Microsoft News Tracker

Earlier in the week, I mentioned an interview with Sony Computer Entertainment American president Kaz Hirai in which the production numbers for the PS3 were bobbled about until settling at 2 million units ready at launch in November and 2 million more by the end of the year. Not everyone is buying it including the analysts at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities who are estimating only 3 million units by March 2007 and correspondingly cut their Sony rating to the consternation of the stock market.

Meanwhile, Sony is promising to “offer 27 playable games” at the Tokyo Game Show next month. Since they claim to have “offered 13 playable PS3 software titles at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show in Los Angeles in May,” it’s clear that playable doesn’t mean completed.

Dan Warne at APC Magazine:

Microsoft revealed today that no 32-bit versions of Windows Vista will be able to play back “next generation high definition protected content” (translation – studio-released BluRay and HD-DVD movies).
…
The surprising disclosure was made by Senior Program Manager Steve Riley during a presentation on Windows Vista security at Tech.Ed 2006 Sydney today.

“Any next-generation high definition content will not play in x32 at all,” said Riley.

“This is a decision that the Media Player folks made because there are just too many ways right now for unsigned kernel mode code [to compromise content protection]. The media companies asked us to do this and said they don’t want any of their high definition content to play in x32 at all, because of all of the unsigned malware that runs in kernel mode can get around content protection, so we had to do this,” he said.

In case this is somewhat obscure, it means that the studios are worried that determined copiers could get around copy protection by loading kernel mode drivers in 32-bit Vista. They feel safer about 64-bit Vista because Microsoft will only permit “signed” drivers there - i.e. signed with a digital certificate issued to a valid commercial organization.

Riley then attempted to pre-empt audience concerns over the newly imposed limitation by asking how many of the Tech.Ed attendees currently played high-definition movies at home.

“How many of you have a DVD player that you know can output a proper 1080 line non-interlaced?”

No-one raised their hands.

“OK… look around. By the time that stuff becomes popular, it’ll no longer be an issue because everyone will be running 64-bit Windows,” he said.

An interesting dream. More likely, they’ll all be watching the high definition content on standalone players or their game consoles.

Update: At the Windows Vista Team Blog, Nick White tries to turn the herd before it stampedes through town:

The community is buzzing with reactions to APC Magazine’s article regarding playback of protected High Definition content in 32-bit versions of Windows Vista. However, the information shared was incorrect and the reactions pervading the community are thus (understandably) ill-informed.

The real deal is that no version of Windows Vista will make a determination as to whether any given piece of content should play back or not. The individual ISV providing the playback solutions will choose whether the playback environment, including environments that use 32-bit processors, meet the performance requirements for playback of protected High Definition content.

That was my original understanding too - much the way regular DVDs are played on Windows XP. But it begs the question of whether the studios are allowing any ISVs to provide 32-bit playback. It’s not directly Microsoft’s problem, but indirectly it sure is.

According to Techlog, a beta of Windows Live Connection Center Wi-Fi has opened for selected beta testers of Office 2007. The Center offers a Wi-Fi client that helps the user identify and connect to local Wi-Fi networks and a HotSpot Locator (HSL) Web site that provides a searchable list of public hotspots.

Required Hardware / Software: Operating System - Windows XP, (Vista compatibility be added with RC1, currently scheduled for September 2006) and access to wireless hotspots. Note: the WLCC Wi-Fi Suite Beta will not run on handheld devices such as Pocket PCs or BlackBerries.

The Windows Live Connection Center Wi-Fi Suite beta will begin August 22, 2006 and continue through early 2007.

All this is swell, but it’s not clear what Microsoft is really bringing to the table. The client really isn’t an online (i.e. “Live”) application since it installs on the user’s PC and every maker of Wi-FI adapters already ships a client with similar functionality which contends with the native Windows support for control of Wi-Fi configuration. If Microsoft wanted to spiff it up, why not just spiff up the operating system support instead of adding a 3rd player to the mix?

As for the HSL Web site, a search on your favorite search engine for “Wi-Fi hotspots” will yield an number of Web sites that provide equivalent functionality as well, including the mapping that HSL gets with a tie to Windows Live Local.

Meanwhile, the curtain was lifted a little bit on Windows Live Drive:

Microsoft has confirmed further details of its forthcoming Live Drive service, which will offer free online storage that can be mapped directly from PCs running the forthcoming Vista operating system.

Speaking at a blogger’s breakfast prior to the opening of Tech Ed in Sydney, Microsoft Australia technical specialist John Hodgson said that the basic Live Drive was likely to include around 2G of storage for free. Additional storage capacity would be available for purchase, though pricing schemes and final release dates haven’t been announced.

Hopefully, this was some sort of miscommunication as there is no obvious reason why Live Drive, unlike current competitors in online storage (e.g. Xdrive, which is offering 5GB free), should be saddled with a Vista only restriction for drive mapping.

Finally, there was an interesting beta of the Windows Live Contacts Gadget which:

… enables end users to use their Windows Live contacts (from Windows Live Mail/Hotmail and Messenger) with third party (non-Microsoft) web sites, conveniently and securely. The gadget works with any web server, most browsers, and doesn’t require reams of license or partnership paperwork with Microsoft. You don’t have to assimilate your web server into the Microsoft collective in order to play with Windows Live contact data.

Very clever! There are more details by following the link, but I have to reiterate my caveat from when Windows Live Contacts was first announced: Windows Live Contacts is just one of many places where users can and will store contact information. Thereby, the utility of the gadget is limited and probably always will be as application developers within and without Microsoft resist giving up control of “their” contacts.

Update: Windows Live testing video search.

Microsoft today released Release Candidate 1 of their Internet Explorer 7 Web browser. It is publicly available for download here for Windows XP SP2 and the other Windows operating systems (XP x64, Windows Server 2003) that it supports. This is likely the last public beta download before it goes gold and Paul Thurrott has a guide as to what to expect including:

Microsoft says there are no major new features in this version, but there is one feature that should cause users to cheer: It no longer requires you to manually uninstall any previous IE 7 beta versions you might have installed. Instead, the IE 7 RC1 installer will uninstall previous IE 7 versions for you, after a reboot, and then proceed with installing RC1, after a second reboot. Bravo.

More by following the link.