Microsoft

Boot Camp From Apple Runs Windows XP on Intel Macs
After hackers successfully managed to get an Intel-powered Mac running Windows XP operating system last month, Apple has come up with its own, simplified solution.
Now available as a 83 meg free beta download from Apple’s Website, the new Boot Camp application makes it possible for users with a Microsoft installation disc to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac.
Once loaded, Mac users simply have to hold down the option key at startup to choose between Mac OS X and Windows.
If they choose to run Windows, the Mac will run the OS natively, with just a restart needed to return terrified Mac users back to the Apple OS.

How it works
Intel Mac users must first ensure that they’re running the latest version of Mac OS X and that it’s loaded with the latest firmware updates.
After it’s been installed, the Boot Camp software then burns a CD containing drivers necessary for Windows to recognise Mac-specific hardware, before handholding users through the process of setting aside a section of the hard drive for the Windows installation.
The machine is then ready for the Windows installation disc (users will have to buy that separately) – the only tricky part here is manually making sure that XP installs on the Mac’s C drive (otherwie it might overwrite programs and files).
Once the installation process has done its thing and the Mac booted into Windows, users must then slam in their Drivers CD and sit back while it does it thing.
And then – bingo – Mac users are free to wander about in the wonderful world of Windows, with the comfort blanket of the Mac OS just a reboot away,
Release date
Boot Camp will be included in Apple’s next major Mac OSX release (Leopard) which will be previewed at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in August.
“Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple’s superior hardware now that we use Intel processors,” explained Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
“We think Boot Camp makes the Mac even more appealing to Windows users considering making the switch,” he added.
More information can be found at www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp
6 April, 2006
Microsoft ‘World’s Most Valuable Brand’
Two new studies into branding have produced two very different results, with a UK study declaring Microsoft the strongest brand in the known universe, while research in the US saw consumers slapping Microsoft down to near-bottom of their ‘most trusted’ list.
Brand consultancy Millward Brown Optimor (MBO) rated companies by calculating the value their brand was expected to generate in the future.
Microsoft topped the list, with the study showing most consumers held positive feelings about the brand. Andy Farr, executive director at MBO commented, “When you look at what customers and consumers say to us, they do hold Microsoft in high regard.”
“They don’t love [Microsoft] like they love Google but they respect it,” he added just before his laptop crashed.
The survey results were based on a load of marketing guff that involved measuring buzzword-laded criteria like ‘brand momentum,’ ‘intangible earnings’ and ‘brand contribution,’ whatever all that means.
Tech companies hogged four of the top 10 global brand places with Vodafone grabbing the number one UK slot, while Google came in seventh overall for global brands and second for the tech sector,
Big-boy retailers also figured prominently, with Wal-Mart coming in at number six and Tesco notching up 30th place overall and number two in the UK).
According to the study, these are the top ten global brands (rated in $millions):
Microsoft Corporation ($62,039)
GE ($55,834)
Coca-Cola ($41.406)
China Mobile ($39,168)
Marlboro cigarettes ($38,510)
Wal-Mart ($37,567)
Google ($37,445)
IBM ($38,084)
Citigroup ($31.028)
Bose, Dell, and Apple Score High On Trust
Across the pond, a brand study by Forrester Research saw Bose, Dell and Apple Computer being declared as technology brands trusted by U.S. consumers, with users warily eying the likes of Toshiba, Hitachi, Microsoft, Gateway and LG.
Forrester surveyed 4,700 US households between September and October last year to find out how much they trusted 48 technology brands.
The results weren’t too encouraging for the industry, with the survey showing an across-the-board drop in trust in consumer computer and electronics brands – a trend continuing from 2003.
In the survey, only Apple and TiVo managed to register an increase in consumer trust between 2003 and 2005.
With Microsoft’s brand scraping in at a lowly 20th spot out of the 22 companies included in the poll, Forrester’s warned that Microsoft faces big a consumer defection risk.
With a deft turn of marketing-speak, Forrester analyst Ted Schadler observed that, “A decline in trust causes brand erosion and price-driven purchase decisions, which in turn correlates with low market growth.”
