Posts Tagged Microsoft

NaggieMicrosoft Releases 3 New BlueTrack Mice

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Microsoft Releases 3 New BlueTrack Mice 2  Microsoft Releases 3 New BlueTrack Mice

Microsoft has released three new mice featuring its BlueTrack technology, indicating that the products featuring the innovation developed in-house are available at their lowest price ever. In fact, the Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500, Wireless Mouse 2000 and Comfort Mouse 4500 all come with price tags of under $30, and are already up for grabs for customers.

When it launched the first BlueTrack products, the Redmond Company was confident enough in the technology it had developed that it encouraged users to start saying goodbye to their old laser mouse forever.

In response to people’s increasingly mobile lifestyles, BlueTrack Technology was created, letting them ditch their mouse pad and use their BlueTrack mouse virtually anywhere — from the granite kitchen counter and the wood table at the coffee shop to the armrest at the airport.

As the BlueTrack Technology debuted in September 2008, but finally it’s now available in eight Microsoft mice so consumers can choose the best design, color and price to fit their need, explained the software giant.

Users will be able to buy the Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 in two colors, Loch Ness Gray and Dragon Fruit Pink, while the Wireless Mouse 2000 will only be offered in a gray version. Microsoft underlined that while the Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 was smaller than the normal mouse average size; the Wireless Mouse 2000 is a bit bigger, giving end users the chance to choose the product that best suits their hands.

Mobility is, of course, the key aspect of both the Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500, which comes with a Nano transceiver less than a centimeter long when connected to a USB port, but also for the Wireless Mouse 2000, that allows customers to stick a mini-transceiver into the bottom of the mouse.

The Comfort Mouse 4500 is the first wired mouse featuring BlueTrack Technology, making it a great choice for people who never want to deal with changing batteries. Like its wireless counterparts, the Comfort Mouse 4500 will track on virtually any surface2 and will be available in black as well as three fresh special-edition colors: Sea Blue, Poppy Red and Strawberry Pink.

All the new mice can already be purchased via Amazon.com. The Wireless Mouse 2000 and Comfort Mouse 4500 cost $29.95 and $24.95, and are scheduled to hit store shelves in March. The Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 will be just $29.95 and general availability is planned for April.

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NaggieBalesio FileMinimizer Suite 6.0

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

400907 g1 Balesio FileMinimizer Suite 6.0

If your hard disk is clogged with massive photos and Microsoft Office documents, or if you’re looking for a better way to share those large files, consider FileMinimizer Suite 6.0. This simple-to-use software reduces photo sizes by approximately 90 percent with little noticeable degradation of on-screen quality, and typically it shrinks Office files by at least 25 percent, with no quality loss.

FileMinimizer does not create .zip archives containing your data; the files it creates retain their original format and are usable just as the originals are, so .jpg files remain .jpg files, .ppt files remain .ppt files, and so on. It handles Excel, PowerPoint, and Word files, as well as an assortment of image file formats (such as .jpg, .png, .gif, .tif, .bmp, and .emf).

The basic operation couldn’t be simpler. Choose the files that you want to compress and select the compression strength (low, standard, or strong), and FileMinimizer quickly goes about its work, taking only a few seconds to compress each individual file.

By default it keeps your original file and creates a new one, appending the text ‘(FILEminimizer)’ to the name. However, you can tell the program to overwrite your original file, and you can also have the utility apply a different name rather than appending the ‘(FILEminimizer)’ label.

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ShwetaMicrosoft to announce new phone software

Monday, February 15th, 2010

 Microsoft to announce new phone software

Microsoft Corp is set to announce the new mobile phone software on Monday, as it looks to wrestle back market share from Apple Inc’s iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd’s BlackBerry, said the source close to the company.

The world’s largest software company, which makes operating systems for phones made by HTC Corp, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Motorola Inc and others, is hoping to regain momentum in the fast-growing sector after a lackluster update to its mobile software in October.

The overhaul of Microsoft’s phone technology comes as it hemorrhages market share in the burgeoning smartphone market, which many see as the key to the future of communication and media.

Last year, Microsoft took an 8.8 percent of the global smartphone operating system market, according to technology analysis firm Canalys, down from 13.9 percent the year before.

It trails Symbian, the system used on Nokia phones, which has 47.2 percent of the market, RIM’s BlackBerry with 20.8 percent and Apple’s iPhone with 15.1 percent.

Microsoft also faces competition from Google Inc’s new Android system, which already has a 4.7 percent share of the market.

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NaggieUsers dispute Microsoft’s explanation of Windows 7 battery problems

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Microsoft’s head of Windows in response to customer complaints said Monday, Window 7 does not ruin notebook batteries or issue premature warnings that the power is exhausted.

Within minutes, Windows 7 users who have experienced those problems disagreed, calling the explanation “hand washing” and noting that if the company’s conclusion was correct, then many affected users must be “under some sort of bizarre bad battery curse.”

Windows 7 is doing what it’s supposed to when it reports that a laptop battery needs to be replaced, one of the symptoms that users began reporting as long ago as June 2009, according to Stephen Sinofsky, the president of the Windows division.

