EC Complains About IE Intergration With Windows 7

Here we go again. The European Commission had been awfully quiet for the past few months. But just half way into January, the Commission has come out swinging again against its favorite punching bag: Microsoft.

It seems the EC’s new “statement of objections” is based on Opera Software’s 2007 antitrust complaint against Microsoft. (Here is the press release from Opera on its December 2007 complaint.)

From Microsoft’s “On the Issues” blog:

“A legal action we received yesterday (January 15) from the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission.  (DG Comp, to use the shorthand, sets and enforces marketplace rules that apply to all companies doing business in Europe).

“The ‘Statement of Objections’ concerns our practice of including Internet Explorer browsing technology in the Windows operating system, which we’ve done since 1996.

We’ll provide a formal response to DG Comp within the next two months. In the meantime, since this is a legal matter, we won’t have much to say publicly.”

Microsoft is expected to deliver a near-final Release Candidate (RC) of Internet Explorer 8 some time this quarter. The final release is expected to ship this year as both a standalone browser and an integrated piece of Windows 7.

If you thought the issue of whether or not IE is really “part” of Windows (or a bundled component) was settled almost a decade ago by the U.S. government, you’d be right. But the EC is saying that the U.S. decision applies to the U.S. and not the EU.

Again from Microsoft’s On the Issues blog:

“The Statement of Objections states that the remedies put in place by the U.S. courts in 2002 following antitrust proceedings in Washington, D.C. do not make the inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows lawful under European Union law.”

I never bought the whole idea that IE was an inextricable part of Windows, and feel Microsoft failed to prove its case. But Microsoft was allowed by the courts to continue to package the two together. In 2009, Opera’s objections regarding IE bundling seem awfully late….

Plus, remember when Microsoft removed Media Player from some versions of Windows in the EU? No one bought the player-free releases; they stuck with the player-bundled Windows.

Is a browser-free Windows release something that would only benefit Microsoft’s competitors and not customers? What do you think?

Update (5:45 p.m. ET on January 16): The EC’s “statement of objections” doesn’t sound as innocuous as I initially assumed.

Based on comments from a couple of industry observers with whom I’ve spoken, it sounds like the EC basically is presenting its findings at this point, and Microsoft — after having a chance to “respond” within the next eight weeks — is going to be required to take some kind of remedial action. It’s not clear if the EC will try to force Microsoft to unbundle IE from current/future versions of Windows sold in the EU; offer links to other browsers as part of the initial Windows set-up page, or what.

Ben Edelman, an assistant professor with Harvard Business School (who noted he has done some consulting work with Microsoft in the browser-competition space), had this to add:

Today’s developments “feel like last decade’s fight, especially given recent (marketshare) gains by competing browsers.  Every other operating system has a browser as part of it.”

Windows Live Messenger 9 review

Windows Live Messenger 2009 has changed lots since version 2008. Here are some of the biggest new changes. The interface has changed allot, it now has a new fresher look than before:

 

It now looks much cleaner than pervious versions. The new look takes a while to get used to but soon you will get used to it.

 

What will hapen in the next 12 months?

After, weeks of research and thinking I have finally came out with my technology forecast. Personally I think the most difficult thing to predict is games. Gamers are changing their minds all of the time about what are “killer games”

 

 

Things are looking good for Sony for the next twelve months, but not so good for Nintendo and Microsoft. Due to expected price cuts for the Playstation 3 I’m expecting a huge increase in Playstation 3 sales. I also expect lots more games to come out for the console. You can expect Wii sales to decrease due to less games going to come out for the Wii and because people are finding better consoles for the Wii. The Xbox 360 will have sales starting to drop because of the amount of problems with the console and very little desirability right now. PSP sales will continue to increase, due to price cuts and lots of games said to be coming out. Nintendo Ds sales will just simply drop by June because of NO good games planed for the console. Playstation 2 sales will drop because of not many good games coming out for the console. Sadly 2008 may be he last year of life for the Playstation 2. All good things must sadly come to an end.

 

Mac os x Leopard sales will increase just because Leopard is a great operating system. Vista sales will slowly increase because just about all the bugs have been fixed. The reason Vista sales will be slowly increasing because some people will be waiting for Windows 7 that may come out in late 2008 or early 2009. I also expect more viruses to be made for Leopard because so much people are using it.

 

I expect iPhone sales to increase because of huge demand and because it will come out in Canada before the end of 2008.

 

 

That’s all I have to predict about 2008 and like all years it will be a exciting year for all computer users.

