LOS ANGELES--After spending much of Tuesday in the clouds, the second day of the Professional Developers Conference on Wednesday is expected to be far more grounded.
On tap is a discussion of the Office 2010 beta as well as the first details on Internet Explorer 9, although Microsoft is not providing code. Microsoft is also talking about Silverlight 4 and releasing a beta of that product.
8:30 a.m. PT: Windows unit president Steven Sinofsky takes the stage.
Sinofsky said that Microsoft approaches Windows 7 like building a movie theater. Microsoft's job is to provide "great seats, great sounds and maybe a concession stand" while developers make the actual movies.
Although developers were interested in hearing about IE 9, the most popular part of Steven Sinofsky's talk was when he announced that paid PDC attendees were getting a free Windows 7 laptop.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)8:35 a.m. PT: Sinofsky is talking about the Windows 7 development process from before the code was publicly released through beta testing and release.
He's hitting on familiar refrains--trying to be more predictable, talking about features only when they are fully baked, and all of the "telemetry" Microsoft uses to get automated feedback.
Sinofsky is talking about the different mechanisms Microsoft uses from Windows Error Reporting, or Watson, to its Software Quality Monitor. Sinofsky notes that the monitoring tools require the user's permission in the final versions of Windows.
During the beta process, though, "we opt you in automatically," he says. (Not to quibble, but technically that's known as opt-out.)
Semantics aside, the shift to automated feedback has had a major impact on the way Windows is developed. In the past, Sinofsky said, bugs got fixed, in large part, based on "whoever screamed the loudest."
Sinofsky said it was basically "testosterone-based bug fixing."
With automated mechanism, Microsoft can see which problems are affecting the most people most often.
8:40 a.m. PT: Sinofsky is sharing some numbers about the Windows 7 beta.
Microsoft got 1.7 million feedback reports, or one feedback report every 10 seconds in the first two weeks after beta. There were 8.1 million installations of the beta, including 4.3 million installations of the release candidate.
There were 10.4 million error reports, which resulted in 4,753 code changes. The start menu was clicked 514 million times in the past six months, while the new Aero Snap and Shake features were clicked 46.4 million times during the same period.
8:45 a.m. PT: Sinofsky is talking about usability studies Microsoft does to test new features, and showing some examples of user feedback on the User Account Control dialog box.
First up, is a mother of a 5 year old who said that when she finally gets time to sit at the computer she'd rather not be interrupted. Instead, she suggested it would be better if there was a place she could go to find all the messages (not too different from the action center eventually included in Windows 7).
Now he's showing some testing of the Aero Snap and Aero Shake features that help manage multiple open windows.
"Get on down... I like that," said one user.
8:50 a.m. PT: If you haven't already, check out CNET's Ray Ozzie interview that posted this morning.
8:53 a.m. PT: Sinofsky brings out Mike Angiulo, who heads up Microsoft's dialogue with the "ecosystem"--folks like PC makers, software, and hardware developers.
He shows off Sony's super-thin, super-light Vaio X. I'm playing around with a demo model of this machine. People are really amazed with this computer. It's so light, some of the people I've shown it to could barely believe it was real.
Microsoft thought it would be good to learn how a laptop is made. It worked with Acer to build a 3.79 pound laptop with multi-touch, preloaded Office, etc.
"It was great for us as members of the ecosystem," Sinofsky said. The best news for those at PDC-- they are making the laptop available to paid PDC attendees for free.
That got the crowd excited. "Not this one, this one is mine," Sinofsky said, clutching the one he is showing off.
The laptops won't be ready for pick-up until 12:30 though. I encourage you to stay here for the rest of the talk."
9:08 a.m. PT: Talk shifts to Internet Explorer.
"There's a balance between standards and real-world," Sinofsky said.
Sinofsky talks about where Microsoft is headed with Internet Explorer 9.
We're about three weeks into the Internet Explorer 9 development, he says.
