Is Take Two a takeover target?
,----[ Quote ]
| One company that says it's not in the running is Microsoft. Because
| today's independent publishers are platform agnostic - that is to say,
| they build games for all major systems - taking over one would result
| in a massive revenue loss for Microsoft, as all development would be
| redirected toward the Xbox 360.
|
| "We could never launch an acquisition bid at a third party publisher,"s
| aid Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios.
`----
http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/09/commentary/column_gaming/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
Related:
Developing Exclusively for Windows? Think Again.
,----[ Quote ]
| If you only want to get a basic understanding of how to build
| software and Windows is already available to you, then don't
| hesitate to try one of the beginner tools that are available
| for that OS, but if you're really serious about your endeavors,
| then you might want to consider expanding your development
| efforts to OS X and Linux once you've successfully taken your
| first few steps in the wild world of software development.
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2393&Itemid=449
Photosynth for Linux?
,----[ Quote ]
| This is the demonstration video of Photo Tourism which was later
| transformed into Microsoft Photosynth (Wikipedia). Now, you'll find
| it difficult to disagree with me when I say this is a great product.
| It just has that "cool factor".
|
| However, the Photosynth website says at the system requirements: Only
| Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista RC1 or later are supported at this
| time. However, the video I showed above clearly shows it running on
| Linux (take a look at the titlebar of the web browser or the "add
| annotation dialog"). This could mean two things:
|
| 1. Microsoft deliberately decided not to support Linux
| 2. Microsoft may still want to make this available for Linux
`----
http://xubuntublog.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/photosynth-for-linux/
Redmond's reader app for newspapers? No thanks
,----[ Quote ]
| The reaction among bloggers seemed to be "that's nice, but who
| cares?" Requiring special software just to read the paper seemed
| like a bit too much effort for most, no matter how well the
| software worked.
`----
http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6161675.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
http://tinyurl.com/2hpj45
Vista and British Library put da Vinci online
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft and the British Library have digitised two of Leonardo da
| Vincis' notebooks.
|
| [...]
|
| The British Library has created an updated version of its application
| called "Turning the Pages" which allows people to browse parts of
| its 150 million piece collection via a web browser. We heard how
| this works better using Vista.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/30/vinci_notebooks_vista/
Save the BBC from Windows DRM!
,----[ Quote ]
| Clearly, shutting out 25% of your audience sits ill with the BBC's
| remit of serving all of its users...
|
| There is no denying that this is an extremely difficult area for
| the BBC, since it must negotiate not one but three minefields -
| those of technology standards, copyright and contract law. But
| there are still things that it could do without turning into a
| global advertisement for Microsoft's flawed DRM approach.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000183
Carrying Water for Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Careless Web developers work tirelessly to maintain Redmond's dominance.
|
| [...]
|
| Fidelity's contractor didn't set out to build a website that would shut
| out Macintosh and Linux users. But by being lax with its choice of
| Web authoring technologies, that's exactly what it did.
`----
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/posts.aspx?id=17504&author=garfinkel
ECIS Accuses Microsoft of Plotting HTML Hijack
,----[ Quote ]
| An industry coalition that has represented competitors of Microsoft
| in European markets before the European Commission stepped up its
| public relations offensive this morning, this time accusing
| Microsoft of scheming to upset HTML's place in the fabric of
| the Internet with XAML, an XML-based layout lexicon forn
| etwork applications.
`----
http://www.betanews.com/article/ECIS_Accuses_Microsoft_of_Plotting_HTML_Hijack/1169824569
Software rivals say Microsoft's Vista illegal in Europe (at CNNMoney.com)
,----[ Excerpt ]
| Software manufacturers, citing 2004 European Commission finding,
| contend the operating system violates server laws in Europe.
|
| [...]
|
| "Vista is the first step of Microsoft's strategy to extend its market
| dominance to the Internet," the ECIS statement said.
|
| It said Microsoft's XAML markup language was "positioned to replace HTML,"
| the industry standard for publishing documents on the Internet.
|
| Microsoft's own language would be dependent on Windows, and discriminatory
| against rival systems such as Linux, the group says.
|
| They said a so-called "open XML" platform file format, known as OOXML, is
| designed to run seamlessly only on the Microsoft Office platform.
