HP Goes Format-Neutral, Backs HD DVD
HP publicly announced its support for HD DVD Friday, officially joining the HD DVD Promotions Group and saying it would remain neutral. As expected, the core reason of HP's cooling to Sony's Blu-ray disc technology was the group's failure to use iHD, which would be supported natively in Windows Vista. The Blu-ray Disc Association only accepted one of HP's demands for launch, Mandatory Managed Copy.
"We're encouraged that the Blu-ray Disc Association is adopting Mandatory Managed Copy. Because HP wants to deliver the most user-friendly and cost-effective solution to our customers, we have decided to support both formats," said Maureen Weber, general manager of HP's Personal Storage Business. The company says that supporting both formats would help it assess development costs, "and ultimately provide the best and most affordable solution for consumers."
Adobe to Implement Scheduled Patches
Following in the footsteps of Microsoft, Adobe said this week that it plans to adopt a monthly schedule for releasing patches to its products, including the newly-acquired Macromedia line. Adrian Ludwig, manager of Adobe's security software engineering said customers don't want to be surprised.
The moves come after a spate of security holes in Flash prompted Macromedia to urge customers to install version 8. The patch schedule will cover all of Adobe's products, including the popular Adobe Reader, and begin within the next six months. Also like Microsoft, Adobe will provide advanced notification of each month's fixes.
MS, Google to Fund UC Berkeley Lab
Google, Microsoft and Sun are joining forces to assist the University of California, Berkeley in opening its Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed Systems lab. The lab would help technology startups introduce their ideas to a wider audience. The companies will contribute equally to the $1.5 million that the project is expected to give yearly to entrepreneurs.
Altogether, the project is expected to cost $7.5 million dollars. Six faculty members and ten graduate students would staff the lab initially; it would produce Web-based software services that anyone could use. Microsoft cautioned that the collaboration should not be seen as a truce, pointing out they are working with the college and not each other.
Yahoo to Offer Blogs to Businesses
Yahoo and Web log software maker Six Apart announced Monday that they are joining forces to offer blogging solutions for Yahoo's small business customers. Six Apart has created a specialized version of Movable Type for Yahoo. Each account will offer up to 200GB of transfer per month with up to 5GB of space. Yahoo will also provide 24-hour customer support, as well as 200 e-mail addresses and spam protection.
Service options will begin at $11.95 USD per month and would be an extension to the hosting packages that Yahoo already offers. "Yahoo! has created a best-in-class hosting solution for bloggers, and by integrating it with Six Apart's leading Movable Type software, we offer users a flexible, easy-to-use blogging product with unparalleled scalability," Rich Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Small Business, said in a statement.
Gmail Adds RSS, Attachment Viewing
Google has upgraded its Gmail service with a few new features, including a built in RSS reader and address shortcuts. RSS feeds appear as "Clips" on the top of the Gmail screen and users can choose from random popular feeds or input their own. Yahoo added a similar feature to its private Mail Beta last week.
Shortcuts, which display next to messages, take addresses and tracking numbers that appear in an e-mail and automatically link to maps and package information. Attachment support has also been improved. Users can choose to view Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or PDF documents as HTML files directly within Gmail without loading a separate software application.
Napster Expands Service into Germany
Napster on Thursday announced it was launching a version of its music service aimed at the German market, which would be the first subscription offering available in the country. The company has struck agreements with Germany's major labels and over 150 independents, allowing it to carry a catalog of 1.5 million songs, including 20,000 German albums and 135,000 local acts.
Napster's subscription service will be available for 9.95 euros per month, and the Napster to Go service for 14.95 euros. Tracks will also be available a la carte for 99 euro cents per song or 9.95 euros per album. Interested users can sign up for the service at www.napster.de.
Microsoft to Deliver Two Windows Fixes
Microsoft gave advanced notice Thursday of updates it plans to release next week as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday. The company will issue two security updates, with at least one of them deemed "critical." Microsoft also plans to deliver an update to its Malicious Software Removal Tool on Tuesday as well.
Additionally, Microsoft will issue two non-security high-priority updates through Windows Update and Software Update Services, and three non-security high-priority updates through Microsoft Update and Windows Server Update Services. It is standard Microsoft procedure to not disclose the nature of the updates beforehand for security reasons.
Adobe, Macromedia Almost Together
Adobe said late Thursday that it had received clearance from the Justice Department to complete its $3.4 billion merger with software company Macromedia. In July, the DOJ indicated it was looking into the merger and requested more information on the companies' products in authoring and design, as well as vector graphics illustration.
