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For Web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies’ complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft’s competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet.
Under this agreement, Yahoo! will focus on its core business of providing consumers with great experiences with the world’s favorite online destinations and Web products.
“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development,” said Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. “Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities, and mobile experiences.”
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Continue at http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2009/07/27/stm-net-in-devlabs.aspx
Today at the Black Hat USA 2009 conference, Microsoft Corp. unveiled the progress of its information-sharing programs, providing insight into the positive impact the growing trend of community-based defense is having on the broader security ecosystem. In addition, in an effort to help improve customers’ risk analysis and security update management processes, the company introduced new tools and guidance designed to help security professionals around the world better manage online threats.
In an effort to help shift advantage to the security industry, Microsoft created the Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP), Microsoft Exploitability Index and Microsoft Vulnerability Research (MSVR) programs, announced at Black Hat last year. The MAPP and MSVR programs increase the level of industry collaboration, and the Exploitability Index builds on this collaboration and provides additional information and guidance on managing risk to Microsoft customers. In a new report, “Building a Safer, More Trusted Internet through Information Sharing,” Microsoft outlines how through these programs, customers and partners are better able to evaluate risk and have more access to countermeasures to help combat cyber threats.
The programs have helped the industry work together to anticipate, respond to and help protect against online threats by doing the following:
• Protecting more global customers. As of July 2009, 47 global partners have joined MAPP since the program’s launch. As a result, customers are better protected from threats more quickly. The number of customers helped by partner protections ranges from the tens of thousands for smaller specialist companies to hundreds of millions for mass-market vendors.
• Decreasing the attack window. In the race between exploit and protection, information shared through MAPP is helping decrease the risk of attack. For example, Sourcefire Inc. indicates that before MAPP, it took around eight hours to reverse-engineer, develop proof-of-concept (PoC) code and then build the exploit detection for a vulnerability. With MAPP, the process for Sourcefire takes about two hours, which is a 75 percent decrease.
“Our relationship with Microsoft through MAPP gives us the ability to deploy quality protections as soon as the Microsoft security bulletins are made public,” said Jason Avery, security analyst with TippingPoint Technologies Inc. “The vulnerability information we receive through MAPP allows us to keep our Intrusion Prevention System filters as current as possible, helping ensure our customers get the best protection against malicious exploits.”
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MSRC Blog:
We have just published our advance notification for an out-of-band security bulletin release, with a target of 10:00 AM Pacific Time next Tuesday, July 28, 2009.
While this release is to address a single, overall issue, in order to provide the broadest protections possible to customers, we’ll be releasing two separate security bulletins:
1. One Security Bulletin for Visual Studio
2. One Security Bulletin for Internet Explorer
While we can’t go into specifics about the issue prior to release, we can say that the Visual Studio bulletin will address an issue that can affect certain types of applications. The Internet Explorer bulletin will provide defense-in-depth changes to Internet Explorer to help provide additional protections for the issues addressed by the Visual Studio bulletin. The Internet Explorer update will also address vulnerabilities rated as Critical that are unrelated to the Visual Studio bulletin that were privately and responsibly reported.
Customers who are up to date on their security updates are protected from known attacks related to this Out of Band release.
We’ll be holding two webcasts to give you details and take your questions:
· Webcast: July 28, 2009 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time
· Encore Webcast: July 28, 2009 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time
HP: On right is Sean Kovacs, HP DTO Onsite Engineer. On the left is Titan Fang, HP Systems Engineer.
Toshiba: On the right is Hideki Yagi, Director at Toshiba. On the left is Michael Henry, Global Alliance Manager for Toshiba. On the far left is Greg Taylor from Microsoft and on the far right is Mari Kitajima also with Microsoft.
Lenovo: In the middle is Nicole Hopper from Lenovo. On the left of her is James Hendergart and to her right is Zhan Ding both of Microsoft.
Asus: On the right is Derek Li, Systems Engineer from Asus. On the left is David He from Microsoft.
Acer: On the left is Yifan Li, Engineer from Acer. On the right is Clint Woon from Microsoft.
