Microsoft News Tracker

Last month Scott Guthrie laid out the roadmap (and nomenclature) for Microsoft’s Web 2.0 tooling and today he announced that the first milestone had been reached:

Today I am very pleased to announce the first official Beta release of Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX v1.0. You can download it now from the http://ajax.asp.net site. Available on the site are three download options:

1) The ASP.NET AJAX v1.0 “Core” download. This redist contains the features that will be fully supported by Microsoft Product Support, and which will have a standard 10 year Microsoft support license (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year). The download includes support for the core AJAX type-system, networking stack, component model, extender base classes, and the server-side functionality to integrate within ASP.NET (including the super-popular ScriptManager, UpdatePanel, and Timer controls).

2) The ASP.NET AJAX “Value-Add” CTP download. This redist contains the additional higher-level features that were in previous CTPs of “Atlas,” but which won’t be in the fully-supported 1.0 “core” redist. These features will continue to be community supported as we refine them further and incorporate more feedback. Over time we’ll continue to move features into the “core” download as we finalize features in this value-add package more.

3) The ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit. This project contains 28 free, really cool, AJAX-enabled controls that are built on top of the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 “Core” download. The project is collaborative shared source and built by a combination of Microsoft and non-Microsoft developers, and you can join the community or just download it on CodePlex today.

More details by following the link, but this will be a fully supported add-on to Visual Studio 2005. The next step is a release candidate and then shipment before the end of the year.

Michael Fleming at Variety reports that the deal (announced a year ago) for a film version of Microsoft’s Halo video game has apparently come a cropper:

It’s game over for Universal’s and Fox’s participation in the feature adaptation of Microsoft’s “Halo.”

Both of the studios that agreed to co-finance the screen adaptation of the popular Microsoft game have abruptly backed out of the picture. While rumors had the studios concerned over a budget that was rising above the original projected $135 million pricetag, the filmmakers said the double defection came after U and Fox played hardball and unsuccessfully tried to get the filmmakers and Microsoft to reduce their profit participation.

The studios made the pay cut demand as a Oct. 15 deadline approached. On that day Microsoft was to have received the bulk of a promised $5 million upfront payday. Software giant also stood to receive 10% of gross for rights to the game and a script by Alex Garland.

There’s more insider gossip by following the link, but Microsoft is reportedly in talks with other distribution partners. Relieved shareholders will note that Microsoft is not self-financing this venture and that, at worst, films usually never manage to do lasting damage to the underlying brand.

And what would a tale of Microsoft in Wonderland be without a mention of Viva Pinata, Microsoft’s attempt to build a younger (ages 6-11) Xbox 360 demographic, with a combination of a video game (”most important Xbox 360 release of the year“), TV show, and kiddie merchandise. This unique effort got a goofy puff piece in the Wall Street Journal this week where Microsoft is identified as a “Silicon Valley giant” and the full force ad strategy is described as “viral marketing”, but here’s the nut:

The broad push behind the piñatas is now coming into full view. New TV ads for game and the Xbox 360 start airing this week that feature a purple and green piñata horse named Horstachio trying to persuade a group of children to let him down from a tree. The segments are part of Xbox 360’s big holiday campaign that promotes game titles and the console on TV, in print and online.

The heart warming premise being, of course, that Horstachio is begging the kids not to bash him open with bats like other pinatas, but I digress.

The campaign is the first salvo in what is likely to be one of the biggest holiday ad battles in years. Xbox 360 ads will begin airing just weeks before rivals Sony Corp.’s PlayStation and Nintendo Co. launch massive ad efforts to hype their new consoles, the PS3 and Wii, respectively. Microsoft plans to spend about $50 million on its holiday push, according to a person familiar with the matter. Analysts and ad executives expect videogame makers to spend about $100 million between them promoting consoles and game titles during the fourth quarter.

…

Horstachio’s starring role in the Xbox 360 ad campaign is a direct assault on Nintendo’s territory, which has dominated games for young children. “Clearly Nintendo has owned that space,” says Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing for Microsoft Interactive Entertainment. “But we are now going after that space.”