Completion of the merger is expected on Saturday, ending a seven-month process that would create arguably the most powerful multimedia and design company in the industry. Adobe also announced that it would provide analysts a look into the newly combined company's finances in a conference call scheduled for December 15.
MSN Messenger Adds Two New IM Bots
Microsoft announced two new MSN Messenger bots this week, but took a noticeably different approach in introducing them to users by first asking. Competitor AOL caused quite a stir last month when it automatically added two AIM bots to its users' Buddy Lists, which resulted in a flood of complaints.
The bots from MSN offer answers to questions from Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia, as well as BBC television listings. Users can start sessions with the automated services by saying "hello" and following the prompts. Those interested can add encarta@conversagent.com and bbcbackstage@hotmail.com to their contact lists in order to test out of the bots.
Napster, XM Launch Co-Branded Store
Satellite radio service XM on Monday announced that a beta version of its co-branded digital music store with Napster is now available. The software will allow users to listen to more than 70 XM channels, as well as download music they hear on the service.
The interface would also enable a user to mark songs as they hear them on the radio for later download. Customers would also be able to browse the rest of the service's catalog like the stand-alone version of the Napster service.
Nokia N90 Begins Shipping in US
Nokia's N90 multimedia phone that sports a Carl Zeiss lens for capturing photos and video has finally reached the States. Highlighting the focus on convergence, Ritz Camera will be the first to offer the N90 for an estimated retail price of $399, Nokia said on Friday.
CompUSA and Neiman Marcus will stock the phone beginning in December. Along with its 2-megapixel camera, the N90 includes an integrated flash and support for USB 2.0 and Bluetooth. Nokia launched the N90 in Europe earlier this year as part of the company's new N-series multimedia phones that boast advanced capabilities such as music playback and video recording.
Opera Beta Takes AJAX Mobile
Opera Software has released a beta software development kit designed to aid in the creation of rich Web-based applications for mobile devices using AJAX. The Opera Platform SDK supports advanced HTML, CSS and JavaScript along with XMLHttpRequest -- technologies employed by services like Google Maps and Amazon's A9 Search.
Some examples of applications that can be created with the SDK include an e-mail client, a game, or a stock ticker, Opera says. "We are now building the foundation for the next generation of mobile services by enabling the easy, fast and cost- effective creation of compelling Web based mobile applications," said Opera VP Timo Bruns.
Microsoft CTO Starts Blogging
Microsoft's new Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie, who formerly ran Groove and has been tapped to head up Redmond's Web services strategy, has started blogging. He promises not to simply plug Microsoft products, but instead "reply and converse with you in a manner that scales."
Ozzie admits that, "At times there will be controversies I just can't or won't engage in," but says, "I'm involved in many interesting and varied issues here that have potentially broad impact, so there's probably a lot more I'll want to converse about." What is Ozzies's blog software of choice? MSN Spaces, of course. "I figured that if it works so well for 25 million other bloggers, it might even work for me," he writes.
Dell Now Accepting PayPal Payments
Dell said on Monday that its online store now accepts PayPal as a form of payment. The company said it was interested in giving customers more choice in how to complete their transactions, and tech-savvy users of the site are ideal prospective customers. PayPal has approximately 86.6 million accounts, and in the third quarter processed more than $6.7 billion in transactions between its users.
"PayPal users are savvy online shoppers who consistently look to companies like Dell for the latest in computer and electronics systems," said Todd Pearson, senior director of merchant services for PayPal. "Our customers prefer to use PayPal because of the safety and convenience it offers. Now these customers can use PayPal to shop on one of the leading e-commerce sites in the world."
18 Games Set for Xbox 360 Launch Day
Calling it "strongest launch in the history of video game consoles," Microsoft announced Monday that 18 games and 13 accessories will be available for customers on November 22, when the Xbox 360 officially goes on sale in North America. The launch titles will all be priced at $49.99 USD.
Available games will include Madden NFL 06, NBA2K6, Perfect Dark Zero and Call of Duty 2. In addition, between 12 and 15 Xbox Live Arcade games will be offered for download starting on day one. "On Nov. 22, the next generation of gaming begins," said Xbox vice president Peter Moore. "From there, gamers will be overwhelmed with the pipeline of amazing Xbox 360 games yet to come."
© 1998-2026 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.