Tag Archives | Microsoft

Microsoft Kills One Security Suite, Launches Another

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 18, 2008 at 11:08 pm

Microsoft announced today that it’s working on a new security suite code-named “Morro.” Um, doesn’t doesn’t the company already have a security suite offering–Windows Live OneCare? Yup, but part of today’s announcement is that it’s planning to discontinue OneCare, which had only been around since May, 2006, on June 30th, 2009. And while OneCare costs $50 a year for up to three computers, Morro will be free.

Why the switch in strategy? Microsoft says that it’s making Morro a mean, lean product that won’t be too piggy when it comes to system resources, and Senior Director of Product Management Amy Barzdukas is quoted in the release as saying “This new, no-cost offering will give us the ability to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the growth of malware.”

Which doesn’t really explain why Morro apparently won’t simply be a new version of OneCare, or why free and fee versions can’t coexist. You’ve got to think that it’s in part a confession that OneCare hasn’t been terribly successful in the market place against its competition from McAfee, Symantec and others.

Over at CNET, Ina Fried says that the prospect of a freebie security suite from Microsoft “puts rivals such as McAfee and Symantec in a tough position.” I’m not so sure. The free Windows Defender anti-spyware utility that hails from Redmond doesn’t seem to have inflicted grave competitive damage on third-party security companies. Nor has the firewall that’s built into Windows Vista.

I have no data whatsoever to support this theory, but I sometimes wonder if Microsoft’s reputation for building insecure software lessens the likelihood that its customers will trust the security software it develops. Even if the worst days of Windows security nightmares are behind us, that doesn’t leave anyone with the perception that the name “Microsoft” is synonymous with “ironclad security.”

Anyhow, we don’t know anything about Morro yet other than what little Microsoft revealed today, but I hope it’s good and I’m glad it’s on its way. I don’t think consumers should have to pay to get some minimal level of PC security. And thanks to scourges such as botnets, unprotected PC users put not only themselves at risks but others too. If all Morrow does is meaningfully nudge down the percentage of computers in the world that are vulnerable to attack, it may do more for the world than OneCare ever did.

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Microsoft Cutting Zune Prices, Attempting to Stay Relevant?

Posted by Ed Oswald on November 18, 2008 at 2:26 pm

CNET’s Ina Fried has the details on an announcement to come from Microsoft on Wednesday which would cut prices of its Zune players by as much as 25 percent. While Ms. Fried seems to infer that has to do with tougher economic conditions — that very well may be — lets face it: Microsoft is becoming increasingly irrelevant in the digital music space.

After much chest-thumping surrounding the release of its flash-based players (the sector of the market where an overwhelming majority of players are sold), there still is no evidence that Redmond is gaining any traction with consumers.

Apple still is king, and Microsoft is just an also ran. It’s even fallen behind other makers such as SanDisk, one of the partners it left out in the cold when it all but abandoned its PlaysForSure technology last year. Here’s the lowdown:

The price cuts only affect the flash line and are as follows:

4GB drops from $129 to $99;
8GB drops from $149 to $139 ($10 cheaper than the Nano);
and the 16GB from $199 to $179 ($20 cheaper than the Nano).

A few Microsoft produced accessories would also see some type of price reduction, although details were not released. The cuts would be accompanied by a new ad campaign which launched on Monday. I guess we’ll see if this change moves the needle any.

I’ll go out on a limb and say it won’t.

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The “Windows Vista Capable” Files: How Did Microsoft Not Avoid This Train Wreck?

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 18, 2008 at 7:27 am

vistacapable If you compiled a list of Things Microsoft Utterly Botched With the Windows Vista Launch, it would be interminable. The top five would surely include its Windows Vista Capable program, which let manufacturers slap a sticker which seemed to tout Vista compatability on basic PCs which weren’t even capable of running the Aero interface, the upgrade’s signature feature. By doing so, it helped PC companies move some boxes during the months before Vista finally shipped. But it was a Faustian move that guaranteed that a lot of new PC buyers would be disgruntled with Vista from the moment they installed it.

It was also no shocker that Windows Vista Capable spurred a class action lawsuit against Microsoft on behalf of people who bought computers that bore the sticker. I’m instinctively inclined to be skeptical about class action suits, but Microsoft brought this one on itself, as surely as Wile E. Coyote deserves to be crushed by a boulder when he catapults it into the air. And the documents that are being released as a result make for fascinating reading.

