During Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference, the company officially announced that Windows 8, the company’s next generation operating system, will reach Release to Manufacturing (RTM) first week of August. Now, Microsoft reveals that Windows Server 2012 will hit RTM at the same time.
“Windows Server 2012 will be a focus of attention at the event, of course, and it is nearing final release. In fact, at the conference we are announcing that Windows Server 2012 will be released to manufacturing in the first week of August. The code will be complete and we will begin delivering it to our hardware partners. Then, the product will be generally available to customers worldwide through multiple channels in September,” Microsoft announced via a blog post. Windows Server 2012 will hit RTM in the first week of August and general availability will be in September. Microsoft also revealed that Windows Server 2012 pre-release builds were downloaded over 500,000 times.
Microsoft believes that Windows Server 2012 is the biggest and most transformational server release they have ever had. “It’s not just the great advances we’ve made in storage, networking and virtualization. What’s most transformational is the change of identity. In past, we always viewed Windows Server as an operating system for a single server,” Microsoft adds. Not anymore. Windows Server 2012 will now be viewed as a cloud operating system.
Microsoft have today comfirmed that they have no plans on releasing new versions of Windows Home Server, thus making Windows Home Server 2011 the final version of Home Server. Why is this? Microsoft think Home Server has seen the greatest of success, and will implement all Home Server features into Windows Server 2012 Essentials.
“Windows Home Server has seen its greatest success in small office/home office (SOHO) environments and among the technology enthusiast community. For this reason, Microsoft is combining the features that were previously only found in Windows Home Server, such as support for DLNA-compliant devices and media streaming, into Windows Server 2012 Essentials.”
The latest version of Windows Home Server was released back in March 2011, and was titled Windows Home Server 2011. If offered a wide range of features, that are now being streamlined into the next major release of Windows Server, that being Windows Server 2012.
Accoridng to new data from Net Applications, Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system is close to being the top operating system in market share, but Windows XP is still ranked as number one. The gap is getting smaller as Windows 7 and Windows XP are nearly the same in market share.
For the month of June, according to Net Applications, Windows 7 has a market share of 41.6% compared to Windows XP which has a market share of 43.6%. Back in April of this year, Windows 7 had a market share of 38.67%, so it is obvious that within two months, the operating system is picking up market share. Windows Vista continues to drop in market share as the operating system sustains a 6.72% market share. Even though Windows 8 has yet to be released, it has gained a market share of 0.18%, thanks to the Consumer Preview and Release Preview.
For those curious, Net Applications tracks the number of unique visitors to its network of more than 40,000 sites and counts only one unique visit per site per day. The stats are based on 160 million unique visits per months.
A image of a pre-RTM build of Windows RT has appeared on the web today, revealing brand new Office 2013 icons, these icons include Word and PowerPoint. Other icons, which have already been leaked include OneNote and Excel.
The pre-RTM build of Windows RT is pretty old according to the build string. The build was compiled on the 11th June 2012, almost a month ago. The screenshot reveals two new Office 2013 icons, that being PowerPoint and Word. OneNote and Excel icons have already been leaked in other images.
The screenshot also appears to be running the new “metro desktop” interface, instead of Aero. This means Microsoft have been tweaking and testing the new Metro desktop theme for a little while, it seems Microsoft want to get this right first time.
Recently, Microsoft took action to eliminate the dangerous Zeus botnets, known for fueling half a billion dollars in online fraud and identity left. Now, Microsoft has not only identified two suspects behind the Botnet, but is also referring the case to the FBI for criminal review.
Microsoft has named two suspects in the Zeus Botnet case, Yevhen Kulibaba and Yuriy Konovalenko. These two are already serving jail time in the United Kingdom for other Zeus malware related charges and just like the Rustock and Kelihos Botnets, Microsoft is referring its findings over to the FBI. “By referring this case to the FBI, as we did in September 2011 with our case against the operators of the Rustock botnet, we are affirming our commitment to coordinating our efforts with law enforcement. Our goal is always to work in ways that are complementary to law enforcement. Our hope is that the evidence we provided to the FBI in this case will lead to a criminal investigation that brings the perpetrators to justice,” Microsoft explained.
Microsoft has also learned of the locations of over 100,000 computers that have been infected with the Zeus malware. Microsoft is partnering with Internet service providers and Community Emergency Response Teams around the world to assist those infected in removing this malware for good.
A few days back Google had announced that it was preparing to launch Chrome for Metro. Today Google has released it for users on the Windows 8 Release Preview. For now, it is not listed in Windows Store. So you will have to install it via Googles own method, which isn’t that hard.
To install it, just go to Chrome Developers Channel, select Dev Channel for Windows, and let it download the Chrome installer. Run the installer and let it complete the download and installation. At first launch in the desktop mode, make it the default browser. Then go to the Start Screen and search for Chrome.
There you will find the Metro version of Chrome. The Metro version of Chrome supports all the addons and also supports Flash. It is as fast, stable and fluid as its desktop counterpart. Hope to see it soon in the Windows Store.
