Archive for February, 2009
Ballmer: Office 14 not this year
During his annual “Strategic Update” briefing with Wall Street analysts on February 24, CEO Steve Ballmer said Office 14 won’t be shipping in 2009.
“Office 14 will not be this year,” Ballmer told analysts.
Microsoft officials have been careful not to provide a ship-date target for the next version of Office. However, last year, more than a few times execs slipped up and indicated Office 14 would ship in 2009. Just a month or two ago, Microsoft reps were telling corporate customers that Office 14 would ship in either late 2009 or early 2010.
Microsoft released an alpha version of Office 14 — which includes a new Office for Sales SKU — in January to selected customers. A first beta is looking like this summer. Microsoft is aiming to release Office 14 client and SharePoint Server 14 together. It also is aiming to ship the next version of Office Communications Server, tentatively known as OCS 2010, next year, as well.
Office not shipping until 2010 makes for an interesting launch season in the coming months.
Source- All about Microsoft
SideWinder X8 Mouse With BlueTrack Technology Available This Week at a Store Near You
The Microsoft SideWinder X8 Mouse, available on store shelves this week, offers a best-in-class tracking engine with Microsoft BlueTrack Technology and wireless freedom built for lag-free play. The newest mouse to join the SideWinder line, the SideWinder X8 offers the best frame rate, speed and acceleration on the market and a tracking range from 250 dots per inch (dpi) to 4,000 dpi, giving gamers ultimate control and precision.
“Many gamers have long desired a wireless gaming mouse that doesn’t compromise on performance, and Microsoft delivers with the SideWinder X8 Mouse,” said Bill Jukes, product marketing manager for Microsoft Hardware. “Combining the best tracking performance available with an innovative wireless solution, this mouse will change the way gamers perceive wireless performance.”
The SideWinder X8 Mouse joins the Microsoft Explorer Mouse and Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse as the first mice to use BlueTrack Technology — the world’s most advanced tracking technology that works on virtually any surface.1 The Explorer Mouse and Explorer Mini Mouse were announced in September 2008 and are now widely available.
Innovation for Gaming Performance
The SideWinder X8 Mouse offers the following top features to deliver ultimate wireless gaming performance:
•BlueTrack Technology. The world’s most advanced tracking technology for gaming, with image processing of 13,000 frames per second, 75g maximum acceleration and 120 inches per second maximum speed.
•2.4GHz wireless. The device is built for lag-free play with virtually no latency.
•Play and charge. Get up to 30 hours of active gaming on a single charge, or use the play-and-charge cable for nonstop action. The winding cord management system offers easy charging — simply unwrap the cord from around the storage box and snap it onto the underside of the mouse.
Pricing and Availability
The SideWinder X8 Mouse is available this week for an estimated retail price of $99.95 (U.S.).2 More information about this and other Microsoft Hardware products can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware.
Source- Microsoft Press Release
Update for Windows 7 Client Beta
Install this update to resolve issues with non-compatible applications for Windows 7 Beta. For complete details of this update, see Knowledge Base Article KB967062. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows 7 Prerelease License Terms.
Knowledge Base Article KB967062
Download the update for x32 based systems here
Download the update for x64 based systems here
CTP for Service Pack 1 of SQL Server 2008 Available
Today we are excited to announce the availability of our Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Service Pack 1 of SQL Server 2008. This scheduled servicing release addresses feedback received from many of you who have deployed SQL Server 2008 since our release back in August 2008.
We take every update to SQL Server very seriously and we are especially pleased that in reviewing the changes being made with this service pack that we have reinforced our confidence(and hopefully yours!) in the quality of the initial release of SQL Server 2008. We know that some of you wait for the first service pack of any new software product, and hopefully with this update you will have even more insight and confidence in our engineering and quality assurance practices.
We remain committed to keeping service packs contained, focusing on essential updates only, primarily a roll-up of Cumulative Update 1 to 3, Quick Fix Engineering (QFE) updates, as well as fixes to issues reported through the SQL Server community. While keeping product changes contained, we have made significant investments to ease deployment and management of service packs:
- Slipstream – You are now able to integrate the base installation with service packs (or Hotfixes) and install in a single step.
- Service Pack Uninstall – You are now able to uninstall only the service pack (without removing the whole instance)
- Report Builder 2.0 Click Once capability
We encourage you to try out SP1, and send us your feedback. We actively read all feedback and appreciate any thoughts that you might have to help us with product updates. Please go to the Connect Feedback Center to provide feedback. Continue to watch this blog for more updates.
With the upcoming general availability of SP1, it’s a good time for any of you that are still running SQL Server 2005 (or even SQL Server 2000) to take a look at the great enhancements and benefits that SQL Server 2008 provides. There are a lot of new capabilities that maybe you haven’t had a chance to explore such as Compression, Auditing, Policy Based Management, Resource Governor, Change Data Capture, Transparent Data Encryption and many more Database, Reporting, Warehousing and Analytics improvements that you can read about here.
