Judging by my e-mail, many of you are convinced that Microsoft has done nothing but steal and cheat its way to success. While some in Redmond might admit to stealing an idea or two, there are a lot of Microsoft folks who would take exception to the "nothing but" part. For example, the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), which will undoubtedly play a significant role in the Internet's future, is an idea hatched in Microsoft's labs. That's pretty innovative, if you ask me.
Based on my discussions with Microsoft wireless architect Mike Foley, who also chairs Bluetooth SIG, the industry consortium that oversees the Bluetooth wireless standard, I'll go out on a limb and say that Microsoft is showing signs of innovation in the wireless space as well.
Microsoft and ViewSonic have agreed to market a handheld device that runs Microsoft's Pocket PC software and sells for $299. The companies planned to announce the move Monday. The device is the first using Microsoft's technology that costs less than $300, a "sweet spot" in pricing, said Ed Suwanjindar, product manager of the mobile devices division. It will be available Nov. 1.
The agreement is the latest with hardware manufacturers that the company has teamed with in rolling out its Pocket PC software. Microsoft has been courting manufacturers aggressively and landing deals with cell phone carriers to market devices that run its technology as the market for handheld PCs, "smart" cell phones and other devices grows.
The next version of Microsoft Corp.'s Office productivity suite will come with XML support baked into Word, allowing users to, among other things, more effectively mine their data. Code-named Office 11, the suite will feature built-in support for XML in Word, allowing developers to create "smart" documents that automatically search for code or updates as needed.
In addition, the software-the first beta of which is expected to be announced by company CEO Steve Ballmer at Gartner Symposium in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 9-will allow developers to use Word as a development platform to create XML templates and solutions, as well as re-purpose content with database and Web service interaction, said Jeff Raikes, Microsoft's group vice president of productivity and business services, in an interview with eWeek.
Fremont-based ActivCard, the leader in IDentity Management (IDM) software, Monday announced that the ActivCard Identity Management System (AIMS) has been adopted by Microsoft Corporation for employees and contractors. Microsoft has deployed the solution - including a corporate, smart card-based identity badge - to more than 25,000 employees in this initial deployment phase.
As a component of its overall corporate security strategy, all Microsoft employees, contractors, and authorized users will carry the ID smart card for physical access to on-campus facilities and remote access to Microsoft's corporate network. The AIMS solution met Microsoft's requirements for secure issuance and distribution of smart cards and user credentials in a large-scale enterprise - and performed under the demands of Microsoft's rapid deployment schedule.
Freeserve today won the first round of its court battle to force rival internet service provider (ISP) AOL to pay UK VAT charges. In London's High Court Mr Justice Moses ruled that Freeserve's case against AOL would now go to a full judicial review hearing, a date for which has yet to be set. The row over AOL's current VAT-free status in the UK for its internet services has been rumbling on for over 18 months. Freeserve argued last July that by not paying VAT, AOL had an unfair advantage over UK-based ISPs, calling it a "distortion of competition".
Here is collection of news that made headlines in the month of September... Allchin: Yukon Coming in '03-'04, Longhorn in '05; The Future of Windows; Microsoft's next must-have operating system; IDC: Windows Servers grow market share; Microsoft Center gives a peek into the future; Why Linux will never beat Windows on the desktop; Apple's market share in the basement: What's next?; Ballmer: We'll outsmart open source; Microsoft to beat Linux with community spirit; Microsoft 64-bit Yukon aimed at Oracle, Sun; Microsoft, Unisys demo 64-bit Windows .NET; Why .NET will conquer the world; The Visual Studio .NET vision; Microsoft gives developers lowdown on .NET Server; Microsoft official hails .NET; Serious new worm targets Linux/Apache servers; Linux worm spreads fast, attacks P2P networks, and a lot more...
Well, it's one of the worst-kept secrets of 2002, but Microsoft is jumping into the wireless home networking hardware market this fall with a complete line of wired and wireless networking products. Entering such a crowded market might seem like a curious decision given the competition, but Microsoft had previously made a few networking technology bets that never really panned out, including the simpler networking user interface in Windows XP, and support for Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), which was first introduced with Windows Millennium Edition (Me). Today, home networking is easier than ever, but still too difficult for most people. And UPnP, once seen as the savior for networkable devices that could announce their presence and capabilities to other UPnP devices, like Windows PCs, has faltered in the market, thanks to slow (or non-existent) adoption by companies such as Linksys, Netgear, and D-Link. After pushing XP and UPnP technologies to these companies for years and seeing few positive results, Microsoft decided it was time to enter the market itself and give consumers a simpler solution. Its line of Microsoft Broadband Networking products is the result.
Microsoft has made much of its Tablet PC vision over the past two years. ZDNet UK brings you a hands-on preview of what the devices are really like. This week Microsoft has been giving journalists hands-on experience with its latest vision: the Tablet PC, which is to launch on 7 November. The Tablet is Microsoft's hybrid laptop/PDA that's supposed to combine the full power of the Windows environment with the nifty ability to let you input text using a Palm-style stylus. It can even recognise doctors' hand-writing and turn it into editable text. Or so we're told...
The master of PR knew that his supposed $1 a year salary would generate good press for Apple Computer, but CEO Steve Jobs has a little trick up his sleeve to make things right financially. As reported previously here in WinInfo, Jobs actually makes tens of millions of dollars a year thanks to overtly generous bonuses, and in mid-2002 those bonuses made him the highest paid CEO in the world. Jobs took home over $43 million in the second quarter of 2002 alone, a time period when the average cash grab by CEOs at America's biggest companies declined 1.9 percent. Not bad for a guy making only $1 a year, and running a company whose market share has consistently sunk under his tutelage. And consider a recent report by Business Week magazine, which named Apple's Board of Directors one of the ten worst in America because of its hefty compensation for a "flailing" CEO, having too many company insiders as board members, and failing to notice or stop abuses that were happening under its nose. Jobs' best friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, abruptly left his position on Apple's board earlier this week. I wonder if that was coincidental.
Microsoft is giving computer manufacturers something extra to stuff into this holiday's PC stocking: Bluetooth. The Redmond, Wash.-based company on Thursday released to manufacturers an update that would add Bluetooth support to Windows XP. Bluetooth allows peripherals, handhelds and cell phones to connect to PCs without wires. The technology is complimentary to 802.11b wireless, or "Wi-Fi," which is used to network computers together or connect them to the Internet over the air.
Bluetooth support in Windows XP could be a big boost for the much-hyped technology that has yet to find much momentum in the consumer market. Early Bluetooth adopters have found few ways to use the fledging technology. Hewlett-Packard last year released a Bluetooth-enabled printer, but pulled back on plans to add the technology to more peripherals. IBM sells one notebook with Bluetooth, the ThinkPad X30.