Microsoft’s Arc Mouse is all about fashion and portability: It folds up into an impossibly small package and comes complete with its own stylish tote bag. The tiny transceiver clips under the mouse during transport and requires no drivers. On the downside, the Arc mouse is an ergonomic disaster and it’s Forward and Back buttons are too far forward on the device to be useful. I’ll be reviewing this mouse soon.
Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/ms_arcmouse_photos.asp
Microsoft has informed some of its partners that it has had to delay Windows Mobile 7, a much anticipated update to its cell phone operating system.
Although Microsoft has not publicly said when to expect Windows Mobile 7, partners who had expected to have a final release in their hands by early next year have been told now that it won’t be ready until the second half of next year, sources told CNET News.
The delay is a significant blow for the software maker, which has been counting on the next version of Windows Mobile to enable devices that better rival Apple’s iPhone. Among the features widely expected to be part of the release is advanced gesture recognition, perhaps along the lines of the iPhone, but possibly also using the camera as a means for reading gestures. Microsoft’s Tellme unit, which focuses on speech input, has also been working on Windows Mobile 7 features.
Full Article – http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10048061-56.html
Cray CX1 Supercomputer With Windows HPC Server 2008 and Intel Xeon Processors Starts at $25,000 and Provides “Ease-of-Everything” for New Users of HPC
SEATTLE, WA and REDMOND, WA, Sep 16, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) — Supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NASDAQ: CRAY) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) today introduced the new Cray CX1 supercomputer pre-installed with Windows HPC Server 2008. With U.S. list prices starting at $25,000 to over $60,000, “ease-of-everything” features and the ability to fit into standard office environments and workflows, the new product reflects Microsoft and Cray’s shared goal to drive high productivity computing farther into the mainstream in a broad array of markets including financial services, aerospace, automotive, petroleum, life sciences, government, academic and digital media.
Full Article – http://investors.cray.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=98390&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1197689
NEW YORK — Sept. 22, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced it has released to manufacturing its newest server — Windows HPC Server 2008, giving Wall Street firms an easy-to-deploy, cost-effective and scalable high-performance computing (HPC) solution. Today’s event kicks off a series of global launch activities in the coming weeks to support the new product.
During a keynote address at the 2008 High Performance on Wall Street conference, Bill Laing, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Server and Solutions Division, discussed how financial services firms are increasingly turning to HPC resources to conduct real-time and intra-day risk analysis in response to the turbulent market environment.
Full Article – http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-22HPCLaunch08PR.mspx
In the coming days, weeks, and months, the Microsoft community will be consumed by a widening deluge of information about Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Most of you haven’t even deployed Vista yet, and many of you are still horrified at the thought of doing so. Is it too soon to begin a discussion of Windows 7?
Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/win7_toosoon.asp
With the Windows Live Wave 3 beta due to start today, we thought we’d provide our readers with a small headstart on the rest of the world. Here’s the download links for the new Wave 3 suite of applications, including Messenger v9, Windows Live Movie Maker, Mail with Calendar synchronisation, Writer, Photo Gallery, Family Safety and the Outlook Connector. For the paranoid amongst you, yes the files are hosted on download.microsoft.com.
http://tinyurl.com/liveside-wlwave3web
Full Article – http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2008/09/16/windows-live-wave-3-betas-download-now.aspx
With the Windows Live Wave 3 beta due to start today, we thought we’d provide our readers with a small headstart on the rest of the world. Here’s the download links for the new Wave 3 suite of applications, including Messenger v9, Windows Live Movie Maker, Mail with Calendar synchronisation, Writer, Photo Gallery, Family Safety and the Outlook Connector. For the paranoid amongst you, yes the files are hosted on download.microsoft.com.
http://tinyurl.com/liveside-wlwave3web
Full Article – http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2008/09/16/windows-live-wave-3-betas-download-now.aspx
I’ve always had sort of a love-hate relationship with iTunes, software that’s evolved so much over time that it’s become weighed down with extraneous buttons, widgets, and other UI silliness. Too, the Windows version has always been a performance nightmare, a sad joke compared to the responsive UIs of Microsoft digital media applications like Windows Media Player 11 and Zune. And yet, there’s something indelibly enticing about iTunes, something that transcends all the bad vibes I get from this application, something that makes me turn to it again and again. I use iTunes, daily, and I actually like it. I wish it performed better. But I do like it.
Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/apple_itunes8.asp
I’ve owned at least one version of every iPod that Apple’s ever released, and I’ve been an unabashed fan of these devices since the first one arrived on my doorstep in late 2001. But let’s be honest here. Several years and millions of devices sold later, a certain amount of fatigue has set in. The iPod line is mature, even tired. And though Apple still insists on releasing “new” iPods every year like clockwork, one gets the sense that even the product’s maker is starting to lose interest. This year, Apple issued only one totally new iPod, the iPod nano 4G, while providing just minor revisions to a second, the iPod touch 2G.
Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/apple_ipods_2008.asp
Publicly, Microsoft has said Windows 7, the successor operating system to the firm’s much maligned Windows Vista, will not ship until early 2010, but its internal calendar has June 3, 2009 as the planned release date, InternetNews.com has learned.
Also, Microsoft will use its Professional Developer’s Conference in late October as the launch platform for the first public beta of Windows 7. Microsoft plans to release the first beta on October 27, the first day of the show, when Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie will be the keynote speaker.
Full Article – http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3771391
SAN FRANCISCO–Microsoft still isn’t quite ready to release its new mobile browser, but I did get an advance look at Internet Explorer 6 for Windows Mobile at a Microsoft event Wednesday night.
The biggest benefit will be the fact that it is the full IE 6 rendering engine, meaning that any page that renders properly in IE 6 on the PC should do just fine on Windows Mobile. Tim McDonough, a senior director in Microsoft’s Windows Mobile unit, showed me the browser running the standard MSN home page.
Full Article – http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10039152-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
SAN FRANCISCO–Microsoft still isn’t quite ready to release its new mobile browser, but I did get an advance look at Internet Explorer 6 for Windows Mobile at a Microsoft event Wednesday night.
The biggest benefit will be the fact that it is the full IE 6 rendering engine, meaning that any page that renders properly in IE 6 on the PC should do just fine on Windows Mobile. Tim McDonough, a senior director in Microsoft’s Windows Mobile unit, showed me the browser running the standard MSN home page.
Full Article – http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10039152-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Microsoft and Citrix will announce on Monday that they are to work more closely on virtualisation.
The two software makers already have a close relationship, going back to 1989. As a result of a new agreement, they will announce that Microsoft is validating version 5 of the XenServer hypervisor, Citrix’s virtualisation software, for use with the Windows Server 2008 operating system.
The news emerged on Thursday at a roundtable hosted by Citrix, but the agreement will come as little surprise to industry watchers. Microsoft showed signs of wanting to extend its presence in the virtualisation market recently when it relaxed the licensing that limited the use of its own Hyper-V hypervisor. Then, earlier this week, it said that it was giving Hyper-V away for free.
Full Article – http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39486973,00.htm
BT was quietly confident earlier this year when it told me that a £10 device would significantly increase the speed of many people’s broadband connections – and judging by our tests, it’s absolutely right.
The iPlate (or interstitial plate, as its mother would call it) has boosted the speed of my home ADSL connection by a staggering 63%. Before I connected the easy-to-install device over the weekend, the actual throughput of my ADSL Max connection was averaging around 1.9Mb/sec, according to repeated tests at Speedtest.net. Now, that same speed test is reporting an average download speed of 3.1Mb/sec. All for doing nothing more than spending 10 minutes undoing a couple of screws and popping the plate in my master phone socket.
Full Article – http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/09/10/iplate-boosts-broadband-connections-by-60/
There’s been a lot of information around Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V this year, but one of the biggest outstanding questions regarded something called Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, a standalone version of the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008. This week, finally, those questions have been answered.
Monday, at a Microsoft Virtualization event in Bellevue, Washington, the software giant unveiled a few interesting virtualization news tidbits. For example, the company’s System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 product, which can manage environments running on all of Microsoft’s virtualization platforms, will ship within 30 days. The company also showed off some live migration features of Windows Server 2008 R2, due next year. Live migration will let customers move applications running in virtual environments from one server to another without disrupting users. VMWare already offers similar functionality.
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 is the latest version of Microsoft’s heterogeneous virtualization management server, and it can manage virtual machines hosted on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, MHVS 2008, or VMWare. This tool is aimed at larger businesses that will host multiple environments virtually, Microsoft says.
Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/ms_hyperv_2008.asp
