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CUPERTINO, California —Apple on Thursday, March 06, previewed its iPhone 2.0 software, scheduled for release this June, and announced the immediate availability of a beta release of the software to selected developers and enterprise customers.

The iPhone 2.0 beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks.

The iPhone SDK provides developers with a rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools to create innovative applications for iPhone and iPod touch. Starting today, anyone can download the beta iPhone SDK for free and run the iPhone Simulator on their Mac. Apple today also introduced its new iPhone Developer Program, giving developers everything they need to create native applications, and the new App Store, a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod touch users.

With the iPhone SDK, third party developers will be able to build native applications for the iPhone with a rich set of APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa Touch technologies. The iPhone SDK will allow developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhone’s groundbreaking Multi-Touch user interface, animation technology, large storage, built-in three-axis accelerometer and geographical location technology to deliver truly innovative mobile applications.

Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft and is building it right into the iPhone, so that iPhone will connect out-of-the-box to Microsoft Exchange Servers 2003 and 2007 for secure over-the-air push email, contacts, calendars and global address lists. Built-in Exchange ActiveSync support also enables security features such as remote wipe, password policies and auto-discovery.

The iPhone 2.0 software supports Cisco IPsec VPN to ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption available for transmission of sensitive corporate data, as well as the ability to authenticate using digital certificates or password-based, multi-factor authentication. The addition of WPA2 Enterprise with 802.1x authentication enables enterprise customers to deploy iPhone and iPod touch with the latest standards for protection of Wi-Fi networks.

Pricing & Availability
Apple plans to release the final iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and new enterprise features, as a free software update for all iPhone customers by the end of June. Third party applications created for the iPhone will also run on the iPod touch, and iPod touch users will be required to purchase a software update to run these applications. The free beta iPhone SDK is available immediately worldwide and can be downloaded at developer.apple.com/iphone/program.  More at Apple.

Redmond, Wash — Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released to manufacturing on Monday, Feb 04, and will start being available to customers in March, starting with Microsoft Volume Licensing customers.

Windows Server 2008 was also released to manufacturing today and will be available for purchase to new customers on March 1. Microsoft Volume Licensing customers with active Microsoft Software Assurance coverage or an Enterprise Agreement will be able to download the server software toward the end of February as part of the joint Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 “Heroes Happen Here” launch event.

Windows Vista SP1 includes quality improvements that help enhance reliability, security and performance. Windows Server 2008 builds on the success and strengths of past server solutions and helps give organizations a solid foundation for their information technology (IT) infrastructure. Organizations using Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 together can see a number of improvements for IT professionals, including benefits in security and manageability, overall system performance, and streamlined planning and deployment.

More at Microsoft, WindowsVistaBlog.

San Francisco, Calif — Feb 03, `08 — Yahoo! would consider a business alliance with Google as one way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, Reuters reported citing a source familiar with Yahoo’s strategy said on Sunday.

The report further said, “a second source close to Yahoo said it had received a procession of preliminary contacts by media, technology, telephone and financial companies. But the source said they were unaware whether any alternative bid was in the offing.

Few natural bidders exist beside Google that could engage in a bidding war, and Google would be unlikely to win approval from antitrust regulators, some Wall Street analysts said on Friday.

Yahoo!’s efforts to find an alternative bidder could simply be a measure to pressure Microsoft to boost its bid, which valued Yahoo at $44.6 billion when first announced on Friday.” More at Reuters.

In response to Google’s foul cry over Microsoft’s Yahoo! bid, Microsoft has released a statement from Bard Smith, General Counsel:

REDMOND, Wash — Feb 03, `08 — The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising. The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet.

Today, Google is the dominant search engine and advertising company on the Web. Google has amassed about 75 percent of paid search revenues worldwide and its share continues to grow. According to published reports, Google currently has more than 65 percent search query share in the U.S. and more than 85 percent in Europe. Microsoft and Yahoo! on the other hand have roughly 30 percent combined in the U.S. and approximately 10 percent combined in Europe.

Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the Internet. We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals. More at Microsoft.

Feb 03, `08 — In a statement released today on Google’s press center, Mr. David Drummond, Google’s Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer cries foul over Microsoft’s Yahoo! bid.

Mr. David Drummond in his rude and venomous language falsely accuses Microsoft of making ” hostile bid ”. He says, “So Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another.”

