Pirates prefer Windows XP over Vista, says Microsoft
Software counterfeiters pass on Windows Vista and instead prefer to pirate Windows XP, a Microsoft Corp. attorney said today, outlining a practice that tracks with the leanings of many of the company’s customers. While explaining the "Global Anti-Piracy Day" educational and enforcement effort Microsoft launched today, Bonnie MacNaughton, a senior attorney with the company, acknowledged that pirates prefer Windows XP over Vista.
"Historically, counterfeiters tend to focus on the ‘n-1′ version of software," MacNaughton said. "Because of the more robust antipiracy and security features in Vista, most sophisticated piracy rings still continue to focus on XP. But that’s changing over time."
That pirates have stuck with XP — which retains the bulk of the Windows operating system’s market share — is "very consistent with what we’ve seen in counterfeiting in the past," said MacNaughton. "There’s usually a lag of between one and two years [before they can] figure out how to replicate those antipiracy and security features." Counterfeiters currently copy Office 2003 rather than the newer Office 2007 for the same reasons, she said.
source: ComputerWorld
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Office 2008 12.1.3 and Office 2004 11.5.2 available now
This is probably going to get lost in all of the discussion of the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, but just in case you feel like taking a break from all of that, Update Tuesday has delivered new updates to Office 2008 and Office 2004.
Office 2008 12.1.3 has suite-wide improvements in performance, stability, and security. It’s also got some fixes that I’m sure will make some folks happy. In Word, we’ve made some improvements to our EndNote support. In PowerPoint, opening a file no longer changes the saved time timestamp. In Excel, we tracked down issues that caused "not enough memory" errors when saving. And in Entourage, we fixed a problem that would result in events being duplicated when viewed in Outlook or OWA. For full details, our knowledge base article for the update. To update to 12.1.3, you need to already have 12.1.2 installed.
Office 2004 11.5.2 has suite-wide improvements in reliability and security, as well as a couple of tweaks for Excel. The knowledge base article for the update has the full details. To install 11.5.2, you need to already have 11.5.1 installed.
As a bonus update, we also updated our standalone Office Open XML converters to make security improvements. The knowledge base article for the update has more details. To install this update, you need version 1 of the converter installed.
If you can drag yourself away from drooling over the new laptops (so sez the woman reconsidering whether she wants a MacBook Air), you can go forth and update.
Source- MSDN Blog
Microsoft Silverlight 2 to be released on Oct 14,2008
Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of Silverlight 2, one of the industry’s most comprehensive and powerful solutions for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser. Silverlight 2 delivers a wide range of new features and tools that enable designers and developers to better collaborate while creating more accessible, more discoverable and more secure user experiences.
Delivering Features for Next-Generation Web Experiences
Highlights of new Silverlight 2 features include the following:
•.NET Framework support with a rich base class library. This is a compatible subset of the full .NET Framework.
•Powerful built-in controls. These include DataGrid, ListBox, Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar controls and more.
•Advanced skinning and templating support. This makes it easy to customize the look and feel of an application.
•Deep zoom. This enables unparalleled interactivity and navigation of ultrahigh resolution imagery.
•Comprehensive networking support. Out-of-the-box support allows calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, enabling users to create applications that easily integrate with existing back-end systems.
•Expanded .NET Framework language support. Unlike other runtimes, Silverlight 2 supports a variety of programming languages, including Visual Basic, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby, making it easier for developers already familiar with one of these languages to repurpose their existing skill sets.
•Advanced content protection. This now includes Silverlight DRM, powered by PlayReady, offering robust content protection for connected Silverlight experiences.
•Improved server scalability and expanded advertiser support. This includes new streaming and progressive download capabilities, superior search engine optimization techniques, and next-generation in-stream advertising support.
•
Vibrant partner ecosystem. Visual Studio Industry Partners such as ComponentOne LLC, Infragistics Inc. and Telerik Inc. are providing products that further enhance developer capabilities when creating Silverlight applications using Visual Studio.
•Crossplatform and cross-browser support. This includes support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer.
More information and details about Silverlight 2 are available by reading the Silverlight 2 fact sheet at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/silverlight/default.mspx.
Get Silverlight 2: Silverlight 2 will be available for download on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight. Customers already using a previous version of Silverlight will be automatically upgraded to Silverlight 2.