Introuducing Windows Vista…the worlds most secure o.s.

No, you are not reading wrong. Windows Vista has been rated the worlds most secure operating system by the most respected tech geeks, Microsoft, Norton and even Apple. You are probably wondering if Windows Vista has so many viruses how is it the worlds most secure operating system? I have a very good explanation. Windows Vista has more market share than all mac’s combined. Wouldn’t it be more pleasing than to attack Windows Vista. If Mac’s had most of the market share wouldn’t it be more pleasurable to attack a mac. You must be getting the point. Lets look at things on the mac side now. The new operating system, Os x Leopard has the firewall dissabled by default (that’s the dummist thing i’ve heard since a little kid told me the sky was falling) which leaves the system with the same level of protection that Windows xp 2p1 gave you. But, even with the firewall on you only get a Windows xp sp2 level of protection. Norton says Leopard was a downgrade in security. Norton also warned mac users to be careful on the web. With the increase of mac, iphone and ipod touch more viruses will be made to attack safari and mac. How did people come to the conclusion that Vista is the most secure. Well in a convention in a computer convention in Vancouver, Canada for the second time in a row a fully patched mac was successfully infected first than followed Vista. The linux bo x was never infected. Guess that’s one less reason to buy a mac.

Facebook Hacked!

       While watching Global National today I discovered that Facebook was hacked. Apparently a guy (whose name was not mentioned) hacked Paris Hiltons Facebook account due to a small bug in the servers. The person was able to view Hilton’s private Facebook photos. Facebook promptly fixed the problem though the person claims that he can still view Hilton’s photos. Facebook warned that if you have sensitive information just keep it off the internet. Even if it in a private folder. Hilton has not said anything about this most likely because, the guy said that he would not give the photos to anyone. But than again you should not trust strangers and someone can hack his computer if they wanted to. We just have to wait. 

Source:

 Global National

Windows Live Mail Review

 Today I finally decided to give Windows Live Mail a try. Windows Live Mail is basically a copy of Microsoft Outlook. Like all Windows Live programs this one has the Vista look and feel for Windows Xp users. There’s a very minor problem with Windows Live Mail scrolling bar, it tends to switch from the Vista scrolling bar to the Xp scrolling bar.  

If you are used to using Windows Live Hotmail you will view images with no problem. This is not the case it Windows Live Mail. Flash images can’t be viewed unless you change one of the settings, the average user would just delete Windows Live Mail because of this. One of the greatest features of Windows Live Mail is that you can view two e-mail accounts at the same time. This comes really handy if you have a work and personal e-mail. This great feature is not limited to passport users, you can also view Gmail and Yahoo! accounts. Windows Live Mail also manages your feeds. That is another useful feature that people wanted in Windows Live Hotmail. In Windows Live Mail you can also launch Windows Live Messenger and view newsgroups but those features are not to important. To download Windows Live Mail and to try it for your self click here. I would reccomend Windows Live Mail. It does take some getting used to though.

Goodbye Netscape

Yesterday on March 1 2008 was a sad day for the people who created Netscape Navigator. AOL announced that they would stop supporting and making new versions of Netscape Navigator. Thanks to web browsers like Microsoft’s Internet explorer, Firefox and Apple’s Safari, who combined own over 99% of the market share. AOL ceo says “We have tried and tried to prevent this from happening but we could not stop this sad fait”. Netscape was an icon in technology. If it was not for Netscape navigator we would be living very different lives. Netscape was the first popular internet browser, which at one time had over 90% of the market share. Today Netscape has only 0.5% percent of the market share. Netscape would probably be around if Microsoft did not abuse there their power illegally. Though Netscape took Microsoft to court and won that did not stop Microsoft from destroying Netscape. Netscape recommends switching to Firefox for Netscape users For the official announcement go here

Yahoo! says no to Microsoft

So Jerry Yang’s latest lower-case missive to his besieged staff explains that the board rejected Microsoft’s offer because it undervalued the firm. It didn’t take into account the global audience, recent investment in Panama and in advertising acquisitions and the improved cash flow predicted for 2008.

He went on to talk about mobile and other growth markets in China and Japan – in fact there wasn’t much he didn’t mention.

“You deserve the credit for the tremendously valuable business we have built,” said Yang.

“All of us in management, as well as the members of the board, deeply appreciate and respect what you have done and continue to do in order to maintain and enhance Yahoo’s leadership position in the online world.”

Translation: please don’t leave. As if things weren’t uncertain enough, today is supposedly the day when Yahoo starts laying off those 1,000 staff. There’s no confirmation on which departments will be worst hit, reports paidContent, but they will be the lowest priority parts of the firm’s business.