Now Mr. Drummond do you even know or have any remote idea how many take overs Google have made in last five years or so ??

He also says, “Users benefit from constant innovation. It’s what makes the Internet such an exciting place.”

Mr. Drummond do you actually mean supporting rampant piracy through YouTube, when you say “Users benefit from constant innovation” ??

Do you even have any remote idea of how many pirated videos of Movies, TV Shows, Dramas, Music Videos, etc are being hosted at any given moment ??

Mr. Drummond further goes on to say, “This hostile bid was announced on Friday so there is plenty of time for these questions to be thoroughly addressed.”

Mr. Drummond when even Yahoo! in its official response refers to Microsoft’s proposal as “an unsolicited proposal”, who are you in the world to refer that proposal as “hostile” ??

And Mr. Drummond when you say, “It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation”, do you actually mean that buying DoubleClick despite the immense privacy concerns from within the US and from Europe ??

If Google were to believe in its well publicized but never implemented ideology of ” Do NO Evil ” then Mr. Drummond why in the world Google needed to buy YouTube or DoubleClick? Google was already making tons of millions anyway… Google could have let YouTube / DoubleClick make money for themselves or let some one else buy ‘em (of course you would have stopped Microsoft from buying any of ‘em either, right?)

So Mr. Drummond before making entirely false claims using rude and venomous language, it would have been better if you have just took a little look at Google’s own past 10 years.

Or may be fear of loosing monopoly and loosing world dominance makes you speak highly rude & venomous language along with highly exaggerated claims and false acquisitions ??

Google’s statement on Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo!

Feb 03, `08 — Nicki Dugan on Yahoo’s Corporate Blog ( Yodel Anecdotal ) said that, “process like this is fluid and can take quite a bit of time” to weigh its strategic options, including keeping the company independent, following Microsoft’s $44.6 billion offer to buy the company.

Here is the complete posting:

Our response to Microsoft’s proposal

Posted February 1st, 2008 at 1:11 pm by Nicki Dugan, Blog Editor

Number of Comments 17 Comments / Filed in: Trends & News

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Microsoft made an unsolicited proposal to acquire Yahoo! yesterday evening. Since then, we’ve gotten quite a number of questions about what this means for Yahoo!. Right now our board of directors is evaluating the proposal and looking at all of our strategic alternatives, including maintaining Yahoo! as an independent company.

A review process like this is fluid and can take quite a bit of time, so while there’s not much we can say right now, we did want to refer you to this brief FAQ for more information.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Tagged: microsoft, news

In a media response to a frequently asked question about whether Yahoo would seek proposals from other companies, Yahoo! press room said it was going to evaluate all options.

Yahoo!’s Media Response:

FAQ: Unsolicited Proposal From Microsoft

Q1. How is Yahoo! responding to Microsoft’s proposal?
The Yahoo! Board is undertaking a deliberate review process. They’re going to take time to thoroughly evaluate the proposal in the context of Yahoo!’s strategic plans. This will include evaluating all of the Company’s strategic alternatives – including maintaining Yahoo! as an independent company. That process will take some time, but the Board will ultimately pursue the option that it believes can best maximize value for our shareholders.

Q2. How long will the Board’s review process take?
A review process like this is fluid, and it can take quite a bit of time.

Q3. Will the Board seek proposals from any other companies?
The Board is going to evaluate all of Yahoo!’s strategic alternatives and pursue the option that it believes can best maximize value for our shareholders.

Q4. What would a deal like this mean for Yahoo!’s users, advertisers, publishers, partners and people?
Yahoo!’s Board is going to evaluate all aspects of this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of the company’s strategic plans and alternatives. So it wouldn’t be appropriate to speculate about the potential benefits or challenges of a deal. But the review process that’s underway won’t have any impact on our efforts to deliver value to all of our users, advertisers, publishers and partners – as well as new and exciting opportunities to our employees.

Citing analysts, Reuters reported that, “Comcast Corp, Viacom Inc and General Electric Co among possible bidders, although they also said few companies had the balance sheet to compete with Microsoft or were as natural a fit for Yahoo.”

More at Yahoo! here and here.

