14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, Microsoft made a big step in the battle against piracy and hackers. After the Bulgarian case, a hacker known as "illwill" was prosecuted under charges of selling and distributing Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source codes. The federal judge sentenced William Genovese Jr., 29 years old, to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty in August.
Microsoft was notified about the selling of its source codes and, along with an undercover FBI agent, electronically sent payments to Genovese in order to receive the codes. After the source was received and identified, "Illwill" was arrested, adding one more conviction to other 12, at that time.
Also on Monday, Microsoft announced in a conference call a 5 percent rise in quarterly profit. Chris Liddell, Microsoft's chief financial officer, said: "The customer reaction to our newly launched products has been fantastic? We feel confident about how we will end the year. The growth in our core businesses was healthy during the quarter driven by strength in Server and Tools and the success of our Windows Client products in a robust PC market? The quarter also marked the beginning of an important product cycle for Microsoft with the launches of Xbox 360 [and] SQL Server 2005 ... which were extremely successful and well received by our customers." Not a long time ago, Microsoft's officials made public their decision of shipping between 4.5 and 5.5 million Xbox game consoles by the end of June.
Microsoft said on Monday that a new combined software is going to be released, bringing in together Exchange, Microsoft's server software for managing corporate e-mail, scheduling and contacts, and the RTC unit's products, including Live Communications Server, which lets workers see a colleague's IM status and communicate instantly via text or voice.
In a message posted to Microsoft's press Web site, Anoop Gupta, who heads the Unified Communications Group, said that the move was aimed at breaking down the divisions between the corporate messaging products. It is known that a planned Exchange 12 is in beta testing, with a final release expected early next year, and is going to be directed by Dave Thompson, who he will have to report to Anoop Gupta, the leader of the combined unit.
On Tuesday, Internet Explorer 7, the "revolutionary browser", was released to public as a new beta.
Margaret Cobb, group product manager for Internet Explorer at Microsoft, said: "The big update is that it's public", because all the other builds were limited. The latest version works only with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and includes many of the features Microsoft has been testing for months. Some new protection filters are included, for example anti-phishing, anti-spyware and other threats. A new option is available, "Delete Browser History", which will let users to remove browsing history, passwords and cookies more easily and secure. Internet Explorer 7 is a powerful rival for Firefox, offering tabbed browsing and a search box on the toolbar, just like Mozilla's product. It is known that since version 7, Internet Explorer targets customers with blog and RSS needs as well, being an useful tool to subscribe and receive news directly from browser.
IE 7 also brings a number of new features for Web developers, including support for up-and-coming Web-programming technologies known collectively as AJAX. Microsoft plans to release a final version of IE 7 later this year, along with the next version of its Windows operating system, Windows Vista.
Also on Tuesday, Microsoft warned users to update their antivirus protections against the Kama Sutra worm, the mass-mailing virus slated to begin corrupting files this week.
In its message for the Kama Sutra worm, also known as win32/Mywife.E@mm and Nyxem.E, Microsoft warns users to be wary of opening unknown attachments. The worm, which will infect a computer when the attachment is opened, may spread over writeable network shares if there are blank administrator passwords. Users hit with the worm may find a number of their files permanently corrupted on the third day of every month. Microsoft said that like other worms, the Kama Sutra virus attempts to disable security software that is loaded on users' systems.
On Wednesday, Microsoft sent an e-mail which contains a message to all beta testers of Office Live. After sending out pre-beta invites to some potential Office Live testers in January, Microsoft went quiet for a few weeks. But on Tuesday, more testers reported receiving an update on Microsoft's planned Office Live beta test. In a mass mailing entitled "Microsoft Office Live is just around the corner", the Office Online team asked beta testers to be patient just a little longer. "Soon we'll be e-mailing invitations to qualified beta registrants. The invitations will include information on where to go to sign-up, along with a unique product key that lets you access our beta services. So stay tuned for future e-mails from your Microsoft Office Live Team."
On Thursday, Microsoft requested a new deadline in the EU antitrust case. The lawyers complained in the letter that they did not have enough access to documents in order to answer the Commission's "Statement of Objections," in which Microsoft is accused.
Microsoft may be ordered to pay fines of up to US$2.4 million a day for failing to comply with remedies contained in an antitrust decision against the software giant in March 2004.
As part of its strategy to avoid the fines, the company offered to license some of its Windows Server source code to rivals, although the commission said this week it was still awaiting the full details of Microsoft's proposal. The deadline, already extended, is February 15.
On Friday, Microsoft and Fiat announced their decision to release a car equipped with the giant's products at this year's Geneva Motor Show, to be held on March 2nd.
Fiat and Microsoft, which have been collaborating since 2004, are working very hard to create a new product known as Blue&Me, based on the Windows Mobile for Automotive operating system. Blue&Me allows Alfa Romeo and Fiat owners to connect their in-car systems to their phones and other equipment using Bluetooth, with data displayed on a panel controlled by buttons in the steering wheel. The new models will also support USB ports, to connect drivers' MP3 players to their cars.
Fiat and Microsoft are also working on a version of the Blue&Me application that will work with GPS satellite navigation.
