Microsoft – Page 11 – Digital-Lifestyles

Microsoft Windows Vista Prices Leaked

Microsoft Windows Vista Prices Leaked Prices for Microsoft’s much-anticipated update to their Windows operating system, Vista, have leaked out onto various Websites, including an official Microsoft site.

Retail prices for the four different versions of Vista (priced in Canadian dollars) briefly appeared on various sites before vamoosing in double quick time.

The top dog Windows Vista Ultimate Edition was spotted carrying a hefty price tag of $499 Canadian dollars ($450, £237) while the Home Premium version was listed at C$299 ($270 or £142).

The Vista Ultimate Upgrade was priced at C$299 ($270 or £142) with the cheapest option being the Home Premium Upgrade for C$199 ($180 or £95).

Microsoft Windows Vista Prices Leaked Vista on Amazon
As the scheduled release date grows ever-nearer, prices are popping up elsewhere, with Amazon’s ‘pre-order’ pricing advertising Windows Vista Ultimate Edition at $399 (£210) and Home Premium at $239 (£126).

Upgraders could get the Ultimate and Home Premium versions for $259 (£136) and $159 (£84) respectively (these prices seem to have varied, depending on the site).

Availability was listed as from “January 30th, 2007.”

Microsoft Windows Vista Prices Leaked As we reported earlier this year, there will be no less than six different versions of Vista, all in 32 and 64-bit flavours.

Users who like to live on the edge, can download Windows Vista pre-RC1 ISO file from here, but be quick – there’s only 100,000 downloads available!

Microsoft Vista

Microsoft OneCare Hits US Anti-Virus Second Spot

Microsoft OneCare Hits US Anti-Virus Second Spot The study of sales figures after the first month of Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare will not make pleasant reading for the current PC security software companies.

Research from The NPD Group shows that Microsoft has grabbed the second spot for sales in US shops.

The natural dominance of Microsoft had always made companies such as McAfee and Symantec nervous and it appears to have been well founded. Their position has been assisted by pretty aggressive initial pricing, with its list price of $49.95 slashed to the bone at $19.95 at Amazon.com.

As NPD analyst Chris Swenson told News.com, “Microsoft’s penetration pricing strategy is clearly working and they are capturing significant unit share.”

Microsoft OneCare Hits US Anti-Virus Second Spot NPD’s figures showed that the losses for the previously dominant security companies – Symantec cried the biggest tears with a 10.1% loss; McAfee said bye bye to 3.3% and Trend Micro 1.3%.

We think it’s pretty hilarious that Microsoft get to charge people who have bought their operating system up to $49.95 to secure against, among other things, virus attacks to their own operating system.

NPD

Microsoft Zune Targets Apple’s iPods, Finally

Microsoft Zune Targets Apple's iPods After an eternity of denials, obfuscation, rumour and counter-rumour, Microsoft have finally confirmed that they will be launching their own rival to Apple’s iPod range.

In a statement late last week, the company said, “Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune. Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year. We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together.”

This announcement posits Zune as a brand name for an entire family of hardware and software products, supported by music, movie and media services, much like Apple’s iPod, iTunes and iTunes Music Store offering.

Microsoft Zune Targets Apple's iPods Billboard Magazine, who broke the story, has speculated that the Zune-branded range of products will include music players, video players, WiFi-enabled devices and possibly even a portable video game device, with Microsoft incorporating social networking and mobile media purchasing.

The first Zune device (which may or may not look like the one illustrated) is scheduled to be launched late this year ready for Christmas, with further devices following in 2007.

Microsoft Zune Targets Apple's iPods Microsoft has already busied itself with the dreadfully punned ComingZune.com viral marketing site which, bizarrely, features a big bloke and a tiny bloke stroking a rabbit to the strains of the excellent Regina Spektor song, ‘Us.’

