Microsoft News Tracker

Some Microsoft related news items from this week that didn’t find a post of their own.

What does Apple have up their sleeve for the iPod? And more European consumer groups are complaining about the iTunes/iPod interlock. What until they see Zune.

Microsoft has revised the Office 2007 user interface because of beta tester complaints. Among other things, the (unique but space consuming) “ribbon” is now collapsible. (Update: Jensen Harris says the ribbon always could be minimized, now the option is just more visible.) Speaking of Office, Microsoft has now come out on top in Massachusetts because of accessibility concerns - Massachusetts OpenDocument plan will use Office plug-in.

Windows Servers Gain:

Windows servers also continued to show strength, with 3.1 percent growth in revenues, and 11 percent growth in shipments year over year. Servers based on the operating system made up 34.2 percent of quarterly revenue, as opposed to Unix’s 35 percent share, a 1.6 percent decline in revenues and 1.8 percent drop in unit shipments.

Microsoft Updates Flawed IE6 Patch:

It turns out Microsoft’s indefinite postponement of security bulletin MS06-042 only lasted a day. The Redmond company on Thursday released an updated version of the patch that corrects a security vulnerability in IE 6.0 SP1.

The original patch contained a deployment issue, and was later discovered to include another security vulnerability.

The 2007 Games Convention was held in Leipzig, Germany this week and Microsoft put on a big show. I mentioned some of the news separately, but in addition:

• Madden NFL 07 was launched on Xbox 360
• Microsoft relaunched IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 and announced a wireless game controller for Windows and the Xbox 360 as well as the Habu mouse mentioned earlier in the week.
• Various games and accessories for Windows and Xbox 360 were announced or reannounced as well as launches of the Xbox 360 in more countries.

Anti-monopoly push by China may hit Microsoft. Microsoft runs that risk everywhere.

MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger users in the UK will soon have a “report abuse” button to report sexual predators to the police. Also Microsoft is starting a beta for Windows Live Messenger 8.1.

There was no expectation that Microsoft would build their Zune personal media player without 3rd party help, but there has been no clear delineation of the others involved. The curtain was lifted a bit today by an FCC filing from Toshiba as Ina Fried reports at CNET:

Microsoft’s forthcoming Zune player is shooting to be the life of the party, allowing users to create mobile social networks and stream music to nearby friends or strangers, according to a government regulatory filing.

Zune owners can act as their own DJ, sending streaming music content to up to four other devices, according to documents filed Thursday with the Federal Communications Commission. With the device’s wireless networking abilities turned on, people can send and receive photos, as well as “promotional copies of songs, albums and playlists,” according to the filing.

Hardware maker Toshiba filed the FCC documents. However, the filing contains multiple references to the hard drive-based media player as “Zune,” as well as other code names, such as Argo and Pyxis.

Those do sound a bit familiar.

A Microsoft representative was not immediately able to comment on the FCC filing or whether Toshiba is, in fact, making the Zune device.

CNET has some photos from the FCC Web site as does The Register who has one with the Zune logo. I guess I shouldn’t have been so skeptical about the Gizmodo story that the Zune looked like a re-skinned Toshiba Gigabeat.

Update: Microsoft’s Cesar Menendez confirms:

The report is legitimate.

Toshiba is our manufacturing partner for Zune.

He also says that full Zune details will be forthcoming in the “next few weeks.”

Microsoft’s Nick White at the Windows Vista Team Blog:

Last piece of news for tonight, this time from the Release Team:

“We are pleased to announce the release of Pre-RC1 build 5536.16385! This build represents significant progress incorporating your Beta 2 and 5472 feedback.

We have made a lot of progress since Beta 2 and 5472, and we think you will notice the quality improvements that we’ve been seeing in the daily builds.”

This beta build is for selected testers only and is a predecessor to the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) build still expected in early September.

Initial blogger reactions ([1], [2], [3]) seem to be very favorable particularly with regard to improved performance. Mary Jo Foley has more reactions at Microsoft Watch and if you are interested, Paul Thurrott deciphers build numbering.

Update 8/28: Paul Thurrott weighed in over the weekend with a very favorable review as well. Mary Jo Foley clarifies the availability of build 5536 - it turns out that MSDN subscribers and some members of the Customer Preview Program who received Beta 2 will also get this build.

Joris Evers at CNET has an update on the Symantec Microsoft legal wrangling that started back in May:

After initial courtroom sparring in Symantec’s trade secret lawsuit against Microsoft, the companies are now shaping up for the real fight.

A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday approved an order that lets both parties in the case file documents under seal. They can now fully cooperate in gathering information pertinent to the case, since sensitive details won’t become public record. An actual trial, should it come down to that, is still far away, though. In a court filing last week, both Symantec and Microsoft suggested trial dates in December of next year.

The lawyers and the relevant folks at Symantec and Microsoft will stay busy for a year, but there won’t be any public entertainment.

Symantec sued Microsoft in May, accusing it of misappropriating intellectual property related to data storage technology. The case is part of a high-stakes battle in the software industry, where giant Microsoft is increasingly entering Symantec’s turf of security software.
…
Microsoft countersued in late June, alleging Symantec violated three of its patents. It also challenged the validity of the Symantec patent central to that company’s case.

Both moves are common in patent cases. Less common, however, is that Microsoft has also asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review the Symantec patent.

Actually, Microsoft asked for a USPTO re-examination recently in the Eolas case and had it done to them in the FAT file system patent suit.

(Via Neowin) MsgAddict reports that Microsoft is get ready for a restricted beta of ts beta of Windows Live OneCare Family Safety:

Microsoft has begun to send out Windows Live OneCare Family Safety Beta invitations to members of the Windows Live Butterfly team, who will help to evaluate and test the new application.

If the name is unfamiliar, it’s because it looks like Microsoft has rebranded Windows Live Family Safety Settings, their parental control freebie.