A new video has surfaced demonstrating the Microsoft Kinect used as an augmented reality sandbox. Using the depth capabilities of the Kinect, along with a projector, a sand pit is turned into a virtual environment with a real-time colored topographic map.
“Video of a sandbox equipped with a Kinect 3D camera and a projector to project a real-time colored topographic map with contour lines onto the sand surface. The sandbox lets virtual water flow over the surface using a GPU-based simulation of the Saint-Venant set of shallow water equations. We built this for an NSF-funded project on informal science education. These AR sandboxes will be set up as hands-on exhibits in science museums, such as Lawrence Hall of Science or the Tahoe Environmental Research Center,” the video description reads.
When Microsoft released the Consumer Preview earlier this year, we got a first look at the new Windows Store. Developers could submit apps from 5 markets, which isn’t many if you looks at how many markets there are around the world. Today, Microsoft has announced plans to expand the Store to over 33 new markets in the new preview release.
“Up to now, the Consumer Preview Store has supported app submissions from developers in five markets, each with a dedicated app catalog (France, Germany, India, Japan and the United States), plus China.”
Microsoft is planning to launch the Windows Store with 33 new markets in the next preview release of Windows 8, which will allow new developers to submit apps to the store, making it significantly more ‘full’.
The Store will also receive 7 new languages, in addition to the current 102 languages. These languages will be usable across the whole store, including the backend for developers.
From today onwards, Microsoft is no longer accepting new app submissions for the current Consumer Preview Windows Store. App submissions should resume for developers in the next preview release, which is expected to launch in late May/early June as the Release Preview. “During this preview timeframe, only select partners can submit Metro style apps to the Store.”
In a new study conducted by a web performance management firm called New Relic, Internet Explorer 9 is faster than both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox when it comes to loading pages in Windows.
New Relic was able to capture 690,000 page views per minute of real-time performance statistics. Based on the data, Internet Explorer 9 was able to load pages half a second faster than Chrome and Firefox. Microsoft continues to brag about how Internet Explorer 9 is the company’s continued effort in giving users “the best performance with the sites you love.”
“Being the first app performance company to build real user monitoring as a core, native feature of application performance management, we are currently monitoring about 750 million page views a day, 5 billion a week and 20 billion a month for 20,000 active accounts,” New Relic states.
Microsoft recently put up a new website that not only pokes fun at the company’s Internet Explorer browser, but also encourages those who have not used Internet Explorer 9 to install it and add a pinned site to their Windows 7 taskbar, just to experience how awesome it is.
“We will continue to push the web forward with our investments in hardware accelerated HTML5 – and what that means for Internet Explorer users is that the web is not going to just get faster, but richer and more dynamic than ever before,” Microsoft added.
Just recently, the analytics firm StatCounter reported that Google’s Chome browser had beat Internet Explorer and became the world most popular internet browser. Now, Microsoft is saying that this is not true because StatCounter bases its findings on faulty data.
While everyone was buzzing about how Chrome was more popular than Internet Explorer last week, the folks over at Microsoft are shaking their heads. According to Microsoft, StatCounter bases its findings on faulty data and incorrect assumptions. The results are flawed because the rankings dont take into account that Google’s Chrome browser pre-renders certain pages assuming the user would go there next, even if it is never viewed. Microsoft also believes that StatCounter doesn’t accurately geoweight “browser usage based on real-world Internet populations.” Microsoft also stated that StatCounter needs to count unique visitors and not page views.
Microsoft touted Net Applications are the most fair analytics firm, claiming that they don’t count pre-rendered pages, do properly performs geoweighting, and actually develop rank based on unique visitors. Of course, Net Applications ranks Internet Explorer higher than StatCounter did.
So which one is to believe? We know Google’s Chrome browser is becoming increasingly popular, but based on what Microsoft pointed out, is it really close to overtaking Internet Explorer?
Chinese hackers have released a concept code that provides a roadmap to exploit a dangerous Remote Desktop flaw that was just recently patched by Microsoft. On top of that, the code was reportedly leaked from Microsoft’s pre-patch vulnerability sharing program.
Just recently, Microsoft released a critical update that addressed a Remote Desktop flaw that affected all versions of Windows. On top of that, the company anticipated an exploit to be developed by hackers within the next 30 days due to the attractiveness of the threat. So hopefully you patched your systems because now it is being reported that the exploit code has leaked. All fingers are pointing towards Microsoft’s pre-patch vulnerability sharing program as this is one heck of a major leak.
For those that don’t know, the sharing program, called Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP), was launched in 2008 and consists of providing vulnerability data and triggers to anti-virus and intrusion prevention/detection companies so that they can work ahead of time to reproduce the vulnerabilities and deliver signatures without false positives.
Now the blame is being placed on Microsoft as it is being reported that the Chinese hackers had access to the MAPP information before the patch was even created. “I can say with 100% certainty that MAPP information got into the wrong hands,” a security researcher with access to the MAPP information stated.
