The Web's leading standards body is forging ahead with new Web services initiatives, putting out a new draft proposal and co-sponsoring an August meeting on security. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on Monday released its first working draft of the Web Services Architecture Usage Scenarios, a document that outlines potential uses for Web services to help guide W3C working groups designing Web services recommendations. Monday's working draft joins a trio of related documents published by the W3C this summer: Web Service Description Requirements, Web Service Description Usage Scenarios and Web Services Architecture Requirements.
Microsoft's deal with AT&T Wireless on Wednesday shows that it is making some strides in the war for the wireless business user, but it isn't a knockout blow, analysts said. The battle is for sales executives and other professionals needing to fire up laptops anywhere and any place. The classic "road warrior" is among the largest set of users targeted for the new mobile Web networks that U.S. carriers are now building. This small but growing class of users represents the earliest, and biggest, potential sources of new revenue that wireless carriers are desperately trying to find.
The two Redmond, Wash.-based companies on Wednesday said they will be introducing new products primarily for the laptop-, PDA- and cell phone-carrying mobile professionals who need to be connected to the office mainframe at any time. But the deal to develop new service is non-exclusive, meaning AT&T Wireless can turn to other companies such as Nokia for products and services, analysts point out. Financial terms were also not disclosed.
Microsoft has joined with AT&T Wireless in a deal that could open new channels for its .Net services and extend the Windows operating system into new markets. As expected, the software giant announced the deal Wednesday. The alliance encompasses three broad areas: getting Microsoft software onto new devices; simplifying access to corporate information over wireless devices; and enabling location-based services. The deal is an important first step for bringing to mass market Microsoft's Pocket PC Phone Edition, which the company officially unveiled in February. Microsoft and AT&T said that they were at the late stages of product development and would deliver devices using the software in the fourth quarter.
The (new) Microsoft machine
Business2
At its day-long schmoozefest with financial analysts Thursday, Microsoft made much of its new products, increased research and development spending and net workforce additions. But perhaps the most important message it sent to investors regarded a seemingly humdrum change in how it will report its financial results. Behind the numbers is a signal: In a time when investors wish they'd been more diversified, Microsoft itself has diversified its business in a typically powerful fashion. The shift is subtle. Instead of using broad product lines that all companies use to hide true results from the competition, Microsoft now will report revenue and operating profit for each of its seven business lines.
The pen as mighty as the keyboard
Business2
The Holy Grail of portable computing -- having every document you could ever need in one safe digital place -- may seem less elusive these days. In any road warrior's briefcase, you'll likely uncover a hard drive holding e-mail, presentations, a few gigs of music, even a couple of movies. But you'll probably also find a hefty amount of paper: scribbled notes on legal pads, printouts covered with highlighter marks. Is it possible to transfer this clutter to the computer? Can your handwriting be kept in hassle-free digital form?
My answer, after playing with a tablet PC, is yes. Tablet PC is the generic name for about a dozen slate-and-pen-based computers, priced in the $2,000 range, that are coming out this November, timed to and blessed by Microsoft's new note-taking utility, Journal. Most include some form of keyboard, which is like a security blanket for the user.
AOL Time Warner said on Wednesday the U.S. Department of Justice has started an inquiry into accounting practices at its America Online division and that it will cooperate fully. The company issued a statement confirming a report in the USA Today newspaper on Wednesday that the Justice Department had opened an investigation into the accounting practices at the struggling online unit. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also opened a fact-finding inquiry into AOL after a report in the Washington Post newspaper raised concerns about accounting practices at the online unit.
"In the current environment, when anyone raises a question about accounting, it's not surprising that the relevant government agencies will want to look into the facts," the company said. "As we said last week, we are cooperating 100 percent with the SEC, and we will cooperate with the Department of Justice as well."
Beginning tomorrow, Microsoft will institute its reviled Licensing 6.0 scheme, the oft-delayed and oft-maligned new software purchasing program for corporations. It's the first major change in the way Microsoft sells software in half a decade, but the company's customers remain unimpressed with the plan, which has come under criticism for requiring that companies opt into lengthy software contracts. Microsoft, however, says that the move to Licensing 6.0 was necessitated by the complexity of its previous volume licensing practices, which awarded larger customers with steep discounts. According to some reports, Licensing 6.0 effectively raises prices 33 to 107 percent over the previous scheme. This sad state of affairs has predictably alienated many of the software giants customers, some of whom are now actively researching Linux and other open source alternatives.
MSN Europe, Microsoft's Internet services unit, signed a partnership with major German content provider Tomorrow Focus on Tuesday that could bring it 3 million more visitors and a No. 2 popularity ranking. Eight leading Web sites, ranging from news to cinema, will become part of the German MSN Web site. Total revenue from advertising on the German MSN site will be shared between the two companies.
Microsoft said the deal was "a very tight partnership" needed to take on archrival T-Online. "T-Mobile is such a dominant force in Germany that we had to do something radical," MSN's European sales director, Chris Dobson, told Reuters. MSN, owner of Hotmail, the world's most popular Web-based e-mail service, claims a No. 1 position in some seven European countries. MSN expects that Tomorrow Focus' online readers will raise the number of unique MSN visitors to 14 million a month from 11 million. The number of page views could hit 400 million, making it the second-largest site in Germany, beating America Online.
Microsoft released the third major collection of Windows 2000 bug fixes, or service pack, to premier customers on Tuesday. But everyone else will have to what until Thursday. Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 is the first update released since Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates issued a company-wide directive about putting security ahead of adding new features to products. Soon after, Microsoft issued a rollup package of cumulative security fixes. Service Pack 3 includes all previously released security fixes, "plus security fixes learned from the security push," said Jim Cullinan, Windows lead product manager.
The update also features adds a new middleware control, in accordance with an antitrust settlement Microsoft cut with the Justice Department and nine of 18 states. Final status of the November agreement is pending, awaiting final approval or rejection by a federal judge in Washington.
Microsoft is expected to announce on Wednesday a partnership with AT&T Wireless on wireless software and services, sources say. Microsoft has been trying to attract more enterprise customers to devices using its Pocket PC 2002 operating system. Microsoft has announced partnerships with several wireless carriers over the past several months, including VoiceStream, Sprint PCS and Verizon.
Microsoft representatives declined to comment. Microsoft announced that Chief Executive Steve Ballmer would be on a conference call Wednesday morning to discuss a wireless-related business announcement. Ballmer began directly overseeing the Mobility Group earlier this year and was on hand for the launch of the Pocket PC 2002 OS late last year.