Because we’re all being strung along by Microsoft’s teaser campaign, details are still very sketchy (like the illustrations on the site) although some rumours suggest that there’ll be a 30GB Zune with the “same pricing, look and feel as the 60GB iPod,” with Wi-Fi functionality letting users share music with up to 10 nearby chums.

We’ll keep you posted with more information just as soon as we hear summat.

Why I Still Love The Palm (Pt 4): Wi-Fi And Skype

Why I love the Palm (Pt 4): Wi-Fi and Skype One of the reasons I found myself being wooed over to the Windows Mobile dark side last year was after Palm unforgivably failed to deliver on their promise of Wi-Fi drivers for the Treo 650.

Despite being at the UK launch – and distinctly remembering the words, “Wi-Fi drivers will be made available on our website” coming directly from the mouth of one of their fibbing representatives – after a long six months of waiting with no explanation, I reluctantly jumped ship.

With Windows Mobile, Wi-Fi is either built in or a mere Wi-Fi enabled SD card away, so lured by the promise of wireless connectivity, I invested in an i-mate JAM Windows smartphone and a Sandisk Wi-Fi 256MB SD card.

Although I was now fully Wi-Fi’d up, in reality I rarely used the phone for wireless browsing as the display was too small to be practical for a lot of web surfing, and I invariably ended up switching to text-only browsing for most sites (after all, it’s generally information I want when I’m out and about, not pretty pictures).

Why I love the Palm (Pt 4): Wi-Fi and Skype Although the lack of Wi-Fi remains a major disappointment on the Treo (it’s also noticeably absent from the latest Treo 700p, much to the consternation of their loyal user base), T-Mobile’s superb unlimited data Web’n’Walk deal more than makes up for it, offering unlimited GPRS data for just £7 a month.

Wi-Fi versus GPRS
Although I love the speed of Wi-Fi on the move, it’s not a great deal of use when you’re out in the wilds and miles from a hotspot.

If you do manage to locate a connection, more often than not someone will be demanding a connection fee – and is there really that much benefit to be had from broadband speeds when you’re looking at a squinty little phone screen?

The Treo does come with the faster EDGE technology, which offers an impressively nippy maximum data transfer rate of 384 kbp, but it’s a bit of a non starter for UK users as the last time we looked only Orange were offering the service.

Why I love the Palm (Pt 4): Wi-Fi and Skype Although onboard Wi-Fi appears to remains a distant dream for the Treo there is at least the option to use the Enfora Wi-Fi sled (review coming shortly).

It’s not the most elegant solution by any means, but good enough if you’re desperate for Wi-Fi, and the standalone form factor at least means your batteries won’t drain as quickly as phones with built in Wi-Fi.

Skypeless in Seattle, Settle and, err, Splott
Another factor that helped nudge us into the world of Windows Mobile was the lack of Skype support for the Palm.

Despite endless pleas from the sizeable Palm community, Skype haven’t shown the slightest interest in developing a Palm version yet, and continue to remain tight lipped about any possible future plans.

To be honest, we found the Pocket PC version something of a disappointment and only used it very occassionally with very mixed results, but we can see the lack of Skype support continuing to lose some customers for Palm.

Why I love the Palm (Pt 4): Wi-Fi and Skype There is, however, a way to access Skype on a Palm via a service called EQC, but it’s a convoluted process which involves running a Java app on your phone and then installing a plug-in on your desktop PC.

Although we haven’t tested it yet, Treo owners can try a new alternative VoIP service called mobiVoIP, although this needs “a stable internet connection with good QoS (Quality of Service). Wifi, Bluetooth and EvDO (Rev A) provide that quality” – so, in other words, you can forget all about using it on your standard phone connection.

There is a third option available for ultra keen dabblers who like to tinker about, and this involves using the iSkoot mobile software and a not-inconsiderable amount of fiddling about, as detailed here.

The final frothdown
In my final installment, I’ll explain how the Treo has replaced my laptop for short trips and look to the future of the smartphone.

