14 DAY TRIAL // It's a well known fact that Microsoft tries to do anything possible to attract more customers to its Xbox 360 game platform and battle the famous rival Sony and its PlayStation 3 console. Recently, there has been a lot of buzz around the PS3 because Sony kept the product in the spotlights with announced, postponed and canceled price cuts that could boost the number of consumers. Microsoft urgently needed a smart move that would bring Xbox 360 back into the fight and make the world talk about its gaming console. That's why the Redmond company proudly announced on Monday that its Xbox 360 is now available for $349.99 (in the US), meaning that Microsoft reduced the price with $50. This is quite a smart decision following the recent announcements made by Sony but, as far I can see, the software giant might prepare even more special offers for the gamers from every corner of the world.
"The fact that we have been able to keep our launch price longer than any other console while retaining our leadership position demonstrates that consumers believe in the value of Xbox 360," said Mitch Koch, corporate vice president, Global Retail Sales and Marketing Group, Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "On the eve of the best holiday games lineup ever and the launch of 'Madden NFL 08,' there has never been a better time to jump into Xbox 360."
If you didn't know, EA scheduled the release of "Madden NFL 08" on August 14 and, since the Redmond company is an important partner for the game producer, the Xbox 360 gaming console might bring some unexpected special offers along with the EA titles.
Everybody is waiting for the upcoming service packs prepared by Microsoft because they bring more functionality for the operating systems as well as security, performance and new tools. At this time, we're talking about two flavors of Microsoft Windows: XP and Vista. While Windows Vista was released in January this year and the users are already hoping the first service pack can bring a major improvement for the software solution, Windows XP waits for the third suite of tools compatible with this version of operating system. Microsoft avoided providing specific release dates but it seems that Windows XP SP3 is almost here as the folks from WinBeta reported on Tuesday that a testing version of the pack was released to a small number of users.
"Microsoft has just recently (few days ago) dropped a copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 in the lap of the same small group of testers. Coming in at less than 350MB, the service pack includes fixes for over 900 reported problems, some of which have already been resolved with post-Service Pack 2 hotfixes," WinBeta reported.
According to the same source, Windows XP SP3 updates the operating system to version 5.1.2600.3180 (xpsp.070718-2058). Microsoft avoided commenting the recent speculations so we're still waiting for an official launch date for the long-awaited service pack.
On Wednesday, Microsoft officially rolled out Money Plus, a special software solution meant to take care of your money and help you with your financial duties. Besides the valuable money management functions, this new application can help organize the check accounts and cash flows in a matter of seconds and with minimum configuration. The application comes in several flavors, starting with Money Plus Deluxe available for $29.99 and ending with Money Plus Home & Business valued at $59.99.
"Everyone is busy these days, and sometimes you just need to know your account balance or check out whether you have enough extra cash to splurge on dinner, an amazing outfit or the latest 'must have' golf gadget," said Chris Jolley, group manager of the Financial Products Group at Microsoft. "Microsoft Money Plus is designed to provide quick information right when you need it with comprehensive tools, services and commentary to help make financial decisions with confidence. Microsoft Money Plus takes out the guesswork, so you're able to spend less time worrying about money and more time enjoying it."
We all know Microsoft's Windows Vista is the latest attempt coming from Redmond to increase the security of the users and to enhance the daily computer activities. That's why the software giant bundled several security tools, all of them with a single goal: defending the users and their private data. Speaking about the security of this latest flavor of Windows, experts from Kaspersky Labs underlined one idea: Windows Vista is safe. But don't be too happy, Windows Vista is safe but this due to the slow evolution of malicious techniques and not because the Microsoft security utilities are so powerful that are able to block anything.
"The threats are not becoming "smarter." Innovation has stagnated as development is now focused on cosmetic changes, and we still don't know what may ultimately serve as a catalyst for changing the nature of viruses in the global arena, events comparable to the launch of Windows95, the emergence of the LoveLetter and Melissa worms, the first macro virus, and Lovesan and Mydoom epidemics," Kasperksy mentioned in the analysis published on Thursday.
However, Windows Vista is a reasonable Microsoft attempt that is surely improving the security of the computer users. At least in comparison with XP, Vista is a little bit more secure and this especially due to the applications implemented into the operating system. Take for example that annoying pop-up that is opened every time you run a new application. Nicknamed User Account Control, this function can identify malicious programs and stop them before they are executed.
While everybody talks about the upcoming releases of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3, Microsoft made a different and unexpected announcement: Windows XP with Service Pack 2c was released to manufacturing. What does this mean? That all the 32-bit flavors of Windows XP Professional will get a new set of product keys while other improvements such as new tools and updates are not included into the pack.
"Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2c has released to manufacturing and will be available to system builders in September 2007. System builders who use imaging must create new Windows XP Professional images with Service Pack 2c when shipping Service Pack 2c product keys; otherwise end users will not be able to complete installation. Due to the longevity of Windows XP Professional, it has become necessary to produce more product keys for system builders in order to support the continued availability of Windows XP Professional through the scheduled system builder channel end-of-life (EOL) date of January 31, 2009," the System Builders team wrote on Friday.
