Tag: Microsoft

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Photoshop CS4 to Favor Vista 64bit Not to MAC

Adob CS4

Adobe is prepairing a new version of its Creative Suite, the software bundle that includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and other applications for print and Web design. Only this time there’s a twist: The new version of Photoshop will support 64-bit memory addressing for the first time — but only if you’re running Windows.

Simply put, more bits means you can access more memory, which means you can work with bigger files. By taking advantage of 64-bit CPUs, Adobe is making it possible for designers and photo manipulators to work with really, really big images at high resolutions. Think posters, advertising displays, or even billboards.

As it turns out, Photoshop for Mac OS is written using older APIs that don’t allow access to all the latest Mac OS X features. To bring the software up to speed will require a total rewrite, a time-consuming process that could leave Mac users in the cold for some time.

Will the extra power of Photoshop CS4 for Windows cause designers to jump ship? It seems unlikely. Only a very tiny segment of Photoshop users works with files big enough to warrant 64-bit capability — and designers still like their Macs.

source:read
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Stirling Microsoft Next-Gen Security Software Set to Announce

MS-logo Next week in San Francisco Microsoft’s unveiling next-generation of security software, code-named Stirling.

Over the past few months, Microsoft has quietly shown the software to a select group of users, but sources familiar with the company’s plans said that it will release a beta version of the code to users during the RSA Conference next Tuesday. Microsoft will allow attendees to “see new technologies,” including Stirling and the company’s next-generation Windows Server 2008 software, according to the conference agenda.

After running the product through beta testing phase, Microsoft expects to ship Stirling by the end of June 2009.

source:read
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Windows Mobile 6.1 Releasing Soon

Win Mob 6.1

Microsoft will announce the much-rumoured refresh to its mobile phone operating system, Windows Mobile, on 1 April 2008.

An improvement over Windows Mobile 6 released in February 2007 the new version, unsurprisingly named 6.1, will be a stop-gap measure to keep both consumers and industry happy until the launch of Windows Mobile 7.

Leaked screenshots of 6.1 have already done the rounds in the blogosphere, and show the system has been simplified with the screens displaying less mess than the Vista-inspired version 6.

A new look with new fonts, new homescreen and new features such as a task manager and copying and pasting in Internet Explorer all bode well for users of Microsoft’s OS for handhelds.

source:pocket-lint

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India Rejected Office Open XML

 ISO

In the meeting of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) technical committee Thursday, 13 members voted against the standard, while five members, including some outsourcing companies, and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) voted for making Open XML a standard.

Nasscom is in favor of multiple standards, including Open XML and ODF (Open Document Format), the association said in a statement. It added that technology neutrality and competition will lead to falling prices of IT products.

The technical committee was constituted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), India’s national standards body, after moves by Microsoft and other organizations to make Open XML a standard of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

BIS is a founder member of ISO, and represents India at the ISO.

The BIS committee had voted in August against making Office Open XML a standard, although some participants said at the time that Open XML may be again reconsidered as a standard by the technical committee and BIS after Microsoft makes the required changes to the document format.

The India vote comes ahead of a March 29 deadline for ISO members to reconsider their votes if they wished.

While disappointed by the decision of the BIS committee, Microsoft said Thursday that it was however encouraged by the support of IT industry players like Nasscom, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys who voted in favor of Open XML becoming an ISO standard.

source:pcworld

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Silverlight be the next Microsoft technology to work on the iPhone?

Silverlight

Could Silverlight be the next Microsoft technology to work on the iPhone? Don’t bet on it anytime soon, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Speaking in Las Vegas at the MIX 08 conference on Thursday, Ballmer said Microsoft wants to get its Silverlight technology, which allows developers to build and deliver multimedia applications on the Web, “everywhere,” and that putting it on the iPhone is certainly “interesting.”

“I can’t say there has been extensive discussion” with Apple CEO Steve Jobs about it, Ballmer said.

He said he was concerned about Apple’s plan, unveiled Thursday, to let developers sell applications for the iPhone on iTunes and take a 30 percent cut of revenues. Ballmer suggested that Apple might charge Microsoft similarly to get Silverlight on the iPhone, though there is so far no evidence to support this belief.

 

 read more in pcworld..
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Genuine Crack For Windows Vista Has Just Been Released

Vista

Unlike cracks which have been floating around since Vista RTM was released in late November, this crack doesn’t simply get around product activation with beta activation files or timestop cracks – it actually makes use of the activation process. It seems that Microsoft has allowed large OEMs like ASUS to ship their products with a pre-installed version of Vista that doesn’t require product activation – apparently because end users would find it too inconvenient.

