Tying: Microsoft wins a trial in South Korea

Digito.com Sanview and Technology, two editors from South Korea, have failed to condemn Microsoft. Both companies blamed the U.S. firm of unfair competition by marketing its operating system with Media Player and Windows Messenger.

The court held that Digito.com and Technology Sanview could not blame Microsoft for the financial losses they had registered. Regarding Sanview Technology, Justice considers the lack of competitiveness (prices) and quality and after sales service as responsible for its failure.

Sentenced to 100 million dollars in the U.S.

As for Digito.com he would not have provided sufficient evidence to justify a financial loss due to Microsoft. The publisher has already been condemned by the South Korean in charge of competition issues.

Microsoft was fined more than $ 20 million for abusing its dominant position. The publisher has since offered two versions of its OS, which shed Media Player and Windows Messenger. The second has to make include links to Web pages that download software competitors.

In the United States, justice of the State of Mississippi also condemned Microsoft for abusing its dominant position. To end the dispute, the publisher agreed to pay $ 100 million, 60 million in the form of vouchers for injured consumers.

Thus, any person residing in Mississippi and who purchased Microsoft products or Windows computers with between 1 January 1996 and 11 June 2009, can qualify for a purchase order from 12 to 5 dollars. Microsoft balances 22nd by the complaint filed against him in an American state on similar grounds.

Apple bashes Windows 7, talks Snow Leopard

While Microsoft is trying to position Windows 7 as an exciting new version of the operating system, Apple on Monday tried to characterize it as the same old Windows.

In a keynote speech at the Worldwide Developer Conference here, Apple's Bertrand Serlet said the underpinnings of Windows 7 include the same complexities that have been in the past versions of the operating system.

"That's Windows 7," he said. "Fundamentally, it's just another version of Windows Vista."

Serlet tried to draw a contrast between Windows and what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard, the next version of its own operating system. "We've come at it from such a different place."

But while his rhetoric suggested a fundamental difference, Serlet actually characterized Snow Leopard in some of the same ways--as a better version of the existing Leopard operating system.

"We love Leopard," he said. "We are proud of Leopard."

The goal of Snow Leopard, he said, was really "to build a better Leopard."

There are other similarities between what Apple's and Microsoft's efforts. Among the new features in Snow Leopard is a feature that adds the Expose window--previewing feature to the Dock--not unlike the Aero Peek feature that Windows 7 has as part of its new task bar.

In fairness, there are some key differences between what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard compared to what Microsoft is doing with Windows 7.

Windows 7 is largely focused on improving the look and performance of the core Vista engine, while Snow Leopard goes more under the hood, aiming to better handle 64-bit processing and multicore capabilities.

Apple is also trying to boost its Windows compatibility story by adding Exchange server capability to Snow Leopard. According to Apple, all the user has to do is fill in an e-mail address and password, and the software will "auto-detect" the Exchange Server and make the user's calendar and mail available in Mac OS X's iCal and Mail programs.

The biggest pressure from Apple, though came on the pricing front. Serlet said that Apple will ship Snow Leopard in September and charge just $29 for Leopard owners to upgrade.

Microsoft has hinted that it will offer a cheaper upgrade for Vista users to move to Windows 7, but has not announced details.

Microsoft Bing was online but does not bang!

This is the big day for Microsoft as its new search engine, Bing
(code-named Kumo), this Monday is officially online. The successor to Live
Search preview version arrives in the United States and beta in Europe. Both
versions are different, the American version seems more advanced than the
European adaptations for example.

But according to initial observations, Bing does not bang. On
the American version, the engine decision ( 'decision engine'), one of
phares functions put forward by the editor to allow the user to
faster and to take a decision to purchase or refine
research is still on his hunger.

Decision engine

However, we can now exploit some innovations announced as the
possibility, pointing the mouse over a result, display a mini-window
giving more details. The engine also provides filters that allow
users to refine and arrange more easily, the results obtained.

Recall that Bing exploits the semantic search technology to the company
Powerset acquired in July 2008.

On the French version, Bing seems much like his
predecessor, except the interface that of course has been reviewed. The names of
services were also changed: Live Search Maps becomes Bing Maps
yet, only the packaging seems to have evolved. But let
Microsoft time to refine the local versions of its latest baby.

Shortly revolutionary

For Redmond, the challenge Bing is crucial, it is catching up with Google and the ogre
its 60 to 80% market share in the search when the discussions
Yahoo seem bogged down. It must be said that Microsoft has never really
successful in this area, despite its efforts, Live Search has never exceeded 20%
market share in the world.

But for analysts, Bing is not revolutionary enough to change the
gives. Especially since Google does not remain idle, especially with its offensive
Wave.

Microsoft releases Windows Vista SP2 to the general public

Windows 7 is just months away from release, but Windows Vista is currently the OS that most of us are using. Having already improved massively since its release, the newly-available SP2 improves Vista even more. Get it while it’s hot.

Windows Vista had a host of issues when it was first released to the public in January 2007. These problems were massively publicized, latched onto by Microsoft’s competitors (namely Apple), and generally resulted in the OS being branded a failure. Fairly or unfairly, this is the case.

However, since that initial release, Microsoft has continued to work on Vista in order to bring it up to speed. Numerous security updates have helped make the OS more safe and those issues which almost killed Vista before it had chance to blossom were rectified.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released on February 4, 2008 and despite some initial problems with certain computers was considered to be a major release. It improved Vista in the key areas which most analysts suggested the OS needed improving in: Reliability, Performance, and Hardware support.

Since then Microsoft has continued to roll out regular updates all those small releases have now been combined to make up Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2). The beta version of SP2 has been available for testing since last December, and after five months of being rigorously put through its paces it is now ready for consumption by the wider general public.

As well as the bundle of security updates and bug fixes which have already been released, SP2 contains some new enhancements. The chance to record onto Blu-ray media natively has been much-requested, while there are improvements being made both to RSS feeds and Wi-Fi capabilities. Windows Search 4.0 and Bluetooth 2.1 are also part of the service pack.

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 isn’t going to blow anyone’s socks off with new features or additional capabilities but it is a solid update to the much-maligned OS. With Windows 7 just around the corner now this is Vista’s last chance to shine, and it seems to be going out with a steady-as-she-goes attitude rather than a bang.

It’ll be a few weeks until SP2 hits Windows Update but you can get it now from the Microsoft Download site. Click here for the 348.3MB 32-bit version or here for the 577.4MB 64-bit version.