Hit the link for more details than you likely want, but there are some odd off notes like some of the merchandise not appearing for a year and how they are trying to create a children’s TV show to promote all this kid bling without running afoul of children’s TV advertising regulations.

I continue to be frankly dubious about the whole premise, but if there’s a saving grace it’s that the Viva Pinata game seems to be getting good pre-reviews. Still, it doesn’t seem like a real kid’s game, but more like a kid’s game designed by and for adult geeks. The game ships in November.

It was easy enough for Microsoft to promise the EU that they would provide Vista security APIs to competing security software vendors, but delivering on that promise has turned into a real melee.

Microsoft did deliver some Security Center documentation on Monday, but was stung by complaints from McAfee and Symantec that it was inadequate and had scheduled a conference call yesterday to clarify matters. Unfortunately, the call did not go smoothly:

This meeting was under NDA, so what was actually discussed I can’t say. 

However, the not-secret part of it was that someone at Microsoft accidentally sent out the LiveMeeting presentation invites as “presenter”, which if you’ve ever used LiveMeeting, is an invitation to chaos.  Realizing their error, the meeting was rescheduled for 30 minutes later, and that didn’t all come together, because the meeting had been originally setup to end at 12:30, so we were promptly all kicked off.  Finally at 12:45 EDT the meeting went as planned.  Those who missed this meeting will have the ability to view another later today.

While I have my disagreements with Microsoft on the PatchGuard issue, I must defend them in this instance. It was a case of a few honest mistakes made by well-intentioned people, probably working under a tremendous amount of stress. No big deal people.

OK, but then Microsoft clarified the purpose of the meeting which they felt was “Microsoft’s intention to invite nearly 150 security products vendors to join it in the development of an open security services API for Windows,” and emphasized the fact that:

Such an API would not open up PatchGuard, the kernel protection system the company currently plans for Windows Vista, the spokesperson pointed out emphatically several times during our discussion, nor does Microsoft have any plans to ever open up PatchGuard.

“Microsoft continues to believe the kernel must be protected from unauthorized access,” BetaNews was told. To that end, the company proposes “a process for developing methods for software that works alongside PatchGuard.”

Such a process, if initiated, could take several months, by Microsoft estimates, with the goal being to produce the results of this initiative in time for the release of Vista Service Pack 1. Though the spokesperson used the phrase “the SP1 timeframe” to refer to the release of these services, Microsoft declined to attach a time to that timeframe.

This was all too much for McAfee which blasted Microsoft:

“Despite pledges, press conferences and speeches by Microsoft, the community of independent security companies that consumers rely on for computer protection has seen little indication that Microsoft intends to live up to the promises it made last week,” McAfee attorney Christopher Thomas said in a statement.

“We have been greatly disappointed by the lack of action by the company so far and Microsoft has not lived up, either in detail or in spirit, to the hollow assurances offered by its top management last week.”

and, of course, Microsoft returned the compliment:

It’s unfortunate that McAfee’s lawyers are making these kinds of inaccurate and inflammatory statements,” said Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s security technology unit.

He said Microsoft was being even-handed in developing the needed software, which would happen “in the months ahead”.

It doesn’t take an international antitrust lawyer to see the problem here, just someone with a recollection of recent events:

In the past, the Commission has expressed concerns about delays by Microsoft in providing information to other companies because during that time, those firms have lost market share and eventually been sidetracked.

Then there’s the whopping supplemental fine that the European Commission slapped on Microsoft for the sluggish delay in delivering interoperability information the last time around. Why does Microsoft persist in playing the same old tune? Do they think the regulatory reaction is going to be any better this time? If they really like waving a red flag at Neelie Kroes, they shouldn’t be surprised when she shows up snorting and pawing the ground.

Update: In fairness to Microsoft, they do contend that they have provided extensive Security Center API info on and since Monday.