Source- Microsoft Press Release
Microsoft® Silverlight™ Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (RC1)
This package is an add-on for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 to provide tooling for Microsoft Silverlight 2. It can be installed on top of either Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1, and it provides a Silverlight project system for developing Silverlight applications using C# or Visual Basic.
This download will install the following:
- Silverlight 2 developer runtime
- Silverlight 2 software development kit
- KB956453 for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
and/or
KB956485 for Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1 - Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
and/or
Silverlight Tools for Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1
Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 includes:
- Visual Basic and C# Project templates
- Intellisense and code generators for XAML
- XAML design preview
- Debugging of Silverlight applications
- Remote debugging of Silverlight applications for Mac
- Web reference support
- WCF Templates
- Team Build and command line build support
- Integration with Expression Blend
Microsoft Virtualization Readiness Launch
Get hands-on with virtualization – FREE!
Attend the event that lets you touch, talk about, and experience Microsoft virtualization solutions. Hear from Microsoft virtualization experts on how Microsoft uses virtualization in its own data centers. Dive into robust hands-on labs and gain a technical understanding of the Microsoft virtualization strategy. Then, take home a valuable set of free products and readiness-focused giveaways to help get you started:
- A one-year evaluation copy of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
- A copy of Understanding Microsoft Virtualization from the Desktop to the Data Center, by Mitch Tulloch
- Vouchers for Microsoft Server Virtualization Certification exam (70-652) and preparation course (a $316 value)
Spend a day learning how a well-designed virtualization strategy can help you control costs, improve service levels, and drive business agility. See solutions built on the Windows Server 2008 operating system with Hyper-V technology, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007, and Microsoft Desktop and Application Virtualization. And learn how you can leverage end-to-end virtualization to unlock benefits from the data center to the desktop.
Source- Technet Blog
Microsoft Xbox 360 outsells PS3 in Japan in Sept
Microsoft Corp’s Xbox 360 outsold Sony’s PlayStation 3 in Japan in September, beating the rival machine in monthly unit sales for the first time in Sony’s home market, a game magazine publisher said.
Strong sales growth came after Microsoft cut prices for its game console last month.
Microsoft sold 53,547 units of the Xbox 360 in the four weeks to September 28, compared with 33,071 units of the PS3, data from Enterbrain showed on Friday.
Nintendo Co Ltd safely maintained its leading position in the Japanese console market, having sold 109,548 units of the Wii during the month.
Although popular in the United States, the Xbox 360 has been struggling to compete with the PS3 and the Wii in Japan, home to both Sony and Nintendo.
Source- Reuters
Microsoft Research Unveils Codex Project
Microsoft Research’s Ken Hinckley has unveiled a prototype device based on two OQO Model 02s running together.
Named "Codex", Hinckley believes it’s the future for gadgets as "dual-screen devices have become the subject of increasingly elaborate internet fantasies. Now, rumors about an Apple "Brick" device have stirred up dreams of future tablets, such as the alluring One Laptop Per Child v2.0 concept photos.
Nintendo invested in their dual screen gaming device the DS Lite which has become very popular in all markets. Dual screen computing is common in businesses and is known to increase productivity so perhaps a dual screen device isn’t a bad idea for the future?
Source: Microsoft Research Blog
Via- Neowin
Microsoft Launches MSNBC News Beta
Today Microsoft officially launched their MSNBC News beta in Media Center to the world (err, I mean US and Canada). This was actually something that popped up on one of my beta machines a few months ago, but when I asked about it Microsoft said I wasn’t even supposed to have it, and thus I didn’t blog about it. Much like the Internet TV Beta, access the new application can be found on the TV + Movies strip.
Ian Dixon and Brandon LeBlanc have some screenshots up on their respective blogs. These out-of-band “feature” plug-ins might be Microsoft’s hope to keep the Media Center platform moving between Windows releases, so I’m hoping this isn’t the last one that we will see.
- Access the latest U.S. Election 08 videos
- Editor Picks and Most Popular videos, as selected by viewers
- Five-day weather forecast for any zip code in the U.S.
- Customize your own news video playlists
- Ability to browse by category, such as Business, Sports, and Entertainment
- Search for stories using keywords
- Related videos for each story
Source- MSMVPS Blog