If Microsoft confirms this leak, it would be a big blow towards the company’s efforts in securing its Windows operating system.
Microsoft has released a new website that not only pokes fun at the company’s Internet Explorer browser, but also encourages those who have not used Internet Explorer 9 to install it and add a pinned site to their Windows 7 taskbar, just to experience how awesome it is.
“One of the more interesting trends these days is the number of Chrome and Firefox enthusiasts who have “added” Internet Explorer 9 into their browsing mix. While still using Chrome or Firefox for their more general browsing, these users are pinning a few of the key sites they visit every day – like Facebook and Pandora – with IE9 simply to get a more “app” like experience,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.
Microsoft has launched a new website that shows internet users just how Internet Explorer has progressed over the years and how it has “changed since you last used it.” Microsoft is calling this the “IE9 comeback.” You can check out the video below and check out the website at www.browseryoulovedtohate.com
Looking at the motley crowd of shortcuts on your computer desktop but not able to find the one you need? Do you often find yourself looking for an app to run rather than doing your work? True Launch Bar can make your day go easier as it can solve these and many other problems related to quick access to your PC content!
In yet another attack towards Google, Microsoft claims that the search engine giant has been placing ad-tracking cookies without permission and bypassing the default privacy settings in Internet Explorer. The fix? Use Internet Explorer 9.
Just recently, Microsoft claimed that Google has been tracking users of Apple’s Safari browser while they surf the web via an iPhone, iPad, or Macs. From what Microsoft says, these attacks are not new and Google has circumvented the privacy protections built into Apple’s Safari browser in a “deliberate, and ultimately, successful fashion.”
Now, Microsoft claims that Google is circumventing the default privacy settings in Internet Explorer. “Google is employing similar methods to get around the default privacy protections in IE and track IE users with cookies,” the company stated in a blog post. Google is apparently bypassing the P3P Privacy Protection feature in IE. Basically, Google is placing ad-tracking cookies without permission, in both Safari and Internet Explorer. Microsoft recommends the use of Internet Explorer 9’s Tracking Protection feature which is not susceptible to this type of bypass. Microsoft continues to brag about how Internet Explorer 9 is the “browser of choice” as it was designed to give the fastest, safest, and most private browsing experience.
With the recent changes in privacy policies that Google has ushered across its line of products and not offering any opt-out, users have raised concern over the lack of privacy and choices. For these users grappling with the changes, Microsoft has been advertising “better alternatives” to Google products as well as recently releasing a video that “shows you” just how much Google cares more about advertising revenue than privacy.
Microsoft is rolling out Office University 2010 for students with a much harder form of verification in an attempt to fight off non-students from purchasing cheap versions of the productivity suite.
The new process is much harder to circumvent and requires you to go online, since the product does not come with a product key needed for activation. Once online, you must verify your eligibility by signing in and providing a school email address. Once the verification is passed, the online site will display the product key.
“The big change is the validation process, as you’ll see on the big warning stickers on the packaging. Up to now, if you could persuade someone to sell you a copy, (even if you weren’t a student or faculty) it was yours to use. The change appears to be an effort to curtail the large number of ineligible people buying the Academic versions,” the report on ZDNet states. In the past, all you had to do really is have a student purchase the Academic version of Office for you. Even those that were not students could manage to purchase the Academic version at some places.
Office University comes with Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, Publisher 2010, Access 2010, and Office Web Apps and usually costs under $100.
What about those who are not at a University? Microsoft still recommends using “Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010” for parents and families with K-12 students.
SeamMonkey is an all-in-one Internet application suite. Web-browser, advanced e-mail and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editing made simple — all your Internet needs in one application.
The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to deliver production-quality releases of code derived from the application formerly known as “Mozilla Application Suite”.
Microsoft revealed today that the company has helped businesses manage and secure their computers using Windows cloud services and Windows 7 Enterprise edition. Because of Windows Intune, several companies were able to manage and secure the desktops of their highly mobile workforce though the cloud with ease.
“While these three organizations vary in industry and size, they have one thing in common: Their employees expect to work anytime, anywhere, with access to their information and resources. As such, each organization needs to ensure its PCs are highly secure and well-managed to help protect data and assets, keep employees productive, and streamline the cost of delivering routine management and security,” Microsoft states in an official press release.
As Microsoft states, Windows Intune brings together Windows cloud services and Windows 7 Enterprise edition subscription to simplify PC management and security, all while delivering the benefits of a modern and secure operating system. Other features include the ability to have remote assistance, software updates, hardware and software tracking, and the ability to set security policies. On top of that, administrators can take a snapshot of whats going on with their PC environments, including status of updates, software, endpoint protection, licensing, and more.
Windows Intune has helped businesses such as Save the Children, goetzpartners, and e-Litigation Solutions ensure the security and reliability of all desktops within their organization. These businesses now have more reliable computing tools to assist them “realize their organizations’ missions and visions no matter where they are.”
