|
News |
| Posted 06/03/08 |
| Microsoft demos future Windows with touch-screen |
CARLSBAD, Calif. – Microsoft Corp. said its next
operating system will be made for touch-screen
applications, an alternative to the computer mouse, and
its top executives reaffirmed interest in joining forces
with Yahoo Inc.
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer on
Tuesday unveiled the iPhone-like touch-screen feature at
The Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital"
conference, calling it "just the smallest snippet" of
the Windows 7 operating system slated for release in
late 2009.
A Microsoft employee showed possible applications like
enlarging and shrinking photos and navigating a map of
San Diego by stroking the screen.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates framed the new feature as
an evolution away from the mouse.
"Today almost all the interaction is keyboard-mouse,"
Gates said. "Over years to come, the role of speech,
vision, ink - all of those - will be huge."
The software company's top two executives defended its
last operating system, Vista, while acknowledging
missteps. Gates said he has never been 100 percent
satisfied with any Microsoft product, and that the
company prides itself on fixing shortcomings in later
versions.
"Vista has given more opportunity to exercise our
culture than some products," he deadpanned.
The former Harvard University classmates fielded a range
of questions for more than an hour, sharing the stage as
Gates prepares to relinquish daily responsibilities at
the company in July to focus more on philanthropic work.
Ballmer said Microsoft remained in discussions to team
up with Yahoo Inc. after Microsoft's $47.5 billion bid
for the company was spurned earlier this month. He said
Microsoft wasn't planning to buy Yahoo but offered only
the barest details of what he has in mind.
"We are not rebidding for the company. We reserve the
right to do so. That's not on the docket," he said.
Microsoft said May 18 that it revived talks with Yahoo,
without providing specifics. Ballmer declined to say
much more, even when pressed.
"All I'll say is we're in ongoing discussions with them
around a partnership," he said.
Gates let Ballmer take the questions about Yahoo. When
asked for his thoughts, Gates said, "I've been
supportive of everything Steve has done. ... Totally
supportive."
Ballmer, responding to an audience question, denied that
the bid tarnished Microsoft's reputation.
"If anything, I think people know we're very serious
about our online business," he replied.
Microsoft has divulged little about its Windows 7
operating system - even after introducing the
touch-screen feature Tuesday - a contrast to the
much-hyped release of Vista.
Chris Flores, a director on Microsoft's Windows client
communications team, said in a posting on a company blog
Tuesday that the more circumspect tack was deliberate
and intended to avoid announcing plans that may change.
"With Windows 7, we're trying to more carefully plan how
we share information with our customers and partners,"
he wrote.
The executives regaled the audience with tales of how
they met and Microsoft's early days.
Ballmer, who was best man at Gates' wedding, remembered
Gates at Harvard as quiet and shy but with "a certain
kind of spark, particularly later in the day."
Gates remembered Ballmer for his energy, a reputation
that persists today.
"Steve was signed up for more things than anybody else.
He was very, very busy," Gates said.
Ballmer said he had to plead to grow Microsoft's payroll
from 30 employees and that he had to assume the duties
of the company bookkeeper, who left on Ballmer's first
day. Gates was rightfully worried about bankruptcy.
When Ballmer began to question why he left business
school at Stanford, Gates laid out his vision of a
computer at every desk. Ballmer stayed put, leading to a
28-year partnership at the company helm.
"I was forced to be particularly articulate that night,"
Gates recalled.
Ballmer, known as marketing guru, said he has been
Gates' "junior partner" for the last eight years, when
Gates left the CEO job. He said he has never been
uncomfortable with Gates' much bigger fame, though he
admitted struggling to adapt to his new relationship
with Gates during his first year as CEO.
"I was not sure how much rope to give," he said.
Ballmer said he doesn't anticipate similar transition
struggles when Gates steps down from daily
responsibilities. |
| By ELLIOT SPAGAT |
| |
| Posted 06/03/08 |
| Del. is tops in 'State of the Internet' |
Big network backbones serving large cities nearby
give state plenty of bandwidth, fiber optics
Sometimes being fast is better than being big.