“Trust is a powerful way to measure a brand’s value and its ability to command a premium price or drive consumers into a higher-profit direct channel,” concluded Ted Schadler.
5 April, 2006
Now it’s a Mac. Now it’s a PC
“Now that Macs have PC chips in them, they can run PC software.” Obvious, isn’t it. Except that someone recently managed to make the new Intel-based Mac run PC software, and it’s a big, big surprise, and it’s something many said would never happen.
The difference between a PC and a Mac used to be the processor. PCs had Intel chips, Macs had Power PC chips; nothing like each other. The new Macs have Intel chips in them, which is why most people assumed that they are, really, “just PCs.”
They aren’t. What they are, are Extensible Firmware Interface Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) machines. PCs, by contrast, are BIOS machines. They have a completely different way of starting up, and as recently as January, many well informed experts were quite sure the two systems couldn’t both exist on the same machine.
Others thought it must be possible.
So Colin Nederkoorn announced a competition, back in January, to see if you could run both forms of software on the same machine. Techweb, quoting Nederkoorn: “When the Intel Macs were announced, I expected Apple would have the foresight to make it easy to dual boot,” said Nederkoorn. “But then I found out that Apple was using EFI rather than a BIOS. One group said it should still be possible, while a whole other camp said it was impossible.”
To make it interesting, he put up cash; he put $100 into the kitty,and called for volunteers to put up more. With over $5,000 as a prize, the trick was tackled, and it’s been done.
According to Associated Press reporter May Wong, the prize was given to two San Francisco Bay Area software developers last week. Jesus Lopez, 33, of Alameda, was one; and Eric Wasserman, 41, of Berkeley was the other; apparently Lopez “did most of the technical work — spending late nights and weekends on the challenge — while Wasserman, a devoted Mac user, introduced him to the contest in February and supported him in the process.”
The software to do it is downloadable from the Windows XP on an Intel Mac Project. Don’t rush over there to download it, even if you actually have an Intel Mac, because (as you can see from the How To) it’s not for beginners.
Why do it? Mainly, because it’s a more elegant way of running both families of software – Windows and Mac – without having to buy two machines, and without having to load a huge “virtualisation” engine plus emulators, to manage it.
No doubt, Linux users will write in to explain politely that if we all used Linux we’d be able to use EFI anyway…
21 March, 2006
Microsoft Offers Xbox360 Video Downloads
Microsoft appear to be trying the doors of the lucrative movie download business for the Xbox360 with the announcement of a video content deal with music label Epic Records.
The partnership will see Microsoft offering exclusive artist content and high-definition music video downloads free to Xbox360 gamers for a year, via the Xbox Live Marketplace service.
Free downloads from twelve up-and-coming artists will be offered through the Artist of the Month (AOM) program, with grandma-untroubling, British singer Natasha Bedingfield kicking off the service.
Videos and “exclusive artist content” will also be made available for download from the Xbox site.
“Our goal has always been to make Xbox Live a cutting-edge entertainment experience”, insisted Peter Moore, corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.
“This agreement with Epic Records offers our members exclusive artistic content directly from the source. With Artist of the Month we will be providing exactly what music-loving gamers want: brand-new, exclusive music videos that can be downloaded quickly, easily and free of charge,” he added.
Epic has already dished out music videos for the Xbox 360 from the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Audioslave, and their catalogue also includes acts like Shakira, Matisyahu, Jennifer Lopez and Antipodean dandruff shakers, AC/DC.
Each month Microsoft and Epic will announce the new Artist of the Month, along with exclusive benefits for Xbox360 users.
Xbox360
20 March, 2006
Windows Live Family Safety Settings Announced
Microsoft is to release a suite of free parental controls and other safety measures designed to safeguard children on the Internet.
The software, called Windows Live Family Safety Settings, runs on Windows XP and lets parents block Web content which they feel is inappropriate for their little Timmy or Tabatha.
Parents can choose individual settings to ‘allow,’ ‘block’ or ‘warn’ for a range of content categories for each member of the family, with the filtering settings being activated when a user logs on to a PC running Microsoft’s Family Safety Settings.
The settings can be changed over time (“OK son, you’re old enough to see some breasts now”) with the settings applicable to Web pages, email or messenger communications as well as Windows Live Spaces.