“By using Windows Intune, we can save $20,000 a year in malware costs and $50,000 in Windows 7 licenses for staff at headquarters. That’s money we can funnel back into field programs that benefit children in more than 120 countries around the world,” Senior Director of Technology for Save the Children U.S., Ken Supersano, stated.
“We’ve streamlined our PC environment and reduced costs by adopting Windows Intune, which helps us run a leaner, more competitive organization,” said David Hyre, VP of Technologies, eLitigation Solutions.
Windows Intune was introduced by Microsoft in July 2011 and is the companies cloud-based desktop application management solution.
In an official blog post, Microsoft details the full Windows Store customer experience including browsing for apps and searching though a catalog of apps. On top of that, Microsoft has made it easy to update apps in Windows 8.
Microsoft set out to ensure people where able to discover and quickly download apps with the new Windows Store. This is the fundamental principle behind the Windows Store. “While this is a somewhat obvious goal for a catalog or marketplace, it’s actually pretty challenging when the size and diversity of the catalog grows as quickly as we expect to happen in the Windows Store,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.
Microsoft designed the Windows Store to have a landing page designed for discovery of important apps and games. “We built Windows 8 around the notion that content should be primary, with chrome taking a back seat. With minimal chrome, the Store landing page brings apps to the forefront, letting the brand and personality of the apps capture your interest.”
Navigating the Windows Store is “simple and consistent with Windows 8 Metro style UI” so users can have a familiar interface for finding items. There are Store Categories such as Spotlight, Games, Entertainment, Photos, Music & Videos, and Productivity (to name a few) in the new Windows Store.
Using the Search option in the Charms Bar, Windows 8 users can search for new apps whether or not the Windows Store app is open or not.
The App listing page will feature a screenshot, description, brand color, and logo as well as user rating and user submitted reviews to offer a better visual description of the app prior to the user purchasing it.
As far as purchases go, Microsoft has made it very simple. “Assuming you are signed in to the Windows Store, one tap on the app listing page is all you’ll need to install free and trial apps. That’s it. For paid apps, we will ask for your password to confirm your purchase. If you don’t want to enter your password for each purchase, we do have a setting to turn off this security step—but we think those of you with kids will appreciate this extra little roadblock to unintentional purchases.”
Updating your installed Apps is also very easy. Windows Store will check for updates once a day and then present you with a number of updates available so one can have a “clear indication that there’s something waiting for you in the Store.” With the tap of a button, your apps will be updated.
The Windows Store is set to change the way we download and manage our Apps. The Store will allow you to install and run all of your Apps on up to a total of five Windows 8 PCs, just in case you need to install the same Apps on another Windows 8 machine. We are expecting to see the Windows Store in the beta build of Windows 8, which is due soon. For a quick overview of the Windows Store, check out the video demonstration below:
SeamMonkey is an all-in-one Internet application suite. Web-browser, advanced e-mail and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editing made simple — all your Internet needs in one application.
The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to deliver production-quality releases of code derived from the application formerly known as “Mozilla Application Suite”.
Microsoft announced today that it had a quarterly revenue of 20.9 billion when the quarter ended on December 31, 2011. The revenue of the quarter was Steve Ballmer said that they had “delivered solid financial results” and this should “accelerate many of our key products and services.”
Microsofts Steve Ballmer feels that the CES has given Microsoft “very positive reviews” for the new phones, and Windows 7 Ultrabooks scheduled to come out later this year. He also spoke about how the Metro User interface was also a big hit to many consumers, which he said will “unify consumer experiences across our phones, PCs, tablets, and television in 2012.”
Office 2010 has sold “nearly 200 million licenses…in the 18 months since launch.” Windows 7 licenses stand at a whopping 525 million since launch, though the Windows and Windows Live division “posted revenue of $4.74 billion, a 6% decline from the prior period.”
With the recent news that Bing, the search service of Microsoft surpassing Yahoo search to become the number web-based search service in terms of market share, the Online Service Division of Microsoft also saw increased revenue of $784 million, a 10% increase comparatively to last year.
But by most account, the Entertainment & Devices Division of Microsoft, which is responsible for products like the Xbox and the Kinect, saw the biggest revenue increase of all the Divisions at Microsoft posting $4.24 billion revenue, a 15% increased. For most of last year, the Xbox was the number gaming console in the US, and the Kinect is still selling well with 18 million sold units. According to Microsoft, the Xbox 360 has an installed of nearly 66 million console and the online service, the Xbox LIVE, has currently 40 million members worldwide, representing an increase of 33% compare to last year.
Kevin turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft, had stated that Microsoft has been seeing “a lot of excitement for new devices, from Windows 7 Ultrabooks to new Windows Phones, as well as growing anticipation for Windows 8.” We expect that the anticipation of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system will be a big hit late this year.
