Windows Shell/User (MSN & OneCare Too) : News

BetaNews | Microsoft to end support for MSN Music DRM

ericvogel — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:53:17 GMT

Again, I have been bitten by DRM. I have stopped buying DRM, and now I have more songs I have to go re-download to replace the DRMed files and not pay for it as I already did.

Microsoft to end support for MSN Music DRM

By Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews

April 23, 2008, 3:09 PM

As of August 31 of this year, Microsoft's "Plays for Sure" technology -- once codenamed Janus -- will no longer play for sure -- unless, that is, users play back the tunes on the same computers and OS forever.
In a move that's come under concerted attack by users ranging from anti-DRM music bloggers to Linux fans, Microsoft has disclosed plans to stop providing authorization keys for songs downloaded from the old MSN Music service

BetaNews | Microsoft to end support for MSN Music DRM

Best Buy Loses Laptop: Owner Sues... for $54 Million : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

ericvogel — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:28:53 GMT

Best Buy Loses Laptop: Owner Sues... for $54 Million

Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:33PM EST
Don't dismiss Raelyn Campbell as a crackpot. Not yet. Listen to her story, and then decide if she's doing the right thing by asking Best Buy to compensate her to the tune of $54 million for a laptop that went missing when she took it in to Best Buy for repair under the store's own extended warranty.

Best Buy Loses Laptop: Owner Sues... for $54 Million : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share

ericvogel — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:17:26 GMT

Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share

Transaction valued at approximately $44.6 billion in cash and stock; provides 62 percent premium to current trading price for Yahoo! shareholders; combined entity to create a more competitive company, providing superior value to shareholders, better choice and innovation for customers and partners

Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share

TG Daily - Windows Vista successor scheduled for a H2 2009 release?

ericvogel — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:08:20 GMT

Windows Vista successor scheduled for a H2 2009 release?
Business and Law
By Wolfgang Gruener
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 12:28

Chicago (IL) - Several industry sources have confirmed to TG Daily that a very early version of Windows 7, previously code-named Blackcomb Vienna, already has been shipped to “key partners” as a “Milestone 1” (M1) code drop for validation purposes. A roadmap received by TG Daily indicates that the new operating system will be introduced in the second half of 2009.

TG Daily - Windows Vista successor scheduled for a H2 2009 release?

BetaNews | Loss of HP puts end to Wal-Mart's video download store

ericvogel — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:41:09 GMT

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

December 28, 2007, 12:10 PM

The retailer decided to silently walk away from its planned video download service after HP ended its participation.

BetaNews | Loss of HP puts end to Wal-Mart's video download store

Look, another video service going down and once your computer crash's or you format, your videos are lost forever. Your stuck with multi-gig files (from backup) with no key to run it.

BetaNews | Vista SP1 to replace 'Reduced Functionality' with nagware

ericvogel — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:06:56 GMT

A service originally designed to compel unpaid Vista users to obtain genuine licenses is apparently being scrapped in Service Pack 1, to be replaced with a more "in-your-face" approach.

BetaNews | Vista SP1 to replace 'Reduced Functionality' with nagware

The Hidden Costs of Cheap PCs - Columns by PC Magazine

ericvogel — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:12:25 GMT

The Hidden Costs of Cheap PCs - Columns by PC Magazine

Microsoft Gets Patent for Automated Privacy Updates - Host security - Dark Reading

ericvogel — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:02:40 GMT

Microsoft Gets Patent for Automated Privacy Updates

Courtesy of Information Week

Microsoft has received a patent for a system that automatically notifies users of its software when there is a change to their application's privacy policies

Microsoft Gets Patent for Automated Privacy Updates - Host security - Dark Reading

BetaNews | Microsoft: Patch Tuesday Didn't Cause Thursday Skype Outage

ericvogel — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:18:51 GMT

Microsoft: Patch Tuesday Didn't Cause Thursday Skype Outage

By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews

August 21, 2007, 12:32 PM

Yesterday afternoon, Microsoft's security engineers formally ruled out the possibility of its regular monthly "Patch Tuesday" update sequence as having triggered a worldwide outage of Skype VoIP communication service on Thursday, which lasted for about two days.

