Week in review: Sony's sour note

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track record on censorship. The Tunisian government has earned notoriety for jailing journalists and bloggers accused of reporting false information.

Microsoft and the money
Even a company as large and powerful as Microsoft has money on its mind. So why would it consider giving away some of its most popular titles?

As Microsoft readies a host of new ad-supported online services to battle rivals, the software maker has been mulling a plan to offer free, ad-supported versions of some of its desktop products. Although no specific plans have been announced, executives within Microsoft are examining whether it makes sense to release ad-supported versions of products such as Works, Money or even the Windows operating system itself, according to internal documents seen by CNET News.com.

"As Web advertising grows and consumer revenues shrink, we need to consider creating ad-supported versions of our software," two Microsoft researchers and an MSN employee wrote in a paper presented to company executives earlier this year. The document was prepared for one of Microsoft's twice-yearly Thinkweek exercises, in which Chairman Bill Gates and other top executives gather to consider potential new avenues for the company to follow.

The document also sheds light on Microsoft's concerns over the erosion of revenue from shrink-wrapped software, particularly in the consumer market. Although Office and Windows continue to produce vast revenue and profit for Microsoft, some of the company's other well-known consumer titles are generating only a trickle of business.

According to the document, Microsoft gets only about $2 for each copy of Works that is bundled on new computers. The standard version of Money isn't even a break-even proposition, and the company has had to heavily discount its OneNote application in order to get computer makers to include it.

Microsoft predicts that things won't improve from here, either. In the paper, Microsoft said worldwide sales of full packaged software--which includes Works, the Encarta encyclopedia, digital-imaging software and Money--dropped by 7 percent in fiscal year 2004. In addition, the company said it is seeing similar trends for fiscal 2005.

Microsoft hopes that big iron will be more profitable. The company announced its foray into the world of supercomputing, though its first operating system for computer clusters remains in beta testing. Speaking at a supercomputing conference in Seattle, Gates announced that the company has reached the Beta 2 stage for its Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. The product consists of a cluster-optimized version of Windows Server 2003 as well as software for job scheduling and other tasks. It is scheduled for release in final form in the first half of next year.

Separately, Microsoft also announced that the Compute Cluster Server and several other upcoming server software releases will work only with 64-bit processors. Such chips, which include Intel's 64-bit Xeons and Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron, are becoming the norm on servers, and 64-bit processors are making their way onto desktop machines.

Xbox marks the spot
Microsoft will be the first of the three major companies to launch a new console when the Xbox 360 hits store shelves in North America on Tuesday. Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Revolution are expected sometime later in 2006.

Microsoft this week formally unveiled the lineup of titles that will be ready for the launch. Calling the lineup the "strongest launch in the history of video game consoles," Microsoft said there would be 18 games ready for the release.

Among them are many of the latest iterations in proven franchises, including Electronic Arts' "Madden NFL '06," "NBA Live '06" and "Need for Speed Most Wanted," as well as Activision's "Call of Duty 2" and "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland."

But contrary to some rumors in the industry, Microsoft does not appear poised to release "Halo 3," a move that would have been nearly impossible to pull off just a little more than a year after the hit "Halo 2" appeared.

MTV plans to devote an entire week of programming to games and game culture in anticipation of the release. Starting Sunday night, the cable channel said it will air game-focused coverage, as will its sister channels and Web sites, including MTV2, MTVU, MTVU Uber and MTV Overdrive. The video game-theme programming, dubbed GameORZ Week, acknowledges the degree to which game culture is integrated into the mainstream, especially among the MTV market of 18- to 24-year-olds.

Also of note
Google's mysterious Google Base service went live, allowing people to post any kind of information they want for free and to provide labels to describe it so others can easily find it...A growing number of impatient developers are building their own cell phones part by part...A group of open-source developers says it has changed the name of a podcast application after pressure from Apple Computer's lawyers...Microsoft released the first test version of Office 12, the next incarnation of its ubiquitous desktop suite.

[Stan Johnson]

BOYCOTT ALL THINGS SONY!

Sony only respects cash. They rip off open source programming to make a rootkit exe that rips off paying customers and damages their PCs. I make a living on my PC so this is unforgivable. Sony does not deserve consumer support or cash. They do deserver lawsuits and a strong worldwide boycott. Buy nothing Sony.

[GrandpaN1947]

I agree and

get ready for Windows DRM. That's what I call Window Vista. It has the DMCA built right into it. If you thought the rootkit was bad, you haven't seen anything yet.

[heystoopid]

Too little Too late!

Sony, has lost the plot, totally, by treating all customers as thieves! But, then never again, shall I purchase anything related to SONY! But alas, think of all sony bmg's label recording artists, when the get the bill for all the replacement cd's deducted from their paltry royalty payments(dressed up as additional promo costs!) Oh well, in this case nobody wins for users, have additional costs to clean and disinfect corrupted Windoze computers! Most Businesses will have banned all commercial SONY cd's/dvd's from use in house WINDOWS 2000 computer networks for security reasons! Recording artists will be deliberately underpaid! And Sony will have sunk it's reputation into the SEWER, for showing the world that it will always ignore all corporate laws and business governance regulations, for total profits ahead of it's customer rights! Time to BOYCOTT all that is SONY!!!!!!! I hope all the class action law suits monetary restitution, collectively sink SONY BMG permanently!

[Lolo Gecko]

this gives new meaning to the word ...

STUPIDITY :)

[11-Dimensions]

What a Mess!!!

Sony's little 'rootkit' secret, hidding from the fans buying their CDs, now turns out to be a big mess for Sony in the news.

Sony just sent a clear message to all the fans:
Downloading pirated musics from the internet is actually safer to your computer than buying CDs from Sony.