Below is the text of the letter that Microsoft sent to Yahoo!’s Board of Directors:

January 31, 2008

Board of Directors
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Attention: Roy Bostock, Chairman
Attention: Jerry Yang, Chief Executive Officer

Dear Members of the Board:

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of Microsoft to make a proposal for a business combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!. Under our proposal, Microsoft would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 based on Microsoft’s closing share price on January 31, 2008, payable in the form of $31 in cash or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. Microsoft would provide each Yahoo! shareholder with the ability to choose whether to receive the consideration in cash or Microsoft common stock, subject to pro-ration so that in the aggregate one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be exchanged for shares of Microsoft common stock and one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be converted into the right to receive cash. Our proposal is not subject to any financing condition.

Our proposal represents a 62% premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock of $19.18 on January 31, 2008. The implied premium for the operating assets of the company clearly is considerably greater when adjusted for the minority, non-controlled assets and cash. By whatever financial measure you use - EBITDA, free cash flow, operating cash flow, net income, or analyst target prices - this proposal represents a compelling value realization event for your shareholders.

We believe that Microsoft common stock represents a very attractive investment opportunity for Yahoo!’s shareholders. Microsoft has generated revenue growth of 15%, earnings growth of 26%, and a return on equity of 35% on average for the last three years. Microsoft’s share price has generated shareholder returns of 8% during the last one year period and 28% during the last three year period, significantly outperforming the S&P 500. It is our view that Microsoft has significant potential upside given the continued solid growth in our core businesses, the recent launch of Windows Vista, and other strategic initiatives.

Microsoft’s consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. In late 2006 and early 2007, we jointly explored a broad range of ways in which our two companies might work together. These discussions were based on a vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo! should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace. We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected. While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! that we are proposing.

In February 2007, I received a letter from your Chairman indicating the view of the Yahoo! Board that “now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction.” According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo! Board’s confidence in the “potential upside” if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organizational realignment. A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved.

While online advertising growth continues, there are significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics, in capital costs for search index build-out, and in research and development, making this a time of industry consolidation and convergence. Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers. Synergies of this combination fall into four areas:

Scale economics: This combination enables synergies related to scale economics of the advertising platform where today there is only one competitor at scale. This includes synergies across both search and non-search related advertising that will strengthen the value proposition to both advertisers and publishers. Additionally, the combination allows us to consolidate capital spending.

Expanded R&D capacity: The combined talent of our engineering resources can be focused on R&D priorities such as a single search index and single advertising platform. Together we can unleash new levels of innovation, delivering enhanced user experiences, breakthroughs in search, and new advertising platform capabilities. Many of these breakthroughs are a function of an engineering scale that today neither of our companies has on its own.

Operational efficiencies: Eliminating redundant infrastructure and duplicative operating costs will improve the financial performance of the combined entity.

Emerging user experiences: Our combined ability to focus engineering resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video, mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms is greatly enhanced.

We would value the opportunity to further discuss with you how to optimize the integration of our respective businesses to create a leading global technology company with exceptional display and search advertising capabilities. You should also be aware that we intend to offer significant retention packages to your engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.

We have dedicated considerable time and resources to an analysis of a potential transaction and are confident that the combination will receive all necessary regulatory approvals. We look forward to discussing this with you, and both our internal legal team and outside counsel are available to meet with your counsel at their earliest convenience.

Our proposal is subject to the negotiation of a definitive merger agreement and our having the opportunity to conduct certain limited and confirmatory due diligence. In addition, because a portion of the aggregate merger consideration would consist of Microsoft common stock, we would provide Yahoo! the opportunity to conduct appropriate limited due diligence with respect to Microsoft. We are prepared to deliver a draft merger agreement to you and begin discussions immediately.

In light of the significance of this proposal to your shareholders and ours, as well as the potential for selective disclosures, our intention is to publicly release the text of this letter tomorrow morning.

Due to the importance of these discussions and the value represented by our proposal, we expect the Yahoo! Board to engage in a full review of our proposal. My leadership team and I would be happy to make ourselves available to meet with you and your Board at your earliest convenience. Depending on the nature of your response, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity to create significant value for Yahoo!’s shareholders and employees, and the combined company will be better positioned to provide an enhanced value proposition to users and advertisers. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to a prompt and favorable reply.

Sincerely yours,

/s/ Steven A. Ballmer

Steven A. Ballmer

Chief Executive Officer

Microsoft Corporation

More at Microsoft.

