Microsoft could keep XP if customers want it...

Technology Reuters By David Lawsky

Thu Apr 24, 2008. LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium (Reuters) - Microsoft could re-think plans to phase out its Windows XP operating system by June 30 if customers show they want to keep it but so far they have not, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said.

"XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments," Ballmer told a news conference on Thursday.

Microsoft has announced that it will stop licensing Windows XP to computer makers and end retail sales by June 30.

Ballmer said most retailers sold computers with Vista, the latest version of its Windows operating system, and most consumers were choosing to buy Vista.

Some consumers have complained they were unable to buy XP at retail stores, or as consumers. They say that in order to get XP they must buy their computers as small businesses.

"In the business environment, we still have customers who are buying PCs with XP" because information technology departments often have to work with old machines, Ballmer said.

Vista requires high-speed central processing units installed only in newer machines.

Ballmer was also asked whether the company would appeal against an 899 million euro ($1.42 billion) antitrust fine imposed by the Brussels-based European Commission in February.

"I really have nothing to say about that today, sorry," he said.

The company must decide by early May whether to appeal to the European Court of First Instance against the fine, imposed because the Commission found Microsoft had charged rivals high prices to discourage software competition.

The court upheld a 497 million euro fine and other antitrust penalties against Microsoft in a landmark decision in September.

Ballmer was speaking at a news conference called to announce the establishment of an "innovation centre" in the Belgian city of Mons, near where rival Google (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) has a data centre.

Ballmer, asked whether Microsoft had decided to locate in Mons because Google was there, said it had not.

He reiterated Microsoft's plan to go to Yahoo shareholders if that company turned down its takeover offer of $43.6 billion.

"We've sent them a letter that says, 'it's a good price, please let us know. If you don't let us know, maybe your shareholders will think it's a good price.'"

(Editing by Dale Hudson)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Woman claims Victoria's Secret stole her bra...

Reuters

Tue Apr 22, 2008.NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York woman filed suit against Limited Brands Inc Monday alleging the parent company of Victoria's Secret stole her idea for its Very Sexy 100-way strapless convertible bra.

Katerina Plew sued in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan, saying Victoria's Secret infringed her May 2004 patent and knew about the patent since at least April 2006.

"I came up with the idea when I was trying to find a bra to go with one of the two dresses that I could wear to my triplets' christening," said Plew, 38. "I went crazy looking for a bra where the straps wouldn't show and couldn't find anything."

Her triplets are now nine years old.

Plew, a single mother who works as a paralegal, said she researched her product visiting stores and looking through catalogues, and "that's when I came up with the idea."

She said she spent about $12,000 to patent the product and developed a prototype.

"When I realized how much it would cost to produce, I started contacting companies," she said.

Plew had an appointment to meet with a Victoria's Secret executive to whom she had mailed a copy of her patent, as well as a DVD with pictures of a model showing her bra, only to have the appointment abruptly canceled.

"A year later I walked into a Victoria's Secret and there was my bra up on the wall," she said.

The bra retails for between $50 and $56, according to the Victoria's Secret website. Plew is seeking unspecified damages.

Limited Brands said it does not comment on pending litigation.

(Reporting by Leslie Gevirtz; Editing by Brian Moss;)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Windows Vista just can’t catch a break...

ZDNet.com Posted by John Morris

April 21st, 2008. It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the operating system everyone loves to hate.

Whether Vista is, in fact, flopping or doing fine is a matter of debate. As Mary Jo Foley has pointed out in her blog, Vista may not be selling at twice the rate of Windows XP–Microsoft’s original goal–but if revenues in the client division are any indication, it is hardly a failure.

Nevertheless Vista has suffered from a steady stream of bad PR stemming from the “Vista Capable” logo debacle, botched Service Pack updates, non-existent Ultimate add-ons, and a parade of executive departures. And the bad news just keeps on coming.

Earlier this month, Dell began offering a Windows Vista “downgrade” option on business desktops and laptops. If you choose this option, your PC comes with Windows XP pre-installed and a DVD so that you can upgrade to Vista Business or Ultimate “on your schedule.” It’s a nice option, but coming more than a year after the release of Vista it hardly seems like a vote of confidence. (I have a feeling this option may be what’s behind the stories circulating today about Dell offering Windows XP Professional on business systems through 2012.)

