Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has lost market share in major European markets, such as France, Britain and Italy, after the U.S. software firm started to make it easier for European consumers to use competing browsers. Microsoft’s pledge to allow easier access to rival browsers in Windows by the middle of May, ended a long antitrust dispute with the European Union. The company has started to send a choice screen, where consumers can easily click on rival browsers, to almost 200 million old and new computers. According to web statistics firm Statcounter, Internet Explorer’s share of all Web surfing has in March dropped in France by 2.5 percentage points from February, in Britain by 1 percentage point and in Italy by 1.3 points.
If you use Google Docs and Microsoft Office, you’ll appreciate the new Outlook sidebar from Mainsoft. Called Harmony, and currently in beta, the sidebar lets you share, e-mail, download, upload, and edit your Google Docs right from your desktop using Outlook 2007. Starting on Tuesday, Harmony is available as a free download from Mainsoft’s Website, and there is also a version for Microsoft SharePoint users
Some 100 million Europeans using Microsoft software will be asked to choose among rival Web browsers by mid-May under a deal the company struck to settle antitrust action. Microsoft Corp. is starting this month to send updates to Windows computers in Europe so that when computer users log on, they will see a pop-up screen asking them to pick one or more of 12 free Web browsers to download and install, including Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
February 26th, 2010
admin
Popular instant messaging, voice chat, and video conferencing client Skype and Skype Lite are no longer available on Windows Mobile devices. The company says, “We’ve chosen to withdraw Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile because we want to offer our new customers an improved mobile experience — much like the version that has proved so popular on the iPhone, and which is now available on Symbian phones. Our focus is on providing a rich user experience that allows you to enjoy free Skype-to-Skype and low cost calls as easily on the move as you do at your desktop. We felt that Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile were not offering the best possible Skype experience.”
February 25th, 2010
admin
Software giant Microsoft Corp has won a U.S. court approval to deactivate a global network of computers that the company accused of spreading spam and harmful computer codes. A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, granted a request by Microsoft to deactivate 277 Internet domains, which the software maker said is linked to a “botnet”. A botnet is an army of infected computers that hackers can control from a central machine. The company aims to secretly sever communications channels to the botnet before its operators can re-establish links to the network.
February 12th, 2010
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Later this month users worldwide will automatically start to receive this update that will verify if the operating system is genuine later this month, however Chinese users will not receive it until summer, as Microsoft tries a softer approach to fighting software piracy in China. It has been a long time since foreign companies started complaining about poor protection of intellectual property rights in China, but the problem is pretty much not just with the users, but with low government regulations as well. In late 2008 Microsoft has caused backlash among Chinese users, when it released an update that turned the screens of computers with pirated versions of Windows XP black. The update for Windows 7 will be much softer, as while detecting the known methods to activate unlicensed copies of the operating system, it will simply change the background picture to black and give regular messages about the problem, leaving the operating system working. At the same time Microsoft is launching a series of marketing campaigns in China to explain the risks of counterfeit software and how users can tell if their Microsoft software is genuine and is hoping to get better results then with the campaign in 2008.
Microsoft is not going to follow Google’s lead in pulling out of China. “We’ve been quite clear that we’re going to operate in China,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in an interview on CNBC. However, his hopes for China to produce growing revenue for the company seem to hinge on a thorny issue: a reduction of piracy and intellectual-property theft. His reference to the problem of IP theft points to bigger challenges Microsoft could face if it decided to leave China. Microsoft has been battling software piracy there for years, and pulling out of the country could amount to it giving up the battle and allowing piracy of its products to flourish unchecked. The issue of censorship or human rights has not been raised in this interview, in contradiction with Google, who considers them as central issues to its new approach to the country.