With its first iteration of Visual Studio .Net just a few days more than six months old, Microsoft on Thursday began revealing details of the next version, as well as an upgrade to the .Net Framework. When taken together, Visual Studio .Net and the .Net Framework form the core of Microsoft's tools for building not just the highly evangelized Web services, but also what the company is calling smart client applications and a peer-to-peer fashion computing initiative dubbed participatory computing.
As part of its strategy to make Web services pervasive throughout its entire software stack, Microsoft has been saying for several months that it plans to eventually implant the .Net Framework into most of its server products, including SQL Server, as well as the desktop and server operating systems.
Unisys will work together with Microsoft, SAP, SAS, ProClarity, and others to build an integrated BI ( business intelligence) solution designed to further leverage the massive amounts of data companies collect and need to analyze, according to an announcement from Unisys on Wednesday.
Based on the Unisys ES7000 enterprise servers as a foundation, Unisys and its partners will deliver BI solutions in a Microsoft standard environment. As a result, these integrated solutions can bring analytic and reporting capabilities to the average user's desktop, allowing them to sift through corporate data for information they can use. In addition, BI solutions built on the ES7000 and current and forthcoming versions of Microsoft SQL Server platform are easier to manage and can deliver lower total cost of ownership compared to Unix-based solutions, said Don Montgomery, director of strategic programs at Unisys in Blue Bell, Pa.
Microsoft is working on a set of tools, code-named Trinity, aimed at consolidating two of its largest developer camps: those writing for Office and those writing for .Net. Trinity is a set of tools, frameworks, Office integration solutions and customer-assistance solutions under development by the company's Developer Division, according to sources familiar with Microsoft's evolving strategy. Among the Trinity tools will be the existing Visual Studio .Net languages and .Net Framework classes and libraries. But there will be new tools as well, such as editors that apply developer-defined schemas to documents, according to sources. Sources said Trinity also entails a new programming model, or framework, that Microsoft would include in future versions of Office. This framework is known as APP .Net, or Applications Platform Programmability .Net, sources said.
Microsoft Thursday formally outlined the road map for future versions of its Visual Studio .Net development tool and the .Net Framework, including ones that take advantage of Windows .Net Server and the next version of SQL Server, code-named Yukon. Officials said the Redmond, Wash., software company plans to synchronize the next version of Visual Studio .Net and the .Net Framework, code-named Everett, with Windows .Net Server, which incorporates the .Net Framework into the Windows platform infrastructure. Microsoft said Visual Studio "Everett," an incremental release, will focus on delivering enhanced reliability, stability, security and performance for enterprise organizations. In addition, Microsoft's Visual J# .Net will be included with the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) along with Visual Basic .Net, Visual C++ .Net and Visual C .Net. Visual J# .Net was previously available as a download and began shipping with Visual Studio .Net in July.
Some time ago we saw that Microsoft had plans for the mobile market. And now we've seen details of Samsung Electronics' mobile based on Microsoft's Windows Powered Smartphone 2002 platform, which has just received clearance from the US Federal Communications Commission. The SCH-1600 has limited PDA functionality and has been designed as a clamshell device with dual band CDMA. Features include LCD panels, one inside the phone and one positioned on the outside, so that the caller id can be seen even when the phone is closed. An infrared port and Secure Digital memory card slot, which supports Secure Digital IO standard extension peripherals, such as digital cameras and Bluetooth devices, is also included. The phone supports email and SMS.
Microsoft on Thursday offered a glimpse of its new features for future versions of its Visual Studio.Net development tool bundle. The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker said it plans to revamp its tools to work with new products that are expected to ship in the coming months. Those products include Windows.Net Server, the next version of Microsoft's server operating system, and an upcoming release of the company's SQL Server database, code-named Yukon.
On Thursday, Microsoft said it plans later this year to ship a minor update to its Visual Studio.Net, code-named Everett, that will include better connections to Windows.Net Server and provide support for writing software for mobile devices, such as cell phones. The Everett release will include a Java development tool called Visual J#, along with Visual Basic.Net, Visual C++.Net and Visual C#.Net tools.
After the minor revision to Visual Studio.Net this year, Microsoft will release a more comprehensive update in late 2003 when the company expects to release Yukon. That version of Visual Studio.Net will feature new visual-design tools and will support Yukon's new data-storage architecture, which will make it easier to find and use corporate data, Microsoft has said.
Microsoft said on Thursday that it will release a Macintosh version of its MSN browser early next year, marking the first time the software giant has made it widely available to Apple Mac users. The browser, MSN for Mac OS X, takes direct aim at online services rival AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, which unveiled a version of its Internet service and software for Apple's latest operating system last week.
Microsoft's newest MSN browser will be available only with MSN's Internet access service or as a separate subscription. It is being revamped to add features that make it easier for users to manage e-mail, protect their personal computers from viruses, handle digital photos, and browse the Web. MSN 8, the latest version for Microsoft's Windows operating system, is set to be released this fall ahead of the Mac version release.
A partner of software giant Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a new video chip for the Xbox video game console in a move aimed at reducing the machine's cost. Campbell, California-based Focus Enhancements said it has developed a new chip for the console, which made its debut in the United States last November, that processes video for television. "The chip going into the Xbox is designed to give Microsoft a competitive advantage," Tom Hamilton, the executive vice president of Focus, told Reuters. Hamilton said Focus's chip is "several dollars cheaper" than what Microsoft is using now to convert video from the console's graphics chip to a format suitable for TV sets. He also said the chip is planned for use on a new motherboard for the console, rather than the one Microsoft has been using.
The Xbox Live service, set to debut online Nov. 15, will include voice chat in every game, said John O'Rourke, worldwide marketing director for Microsoft's Xbox video game console, as he promoted the upcoming online service for the console Wednesday. That contrasts with Sony's online approach for its PlayStation 2 console, which initially will offer voice capability in only one game. Microsoft's experience with online gaming via its The Zone site and other properties convinced the company that communication was a vital part of the online gaming experience, O'Rourke said in an interview with CNET News.com after his speech at Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus.
"We saw in our experience with The Zone and just from talking to gamers that the social aspect of communication is hugely important," he said. "On the PC, you've got this great communication outlet with the keyboard, but that doesn't work on consoles. Voice is the only thing that makes sense."
A deal to offer students a cheaper version of Microsoft's Office XP software may be part of a larger plan for the software maker: Increasing sales of the productivity suite to consumers by slashing prices. Microsoft's aggressive pricing of the academic version of Office XP has made the software one of the biggest sellers with students and teachers--and it's becoming increasingly popular among nonstudents, who are technically ineligible for the discount. In some cases, the software is priced $330 less than the same nonacademic version of Office XP.
In October, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft started what was announced as a limited-time discount offer on Office XP Standard for Teachers and Students: The company reduced the price of the software to $149 from $199. The deal continues 10 months later, and Microsoft has not indicated when or if the promotion will end.