News

I haven't had a lot of time to post new news, but there's been some good stuff happening this week. So I figured I'd post a single news article with some interesting things that happened this week.

First, if you're a Netflix subscriber that has a plan using streaming and DVDs, you're probably pissed. Netflix split it's streaming and DVD plans into two separate billable items. Now, you'll have to pay $7.99 for each service totalling $15.98 for both at the base level. That's a significant hike from the $9.99 that was billed before. I'm in this group and I'm not thrilled with it, though I do understand that what Netlix has to pay more and more to license all of the selections. But I think they need a lot more selections to justify an increase this high. Everyone used social media to show just how pissed they were about the change. Hopefully, Netflix will reconsider. In the meantime, here's an article reviewing the alternative options:

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20079003-285/nine-netflix-alternatives/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

T-Mobile also launched their new caller ID feature. This would be awesome if it was free, but I don't think it's worth the $3.99/month they're asking for it. I think it's easier and cheaper to just let things to to voicemail and it it's important enough, they'll leave a message...

http://www.tmonews.com/2011/07/t-mobile-introduces-name-id-caller-id-for-everyone/

Google began testing the new Google + social media site. I haven't gotten an invite yet, so I guess I'll have to wait... Apparently, it's mostly dudes right now. That sucks. You'd figure since women are more social creatures by nature, that they would have jumped at the chance to try it. I suppose that if invites were given to a bunch of nerdy dudes, then there weren't going to be too many women that they knew who could get an invite.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20079285-71/google-its-a-man-thing/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

The Demo for "Catherine" became available on Xbox Live. I'm not one for puzzle games, but this was really an interesting game. It's certainly one of the most unique games I've seen in a long time. I'll likely get it when it comes down in price. I don't think I can justify $60 bucks on it.

http://majornelson.com/2011/07/12/demo-catherine/

So, there you have it. A weeks worth of news in one post. Hopefully, I'll get more time to keep up.

Great news came yesterday for Windows Phone owners. Angry Birds is now on Windows Phone! I haven't played it myself, but apparently it's one of the best games ever. Also, they've announced that custom ringtones will be made available in Mango! This is one of the things I've critisized them for in my coming Windows Phone article. I can appreciate that they've taken the time to use the Zune software to keep the ringtones you create out of the music collection in the phone. I've run into that issue with Android in the past.

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Custom ringtones are coming.

If there’s one request we’ve heard over and over since launching Windows Phone last year, it’s this: More ringtones, please! I’m the program manager for the “sound experience” on the phone—everything from ringtones and alarms to alerts and key clicks. Today I wanted to take a minute to tell you about the ringtone-related changes in store for Mango, the next version of Windows Phone arriving this fall.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2011/06/28/now-in-marketplace-angry-birds.aspx

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2011/06/28/ringing-in-mango.aspx

Redbox has rolled out game rentals nationwide this month. Though it appears that none of them are near me. Which sucks, because there's a few games that I'd love to rent for a day or two, but sure as hell wouldn't buy....

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As promised, Redbox has rolled out game rentals nationwide.

In April, Redbox said it would start offering game rentals in 21,000 of its 27,000 kiosks this month. The company is renting out a range of titles for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3, including the recently launched Duke Nukem Forever and last year's blockbuster hit Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Redbox has launched a full online listing of games available to customers. Those who find something they like can reserve a title from home and pick it up at their chosen Redbox location.

Redbox is charging $2 per day for its game rentals. It currently rents DVDs and Blu-ray discs for as little as $1 per day and $1.50 per day, respectively.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20071891-17/redbox-presses-play-on-game-rentals-nationwide/#ixzz1PXbuyGOn

Microsoft gives Windows Live users 25GB of Skydrive space for free. This data is essentially accessible from a Windows Phone and any computer with a browser. This data can then easily be shared with other users with Live accounts. It looks like SkyDrive is going to be more functional from Windows Phone after the Mango update. Uploading, sharing, and accessing your SkyDrive content is going to continue to get easier.... Check out the link for specific additions.

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icrosoft is committed to offering cloud services that deliver access to your information across devices and platforms. Hotmail provides sync of mail, calendar and contacts across devices, and SkyDrive gives you access to up to 25GB of documents, photos, and videos from anywhere in the world through the web. And of course these services are available today for free across your Windows PC, phone, and web.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/06/07/don-t-wait-for-your-cloud-use-hotmail-and-skydrive-today-on-your-pc-mac-or-phone.aspx

Nothing all that great to announce here, but Microsoft is adding some Xbox functionality to Windows Phone. The Beards and Beaks game sounds pretty good though....