WASHINGTON — Feb 01, `08 — US and European antitrust regulators aren’t likely to prevent Microsoft from buying Yahoo, analysts said Friday, though scrutiny of the deal could drag on for months, the AP reported.

A major factor weighing in Microsoft’s favor, analysts said, is Google’s dominance in the online search and advertising businesses — the two areas regulators are likely to focus on when weighing market power issues raised by the nearly $45 billion unsolicited bid.

The Justice Department said it is “interested” in reviewing competition issues raised by Microsoft’s surprise offer. The Federal Trade Commission and European Union officials declined to comment. If the deal goes through, analysts expect Congress and European regulators to review the combined company’s increased competitive edge.

“I don’t see this just sailing through, regulators will look at it,” Ted Henneberry of the London law firm Heller Ehrman said. But even after a review that could take up to six months, he said a Microsoft-Yahoo combination isn’t likely to be stopped because the new entity’s share of the online ad space would still be dwarfed by Google, which already controls nearly 60 percent of the U.S. search market.

“The fact that Google dominates this business will be a big factor in (Microsoft’s) favor in trying to get this approved by the regulators,” said Keith Hylton, a professor of antitrust law at Boston University. More at AP.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — AMD on Monday, Jan 28, announced the immediate availability of the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics processor, expanding the visual boundaries of PC entertainment well beyond the 1080P High Definition (HD) threshold.

The industry’s first graphics processor to break the Teraflop (one trillion floating point operations per second) barrier, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 nearly doubles the performance of the award-winning ATI Radeon HD 3870 introduced in November 2007.

Through an elegant yet aggressive design, the 55 nanometer process-based ATI Radeon 3870 X2 combines two ATI Radeon HD 3870s on a single graphics board, connected through integrated CrossFire technology.

ATI Radeon 3870 X2 is also the first performance-leadership graphics product in the world to support Microsoft’s upcoming DirectX 10.1 technology. The ATI Radeon 3870 X2 delivers a new class of price and performance leadership with unbelievable enthusiast value at a suggested retail price of US $449.

This launch follows on the success of the recently released ATI Radeon HD 3400 and ATI Radeon HD 3600 series graphics products, completing a comprehensive portfolio of next-generation 55nm GPUs that deliver unparalleled price, performance and energy efficiency from entry-level to performance-leadership class products. More at AMD.

San Francisco, CA — Feb 01, `08 — Microsoft made an unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo late Thursday, a deal that could shake up the competitive and lucrative market for online advertising.

The surprise offer of $31 per share, which represents a 62% premium from where Yahoo stock closed on Thursday, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoo’s weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come. Shares of Yahoo shot up 50% at the start of trading Friday, while shares of Dow component Microsoft tumbled about 5%.

In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will “carefully and promptly” study Microsoft’s bid.

With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo’s stock slipped to a four-year low earlier this week and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008.

In conference call Friday morning, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated he won’t take no for an answer after Yahoo rebuffed takeover overtures a year ago.

“This is a decision we have — and I have — thought long and hard about,” Ballmer said. “We are confident it’s the right path for Microsoft and Yahoo.”

Besides the question of Yahoo’s acceptance, Microsoft’s bid also faces regulatory scrutiny in Washington and Europe. On Friday, the Justice Department said it is “interested” in reviewing antitrust issues. European Union officials declined to comment.

If the deal is consummated, it would be by far the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, eclipsing last year’s $6 billion purchase of online ad service aQuantive.

Microsoft publicly disclosed its cash-and-stock offer in hopes of rallying support from Yahoo’s shareholders, making it more difficult for Yahoo’s board to turn down the bid.

Microsoft’s previous offer was rebuffed by Terry Semel, who stepped aside last year as chief executive under shareholder pressure.

Microsoft sent its latest takeover offer to Yahoo late Thursday, shortly after Semel resigned as the company’s chairman. The letter is addressed to Semel’s successors, new Chairman Roy Bostock and the current CEO, co-founder Jerry Yang, who is one of Yahoo’s largest shareholders.

In a prepared statement, Yahoo said its board “will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.”

“We are very, very confident this is the right path for Microsoft and for Yahoo,” he said.

Microsoft hopes to close the deal by the end of the year. Ballmer said that Microsoft has been in “off and on” talks with Yahoo for 18 months and said he called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang Thursday night to tell him the bid was coming.

