XP Gets Another Reprieve
It’s the operating system that just refuses to die. According to Engadget Microsoft has given the venerable old XP another extension that will see it carrying on until 2011. Before you get too excited, though, this applies only to the XP downgrade option, available on PCs sold with Windows 7 pre-installed. Now pay attention, it’s all rather complicated. Apparently this move follows complaints from business users, worried about Windows 7 licensing issues. Basically companies buying new Win 7 PCs before April 23rd next year will still have the option to downgrade to XP, to help them with the transition, but after April 23rd the only downgrade will be to Vista, which obviously isn’t much help to XP users wanting to make the change. Confused? You will be…
MSN and the City
Microsoft has overhauled its MSN City Guides online destination providing users with a range of enhancements better suited to connect them with locations, businesses, and events across US cities. MSN City Guides is a local offering from the Redmond company tailored specifically to the US market. The main aspect of the evolution of MSN City Guides is that the service is now designed to go well beyond MSN and integrate Windows Live and Facebook. Over 5,000 cities in the United States have been reviewed, with the content available to users immediately.
“The new MSN City Guides puts city life at your fingertips,” promised Scott Moore, U.S. executive producer, MSN. “All the information you need about a city or neighborhood is there easy to find, easy to use, easy to share. Our goal is to deliver the best resource for navigating U.S. cities, whether you’re a die-hard local or just visiting.” Read more
eSobi Now Compatible with Windows 7
eSobi, a multi-purpose information navigator, is among the first software solutions certified for Microsoft’s next iteration of the Windows client. The Redmond-based company has been driving Windows 7 compatibility hard, inviting third-party developers to jump aboard, and eSobi was little shy of tailoring its product to the successor of Windows Vista.
The “Compatible with the Windows 7″ logo attests that eSobi is designed to play nice with both the 32-bit and the 64-bit flavors of the upcoming operating system from Microsoft, scheduled to RTM by the end of July, and to launch on October 22, 2009.
“eSobi has earned its global reputation on making it more efficient and personal to utilize Internet resources in daily life,” explained Wen Lee, chairman of eSobi Inc. “By working with Microsoft and as the very first company in our category to receive the Compatible with Windows 7 logo, eSobi customers can have confidence of the compatibility, reliability, security, and performance of eSobi on their Windows 7-based computers.” Read more
XNA Game Studio 3.1 for Vista SP1 and XP SP3
Microsoft has released and made available for download the latest iteration of its gaming development solution designed to permit developers to build video games for Windows-based PCs, Xbox 360 consoles, but also Zune digital media player devices. XNA Game Studio 3.1 went live on the Microsoft Download Center on June 11, 2009, and is now up for grabs for free. According to the Redmond company, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 are the supported operating systems for XNA Game Studio 3.1.
“This release is incremental to XNA Game Studio 3.0 and contains many new features, including avatars, Xbox LIVE Party support, and video as well as enhancements to existing features. For the full list of improvements in this release, see the “What’s New in XNA Game Studio 3.1” section of the documentation once you have installed the product,” revealed Rob Cameron, Microsoft industry evangelist. Read more
Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK
Redmond-based Microsoft has released into the wild the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit so that third-party developers that would like to make applications for the upcoming operating system can start their work. Given the fact that the platform is completed and the Windows Marketplace for Mobile is on its way to come live along with the first WinMo 6.5-powered handsets, it was only a matter of time before the software giant made the SDK available.
According to Microsoft, the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit now available for download “adds documentation, sample code, header and library files, emulator images and tools to Visual Studio that let you build applications for Windows Mobile 6.5.” The SDK can be used on Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista and Windows XP Service Pack 3 operating systems, and comes with support for six languages, namely Chinese Simplified, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. Read more
Zune HD Goes Against iPod Touch
Microsoft is planning to release an alternative to Apple’s iPod Touch devices in the fall of 2009 under the Zune brand umbrella. At least for 2009, the Redmond company will continue to sell the now traditional versions of its digital music player along with the new device, but it indicated that moving forward the evolution of Zune would be synonymous with Zune HD. The Zune HD portable media player would be made available exclusively in the US this fall, Microsoft revealed.