Sinofsky acknowledges some areas Microsoft needs to do better. One is the Acid 3 benchmark, IE 8 got 20 out of 100 on that test, while IE 9 is at 32 out of 100.
Performance, particularly JavaScript performance, is another area. He shows WebKit.org's SunSpider benchmark which shows IE 9 in the same ballpark as test versions of other leading browsers. Earlier versions of IE performed much worse on SunSpider than other browsers.
"We're getting very close to basically being a wash," Sinofsky said.
9:14 a.m. PT: Sinofsky shows another feature of IE 9--the ability to easily do rounded corners.
More importantly, the IE 9 rendering engine will shift text and graphics rendering to the graphics chip. That allows smoother text and faster performance. Although some browsers shift a bit of 3D work to the graphics processing units in PCs, Microsoft says IE is the first to tap hardware acceleration for standard text and graphics.
Sinofsky shows a few examples, including Bing Maps, where unaccelerated graphics rendered 14 frames per second, while hardware acceleration in IE 9 allowed upwards of 60 frames per second.
Geek detail: The IE logo on the taskbar for IE 9 was gray, as opposed to the blue logo of IE 8.
9:26 a.m. PT: Developer Division head Scott Guthrie on stage talking about Silverlight and Silverlight 4.
Priorities for the next version include improved media features, such as access to Webcams and microphones on a PC and output protection for those with premium content.
Developer Division head Scott Guthrie followed Stephen Sinofsky on stage on Wednesday, showing off some of the features of Silverlight 4.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)Guthrie demos a photo booth application, including video and still capture as well as different pixel shader effects, such as a crayon filter. The technology probably allows a lot more, but Apple fanboys would be right to point to the photo booth application on the Mac (though this is a concept app and Silverlight 4 is browser-based technology, not a desktop application).
Another focus for Silverlight 4 is improving Silverlight outside the browser.
9:37 a.m. PT: Guthrie's having a little trouble with some of the Silverlight demos, showing IIS server's support for creating iPhone-capable video.
"If someone is backstage and wants to kick the browser, feel free to," Guthrie said. "We'll try one more time."
9:40 a.m. PT: Guthrie is talking some of the technical features of Silverlight 4, including a new text editor that supports Roman fonts, as well as Arabic, Hebrew, and Kanji, among other alphabets.
9:45 a.m. PT: Guthrie shows a Silverlight-based video jigsaw puzzle. Turns out it is a video of the infamous Rick Astley video. "You've all been rickrolled," Guthrie said.
Also, for those who want to see the IIS smooth streaming on iPhone demo that Guthrie struggled to get working, it is on the Web here.
9:50 a.m. PT: It's getting code-heavy now, as Microsoft demos how to create Silverlight stuff in Visual Studio 2010. Meanwhile, there's some more detail on Microsoft's IE 9 plans in this blog post.
9:55 a.m. PT: Microsoft hasn't started talking about the Office 2010 beta yet, but it looks like you can start getting it from Microsoft's Web site.
10:04 a.m. PT: Still no Office talk on stage, but the beta is live and Microsoft has posted an article noting that Office Mobile 2010 is also in beta and available for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones via the Windows Mobile Marketplace.
The beta also adds an Outlook Social Connector, which allows users to bring in Windows Live and other social networking feeds into Outlook. LinkedIn is the first that will take advantage of it--early next year--but there is a software development kit for others to do so.
10:15 a.m. PT: The beta of Silverlight 4 is now available for download, Guthrie says. The final release is due in the first half of next year.
10:17 a.m. PT: Office unit senior vice president Kurt DelBene is introduced to talk about Office 2010.
10:20 a.m. PT: DelBene talking about efforts to bring Office not just to the desktop, but also via hosted services.
By the way, while I've been live blogging, we've also posted a story and photo gallery looking at the Windows Azure data center container that is on display at the PDC show floor.
10:35 a.m. PT: DelBene notes that the Office 2010 beta is now available, as are betas of the Office Web Apps for businesses as well as office Mobile for Windows Mobile 6.5.