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Coming later this year in Mango is more native support of Xbox LIVE features in the Games Hub like:

· See your played games and unlocked/locked Achievements

· Compare Achievements with other Xbox LIVE members

· Search your list of friends to see who is online and what they are doing

· See your Xbox LIVE messages and Send/Accept/Reject friend requests

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2011/06/06/fresh-from-e3-xbox-live-enhancements-and-new-games-for-windows-phone.aspx

At the Microsoft event at E3, Microsoft unveiled a long list of featured that they intend on bringing to Xbox. I'm excited about a lot of them. It seems that Microsoft is really doing a good job of spanning all of their technologies into each of their products. This also gives similar functionality accross multiple devices to create a fimiliarity and comfort that the consumer will have using everything they make.

http://majornelson.com/2011/06/06/cloud-storage-and-more-coming-to-xbox-live/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MajorNelson+%28Major+Nelson+%28Xbox%29%29

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/117/1172911p1.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4dedb7f26e230eee,0

I'd definately be interested in terminating my cable service and use Microsoft's if it's any good. Even more if it's reasonably priced. Hopefully, for those who have LIVE, it won't be too much more. It's only rumored though.....

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"Rumors abound that another tier of Xbox Live will add subscription TV service.

Winrumors is reporting that an anonymous source has brought them news of some big changes on the way to Xbox Live. Specifically, Microsoft's E3 press conference is said to have an announcement regarding the new Xbox Live Diamond service, which will add IPTV services to Xbox Live users"

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/04/report-xbox-live-diamond-on-the-way.aspx

There's no question that everything is moving in the way of touchscreen. Windows 8 is finally going to capitalize on it. Microsoft seems to really want to unify the OS on all devices. Something that Google hasn't done with Android and Apple has somewhat done with iOS. It appears to take a lot from Windows Phone 7.

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"The video does a good job of showing just how different the new system will be. Optimized for touch-screens, but still purported to be friendly to mouse and keyboard users, Windows 8 appears to abandon many of the legacy interface ideas that have been around for years."

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/04/see-windows-8-interface-in-action.aspx

I just got a Windows phone and I'm seriously looking forward to this. The release is scheduled for fall (pretty vague huh?) and is claiming to include hundreds of updates. Click the link for a full list of features to be included so far.

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Mango, which will be available this fall, includes hundreds of new features and improvements organized around three key themes: easier communications, smarter apps, and the Internet.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2011/05/24/microsoft-officially-unveils-mango-hundreds-of-improvements-on-the-way.aspx

Microsoft doesn't need to offer these for free since they're still the number one selling console. PCs on the other hand, aren't such a hot item. People just aren't seeing reasons to upgrade to something newer than they already have as quickly as they used to. So, I guess Microsoft figures they'd give them a little incentive. It sure kicks the crap out of Apple's free iPod. Why didn't they have this around when I was still going to school? Damn.....

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Starting May 22, students who buy a new PC for $699 or more will receive a free Xbox 360 4GB console, the software giant said in a blog post today. The offer is available to online shoppers who buy a PC from Dell.com, HP.com, or Microsoft's online store. Those who want to head to a retail outlet can find the deal at Best Buy or Microsoft's stores.

In order for students to get the free Xbox 360, they will need to have .edu e-mail address at the time of purchase. If they don't have a .edu e-mail address, they can go to a retail store and present their student IDs.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20064263-17.html#ixzz1Monvgwds

The upcoming Xbox LIVE update has essentially broken some consoles. In a small number of consoles, it's made some retail discs unreadable and Microsoft is proactively contacting users with the problem with an offer to replace the consoles. The update supports a new disk format.

I was actually a part of the Beta for this and I encountered a major problem. Microsoft handled it pretty well. I was contacted by phone to get all of the details and the issue was worked out pretty quickly. The only reason I mention it is because I'm sure Microsoft is facing a bit of criticism for this, but in my experience, they've handled things the best they can.

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It appears that the new Xbox LIVE update, which will introduce support for the new XGD3 disk format, might prevent a very small number of Xbox 360 owners from playing retail game discs.

The XGD3 format will allow for additional storage space on a game disc, and will provide additional levels of copy production.