A Microsoft-Yahoo combination would create a powerful number two player in the online search business, which Google commands. The leading search engine reigns over 58.4% of the U.S. search market, while Yahoo has 22.9% and Microsoft’s share is just 9.8%, according to comScore, a research firm that tracks Internet traffic.

A Google spokesman, Matt Furman, declined to comment on Microsoft’s move on Yahoo. “It would be premature to comment at this point,” he said.

CES 2008 — LAS VEGAS –BUSINESS WIRE– Jan 07, `08 — Hauppauge announced today the introduction of the new dual tuner WinTV-HVR-2250, USB based WinTV-HVR-1950, WinTV-HVR-950Q and WinTV-HVR-1250.

– The WinTV-HVR-2250 has two complete on-board analog and digital TV receivers, which allow users to watch and record two NTSC, ATSC or clear QAM digital cable TV programs at the same time.

To support the popular analog and digital TV formats used in North America, the WinTV-HVR-2250 supports NTSC analog cable TV, over the air ATSC high definition digital TV plus clear QAM digital cable TV. There are two complete TV receivers on the WinTV-HVR-2250, which allow two programs of any type to be watched, paused or recorded at the same time.

WinTV-HVR-2250 will be available in February 2008 for $129.

– The WinTV-HVR-1950 allows a PC or laptop user to watch, pause and record NTSC, ATSC or clear QAM digital TV onto their hard disk, without slowing down their computer. To support the popular analog and digital TV formats, the WinTV-HVR-1950 supports NTSC analog cable TV, over the air ATSC high definition digital TV plus clear QAM digital cable TV.

WinTV-HVR-1950 will be available in February 2008 for $149.

–  The WinTV-HVR-950Q is a small, portable USB TV tuner “stick” which can be used to watch and record clear QAM digital cable TV on a laptop or desktop PC. In addition, it can also be used to watch and record NTSC analog cable TV and over-the-air ATSC high definition digital TV. ATSC is the new standard for high definition TV broadcasts in North America, and is transmitted at up to 1080i. These three TV formats, NTSC, ATSC and QAM, are the most popular TV transmission formats.

WinTV-HVR-950Q will be available in January 2008 for $99.

– The WinTV-HVR-1250 allows PC users to watch, pause and record analog NTSC cable TV, ATSC high definition digital TV and clear QAM digital cable TV on their Windows XP or Vista PC, in a window or full screen.

WinTV-HVR-1250 will be available in January 2008 for $49.

Dec 30, `07 — The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease development because of lack of users. Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after February 01, 2008, the company has said.

Netscape’s usage dwindled with Microsoft’s entry into the browser business, and Netscape all but faded away following the birth of its open-source cousin, Firefox.

“While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Recently, support for the Netscape browser has been limited to a handful of engineers tasked with creating a skinned version of Firefox with a few extensions.” Netscape Director Tom Drapeau wrote in a blog entry Friday.

In recent years, Netscape has been little more than a repackaged version of the more popular Firefox, which commands about 10 percent of the Web browser market, with almost all of the rest going to Internet Explorer.

Browser Wars
Netscape was developed by Marc Andreessen, co-author of Mosaic, the first popular web browser. Mosaic was written while Mr Andreessen was a student at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in 1992.

After graduation he set up Netscape Communications Corporation and began development of the Navigator browser. The first version was released in 1994.

It was quickly a success and dominated the browser market in the mid-1990s. But other companies followed its success, notably Microsoft, which bundled its Explorer software with its operating systems.

People will still be able to download and use the Netscape browser indefinitely, but AOL will stop releasing security and other updates on Feb 01, `08. Drapeau recommended that the small pool of Netscape users download Firefox instead.

Microsoft is expected to launch a new version of IE 8 in 2008, whilst the third version of Firefox, codenamed Minefield,  is currently available as a beta, or test version.

Brussels — On Thursday, Dec 20, the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation (PFIF), a non-profit organization created by the Software Freedom Law Center, signed an agreement with Microsoft to receive the protocol documentation needed to fully interoperate with the Microsoft Windows workgroup server products and to make them available to Free Software projects such as Samba.

Microsoft was required to make this information available to competitors as part of the European Commission March 24th 2004 Decision in the antitrust lawsuit, after losing their appeal against that decision on September 17th 2007.

After paying Microsoft a one-time sum of 10,000 Euros, the PFIF will make available to the Samba Team under non-disclosure terms the documentation needed for implementation of all of the workgroup server protocols covered by the EU decision.