"I hope that you will all download (Office 2010)," DelBene said.
As I note in my story on the Office 2010 beta, though, the Web Apps remain in their current Tech Preview form on Windows Live. There's no time frame for when they will get updated to the beta versions, which include Word editing and the OneNote Web app.
10:45 a.m. PT: Lots of Sharepoint demos. Lot's of coding. I'll spare you the details.
Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder, has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
(Credit: NBA)Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has been diagnosed with cancer, according to a memo sent on Monday to employees of Vulcan, Allen's company.
Allen, who is a survivor of Hodgkin's disease, has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to Vulcan CEO Jody Allen, who is also Paul Allen's sister.
Jody Allen's memo, which was also sent to the media:
To employees of Vulcan and affiliates:
I want to let you know that Paul was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
He received the diagnosis early this month and has begun chemotherapy. Doctors say he has diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a relatively common form of lymphoma.
This is tough news for Paul and the family. But for those who know Paul's story, you know he beat Hodgkin's a little more than 25 years ago and he is optimistic he can beat this, too.
Paul is feeling OK and remains upbeat. He continues to work and he has no plans to change his role at Vulcan. His health comes first, though, and we'll be sure that nothing intrudes on that.
We would ask you to respect Paul's privacy and not discuss this outside of the office.
If you have any questions, please ask your EC member.
Thank you in advance for what I know will be all your good thoughts for Paul.
Jody
Fellow Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he and his wife, Melinda, were keeping Allen in their thoughts.
"Melinda and I have Paul and his family in our thoughts and prayers," Gates said in a statement. "Paul is among my closest friends, and I know to him be a strong and resilient individual."
Updated at 6:55 p.m. PST with comment from Bill Gates.
Unlike when you stand over your coworker's desk, Microsoft's Bing search engine actually works better when you hover.
One of the key features of the would-be rival to Google is that when you hover to the right of a result, you can get a preview of what to expect. As part of an update this week, Bing's hover result will now feature more information including a thumbnail preview of the site in question.
Microsoft is using Wolfram Alpha to help power certain results, such as this search for the fat content of french fries.
(Credit: CNET News)One of the ongoing challenges for Bing, besides just getting more people to use the site, is letting them know that the hover feature is there. Microsoft's research has shown it gets high usage from those who know about it, but also finds that lots of people don't know the feature is there. Microsoft has been experimenting with some different visual cues that might make it easier to stumble upon the previews.
The hover feature was developed by the San Francisco-based team that Microsoft acquired as part of last year's acquisition of Powerset. Powerset, which developed a semantic search technology, also powers Bing's index of Wikipedia.
Bing's fall update update also includes the first fruits of a deal with Wolfram Alpha. As part of that arrangement, certain health related searches, such as "how many calories in a hamburger" will now feature information from Alpha. Bing will also rely on Alpha for some math calculations, Microsoft said in a blog posting on Wednesday. Wolfram noted that Microsoft is one of the first customers for a commercial licensing program that was formally announced several weeks ago.
Other changes to Bing include improved local results for topics such as weather and events.
It's all part of a wave of updates Microsoft is making to Bing this week. On Tuesday, Microsoft said it is moving its MSN Video site under the Bing umbrella, with a new video page that can be used to watch videos from places like Hulu and elsewhere.
The company also announced some enhancements to Bing Maps, including the ability to use the mouse to alter a suggested route and have one's directions re-calculated.
The improvements come as Microsoft is looking for ways to stand out from Google as it tries to wrest share from its much larger rival. The software maker has seen a modest uptick but faces steep hurdles in trying to make more significant gains.
Experian Hitwise said Wednesday that Bing's share reached 9.57 percent in October. That's up from 8.96 percent in September, but still well behind Google, which had more than 70 percent and Yahoo, with 16 percent of the U.S. search query market.
