Archive of thenextweb.com
All those pesky Windows 7 battery issues? Nothing to fret about says Microsoft, Windows 7 is operating as it should be.
The battery warnings that are cropping up among upgraders to Windows 7 are in fact correctly labeled, says Microsoft. The company has stated that the reason that the batteries are being flagged for replacement is that they are not performing up to specification. Simple enough.
Not performing well, and you should around to perhaps “consider replacing your battery,” as the warning in Windows 7 goes. Please note that the warnings for battery replacement are new to Windows 7.
This is why people who upgrade from an earlier flavor of Windows have been consued when the errors appeared. (more…)
The iPhone killer? Unlikely. But if this report from Spanish blog MuyComputer is true, Microsoft is officially taking a stab at it.
The report claims that the rumors are true and that Microsoft will introduce the world to its Zune Phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this month.
Our source, Gizmodo, notes that the blog is “100%” sure that it will be announced and is also certain that MuyComputor is a reliable, credible source.
The Zune Phone will use the Tegra platform who Microsoft has already partnered with for their Zune HD device. It will reportedly have a 480 x 272 screen (wha?), HDMI video out, weigh around 2.45 ounces (70 grams), and will use Windows Mobile 7.
Is that a deal breaker?
Update:
Neowin reported late last month that sources at Microsoft confirmed there was no “Zune Phone”. According to Neowin, the device will be running Zune software but Danger branded, not a “Zune Phone” so to speak. Read their story here.
The last quarter of 2009 ended the weakness that had been seen in personal computer sales. Mostly on strength in the global PC market, Microsoft recorded financial performance that greatly surpassed analyst estimates.
For its most recent quarter, Microsoft saw a 60% rise in earnings. Revenue grew 13% to $19 billion (all numbers USD), lifting earnings to $6.7 billion. Analysts had expected $17.9 billion in revenue.
Windows 7, the latest version of the popular Windows operating system, has resonated with consumers strongly. That together with the new netbook market explosion and consumers’ willingness to purchase computers as holiday presents helped Microsoft to sell more of its software to consumers around the world. (more…)
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, will sell off 10 million of their shares in Google.
This trade, revealed in a Google SEC filing, is to take place over the next five years. Brin and Page will be selling approximately 17% of their Google holdings, reducing their voting rights in the company from 59% to 48%. While this does mean that Page and Brin are giving up majority control in the company, in reality, they’re not ceding much. Although they will not have the majority voting rights, barring some bizarre unforeseen circumstance that splits their votes, they maintain enough voting rights to make it nearly impossible to vote against them.
Google, seeking to downplay the significance of this trade plan, stated that this was a regular occurrence among the founders of publicly traded companies (more…)
Internet Explorer just cannot catch a break these days. The German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology has officially advised people to stop using Internet Explorer, all versions, until Microsoft releases a new patch for the latest gaping security hole.
If you were not aware, in Internet Explorer there is a current security problem that allows a webpage to maliciously inject code onto the machine running the browser. This bug was used by “Operation Aurora,” which hacked Google and other companies in recent days.
Consider this…if it is a large enough problem to hack Google, your site is not safe.
In a statement, the BSI (German Federal Office for Information Security) recommends that until a full patch is released for this “zero day” flaw, that Internet Explorer is not safe, even if users run IE in protected mode. (more…)
![Word and Office Banned From Sale In Weeks As Microsoft Loses Patent Lawsuit [update]](http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/exhibitionist/gavel-1.bmp "Word and Office Banned From Sale In Weeks As Microsoft Loses Patent Lawsuit [update] Photo")
- Update – Microsoft has prepared versions of Office and Word specifically that gut the offensive bits and pieces that were in contention. This version, according to Ed Bott, will ship, and is already filling OEM channels. We had it right – like hell was Office going to stop selling. Read more here.
Sad news for Redmond, they have lost again. In a stunning decision, Microsoft has again lost a lawsuit to i4i over XML handling algorithm abuse.
This means that the as of January 11, Microsoft will be banned from selling Word and the larger office suite. Given that the latest round of MSFT productivity products depend and use the contentious algorithms, Microsoft is running short of options.
What to expect? A large check to be cut. Given that Redmond has now lost twice running, they can either hope for an injunction from a higher court, or buy off the smaller company.
Engadget notes that i4i “isn’t a patent troll — it’s a a 30 person database design company that shipped one of the first XML plugins for Office and was actually responsible for revamping the entire USPTO database around XML to make it compatible with Word back in 2000.” We cannot shrug this off as an abusive lawsuit, it appears to be kosher. (more…)
Microsoft has devised a way of stitching multiple live video streams from individual cell-phones at major events into a single widescreen broadcast.
Services such as Qik and UStream are growing increasingly popular as people share live video from concerts and sporting events around the world, although actual results can vary.
The Microsoft Labs team in Egypt has developed a way of integrating multiple live video-streams into a single broadcast, which can in turn be streamed live across the internet, for a richer, collaborative experience.
The Mobicast system synchronises the software running on smart-phones with that on the receiving server to timestamp the footage and align the video-frames. Overlaps in the footage captured by separate phones are automatically identified using image recognition technology and blended to create a wider view of the scene. (more…)
Over the last 10 years, Microsoft has racked up fines totaling 1.68 billion euros from the EU over allegations of unfair competition concerning Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser.
Today however, the dispute appears to have reached a conclusion with Microsoft agreeing to allow users in Europe to choose rival Internet browsers, and EU satisfied with the offer on the table.
Essentially this means Microsoft will randomize the order of the browser choices to provide an even playing field. Windows users will be prevented with a “choice screen” that will give them a choice of rival browsers, and will blank out the “Windows Internet Explorer” text in the title bar to avoid bias towards Microsoft’s own platform.
“Millions of European consumers will benefit from this decision by having a free choice about which web browser they use,” Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement. (more…)
When the story broke, few could believe: Microsoft stealing from a startup? Then it became apparent that a third party vendor was probably to blame.
Microsoft has just released the following statement that sets the whole thing to rest. Take a look:
On Monday, December 14, questions arose over a beta application called Juku developed by a Chinese vendor for our MSN China joint venture. We immediately worked with our MSN China joint venture to investigate the situation.
The vendor has now acknowledged that a portion of the code they provided was indeed copied. This was in clear violation of the vendor’s contract with the MSN China joint venture, and equally inconsistent with Microsoft’s policies respecting intellectual property.
When we hire an outside company to do development work, our practice is to include strong language in our contract that clearly states the company must provide work that does not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. We are a company that respects intellectual property and it was never our intent to have a site that was not respectful of the work that others in the industry have done.
We will be suspending access to the Juku beta indefinitely. (more…)
Update: Microsoft suspended the site today. More details here.![Microsoft Blatantly Steals From Startup? [Updated]](http://thenextweb.com/files/2009/12/plurk.PNG "plurk")
I am not sure what to make of this one. Plurk, a very promising social networking startup is claiming that Microsoft (you read that right), has been involved with “blatant theft of code, design, and UI elements.”
What gives? Microsoft could easily just drop the engineers to do it themselves, or just buy Plurk if they wanted to. Why bother to steal something so, well, blatantly?
I am fiully not sure, but according to Plurk, some 80% of the new Microsoft MClub is stolen. Don’t think that they are speaking some truth? Take a look at the following three graphics:
(more…)