“The Zune music player is an integral part of the overall Zune experience, and we’re proud to be growing and extending our offering beyond the device,” revealed Enrique Rodriguez, corporate vice president of the Microsoft TV, Video and Music Business Group. “Delivering on Microsoft’s connected entertainment vision, this news marks a turning point for Zune as it brings cross-platform experiences and premium video content to living rooms around the world.” Read more
Windows 7 RC Windows Media Center SDK 6.0
On the heels of the Release Candidate of Windows 7, Microsoft has also made available for download the development tools for the Windows Media Center component of the operating system. Charlie Owen, product manager on the Media Center team, revealed that just as Windows 7 had advanced to RC stage, so did Windows Media Center Software Development Kit 6.0. At this point in time, developers looking to keep up with the evolution of Windows 7 can grab the RC of Windows Media Center SDK 6.0, offered at the end of the past week.
“We just posted the release candidate of the Windows Media Center Software Development Kit 6.0 for Windows 7 – same URL as the beta release. Note to developers: For all intents and purposes we are done with Windows 7 – if you want to report issues (application compatibility or otherwise) you should immediately grab the Windows 7 Release Candidate and this SDK and test, test, test – last call,” Owen added. Read more
Windows 7 New Decoders and Media Formats
Microsoft is pointing to Windows 7 as a panacea for scenarios in which end users go hunting for codecs on the Internet struggling with file formats that are not natively supported by the Windows operating system. The promise from the Redmond company is that, with the next iteration of the Windows client, the necessary decoders will already be in place and ready to handle the formats that users will throw at them, of course with some exceptions. MPEG-4, 3GPP/3GPP2, AAC, ASP in AVI, AVCHD, HDV are the generic names for the formats supported in Windows 7.
The video decoders associated with them are H.264, MPEG-4, ASP and SP. The specific file extensions that will not present a problem when it comes down to Windows 7 are .mp4 (A, V, A + V), .m4a (A), .mov, .3gp, .3g2 (A, V, A + V), .aac (A), .avi, (V, A + V), .m2t, .m2ts, .mts (A, V, A + V). Still, Microsoft indicated that Windows 7 would not be limited to playing back local files. Read more
Free Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Microsoft has made Office SharePoint Designer 2007 available as a free download as of April 2, 2009. The Redmond company explained that customer feedback catalyzed the move, rather than alternative reasons such as the global economic crisis. By making SharePoint Designer 2007 a free download, the software giant is attempting to mirror the perspective that customers had of the tool, with the vast majority regarding the solution as a natural extension of SharePoint, rather than a standalone product.
“Today we are excited to share with you some news about SharePoint Designer 2007. Starting now (April 2, 2009), SharePoint Designer 2007 will be available as a free download! We want more of you customizing SharePoint and feel that this [is] a good way to put the tool in the hands of more people,” revealed a member of the SharePoint Designer Team. Read more
Windows 7 ATI Catalyst 9.3 Unified Driver
AMD is ready for the RTM release of Windows 7. Or at least this is what the chip-maker claims as it has released ATI Catalyst 9.3 Unified Driver introducing support for Windows 7 Beta Build 7000. The processor manufacturer, which acquired ATI, indicated that the advent of ATI Catalyst 9.3 drivers for Windows 7 represented a guarantee that support would be available with all planned future releases of ATI Catalyst, for the remaining milestones of the next iteration of the Windows client, but especially for the gold (final) version Windows 7.
“AMD’s expertise in visual computing shines through in the combined experience of Windows 7 and ATI Radeon graphics,” revealed Anantha Kancherla, group program manager responsible for Windows graphics, Microsoft. Read more