As the crack is tied to specific product keys, it remains to be seen whether Microsoft will be able to do anything about shutting out machines activated using this method. But their work will be made much more difficult now that such machines have completely bypassed the online activation process, and are connecting as legitimate copies of Windows.

read more in  apcmag

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VISTA Takes This Long In Creation “Why There Is Such a Shortage Of Drivers!!?”

Vista

More and more controversy on Vista!! According to online reports, Microsoft dropped the hardware specs for its Vista platform just to raise Intel profits.

One e-mail states that the software giant lowered Windows Vista’s minimum hardware requirements to ridiculous levels just because Intel needed to sell more graphics chipsets.

Intel has since told The Wall Street Journal that the comment about its earnings was simply not true and pointed out that Kalkman “is not qualified in any shape or form to have knowledge about Intel’s internal financial forecasts related to chipsets, motherboards or any other product”.

The email has been released as part of the mounting evidence against Microsoft in a case in which it has been accused of misleading the public with the “Windows Vista Capable” logos it put on new PCs in the run-up to the operating system’s debut.

The logos appeared on system more than nine month before Vista did, but consumers have complained that their PCs were only Vista Home Basic capable and didn’t run the full version.

Microsoft seems to be denying all by informing the paper that it included the Intel 915 chipset in the Windows Vista Capable program “based on successful testing of beta versions of Windows Vista on the chip set and the broad availability of the chip set in the market.”

And the emails? These simply showed how its execs “were trying to make the marketing program better for Microsoft partners and consumers”.

But an impotent thing:

In another email which has been presented in court, a Microsoft board member tells Steve Ballmer he’s decided against “upgrading” one of his machines to Vista. “I cannot understand with a product this long in creation why there is such a shortage of drivers,” he says.

source:pocket-lint

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Vista prices reduces

 Vista

Microsoft has announced that it is going to reduce the price of several standalone versions of Windows Vista.

The release has been published stateside and we don’t yet have confirmation as to whether prices are going to drop in all contres.

In the release, Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows Consumer Product Marketing at Microsoft, explained that the reductions are just going to be on standalone versions of the package sold through retailers.

“In emerging markets, we are combining full and upgrade Home Basic and Home Premium versions into full versions of these editions and instituting price changes to meet the demand we see among first-time Windows customers who want more functionality than is available in current Windows XP editions.”

He added that Microsoft is also lowering pricing on Windows Vista Ultimate in emerging markets.

The price changes will come in at the same time as the retail release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 later this year.

source:pocket-lint 

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A New Critical Hole In Windows Vista

Vista

Just in time for spring, Microsoft has been busy tending to a new swarm of bugs, including a critical hole in Windows Vista and XP that could expose you to an early-season bite without your doing anything other than being online.

In an attack, a cracker could broadcast rogue TCP/IP packets to a range of addresses on the Internet, possibly including your PC’s. Sounds all too common, right? These rogue packets, however, are designed to trick their way past Windows’ security and hijack your PC, making your machine part of a botnet for sending out spam–or worse, a self-copying worm.

So far, no attacks have occurred. But proof-of-concept code is floating around, so don’t put off applying the patch. If you’ve enabled automatic updates, Microsoft will push the patch to you. Otherwise, you can grab it from Microsoft and install it yourself (Download).

 

source:pcworld
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PC-World’s Windows Server 2008 Revue

win Server 2008

Microsoft’s long-awaited Windows Server 2008 delivers advancements in speed, security, and management, but its virtualization and network-access control features come up short.

In Network World testing of Windows Server 2008 gold code — the product officially launches on Wednesday. Microsoft has made a number of improvements to its flagship server operating system.

For example, new server administrative role schemes boost security, the Server Manager program improves manageability, Internet Information Server (IIS) Web management functionality is revamped, Active Directory is easier to control, and Windows Terminal Services has been redesigned. Windows Server 2008 is also significantly faster than Windows Server 2003, especially when client machines are running Vista.

Unfortunately, a highly anticipated feature of Windows Server 2008, the Hyper-V server virtualization tool, is missing also compatibility between non-Windows (and older Windows) clients and Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP) scheme, Microsoft’s version of NAC. Microsoft includes a beta version of Hyper-V with Windows Server 2008 editions, but it will not release final code until the third quarter of this year.

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