Although the documentation itself will be held in confidence by the PFIF and Samba Team engineers, the agreement allows the publication of the source code of the implementation of these protocols without any further restrictions. This is fully compatible with versions two and three of the GNU General Public License (GPL). Samba is published under the GNU GPL which is the most widely used of all Free Software licenses. In addition it allows discussion of the protocol information amongst implementers which will aid technical cooperation between engineers.

Under the agreement, Microsoft is required to make available and keep current a list of patent numbers it believes are related to the Microsoft implementation of the workgroup server protocols, without granting an implicit patent license to any Free Software implementation.

No per-copy royalties are required from the PFIF, Samba developers, third party vendors or users and no acknowledgement of any patent infringement by Free Software implementations is expressed or implied in the agreement. More at Samba.

St. Louis, MO — Dec 19, `07 — Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google have entered into settlements with the US to resolve claims that they promoted illegal gambling, United States Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway announced today. The total amount of the three settlements is $31.5 million in value to the United States.

Three companies also agreed to stop accepting ads for sports wagering and other online gambling, US Attorney Catherine Hanaway said.

The investigation conducted by Hanaway’s office, along with the IRS and the FBI, dates to 2000, she said. Negotiations have been going on for 12 to 18 months, she added.

All three companies said they stopped taking the ads years ago.

As part of the settlement, the companies will pay cash to the US government and provide millions of dollars worth of public service advertisements informing young adults and teenagers that Internet gambling is illegal.

The US Attorney’s office in St. Louis, MO has led in the effort to halt illegal Web-based gambling, a roughly $6 billion a year industry in the US that violates the Federal Wire Wager Act among other federal laws.

Earlier this year, the London-based Internet gambling firm BetOnSports pleaded guilty in St. Louis to federal racketeering charges. Cases are still pending against company executives. Hanaway’s office also settled a civil case against BetOnSports in November 2006. That settlement prohibits the company from accepting any bets from gamblers in the U.S.

Microsoft will pay $4.5 million to the US government, $7.5 million to the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and provide $9 million worth of public service advertising.

Yahoo’s settlement of $7.5 million includes forfeiting $3 million to the US govt and providing $4.5 million worth of online ads for a public service advertising campaign. Google will pay $3 million, the department said.

Google will pay $3 million, the department said. More at US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri.

Companies sign landmark multi-year deal to collaborate on content distribution, advertising, event promotions and gaming

Microsoft’s Atlas to become exclusive ad serving platform for Viacom US web sites

NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash — Dec 19, `07 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Viacom and Microsoft today announced a broad-based, strategic alliance under which major divisions of both companies will collaborate on advertising, content distribution, event promotions and games over the next several years.

The comprehensive agreement spans across the two companies and includes a number of significant components. Among them:

– Microsoft will license, on a non-exclusive basis, long and short-form television and theatrical content from across Viacom’s cable network
and motion picture businesses, including MTV, Comedy Central, BET and Paramount Pictures for use on Microsoft properties such as MSN and Xbox 360.

– Microsoft’s Atlas division will become the ad server for Viacom’s US websites and Microsoft will have the exclusive right to sell remnant
display advertising inventory on Viacom’s US websites.

– Microsoft will buy advertising on Viacom broadcast and online networks over a five-year period and the companies will work together on
promotions and sponsorships for MTV Networks and BET Networks award shows;

– Viacom will work with Microsoft on opportunities to become a preferred publishing partner across Microsoft’s casual gaming platforms.

Detailed financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal has a projected base value of approximately $500 million in financial considerations and business services between the two companies over the initial five-year length of the agreement.

The deal includes a combination of revenue sharing provisions, guarantees and content licensing agreements.More at Viacom.

On Tuesday, Dec 18, Microsoft has publicly released Service Pack 3 Release Candidate for Windows XP and is available at Microsoft here.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system. This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system.

What Is In Service Pack 3
Windows XP SP3 includes all previously released Windows XP updates, including security updates and hotfixes, and select out-of-band releases. For example, the service pack includes functionality previously released as updates, such as the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 and the Microsoft Core XML Services 6.0 (MSXML6).

Microsoft is not adding significant functionality from newer versions of Windows, such as Windows Vista, to Windows XP through XP SP3. For instance, Windows XP SP3 does not include Windows Internet Explorer 7, although Windows XP SP3 does include updates to both Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7, and it will update whichever version is installed on the computer.