IBM has gone ahead and released a beta version of its IBM Docs, which is a cloud based document editing tool, much like Google Docs and Office 365. IBM hopes to create a competitor to Google and Microsoft’s cloud based offerings with a final release of IBM Docs very soon.
“We have approached IBM Docs with the idea that a document is a container of different sections, and so we have made it a flexible item that can integrate more collaborative elements,” IBM product manager Jeanette Barlow stated.
IBM Docs, just like Office 365 and Google Docs, offers users the ability to share and edit text, spreadsheets, and presentation documents. IBM Docs also offers a cool feature that allows uses to assign specific sections of any documents to different users. This neat little feature is unavailable in Google Docs or Office 365.
“IBM Docs is a new office productivity suite for working on documents, spreadsheets and presentations — together — in the cloud. IBM Docs only a browser and an account, and you are able to easily create professional looking documents and share them with others. IBM Docs is simple yet powerful – letting you get started quickly, but delivering the advanced features you need,” IBM states on its official website.
IBM Docs is part of IBM’s LotusLive cloud platform, which is undergoing a re-branding and will be called IBM Smart Cloud for Social Business. You can test drive IBM Docs on IBM’s Greenhouse website here. The final version is expected later in the year.
Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign (Beta) is a plug-in designed to make it easier for publishers to convert documents or books created in Adobe InDesign to Kindle Format 8. Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign converts the InDesign source content to a single file which supports both KF8 and Mobi formats enabling publishers to create great-looking books that work on all Kindle devices and apps.
Highlights of Kindle Plugin functionality:
– Seamless integration into InDesign
– Direct conversion of InDesign file to a single file which supports both KF8 and Mobi formats
– Easy export for most InDesign text formatting
– Ability to adjust image quality
– Adding and editing of metadata for Kindle books
– Formatting for table of contents
– Auto updates for future enhancements
How about this. An iPad app that gives you access to a virtual Windows desktop running on a distant server that has software such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint? Yes its possible, thanks to the new OnLive Desktop app for the iPad.
OnLive, which is originally a gaming company, used to stream games to ones PC, phone, or tablet. But with a slight tweak to the same infrastructure they built for their gaming service, OnLive can now offer a virtual Windows desktop. “The funny part is that it uses the exact same servers, the same hosting software. The only real difference is that now we needed a Windows license,” OnLive stated.
Obviously, the most appealing aspect of this service is that iPad owners can finally use Microsoft Office. Microsoft has yet to offer an iPad version of the popular Office productivity suite and supposedly it is in the works, but for now, one can settle for this option. And best of all, no data is stored on the local device and all communications are encrypted.
OnLive has fine-tuned its infrastructure so that it is available when needed for those who really need it. Based on the data they accumulated, the peak time for games were not the peak time for business software usage. For example, their data suggests that gamers play at night while Microsoft Office was used during the day time.
The free version of OnLive gives you access to Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and 2GB of storage, but does not guarantee 100% access all the time. Those on the free account will be denied access if the service experiences high bandwidth usage. File will, however, be accessible. The free version does not include an internet browser, but the pro and enterprise packages do.
OnLive can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store for free.
Looks like Microsoft has started a campaign in time for the holiday season to entice users to download and install the company’s Internet Explorer 9 browser. In fact, the holiday campaign offers prospective IE downloaders free music, movies, and other stuff.
“Happy Holidays from Internet Explorer 9. To show you our love this season, we got you a whole lotta free music, movies and other awesome stuff. Unwrap and enjoy your holiday gifts!” states the Internet Explorer 9 website.
Microsoft seems to be running this campaign for the upcoming holiday season. The freebies include three free months of Slacker Premium Radio, three free months of AOL radio, one free month to Grooveshark plus, one free month to Hulu Plus, One free movie in your Flixster movie locker, one free $5 movie ticket from Fandango, $5 off Live Nation tickets from Ticketmaster, one free month of Vimeo, and one free month of Pandora.
Some of these freebies do not take effect until certain times. For example, the Ticketmaster freebie will be available on the 1st of December. Check out the Internet Explorer 9 holiday page to see more.
This campaign is only valid in the United States and no exact timeline was given as to when it will end, but we are thinking around Christmas.
In related news, Microsoft has described Internet Explorer 9 as a “Treat for Developers.” Roger Capriotti from the IE team is predicting, rightfully so, that IE9 will be the second most used modern browser behind IE8. With month-to-month for IE9 growth of browser market share, such prediction is not too far from the realm of reality.
With constant growth, it seems that Microsoft latest web browser, Internet Explorer 9, will soon be the second most used modern web browser on Windows 7 coming after IE8. While this is certainly good news for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team, developers will also be delighted to develop for a browser on the rise.
In what Microsoft describes on its Internet Explorer blog as “Treat for Developers”, Roger Capriotti from the IE team is predicting, rightfully so, that IE9 will be the second most used modern browser behind IE8. With month-to-month for IE9 growth of browser market share, such prediction is not too far from the realm of reality.
