Microsoft News Tracker

Press release:

A tool for tracking drag car racing performance. A nonprofit to tackle the problem of food insecurity. A Web site to promote awareness of cochlear implants for the deaf. A sketch comedy TV show. And a music production and engineering studio, all on a computer.

These are highlights from the five winning projects in the Start Something Amazing Awards – a Microsoft-sponsored nationwide program honoring people who use Microsoft Windows and related technology in simple yet powerful ways to pursue the things that they are passionate about.

Details on the winners and their projects by following the link.

(Via Bink.nu) Karen Gomm at ZDNet UK has a shocker:

Microsoft has stunned its reseller community by allowing a discount dealer to sell second-hand volume licences, opening the floodgates for a second hand market.

Shocked vendors have reacted angrily to the news that Disclic have been able to sell second-hand software licences from insolvent or downsizing firms to other businesses with Microsoft’s blessing.

A loophole in British insolvency laws and a clause within many Microsoft licences that permits disused or unwanted volume licences to be transferred has enabled Disclic to sell the licences legally — and at a discount of around 20 to 50 percent below prices of any other authorised Microsoft reseller.

Disclic first approached Microsoft with its plan over 14 months ago and a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday that Disclic “does meet Microsoft’s terms and conditions”.

Hit the link for some reseller reactions.

Press release:

In a move aimed at making universal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and integrated communications more accessible for more customers, Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. today announced their support for the emerging Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) methodology.

ICE, a standards-based methodology, allows information workers and businesses to more easily communicate in media-rich ways across network address translators (NATs), a significant barrier to VoIP and video connectivity. ICE provides a rich set of solutions for current NAT issues with media. Microsoft and Cisco are jointly supporting the ICE effort, demonstrating both companies’ strong commitment to developing standards-based communications solutions built on methodologies that can be broadly adopted and integrated.

Kevin J. Delaney and Julia Angwin at the Wall Street Journal (free today):

Yahoo Inc. says it has dropped out of the running to buy a stake in Time Warner Inc.’s America Online Web portal and content activities.

Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel met with Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons in New York to discuss a possible deal in late October, according to people familiar with the matter.

A Yahoo spokeswoman acknowledges there was a meeting, but denies Yahoo ever made any offer. “After we learned what their proposed deal terms were we passed and we’ve never looked back,” said the spokeswoman.
…
Google and Microsoft are apparently neck and neck in the discussions, the people familiar with the matter said, and Time Warner is expected as early as next week to select one partner with which it will enter exclusive negotiations.

Update: Rick Aristotle Munarriz at The Motley Fool:

If the sources fueling a report in Thursday morning’s edition of The Wall Street Journal prove true, it looks like we just missed out on what would have been a gargantuan Internet deal. Yahoo! had supposedly offered a 20% stake to Time Warner in exchange for an 80% stake in AOL’s booming non-access business.

It was a deal that would have been valued at roughly $13 billion. Neither company is officially admitting that the offer was made…

That wasn’t in the WSJ story, but is in this AP report:

Two people close to the discussions said a key stumbling block was Time Warner Inc.’s insistence that it retain majority ownership in the AOL unit. They spoke on condition of anonymity because public discussions of any private negotiations were contrary to their companies’ policies.

One of the people, familiar with Time Warner’s position, said one arrangement under discussion had called for Yahoo to pay Time Warner in stock worth $13 billion for an 80 percent stake in AOL’s growing content business, which includes its Web sites and the news, music and other services featured on them.

Under that proposal, the person said, Time Warner would keep all of AOL’s Internet access business, which is in decline as users abandon dial-up connections for higher-speed cable and DSL lines.

Prodigious Gaming:

Speaking at the Harris Nesbitt Media & Entertainment Conference Bryan Lee, the chief financial officer of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices subdivision has said how in some markets outside of North America there is a possibility that the cost of the Xbox 360 and its software could be subsidised by advertising. Lee said how Microsoft is already trialling in-game ads.

The push for advertising really is catching on at Microsoft.