At least that is the case when it comes to Internet
service in Delaware, which was recently ranked the state
with the highest percentage of high-speed Internet
connections in the United States.
In its "State of the Internet" report,
Massachusetts-based Akamai, an Internet delivery
service, ranked Delaware at the top in the percentage of
connections at the speed of 5 megabits per second or
higher. The report, covering the period of January
through March, measured connection speeds from 330
million IP addresses that contact its global server
network.
Akamai said 60 percent of connections from Delaware are
5 megabits per second or higher.
The next-fastest state was Rhode Island, at 42 percent.
It was followed by New York at 36 percent, Nevada at 34
percent, and Oklahoma at 33. East Coast states took
eight of the top 10 spots.
Both Delaware and Rhode Island are small, dense and
close to major cities, so it isn't surprising they boast
high connection speeds, the report notes.
David Belson, Akamai's director of market intelligence
and the author of the report, said he was surprised that
Delaware came in first, while tech hot spots such as
California and Washington State didn't even place in the
top 10.
Nevertheless, he said, there are good reasons for
Delaware to be at the top of the list. Delaware is a
good spot, geographically speaking, to take advantage of
the big network backbones set up to serve the large
cities around it, he said. "There's a ton of bandwidth
and fiber available over there," he said.
The state's high number of big businesses doesn't hurt,
he said.
"It certainly speaks to the people of Delaware being
able to afford broadband connectivity, and it appears to
be plentiful enough that they're able to take advantage
of it," Belson said. "Users in more remote states may
have to traverse more intermediate networks before
they're hitting one of the larger Internet backbones."
Jeff Alexander, Comcast spokesman, said the company's
triple-play package of television, telephone and
Internet uses standard 6-8 mbps speeds. Customers can
order speeds as slow as 768 kilobits per second, and
"power-boost" speeds as high as 16 mbps, he said.
"The large majority of our customers are interested in a
more robust online experience," Alexander said. He
declined to speculate why Delaware scored so high in the
Akamai survey, although he noted that the company has a
presence "in virtually every community" in the state.
William Allan, Verizon's Delaware president, said his
company has two high-speed Internet packages: Its
traditional DSL package that operates at up to 3 mbps;
and its fiber-optic "FioS" package, which offers speeds
of between 5 and 15 mbps.
Of the trend, Allan said, "I can only guess we're
contributing to that because of our customers, who are
taking advantage of these high-speed broadband services
that we sell."
Fred Woods, owner of First State Computer Services in
Claymont, said a lot of his customers use high-speed
Internet, and that might be in part because it's so
widely available in this area.
"Delaware's got a lot going for it, with businesses in
the area, as well as providing for people who work for
all the businesses. When it's an affordable price, today
people are doing more on their computer," he said.
"You're multitasking, you're doing two or three things.
It's hard to do that from an Internet connection using
dial-up." |
By AARON NATHANS
The News Journal |
| |
| Posted 03/17/08 |
| Philly wireless project slows to crawl; Earthlink
seeks sale |
PHILADELPHIA – Work on Philadelphia's citywide
wireless Internet project has slowed to a crawl as the
company that's building the network seeks a buyer for
it.
Earthlink confirmed recently to investors that it is
trying to sell its entire municipal Wi-Fi business,
which includes "Wireless Philadelphia." The local
project is about 80 percent complete.
Terry Phillis, Mayor Michael Nutter's chief information
officer, says a sale at this point would be the best
thing for everyone, but he acknowledges finding a buyer
won't be easy.
The uncompleted portions of the network are in the
city's northeast and northwest sections. Phillis says
Earthlink has also stopped trying to find new customers.
