Microsoft News Tracker

It’s a little later than anticipated, but S. “Soma” Somasegar, CVP of Microsoft’s Developer Division, has the news at his blog:

Today I’m pleased to announce the availability of Visual Studio .NET 2003 Service Pack 1 (VS .NET 2003 SP1).
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The announcement of the availability of SP1 for VS 2003 today, and the timing of this release, speaks to the fact that you have told us over time that Visual Studio .NET 2003 has been an extremely stable product.
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The first Service Pack incorporates hotfixes released since Visual Studio 2003 first shipped, Security Updates, critical fixes and other additional fixes for problems that our Visual Studio team testers have discovered. We’ve also incorporated bugs reported through the MSDN Product Feedback Center and the top 50% of crashes reported by the Windows Error Reporting Service. This amounts to more than 400 issues overall that we have fixed in SP1. The Product Feedback Center and Windows Error Reporting have enabled us to respond more directly to issues that you’ve reported. You can get the Service Pack and related information from the download center page.

He mentions but gives no details on the first service pack for Visual Studio 2005 which is expected this quarter. The timing of its release tells us something as well.

Nate Mook at BetaNews:

A new viral Web site at notfornoobs.com has launched that appears to tease an upcoming game-related device by Microsoft and hardware manufacturer Razer. While few specifics are offered by the site, it hints that more details are coming next Friday.

More by following the link, but no one is venturing any suggestions about what the hype object is other than Gizmodo who is guessing it is some sort of game hardware. That’s probably a good bet since Razer builds gaming paraphernalia. If you sit through the video at notfornoobs, you can sign up for a mailing list to get the word when the marketers are ready.

Gizmodo has an Exclusive Microsoft Zune Picture, but it’s not that interesting other than being a black and white photo:

The reason the shot is in black and white is because Microsoft assigned a unique color scheme to every Zune prototype in existence right now—all 150 of them—so any leaks could be traced to the employee who leaked it.

Of more interest is Gizmodo’s Exclusive Microsoft Zune Details among which are:

First off, that scroll wheel you see? That’s not a wheel. It’s just four buttons arranged in a wheel formation. That kinda sucks if you’re used to the scroll wheel, but it seems their engineers weren’t too fond of it, or Microsoft didn’t want to be accused of copying the iPod’s wheel. Either way, it’s just four buttons.
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The UI itself has white text on colored backgrounds, with lots of textures. This could even be skinnable. While the song is playing, it will display album art or a Windows Media Player-like visualization.

FM support is fairly complete, with both an FM tuner and an FM transmitter so you can beam the music to your car. The FM transmitter also feeds up Song and Artist information so you can see what’s playing from your car stereo (if it supports that feature, like in GM cars).

More by following the link, but the Wi-Fi features weren’t enabled yet.

Finally, following up on the Zune video preload story from yesterday, EMI formally announced that they were providing preload content:

EMI Group, the world’s third-largest music company said on Thursday it has signed a deal to provide preloaded music videos for Microsoft’s soon-to-launch Zune player.

The London-based company said the deal would see artists including 30 Seconds To Mars and Hot Chip featured on the player when it goes to market later this year.

(A hat tip to Zune News Site for the above links).

Dan Nystedt at InfoWorld:

Apple Computer continued to lead the U.S. digital music player market in the second quarter with a 75.6 percent share, according to the NPD Group.
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But its hard to tell if Apple will be able to maintain its sizable lead as mobile phone companies continue to put out handsets with built-in music players. A number of analysts have warned that the digital music player market could go the way of the PDA (personal digital assistant), which saw growth drop off once mobile phone companies introduced smart phones, handsets with PDA functionality.

It makes you wonder about other standalone players like Microsoft’s upcoming Zune.

Paul Loughrey at gamesindustry.biz:

Microsoft has announced plans to further integrate its Xbox Live Marketplace service into games, producing “consumable” items that users must pay for, such as in-game currency.

The controversial strategy could mean that once consumers had purchased a full price title, they would need to fork out more money to buy exclusive in-game items.

Differing from content such as expansion modules, extra levels and new characters which have proven to be a hit with players of games like Oblivion, the consumable items would have a limited lifespan. A suit of armour, for example, would eventually disintegrate in-game and the player would have to pay more money to replace it.

Virtual consumables - what a plan! Hexus Gaming says:

Excuse me for being cynical but if I’ve paid for something I sure as hell don’t want to give it back or pay for it again.

In less contentious Xbox 360 news, Microsoft’s John Porcaro clears up some speculation about the upcoming add-on Xbox 360 HD DVD drive that was displayed last week:

I’m seeing lots of speculation about our upcoming HD DVD Player, and whether we have plans to publish HD DVD games. The answer is no.

Since announcing the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player accessory at E3 2006, we’ve been clear that it is designed exclusively for playing HD DVD movies. It will not play games on HD DVD.