At a Microsoft conference last week, CEO Steve Ballmer reportedly described Vista as a “work I progress” that still needed improvements in performance, compatibility and battery life. But, he said, it was too late to do much about the size of the thing. “We can’t just set the dial back, but I think people wish we could,” Ballmer said. “Vista is bigger than XP. It’s going to stay bigger than XP. We have to make sure it doesn’t get bigger still.”

That is why Microsoft announced that it will make Windows XP available for an additional two years, specifically for “ultra low-cost PCs” such as the Asus Eee PC. Many of these systems lack the muscle to run Vista. (The cut-off date for all other types of PCs is still set for June 30, 2008.) Internal e-mails show that Microsoft’s own analysts warned as early as 2006 that Vista’s hefty system requirements may be out of sync with PC market that was shifting to notebooks, including cheaper, less powerful models.

Still it seemed like Vista might finally catch a break last week when Forrester recommended making the upgrade in a report titled “Building the Business Case for Windows Vista.” Its rationale: There really is no alternative to Windows for businesses, Windows XP won’t be available for most PCs after June 30th, and the next version, Windows 7, will probably be late and no one really knows what it will include anyway.

Skype's new packages show VOIP becoming commodity

PC World By: Mikael Ricknäs (IDG News Service)

22/04/2008. Skype has announced a flat rate for international calls, further showing how difficult it is to make money from telephony, according to analysts.

Skype has announced a number of different packages for unlimited fixed international calls -- which if you read the fine print means 10,000 minutes per month -- at a flat monthly fee.

Call costs vary depending on the plan. For example, unlimited calls to landlines in the European country of your choice will cost AUD$4.95 per month whereas unlimited calls to landlines in 34 countries worldwide will cost AUD$11.95 per month. All up there 14 different plans for users.

"It goes to show that there's not really a market here," said Gartner analyst Steve Blood. "Every few months they have to continue to reduce prices to compete -- where's the revenue to pay back the US$2.6 billion?," asks Blood.

The US$2.6 billion is a reference to eBay's acquisition of Skype in 2005, putting more pressure on Skype to make money.

"Skype is using the spray gun approach, offering different consumer and enterprise packages to see what works," said Bernt Ostergaard, research director at Current Analysis.

Flat monthly fees for international calls are nothing new. Other Internet providers, especially in Europe, have been offering this for some time.

"Skype was having difficulty competing in France, where the market really is at rock-bottom prices. Nine dollars and ninety-five cents is good for the U.S. market, though," Blood said.

Cheap telephony isn't Skype's only problem. Both Blood and Ostergaard view Skype's proprietary environment as a problem. It runs the risk of being overtaken by more open networks, according to Ostergaard.

If Skype wants to survive it needs to adapt and open up, according to Blood.

"Accept you won't make any money from telephony, open up the environment and create a value proposition that your subscribers can connect to anyone through instant messaging, voice, video, e-mail across wired and wireless networks," Blood said.

But Skype is still upbeat about its future. It has been making a profit for five quarters, according to Wilhelm Lundborg, product manager, Skype for Business.

"This announcement is a natural progression for us, and flat rate is where it's at today. It's something our customers have been asking for," Lundborg said.

Cheaper telephony just makes Skype happy, according to Lundborg.

"We are leading the push, but there is still a willingness to pay for telephony", he said.

Opening up Skype is not on the agenda, but it wants to be on as many platforms as possible, according to Lundborg.

Skype subscriptions can be purchased at skype.com/go/subscriptions

Microsoft starts testing Office subscription

Technology Reuters

Mon Apr 21, 2008. SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) started testing a new way of selling its Office software suite on a subscription basis, packaging it with security software and free online services.

Microsoft on Friday launched a new test program code-named "Albany" that will allow consumers to download and install Office 2007, which includes Word processing and Excel spreadsheet, and then receive updates for a subscription instead of a more traditional one-time license fee.

Consumers will also receive Windows Live OneCare, a Web-based security software, and online applications including Windows Live Mail and Office Live Workspace.

Microsoft did not disclose how it plans to set the pricing for "Albany" or when it would be widely available.

The company faces competition from Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and a slew of start-ups including privately-held Zoho, which are offering applications comparable to Office but delivered through a Web browser for free or a monthly subscription.

Microsoft said this is not a complete overhaul of how it sells software.

