Microsoft News Tracker

Mary Jo Foley interviews Jeremy Allison who is free to dish on the Microsoft Novell deal now that his tenure at Novell has ended. One of many good lines:

A nagging doubt is that if I had just spoken out louder against the deal I might have been able to change something, but I was too quiet until too late. It’s *hard* to be the one saying the emperor has no clothes, especially whilst listening to others praising the finery of the silk stitching :-) .

I’m sure plenty of folks at Novell have now noticed how chilly it is.

HD-DVD AACS hacked and Studios Take Claims of AACS Crack Seriously. It’s more of an exploit of some specific HD-DVD player software but it works and it means that all currently released titles are vulnerable.

MMS Exploit Released for Windows Mobile – No Patch Available:

And remember, just because it doesn’t look like a computer doesn’t mean it can’t be owned.

More discussion here.

Is this the HTC 2007 Windows Mobile lineup? HTC manufactures most Windows Mobile phones.

The PlayStation 2 Still Rocks:

“The PS2 will have legs well into 2008,” says Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. And while Nintendo Co.’s Wii console is getting most of the industry buzz, and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp. has racked up big sales in its year on the market, some say the PS2 might even beat out each of those offerings in 2007. “The PS2 probably has the capacity to sell more than any other gaming” console, says Simon Jeffrey, chief operating officer at game maker Sega of America.

Interesting times ahead.  The first round results will be clear when we get some holiday sales numbers. Also, Microsoft Xbox 360’s updated 65nm CPU delayed to mid 2007.

Yahoo! Answers Captures 96% of Q and A Market Share according to Hitwise. Windows Live QnA got 1%. Not a surprise - Yahoo owns this niche.

Windows Live Mail Plus rumored to offer 4GB storage and some other assorted bling for the subscription price.

Read the Exchange 2007 fine print since Microsoft has tinkered with the Client Access Licenses (CALs).

And last but not least, Microsoft: Vista’s Secure, Not Perfect. Of course, but the question is whether it is secure enough to get Microsoft out of the emergency patch rut and live up to its advance billing to customers.