Kids definitely won’t like this, but the software also lets parents access their activity reports to check what they’ve been up to online.
“Contact management,” an update coming later in the year, will let parents approve contacts on Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Messenger (the new brandings for Hotmail and MSN Messenger respectively).
Another feature will give parents control over who can access their kids’ blogs on MSN Spaces.
Family Safety Settings will be available for any PC running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 as well as the upcoming Windows Vista operating system.
Microsoft has said that it expects the service to be available to “Windows Live customers in dozens of countries worldwide” by this summer.
In addition to the Live family filter for Windows XP, Microsoft is building parental controls into their next-gen operating system, Windows Vista.
Windows Live
Windows Live Family Safety
15 March, 2006
Media Center PCs Grow In Popularity
A new report by analyst firm Current Analysis claims that consumers are warming to Media Center PCs, with the entertainment-focused PCs grabbing eight per cent of the US retail market in January 2005, soaring 48 per cent in December.
Current Analysis say that the demand was fuelled by a drop in price brought about when manufacturers left out the expensive tuners which allowed the systems to receive and record television signals.
However, tuner-toting Media PCs are already making a comeback, with the market share for TV tuner-equipped systems climbing from 8.7 per cent in October to 12.8 per cent last month.
Toni Duboise, senior analyst for desktop computing at Current Analysis, noted that although leaving out the TV tuners allowed Media Center PCs to reach a mainstream audience, the component remains critical if the system wants to grab a place in the digital home.
“The upward TV tuner-clad trend is a small victory for Media Center with regard to the digital home,” she said, adding that the TV arena is a “pivotal turf in the war for the digital home because it offers the most opportunities for lucrative infrastructure and broadcast content.”
With TiVo still doing good business, Duboise commented on the importance of TV tuners to PC makers, “Manufacturers that want the desktop computer to be the centre of the digital home will want consumers to use TV tuner-clad PCs instead of TiVo, dedicated digital video recorders or intelligent set-top boxes.”
Microsoft first rolled out their Media Center Edition back in October 2002, but consumers have been sniffy because users weren’t inclined to buy the more expensive hardware needed to run the software – neither did the idea of watching TV on a clunky computer monitor seem particularly thrilling.
Current Analysis
14 March, 2006
Digital Imagine Cup – Be sure not to tell anyone
On balance, the world is probably a better place with Microsoft, than it would be if Bill Gates hadn’t succeeded. But this week, the company is trying to get us to admit something different: that it is an innovative presence in the world, encouraging innovation in others. Specifically, it is running the Imagine Cup, and this week, in the UK, it’s judging 50 students who have entered a programming competition.
Click on the streaming video link and you’ll see why I’m sceptical about this.
The content is fine! It goes on fairly meaninglessly with an animated techno-rabbit running around and flying; and then launches the theme.
As you’d expect from Microsoft, the theme is laudable. Praiseworthy, even: it’s “Imagine a world where technology enables us to live healthier lives.” Well, duh… but how about “imagine a world where I can watch the promo without waiting for the buffer to fill up?” or “imagine a world where I can watch the promo without it stopping and starting and re-buffering?” or even “imagine being able to download this promo and send it to a friend”?
Microsoft’s technology for the Imagine Cup promo is a streaming video technology. Look closely at the link: it’s a standard WMV media file, right? Wrong! – it’s actually a link to a WVX file. And instead of being HTTP:// the file is actually MMS:// – which means, quite simply, you can’t download it.
So naturally, I asked MS why. I got their local expert, and asked: “Why on earth would you copy-protect a promotional video? Surely, the idea is that people mail it around, and it generates viral marketing traction, like the German Coastguard?”
Apparently, the reason it’s not downloadable has nothing to do with copy protection. It’s “because it’s too long,” my expert assured me.
He explained: “We have a policy on web sites, that only short multimedia clips can be downloaded, because of the problems for modem users.”
As excuses go, that is such clear nonsense that I didn’t know what to say. If you have a modem link, you certainly can’t stream a WMV file. I couldn’t stream it with a 10megabit Telewest cable modem! And in any case, both the clips on that page are short! – one is two minutes, and that’s the long one. The other is 30 seconds.
