Microsoft News Tracker

At CNET, Joris Evers provides an update on Microsoft’d Sender ID counterspam proposal titled Sender ID’s fading message. As you would expect from the title, it isn’t a rosy picture. Even worse,

About 1 million domains currently publish SPF records, Microsoft said. That’s much fewer than the 71.4 million domains that had been registered worldwide by the end of last year.

There is evidence to suggest that quite a few of the technology’s adopters are senders of junk e-mail. Out of a sample of more than 17.7 million e-mail messages taken in late June, a little more than 9 percent were from domains that published an SPF or Sender ID record, according to spam-filtering company MX Logic. About 84 percent of those authenticated messages were spam, it found.

“The majority of the adoption has been by rogue senders trying to get some legitimacy for their messages,” said Scott Chasin, the chief technology officer at Denver-based MX Logic.

For spammers, publishing a valid record means they will pass any Sender ID authentication part of a general spam check. Earlier this year, Microsoft said its Web-based e-mail service Hotmail would start flagging messages without valid authentication. Later this year, the company plans to introduce “tougher filtering on nonauthenticated e-mail,” Craig Spiezle, director of Microsoft’s technology care and safety group, said in June.

“The spammers have more of a motivation to go and do it than most other people,” said Forrester analyst Paul Stamp.

Well, at least it cuts out the spammers with forged addresses.

Move Over iPod, Here Comes Microsoft

In an interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday, Microsoft’s Digital Media Division chief Erik Huggers said the iPod would have stronger competition by the holiday season.

However supporters of Apple’s iPod have pointed out that Microsoft made the same claim this time last year, yet the venerable music player continued to widen the gap between itself and its Windows-based competitors.

Ina Fried at CNET reports on Digging profits out of Xbox:

Microsoft is looking to squeeze a profit out of the gaming market with a new royalty program tied to the release of its next Xbox console.

Only accessory makers that get Microsoft’s blessing and fork over a slice of their sales to the software maker will be able to produce Xbox 360 game pads, steering wheels, joysticks and other controllers.

In addition, in order to ensure that only authorized products connect to the new console, Microsoft is adding a security mechanism that will be available exclusively to those who sign a deal with the company, according to documents from a peripheral company filed with the SEC.

The new Xbox 360 is supposed to be in stores for the holidays.

Jason Sacks on Monday August 8:

We’re just finishing signoff today on the Windows SDK. You may have seen this product referred to as the Longhorn or Vista SDK, but this release encompasses both the WinFX docs and Vista-specific documentation. The SDK, with samples, tools and docs, will be available as a download for MSDN subscribers, so subscribers, watch your mail. The docs will also be available online in browsable form in the same way that the WinFX docs are, and those docs will be available for everyone. Expect that to be online shortly.

After that we’ll start ramping up for PDC in Los Angeles in mid-September.

Per the comments to the post, Windows SDK = Platform SDK + WinFX SDK . The PDC is scheduled for September 13-16 in Los Angeles.

eWeek reports that Microsoft Continues to Raid Lotus for developers and quotes Steve Ballmer:

“I’d never seen a customer base that’s more ripe to be plucked and moved than that Notes customer base—left and right, large account after large account that I meet with that’s a Notes customer—they’re just waiting for us and our partners to do the conversions,” said Ballmer.