Microsoft Gets Huge €uro Fine

Microsoft Gets Huge € Fine Microsoft have been fined by the European Commission for failing to comply with an anti-competitive ruling.

Their fine is unprecedented at €280.5 million ($375m, £193.8m) and covers a period from 16 December to 20 June at 1.5m Euro/day.

The EC threatens that it will raise the fine to 3m Euro/day if they continue to not comply beyond 31 July.

This tiff between Europe and Microsoft is related to the Media Player and “work group servers,” which Europe want to become more open, enabling other companies to compete against them.

The EC made a previous ruling against Microsoft in March 2004 when they threatened fines up to €497 million ($632m, £330m).

Europe have acted far more harshly that the US Justice Department which has been waiting for papers from Microsoft on a similar issue since 2002.

Microsoft Gets Huge € Fine Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes was quoted by Reuters as saying, “Microsoft has still not put an end to its illegal conduct. I have no alternative but to levy penalty payments for this continued non-compliance. No company is above the law.”

Mobile Linux: Powerhouse Foundation Formed

We all know the mobile handset is totally fragmented. Sure there’s a standard – it’s called Nokia – but everyone who isn’t Nokia isn’t very happy about that.

Vodafone, Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Samsung Electronics have today announced that they hope to change that. They’re getting together to embrace mobile Linux to “create world’s first globally adopted open mobile Linux platform.”

They’re intending to form an independent foundation whose primary focus is the joint development and marketing of an API specification, architecture, supporting source code-based reference implementation components and tools. Pretty comprehensive sounding, but only time will reveal the level of independence afforded to the foundation.

While we understand that they ‘intend to leverage the benefits of community-based’, we’re not really sure where their aims of proprietary development fit in to this. It is after all supposed to be an Open project.

Mobile Linux: Powerhouse Foundation Formed Who’s in? Who’s out?
It’s not surprising to see that Nokia _aren’t_ part of it. Vodafone have for a long time been concerned that, when asked, their subscribers say they have, for example, a Nokia handset rather than a Vodafone service. Nokia also dominate with Symbian.

Also coming in the ‘Obviously’ category, is the lack of Microsoft. They’ve been desperate for years to try and become accepted as the mobile platform of choice, but despite a few successes haven’t managed it. Today’s announcement combined with the strength of Symbian will give them a bit of a kicking.

The other major who’s missing is Sony Ericsson.

Beyond the handset makers, it’s interesting to include NTT DoCoMo. Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo were competitors in the Japanese market – up to the point that they sold Vodafone Japan to Softback back in April. Now that barrier is removed, we’re sure that they’ll love to get closer to DoCoMo to learn the lessons of how they’ve made content such a success in Japan.

Symbian supporters two-time them
Both Samsung and Motorola have in the past sold handsets that use the Symbian OS, but since Nokia have been tightening their clutched on Symbian, it’s likely that they’re becoming increasingly nervous of using it.

The idea of being in control of their own destiny – at least to the software platform – will be much more appealing.

What’s driving this?
Mobile operators are always looking at finding ways for more people to sign to their networks, so decreasing handset costs while maximising features is of the utmost importance for them. This is made clear by Kiyohito Nagata, Vice President and Managing Director of NTT DoCoMo’s Product Department

Open is the new proprietory
Clearly being ‘open’ (the interpretation of which is highly variable) is quite the trend in mobile, with Nokia open sourcing their s60 browser a couple of weeks back.

Much excitement is being generated by those companies already using Linux in their handsets. In a ‘don’t forget we’ve been doing this for ages’ way, Yoshiharu Tamura, Executive General Manager, Mobile Terminals Business Unit, NEC Corporation expounded , “As one of the leading pioneers with almost two years of experience shipping Linux-based mobile phones, we are delighted to participate in this initiative. We expect the foundation activities will accelerate further expansion of mobile Linux application developer participation, as well as global market growth of 3G mobile handsets.”