`----
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/26/news/international/bc.vista.microsoft.eu.reut/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
Microsoft's Allegedly Undocumented APIs - Comes v. Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| One of the allegations is that in this expert's opinion, Andrew
| Schulman, "Microsoft Office uses (and copies) undocumented DirectUI APIs"
| and "Microsoft Office and other Microsoft applications use undocumented
| Windows Line Services APIs".
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2007020819534335
Expert Testimony of Ronald Alepin in Comes v. Microsoft - Embrace, Extend,
Extinguish
,----[ Quote ]
| You'll hear some emails read aloud, one of Bill Gates's, an email from
| 1996 about Java, where he says he was losing sleep over how great
| Java was, and you'll see a strategy he suggested -- "fully
| supporting Java and extending it in a Windows/Microsoft way".
|
| [...]
|
| Well, when applets are cross-platform, it expands the number of
| applications that are available to you so you can go to a website.
| And if you have a Linux computer or a Macintosh computer or a Windows 3.1
| computer, you can get an application and it will run.
|
| You don't have to either select a specific application or hope that the
| independent software vendor or the website created the application for your
| platform. So it would increase the number of applications available to you.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070108020408557
Comes v. Microsoft Resumes Today
,----[ Quote ]
| "Ronald Alepin, an independent consultant and former CTO for Fujitsu,
| disputed the idea that Microsoft had been an innovator in the field.
| He said that interoperability protocols were developed by companies
| other than Microsoft, and that Microsoft has simply extended the
| protocols and then refused to disclose the extensions. In so doing,
| he told the court, Microsoft "has hijacked standard
| interoperability protocols agreed by the entire industry."
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070104031852847
Wal-Mart's Speeding Bullet
,----[ Quote ]
| Slow delivery times have proved that the digital video delivery
| revolution isn't exactly "faster than a speeding bullet."
|
| [...]
|
| The Wal-Mart offering isn't for everyone. In a nod to Microsoft
| loyalists, the downloads will only work on Windows XP systems and require
| the latest version of Windows Media Player to watch.
`----
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06112812.htm?source=eptyholnk303100&logvisit=y&npu=y
http://tinyurl.com/yzmpnf
Microsoft Challenges Adobe With Publisher Partnerships
,----[ Quote ]
| A fourth newspaper, The New York Times, introduced a proprietary
| reader based on Microsoft's technology last November.
`----
http://scienceandtechnology1.blogspot.com/2007/02/microsoft-challenges-adobe-with.html
Vista to give HD Photo format more exposure
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is looking to supplant the ubiquitous JPEG with an image format
| of its own--and it's hoping the debut of Windows Vista will help do the
| job.
`----
http://news.com.com/Vista+to+give+HD+Photo+format+more+exposure/2100-1045_3-6153730.html
Windows Vista Product Guide: Free to Download, $149 to Read
,----[ Quote ]
| 'Windows Vista Product Guide' was released in two formats:
|
| Microsoft Office Word 2007
| The standard .doc format isn't good enough, you need to be able to
| read a .docx file, so all those users of Office XP are just plain
| out of luck on
| this one.
|
| XPS
| What the heck is XPS? I hadn't heard of it before now, (a quick
| Google tells me XPS is Microsoft's proprietary rival to PDF)
| but apparently you need a special reader for it (which is
| kindly enough built into Vista, but nothing else).
`----
http://itsvista.com/2006/12/windows-vista-product-guide-free-to-download-149-to-read/
Adobe could still sue Microsoft: paper
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's new Vista software, due to be released early next
| year, contains a version of fixed document formats which would
| compete with Adobe's PDF format. Microsoft has pledged to make
| changes to its version.
`----
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061118/tc_nm/adobe_microsoft_dc
|
|
