WinInsider

Jim Allchin is not buying the argument that there's any confusion about Microsoft's message on Web services. If anything, he says, it's just the opposite. Earlier this summer, Bill Gates allowed that Microsoft's .Net Web services strategy was progressing more slowly than anticipated. But Allchin, who is responsible for Microsoft's platform strategy, maintains that the industry adoption of XML (Extensible Markup Language) Web services is proceeding apace, any speed bumps notwithstanding. "In terms of the overall vision of XML Web services, I think it's been quite successful," he says. Allchin, who recently oversaw the first update to Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, sat down with CNET News.com to discuss XML and the future of consumer-oriented Web services, a segment that was once promoted as the future of online commerce.

Microsoft's latest media software doesn't include a mechanism for uninstalling the software on Windows Millennium Edition (Me) or Windows XP operating system. Users running Windows 98 SE or Windows 2000 can easily uninstall the media player using the operating systems' "Add or Remove Programs" feature, a typical means of getting rid of unwanted software. This option is not available on Windows Me or XP because of the media player's deep integration into the operating systems, Caulton said.

"Windows 2000 doesn't have the issues with deep media integration into the shell, the way Windows Millennium Edition and Windows XP have," Caulton said. "This is really an OS upgrade," Caulton said of Windows Media Player 9 Series. "If you imagine a situation with an XP user who has got all these links into media capabilities...and you updated to Windows Media Player 9 Series and removed it, all those become dead links."

A new device from Intel could speed the dream of the networked home, where PC-stored digital photos would be viewed on a TV, and MP3 music tracks could be beamed to a stereo. Similar in size to a small set-top box, the "digital media adapter," announced this week, connects to a home-entertainment appliance, such as a television, using a standard audio/video cable. It contains the necessary communications technology, including Intel's XScale PXA processors, to let the appliance wirelessly access files stored on a computer. PC makers Dell Computer, Gateway and China's Legend were demonstrating prototypes of the adapters at the Intel Developer Forum this week in San Jose, Calif. The companies are planning to bundle the adapters with future PCs.

3 GHz Pentium 4 for Desktops
Intel will ship a 3 GHz Pentium 4 chip for desktop PCs by the end of 2002, as expected, and that product will include an exciting new feature called hyperthreading that allows discrete parts of the chip to operate simultaneously, giving it the effective power of two processors. Essentially on-chip multitasking, this feature will boost chip performance by 25-30 percent, Intel says. And though applications must be modified to fully take advantage of hyperthreading, some products, like Windows XP Home and Professional Editions, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows Media Encoder 9 Series and Adobe Photoshop 7, are already hyperthreading-enabled.

4.5 to 5 GHz Pentium 4s
Intel will continue ratcheting up the core processor speeds in its desktop processors, and the company expects to hit 5 GHz in the first half of 2003.

Banias
In the first quarter 2003, Intel will release a new microprocessor for ultra-portable laptops code-named Banias that provides significantly better battery life and processing power than today's Pentium III-M designs. Initial Banias chips will run at 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6 GHz, the company says, and will feature integrated 802.11a and 802.11b wireless networking capabilities. The Banias processor will also run cooler than today's Pentium 4-M chips, which are targeted at the mid-sized and desktop replacement laptops which contain better heat shielding and bulky cooling technologies.

Continuing its drive to gain a foothold outside of the (PC) box, Microsoft Thursday used IBC2002 in Amsterdam as a platform to announce support by major set-top box and digital media appliance chip makers, as well as European broadcast technology firms, for its Windows Media 9 Series. Windows Media 9 Series, formerly code-named Corona, was unleashed last week in Los Angeles.

In the past few years, Microsoft has been striving to push its influence beyond the slumping PC market in an effort to diversify its revenue streams. The software giant has played aggressively for the handheld and game console spaces, and has dipped its toes in the embedded operating system market, interactive television, and other digital media appliances.

Covering last week's well-hyped launch of Windows Media 9, most of the press focused on how Microsoft is using the latest version of its media player to woo Hollywood. (Bill Gates, James Cameron, and LL Cool J together again!) But that coverage overlooked some of the product's technical enhancements--new features that should leave digital audio fans just as starry-eyed.

For starters, Media 9 improves on what, in my humble opinion, was already the best audio codec around. Before the latest enhancements, a 64-bit Windows Media Audio (WMA) file sounded just as good (to me, anyway) as a 128Kbps MP3 file. Now, sure, if you've got a 40GB hard disk to work with, you might not care much about saving space (though I still do). But if you're using a portable audio player (and presuming it, like my current favorite, Creative's Nomad MuVo, supports the format), WMA files let you double the amount of music you can carry around.

Version 1.6 was released. Microsoft Portrait enables two-way full-color video conferencing on PC, Pocket PC and Handheld PC.

Microsoft Portrait is a research prototype for mobile video communication. It supports .NET Messenger Service, Session Initiation Protocol and Internet Locator Service on PCs, Pocket PCs and Handheld PCs. It runs on local area networks, dialup networks and even wireless networks with bandwidths as low as 9.6 kilobits/second. Microsoft Portrait delivers portrait-like video if users are in low bandwidths and displays full-color video if users are in broadband. In low bandwidths, portrait video possesses clearer shape, smoother motion, shorter latency and much cheaper computational cost than do conventional video technologies. Microsoft Portrait provides presence notification, chat/voice/video functions almost anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Software giant Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it has teamed up with dominant Chinese computer maker Legend Group to make tablet PCs, laptops with write-on screens expected to make a splash in Asia. "They are the number one PC manufacturer over here and so it's great that they've chosen to develop the tablet PC," Oliver Roll, marketing general manager for Microsoft Asia. Taiwan's Acer Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co and Fujitsu are among the other firms working with Microsoft on the portable computers with touch-sensitive, flat screens which can be written on like a pad of paper and come with or without a keyboard.

Two software vendors this week took the wraps off applications designed for new Tablet PC devices, which will be released later this year with the goal of making handwriting the preferred method for inputting data into computer documents. Corel Tuesday previewed an application called Grafigo that it plans to release on November 7. A second company, Pen&Internet, also announced the immediate availability of an application for sending handwritten e-mail from a variety of devices, which will take advantage of the pen-based computing features of the Tablet PC. Now in beta testing, Grafigo is designed to allow users to open graphics files--for example, a building floor plan--and add handwritten notes, diagrams, and various shapes to those documents.

Software giant Microsoft is considering acquiring U.K. game developer Rare in a bid to jump-start development of its own video games for the Xbox, a source close to the discussions said on Wednesday. The source familiar with the discussions said Microsoft is "definitely looking at (Rare) as an acquisition target." He said Microsoft had approached Rare recently, but said he was unaware of the status of talks.

Successful games are crucial to console makers, who tend to sustain sometimes-steep losses on their hardware, which they make up through healthy profit margins on software sales. Microsoft, for example, is believed to be losing anywhere from $76 to $150 on each Xbox, which retails in the United States for $199.