Not to be left out from showing off, Osamu Waki, Managing Director of Panasonic Mobile Communications, plugged like mad, “Linux sits at the core of Panasonic Group’s software strategy, and to date we have shipped nearly 8 million Linux based handsets in the highly competitive Japanese market.”

Microsoft Debuts LifeCam Webcams

Microsoft Debuts LifeCam Webcams Microsoft has slipped out a pair of branded Webcams designed to offer tight integration with their hideously popular Messenger service.

Their first foray into the wonderful world of Webcams, Microsoft’s new LifeCam Webcams are designed to be the perfect match for the updated version of MSN Messenger, now called Windows Live Messenger.

Rather like Apple’s iSight and iChat, you might remark – and you’d be right, except that these Webcams have none of the sleek design flair of the Mac offering.

Show me the cameras
The cheaper of the two cameras, the VX-3000 is a fairly bog standard affair, offering bottom-end 640×480 video with a 1.3-megapixel camera for stills.

Its big brother, the VX-6000 promises to deliver hi-def video recordings up to 1280 x 960 pixels and still photos interpolated up to 5MP, but remember, interpolated just means ‘small image blown up large by software’ so don’t go expecting to produce high quality large prints from the Webcam.

Microsoft Debuts LifeCam Webcams Both cams also come with built in mics, a wide angle lens to let social butterflies fit their vast armies of chums in frame and built-in cheesy video effects like falling snowflakes or twinkling stars.

Simplifying your video experience. Or something
Microsoft is claiming that their new cams are going to “dramatically simplify the video communications experience.”

Apparently, this will be achieved by the inclusion of a button on top of the camera that launches buddy lists on-screen and a new dashboard application built into Windows Live Messenger that lets users pan, tilt and zoom the Webcam without having to remove their buttocks from their computer chair.

Microsoft Debuts LifeCam Webcams Here’s Microsoft’s Consumer Productivity Experiences Executive Vice President (who dreams up these job titles?) Tom Gibbons to explain how LifeCams are part of a new initiative by his company to tie in hardware products to Windows Live services.

“Microsoft Hardware and Windows Live are defining that movement with a new approach to integrated products and services that give consumers the power to have a richer digital communications experience and make everyday events extraordinary,” he waxed, lyrically.

The first two LifeCams (more are planned) are expected to appear in Blighty in August, with pricing set at $50 (£27, €40) for the VX-3000 and a decidedly upmarket $99.95 (£54, €80) for the VX-6000.

Microsoft

Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard: World Cup Scores Live To Desktop

Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard: Live World Cup Desktop If watching the World Cup on TV, online or down the pub wasn’t enough, Microsoft can help you stay up to date with goal-by-goal action.

They’re providing a little app (3.5Mb) for Windows users called Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard. We’ll forget that to the rest of the world outside the US, the game is called Football, and focus on what it can do.

When you’ve downloaded it (after proving that you have ‘Genuine Windows’), the setup is minimal – choose your team; set how transparent you want the app to be; decide if you want automatic or manual data updates and specify an option RSS feed.

It’s a looker
It’s an attractive looking piece of software, which is slightly more that a one trick pony. The next match in your teams group will be shown, as is the current top four positions of the Group with the cumulative totals. Both of these have the option to view full details, which refreshes the screen in a scrollable window.

Scores of other matches scroll across the bottom of the window in a CNN stock price style.

Not missing a trick, they offer you the ‘opportunity’ of clicking on a link, taking you to MSN for further details.

Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard: Live World Cup Desktop If you specify an RSS feed (Digital-Lifestyles, natch), the headlines from these are intermittently scrolled along the bottom too.

There’s also a compact mode that only displays the particular match that’s being played.

Use-by date
This software does have a use-by date. Clearly you’re not going to get any information updated after the World Cup ends on 9th July, because …. there’s no more matches being played.