Dell: On the middle right is Christian Piccini, Software Engineer from Dell. On the far left is Jay Hendricks, Senior Software Engineer from Dell. Second from the left is Phil Burtscher and on the far right is Matt Davis both from Microsoft.
Sony: On the left is Herbert Pang, Program Manager for Sony and on the right is Mina Bush, Software Engineer for Sony.
Fujitsu-Siemens: On the left is Henning Klein, Program Manager for Fujitsu. On the right is Constantine Mitschke-Collande from Microsoft.
We've been wondering what the Microsoft's retail shops are going to be like. Well, according to a Powerpoint presentation leaked to us, it's going to make the Apple Store look downright boring.
The presentation is by Lippicott, a "design and brand strategy" consultant firm with extensive retail experience that it appears Microsoft has hired to help develop the store's concept, principles, and design. It looks pretty legit to us--if it's a fake, it's fairly elaborate, with detailed graphics, research, plans and even rough store layouts.
Essentially, Microsoft is taking the best elements from the Apple Store, Sony Style and other "flagship" stores. The main focuses are going to be Windows 7, Xbox, PCTV (Windows Media Center) Surface and Windows Mobile, revolving around this concept customer they call "Emily," who's basically a younger version of your mom, since they make all the buying decisions.
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I read those 1979 stories all last week, and it put me in a nostalgic mood, so wanted to offer my own memory to add to the collection.
In 1979, Microsoft had 13 employees, most of whom appear in that famous picture that provides indisputable proof that your average computer geek from the late 1970s was not exactly on the cutting edge of fashion. We started the year by moving from Albuquerque back to Bellevue, just across the lake from Seattle. By the end of the year we'd doubled in size to 28 employees. Even though we were doing pretty well, I was still kind of terrified by the rapid pace of hiring and worried that the bottom could fall out at any time.
What made me feel a little more confident was that 1979 was the year we began to sense that BASIC was right on the verge of becoming the standard language for microcomputers. We knew this could be the catalyst that would unlock the potential of the PC to democratize computing and create the right conditions for an explosion in programs and applications that would lead to really rapid growth of the PC market.
Under our new proposal, among other things, European consumers who buy a new Windows PC with Internet Explorer set as their default browser would be shown a ‘ballot screen’ from which they could, if they wished, easily install competing browsers from the Web. If this proposal is ultimately accepted, Microsoft will ship Windows in Europe with the full functionality available in the rest of the world. As requested by the Commission, we will be publishing our proposal in full here on our website as soon as possible.
While the Commission solicits public comment and considers this proposal, we are committed to ensuring that we are in full compliance with European law and our obligations under the 2007 Court of First Instance ruling.
As we said June 11th, we currently are providing PC manufacturers in Europe with E versions of Windows 7, which we believe are fully compliant with European law. PCs manufacturers building machines for the European market will continue to be required to ship E versions of Windows 7 until such time that the Commission fully reviews our proposals and determines whether they satisfy our obligations under European law. If the Commission approves this new proposal, Microsoft will begin work at that time to begin implementation of it with PC manufacturers.
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Microsoft has created an entire unit around its most popular Xbox 360 video game series: "Halo." The unit is called 343 Industries, and any hardcore "Halo" gamer would know it's named after the series' quirky 343 Guilty Spark character. I had to look that up.
Anyway, 343 Industries is working with several partners to develop a "Halo" anime short-film series called "Halo Legends." Preview episodes will soon be available via Xbox Live, and the series will be distributed by Warner Home Video, according to a Microsoft news release.
The series will be unveiled today at Comic-Con International in San Diego, according to the announcement.
"We've seen the world through Master Chief's eyes, and we've experienced facets of the universe through a variety of literary prisms," Frank O'Connor, the "Halo" franchise development director, said in the release. "But now we get to watch new tales unfold in really rich, visually dynamic ways. I think anime fans and 'Halo' fans alike are in for a real treat."
Microsoft is closing Soapbox, its onetime video-sharing rival to Google's YouTube, the company said Tuesday.