The Xbox LIVE Spring update will be rolled out between May 19 to May 30.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/116/1168986p1.html

Update: Major Nelson says that this problem has nothing to do with what was tested in the recent Beta.

http://majornelson.com/2011/05/18/clearing-up-some-confusion/

It doesn't appear to have a release date scheduled yet, but at least some of the "Mango" features have been talked about. Here's a quick list of what's to come so far in the new update:

Office Integration with SkyDrive and Office 365
Pinning Email Folders to the Start Screen
Conversation View in Email
Email Server Search
Lync Integration
Complex password support
Information Rights Management support
Support for access to hidden corporate Wi-Fi networks

This comes direct from the official blog: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/

From another site, these features were mentioned:

Facebook Chat/AIM/Live Messanger support
Group Messaging
Visual Voicemail
Improved Xbox Live game data sync
Lockscreen option to show album art of playing audio tracks
Multitasking (webOS style)
Internet Explorer Mobile 9
Twitter Integration

http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/windows-phone-7-5-adds-facebookaim-chat-visual-voicemail-skydrive-support-20110516/

It looks like it's shaping up to be a big realease.

I think that if they integrate this into their products as they plan to successfully, there's going to be some very compelling reasons to use it. If they can make communication accross Windows\Outlook, Lync, Xbox Live, and Windows Phone seamless, they'll be ahead of the existing voicechat game. Another example of Microsoft showing up late to the party, but being the one to bring all of the good booze.

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Microsoft has agreed to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion.

"Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said today in a statement. "Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world."

Microsoft plans to integrate Skype's technology with the Xbox game console and Kinect motion-sensing device, as well as with its Windows Phone platform. The company also will "connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live, and other communities.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20061371-17.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

This is a poor move for everyone. Nokia is now pushing Windows Phone 7 and is throwing out Qt in the process. Qt is the development platform for Symbian and even KDE on Linux. Qt is portable and works with nearly every operating system. Nokia's Microsoftish CEO struck the deal with devil and now Qt is being thrown out with the bathwater. Symbian is also killed off. Meego? Dead as well. This will be bad for Nokia.

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Qt will continue to be the development framework for Symbian and Nokia will use Symbian for further devices; continuing to develop strategic applications in Qt for Symbian platform and encouraging application developers to do the same. With 200 million users worldwide and Nokia planning to sell around 150 million more Symbian devices, Symbian still offers unparalleled geographical scale for developers.

Extending the scope of Qt further will be our first MeeGo-related open source device, which we plan to ship later this year. Though our plans for MeeGo have been adapted in light of our planned partnership with Microsoft, that device will be compatible with applications developed within the Qt framework and so give Qt developers a further device to target.

You get one Meego device and that's it. Everything after is WP7.

http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/nokia-developer-news/2011/02/11/letter-to-developers

The article basically says that cartels are selling the BS software to fund other activities... but what it says to me is that the cartel is pretty much raking in cash over Microsoft's hard work. Don't get me wrong, I don't like Microsoft, but this is a double strike. The cartels basically counterfeit Windows and sell it for cheap to fund their drug activities. This probably means that a large chunk of their money comes from this. $800 million per year!

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Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, showed a fake copy of its Office 2007 software found for sale on the streets of Mexico and “brazenly” stamped with the rectangular “FMM” logo of the Familia drug cartel to demonstrate the link between counterfeiting and organized crime.

“This is the real side, the scary side of counterfeiting and it plagues the world,” David Finn, Microsoft’s associate general counsel for antipiracy, said today at the Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy in Paris.]

Not everyone is a freedom fighter when providing software for cheap. In this case, counterfeiting is truly funding terrible crimes.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-03/fake-microsoft-software-sold-by-mexican-drug-cartel-lawyer-says.html

Windows 7 is celebrating its first year, and Microsoft has something to really celebrate. In a Windows blog by Brandon LeBlanc it is reported that Microsoft has sold more than 240 million copies of the Windows 7 operating system.

Here is what Brandon had to say in the first part of this blog:

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Today’s an exciting day! We are announcing that more than 240 million licenses of Windows 7 have been sold. Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history. As of September, Windows 7 was running on 93% of new consumer PCs and has over 17% global OS market share (according to Net Applications as of October 1st). There is an amazing array of great PCs out on the market today. Six months after launch, 100% (over 18,000) of our OEM partners were selling Windows 7 PCs versus 70% for Windows Vista PCs at a comparable time period. And there is an incredible ecosystem of products – software and hardware – that work great with Windows 7 too. You can check out and discover many of those products at Windows Product Scout which was announced yesterday.