Since Microsoft first released IE9, which by the way is only available on Windows 7 and Vista, it has continuously gained browser market share despite not being available for Windows XP users. According to the latest data from Net Application, IE9 has a 31% market share, while internationally the browser market share is at 22%; but there are other advantages to IE9 growth.
“It also means more and more top websites are recognizing the value of IE9 and are adding additional functionality to their sites to provide their visitors with even more access to new content. The Wall Street Journal recently implemented various pinning scenarios across their primary sections for their readers. If you pin the “Tech” or “Life & Culture” page or to your Windows 7 taskbar, you’ll be able to access the latest stories in that section in just one click!” writes Roger in the blog.
IE9 offer developers a browser with technology like hardware acceleration that allows developers to take advantage of computer graphic capabilities. IE9’s browser large market share and the supports of HTML5, CSS and other web standards allow developers to spend fewer resources tweaking their website to work for different internet explorer version, especially for IE6 which is becoming more irrelevant day after day.
So it looks like IE9’s continuous growth is indeed a treat for web developers. Anyone think otherwise? Post your feedback in the comments below.
A couple of months ago, we posted about Windows XP having it’s tenth birthday. Today we are doing it again, because today is Windows XP tenth birthday! This time, 10 years ago, Windows XP hit the shelves, for millions to enjoy. The operating system is still widely used across the PC market, the OS usage only dipped below 50% this August.
A couple of months ago, we announced Windows XP’s 10th Anniversary, we are also reporting this today. How so? The anniversary we posted about in August, was the birthday of Windows XP Gold Master release, which means the operating system wasn’t yet ready for sale. It was only on October 25th 2001, that the Operating system became available on the shelves.
When Windows XP launched all those years ago, it was a phenomenon. This new operating system was far superior than Windows 98 and 2000, it had an awesome sleek look, and had no compatibility problems. XP was what everyone wanted on their desktop PC’s and laptops.
Microsoft dramatically improved the Windows Explorer, Driver Compatibility, Networking, Usage and more. Windows XP was a hit with consumers, so much so, it is still being used by almost 50% of the PC market.
Soon after the release, XP became a target. Viruses and Malware targeted XP faster than you could develop a security program to block them. It was too quick.
Now, ten years later, Microsoft wants the operating system to die. XP has become far too old to keep using as a main operating system, Windows 7 is now available for any computer, and with Windows 8 in the works, next year should be big for Microsoft.
Microsoft, in a press release, announced its earning for the last quarter that ended in September, and the software giant show record first-quarter revenue and overall growth across all the divisions except the Online Services Business. Microsoft reported $17.37 billions first quarter revenue which represent a 7% increase in one year.
“We saw customer demand across the breadth of our products, resulting in record first-quarter revenue and another quarter of solid EPS growth,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft, in a press release,. “Our product portfolio is performing well, and we’ve got an impressive pipeline of products and services that positions us well for future growth.”
This represents in terms of operating income, net income and diluted earning per share for this quarter an increase of 1%, %6, and %10 respectively and comparatively to the first quarter of last year.
Microsoft also highlighted earning some of the division, first, the Microsoft Business Division which reported $5.62 billion in first quarter revenue. An impressive %8 increase year over year with reported excellent sale of its office productivity suite, Office 2010.
The Sever & Tool segment also gained gained %10 year over year increase with a total revenue of $4.25 billion.
With Windows 7 showing strong momentum with 450 million copies already sold, the Windows and Windows Live Division show modest increase of %2 year over year and a total revenue of $4.87 billion.
The Entertainment & Devices division — which includes the Xbox 360 and Kinect — show %9 increase and a total of $1.97 billion of total revenue. Microsoft noted that the “Xbox was the top-selling gaming console in the US for ninth consecutive month.”
Although the Online Services Business shows really modest revenue increase, this division lost $424 million, down to 11 percent from $558 million loss the previous year.
In sum, Microsoft has a great first quarter, which by the way surpasses analyst expectations. Microsoft noted that “strong quarter for Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync, and saw growing demand for our public and private cloud services including Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online, and Windows Azure,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “With a great set of consumer products like Windows 7 PCs, Windows Phone 7.5, Xbox and Kinect, we are excited about the holiday buying season.”
Microsoft, who acquired Skype for $8.5 billion dollars back in May of this year, has been waiting on approval from the European Commission. The approval finally came today after the the European Commission officially approved the merger of Skype and Microsoft, concluding that combining the two companies would not significantly affect competition.
“In the area of consumer communications, the investigation found that the parties’ activities mainly overlap for video communications, where Microsoft is active through its Windows Live Messenger. However, the Commission considers that there are no competition concerns in this growing market where numerous players, including Google, are present. For enterprise communications, the investigation confirmed that Skype has a limited market presence for these products and does not compete directly with Microsoft’s enterprise communication product Lync, which is used mostly by large enterprises,” the European Commission concluded.
