Microsoft News Tracker

The purported leak of a upcoming new Xbox version must have the marketing team tearing out their hair:

It seems that Game Informer magazine is reporting in its April issue that an upgraded 360 will soon be hitting store shelves, with at least some of the long-rumored goodies: 120GB hard drive (six times the current model’s capacity), HDMI output, and a sweet black paint job.

More at Kotaku and Engadget who reports it will be named “Xbox 360 Elite.”

It’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft can spin this to keep Xbox 360 sales from drying up. Denying it might help, but then they would look foolish if the rumor is correct.

A flurry of miscellaneous Microsoft News:

Judge backs $1.5 billion patent decision against Microsoft in the first Alcatel-Lucent case decided in late February.

Microsoft joins OpenAjax Alliance standards group as rumored back in January. See also the OpenAjax Alliance website.

Microsoft offers a new Vista discount plan for consumers:

For customers who acquired a full or upgrade version of Windows Vista from retail or pre-installed, we’ve got a pretty sweet deal.  We’re announcing the Windows Vista Additional License program, which provides the ability to install the same edition of Windows Vista on any other additional computers you may own.  The program allows customers to purchase up to 5 additional licenses for PCs they own at 10% off the suggested retail price.

Although slightly more realistic than the Family Discount Plan, it has the same basic problem - the vast majority of consumers will only acquire Vista via a new PC purchase.

Meanwhile, Vista is reportedly bad for the PC business. Wait, someone else says it’s great. Hold on a sec, maybe it’s in between.

Dell launches low-cost PC in China running either Windows XP or Linux. No Vista. Well, Microsoft will still get paid for XP.

Virtualisation causes IDC to cut server forecast. Virtualization allows customers to buy fewer, bigger servers. Both units and revenue are predicted to be down from prior forecasts. There should also be a similar effect on Microsoft’s server revenue.

House Bill Would Free Up TV Airwaves for the Microsoft mystery device.

Microsoft Disappoints Zune Users Waiting For Firmware Update, particularly since it is supposed to fix a “skipping” problem on purchased music.

Windows Live Search Italy gets owned by a truly skillful malware deployment combined with search engine optimization. Check out the screenshots too. The problem of bogus websites in search results is a problem for all search engines though, as some Microsoft researchers demonstrated.