For the complete blog posting head over to the Windows Blog site and check it out.

According to Microsoft, the companies Malicious Software Removal Tool has nuked over 275,000 machines running Windows operating system of the Zeus malware, or better known as the Zbot malware. Here is what Jeff Williams from Microsoft had to say about it:

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Of the 1,344,669 computers cleaned, this is about 1 in 5, a ratio that’s higher than we typically see even when accounting for the normal, first-month spike which results from adding a new family but not exceptionally so.

To put this in greater perspective the removals of Zbot are almost as many as the removals of the #2 and #3 malware families this month combined (Win32/Vundo and Win32/Bubnix respectively). Approximately 86 million computers have run this version of MSRT as we compile this data so we should expect this number to increase as the month continues.

For the complete read on this, head on over toZDNet and check it out.

In a quick article over at ZDNet, they claim that Microsoft is looking into an issue that claims clients are having memory issues with the newly released Zune software version 4.7.

In one statement ZDNet wrote this;

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A number of users — most of which seemed to be running 64-bit Windows 7 — began reporting memory-usage problems, via the Zune Forums, shortly after downloads of the client began.

For a more in depth look at this article, and links to the Microsoft discussion read on from the link below:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-investigating-zune-client-47-memory-issues/7689?tag=mantle_skin;content

Microsoft has just done another PR blunder. Some 1400 people fired were payed too much severance and Microsoft is asking for it back. Something tells me that Microsoft will drop the notices soon after this makes the rounds on the internet.

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Talk about adding insult to injury. Apparently Microsoft has inadvertently overpaid severance to some of its recently laid off employees, and is now asking for some of the money back. It’s unclear how many of the 1,400 employees laid off last month were affected, but we’ve confirmed that it wasn’t a single isolated incident (we’ve contacted Microsoft for a response). We’re also hearing that some employees may have been underpaid as well.

They must be using Microsoft Money or Excel for payroll!

Said By Blorge

Microsoft recently announced that the company would be laying-off 5,000 employees due to a drop in profits. This is the first mass layoff in the history of Microsoft. However, news has trickled out that the Xbox division will be suffering the brunt of the job cuts.

Word has been trickling out that the Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD) will receive the brunt of the mass layoff. The EDD division consists of the Zune, PC gaming and the massive Xbox division. The EDD is headed up by the well known faces: Shane Kim, Don Matttrick, Phil Spencer and the friendly Aaron Greenberg.

Linky.

I think this may have two possible ramifications:

• Its getting rather close to time to start developing a 360 successor. What are the odds the Microsoft delay it for a while?
• After the partial failure of Vista (as well as the total failure of unifying PC gaming with the Games for Windows Program and XBox Live on PC), will we see Microsoft start to ignore the gaming division entirely to instead worry about making Windows 7 a success (remember, that is the part of Microsoft that actually makes money)?

While I doubt that the second will actually occur, one musn't forget the mess that Microsoft shareholders started making around August last year surrounding the gaming division's money making potential. And that was when Microsoft wasn't particularly woried about its finances despite losing billions of dollars on the XBox.

Overall, I think it will be an interesting year for the 360; especially when you look at Microsoft's approach compared to Sony's. I'm curious to see what approach pans out.

This is the first time Microsoft is slashing its workforce in such numbers. The economy is really screwing up some companies.

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The software maker said it will cut 5,000 jobs, or 5 percent of its workforce, over the next 18 months. About 1,400 jobs were eliminated immediately. The software maker is also paring other expenses, such as delaying salary increases and cutting back on vendors and contractors.

Amid slow PC sales, revenue for the quarter came in at $16.63 billion for its fiscal second quarter that ended December 31, up just 2 percent from a year ago and roughly $900 million less than the company previously projected. Per-share earnings came in at 47 cents, also below forecasts.

If anything really hits home about Microsoft losing their grip on proprietary office formats, it is the fact that they are building in ODF support right into Office 2K7. Now let's see if they make a proper implementation of the standard or do a hack Microsoft-ish implementation that's only readable by other MS Office copies... It has been done before.