"We are definitely not straying from our traditional software sales model," said Bryson Gordon, product manager for the project.

"There will always be a significant number of users for whom purchasing a perpetual license to the latest version of Office is still the best choice. "Albany" just gives customers more choice."

(Reporting by Daisuke Wakabayashi; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

A new Google Earth has landed...

Download.com

April 15, 2008 Greetings, Earthlings. There's big, round news in the world of software, and its name is Google Earth. Hot on the heels of major improvements to Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google Earth has had a few big announcements of its own. On Monday, KML, the markup language behind Google Earth, was approved as the international standard by the Open Geospatial Consortium.

The Google Earth Blog also announced a research project to simplify placing images into precise locations within Google Earth. Anyone who's tried this knows it requires some advanced photo-matching techniques, so we can all look forward to a more streamlined process.

But today comes the biggest news--a brave new Google Earth 4.3 that received a passel of new features, including some ported over from other Google products.

New features

One of the more exciting additions to Google Earth 4.3 is the capability to switch on day and night views. I'm thinking this is a good way to see the Eiffel Tower at sunrise and peek in on the countries that sleep when I'm awake. Also noteworthy is the news that Street View, which you may remember from Google Maps, will be woven into the version update, complete with the familiar photo viewer.

Speed is another theme with this new release. 3D buildings will render faster, and Google Earth accelerates the switch between Earth and Sky modes (this is a really neat feature; if you haven't checked it out, do.)

Where possible, images will be getting time stamps for easily seeing when they were created. Since so many photo sources populate Google Earth, not every image will bear a born-on date, but those that do will add another layer of information to this simulated world. Finally, Google is updating the look of the app's navigational controls to complement mouse and keyboard-scrolling. I don't know, maybe a Google-branded joystick and shooter games are the next evolution, though I highly doubt it.

What kinds of mash-ups and integrations would you like to see in the next iteration of Google Earth? Share your creativity in the comments.

In the meantime, making models with Google SketchUp is a good way to populate Google Earth, or your own personal version of it. If you prefer to create your own 3D landscapes, Bryce is the freeware application to beat. DAZ Studio, Bryce's sister software, offers the same extensive range of modeling freedom with human subjects in mind.

Fewer U.S. teens are getting pregnant: study

Health Reuters By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

Mon Apr 14, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fewer U.S. teens got pregnant in 2004 but more women in their 20s had out-of-wedlock pregnancies, according to new federal statistics released on Monday.

The latest look at U.S. pregnancy trends also shows more women are keeping their babies even if they are not married, with the exception of black women.

While 45 percent of all pregnancies are among women who are not married, the typical "unwed mother" is no longer a teenager but in fact an older woman, said Stephanie Ventura of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

"More of them are likely to have the baby rather than having an abortion compared to 1990," Ventura, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

The report found that nearly 38 percent of pregnancies in 2004 were to women under the age of 25, which is down from nearly 43 percent in 1990.

Just 12 percent of all pregnancies were to teenagers, compared to 15 percent in 1990.

Overall, there were almost 6.4 million pregnancies in 2004 among U.S. women of all ages, down 6 percent from 1990.
Out of these pregnancies, 4.11 million babies were born. There were 1.22 million abortions and 1.06 million stillbirths and miscarriages. That means 64 percent of all pregnancies resulted in a live birth.

In 2006, 4.3 million live babies were born but data is not yet complete on abortions.

Ventura said it takes years to gather this kind of data.

BETTER CONTRACEPTION

She said other studies have shed light on why pregnancy rates are going down among teens.

"There have been some changes in behavioral and contraceptive use among teenagers who are sexually active," Ventura said.

The report said pregnancy rates fell the most among sexually experienced teens, suggesting that better use of contraception may be responsible

"There is some evidence that contraceptive use (for example, at first intercourse and at most recent intercourse) was increasing among teenagers through 2002," they wrote.

Meanwhile, more women are delaying childbearing.

"Among older women, birth rates have been going up -- that's something we have been watching for 20 to 30 years," Ventura said.

According to the study, 77 percent of births to unmarried women in 2006 were to women 20 and older.

"I guess maybe it is changes in attitude and a willingness

to have children when you are not married and that kind of thing," Ventura said.

About 3.5 million pregnancies were among married women and 2.98 million were to unmarried women.

"There are large racial disparities in most of these measures," Ventura said.