While adding features is clearly important, trying to stay ahead in the search game can be quite a challenge. Just hours after Microsoft announced a deal last month to index real-time tweets from Twitter, Google announced plans to do the same.
Microsoft has also gotten some unwanted attention for one of its features--the Bing Cashback program--where users can get a portion of their online transactions rebated by starting off on Bing. A blog posting outlined a flaw in the mechanism that could allow people to get cash back without ever spending money via Bing.
That posting was pulled after a
Microsoft made two enterprise moves on Monday, one expected and the other a bit of a surprise.
As promised, the company used its TechEd event in Berlin to release Exchange 2010, the latest version of its e-mail and calendar server software. Microsoft finalized the code for the product last month and had said it would launch at TechEd.
Microsoft VP Tami Reller talks about enterprise adoption of Windows 7 as part of a Webcast held after the first day of TechEd Europe.
(Credit: CNET News)Meanwhile, the company also announced it is buying the Teamprise technology from SourceGear. Teamprise allows developers using Eclipse and those working on non-Windows operating systems to build applications using Microsoft's Visual Studio product.
"We know our customers face daily challenges with management, collaboration and development in heterogeneous environments. The industry must take steps to make interoperability a stronger business asset for our customers," senior vice president and developer unit head S. Somasegar said in a statement. "With the acquisition of the Teamprise assets, we're taking a step forward on this journey, providing customers with a viable cross-platform development solution that will help produce business results more quickly."
Microsoft didn't announce financial terms of the deal, but did say the Teamprise technology will be integrated into Visual Studio 2010.
At TechEd Europe, Microsoft also talked about enterprise adoption of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, highlighting some early customers of the two products.
"We remain just pleased and humbled by the very warm reception we're seeing," Microsoft vice president Tami Reller said in a Webcast on Monday.
As part of the same Webcast, senior vice president Chris Capossela sounded off on Cisco's announcement of updated collaboration tools that could take on Exchange.
"Rather than stitching together acquired products and calling that a solution, we've built Exchange form the ground up," he said.
Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is notifying approximately 800 workers that their jobs are being eliminated as the software giant completes the layoffs it announced earlier this year.
In January, Microsoft said it would cut approximately 5,000 positions before the end of the next fiscal year, which ends in June. With the latest cuts, Microsoft said it has essentially completed those layoffs. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in May that it was mostly, but not entirely, done with the job eliminations.
Actually, though, the latest cuts will push Microsoft past that 5,000 number. Once these cuts are made, it will have eliminated approximately 5,800 jobs since January, said Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos.
Wednesday's job cuts were spread across multiple businesses and around the globe, Gellos said. Microsoft didn't announce any specific products that are getting the axe as a a result of Wednesday's cuts, although it has cut a variety of products in recent months, including Microsoft Money, Windows Live OneCare and, just this past week, its small business accounting product line.
There could also be additional cuts, even as Microsoft does some hiring in key areas. Although January's layoffs were the company's first across-the-board cuts, it regularly reviews its businesses and makes adjustments as necessary, Gellos said.
"We'll manage our businesses closely and do the things that we need to do," Gellos said.
Update 12:05 p.m. PT: As noted by TechCrunch and others, among those let go on Wednesday was Don Dodge--one of Microsoft's key voices in Silicon Valley and a director on the company's emerging business team. Dodge wrote about the turn of events on his personal blog Wednesday.
A massive outage left many T-Mobile USA customers across the country unable to make calls or get data on their cellular phones on Tuesday.
In a statement, T-Mobile said it is working to get its service back up and running.
"T-Mobile customers may be experiencing service disruptions impacting voice and data," the company said in a statement. "Our rapid response teams have been mobilized to restore service as quickly as possible. We will provide updates as more information is available."
The move comes as the carrier is still working to restore data to T-Mobile Sidekick users, many of whom have been without some or all of their information for an entire month.
In a statement on Friday, T-Mobile said many of its Sidekick customers have been able to restore at least their contacts, although it acknowledged not everyone got their address books back.