Following this you’re going to have 7 days to obsessively click around the historic match information imagining ‘what if?”

Most refreshingly, on 31 July, the software will prompt you to uninstall the software.

Microsoft Live
Microsoft Live is something that Microsoft pushing really hard. They see it as a way to try and claw back some the gain that Google has had. This is being lead by Posted on 13 June, 2006Author Simon PerryCategories Content, Microsoft, Software

Microsoft Launch Pay-As-You-Go PCs

Microsoft Launch Pay-As-You-Go PCs In a novel venture to bring personal computing to everyone, Microsoft has hooked up with laptop manufacturer Lenovo and chip makers AMD and Intel to launch a ‘pay-as-you-go’ service for buying PCs.

Using a model similar to prepaid mobile telephone services, consumers can get their hands on a Lenovo desktop PC by paying about half of its street price up front, and then paying the balance over time by buying prepaid cards from Lenovo.

The ‘pay as you go’ deal is made possible through a new Microsoft technology called FlexGo, with users owning the machine outright once they’ve bought a predetermined number of usage hours via the prepaid cards.

The FlexGo machines use a fully-fledged version of Windows XP that comes with a timer counting down the hours in the upper right-hand corner of the PC screen.

As the timer runs down, the PC delivers a series of alerts before limiting access to programs and features, and ultimately ceasing to work altogether until more time is purchased (by prepaid card or online).

Microsoft Launch Pay-As-You-Go PCs “Today there are already more than 1 billion prepaid mobile phones used around the world, so we know FlexGo enables a familiar and comfortable pay-as-you-go model that works for people with variable or unpredictable income”, said Will Poole, Microsoft’s senior VP of the Market Expansion Group.

Microsoft has already been running trials of the program in Brazil for over a year and will be expanding to other selected, markets like India, Russia, China and Mexico.

We half expected the trials to be using bottom end, cheap’n’cheerful computers, but it seems that punters were able to use high-quality, mid-range Lenovo desktop PCs.

“Lenovo’s joint effort with Microsoft using FlexGo pay-as-you-go computing will bring high-quality PCs within the reach of millions of families for use in education, communications and entertainment”, continued Microsoft’s Poole.

It’s a cunning business plan too: in the Brazilian trial, consumers were able to buy pay FlexGo PCs for around $300 (about half the market price), but would typically end up owning the PC after spending roughly $400 to $500 more on access charges – making the total cost around $700 to $800.

‘No Vista Till 2Q 2007’ Says Gartner

'No Vista Till 2Q 2007' Says Gartner Research firm Gartner has said that it expects Vista, Microsoft’s major Windows upgrade, to not appear until the second quarter of next year.

According to Gartner, Windows Vista is unlikely to rear its shiny, Aero-decorated head before the second quarter of 2007 – possibly for an April launch with “broad availability” following in the same quarter.

This projection puts the release date several months behind Microsoft’s scheduled launch date of January 2007.

Writing in a research note, Gartner commented, “Microsoft’s track record is clear. It consistently misses target dates for major operating system releases. We don’t expect broad availability of Windows Vista until at least 2Q ’07.”

'No Vista Till 2Q 2007' Says Gartner Microsoft’s current plans involve releasing Vista to manufacturing in October/November 2006 and making it available to enterprises through volume licenses by the end of this year, with the OS becoming available to computer manufacturers for shipping in January, 2007.

Although Windows users are no strangers to endlessly delayed launches, a Microsoft spokesperson insisted that all was well in the wonderful world of Windows.

'No Vista Till 2Q 2007' Says Gartner “Respectfully disagreeing” with Gartner’s view, the spokesperson said that that finished Windows Vista would ship in November and January with a second beta ready to roll in the second quarter of this year.

Gartner was having none of it, sagely advising that “one should never overestimate how much Microsoft will underestimate the complexity and time needed to deliver a major new client OS.”

Windows Vista’s slipped timeframe [Register]