microsoft

Microsoft preps for business services push

After months talking about the notion of software plus services, Microsoft is apparently ready to get a bit more specific on the business side of things.

Early next month, Business Division President Jeff Raikes is expected to outline what the company has in mind from services for individual workers to small businesses all the way through the largest enterprises.

The "software plus services" term has become nearly ubiquitous in company PowerPoint presentations, but the details are often left unstated. There is a definite effort to add services to almost everything Microsoft does. But while the company has gotten … Read more

Microsoft starts a "Get the Facts" campaign...against itself

You've got to hand it to Microsoft. It hates ANYTHING and ANYONE that gets in its way of selling its software.

Including, apparently, itself.

In a very funny turn of events, Microsoft is out preaching to the industry that XP is a bloated expense hog, while svelte Vista will cure world hunger (or, at least, cost less), as Paul Krill notes:… Read more

Moonlight and the dupe quiz? Microsoft or Novell?

Simon Phipps takes apart the licensing maze required to start "enjoying" Novell's Moonlight. Novell clearly wants to be popular with someone, and so has settled on Microsoft.

Stephen Walli, for his part, thinks that all of this shows just how brilliant Novell is. All I can say is that sometimes things look smarter from the outside than they do from the inside. Stephe sometimes gets carried away in thinking that people actually intend all of the intelligence of which he accuses them.

However, one thing is clear and Stephe points it out:… Read more

Future Implications: Will Microsoft Extender be anything special?

As Microsoft announced its new Extender solution today, many have been asking if it will be the new be-all, end-all for the home viewing experience. Some have called this an amazing development that deserves attention, while others are saying it's not all that great. I tend to agree with the second group.

For those of you who are unaware of this new product from Microsoft, Extender will be able to take any media (video, TV, music, print) from a PC to a television or from a television to another television in another room. In other words, you can have the same show playing in your bedroom and living room without missing a beat. Ideally, this would work with the help of a Media Center PC and a device being created by Linksys, D-Link and others.

This may sound great on paper, and the ability to move media around in my house like this would be nice, but is it really necessary? More often than not, I have the equipment I need to do this already. Sure, it may not be as easy as Microsoft's product, but if the current infrastructure is there, why get rid of it for something new? Simply put, this technology is a few years too late.… Read more

Microsoft spreads HD Photo to Mac OS X

Microsoft, while trying to get its HD Photo image format standardized as "JPEG XR", also continues to work on spreading the technology by more conventional means such as building Photoshop support.

The company released a new beta of its HD Photo plug-in for Photoshop a couple of weeks ago, the most notable new feature being support for the Mac OS X version of the image-editing software. Previously only Photoshop on Windows was supported.

"This supports both Photoshop CS2 and CS3 running on OS X 10.4 (Tiger)...on both Intel and PowerPC Mac systems," said Bill … Read more

Microsoft on new iPods: What, me worry?

"It is another good day for Microsoft."

Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray famously used that line seven years ago, briefing reporters at the company's landmark antitrust trial, right after the software giant took a beating in court.

The Zune folks didn't use that specific wording, but they did try to shrug off the latest crop of iPods.

"This may come as a shock to folks, but today's Apple Computer announcement doesn't actually change any of our plans," Zune unit blogger Cesar Menendez said in a blog posting on Wednesday. "Of course we … Read more

What will future Office 2.0 apps look like?

Office 2.0 is not just about putting Word and Excel online. What are the key things in Office 2.0 moving forward? The first panel at the Office 2.0 conference, hosted by GigaOm's Om Malik, tackles this. Some directions we can look forward to in future business applications:

Social networking. This can be a "game changer" for the workforce, if applied correctly to business needs. So says Microsoft's Richard McAniff. Interesting take, considering Microsoft's lack of juice in this arena. Is McAniff presaging a new product or acquisition?

Better tools to tackle the &… Read more

Microsoft gives Media Center Extender another try

Microsoft plans another go at the media center extender concept, but it's unclear whether the new features will be enough to lure more buyers than it did with the first go-around a few years back.

As in the past, the devices are designed to connect to a TV in one room to access music, photos and video from a computer in another room. It's the same idea as the Apple TV, which even Steve Jobs says is more a "hobby" for Apple than a real business.

A real question exists as to how many buyers are … Read more

Is Microsoft Vista global warming friendly?

Is Microsoft Vista global warming friendly? Could Vista be the best-selling clean-tech product in the world? I was thinking about this question the other day, and started e-mailing the Microsoft press relations folks looking for an answer.

The Microsoft answer--yes, it is. They have a recent release titled "Windows Vista Power Management Features Can Help U.K. Companies Reduce Their Carbon Footprint" on some independent research they had done by PC Pro Labs in the U.K.

Here's their quote:

"Windows Vista is Microsoft's most energy efficient operating system to date with its power … Read more