BetaNews | Microsoft: Patch Tuesday Didn't Cause Thursday Skype Outage

BetaNews | MTV Kills URGE, Joins Real on Rhapsody

ericvogel — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:05:14 GMT

MTV Kills URGE, Joins Real on Rhapsody

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

August 20, 2007, 9:47 PM

MTV Networks is set to announce a joint venture Tuesday morning, which will tie the company's digital music offerings with RealNetworks' Rhapsody service. In turn, MTV will abandon its URGE service that was launched with Microsoft, but largely ignored after the debut of the Zune player and Zune Marketplace.

BetaNews | MTV Kills URGE, Joins Real on Rhapsody

I never cared for Rhapsody software or the company or Real Player (Buggy, bloated and tries to take over your PC). I will continue to use Y! Music but use WMP11 to play the music.

BetaNews | Skype: Users Rebooting Brought Service Down

ericvogel — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:59:05 GMT

Skype: Users Rebooting Brought Service Down

By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews

August 20, 2007, 12:03 PM

A system outage that impacted Skype users for about 48 hours last week has officially been attributed to a multitude of Windows-based clients receiving critical security patches and rebooting at roughly the same time. According to the company, the reboots triggered a flood of logon requests that collided at Skype's network hub, like a circumstantial form of denial-of-service.

BetaNews | Skype: Users Rebooting Brought Service Down

LiveSide - News blog : Microsoft to extend social networking with Windows Live Events

ericvogel — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:20:09 GMT

LiveSide - News blog : Microsoft to extend social networking with Windows Live Events

Free The LiveEarth Themepack for Windows Live! Messenger

ericvogel — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:02:00 GMT

Nice little freebie from Microsoft / Windows Live! / MSN.

The LiveEarth Themepack

BetaNews | Verizon Tapped for 'Click to Call' Integration

ericvogel — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:39:00 GMT

Microsoft has teamed with Verizon's business arm to provide consumers with one-click phone calls to businesses found on its Live Search listings, the telecommunications company said on Monday.

BetaNews | Verizon Tapped for 'Click to Call' Integration

I was wondering what happened to this feature. I guess it was removed sometime in the Live! Search beta.

Windows Live! Writer Beta Released (and WLM Beta & WL Mail Beta)

ericvogel — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:00:00 GMT

Windows Live! Writer Beta has been released, alon with Windows Live! Messenger Beta and Windows Live! Mail.

New Authoring Capabilities
·         Inline spell checking
·         Table editing
·         Ability to add categories
·         Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad
·         Support for excerpts and extended entries
·         Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
·         Paste Special
Integration and Compatibility
·         SharePoint 2007 support
·         New APIs enabling custom extensions by weblog providers
·         Automatic synchronization of local and online edits
·         Integration with Windows Live Gallery
·         Support for Blogger Labels Plus...
·         New look and feel
·         Available in 6 languages
·         Improved accessibility and keyboard support

Many other frequently requested enhancements!

I will not be around to gather info about the others. Maybe tomorrow something will be up. Won a pre-screening to Mr. Brooks tonight! YAH!!

BetaNews | Comcast Talks Up 150 Megabit Cable

ericvogel — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:46:09 GMT

Cannot wait for DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modems!!

Comcast Talks Up 150 Megabit Cable

BetaNews | MySpace to Acquire Photobucket

ericvogel — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:57:14 GMT

Link to BetaNews | MySpace to Acquire Photobucket

BetaNews | Dell Joins Microsoft + Novell Linux Pact

ericvogel — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:53:48 GMT

Link to BetaNews | Dell Joins Microsoft + Novell Linux Pact

Microsoft Tagspace

ericvogel — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:52:21 GMT

I new bookmark / Tagging service from Microsoft. (In Beta)

Link to Microsoft Tagspace

GLITR - Wireless Oakland on schedule

ericvogel — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:21:47 GMT

Hmmm. How come no Farmington / Farmington Hill, or Southfield as early adopters? This is great, another competitor besides a cable provider and AT&T for high speed Internet. Also, no longer have to worry if a cafe has free wifi or not, the free level 128kbs is plenty.

Link to Great Lakes IT Report