"There was a very small group of customers for whom we were unable to recover any contacts," the carrier said. It is still working to bring back other data, including calendars, to-do lists, notes, pictures and other data. "We will share more details around this restoration process very soon," it said.
Microsoft, whose Danger service powers the Sidekick, initially thought all data might be lost, but later said it expected to be able to restore most, if not all user data.
Update 5:04 p.m. PT: In a slightly updated statement, T-Mobile said "Some T-Mobile customers may be experiencing intermittent service disruptions impacting voice and some data services."
Reports from users seem to vary. In San Francisco, I was unable to make or receive calls or get e-mail. Meanwhile, a few users in Boston and Washington, D.C. told me that their T-Mobile phones appeared to be working.
If other people want to drop me a note of where they are and what's working or not, I'll get a better sense of things.
5:20 p.m. PT: T-Mobile subscribers in eastern Tennessee, Honolulu, Long Island, N.Y. all e-mailed me to say they, too, were experiencing outages.
Gretchen Wuersching, an accountant who lives in Mount Vernon, N.Y. and works in Manhattan said she has been without service in New York City and Westchester County. Wuersching said she first noticed her service out in Manhattan and was still out in both Westchester County and later when she drove to the Bronx.
Meanwhile, a T-Mobile subscriber in Orange County, Calif. said service was intermittent, while another customer in Denver said her BlackBerry could make calls and handle e-mail, as could friends on T-Mobile's network there, but that text messages were not working.
Several people in the Salt Lake City area said they were having problems, while another in Utah said that calls and text messages were not working, but that Web and e-mail access was continuing.
All in all, it sounds like a very mixed bag for T-Mobile subscribers. Thanks to everyone who wrote in and I'll let you know when I hear more from T-Mobile.
Update 6:24 p.m. PT: T-Mobile issued an updated statement saying it now believes only 5 percent of customers are experiencing outages.
"We're making good progress restoring voice and messaging service to affected customers," a T-mobile representative said. "At this time, approximately 5 percent of T-Mobile customers are experiencing service disruptions. Issues began at approximately 5:30 p.m. Eastern time. Our rapid response team is working continuously to fully resolve this disruption. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused our customers."
The e-mails are literally flooding into my in-box from around the country and far more people are telling me they are experiencing outages of one variety or another than say they have full service. But perhaps that's the nature of who e-mails.
Among the dozens of e-mails of problems I have gotten was this message from Karen Jacobson, an analyst and programmer in North Carolina. "My daughter called me from Chicago to say that her text messaging doesn't work and asked me to call T-Mobile," Jacobson said. "I called them and was told that the network was busy. I then tried texting ... and was unable to text from down here. My friend Crystal called from Florida, on her landline, to tell me that her T-Mobile has not been able to make or accept phone calls for at least an hour (and now her boyfriend is angry cause he thinks she ignored him!)."
For my part, I have data access on my Blackberry Curve, but no ability to make calls. E-mail service, which was out for a time, seems to be back.
Update 10:50 p.m. PT: T-Mobile issued an updated statement saying it has restored voice and text/picture messaging services to customers who experienced outages and apologizing for the inconvenience.
Why would anything between Microsoft and Yahoo go quickly?
After months of awkward teenage romance, the two companies finally announced that they had reached a deal in July.
Microsoft and Yahoo reached a "binding letter agreement" on their search deal in July, but ironing out the full pact is taking the two sides longer than anticipated, they said Wednesday.
(Credit: Microsoft/Yahoo)However, the two sides are apparently still working out the terms of what they agreed to in the "binding letter agreement" reached in July. In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, Yahoo said it and Microsoft need more time to iron out a definitive accord.
"The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute definitive agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized," Yahoo said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
They have time, as regulators are still pouring over the deal.
In a statement, Microsoft said the two companies remain committed to their arrangement.
