Microsoft News Tracker

You may recall that in March, Microsoft acquired a company called Apptimum whose Alohabob software product was a highly regarded solution for the onerous task of transferring settings and applications from one computer to another. It sounds useful any time you get a new PC and perfect for all those new Vista users Microsoft is hoping for. That is apparently Microsoft’s intention, but no firm schedule had been set.

Now, Peter Galli reports at eWeek that an Alohabob beta will ship alongside Release Candidate 1 of Vista, sometime this quarter. He quotes Microsoft Vista exec Jim Allchin:

“I have been using Alohabob and it is incredible how much it speeds up the application migration process. In fact I was able to move all the applications from one computer to another using it in just 30 minutes,” Allchin said.

It’s a miracle! Alohabob was originally touted to be available as a free download for Vista users, but if it’s ready when Vista is, why not just put it in the package? Either way, however, it’s bad news for the little software companies that are also in this market niche.

Windows Live Spaces was launched on Tuesday and immediately ran into difficulties as Juan Carlos Perez reports at InfoWorld:

Microsoft’s highly anticipated upgrade of its MSN Spaces blogging and social networking service has run into significant and unforeseen performance problems.

Microsoft began rolling out the “next generation” version of the service, dubbed Windows Live Spaces, on Tuesday night, but things got quite bumpy along the way.

For more than 12 hours, pages loaded extremely slowly at best, and at worst they didn’t render properly at all, according to a message posted late Wednesday by Microsoft on the official MSN Spaces blog.

“We know we disappointed a bunch of you with the issues we had in our roll-out last night,” the message reads. “We planned long and hard for this release and unfortunately it was one of those gotchas that only showed up once we were in production.”

There are apparently still some lingering problems, but this was a major re-plumbing of MSN Spaces which isn’t a little deal.

Microsoft is still looking for a “must have” game to really drive the Xbox 360 and is fervently hoping that Gears of War will be it:

Since the first frightening images appeared a little over a year ago, gamers worldwide have felt the ominous rumblings of something approaching that defies all convention. Sightings as recent as at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2006 have confirmed its existence, leaving gamers breathless. Microsoft Corp. today announced what anxious players have been eagerly awaiting: Emergence Day 2006. Available exclusively for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the highly anticipated title “Gears of War” will be available in North America on Nov. 12, 2006.

Developed by Epic Games Inc. and published by Microsoft Game Studios, “Gears of War” tells the harrowing story of mankind’s struggle against the monstrous Locust Horde through stunning high-definition graphics and an intense storyline on the scale of a blockbuster movie.

One of the most anticipated next-generation console titles of 2006 and the critic’s choice winner for the E3 2006 Best Console Game, “Gears of War” will explode onto store shelves with a standard edition available for $59.99* and a limited collector’s edition available for $69.99. The limited edition will offer an even deeper look into the graphically stunning and frightening world of “Gears of War,” providing an official “Destroyed Beauty” art book and a bonus DVD featuring an inside look at the making of the game — all enclosed in a highly collectible metal box.

“‘Gears of War’ represents the emergence of a thrilling new franchise for Xbox 360 and is the must-have game of 2006,” said Shane Kim, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios. “Combining the best in innovative gameplay, next-generation graphics and interactive storytelling, Epic has harnessed the extraordinary power of Xbox 360 to create an extremely powerful and immersive entertainment experience.”

There’s more purple prose by following the link.

Update: The gaming press (e.g. [1]) considers this to also be a shot at Sony whose PlayStation 3 ships on Nov. 17.