Microsoft News Tracker

(Via Todd Bishop) Diana Bass at Bloomberg News is reporting that Microsoft Wins Biggest Phone-Software Order, Rivals BlackBerry:

Microsoft Corp. won its biggest-ever contract for mobile-phone software, an order from the U.S. Census Bureau that covers 500,000 handsets.

Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, plans to unveil the deal today, general manager Scott Horn said in an interview. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft expects to increase its mobile unit’s sales to $1 billion in one to three years, from $337 million last year, and break the dominance of Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry.

“Up until now, BlackBerry had the market for themselves,”‘ Peter Knook, a Microsoft senior vice president, said in an interview. “That landscape has changed.”‘

Much more on Microsoft’s progress with its mobile phone initiatives by following the link. For more details on how the census takers will use the gadgets for the 2010 census see this article by the AP’s Allison Linn. One interesting part is that they will be dedicated census taking devices:

Wood said the devices will not be used as cell phones or for other functions such as sending e-mail, and will not replace bureau employees’ BlackBerry communicators.

“It’s not like a BlackBerry,” he said. “It’s specified (sic) designed for the census 2010 application.”

Ryan Naraine at eWeek:

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - In a rare discussion about the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation.

Yikes - don’t encourage them! My experience with large corporate IT departments is that their answer to just about any nontrivial problem is wiping the machine. Of course, the statement is actually more explicit:

“When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit,” Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference here.
…
He cited a recent instance where an unnamed branch of the U.S. government struggled with malware infestations on more than 2,000 client machines. “In that case, it was so severe that trying to recover was meaningless. They did not have an automated process to wipe and rebuild the systems, so it became a burden. They had to design a process real fast,” Danseglio added.

I guess the government isn’t keeping up with the private sector in this regard. I hope they at least had automated data backup. More details on Danseglio’s view of the current state of the malware situation and remediation measures by following the link.

Press release:

Microsoft Corp. today announced the worldwide availability of Windows® CE 5.0 Networked Media Device Feature Pack, an optional set of software components designed to lower the total cost of development for device-makers wanting to create next-generation networked media devices (NMDs) and Internet protocol set-top boxes (IP STBs), which will become an increasingly integral part of the digital home. The Microsoft® Windows CE 5.0 Networked Media Device Feature Pack supports a broader range of video formats, PlaysForSure™ certification and digital video recorder (DVR) functionalities, and helps developers focus their time on device differentiation and innovation instead of middleware licensing and integration.

The Windows CE 5.0 Networked Media Device Feature Pack is being launched with worldwide support from consumer electronics companies such as Amoi Electronics Co. Ltd., HUMAX Co. Ltd., Media Excel Inc., Microsoft TV and Motorola Inc., many of which will bring to market new Windows CE 5.0 Networked Media Device Feature Pack-based devices this quarter. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) across the globe, including U.S.-based Cisco Systems Inc. and Taiwan-based Tatung Co., currently use Windows CE 5.0 to develop STBs supporting the Microsoft TV Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Edition software platform.

The net seems to be that Microsoft is providing these features for free so that their Windows CE OEMs don’t have to integrate a bunch of 3rd party code. Windows CE is also used in a variety of portable consumer electronics devices besides the set-top boxes.

The Microsoft Hardware folks just keep chugging along in their nice little niche. Today the High Definition family of mice announced last September was expanded:

In response to consumer demand for higher-performing peripherals at work or play, Microsoft Hardware is expanding its High Definition line of mouse products. Microsoft Corp. is relaunching its No. 1 best-selling mouse1, the Microsoft® Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse, to feature the company’s proprietary High Definition technology. Rounding out the line expansion are two new desktop mice — one optical and one laser. In keeping with Microsoft Hardware’s commitment to offering its customers the best in performance and value, the line now includes a High Definition notebook and desktop mouse for less than $30 (U.S.). Praised for responsiveness, precision and smoother tracking, Microsoft’s High Definition line continues to raise the bar for mouse performance.

“Since we launched our High Definition line just last September, we have sold over a million units,” said Rusty Jeffress, general manager of the Hardware Group at Microsoft. “We design our proprietary chip technology to provide our customers with the best possible performance so they enjoy their computing experiences no matter where they are.”

As expected, Microsoft today launched Windows Storage Server 2003 R2:

Today at Storage Networking World Spring 2006, Microsoft Corp. announced further progress toward its Universal Distributed Storage commitment with the availability of Microsoft® Windows® Storage Server 2003 R2 through original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). In addition, Microsoft announced the availability of software-enabled Storage Area Network (SAN) boot of Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 using Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) technology that was co-developed with IBM Corp. The company also highlighted new partner solutions within the Simple SAN for Windows Server Program.

On that latter item, although IBM shed its consumer PC division, they are still a big player in Windows servers. More details:

Today Microsoft announced support for software-enabled SAN boot of Windows using iSCSI and standard network interface cards (NICs), a technology co-developed by Microsoft and IBM. This implementation was piloted with IBM and will be published publicly for implementation by other Microsoft partners to develop iSCSI software-enabled boot solutions.

Lucas Mearian at Computerworld has more information on why this is a good thing.