In an entry to the Engineering Windows 7 blog, Sinofsky said Windows 7 is correctly warning batteries to the very best of the collective ecosystem knowledge that are in fact failing. “In every case we have been able to identify the battery being reported on was in fact in need of recommended replacement.”

Sinofsky also dismissed claims by a minority of users that Windows 7 had permanently crippled their notebooks’ batteries. Numerous users said that after upgrading to Windows 7, their batteries’ lifespan was dramatically shortened, and then completely curtailed. Returning to another operating system, even Linux, did not restore the battery’s performance.

Sinofsky said, Windows 7 is neither incorrectly reporting on battery status nor in any way whatsoever causing batteries to reach this state. He also added that it was impossible for Windows 7 to harm the battery because of the way the operating system interacts with the hardware.

For Windows 7 or any other OS, there is no way to write, set or configure battery status information. All of the battery actions of charging and discharging are completely controlled by the battery hardware. Some reports erroneously claimed Windows was modifying this information, which is definitely not possible.

According to a battery maker, it was possible that Windows 7 was involved in some way. And a spokeswoman for Boston Power, a Westborough, the operating system usually receives information from system firmware which is responsible for monitoring battery capacity and operation. The firmware she referred to is the PC’s BIOS, which boots the computer and initializes the hardware components.

She also added that if there is an issue with the passing of information between the firmware and the operating system, it might cause improper warnings issued by the OS.

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SuzanneMicrosoft may launch new Office cloud license

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Microsoft may be close to add a new way for big business in order to buy Microsoft Office.

Union called new license, unde4r which Microsoft would charge enterprises the same for software whether it is hosted on-premises or in the cloud, according to a report in SDTimes earlier this week that quoted unnamed Microsoft channel partners who had been told of the program. No prices were listed.

The new license would help reduce complexity for large companies with workers with widely varying degrees of software usage. Heavy and regular users of a Microsoft app might require an on-premise server version, while light users can make do with a hosted version from Microsoft.

According to SDTimes, the union license would either apply to Microsoft Office run locally and hosted on the just-launched Windows Azure, or to Exchange and SharePoint, which Microsoft offers in software and hosted form. The latter is via Microsoft’s year-and-a-half-old Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

“Union” could be a new bundle that combines Office 2010 (on-premise) with Office Web Apps and, to store the data from the latter, SharePoint Online, according to Paul DeGroot, an analyst with the independent research firm, Directions on Microsoft.

It would allow Microsoft to maximize its revenue without driving customers toward cheap and free solutions such as Google Apps, Zoho and VMware’s recently acquired Zimbra e-mail app.

DeGroot wrote in an e-mail, Microsoft may ask the customer to pay for both ways, license plus subscription.

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NaggieReport: Google to Open App Store for Business Software

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Google may open as early as March an online store to sell third-party software that complements its Google Apps collaboration and communication hosted suite.

According to the Journal, whose article was based on anonymous sources, Google would let customers purchase the software from its store and charge the third-party developers a commission.

Though Google’s spokeswoman declined top comment on the Journal article, but she pointed out that Google already has a site called Solutions Marketplace where it features applications and professional services from third-party developers that complement Google Apps and other Google enterprise products.

However, Solutions Marketplace doesn’t have e-commerce capabilities, meaning that customers interested in purchasing the products and services have to contact the vendors by going to their Web sites or calling them on the phone. The Google Solutions Marketplace is an information resource and portal for customers to connect with third-party vendors, according to the spokeswoman.

For the Solutions Marketplace, it would seem a natural extension to gain e-commerce transaction capabilities, an area in which Google has ample experience with products such as Google Checkout, the s elf-serve ad-selling system of Google AdWords, the Android Market and Google Apps itself, for which users can sign up online. Thus, the app store could be more an evolution of the existing Solutions Marketplace site than an entirely new site built from scratch.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has singled out the company’s IT products for business as one of several attractive businesses to complement its core online search ad business.

.Google Apps comes in several versions, including the most sophisticated one, Apps Premier, which costs US$50 per user per year and is geared toward medium and large businesses. However, most Apps customers are individuals and small businesses that use the free Standard version. The free Education edition for schools and universities is also popular.

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NaggieApple’s IPad, Oracle’s Plan for Sun Share Limelight

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

This week, it was seemed that all eyes were on Apple’s unveiling of the long-awaited iPad, and on the same day Oracle revealed its plans for Sun Microsystems’ technology, while those at Sun braced for the merger and began their public goodbyes. We also had a flurry of financial reports this week and some Internet weirdness associated with President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address.

1. Apple announces iPad, Apple iPad: 25 unanswered questions, How does the iPad compare to netbooks? And iPad as netbook-killer concept ignites controversy: After months of rumors, speculation and fever-pitch media hype, Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed off the iPad tablet. While there was plenty of the customary swooning over a new Apple product to be found, the general consensus seemed to be: That’s it?! We’ve been all excited for this?! Jobs insist that the iPad is better than a netbook, but that notion has ignited a debate.

2. Oracle to scale back Sun server line, make other changes Oracle hails Java but kills Sun cloud: Meanwhile, Oracle began to lay out its plans for Sun technologies and products this week.