About two-thirds of white and Hispanic women who got pregnant ended up having their babies while 48 percent of black women did. Thirty seven percent of pregnancies to black women were aborted.

There are two possible reasons for this, the report found.

"First, non-Hispanic black women were less likely to use a contraceptive method at first intercourse and currently than white women," the researchers wrote.

Second, blacks had double the rate of "contraceptive failure" compared to whites.

(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Bill Trott)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Stolen rhino horns could be deadly...

Reuters

Tue Apr 15, 2008 CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Two 19th century rhino horns stolen from a South African museum could be deadly if sold as a popular aphrodisiac because they are drenched in poison, a museum official said on Monday.

The "priceless" horns were snatched from a display at the historic mammal gallery in Cape Town on Saturday evening, said Jatti Bredekamp, chief executive of Iziko Museums.

"Unknowingly, the thieves have exposed themselves to more than the danger of arrest and prosecution," Bredekamp said in a statement.

"Before the mid-twentieth century, taxidermy mounts were prepared by being soaked in arsenic and preserved from insect infestation through regular applications of DDT, both highly toxic poisons that retain their toxicity over time," he said.

Bredekamp said the horns were deliberately targeted in a carefully planned robbery, and might be destined for Asia, where ground rhino horns are a prized aphrodisiac.

"This could have unforeseen consequences," he said.

Rhino populations have fallen dramatically over the last few decades as poaching decimated the animals across Africa.

Bredekamp said museums worldwide were being targeted by organized crime to help supply lucrative markets with a wide range of artifacts. After a previous robbery attempt, South African museum officials removed several other specimens of rhino horn from public display, he said.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Caroline Drees and Michael Winfrey)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Techworld.nl | Patch Tuesday: april wordt flink...

Techworld.nl Door: Michiel van Blommestein

Vrijdag 4 April 2008. Microsoft heeft voor Patch Tuesday komende dinsdag acht beveiligingsupdates aangekondigd.

VBScript, Microsoft Project, Internet Explorer, Office en Windows OS staan voor deze maand op de rol om geplakt te worden. Vijf van de updates hebben de stempel 'kritiek' meegekregen vanuit Redmond: een voor Office, twee voor Windows (OS en VBScript) en twee voor IE.

Vooral de Bulletin 2 update voor Windows trekt de aandacht. Deze geldt als kritisch voor alle versies van het besturingsysteem inclusief WS 2008, iets wat volgens Andrew Storms van nCircle Networks Security niet vaak meer voorkomt.

"De trend is dat de patches voor de nieuwe versies van Windows minder kritisch zijn dan de oudere varianten", zegt hij tegenover de nieuwsdienst van IDG. "Dat deze update kritisch is voor alle versies kan erop wijzen dat het een lek is in de kern van het besturingssysteem."

Een geplande update werd in februari op het laatste moment teruggetrokken. Vermoedelijk is de voor
aanstaande ronde geplande update voor VBScript het inhalertje daarvan.

He says he's a cop, but he isn't wearing a badge...

Reuters

Tue Apr 1, 2008 WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A policeman in a small New Zealand town did not let the fact that he was naked hold him back from chasing a thief trying to steal his car.

The off-duty constable was asleep at his home in Balclutha, in the lower South Island, when his wife woke him in the early hours, the New Zealand Press Association reported.

When the policeman realized the sound his wife heard was someone attempting to start the couple's car, he didn't let the fact he was stark naked hold him back, bursting out the door with nothing more than a torch.

The offender bolted with the officer in hot pursuit, NZPA reported, but was soon after picked up by a police patrol.

"The offender...startled by the sight of a naked constable with just a torch coming towards him, took off," local police were quoted as saying.

(Reporting by Adrian Bathgate; Editing by David Fox)

Children find woman's head on beach...

Reuters

Tue Apr 1, 2008 LONDON (Reuters) - Children playing on a Scottish beach discovered a woman's severed head in a plastic bag, police said on Tuesday.

The discovery, along with a hand, was made in the town of Arbroath, Tayside police said. "Officers attended at a stretch of foreshore near to South Street shortly after 10:30 a.m. after the grim discovery was made by children playing on the beach," a statement said.

"They found what appears to be the head of a woman concealed in a plastic bag. A hand has also been recovered from the beach."

No other details were immediately available.

(Reporting by Andrew Hough; Editing by Stephen Addison)