Microsoft News Tracker

ActiveWin points out an article by Microsoft’s Joseph Davies that describes the next generation TCP/IP stack. Amongst the new features and enhancements:

Dual IP layer architecture for IPv6

The implementation of IPv6 in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is a dual stack architecture. For IPv6 support, you have to install a separate protocol through the Network Connections folder. The separate IPv6 protocol stack had its own Transport layer that included Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and its own Framing layer. Changes to protocols in either the Transport or Framing layers had to be done to two Windows drivers; Tcpip.sys for the IPv4 protocol stack and Tcpip6.sys for the IPv6 protocol stack.

The Next Generation TCP/IP stack supports the dual IP layer architecture in which the IPv4 and IPv6 implementations share common Transport and Framing layers. The Next Generation TCP/IP stack has both IPv4 and IPv6 enabled by default. There is no need to install a separate component to obtain IPv6 support.

This is good news for ISV’s preparing to satisfy government requirements, but, of course, there is more to IPv6 support than just the stack.

Stephen Lawson at InfoWorld:

Microsoft on Tuesday showcased a newly announced push-to-talk device in a keynote presentation at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment show…

DelBene showed off the Motorola i930, which she called the first Windows Mobile device with push-to-talk capability. It will run on Sprint Nextel’s iDEN cellular network as well as 900MHz and 1800MHz GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) networks, allowing for international use. The clamshell device is built on the Windows Mobile Smartphone platform. It will be available next month for $499.99 before discounts and promotions, according to Sprint.

Nextel (now part of Sprint) has traditionally had a unique free local “walkie talkie” offering so push-to-talk is a natural for them.

There was also a bit of humor at the conference as well:

At the widely publicized San Francisco press conference on Monday where Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates showed off the upcoming Treo, the phone number of the Treo he was using appeared on a video screen. That led to “some pretty amusing and strange text messages,” said Suzan DelBene, corporate vice president of marketing for Microsoft’s Mobile and Embedded Devices Division, who was given the device after the press conference. She held it up during her keynote address Tuesday morning.

“This device, if you notice, the network isn’t working, because this is the device we gave to Bill Gates yesterday. … It [was] ringing in my room all night. I finally had to shut it off,” DelBene said.

Rhonda Ascierto at Computer Business Review - Symbian looks past Microsoft to mid-market:

When Microsoft Corp catapulted deeper into the smartphone OS market earlier this week, by replacing PalmSource OS in Palm Inc’s first 3G-enabled Treo, it did not crimp the game plan for market leader Symbian Ltd.

Symbian, which has its sights firmly set on the emerging mid-market, sees Microsoft’s move as a high-end play and quite distinct from its own strategy.

“Microsoft is more of a distraction factor,” David Wood, Symbian executive VP of research told ComputerWire yesterday. “The big story [for Symbian] is not another high-end rival.”

Instead, Symbian, whose OS is shipped in 54 smartphones by more than 200 carriers, is competing against incumbent OS in mid-market phones, Wood said. Sony Ericsson, for instance, uses the OSE operating system. And the Nokia series 30 and series 40 smartphones run on the proprietary Nokia OS (higher-end Nokia smartphones do run Symbian).
…
Wood said he hopes Microsoft’s increasing presence in smartphones will help accelerate the growth of the market. “The bigger the overall market is, the larger the mid-market slice will be,” he said.

I’d say be careful of what you wish for - today’s high end is very shortly the mid-market.

Reuters via InfoWorld:

Cingular Wireless, the biggest U.S. wireless service, plans to use RealNetworks’ video streaming technology to deliver video to mobile phones, the companies said late on Tuesday.

The deal is a key win for RealNetworks over its arch-rival Microsoft as both companies try to expand from the desktop into the wireless services market.

“If Microsoft had won this contract the battle for the mobile media player market would have been close to being over,” said Ovum analyst Roger Entner, who noted that Microsoft is ahead of RealNetworks in the desktop media player market.
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Cingular’s biggest rival, Verizon Wireless, uses Microsoft’s media player for a mobile video service that delivers news and entertainment video clips to customers using its high-speed wireless data network.

The Cingular service using the RealNetworks technology is due by the end of the year.

Nate Mook at BetaNews:

Microsoft on Tuesday quietly slipped out Service Pack 2 for Office 2003, which includes a number of security and performance improvements for the productivity suite. Among the new additions is a Phishing Protection feature for Outlook that filters out e-mails trying to steal personal information.

Get it here plus a variety of others including Project Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 2, Visio 2003 Service Pack 2, and Project 2003 Service Pack 2 among others.

UPDATE: Bink.nu has some screenshots of the Outlook Phishing Protection feature.