One notable exception is that, SP3 does include Network Access Protection (NAP) to help organizations that use Windows XP to take advantage of new features in the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

More info about Internet Explorer 7 is available at Microsoft here. Knowledge Base article 936929 lists all other all Knowledge Base articles associated with updates that are included in Windows XP SP3.

More at Windows XP Service Pack 3 White Paper (in pdf), Release Notes.

Washington — Dec 18, ‘07 — A venture led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has applied to bid in an upcoming auction of 700 MHz wireless airwaves, according to FCC’s “Accepted Applications” list released on late Tuesday, Reuters reports.

Allen was listed with an entity called Vulcan Spectrum LLC among the applicants who filed to bid in the FCC auction of 700-megahertz spectrum, which is scheduled to begin on January 24.

Allen and Vulcan Spectrum were on a list of scores of potential bidders who filed applications ahead of a December 3 FCC deadline. The auction applicants also included, Google, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm.

The FCC-run auction is expected to take several weeks, or even months, of daily, back-and-forth bidding, with the identities of the bidders kept secret. The radio waves are being returned by broadcasters as they move from analog to digital signals early in 2009. The signals can go long distances and penetrate thick walls.

FCC List of “Accepted Applications“, “Incomplete Applications” (in pdf). More at FCC (in Word).

Armonk, NY — Dec 18, `07 — IBM today announced the availability of IBM Atlas for Lotus Connections, a corporate social networking visualization and analysis tool.

IBM Atlas for Lotus Connections is designed to help organizations maximize their investment in social software by answering questions such as who the key experts are on a given topic, how they are connected, and whom a user’s contacts know that they do not.

Developed by IBM Research, Atlas has four Web 2.0-based components — My Net, Find, Reach and Net. These components help users spot the important connections and the relationships between various groups and navigate their personal and corporate networks.

The Net component of Atlas provides a visual indication of the important hubs among topic experts and informal groups that have developed while working on similar projects.

My Net offers similar capabilities for a user’s personal network. For example, a salesperson can better manage and understand their social networks making sure they have connections across the right topic areas.

Reach, the social software dashboard feature in Atlas, helps users navigate the up to six degrees of separation that divide them from a colleague. The dashboard shows users the shortest path to reach an expert and ranks the expert based on the level of interaction across the network.

The Find component of Atlas builds upon core Lotus Connections expertise capabilities by taking searches beyond the corporate directory to include results based on social data such as reporting structures, blogs and communities.

Atlas is designed to work with IBM Lotus Connections, the industry’s first integrated enterprise social software platform. The latest version of Lotus Connections, version 1.02, is now available and features:

* Expanded support for operating systems such as SUSE Linux, browsers such as Mozilla Firefox 2.0 and directories such as Microsoft Active Directory, enabling businesses to deploy and integrate social software across their IT environment.
* Plug-ins for IBM Lotus Notes, IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Explorer and IBM WebSphere Portal, enabling people to interact with their professional networks using their everyday productivity tools.
* A rich API based on the REST and Atom standards allow other applications to utilize the profiles, community, bookmarking, blogging and activity services of Lotus Connections.

More on IBM Atlas at IBM.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 delivers flexible power of choice and familiar Outlook experience.

REDMOND, Wash — Dec 17, `07 —The new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, formerly code-named “Titan,” has been completed and released to manufacturing, Microsoft announced today.

The new version is offered under two product names: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 for on-premise and partner-hosted deployments and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live for Microsoft-hosted deployment. Designed with a single unified-code base for both on-premise and on-demand deployments, Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables customers to choose the right deployment model for their specific business and IT needs, with the flexibility to change deployment models over time if their needs or preferences change.

Some of the significant new benefits and capabilities of this new release include these:
• An advanced multitenant architecture that supports multiple customers per server
• Extended global capabilities including user choice of more than 25 languages and pervasive support for multiple currencies
• New business intelligence capabilities including cross-entity views and an end-user ad hoc reporting wizard
• Advanced business process automation based on Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation
• New collaboration capabilities with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 including real-time presence indicators within the CRM application

More at Microsoft.