Last month, Microsoft told CNET News it planned to significantly scale back Soapbox. Now it turns out Soapbox will be scaled all the way down to nothing.
"We have decided to shut down the Soapbox feature," said Microsoft Vice President and MSN leader Erik Jorgensen in an e-mail. "Beginning today, July 21, we will be notifying both our customers and our internal and external partners that on July 29th, people will no longer be able to upload videos to Soapbox and on August 31st, the service will no longer be available."
Microsoft will continue to support MSN Video, which has 88 million unique users each month and delivers 480 million video streams each month, he said. Soapbox was responsible for less than 5 percent of MSN Video's streams.
Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $13.10 billion for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2009, a 17% decline from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $3.99 billion, $3.05 billion and $0.34 per share, which represented declines of 30%, 29% and 26%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period.
“Our business continued to be negatively impacted by weakness in the global PC and server markets,” said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “In light of that environment, it was an excellent achievement to deliver over $750 million of operational savings compared to the prior year quarter.”
The financial results for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2009, included the deferral of $276 million of revenue related to the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program that was announced on June 25, 2009. This revenue deferral reduced earnings per share by $0.02.
The fourth-quarter financial results also included $193 million of legal charges, $108 million of impairments to investments and $40 million of additional severance charges related to the previously announced plan. Operating expenses were reduced by $105 million of capitalized research and development expenses due to the technical milestones reached for Windows 7. Combined, these items also reduced earnings per share by $0.02.
Significant product milestones were achieved in the quarter including the releases of Windows 7 release candidate, Windows Server 2008 R2 release candidate, as well as Bing, Microsoft’s search engine designed to help people make faster, more informed decisions.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009, Microsoft reported revenue of $58.44 billion, a 3% decline from the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the year were $20.36 billion, $14.57 billion and $1.62, which represented declines of 9%, 18% and 13% respectively.
“While economic conditions presented challenges this year, we maintained our focus on delivering customer satisfaction and providing solutions to our customers to save money,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “I am very excited by the wave of product and services innovations being delivered in this next fiscal year.”
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Microsoft today announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the next versions of its flagship desktop and server operating systems. With the completion of this development phase, industry partners are readying products in time for the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 worldwide general launches. Windows 7 will be generally available to customers around the world on October 22, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be generally available on or before that date. As always, current customers of the Windows Volume Licensing program, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers and TechNet subscribers will be among the first to get customer access to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in the coming weeks.
More information:• Windows Team Blog, http://windowsteamblog.com• Windows Server Blog, http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver• Partner Web sites, http://readyset7.com and http://talkingaboutwindows.com/Default.aspx• Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 for businesses, http://www.microsoft.com/windows/default.aspx and http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/R2.aspx
About 12 years ago, Danny Glasser was heads down dealing with a problem. Users of Microsoft NetMeeting, an audiovisual communication client, were having trouble finding the people they wanted to talk to. This wasn't exactly ideal for a service that billed itself as a collaboration tool, so the team set out to find a fix. The proposed solution: enable NetMeeting users to maintain a list of the people they cared about, to be able to see when those contacts were online, and to be able to easily initiate NetMeeting calls with those contacts. It was dubbed the "Buddy List" project.
NetMeeting is no more, but what the team came up with ultimately became the world's leading instant messaging service. Ten years ago today, MSN Messenger made its debut. "It definitely felt like we were working on something special," said Glasser, a partner development manager with Windows Live Experience. "I don't know that I could have predicted accurately the number of people who would use it, but we had a feeling it would be a big thing."
Big thing, indeed. According to comScore, six out of every 10 instant messenger users chat with Windows Live Messenger. The service has more than 330 million active users who send roughly 9.4 billion messages every day. That puts it behind only Windows, Office, and Hotmail in terms of Microsoft consumer products used around the world, said Dharmesh Mehta, director of Windows Live product management. But more interesting than the sheer volume of messages being exchanged is the passion people have for Messenger, Mehta said. "The number of users is massively impressive, but the amazing thing for me is to hear about the ways it has changed people's lives."