Microsoft News Tracker

The latest rumor of a Microsoft iPod killer comes from Bloomberg News (via Todd Bishop):

Microsoft Corp. is planning to have a portable music and video player out by Christmas in a challenge to Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod.

The digital player will have a wireless Internet connection, enabling users to download music without being linked to a computer, a feature the iPod doesn’t offer, according to people briefed on Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft’s plans.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, is seeking to take share from Apple’s iPod, which commands 77 percent of the $4 billion U.S. market for digital music players, based on figures from market researcher NPD Group Inc. Apple’s iTunes music store is used for 72 percent of music downloads. Microsoft has spent the past six years relying on partners to make players that use its software.

“None of Microsoft’s partners are doing the job that needs to be done,”‘ said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research in New York. “Apple has set it up so Apple music flows only to Apple devices. It locks Microsoft out and gives Apple more of a hold.”

Microsoft hired music industry executive Chris Stephenson, who is among Microsoft officials who have met with music and Hollywood companies to seek licenses for their content, according to industry officials with knowledge of the plans. J Allard, 37, a Microsoft Xbox vice president, is overseeing the development of the device, the people said.

There’s more by following the link, but this seems to be the same rumor as the one in June, only with more details. Once again, the important part is that Microsoft is apparently doing this themselves like the Xbox instead of “enabling” partners like the Personal Media Center and unsurprisingly has the Xbox crew in charge. I still wonder about the PMC partners left high and dry, though. One further observation: while the iPod lacks a wireless connection, the feature isn’t new to the space since MusicGremlin just rolled out a personal audio player with Wi-Fi Internet support as its primary virtue.

Microsoft’s effort to wring more money from its Office and Windows cash cows had heretofore handled the antipiracy aspect with rather a deft touch, but Microsoft has dug itself into a hole with the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) campaign and keeps on digging. Ed Bott:

Microsoft’s PR agency apparently e-mailed other tech reporters to try to spike the WGA “kill switch” story I reported on last week. Eric Lai of ComputerWorld got the memo and basically reprinted it with no analysis (”Microsoft denies WGA kill switch in Windows XP”). But Lai’s story does include one interesting new detail, a statistic that Microsoft confirmed in a follow-up e-mail to me:

Through its spokeswoman, Microsoft said that “80% of all WGA validation failures are due to unauthorized use of leaked or stolen volume license keys.”

Oh, really? Turn that statistic around: Microsoft said that 20% of all Windows users who fail the WGA validation test are not using leaked or stolen keys.

Bott’s attempt to get Microsoft to clarify the details of the remaining 20% didn’t result in anything very cogent other than Microsoft’s refusal to admit that there might be any false positives coming out of the WGA test. I don’t know about you, but I’d be real grumpy if I downloaded what appeared to be critical security patches and started getting bogus and annoying warnings that my legitimately purchased copies of Windows and Office were counterfeit and that’s exactly what is being reported.

Last week, there were folks who were enough upset by the whole WGA concept to go to court and now a new group has gotten themselves a lawyer and filed another lawsuit:

Here’s the new complaint, also filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle: PDF, 428 kb. It was filed on behalf of two Washington state businesses and three Seattle-area residents — and, like the first suit, it seeks class-action status.

Among other things, the latest complaint questions the tool’s accuracy in determining whether a copy of Windows is genuine or not…

But as with the first suit, the new complaint also gets into Microsoft’s method of delivering the WGA tool as part of its Automatic Updates system, which is more commonly used for distributing security patches. In addition to seeking unspecified monetary damages, the suit asks the court to require Microsoft to cooperate with antivirus and anti-spyware companies to help them create tools to remove WGA, and offer its own tool for doing the same thing.

I suspect the amusement has just started on this one.

While we’re on the subject, Microsoft has announced plans to more closely check their volume license customers as well - Microsoft To Enforce Volume License Key Compliance For Vista, Longhorn Server:

Enterprise customers can forget about the honor system Microsoft has in place for reporting Windows licenses they consume.