Microsoft is still waiting on approval from Russia, the Ukraine, Serbia and Taiwan. Microsoft received approval from the United States back in June of this year.
Recently, an Italian VoIP firm is challenging the company’s motives for purchasing Skype claiming that Microsoft will bundle the popular program with Windows. Italian VoIP firm, Messagenet, wrote to the European Commission warning that if Microsoft is allowed to acquire Skype, it will place Skype in a dominate position in the VoIP arena and ultimately excluding other VoIP companies from the market.
The European Commission also mentioned in a statement today that companies should not worry about Skype being bundled in Windows. “The vast majority of consumers who acquire a PC with Skype already installed are registered Skype users and … most of them subsequently download a version different from the pre-installed one.”
Skype, which currently has applications for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, plans on offering something unique just for Microsoft. With its own division at Microsoft, Skype will be able to have a better integration into Windows Phone, compared to Android or iOS. Why? Well, the restrictions on third party access to a phone’s video processor or address book information does not apply to Skype at Microsoft, so this means better utilization of hardware for tighter integration.
Microsoft has stated that support for Windows XP and Office 2003 is coming to a close in the near future. The company has been talking about its next generation operating system, Windows 8, at its Build Developer Conference in California this week. Most enterprises have yet to fully migrate to Windows 7, and now have to worry about expediting that move.
“We are end-of-lifing XP and Office 2003 and everything prior, in April 2014. So for all those companies that have the old products that haven’t quite started the refresh, guess what? This has been a great product, XP has been a wonderful product; great TCO has been given. It’s now time for it to go,” stated Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer.
Windows XP, which debuted in 2001, is still used by many of Microsoft’s business customers. Microsoft had extended support for Windows XP until 2014, but now Microsoft is making it clear that 2014 will be the true time of death. “We’re basically giving it a time of death stamp,” Turner stated.
During Build, Microsoft even stated that more than half of all Windows users are running Windows 7. Most analysts will argue that the majority of businesses today still use Windows XP. Looks like its time to expedite that upgrade plan.
During the TechEd conference in New Zealand, Microsoft’s Jeff Johnson and Patrick Hevesi showed off several new Windows Slate devices. Normally, this would be slightly interesting, but something else was mentioned during the session that made everyone move to the edges of their seats.
The announcement that a Quad Core Windows Slate would possibly be given out at an upcoming event was made during TechEd 2011 in New Zealand. In a blog post by Alan Burchill, who attended the event, he states: “What is very interesting is that device was a ‘Quad Core Windows Slate that will be give(n) out at an upcoming Microsoft Event’ Hmmm..”
Microsoft has not revealed on what it plans on giving away at the event but now many are speculating that this new Quad Core Slate device will be given away to attendees during the event.
Mary Jo Foley over at ZDnet tried to get confirmation on the authenticity of this claim but was met with negative results. “I asked a spokesperson with Microsoft’s Windows client team to confirm or deny Burchill’s report that this quad-core Windows slate will be a Build give-away and was told the company had no comment on any part of his report,” Foley stated.
Microsoft’s Build developer conference, which was a re-brand of the annual PDC event, has sold out recently, which is not surprising. Microsoft re-branded the conference to match the company’s new focus towards a “new generation of modern hardware and software development.” The Build developer conference, which takes place Tuesday September 13 to 16 in Anaheim, California, is expected to showcase first public build of Windows 8.
Today, ten years ago, Windows XP Launched to the public, changing the way we used our computers. With Microsoft sending helicopters to HP and Dell with the Gold Master edition of the operating system, it was truly a new beginning for computing.
The 24th August 2001 was the day Microsoft released Windows XP to Manufacturers, this was a huge leap forward for the company, they finally had a consumer operating system running on the NT kernel. Bill Gates and Jim Allchin had a small ceremony where they signed off the Gold Edition and sent it to OEM’s via helicopter.
The operating system was due out for the general public on October 25th, but unfortunately, two major events happened during that period. The attacks of September 11 which scaled the launch party down by quite a bit, and the devils0wn release of the operating system.
Windows XP became a big success very quickly, the operating system was running on 80% of the PC’s across the world by 2002. Even today the OS runs on 40% to 50% of all PC’s.
Happy Birthday Windows XP. You’ve been a wonderful operating system over these last ten years, well done Microsoft for changing the way we used our PC’s.
While Skype waits for the acquisition with Microsoft to be approved, the company is keeping busy with some of it’s own work. On Sunday, Skype announced that it had acquired Groupme, a mobile messaging company that was founded in 2010. As Skype hasn’t announced the official financial details of the deal, AllThingsDigital claims that Skype paid $85 Million to acquire the company.
The CEO of Skype Tony Bates said in the press release announcing the deal “The GroupMe team has created an incredibly sticky group messaging experience that works across mobile devices and platforms, making this a perfect addition to the voice, video and text products in the Skype family.”
Groupme is a group text messaging service, it allows you to send text messages to groups, hold conference calls and even share photo’s with friends. The service is free and is available for Windows Phone 7, Android, iPhone and Blackberry. It also works with any phone that has text messaging capabilities.
