Microsoft News Tracker

Ed Oswald at BetaNews:

The beginning of an expected flurry of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices over the next several months began on Monday as Cingular released the 2125 Smartphone, an apparent update to the SMT 5600 that the carrier offered through Audiovox.

The 2125 is very similar to the 5600 — in fact it is being marketing as the upgraded version of that phone — although it offers quad-band GSM technology. Other features include a 1.3-megapixel camera, EDGE data, 64MB of SDRAM, Office Mobile, Pocket MSN, a stereo headphone jack, and Windows Media Player 10. The phone runs on a Texas Instruments OMAP 850 200MHz processor.

Cingular will offer the 2125 for $299 USD before a $100 mail-in rebate with a two year service contract for new subscribers.

The phone is based on the HTC Faraday. Missing from the 2125, however, is Wi-Fi support, which many of HTC’s models overseas have included in recent releases.

More by following the link.

Being sued is a cost of doing business when you have deep pockets like Microsoft, but this lawsuit is refreshing for its novelty:

A South Korean lawyer on Monday sued Microsoft Corp, the world’s largest software maker, for allegedly hiding a software flaw.

Jang Young-ha, 47, filed the lawsuit against Microsoft with the Suwon District Court on charges of deception, accusing the US software giant of selling the flawed program for use in handheld electronic devices.

In June, Jang bought Microsoft’s Windows Small Business Server program and two servers for a total of 6 million won (US$5,802), according to the court statement.

When Jang downloaded personal data such as customers’ birthdays and his schedules from the servers to his personal digital assistant, he found that the downloaded dates were always one day ahead of the original ones.

Jang informed a technician at Microsoft’s Korean unit about the flaw, but the technician responded that the company won’t be able to fix it because it stemmed from a fundamental error, not a bug.

It’s hard to tell what is going on without more details, but a “fundamental error” like that would make me grumpy too.

Steve Rosenbush at Business Week:

Efforts to find a partner for Time Warner’s AOL Internet unit are taking longer than expected, according to a Time Warner executive. The media giant has been in discussions with Google and Microsoft, which are both interested in creating a joint venture with AOL. Time Warner had hoped to begin exclusive talks with one company or the other by Friday, Dec. 9, the executive says, who adds that in retrospect, that timetable was “optimistic.”

Both suitors still appeared to be in the running as of Dec. 11. But given the talks’ complexity, it’s not surprising that they’re dragging. It’s unclear at this point whether Time Warner will reach a deal with one or the other by the end of the month, as originally expected.

Related: previous update. Also TheStreet.com’s Jonathan Barr says the AOL battle is really about leadership in the emerging online video market.

Mary Jo Foley has the story, pointing first to MSN Messenger enthusiast site Mess.be:

No, you did not get cryogenically frozen for two weeks and defrosted on December 24th but -for full-blooded MSN Messenger fans like us- today feels exactly like the day before Christmas. All because Windows Live Messenger (the next generation of MSN Messenger) is finally entering its BETA-period tomorrow. Ah, the tension! Download links will become operational during December 13th US time (probably in the evening/nighttime for other continents like Europe and Asia).

Mind you that the first term of the BETA will be private only. A whole bunch of Messers have already found personal invitations in their inboxes, others are still praying to receive theirs. Gradually these “chosen ones” will be able to invite their friends into the BETA in order to test the product on a larger scale. The hunt for BETA-testers has opened and suck up-strategies should promptly be devised.

It seems to be the latest development version (8.0+) of MSN Messenger with the Windows Live moniker and among other things, improved VoIP support compared to prior versions, but apparently it’s not that simple. Further details from Foley:

According to sources, Microsoft will offer Windows Live Messenger users the capability to place calls from PCs to any phone. Microsoft will deliver that capability in conjunction with MCI, sources said, whereby MCI will sell Live Messenger users blocks of VOIP time.
…
To date, Microsoft officials have been reticent to say publicly that Windows Live Messenger is simply the new name for the next version of MSN Messenger. But that is, in fact, what it is, sources close to the company confirmed.

Microsoft officials also will not discuss whether it plans to whittle down the number of instant messaging (IM) clients it supports. Microsoft currently offers three different but somewhat overlapping IM clients: Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger and Office Communicator. Officials declined to say which of these Windows Live Messenger will supplant.

I guess some sort of branding exercise is going on.

According to People’s Daily, MSN agreed to provide instant messaging and other MSN Mobile services for China Unicom cellphone customers and Samsung, LG, and Haier have agreed to pre-install MSN in some cellphone models.

MSN has 9.5 million PC-based subscribers in China, still lagging far behind its rival Tencent which has 140 million subscribers for its QQ, an online chatting service. A large part of Tencent’s QQ users use mobile service which jointly provided by Tencent and its two partners, China Mobile and China Unicom.

To compete with QQ, Microsoft has forged alliance with China Mobile which has 250 million users and with China Unicom which has more than 125 million users. In September this year, Microsoft signed an agreement with China Mobile to offer mobile MSN service.

These are additional service offerings , so MSN didn’t automatically gain 375 million new users in the the two deals. If you aren’t familiar with the MSN Mobile offerings, here’s the web site.