Starting with the release of Vista and “Longhorn” Windows server next year, customers will be required to register their volume license keys (VLK) with Microsoft within 30 days of acquisition and report their license usage on a monthly basis, executives said.

It’s a very different system than what is in place today, sources said.

“In the enterprise, there is no client activation. You get a master set of bits and a number of licenses. It’s always been up to you and an external auditor to verify that you didn’t deploy more copies than you had licensed,” said one source familiar with the plan, who asked not to be named. “This is designed to formalize the process.”

Microsoft is developing key management servers and changing the licensing process for the next generation Windows client and server, executives confirmed recently.

“We are making changes to the process to Vista and a new approach to VLK licensing,” Mike Sievert, corporate vice president of Windows client marketing for Microsoft told CRN during a recent interview. “We’re training our enterprise customers and we’ll do some key management for customers that’s more automated and makes reporting easier.”

At Tech Ed 2006, Ward Ralston, a senior technology product manager for Microsoft, confirmed the company is “introducing the notion of a key management server” for Windows “Longhorn” Server that will gives volume licensed customers a 30-day validation period to register their license keys. Customers must check in every 30 days to update the licenses used.

According to sources familiar with the plan, Microsoft’s key management server would keep track of the active CALs and servers customers deployed and send an audit report in every 30 day.

On its face, it doesn’t seem like a problem, but then neither did WGA. Of course, the real difficulty is the increasing complexity of dealing with Microsoft over licensing, but Microsoft says not to worry:

Changes made last week to Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) licence management program have caused mixed feelings among users, but the company has insisted its licensing strategy is mainly aimed at helping users, not penalising them.

The Microsoft strategy is aimed at “helping companies get the maximum value out of their licences “, according to the company’s U.K. licensing program manager, Ram Dhaliwal, who said that the company is preparing a number of tools to help.

“We are creating a customer tool-kit,” Dhaliwal told ZDNet UK. “That is about a month away and part of that will be a three-step process to help with tools and policies. We used to have about 50 tools, and what we have done is just map them and put them in one place.”

I hope and presume he’s talking about business customers, but let’s face it, no one really wants a toolkit with 50 tools just to keep track of Microsoft licensing - they have better things to do.

The NY Times’ Kristina Shevory noticed Microsoft’s building boom in Redmond (See also [1]) and has a report on Microsoft’s growing pains:

In the midst of its biggest expansion in nearly a decade, the world’s largest software company has suddenly found itself with a major setback: not enough room to grow.

…the company, which houses more than 30,000 people on its sprawling campus in Redmond, Wash., suddenly will have to make room for up to 12,000 new bodies. It will spend $1 billion to expand that campus by more than a third, or 3.1 million square feet, over the next three years. That includes new leases and the purchase and construction of 14 buildings. For a modest-size real estate market like Seattle, those are staggering numbers.

“The Redmond you’ll see even in a year will make your eyes pop,” said Lou Gellos, a Microsoft spokesman. “It’s going to be a very different campus.”

Microsoft is expanding beyond the boundaries of its current site, adding two buildings in a downtown Redmond shopping mall for a total of three, and consolidating its North American sales headquarters staff in a new skyscraper under construction in nearby Bellevue, Wash. By next summer, Microsoft will take over 15 of the 28 floors, or 320,000 square feet, in the office tower.

“They’re pretty much leasing up all the vacant office space in Redmond,” said Rob Odle, director of planning and community development for the city of Redmond.

And as you might expect, there are some problems with grumpy neighbors and traffic:

Transportation has become the largest issue for the growing region. And for its part, Microsoft has vowed to spend $35 million on transportation improvements in Redmond, including an overpass over Route 520 near its campus, sewer upgrades and turn lanes on nearby roads.

But even a sizable cash infusion would merely be a temporary solution to a problem that has been steadily worsening for years. The area’s roads and bridges, some of which are earthquake hazards, already struggle to handle the company’s 30,000 employees.
…
Privately, Microsoft officials bristle at the notion that the transportation burden is theirs. But Microsoft’s size makes it a convenient target for complaint among Redmond residents.

More by following the link.