Microsoft News Tracker

Speaking of Microsoft giving everything the Windows Live brand but the kitchen sink, the 1.5 upgrade to the distinctly non-Live Windows Live OneCare security suite has been released to manufacturing (RTM) according to a post yesterday on the team weblog:

I am pleased to let you know that we hit an important milestone right before the end of the year. That is, our development and test work is done on the next major release of OneCare, and as we announced about a month ago, it will indeed be available – both at retail and on the Web - at the end of January. There may be some slight variations by country, but for the most part, you should be able to download or buy in just a few weeks. And for those of you who already subscribe, you need to do – nothing. You’ll automatically receive this major upgrade, just as you receive minor upgrades throughout the year, as part of your OneCare subscription.

New features include Vista and expanded language support. We had mentioned OneCare just the other day when market research firm NPD estimated OneCare holiday North American retail store sales at 2-3% of the security market, down from the 15% peak reported by NPD when OneCare was first released.

Microsoft answered everyone’s fervent wishes for more products with the Windows Live brand by announcing a limited beta of Windows Live for TV. The Microsoft team blog, In Orbit, explains what WLfTV is:

Windows Live for TV is an early beta 3D browser application that makes it easy to connect to your social network as well as friends and family from within Vista Media Center or IE7.0. You’re be able to view the best of Windows Live Spaces and communicate with Friends and Family over Windows Live Messenger 8.1 with voice & text chat as well as make a phone call.

Couldn’t we do that already? Wait, there’s a better explanation plus some screenshots at Windows Live Ideas:

Windows Live for TV Beta is a rich, graphically-driven interface designed for people who use Windows Live Spaces and Messenger and Live Call on large-screen monitors and TVs.

Note that Windows Vista is required, but it does look slick and a bit Sci-Fi. However, once again I have to observe that Microsoft seems to be giving everything the Windows Live brand but the kitchen sink. WLfTV is a nice niche mashup of some real Windows Live online services, but why mangle the branding, particularly with a name that evokes images of something quite different?

Update Dec. 5: This is the project codenamed Nemo that was rumored to be on hold back in October. The current codename is apparently Orbit.

Microsoft today issued a press release commemorating the history of Microsoft Word. It’s better than you might expect except for one glaring typo:

Word was originally the “Bravo” product, brought to Microsoft from IBM’s Palo Alto Research Center by Charles Simonyi in 1981.

Of course, it was the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, but it reminded me that through most of the 70’s IBM did have a Palo Alto Systems Center. Those were the halcyon days (for IBM at least) when the economics of the computer business allowed IBM’s sales division to have a significant product development arm, generally in partnership with customers. As a result, there were a number of IBM Systems Centers around the globe and the one in Palo Alto specialized in transaction processing and database applications. Commoditization has mostly killed such nearly custom work, but that’s a story for another day. As for the building that housed the IBM Palo Alto Systems Center, it is prime real estate on Page Mill Road and has gone through a number of transformations since then.

One other recollection, but I’m only about 70% sure on this one: Microsoft launched Word in 1983 and I seem to recall an issue of PC Magazine with a piece of stiff cardboard bound inside that revealed a demo copy of Microsoft Word on a 5 1/4 inch floppy when you peeled back the covering. At the time I wasn’t too interested in Word, but liked the sidebar where the publisher observed that at first he thought they were crazy when they asked him to bind a “floor tile” into the magazine. Ah, those were the days!

The big feud over High Definition DVD formats has been smoldering right along since the opposing camps started rolling out their hardware at midyear and not surprisingly has resulted in desultory sales while consumers sat on the sidelines trying to figure out which horse to bet on. Now some industry players have tried to make the feud irrelevant by coming up with ways to support both formats:

Richard Siklos reports at the NY Times that New Disc May Sway DVD Wars:

Consumers wary of buying new high-definition DVD players because of a technology war reminiscent of the days of Betamax versus VHS will soon have a new kind of DVD that might make the decision less daunting.

Warner Brothers, which helped popularize the DVD more than a decade ago, plans to announce next week a single videodisc that can play films and television programs in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, the rival DVD technologies.

Warner Brothers, a division of Time Warner, plans to formally announce the new disc, which it is calling a Total HD disc, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
…
Because of manufacturing complexities, the Total HD disc will not contain a standard format version (i.e. regular DVD - ed.), said Kevin Tsujihara, the president of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group. However, several months ago the company filed patents for a new disc incorporating all three formats, which it could produce in the future.

Mr. Tsujihara described the new disc as an elegant way for studios to make their content available more widely “in a way that is not conceding defeat” for the format they have been backing.

In the short term, Total HD would actually add to the number of formats retailers will have to stock, raising it from three to four.

Hit the link for more, but so far there is no groundswell of support by the studios in the opposing camps to adopt this compromise and their participation in creating dual format disks is required for this solution to work. I rate the idea “A” for effort, but there seems to be a better choice for consumers - LG Makes World’s First Blu-ray/HD DVD Dual-Format Player:

LG Electronics (LG), a leader in consumer electronics and mobile communications, announced that it will launch the world’s first dual-format high-definition disc player, capable of playing both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD content. The unit will be released in the United States in early 2007. Details will be provided at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held January 8-11 in Las Vegas.

As long as it’s not too pricey, a dual format hardware solution like this is the only hope consumers have of insulating themselves from the studios’ little games. Moreover, if the dual format players start moving off the shelves, I expect the other hardware manufacturers would pile on no matter which camp they are nominally in.