"I hope it's any day now,'' Ballmer told a news conference in Mexico City. "We're trying to finish up Windows XP very quickly. We are in the final stages, I think that is fair to say.''
Ballmer also said Microsoft was still readying the Xbox video game console for its North America launch in November as planned, addressing recurring concerns in the game industry that the launch date might be pushed back.
"The Xbox project from a schedule perspective is something that's been kind of challenging, trying to get to market very quickly. The team is still marching away trying to finish things up. There is certainly no change to report though,'' he said.
AOL cuts corners like never before in attempt save it's own skin. AOL after Time Warner merger does not seem to have very deep pockets. AOL was not able to comment on current situation as all media representatives were laid off. hehehehe!
Time Warner's plans to cut 1,700 jobs lifted one of the gloomy clouds over its stock, but the company's ability to hit its 2001 financial targets remains in doubt, analysts said Wednesday. The Internet and media giant's shares, hurt by economic uncertainty and an advertising slowdown, have taken a beating in recent sessions, losing more than 13 percent since the beginning of the month. AOL Time Warner on Tuesday said it would cut 1,200 jobs, or nearly 8 percent of its 16,000-person staff, at its flagship America Online unit, as well as take a $100 million to $125 million charge in the third quarter. The company also said it would cut 500 jobs from its Netscape-Sun Microsystems alliance, iPlanet, which employs 3,000 people.
Two British companies are facing the wrath of Microsoft's ongoing anti-piracy campaign for allegedly selling counterfeit Microsoft products. Microsoft has commenced legal proceedings against the directors of two Basingstoke-based companies--Pacific Computers and Taran Microsystems--for allegedly infringing its copyright and the Microsoft trademark. The claims forms were filed on Aug. 2.
Apple Computer has fixed a problem with its QuickTime plug-in for Internet Explorer 5.5 SP 2 and IE 6.0 beta, ending speculation about the glitch. The problem arose from Microsoft's decision to drop support for Netscape-style plug-ins in IE, a decision it made about a year ago after Netscape dropped the technology first. Microsoft alerted developers at the time that its upcoming browsers would not support the technology, and that companies shipping Netscape-style plug-ins should switch to ActiveX-style plug-ins instead. Most browser add-on developers did so, but Apple's delivery of the update after the release of IE 5.5 SP2 had users questioning whether Microsoft was trying to shut out competition.
SAPI 5.1 includes improved speech recognition and text-to-speech engines that developers can include with their applications at no additional charge, and eliminates the need for developers to also use the Windows Platform SDK (Software Development Kit) when they're compiling speech-enabled applications. Engine vendors and developers say that these additions make it faster, easier and less expensive for developers to speech-enable their applications with better results than they could have achieved before.
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Thanks to Intense Beta Elite for brining up this story.
Microsoft shipped on Tuesday the latest version of its personal-finance software, Money 2002, as it scrambles to catch up with chief rival Intuit in the money-management market. Money 2002 Standard, Deluxe and Suite are the 10th anniversary versions of the company's money-management software. As in previous versions, Microsoft continues to boost Internet compatibility within the product with new features such as MoneySide, which allows people to access their Money account online.
update Microsoft, under pressure from several sides to get its new operating system out the door, on Friday will deliver final Windows XP code to PC makers in a big way: via airdrop. In a stunt involving Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Vice President Jim Allchin, helicopters will circle the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters as the pair hand off Windows XP to PC makers, said sources familiar with the event. The helicopters are expected to be decorated with Windows XP and major PC maker logos.
Hoping to stay one step ahead of federal prosecutors and challenges from rivals, Microsoft is apparently ready to go into production next week with its Windows XP operating system. The company wants to get copies to PC makers for installation as soon as possible. Speaking to a technology conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reportedly said that he expects work on the controversial XP system to be finished this week and production to begin next Monday.
When you use the Visual Studio .NET Beta 2 Add Web Reference feature, Visual Studio .NET abnormally terminates or a dialog box erroneously reports that no Web references were found on the page. Microsoft has provided a patch for this problem. To apply it, you first must apply Visual Studio .NET Beta 2 Service Pack 2. Once you have applied the service pack, download the patch and double-click the file to apply it.