Also, it’s exactly the opposite of what you want. It’s a long file that you need to download, because the longer the file, the more risk there is of network congestion.
So, in order to save you from the problem in the first place, can I point you at SDP Multimedia? The SDP utility will take the streamed video, and save it onto your disk as a WMV file, and you can then send it off to your friends.
As for the Imagine Cup, you’re too late to apply for the software competition. The UK heat is run on Friday 10th this week in Reading. But you’re free to apply for the short film section, or any of the other categories.
9 March, 2006
Microsoft Confirms Windows Vista Operating System Line-Up
Microsoft has unveiled the official line up of the Windows Vista packages, with no less than six versions being available, all in 32 and 64-bit flavours.
The full roll call comprises of Windows Starter 2007; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Business.
There’ll also be two additional releases – Windows Vista Home Basic N and Windows Vista Business N – which are sold without Windows Media Player, as ordered by European Union antitrust regulators.
All versions of the new OS will come with Internet Explorer 7.0, Vista desktop search, parental controls and Windows Defender anti-spyware technology.
Windows Vista Starter
Aimed at developing nations, Windows Vista will be customised for users in particular countries and offer reduced functionality and a stripped down feature set, and will only be available preloaded on cut-rate PCs.
Windows Vista Home Basic
As the name suggests, Windows Vista Home Basic is the version for casual PC users who only want to surf the Web, blast out a few emails and create, store and share basic documents. To keep things simple, there’ll be no support for the groovy Aero Glass user-interface effects seen in the full Vista version.
Windows Vista Home Premium
Offering the kind of functionality currently seen in the Windows XP Media/Tablet PC Editions, the multimedia-tastic Home Premium version bundles in support for digital photography, “mobility-focused technologies,” movie-making and high-def TV.
The super-slick redesigned Windows Aero GIO promises to provide a ‘transparent glass’ design, with subtle effects such as dynamic reflections and smooth animations, along with Windows Flip and Flip 3D desktop navigation features.
Windows Vista Business
Offering the full bells’n’whistles Aero user interface, Vista Business is designed for organisations of all sizes and comes with Tablet PC functionality built-in.
Windows Vista Enterprise
Aimed at corporate business users, Windows Vista Enterprise comes with all the Windows Vista Business features, plus BitLocker drive encryption; Virtual PC Express virtual-machine support and the Subsystem for Unix-based Applications (SUA), designed to allow Unix applications to run on Vista machines. This version will only be available to Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Software Assurance (SA) volume-licensing customers.
Windows Vista Ultimate
Aimed at single home/office users and small business bosses and managers, the high-end Vista Ultimate combines the multimedia whizzbangery of Vista Home premium with the security and functionality of Vista Business.
All versions of Windows Vista are scheduled to be broadly available in the second half of 2006, with pricing to be announced.
Windows Vista
28 February, 2006
Motorola Dis Apple, Expect More Microsoft Music Phones: 3GSM
The news is coming out of 3GSM thick and fast. To keep up we’re planning to report is a slightly different way. When we see a press release that we thinks of interest to you, Dear Reader, we’ll put it up in full, with a brief comment at the top. Normal service will be resumed post 3GSM.
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There’s been plenty of rumours about Motorola not being happy with Apple, following the iTunes Mobile launch. Today Mot announce that they are two-timing Apple with Microsoft. Interestingly they say they’ll have OTA (Over The Air) delivery of content by 2007.
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Motorola and Microsoft Plan to Bring More Choice to Mobile Music Fans
Seamless integration of Windows Media technologies will deliver complete music experience and redefine music discovery on Motorola handsets.
BARCELONA, Spain – 13 Feb 2006 – Today at 3GSM World Congress 2006, Motorola Inc and Microsoft Corp strengthened their existing relationship by announcing a collaboration to integrate Microsoft(r) Windows Media(r) technologies on a number of Motorola’s music handsets, which will allow users to access content from the broadest selection of online music stores from around the world.
Motorola’s music handsets will add support for Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM), Windows Media Audio (WMA), the enhanced Windows Media Audio Professional (WMA Pro) codec and Media Transfer Protocol (MTP). These technologies will give consumers the maximum flexibility and options when purchasing and playing back their digital music.
