology. Few consumers complained, and those that did could easily download Microsoft's Java JVM--almost obsolete thanks to Sun's lawsuit--from Windows Update. The irony just continues to pile up.
Now that you've bought a spiffy flat-screen display and the latest, greatest 2GHz desktop computer, that decrepit three-year-old minitower and ancient CRT seem destined for the dumpster, don't they? Here's a hint from us: Don't trash them. Don't just throw away your old hardware. We show you how to get some cash for your ancient system, donate it to charity, or recycle it.
AOL buys Netscape, Netscape goes down the trash, lets hope history repeats!
According to a report this weekend in the Washington Post, AOL Time Warner is in talks to buy leading Linux maker Red Hat Software. If the deal is consummated, the acquisition will give AOL an operating system to challenge Microsoft's market leading Windows, and push the two companies even closer to what is increasingly seen as an inevitable showdown. Microsoft and AOL's many recent moves have often seemed designed to counter each other's expansion plans, but it's unclear whether AOL has the expertise or infrastructure needed to tackle the Windows-dominated desktop and enterprise OS markets.
According to Prudential Securities, reports that Microsoft will release a second generation Xbox called the HomeStation are true, and the device will open up Xbox to a wide range of new capabilities, including Web browsing and email, Digital Video Recording (DVR), and DVD playback. Microsoft's play into the living room was supposed to be announced at CES, but apparently some manufacturing commitments haven't been finalized yet. This leads one to wonder: Was the Freestyle UI we saw really for the Xbox HomeStation? After all, the Xbox is basically a PC anyway, and it could probably be made to work with XP. And the Xbox HomeStation would be an easier sell in the living room than a PC. Stay tuned.
Intel will launch a line of new chips for mobile PCs next week that includes a low-cost Celeron running at more that 1GHz. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker will release a new mobile Celeron running at 1.06GHz and two low-power Pentium III-M chips for ultra-portable machines, sources familiar with Intel's plans said. Soon after the launch, consumers can expect to see new notebooks with the chips and price cuts on existing systems. Intel declined to comment. The Celeron is the lower-cost relative of the more feature-rich Pentium chip.
In the consumer sector, we believe that increasingly more complex games and ever richer entertainment will drive processing demand upward. In the corporate market, we believe that a wide range of new uses will emerge during the next two to six years that will consume more processing power at the client. Although no single "killer application" will drive PCs to 3GHz, 5GHz or 10GHz, we expect a wide range of new software and components that will, in aggregate, severely tax current PC resources and necessitate the growth in computing power.
However, because the increases in demand for processing power will be steady and incremental rather than the result of a sudden change in software or hardware features, they offer no short-term salve for PC sellers that have been struggling to find a way to jump-start the consumer and corporate PC markets. Likewise, organizations responding to the current economic downturn by lengthening desktop and laptop life cycles beyond three years will face no near-term disadvantage from failing to immediately boost the power available on desktops.
Positive fourth-quarter numbers from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, plus Dell Computer's announcement that its earnings would be better than expected, are positive indications for PC manufacturers. Intel also made a smooth transition to its Pentium 4 processor, which helped its fourth-quarter results. However, one quarter does not make a year, and we expect 2002 will repeat the pattern of 2001 for the PC market, with flat sales and a continuing price drop (albeit much slower, at 10 percent to 15 percent) through the year.
If you're a Net junkie like me, you've probably seen screenshots that reportedly expose upcoming user interfaces for the next two versions of Windows (code-named "Longhorn" and "Blackcomb"). You might have heard of internal alpha builds of either OS, and maybe, just maybe, you've seen the infamous Blackcomb movie that's making the rounds as well. I've spent the past few months investigating all of these things, and after speaking with several Microsofties and uncovering the truth behind the wild stuff that's available on the Internet, I thought I'd provide a little heads-up on what's really going on with the next version of Windows.
During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January 2002, Microsoft unveiled two technologies designed to extend the reach of Windows PCs from the office into the far larger and more lucrative living room. The plan, launched through the company's eHome Division, aims to leverage the power and intelligence of the PC while offering simplicity and convenience for consumers.
Currently, PCs are powerful, but limited to specific tasks. As we move toward a more connected world where digital media experiences such as music, photos, and movies are used more and more with PCs, it makes sense to bring that machine into other areas of the house. Freestyle and Mira address this need. With Freestyle, a new generation of TV-based PCs, or PCs used in smaller living areas such as dorm rooms and apartments, is made more viable thanks to a simple new user interface. And with Mira, a new generation of smart screens will "remote" the desktop experience to anywhere in the home.