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For years, IT has struggled with how best to maintain the flow of data across heterogeneous environments without incurring data loss. Monoculture or no, customers often want to save documents in a variety of formats. This has not always worked to Microsoft's advantage. In fact, last year, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency filed a complaint with the European Commission in which it alleged that Office 2007 would impede educational initiatives because it failed to natively support open standards, in particular, ODF.

Doug Mahugh, a project manager at Microsoft who deals with interoperability issues connected with the Office software suite, described the steps taken today within the broader context of disclosure, transparency, and format support. "To get there, we found that it was not just sufficient to conform to a standard. We needed transparency about all the design decisions involved in getting to that standard...it was a way of pulling together lot of the things we were doing in interoperability." Rightly or not, the perception was that Microsoft Office did not treat ODF as first class citizen. "That kind of feedback is why we built ODF support into SP 2," Mahugh said.

I'm sorry, but news sources such as CNET have really lost credibility when they post crap like this. The article compares service update system's uptime on the internet from Apple, Canonical (Ubuntu's maintainer), and Microsoft. Basically it is taking pings from a site like Windows Update and comparing which update service has better uptime.

Fine, it's a stupid metric, but whatever. Where the crap starts to spread is the title of the article: "Microsoft ahead of Apple, Ubuntu in OS update reliability." Right of the bat, it looks like Microsoft's updates are more reliable than the other two providers. So if you glance the title and not the meat (as most IT managers do since they are lazy), you take that Microsoft provides better support... That's the first point.

Here's the entire article:

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A company that measures Internet service reliability has given Microsoft the top score in a test of operating system update services.

Microsoft's Windows Update was available 100 percent of the second quarter of 2008, Pingdom said in a blog posting Friday. Apple's service was down 2 hours and 34 minutes, with 99.9 percent uptime, and Canonical's Ubuntu version of Linux was down 1 day, 5 hours, and 45 minutes, for 98.64 percent uptime.

"Microsoft wins this one hands down," Pingdom said. It noted that Ubuntu's service also is available through mirror sites, however.

The company tested the three services every five minutes.

Microsoft Windows Update was available 100 percent of the time, but at the end of the article, Pingdom noted that Ubuntu's service is available from mirror sites. So, I guess that Pingdom doesn't really care how the OS handles updates through the internet (Ubuntu's update service was never down due to the amount of mirror). They picked Canonical's mirror to judge this really useless statistic.

If you just glance over the article, you will see that Microsoft wins, hands down! CNET has really gone downhill recently. These "news stores" look more like paid posts. Even the comments on that story are saying the same thing. Sorry CNET, you keep losing credibility.

This move will really stop the Vista rollout in its tracks. When Microsoft said that the next version of windows will be released in less than two years, you know it has a problem. Vista is a failure. Windows 7 will be just as bad. It will be pushed back, and continue to stop people from adopting Vista. Good thing, Ubuntu and other distributions of Linux are free and powerful. http://www.ubuntu.com

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In the letter sent to "Windows Customers" and titled "An Update on the Windows Roadmap," Veghte said "our plan is to deliver Windows 7 approximately three years after the January 2007 general availability launch date of Windows Vista." Veghte wrote, "You have told us you want a more regular, predictable Windows release schedule" and he said that was the impetus for setting the 2010 the ship date. Vista has been slowly gaining steam, but is still drawing fire from critics who say it has not lived up to promises.

You have told us that you wanted a stable product... it is here: http://www.ubuntu.com

It turns out that NBC did use the DRM broadcast flag to block recording of its shows. Another reason to switch to fully open systems that give you full rights. Microsoft's own Media Center blocks recordings so you get what you paid for... a cheap hacked system that sides with the media cartels instead of consumers. This is why MythTV works so well. It is free and unencumbered by meaningless DRM. What's worse, this may have been a test by NBC to see if people would care that they couldn't record shows. Bad press and resentment from the community said they did. It is a good thing that people are aware of the issue and that people know that Media Center from Microsoft trashes consumer rights.

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The NBC spokeswoman said the network had no intention of blocking the show but declined to specify how the error was made. Flags that have been issued accidentally aren't uncommon, some industry insiders say. While acknowledging that it "fully adheres to flags used by broadcasters," Microsoft said that it was working with content owners to reduce the number of false flags. "The success of the entire distribution chain is dependent on all involved maintaining the necessary checks and quality control so that coding is correctly applied," a Microsoft spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail to News.com. Meanwhile, the larger issue for some is that Microsoft and possibly other hardware and software makers will honor broadcast flags. "Customers need to know who Microsoft is listening to and how that affects their equipment," said Danny O'Brien, a staffer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for Internet users.

