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In the wake of last week's terrorist attacks and a worsening advertising market, some Wall Street analysts are beginning to wonder if AOL Time Warner will be next to declare a financial shortfall for the quarter. Finances have been bleak for the media sector since the attacks. Many media companies lost significant revenue when their broadcast networks cut ads during coverage of the World Trade Center disaster.

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Microsoft confirmed Friday that it will offer discounted versions of Windows XP for home users who want to install the new operating system on several PCs. "Some people have multiple PCs at home, and this allows them an easy way to put them on multiple machines," said Jim Cullinan, Windows XP lead product manager. People can purchase additional "family licenses" at the time they buy Windows XP, either the upgrade or the full version, Cullinan said. The licenses are expected to cost $10 to $30 less than the full product price.

Microsoft announced Friday that it will delay the release of its Xbox video game console by a week, again putting it back-to-back with the U.S. introduction of Nintendo's GameCube. The Xbox will launch Nov. 15, according to a Microsoft statement, not Nov. 8 as originally planned. The statement said the company will deliver 1 million to 1.5 million consoles through the holiday season but did not comment on specific launch quantities or cite a reason for the delay. Microsoft had previously announced 600,000 to 800,000 consoles would be available at launch, as the company hoped to avoid the shortages and frustration that accompanied the U.S. arrival of Sony's PlayStation 2 console last fall.

At launch, Windows XP will support approximately 12,000 third-party devices - from scanners and printers to external drives and add-in cards - nearly twice the number supported by Windows 2000 at its launch. Windows XP also will support the vast majority of popular software applications. More than 1,500 new applications and 4,000 existing applications were tested. In addition, Microsoft worked with software vendors to fix more than 900 applications that did not previously work on Windows 2000. As a result of extensive testing in the United States, 90 percent of the 1,500 most popular applications (distributed in North America) will run on Windows XP

Will Windows XP encourage consumers to buy new PCs? The first indication will come Monday when PC makers start to sell notebooks and desktops loaded with Microsoft's new operating system. Hewlett-Packard, Compaq Computer and virtually every other major PC maker will come out with new, and fairly inexpensive, Windows XP systems for the consumer market on Monday, both in the United States and internationally. At a minimum, PC manufacturers will bundle Windows XP on existing models. Dell Computer and Gateway, for example, have been taking pre-orders on existing machines loaded with Windows XP.

An emerging high-speed Internet standard in Europe may hold potential for faster download speeds and broader availability for many U.S. businesses--if they're willing to wait awhile. Although DSL speeds vary widely, the new G.SHDSL is potentially two to three times faster than most versions of DSL targeted at business customers. The G.SHDSL standard can deliver data farther than earlier DSL technologies, which are limited by distance.

The Microsoft Network said Thursday that it has signed a deal to deliver content and services to broadband customers of cable TV company Charter Communications. Under the deal, Microsoft will provide Charter subscribers with access to streaming media, games and other services through a customized version of MSN Explorer. The service, expected to begin in October, will initially feature a co-branded home page. Early next year the companies plan to expand to include other services, such as Windows Media Player, MSN music, Hotmail and MSN Messenger.

Cyberlink announced this week that its MP3 and DVD add-on packs for Windows XP will be available in October for purchase from its Web site. The MP3 PowerEncoder will cost $9.95 and enable users to copy audio CD music in the popular MP3 format. And Cyberlink's PowerDVD SE product will cost $14.95, enabling XP users to playback DVD movies in Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP). Cyberlink is also offering the two add-ons together in a package for only $19.95. Both packages will be available for download from the Cyberlink and Microsoft Web sites; Microsoft will market the products as the MP3 Creation Pack and DVD Decoder Pack add-on modules, respectively.

Government trustbusters and Microsoft failed to reach a consensus on how the landmark antitrust case should proceed before a new judge. The Justice Department, 18 states and Microsoft on Thursday filed a joint status report with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly at her request. In some ways, the legal filing demonstrates just how far apart the two sides remain. While Microsoft and trustbusters agreed on some issues, most related to legal or filing procedures and not to substantive scheduling or discovery. The two sides could not come to an agreement on a proposed schedule.