WinInsider

After Microsoft's breakup reprieve last week, supporters of the software giant probably believed that the company had dodged a bullet. But at least four of the US states allied against Microsoft went public this weekend, assuring onlookers that the company will be appropriately punished for its actions. The attorneys general for New York, Connecticut, Iowa, and California assured the public that, although the US Department of Justice (DOJ) decided not to break up Microsoft, that decision doesn't mean that the company will only get a slap on the wrist. In some ways, the statements from these men did much to diffuse reports that Microsoft will be able to easily settle its antitrust case, a fairly obvious outcome after the DOJ admitted that it wouldn't seek a breakup.

Lets hope so...

There are two ways to get hold of the new version of Pocket PC: upgrade now or buy it on a device later. If you already own a Compaq iPaq with flash-upgradeable ROM, you can buy the upgrade from Compaq for $29.95. (If you buy an iPaq between now and the end of November, you'll get it free.) Or you can wait a while and get it on the next generation of Pocket PCs from Casio, Compaq, HP, and now Toshiba. For the past few weeks, we've been testing a beta version on the iPaq H3670, as well as on the new HP Jornada 565.

Microsoft Corp. and youknowbest.com Inc., a Web commerce services provider, today announced a strategic alliance to integrate Microsoft® .NET technologies into youknowbest's universal shopping list. As the first step on the road to .NET, youknowbest will implement Microsoft's Passport, which allows consumers to use single sign-in registration across multiple Web properties. Additionally, the companies will integrate new "HailStorm" services, such as notifications, as they are made available.

Microsoft is drafting a settlement proposal for a new round of talks with the U.S. government this week, aimed at resolving the landmark antitrust suit against it, lawyers close to the case said, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal's online edition on Monday. The overture comes in response to the government's decision last week to narrow legal issues in the case and not seek a breakup. It will be Microsoft's first substantive effort to settle since a June 28 ruling by the federal appeals court here that upheld the core of the government's case, the report said.

Thanks to ActiveWin for brining up this story.

Microsoft is working on a top-secret home entertainment device code-named HomeStation. The PC/Xbox hybrid will run a version of Windows to form a home entertainment hub. The device will finally turn the idea of digital convergence into a living room reality. HomeStation will come equipped for an array of online and offline activities: a sizeable hard drive, broadband connection and compression technology based on Windows Media Player 8 - included with Windows XP - all point to a video-on-demand role. Sources say a Microsoft .NET server will dish out movies, music, messaging, games and TV programming - and with a stonking hard drive, it'll also double up as digital TV recorder.

Two of the biggest states party to the federal government's antitrust case against Microsoft warned on Friday they might pursue their own sanctions against the software giant if they conclude the U.S. Justice Department is going too easy on the company. A day after government attorneys said they had dropped the idea of pushing to break up Microsoft, New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer and California Attorney General Bill Lockyer insisted that the U.S. government take a close look at Microsoft's upcoming Windows XP operating system before proposing a new remedy to rein in the company.

No matter how you feel about Microsoft, you'll probably like Windows XP.

Windows XP is simply the best OS that the company has come up with to date. Granted, with recent releases like Windows Me, the bar wasn't so high. But with the release of Windows XP, Microsoft has managed to build upon the stability of Windows 2000, while adding a slew of features that home and business users will likely welcome with open arms.

But you should seriously think about Windows XP if you're a power user or you get annoyed at how long it takes to start up your system or you've found that standby and hibernate have never worked quite right on your PC or you can't tolerate the all-too-frequent system crashes you endure.

Government attorneys said yesterday that they are abandoning their efforts to break up Microsoft Corp. and instead will seek antitrust remedies that could place tight restraints on how the company designs and markets its software. The decision by the Bush administration's Justice Department had the backing of 17 states and the District of Columbia. It formally reverses the most controversial and far-reaching legal position taken by prosecutors for the Clinton administration and fundamentally alters the landscape just a week before a new trial judge takes up the case in earnest.

Microsoft has recently announce release of New PocketPC 2002, here are some screenshots. It has very similar look and feel as Windows XP, for handheld anyways.

PC manufacturers will push the Pentium 4 toward wide circulation on Monday with new computers that for the first time wed the chip with standard memory, rather than Rambus memory. The union of SDRAM and the Pentium 4 is possible because of the release of Intel's 845 chipset, which was announced last July. Until now, all Pentium 4 chipsets worked only with RDRAM. For one thing, they will cost approximately $100 less than existing.