Microsoft News Tracker

Bink.nu points to a recently released roadmap for Microsoft’s “orphan” database tooling product, Visual FoxPro:

With the recent release of Visual FoxPro 9.0, the Visual FoxPro team at Microsoft is now working on a new project, code-named Sedna, that takes advantage of enhancements in Visual FoxPro 9.0. The primary goal of Sedna is to expand on the ability of Visual FoxPro-based solutions to better integrate with other Microsoft products and technologies.

Features in Sedna will target Visual FoxPro interoperability with application components created by using Visual Studio 2005, the .NET Framework 2.0, and SQL Server 2005. Sedna will also help improve the ability for Visual FoxPro 9.0 solutions to be successfully deployed on the upcoming new Windows operating system Microsoft Vista (formerly code named Longhorn). Sedna is currently scheduled to be released in the first half of 2007 and will require Visual FoxPro 9.0.

As indicated in prior public statements, Microsoft does not plan to merge Visual FoxPro into Visual Studio .NET, nor are there plans to create a new Visual FoxPro .NET programming language. Visual FoxPro will remain stand-alone Win32 based, and will run on 64-bit Windows in 32-bit compatibility mode.

With VS 2005 completed and launching Nov. 7, WSE 3.0 can also be released and it looks like it will be Nov. 7 as well. Paul Krill at InfoWorld:

Microsoft on Monday is releasing an upgrade to its free WSE ( Web Services Enhancements) package for Windows developers, focusing on security.

An add-on component to Visual Studio 2005 and the .Net Framework 2.0, WSE 3.0 “dramatically simplifies the development of secure Web services,” said Ari Bixhorn, director Web services strategy at Microsoft. WSE 3.0 also serves as a prelude to the planned Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) for Web services, formerly known as Indigo, which is planned for inclusion in the Vista release of Windows in 2006, Bixhorn said.

“Developers are going to see a 30 percent improvement in the performance of their Web services, upgrading from WSE 2.0 to WSE 3.0,” Bixhorn said.

The package includes turnkey security profiles. “What those do is allow developers to build five of the most common secure Web services scenarios with just a few clicks of a mouse,” Bixhorn said. One profile features the building of a secure Web service that can be called via the Internet using a name and password.

“Developers are going to benefit greatly from these profiles because [they] dramatically reduce the amount of code that they have to write to build secure Web services,” Bixhorn said.

Fox Licensing & Merchandising Enters Into Unprecedented Licensing Relationship With Microsoft:

Fox Licensing & Merchandising and Microsoft Corp. announced they have entered into an unprecedented relationship surrounding certain Microsoft® titles for the long-awaited Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system, which will be available in the U.S. on Nov. 22, 2005. Through the deal, Fox L&M will act as the Licensing Agent for certain first-party video games published by Microsoft Game Studios for the new platform, beginning with the highly anticipated titles “Perfect Dark Zero™” and “Kameo™: Elements of Power™,” both developed by Rare Ltd., a subsidiary of Microsoft. Fox L&M will manage a licensing program for the titles and will seek partners in a broad variety of product categories including apparel, accessories, social expressions, toys, and select print publishing.

There’s a pony in there somewhere!

Press release:

Nov. 3, 2005 — Microsoft Corp. today announced it has acquired FolderShare™, a leading service in the emerging space of file synchronization and remote access technology that helps customers access information across multiple devices. FolderShare customers will continue to be able to enjoy the service at http://www.foldershare.com. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Launched in 2002 and owned and operated by Austin, Texas-based ByteTaxi Inc., the award-winning FolderShare service saves customers the hassle of sending large files via e-mail, burning them to CDs or DVDs and mailing them, or uploading them to a Web site. Instead, it allows customers to sync important information, making it well suited for personal or small-business use. The FolderShare service also enables private, remote access to customers’ own files from any Web browser.

More of a housekeeping note - the presentations from the 2005 Microsoft Professional Developers conference in September have been online for quite a while, but Microsoft blogger, CyrusN, reminds us that videos of the actual presentations are now available.

Update: More details here.