"Given the complex nature of this transaction, there remain some issues that need some additional clarity and definitive details," a Microsoft representative said in a statement. "So the teams at Yahoo and Microsoft are continuing to work on the remaining details, and we have mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute the agreement."
Microsoft said "both companies are optimistic that we will be able to close this deal by early 2010."
Seth MacFarlane
Microsoft said Monday it has canceled its sponsorship of a planned variety show with the creator of the "Family Guy."
In a statement, a Microsoft representative said the show--a variety show to be done by Alex Borstein and Seth MacFarlane--was not "a fit with the Windows brand." Microsoft had hoped to use the show to tout its just-released Windows 7 operating system.
"We initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition and creative humor of 'Family Guy,' but after reviewing an early version of the variety show it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand," the representative said.
Microsoft had announced plans earlier this month to present the Fox TV special.
Now who didn't see this coming?
Microsoft said on Monday that it will open up the data format behind its Outlook program.
In a blog posting, Microsoft group manager Paul Lorimer said the company is working to publish the specifications behind Outlook's .pst files.
"Data portability has become an increasing need for our customers and partners as more information is stored and shared in digital formats," Lorimer wrote. "One scenario that has come up recently is how to further improve platform-independent access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, and other data generated by Microsoft Outlook."
The move, he said, will "allow developers to read, create, and interoperate with the data in .pst files in server and client scenarios using the programming language and platform of their choice."
Lorimer said the documentation effort is still in its early stages. "We are engaging directly with industry experts and interested customers to gather feedback on the quality of the technical documentation to ensure that it is clear and useful."
Once released, Lorimer said Microsoft will offer it "under our Open Specification Promise, which will allow anyone to implement the .pst file format on any platform and in any tool, without concerns about patents, and without the need to contact Microsoft in any way."
NEW YORK--Although the official U.S. launch event is still some hours away, Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system has hit the market, going on sale in a number of countries across the globe.
Executives from Microsoft have fanned out to celebrate the launch of the company's core product upon which the rest of Redmond's empire has been built. The software giant is counting on favorable reviews and new features to help Windows rebuilt its image in the face of a disappointing response to Windows Vista.
(Credit:
Microsoft)
Microsoft is touting the value of Windows in the face of a resurgent Apple. As part of the launch, Microsoft is celebrating seven days of deals in a number of key markets, including the United States. Among the specials is a $1,200 package from Hewlett-Packard and Best Buy that includes a Netbook, laptop, desktop, monitor and router as well as in-home installation.
"The Best Buy offer is a home makeover," Microsoft Vice President Tami Reller told CNET News. "For the price of a Mac you have a new notebook, a new Netbook, a new desktop, and a new router to bring it together with the help of the Geek Squad."
In addition to landing on new PCs, Microsoft will also sell stand-alone versions of Windows 7 that can be used to upgrade an existing PC. Although Microsoft still offers a half-dozen different flavors of the operating system in all, Redmond is focusing its energies around two versions--the Home Premium and Professional versions.
It will sell both a full version of the operating system that can be used on any hardware as well as an upgrade version to be used on existing PCs. Although both Windows XP and Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7, only Vista can be done without backing up and reinstalling both programs and data.
A huge marketing blitz will accompany the debut of Windows 7, with Microsoft continuing its "I'm a PC" campaign, by featuring average users who point to various aspects of the new operating system as representing their idea.
Microsoft plans to formalize the launch with an event here with CEO Steve Ballmer (CNET News will cover the 11 a.m. ET event live). The software maker is also opening its first retail store, in Scottsdale, Ariz., as well as a "Windows Cafe" in Paris.
Steven Sinofsky, the divisional president who has spearheaded the development of Windows 7, is presiding over the Japanese launch of the product, while designer Julie Larson-Green is at an event in London.
Microsoft employees in Redmond's Building 37 plan to remotely ring the bell to open Nasdaq trading on Thursday, while Microsoft and its computer maker partners will ring the closing bell.
The product has already gone on sale in Australia, Japan and elsewhere.