Forthcoming Motorola music handsets will enable seamless connectivity to Windows(r)-based PCs via the USB 2.0 high-speed protocol. By supporting MTP, Windows Media Player will automatically recognise Motorola handsets and enable users to quickly and easily sync their music from their PC to their phone. Music acquired from any pay-per-download or subscription store using Windows Media technology will transfer and play back on Motorola handsets.
In addition to making Motorola handsets interoperable with PCs, Motorola and Microsoft plan to provide mobile handset offerings that are tailored for discovering and acquiring music over an operator’s 3G network. Incorporating the efficient encoding capabilities of the WMA Pro codec, this rich music offering will provide operators with handsets optimised for efficient music downloads* over a 3G network. Consumers will also benefit from quick and easy access to high-quality music on the go.
“Our relationship with Microsoft is about making the mobile world seamless with the desktop world and allowing consumers to experience music wherever and whenever they want,” said Richard Chin, corporate vice president of Global Product Marketing at Motorola. “Building on our existing relationship, this expanded collaboration can further enrich the mobile music experience and expand the mobile music offering to our operator alliances and consumers.”
“Combining Motorola’s wireless handsets with Windows Media technologies will significantly advance the mobile music experience,” said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. “Motorola’s upcoming handsets with Windows Media will offer consumers and operators worldwide the widest range of high-fidelity, no-compromise music choices.”
Motorola began shipping Microsoft technologies on select handsets in 2005, and plans to offer Windows Media-enabled music experiences on multiple handsets worldwide in the second half of 2006. Support for over-the-air delivery capabilities and WMA Pro is expected to follow suit in 2007.
13 February, 2006
PDA Sales Plummet Again
It’s been spluttering and wheezing in its sick bed for what seems like an eternity, but the latest figures from research firm IDC confirm that the prognosis isn’t good for the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
The figures show the worldwide market for handheld PDAs continuing to plummet, with sales dropping for the fourth consecutive year in 2005.
IDC’s research reveals that just 2.2 million devices were shipped during the last three months of the year, with annual sales falling 16.7 percent to 7.5 million units – substantially down on 2004’s figure of 9.1 million.
Although a bright Christmas period saw sales grow 37.6% over Q3, the trend remains resolutely downward, with the declining market segment driving PDAs into a market niche.
Industry pundits put the slow but steady decline of PDAs down to the exponential growth of smartphones, with the convenience and features of converged handhelds proving more alluring to punters.
According to Gartner’s figures, a massive 72 million smartphones will be shifted this year, compared to just 6.6 million units in 2003.
But don’t go ordering flowers for the PDA funeral quite yet, as IDC research analyst Ramon Llamas insists that it’s not all over for the PDA market, with plenty of smaller vendors remaining committed to a more niche PDA market.
“The departure of other worldwide vendors has opened the door for smaller vendors to improve their position within the market. During the course of the year, several smaller vendors remained within striking distance of beating each other for the number four or five position, and even posed a challenge to some of the worldwide vendors,” commented Llamas.
Palm – whose market leading Treo 650 smartphone has just been ported to Windows in the shape of the Treo 700w – remains the most popular PDA brand, securing 43 per cent of the market last year, with HP in second place at 25 per cent.
Elsewhere, Mark Nelson, the founder of Ovid Technologies who owns 8 percent of Palm’s stock, has urged Palm to consider selling its business to big boys like Research in Motion, Dell or Hewlett-Packard while its stock is high.
With Palm winding down its PDA business and concentrating on its Treo smartphone range, Nelson argues that Palm will have difficulty competing against deep-pocketed rivals like Dell and HP who are currently ploughing big R&D budgets into similar products.
Palm declined to comment, but Todd Kort, an analyst at Gartner, reckons that Palm’s independence is a positive advantage, making them, “faster on their feet” with the ability to “turn on a dime a little faster than Nokia can.”
In Europe, Nokia still rule the smartphone roost, but as we reported last year, the Treo remains hugely popular in the States.
Kort suggested that Palm’s lean’n’mean size gives it the edge to adapt to quickly changing market trends and target high-end customers.
6 February, 2006