Philadelphia's Wi-Fi effort attracted worldwide
attention, and Phillis says people are still watching. |
| Associated Press |
| |
| Posted 02/21/08 |
| Toshiba quits HD DVD business |
TOKYO (AP) -- Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer
develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders,
handing a victory to rival Blu-ray disc technology in
the format battle for next-generation video.
"We concluded that a swift decision would be best,"
Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters at
his company's Tokyo offices.
The move would make Blu-ray - backed by Sony Corp (SNE).,
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes
Panasonic brand products, and five major Hollywood movie
studios - the winner in the battle over high-definition
DVD formatting that began several years ago.
Nishida said last month's decision by Warner Bros.
Entertainment to release movie discs only in the Blu-ray
format made the move inevitable. |
|
cnn.com/TECH/ |
| |
| Posted 02/14/08 |
| Microsoft Releases Two Security Updates |
Microsoft issued two new security updates to fix
three Windows vulnerabilities in the year's first Patch
Tuesday update. Microsoft rated one of the bugs -- a
TCP/IP vulnerability -- critical.
The TCP/IP bug affects Windows XP, Windows Server 2003,
and Windows Vista. This vulnerability does not require
any user interaction to exploit and could potentially
result in a remote compromise of the attacked computer.
The other two flaws are rated important and moderate. |
| By Jennifer LeClaire, January 9, 2008 8:40AM |
| |
| Posted 02/14/08 |
| Internet Neutrality Bill Would Preserve Internet
Freedom |
The House Subcommittee on Telecommunication and the
Internet is bringing the issue of net neutrality back to
center stage with its introduction of a new bill called
the Internet Freedom Preservation Act (HR 5353). The
bipartisan-sponsored legislation seeks to preserve the
open architecture of the Web, said chairman and bill
co-sponsor Rep. Edward Markey
The bill's authors are treading lightly to avoid raising
the same objections that led the Republican-controlled
House Energy and Commerce subcommittee to reject a net
neutrality push led by Democrats in April 2006.
HR 5353 "contains no requirements for regulations on the
Internet whatsoever," Markey said. "It does, however,
suggest that the principles which have guided the
Internet's development and expansion are highly worthy
of retention, and it seeks to enshrine such principles
in the law as guide stars for U.S. broadband policy."
The first is the freedom of Americans to use broadband
networks without unreasonable interference from network
operators. The second maintains that the Internet must
remain "a vital force in the U.S. economy, thereby
enabling the nation to preserve its global leadership in
online commerce and technological innovation."
The third policy calls for the preservation and
promotion of open, interconnected broadband networks and
grants users the freedom to employ devices of their
choosing so long as they do not harm the network. The
fourth seeks "to safeguard the open marketplace of ideas
on the Internet by adopting and enforcing baseline
protections" to protect content from unreasonable
discriminatory favoritism on the part of network
operators. |
| Mark Long, newsfactor.com Thu Feb 14, 5:16 PM ET |
| |
| posted 01/26/08 |
| Analog Television Broadcasting
Gets Turned Off |
| On February 17, 2009, all over-the-air analog
television transmission signals on channels 2-13 and
14-69 in the U.S. will come to an end...at least that is
the current plan approved by the U.S. Government, via
the Congress and the FCC. Yes, the Federal Government is
requiring all television broadcasters and television
viewers to convert from analog to digital by a specified
date. |
|
Robert Silva |
| |
| posted 01/08/08 |
| Comcast offers faster Internet, high-def content
|
Cable companies aren't known as nimble innovators,
but Comcast Corp. is out to change that perception this
year with ultra-high-speed Internet service, more
high-definition content and gadgets that link video,
phone and broadband services.
"We're about innovation and having the best network,"
Chief Executive Brian Roberts told The Associated Press
in a preview of his speech at the Consumer Electronics
show on Tuesday.
Roberts is expected to demonstrate a technology that
delivers up to 160 megabits of data per second: It will
allow him to download a high-definition copy of "Batman
Begins" in four minutes. The technology, DOCSIS 3.0,
will start rolling out this year. |
| By Deborah Yao |
|