[powerdot]

Sony XCP More Sinister & Not Just Anti-Piracy

First, Full Support To BOYCOTT BOYCOTT BOYCOTT ALL ALL ALL Things Sony.
Look deeper and put the jigsaw together and you'll realise that Sony is definitely an EVIL AND SINISTER EMPIRE. Rotten to the core.
They installed the XCP not just for anti-piracy purposes BUT to bring down the great American Company of Steve Jobs, the magnificent Apple iPod machine.
First, Sony tried to double their download $ for each song to kill iPod. As Steve Jobs said something like, doubling the download price from $0.99 to about $2 will encourage piracy and thus Sony hoped to gradually kill iPod's popularity because less and less people will then be using iPods as the downloads get more expensive. iPod's leadership and top popularity now was ONCE Sony Walkman's.
Since Steve Jobs resisted Sony, Sony tried (not sure if effected) to cut iPod off from its songs.
Another evil step to trample on iPod to get itself (Sony) up to the top.
And now this 2nd step by Sony to be a virus distributor itself by hiding it's XCP deep inside people's computers with 2 main objectives (maybe more).
As I read somewhere, those Sony XCPed songs cannot play on iPods but play fine on Walkmans.
Sony is greedy, evil, arrogant, and a pathetic liar (wait till you email them for customer service when they reply that they'll get back to you in a few days and the days turn into months with deafening silence and you'll know that I don't exaggerate!! Further nice, polite emails met with the same fate. That is the real Sony).
NOW, I DON'T BUY ANYTHING SONY.
Sony of many, many, many years ago was different.
NOW, their products are riddled with so many quality problems like their software.
Design problems, malfunction problems, unable to write when intended to do so (DVD writers) etc.
I should know because I have used Sony digital cameras (2MP and 5MP), camcorders, TVs, DVD drive,CD Drive, 3.5 floppy drive, and others.
BUT NOW, I TOTALLY BOYCOTT ALL THINGS SONY.

[sabot96]

test

test

agreed

This is what we get for being honest and paying for merchandise?! Sony is the devil. Hurt them where they hurt the general consumer...in the pocketbook. Greedy Sony keeps trying to get iTunes to raise their prices above the .99 cent mark too? Oh jesus...boycott!!

[powerdot]

Pt 2: SONY XCP More Sinister or Just Anti-Piracy?

Recent news that <<< the industry has seen an estimated $2 billion overall decline in CD sales...>>>
How is that calculated? Real figures or imaginary numbers?
More likely, is it just an excuse to plead "poverty" to pay the artistes LESS and keep more for their greedy selves???
Paying big bucks to keep people like the HEAD???!! of Sony's GLOBAL???!! business to say things like "Most people, I think don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
SO AFTER WE, THE CUSTOMERS HAVE PAID FOR SONY'S VERY EXPENSIVE SONGS AND VERY EXPENSIVE PRODUCTS TO KEEP HIM UP THERE, IS HE IMPLYING THAT WE KEEP PAYING GOOD MONEY TO SONY FOR HIM TO LOOK DOWN UPON US AS PEOPLE WHO ARE WAY BENEATH HIM BECAUSE WE ARE IGNORANT, ILLITERATE, STUPID & COMPLACENT??
So he can exploit that, trample on our rights and privacy, and put their dirty greasy hands into our pockets again and again by spying on our likes and dislikes?
LIKE, SONY, THROUGH HIM, ARE THEY IMPLYING THAT CUSTOMERS DESERVE NO RESPECT BECAUSE CUSTOMERS DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ROOTKIT, PRIVACY, INSULTS, AND WILL STILL KEEP PAYING FOR SONY'S PRODUCTS T GET INSULTED AGAIN & AGAIN?? AND THAT WE'LL FORGET AFTER A FEW WEEKS AND THEN START BUYING SONY AGAIN???
And when Sony's XCP disables our CD/DVD drive,
we might be misled, cheated, conned, and scammed into thinking that our CD/DVD drive is burnt out or that our computer is in poor shape and so is Sony hoping that we will then buy a brand new sony computer or at the very least spend good money on a new sony problem-plagued CD/DVD drive and throw out the perfectly good CD/DVD drive that was in our computer???
IS THIS THE START OF A NEW GREEDY BUSINESS TREND OF GETTING MORE MONEY FROM US BY, IN THIS CASE, USING XCP TO INTENTIONALLY KNOCK OUT OR CAUSE WILLFUL DAMAGE TO OUR PRODUCT AND THUS MISLEAD US INTO THINKING THAT WE NEED TO GET A NEW ONE OR PAY FOR OUR PRODUCT TO BE SERVICED??
OR HAS THIS GREEDY NEW BUSINESS TREND ALREADY STARTED?
The timing of introducing the XCP now, starting of the Christmas shopping season,
when people are more inclined to spend or replace or gift computers etc, is that ?good,
well-planned? timing or just a coincidence that XCP can disable our drives?
Did Sony dream that their XCP would be good for their business without thinking that the "illiterate, dumb masses" of customers are way much more intelligent, more sharp and much more hi-tech than Sony and their HEAD???!! of GLOBAL???!!! Business???

Sony is a very greedy company.

I hope that people realize - Sony doesn't market to consumers. There's more money in developing relationships with other businesses and securing their loyalty. That's how these kinds of issues crop up.

In the case of DRM, Sony approaches businesses and says "Look, we can do this". Without any tech-savvy, the soon-to-be partners assume that Sony's methods are legitimate and genuine - and as we know, it's quite the opposite.
It's not very long before Sony is given the wake up call that they aren't exactly good at what they do and people have bypassed their security with no effort at all.

I would strongly reccomend that people do what I've been trying to explain for ages: Boycott Sony. They don't deserve any of our money and their products outside of music also suffer from a range of questionable practice issues.

Ever had to deal with their support?