• Microsoft’s response was to call Yahoo’s decision unfortunate, but they sounded resolved to battle on: “The Yahoo response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal.

“As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.”

Translation: we’re looking at a proxy battle for shareholders.

• Analysts all share the opinion that the deal will go through, with the most likely scenario that the two sides sit down and hammer out a new price – likely to be around $35 per share. A ‘white knight’ is unlikely – no-one has come forward yet and few firms have the resources, particularly in the current financial climate, to stump of $44bn for the firm. Source: paidContent

• Assuming the bid for Yahoo goes through eventually, Microsoft is planning to create both a combined giant search portal and a combined advertising platform across the two companies, says Kara Swisher. Source: AllThingsD

• One source who says that Yahoo will sell at $36 per share – above the $31 Microsoft offer but below the $40 goal that had been reported. Negotiation tactics, anyone? Source: Valleywag

• Investors are starting to stack up against Yang, reports the New York Post, saying that Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has hired the specialist proxy solicitation firm InnisFree. Source: New York Post

• More spies have reported that Yang has hundreds of employees working on secret revamp plans which include overhauling the homepage, consolidating the various social networks (which could include Flickr, Delicious and Upcoming.org), introducing a Facebook-style develop platform for the whole Yahoo network and reviewing Yahoo’s network infrastructure. Yang had planned to launch those this month, so Microsoft’s bid was bad timing for him.

Mac’s are safe, for now

Introduction

Apple has gotten a lot of mileage out of the fact that its OS X operating system has yet to be attacked by a virus. A recent ad campaign for Mac computers featured a flu-ridden individual representing a PC while the Mac guy appeared untouched by illness. Some people see it as smugness, but there is no denying that up until now Mac users have enjoyed a long stretch without any serious threats to their platform.

By contrast, according to Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report, in the second half of 2006 there were more than 6 million bot-infected PCs worldwide.

Macs are vulnerable

This past January, Kevin Finisterre, an independent security researcher, caused a stir in the Apple community by creating a Web site that revealed a new Apple bug each day for an entire month. And while some critics dismissed the report as a publicity stunt, Apple recently issued a patch to plug some of the holes listed on Finisterre’s Web report.

Mike Romo, product manager for the Macintosh team at Symantec, readily admits that, historically, the Mac operating system has largely been untouched by threats, but he also warns that there simply is no such thing as an operating system impervious to risks.

“There are still plenty of viruses that can affect individual programs that people use on the Mac,” he says. For example, Microsoft macro viruses, which can be embedded in Excel spreadsheets and other office documents, target specific applications running on the Mac rather than the operating system.

In addition, Apple’s monthly security updates clearly show that software vulnerabilities, such as errors with the code or the logic of the application and how it interacts with the operating system or the Internet, are becoming increasingly common.

“As more applications are written for both the Mac and Windows, we’re seeing a lot more software vulnerabilities,” explains Romo.

Online threats are universal

Mac users have grown accustomed to operating in an environment where they’re not the primary targets of malicious exploits, but when it comes to Web threats, like phishingand ID theft, they’re just as vulnerable as users on any other platform. “If you’re using the name of the street you live on as a password, it could be very easy for someone to get access to your system regardless of what operating system you’re running,” warns Romo. There’s nothing an operating system can do to protect you from social engineering threats.

Romo recommends Norton AntiVirusfor all Mac users working on a cross-platform environment or with many Windows users. Norton AntiVirus scans incoming mail and Internet files while providing protection against viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other emerging threats. Norton Confidentialgoes a step further by offering Macs protection against platform agnostic threats such as phishing and is especially designed to help users approach online transactions with confidence. It prevents personal information from being provided to phishing Web sites, and delivers early response protection against identity thieves seeking to exploit newly discovered application and operating system vulnerabilities. It also safeguards important files from tampering or accidental deletion.

Stay protected

Romo says the fact that there have been no successful exploits against the Mac should not lull Mac users into a false sense of security. “The bottom line is that there have been no successful virus attacks on the Mac until now. But soon there will be as the numbers of macs increase so will the number of viruses.”

iPhone Sucks

The iPhone sucks so bad. There are many reasons why I hate the iPhone.
1-The first reason is if it drops the screen brakes.
2-The second reason is it crashes too easy.
3-The ringtones suck.
4- The phone only works on at&t.
5- The browser sucks and the links are hard to click.
6-The touch screen stops working after a year or two