TEMPE, Ariz — Dec 17, `07 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Limelight Networks, the leading content delivery network (CDN) for digital
media, today announced that Blockbuster has exclusively selected Limelight Networks’ rich media CDN and Microsoft Silverlight to provide the technical streaming capabilities for the first studio-backed feature streamed in its entirety — JACKASS 2.5 — to be distributed directly online by Paramount Pictures, MTV New Media group from MTV Networks and BLOCKBUSTER.

Available for free, courtesy of BLOCKBUSTER, at Jackassworld.com beginning Dec 19th through Dec 31st, `07, the US online distribution of JACKASS 2.5, an event made possible by the recent acquisition of Movielink by Blockbuster, leverages the power of Limelight Networks’ CDN and Microsoft Silverlight.

Streaming JACKASS 2.5 is open to anyone in the U.S. 17 years or older whether they are a BLOCKBUSTER member or not. And best of all, it’s free. More at Limelight Networks.

PALO ALTO, Calif — Dec 17, `07 –BUSINESS WIRE– DisplayLink today announced immediate availability of its DisplayLink Virtual Graphics Card (VGC) software version 4.3, which allows all DisplayLink-based network display systems, including USB graphics adapters, universal docking stations and USB-enabled monitors, to support the Windows Vista Aero 3D interface.

It is the first network display technology to support Aero, which is the visual interface that provides the 3D “glass effect” for Windows Vista and which looks even more stunning in a multiple display environment.

DisplayLink’s industry-leading network display technology enables simple and high quality connections between devices and screens via standard USB connections while maintaining nearly instantaneous mouse and keyboard response, DVD-quality video, and high-resolution graphics.

Compatible with all DisplayLink-powered hardware and virtually every Windows Vista PC, the new software enables users to add up to six displays to a single Windows Vista PC. Products that are compatible with the new DisplayLink Software v4.3 include universal notebook docking stations from Kensington and Toshiba, USB-enabled monitors from LG and Samsung, and USB graphics adapters from a variety of DisplayLink partners.

DisplayLink VGC Software v4.3 can be immediately downloaded from the DisplayLink Web site at DisplayLink.com/downloads.

BASKING RIDGE, NJ and SUNNYVALE, Calif — Dec 17, `07 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon Wireless and Palm today announced the immediate availability of the Palm Treo 755p smartphone in exclusive deep blue- green.

Beginning today, customers may purchase the Treo 755p online at VerizonWireless.com or by calling 1-800-2 JOIN IN. The device will be in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Jan. 7.

Compared to its Treo 700p predecessor, the Treo 755p has a sleeker design with an internal antenna and a soft-touch feel.

Featuring a large, high-resolution, color touch-screen for quick stylus access to applications, the Treo 755p offers a full QWERTY keyboard for easy e-mail creation, Web browsing and text messaging.

It also includes features such as a 1.3 megapixel camera and built-in support for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents and PDF documents. Customers can view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files, and view PowerPoint and Adobe PDF files.

Built-in Support for Direct Push Technology for E-mail
The Treo 755p offers VersaMail 3.5.45 with built-in Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support for Microsoft Direct Push Technology that delivers e-mail and calendar updates from a home or office PC using Outlook. Businesses connected to a Microsoft Exchange Server get fast, automatic wireless updates of e-mail, calendar and contact information with added IT security and remote manageability.

Treo 755p users also have the option of using Verizon Wireless’ Wireless Sync for quick and easy access to personal or corporate e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks from their home or office PC. Customers can sync up to 10 POP3 or IMAP e-mail accounts, including AOL, Yahoo! Premium and more with their Treo 755p. Wireless Sync supports Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino.

Pricing
The Palm Treo 755p from Verizon Wireless is available for $399.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and new two-year customer agreement. Customers who purchase a qualified voice plan along with a data plan may be eligible for an additional $100 credit making the Treo 755p $299.99 for those customers. More at Verizon.

BURLINGTON, MA, Dec 17, `07 – Cognos today announced that it has extended its wireless business intelligence solution, Cognos 8 Go! Mobile, to support Windows Mobile 6 smartphones.

Cognos 8 Go! Mobile is the industry’s first business intelligence solution designed to make it convenient to view, consume and interact with highly relevant performance information on mobile devices.

Cognos 8 Go! Mobile delivers enterprise data through an intuitive interface optimized for each different type of mobile platform. It now brings timely decision-support information directly to Windows Mobile 6 devices. All decision makers who