Upstart microchip designer Transmeta Corp. has cracked the market for U.S. notebook computers in a deal to supply processors for Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Tablet PC, the companies said on Monday. Transmeta, which is weathering a management shake-up and recovering from production glitches of its low-power chips, will ship its first gigahertz chips, performing a billion operations per second, with the EVO Tablet PC, which will be released later this year under the Compaq brand.
The Tablet PC announced by Microsoft Corp. and hardware partners incorporates drawing and handwriting recognition into the Windows XP operating system in an attempt to add features of a physical notebook pad to a computer. Manufactures have shown off prototypes varying from a traditional notebook with a screen that can swivel 180 degrees to allow writing to a pad without a keyboard that looks like a big personal digital assistant, which is the style of the Compaq prototype, although it is keyboard compatible.
DirectX 9.0 Beta 1 made its long awaited debut this week, with Microsoft issuing the release to partners and beta testers. The Beta 1 SDK download was made available last weekend, with the end-user runtime appearing Friday via Web-based setup. DirectX is Microsoft's suite of application programming interfaces used by developers to take full advantage of Windows' multimedia capabilities. Version 9.0 most notably adds a new high-level shader language -- based on C -- designed to simplify development.
"DirectX 9.0 offers unparalleled advances in graphics technology," said Microsoft's director of Windows Gaming and Entertainment, Ted Hase. "Microsoft always has been a pioneer in the development of best-of-breed technologies and tools that facilitate the development of great gaming content. Developers will discover that the new capabilities built into DirectX 9.0 make it significantly easier to create content that demonstrates richness, robustness and totally immersive depth."
Long after Microsoft's Internet Explorer won the browser wars, AOL's Netscape Communications division is launching another volley in its battle to stay relevant. Netscape 7, now available for downloading as a preview release, is more defensive than offensive: It fixes the bugs and the speed of its predecessor while adding features others already have. Microsoft -- legally or illegally -- built its browser into its operating system, and most users find that it works well enough. And after America Online bought Netscape in 1998, the company seemed to give up as the flagship AOL service continued to use Internet Explorer. Now, Netscape has about 7 percent of the browser market, compared to Explorer's 91 percent share, according to WebSideStory's StatMarket, a research firm.
Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions (MSGP) is slated to launch its Next Generation (Next Gen) software soon. Next Gen will serve as a "building block" for a new breed of modules vital in the .Net platform - a set of Microsoft technology for connecting information, people, systems and devices. The first components of the .Net business framework is expected to be out before the end of this year.
"Our vision for our Next Gen products is the same vision as .Net itself, which is interconnectivity that allows you to access information at your fingertips anytime, anywhere on any device," says Joey Gurango, MSGP Research and Development Managing Director.
Microsoft is understood to be in talks with T-Online over a deal that would mean the US giant buying a 25 per cent stake in the internet provider. Microsoft's interest in the German group, 81 per cent owned by Deutsche Telekom, is part of its recently unveiled online gaming strategy. It is expected to result in games being sold with internet access as a "bundled" package. "Microsoft is planning this because it needs access to Europe's biggest broadband network," one Frankfurt analyst said. "Its plans won't work without it."
Last month we saw Bill dip into the Microsoft back pocket with the purchase of Navision. There is now speculation that WorldCom, the global telecoms operator, may be next on the shopping list. Microsoft have been saving hard over the last few years. With all the speculation over the DoJ case it looked at one stage as though Microsoft may be digging deep into its pockets for reparations. With nearly $40 billion in cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheets and the DoJ case painfully nearing its end, Bill and the boys can now go on a shopping spree as they continue their attempt at world domination.
So, what would be the attraction of such a company to Microsoft? Well aside from it being an absolute bargain, the acquisition would give Microsoft a massive presence in the telecoms space. You might ask why the Redmond giant would want a place in a sector that has taken an absolute battering in the last 2 years. Think .Net.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to settle with Microsoft Corp. over allegations the software giant misled investors by understating revenues, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Without admitting any wrongdoing or facing any fine, Microsoft will cease using the accounting practice to smooth out its earnings under the pact approved in an SEC vote taken on Thursday, the source said. Commissioners Isaac Hunt and Cynthia Glassman backed the settlement. SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, who represented Microsoft's auditor Deloitte & Touche LLP as a private securities attorney, recused himself.
So it turns out that the Feds believe Microsoft (MSFT), like so many other companies, has been managing its earnings. According to a scoop in today's Wall Street Journal, the Securities and Exchange Commission is close to an agreement with Microsoft under which the software powerhouse will acknowledge the accounting no-nos it has committed, stop misbehaving, and promise to play nice in the future. End of subject.
What makes this case so different, of course, is that Microsoft wasn't allegedly trying to inflate its results. According to the published accounts of the SEC's investigation -- and according to conventional wisdom on Wall Street since the mid-1990s -- Microsoft was trying to downplay its earnings. If other companies attempted to take cookies out of the jar to deposit on their bottom line (think: Network Associates (NET) under ex-CEO Bill Larson), Microsoft stands accused of dropping cookies into the jar for consumption at a later snack time.
The federal judge hearing the Microsoft antitrust case said Friday she will not consider an internal Microsoft e-mail that advocated retaliation against "unfriendly" computer makers. This is the second time nine states suing Microsoft have tried to use the memo. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly earlier had refused to let the states use the memo in questioning Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. In their May 15 motion asking that the memo be included, the states argued that Microsoft did not object to it by the deadline originally set by Kollar-Kotelly, and that it is directly relevant to Microsoft's actions. During the case, the states had tried to use the memo while questioning Gates to find out whether he thought particular Microsoft actions would be barred under the settlement.
"The litigation process presumes that the parties will present their case only once and will present their best arguments at that time," Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her order.
XScale-based Pocket PCs on Tap
Pocket PCs are already pretty cool, but starting this summer, they're going to be barn burners as well. A new generation of Pocket PCs is coming, based on Intel's new XScale processor, the successor to the ARM chip used in today's devices. Unlike today's Pocket PCs, which top out at about 206 MHz, the XScale-based devices will start at 400 MHz and go up from there. HP, Toshiba and other companies will ship the first XScale-based Pocket PCs next month, which will also feature advanced power management capabilities. Good stuff.
Palm Continues to Struggle
Rudderless without strong leadership for too long, Palm Inc. announced this week that it will miss its quarterly sales target by over 20 percent and will not meet its goal of reporting an operating profit. Palm stock thudded to the ground at the news, trading in the $2 range. The company had already posted an embarrassing 2001, where its products were consistently trounced by competition from Palm OS licensees and Pocket PC competitors. But I have a suggestion that might save the company: Reunite with Handspring, bring the company's founders back into the fold, and start innovating. Otherwise, you're just going to be the latest example of a company that underestimated the Microsoft threat.