3. With emotion, Sun’s long good-bye nears the finish and Sun’s Scott McNealy: Thanks for a great 28 years: Sun leaders, including James Gosling, the father of Java, and former Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy offered public farewells to a company they have loved.

4. ACTA talks in Mexico to address transparency concerns: Secret talks that have been ongoing among nations aiming to craft an anticounterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) haven’t seemed to draw a whole lot of attention, but for our money this is some seriously big news. Negotiators got together again this week to work on the measure in Mexico.

5. Congressional Web sites hacked near Obama speech, US House leaders ask for investigation into hackings and No lie! Wilson to respond to State of Union on Facebook: At about the time that President Obama’s State of the Union speech began, dozens of congressional Web sites were hacked. U.S. House of Representatives leaders, predictably given their fondness for holding hearings, called for an investigation into the site defacements. Meanwhile, in an even freakier bit of related news, Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, gave a response to the speech via Facebook. His was not the official GOP response. For those who have forgotten, Wilson was the congressman who yelled out “you lie” during President Obama’s speech on the now-stalled health-care reform.

6. Wall Street Beat: Economic concerns shadow tech profits: IT bellwethers including Microsoft and Apple released quarterly earnings reports this week, with good news from many on the financial front, but IT investors remained skittish.

7. EFF: Browsers can leave a unique trail on the Web: According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, web browsers leave a unique footprint for individual PCs with information that online advertising systems can then gather for purposes that concern privacy experts. The EFF has created a tool that reveals the information that a browser collects. The EFF further warned that users should not be misled into believing that disabling cookies provides real protection.

8. FCC’s McDowell: Net neutrality would face legal challenge: If the U.S. Federal Communications Commission goes forward with net neutrality regulations, its authority in that regard will be challenged in court, Commission member Robert McDowell said.

9. Microsoft posts Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK by mistake: The “oopsie” entry this week comes from Microsoft, which inadvertently posted the WIndows Mobile 6.5 software developers kit online. Some developers downloaded it before Microsoft yanked it off the Web, but had trouble using it, which was a good sign that it really was not ready for release yet. They reported that the SDK includes widget tools and an emulator for the most recent version of Windows Mobile.

10. 419 Internet scams on the increase: This news truly unfathomable, 419, or advance-fee, frauds on the Internet soaked victims for at least US$9.3 billion last year. Most of the scams continued to originate in Nigeria. We’re scratching our heads over why it’s so hard for people to resist responding to e-mails rife with misspellings, typos and bad grammar that want them to advance money to someone they have never heard of who promises the recipient fantastical wealth.

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NaggieNews Brief: Facebook Sponsors Apache Software Foundation

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

After spending years using open source Apache Software Foundation (ASF) technologies to help build its social networking site, Facebook is now spending its money to give back to effort.

Facebook is now a gold sponsor of the ASF, contributing $40,000 per year to the open source foundation and its initiatives. Facebook uses a number of Apache technologies, including Hadoop.

“A sponsor provides a direct monetary contribution to the ASF, which we can use for a variety of functions, such as increasing or updating our infrastructure, sponsoring project meet-ups and paying our bills,” ASF Chairman Jim Jagielski told InternetNews.com. “This extends and enhances the relationship that the ASF has had with Facebook.”

The ASF just recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and is home to many popular open source projects including the Apache HTTP Web server. One of the hallmarks of the ASF is that it is a meritocracy for developers, and that money is not the key influencer for technical decisions.

Jagielski noted that his group is a volunteer-based, individual membership organization, and it is not possible for companies or other non-person entities to “join” the ASF.

“All code development, including governance and direction, is done by the members of the project community itself,” Jagielski said. “It is also a factor of how the ASF works … that people are recognized via their individual contribution, regardless of what company they happen to have employment with.”

Under that framework, sponsors don’t have any additional “pull” or “power” related to actual projects, Jagielski said.

Facebook is no stranger to the ASF, and according to Jagielski, it was Facebook developer David Recordon who approached the ASF about a potential sponsorship.

“If you read our engineering blog, you’ll know that it’s not possible to scale a site like Facebook simply by sharding your databases, but rather takes a combination of specialized technologies,” Recordon wrote in a blog post. “Open source allows us not just to make technologies like memcached scale beyond its original intent, but to release technologies like Thrift for others to build upon as well.”

Thrift is a framework for scalable cross-language services development that was originally known as Facebook scribe. It was contributed to Apache in October of 2008.

Even as a gold sponsor of the ASF, Facebook does not contribute as much to the open source effort as proprietary vendor Microsoft. Starting in 2008, Microsoft began sponsoring the ASF with a $1 million a year commitment.

The ASF would like to continue to see other organizations join with Facebook, Microsoft and others to pad its roster of sponsors.

“Our hope is that any organization that finds value in the ASF and what we do will give back to the community,” Jagielski said. “Obviously, one prime method of doing this is by submitting patches and bug reports, allowing us to further improve the various ASF codebases. But we also realize that some organizations would prefer a more direct, financial way of supporting us, and we created the sponsorship program specifically to address that need.”

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