14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, the giant released Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP, a week after the initial release date. "Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP offers great new ways to store and enjoy all your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV. Play it, view it, and sync it to a portable device for enjoying on the go or even share with devices around your home-all from one place," it is mentioned on the product's webpage. "Windows Media Player 11 is loaded with smart, fun features that breathe new life into your music collection and create a much more personal entertainment experience. The new design lets you get the most out of your digital library and enjoy simple solutions for managing it all," they added. One of the most interesting features is URGE music service that allows you to search, buy and listen to over 2 million songs all around the world. "URGE's first-rate editorial and handcrafted music programming includes hundreds of playlists and radio stations, music blogs, artist profiles, and feature stories from leading music voices. URGE Feeds keep new music flowing straight to your PC and portable music player. With URGE, you can purchase individual songs or albums from all your favorite artists. URGE All Access and All Access To Go subscriptions give you unlimited music playing and downloading for a low monthly or annual fee."
The same day, security company Secunia, published an advisory saying that a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 has been discovered. "A vulnerability has been discovered in Internet Explorer 7, which can be exploited by malicious people to spoof the content of websites. The problem is that a website can inject content into another site's window if the target name of the window is known. This can e.g. be exploited by a malicious website to spoof the content of a pop-up window opened on a trusted website," they said. The company also constructed a simulation of the vulnerability to test your browser and discover if you're vulnerable or not. The test is available here.
On Tuesday, the giant released another tool aimed to attract small companies to use the Office suite. "Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 is an essential tool for managing your business finances. Whether you're a small or home-based business, you can use this simple accounting program to make pen and paper-based tasks a thing of the past. With the familiar look and feel of Microsoft Office, Office Accounting Express 2007 is easy to use and helps you save time, get organized, and do business online," it is mentioned on the product's website. "Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007, financial management software is designed for millions of starting businesses and home based businesses that currently use pen & paper or spreadsheets to run their business. It provides a single place to manage the company's business finances with the familiar look and feel of Microsoft Office system programs," they added.
On Wednesday, Microsoft announced a new partnership with Novell Inc. to provide each other's customers with patent coverage for their respective products. "They said it couldn't be done. This is a new model and a true evolution of our relationship that we think customers will immediately find compelling because it delivers practical value by bringing two of their most important platform investments closer together," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.
"Under the agreement, Novell is establishing clear leadership among Linux platform and open source software providers on interoperability for mixed-source environments. As a result, Microsoft will officially recommend SUSE Linux Enterprise for customers who want Windows and Linux solutions. Additionally, Microsoft will distribute coupons for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server maintenance and support, so that customers can benefit from the use of an interoperable version of Linux with patent coverage as well as the collaborative work between the two companies," the giant said in the press release.
It is quite a good decision for Microsoft, because the giant's attitude related to open source software - including Linux-based applications - is often misunderstood.
On Thursday, Microsoft released XNA Game Studio Express Beta 2, a tool that "makes creating great video games for Windows-based PC's even easier with the inclusion of the content pipeline, full Windows functionality and Xbox 360 project system preview."
"XNA Game Studio Express enables hobbyists, academics and small, indie game developers to more easily create video games using new, optimized cross-platform gaming libraries based on .NET for Windows and Xbox 360. This beta release targets the development of games for Windows. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available later this holiday season and will enable development of games which target Windows and upon purchase of an XNA Creators Club subscription, the Xbox 360 as well," the company posted on the download page.
On Friday, the giant presented Windows Vista Application Compatibility Factory, an utility that "helps enterprises assess and remediate their existing applications to ensure Windows Vista compatibility and accelerate rollout."
"ACF provides an excellent platform for an enterprise customer to reduce the complexity of a Vista migration and shorten the time to deployment as well thereby achieving greater benefits quickly. Besides saving costs in a desktop deployment project, ACF can also shorten the deployment lifecycle, thereby providing a quicker ROI (return on investment). Another natural outcome of ACF is a documented application inventory for an organization. This can be used very effectively by IT departments, especially in decentralized environments," said Pavan Sabharwal, global alliance manager of Tata Consultancy Services.
Week's Conclusion: this week can be entitled "New Releases Period". Windows Media Player 11, Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007, XNA Game Studio Express Beta 2 and finally Vista Application Compatibility Factory. But I'm sure that the most important event of the week is the announcement of the second flaw discovered in IE7 that seems to continue its predecessor's tradition of being vulnerable to attacks.
