WinInsider

The release of PCs based on the 3.06 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor has ignited another round of Macintosh vs. PC comparisons and this time it's gotten ugly. Sorry, Apple fans, but a low-cost Dell PC now significantly outperforms a significantly more expensive Power Mac for image and digital video editing, long considered the last bastions of the Mac. According to the Digital Video Editing Web site, the Mac has been "slaughtered again," with the PC running all of the PhotoShop and After Effects benchmarks nearly twice as fast as the Mac. So how does the PC do it? Well, the humongous MHz gap helps (3.06 GHz vs. the fastest Mac, a 1.25 GHz dual processor machine), as does Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology, which lets a single processor machine behave like a dual processor box. But the PC also offers PC1066 RDRAM and a 512 MHz front-end bus, making the Mac look old-school. And so on. In conclusion, the site says, time is money. "If you have an After Effects composite that needs, say, two hours to render on the Mac, it'll take you about an hour and 10 minutes on this PC," the review reads.

This is an early alpha build and the final Longhorn product will bear little resemblance to what you see here. If you think back to the early Whistler builds, which featured the "Watercolor" visual style, you'll get the right idea: Longhorn is a work in progress, mostly current generation technology, and much of what's in there is just the same old stuff from XP. Major UI work, a database-based file system, integrated DVD burning, and other cool features are still to come.

The Longhorn alpha's Welcome screen is a slightly modified version of the one in Windows XP, and it now features a time and date display, a frequent customer request. I wouldn't make too much of the color scheme or look and feel of the Longhorn Welcome screen, as this is bound to change. The design does resemble prototypes I've seen at the Microsoft campus (Figure), however.

Microsoft nascent businesses in small business software and mobile devices, as well as MSN and its home entertainment division, all posted operating losses in the third quarter, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday. Microsoft, which recently started to organize the financial reporting of its business around seven new segments, had not previously disclosed the operating profitability of those divisions, information that analysts and investors have been eager to see.

Based on Microsoft's internal accounting methods, which differ from the figures reported on its quarterly earnings release, the Home and Entertainment division that includes the Xbox video game business lost $177 million on operations on revenue of $505 million in the September quarter.

I must confess that after playing the motorcycle racing video game "MotoGP" via Microsoft's new online game service, after finishing dead last (16th place four times in a row), and after listening to the guy in first place tout his racing prowess with all the humility of P. Diddy ("Suckaaaaaz!"), I did fantasize about shoving my game controller up his . . . nose . . .

"I win! I win! I win! Oooooh yeah, I WIN!"

. . . sideways.

Microsoft on Friday will raise its stakes in the gaming market with an elaborate new online service for its Xbox video game console. The new service, which lets Xbox users play games over a high-speed network connection, is unlikely to have any immediate impact on Microsoft's position in the game market, analysts said. But it gives the company a strong entry into the niche, in comparison with competitors such as Sony and Nintendo, as the company builds its market share for the future.

"They're basically playing for the future with Xbox Live," said Schelley Olhava, an analyst for research firm IDC. "I don't think it's going to be one of those features that get people to run out and buy the Xbox...Microsoft sees it as an investment. They really feel that if they build out the infrastructure now, it's going to serve them well in the future."

Intel Corp. launched its latest desktop processor, the first in its Pentium 4 family to break the 3GHz speed barrier, on Thursday. The new chip, which has a clock speed of 3.06GHz, is also the first Pentium 4 to feature a technology the company calls "hyperthreading." Already built into its Xeon range of server processors, the technology allows multiple software threads to run more efficiently on a single processor.

For users, the technology should translate into a performance benefit of up to 30 percent, according to recent presentations given by Intel executives, but this also depends on whether support for hyperthreading is built into the operating system and software. Some versions of Linux and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP feature support, but earlier editions of Windows do not, while application software support is limited.

As the major Hollywood studios bicker with theater owners over who should pay for the digital equipment that allows films to remain free of dirt and scratches no matter how many times they are viewed, a luxury carmaker and the world's largest software company have stepped into the breach, casting themselves as the unlikely champions of independent digital cinema.

BMW and Microsoft are spending several million dollars to exhibit eight independent films in digital format over the next year at theaters in 25 cities. The first is "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," a documentary about the Funk Brothers, studio musicians whose role in creating the Motown sound made famous by vocalists such as Marvin Gaye and the Supremes is little known.

In a memo to the rank and file, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sounded contrite for the company's antitrust conduct while predicting a big future for the software maker and the industry at large. Ballmer's e-mail--seemingly calibrated to project humility following its favorable antitrust settlement--also was intended for public consumption. The company published the message to its Web site, and the remarks are substantially similar to comments Ballmer delivered in a speech to the Brookings Institution Tuesday. Both the speech and the shorter e-mail referred to the recently approved settlement between Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department.

The settlement "puts new obligations and responsibilities on our company, and we fully embrace them," Ballmer wrote in the e-mail. He enumerated a handful of restrictions Microsoft now must follow, as well as steps the company has taken to ensure compliance.

Ten months after Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called on company employees to make Windows more trustworthy, a company executive said the initiative is paying off. Speaking at the software giant's monthly Silicon Valley Speaker series, Craig Mundie, senior vice president for advanced strategies and policy, said that headway has been made in the company's Trustworthy Computing initiative. Other companies will have to follow suit or potentially lose consumer trust, he said.

"Beyond Microsoft, (trust) will be the defining issue for the industry," he said. "If we want to enjoy the business and results we will have to put our IQ into dealing with this issue."

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will show off smart objects--small, Internet-enabled household items--at Comdex next week, as PC makers gear up for the second wave of Internet appliances. The smart objects program revolves around delivering Internet information to alarm clocks, kitchen appliances, stereo equipment and the like, say sources familiar with Microsoft's plans. These devices, which could come out as early as 2003, will contain Microsoft software, energy-efficient processors and built-in wired or wireless networking capabilities, sources said. Smart objects could also revive the "agent" concept, with software that anticipates an individual's needs, said Tim Bajarin, president of consulting company Creative Strategies.