Source- Technet Blog
Windows XP to Windows 7 upgrades: Difficult, but not impossible
It shouldn’t surprise many testers that Microsoft has shrewdly closed the upgrade channel for users who will — probably sooner this year than later — be making the switch to Windows 7. Many who had chosen to steer clear of Windows Vista and hang on to Windows XP — by all rights, a decent operating system, at least for Service Pack 3 users — are pondering the nightmare scenario of having to upgrade to and validate (which usually means, pay for) both Vista and Windows 7, if it so happens that Windows 7 proves to be desirable or simply necessary.
This led us to thinking: Windows Vista can run without being purchased and activated, albeit for a limited time (usually 30 days). During that time, it behaves as though it were a fully operational trial edition (except for the Ultimate SKU, where several of the "Extras" aren’t available except after validating). But it doesn’t take a month to install an operating system; so what if a valid XP user could simply borrow the promotional edition of Vista, if you will, to make the skip over to Windows 7?
Read more at betanews
Microsoft Advertising Announces Formation of Publisher Leadership Council
Microsoft Corp. today announced the creation of the Publisher Leadership Council, a collaboration with a select group of leading Web publishers who will consult on the development of Microsoft PubCenter, its next-generation advertising platform for digital media publishers.
The Publisher Leadership Council comprises digital media executives and discipline-leading practitioners, including charter members from IAC, Dow Jones Online, The New York Times Co., Time Inc. and Viacom Inc. This group will provide firsthand perspectives and insights to inform PubCenter features and functionality, including enhanced targeting, measurement and reporting functionality. Partner company executives will form a steering committee, focused on framing the key challenges and opportunities facing the digital media industry — and the role of technology in solving them. To help Microsoft gain greater insights and perspectives, representatives will have the unique opportunity to inform platform design and feature prioritization.
“Digital media publishers have diverse needs and face many challenges,” said Scott Howe, corporate vice president of the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group at Microsoft, the platform and monetization engine for Microsoft Advertising. “This initiative is validation of our commitment to partnering with the industry to meet those challenges together. Some key features of PubCenter are still on the whiteboard, and we’re giving our partners a pen.”
Source- Microsoft Press Release
Microsoft Announces SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse
Microsoft Corp. today announced SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse, a new set of reference architectures for data warehousing that will help eliminate many of the barriers companies traditionally face while creating data warehouses. For as little as $13,000 per terabyte, SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse gives customers immediate access to pretested, preconfigured industry-standard hardware from partners Bull, Dell and HP that increases Microsoft SQL Server 2008 scalability up to 32 terabytes, and helps reduce the time and effort necessary to deploy mission-critical projects. In addition, Microsoft is partnering with systems integrators Avanade, Cognizant Technology Solutions, HP and Hitachi Consulting Corp. to provide solution templates specially tailored for the new reference architectures.
“In this difficult economic climate, organizations relying on their data to inform critical business decisions need an enterprise data platform that provides access to huge volumes of data at a low cost,” said Stuart Frost, general manager, SQL Server Data Warehousing at Microsoft. “With SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse, we are offering customers choices in reference configurations and technical guidance to create a customized, highly scalable enterprise-class data warehouse solution that fits their needs and their budget.”
Unlike some data warehouse appliances available today, Microsoft’s unique delivery model allows customers more flexibility and choice by letting them select industry-standard hardware that conforms to their existing infrastructure environments. The new configurations use symmetric multiprocessing architectures to build enterprise data warehouses on a standard platform, providing better capacity, price and same or better performance as comparable systems right out of the box.
Source- Microsoft Press Release
DreamSpark High School Now Open
Dreamspark is a program that Microsoft first announced last year for college and university students. Ever since then a Dreamspark program for high schools has been “coming.” Well just before Christmas a beta version of the program and web site soft launched. Soft launch means it was there if you stumbled upon it or if you heard about it by work of mouth. The idea was to try the system out with small numbers to make sure things work before making a big announcement. Well it’s ready for real now and I wanted to be one of the first to talk about it.
Now privacy and the care of personally identifying information on minors is a huge concern for us all. Likewise we wanted to make sure that adults were able to see/read/understand/explain the EULA to students. So the way Dreamspark high school works is that a school administrator or teachers signs up for a school. There is a verification process and than the responsible adult at the school is given a set of keys or approval codes to hand out to students. Students use that code to log in and get access to a whole lot of software for free!
Developer tools, server operating systems, Robotics Studio and XNA Game Studio and more. Don’t miss the IT Academy Student Pass for free training either! And yes the college/university program is still there and still the same great program that thousands of students have already taken advantage of.
Source- MSDN Blog