Skype is still in the middle of being acquired by Microsoft. in May, the company announced that it would be brought by Microsoft for $8.5 Billion. While European countries have still not decided on the deal, the US Government gave the deal a go ahead earlier this summer.
In a blog post, Microsoft has outlined its vision towards the future of TV and entertainment in the living room. Microsoft states that the company sees the Xbox 360, Kinect, and Bing as the big three that will transform entertainment related technology in the living room, and not Windows.
“Integration of products and services like Xbox, Kinect and Bing is at the heart of our strategy. Bing is also a strategic asset that makes many other Microsoft products better and more attractive to our customers. Thanks to Bing, Kinect and our voice recognition technology, we envision a future where the words “Hey, where’s the remote?” are as outdated as eight-track tapes and rotary telephones,” stated Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Corporate Communications.
Microsoft made no mention of Windows Media Center or Windows Media Connector in its discussion regarding entertainment technology. Recently, we learned that Microsoft was removing Windows Media Center from Windows 8.
Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of Corporate Communications, noted not that long ago that 40% of all Xbox related activities are not gaming related. If 40% of Xbox users are not gaming, what are they doing? This can range from watching movies on the Zune Store, using the built-in DVD player, checking Facebook, or sending other Xbox users messages. “The vision for Xbox is straightforward: All of the entertainment you want. With the people you care about. Made easy. That is why you’ve seen us invest in partnerships with ESPN, Netflix and Hulu. That is why we’ve baked social directly into the experience with Xbox LIVE – connecting gamers, friends and families across the globe. That is why you’ll see Xbox marketed more as an entertainment brand this year,” said Frank Shaw.
According to the research firm Gartner, Windows 7 is expected to become the leading operating system worldwide by the end of this year. In fact, 42% of all PCs will be running Windows 7. Gartner is claiming that this is a result of increased Windows 7 deployment in the enterprise setting.
“By the end of 2011, nearly 635 million new PCs worldwide are expected to be shipped with Windows 7. Many enterprises have been planning their deployment of Windows 7 for the last 12 to 18 months, and are now moving rapidly to Windows 7,” Gartner stated in a statement.
According to Gartner, due to the improvements in IT budgets over the last year, Windows 7 has seen an increase in deployment in the enterprise sector. Economic problems in Europe and political problems in the Middle East and Africa will likely slow the Windows 7 deployment in those regions.
Back in April of this year, Windows 7 had finally taken over the top position from the widely-used Windows XP in the US. To give you an idea of XP’s popularity, Windows Vista was never able to take over. The data from StatCounter for the first seven days of April shows Windows 7 with a 31.71% share compared to 31.56% for Windows XP. StatCounter bases its data on visitor stats from over three million websites.
Looks like Microsoft will be getting its wish soon enough. Microsoft has wanted Windows XP to phase out completely for a while now, especially in the enterprise setting. The funny thing is, by the time Windows 7 takes over, Windows 8 will be out and Microsoft will be set on dethroning Windows 7.
Looks like Microsoft is almost ready to unveil the next release of its Windows Intune PC Management service. Reports are indicating that Microsoft will be revealing this service next week, just in time for the Worldwide Partner Conference.
According to Mary Jo Foley, a beta version of Windows Intune PC Management service will likely be announced at the Worldwide Partner Conference. In case you were wondering what Intune is all about, it is Microsoft’s cloud service that provides IT professionals with PC management and security for $11 dollars per seat per month.
Windows Intune used to be called System Center Online Desktop Manager and has evolved into a management tool and online management/security service.
From what Foley reports, the new version will have third-party patch support. “There will no longer be just Windows Patch support which is what the current version has.”
In a Technet blog post, Microsoft was looking for IT managers to provide input on what they would like to see in future versions of Windows Intune. Microsoft was searching for companies that keep PCs secure and up to date, distribune software applications, manage mobile devices, peform data backups, and monitor PC health.
Lets see what takes place at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles next week (starting July 11th).
Reid Kuhn, Microsoft’s Partner Group Program Manager for the Windows Phone Engineering Team, stated in a blog post today that Microsoft will be releasing some of the source code for the software it uses to collect details of WiFi hotspots, with the intention that it be examined for privacy implications.
Microsoft used this code by having cars drive around to collect cell tower, WiFI, and GPS data, something the company calls “managed driving.” This allows for faster and better targeted location based services for Windows Phone users.
Microsoft, along with Apple and Google, got into a lot of heat a few months back when it was discovered that user’s smartphones were being tracked. Google continues to state that the collection of data was accidental.
“Important for respecting consumer privacy, [Microsoft’s] software does not intercept wireless data transmissions from consumers’ computers. The software neither observes nor records any information that may contain user content transmitted over a network,” Kuhn stated.
Kuhn states that this will prove that Microsoft is committed to privacy and ensuring the protection of people’s information.