I love how Microsoft tries to spin everything that they do wrong. Face it Microsoft, you are doing a disservice to consumers. There is no other way around it.

Microsoft is admitting that they support the broadcast flag that content owners want to shove down consumer throats. Windows Media Center PCs refused to record two shows because of this flag. That's what you get when you can't inspect the source code. You gets lies and deceit. People should turn to free and open alternatives such as MythTV which rocks.

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The software company was responding to questions about why some users of Windows Vista Media Center were prevented from recording NBC Universal TV shows, American Gladiator and Medium on Monday night. The "rules," in which the spokeswoman is apparently referring to are those proposed by the FCC, which would require software and hardware makers to honor "broadcast flags." The flags are code that broadcasters can insert into the data stream of TV shows that typically require restrictions on the recording of the shows. What she didn't say is that the "rules" aren't rules at all. The courts struck down the FCC's proposal in 2005, saying the regulator lacked the authority to tell electronics makers how to interpret the signals they receive. Since then, Microsoft and other manufacturers have retained the option of whether to honor the flags.

Leave it to Microsoft to spread more BS about the FCC "rules" that were overturned by courts three years ago.

As stated in »my report a few years ago, DRM takes away your rights. How? Here is a true example. Microsoft will close its music service. Not a big deal? The DRM keys will also be stopped. And now any content you have cannot be shifted anywhere. It is stuck on the device and that's all. DRM invades your rights to the product you purchased and now you must buy the music at another store... Exactly what these greedy companies want.

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MSN Entertainment and Video Services general manager Rob Bennett sent out an e-mail this afternoon to customers, advising them to make any and all authorizations or deauthorizations before August 31. "As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers," reads the e-mail seen by Ars. "You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play."

This doesn't just apply to the five different computers that PlaysForSure allows users to authorize, it also applies to operating systems on the same machine (users need to reauthorize a machine after they upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista, for example). Once September rolls around, users are committed to whatever five machines they may have authorized-along with whatever OS they are running.

That's right. The download is almost ready. Windows XP is now at SP3. And yet, does anyone care? Ubuntu 8.04 is coming in 3 days!

That's not the best part. The overview has two files for download. A PDF and whatever a XPS file is. I'm assuming XPS is Microsoft's answer to PDF.

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Overview of Windows XP Service Pack 3.pdf 428 KB
Overview of Windows XP Service Pack 3.xps 634 KB

So the XPS is bigger than the PDF. Nice job Microsoft.

Microsoft is starting to see the real competition from Linux in the form of ultra portable notebooks. They will go back to XP and strip it to work well on small devices. Why did this happen now and not years ago? That's what happens when you have a monopoly.

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Disappointingly, the OS image hasn’t even been updated with the latest versions of Windows Media Player, Windows Live Messenger and so on. This makes for a massive update session the first time the user goes online, and that’s not a good way to start the relationship. Supplied CDs include the XP Home OEM install disc and Asus’ support DVD containing the necessary XP drivers and a recovery utility.

However, it’s worth noting that Asus is prepping a special edition Eee PC that will be preloaded with a cut-down version of XP which is expected to be available within the next eight weeks. Emmanuele Silanesu, National Retail Manager for ASUSTeK Australia, told apcmag "we’ve been working with Microsoft on a special condensed version of XP which has just passed the R&D tests this week". The pared-back image, which includes the Microsoft Works suite and will be based on Windows XP Home with SP3, "will be approximately 1.5-1.8GB in total depending on Windows updates" Silanesu says.

Funny that they won't bother making a stripped down Vista, huh?

Even though ISO has allowed itself to be bought by Microsoft, they are calling for a cease fire from the bashing. Personal attacks aren't warranted unless the attack is truthful. ISO was bought by Microsoft and now we've got two document standards that Microsoft won't follow anyway.

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One result of the SC 34 meeting was an open letter, signed by 30 members, which read: "We the undersigned participants at this SC 34 meeting wish to make it clear that we deplore the personal attacks that have been made during the [OOXML] standardisation project in recent months. We believe standards debate should always be carried out with respect for all parties, even when they strongly disagree. We call on all organisations and individuals involved in SC 34 standardisation to support this view, and to refrain from initiating or engaging in any such personal attacks."