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Microsoft Opens a One-Stop Shop for Its Stuff

Posted by David Worthington on November 14, 2008 at 1:14 pm

It may lack the brick, mortar and experiential flare of the Apple Store, but Microsoft has opened its own one stop shop on the Web. The Microsoft Store is stocked with Microsoft software and hardware products ranging from games, Visual Studio, and Windows to keyboards; it lacks some business applications that are typically purchased under volume license agreements.

The company is targeting netbook PC owners that lack optical drives for installing software, senior program manager Trevin Chow wrote on his blog. Software may be re-downloaded as long as a product is in the mainstream support stage of its life cycle, and product keys are stored for the customer on the Web.

However, there is no mechanism in place to prevent customers from backing up their purchases on physical media, he noted.

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Windows Live: It’s a Social Network! It Isn’t a Social Network!

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 12, 2008 at 11:40 pm

What is Microsoft’s Windows Live? It’s always been a surprisingly tough question to answer in a coherent sentence or two. Tonight, Microsoft took the wraps off its next version of Windows Live, and it’s still difficult to pin it down, in part because it just involves so much stuff, in both service and software form: instant messaging, e-mail, calendaring, photo sharing and editing, video editing, blogging, Web storage, file syncing, and more. But one thing about the new Windows Live is clear: It’s…interesting.

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Gears of War 2: A Sterling Sequel for Xbox

Posted by Jared Newman on November 11, 2008 at 11:02 pm

If video games are the modern-day incarnation of sci-fi and action films, Gears of War 2 is a true blockbuster. Two Christmases ago, Gears of War became the de facto Xbox 360 system seller when Halo 3 didn’t pan out for a holiday launch. This year, pre-orders for the sequel surpassed those for the original, making Gears of War 2 the one of the biggest video game releases of the season.

Unlike a movie, which delivers a two-hour adrenaline rush, a white-knuckle action game is obligated to stay thrilling through 10 or 15 hours of play. With a sequel comes the added challenge of avoiding rehashes and finding new sources of “wow.” Gears of War 2, predictably, has its saggy spots, but it genuinely tries to keep you entertained throughout.

You play Marcus Fenix, a futuristic soldier defined by his unrealistically grizzled voice and unwavering support for his army’s mission. The plot picks up several months after the first game’s conclusion, when the humans of Sera appeared to blow up the underground home of the oppressive Locust race. Naturally, this only riled the enemy, and Gears of War 2 finds the humans on the ropes but staging a desperate offensive.

Gears of War 2, like the last game, has a way of marginalizing its plot. The characters embark on hours-long missions based on what seems like the slightest whim or scrap of intel. By the game’s conclusion, you might still wonder what exactly you’re doing besides shooting things, but this is likely the byproduct of a story that doesn’t linger long before yielding to the action. Like the best Stallone or Schwarzenegger flick, the plot is secondary to the spectacle of guns and gore.

The hallmark of Gears of War is its use of cover. With one button press, Fenix clings to any nearby flat surface, allowing him to hide from walls of enemy gunfire. One trigger button on the Xbox 360 controller makes him pop out of cover to take aim, and the other trigger, obviously, shoots.

The result is a game of territories, in which you’re always scrambling for the best vantage point against your enemies. Fenix’s arsenal hasn’t changed much since the last game, combining standard weapons—rifle, pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle and rocket launcher—with more exotic selections, such as an exploding crossbow and a satellite-guided laser beam. In close quarters, you can slap a grenade on your opponent’s back or slice him in half with a bayonet-mounted chainsaw. The one new feature of combat allows players grab downed foes by the neck and use them as “meat shields.” Parents, take note of the “M for Mature” rating.

As a foundation, Gears’ duck-and-cover action is solid. But even the best game mechanics grate after 12 hours of play. Fortunately, the game is littered with special sequences that defy the series’ famed shootouts. You’ll ride on various vehicles and living creatures, explore the innards of a subway-sized monster, uncover a secret laboratory guarded by long-forgotten security drones and do battle with a beast that strangely resembles the Predator. Indeed, there are times where you’ll even miss blasting Locust grunts.

As for those typical shootouts, they do drag in some spots. The first few chapters in particular seem uninspired, causing the game to actually pick up speed toward the middle acts. The same is true with some later chapters, in which you’ll shoot your way through an unusually lengthy Locust stronghold.

It makes you wonder whether a shorter campaign would better serve Gears of War 2’s many other diversions. Online multiplayer isn’t much different this time around, but it’s just as addictive, with teams of five tangling in deathmatch or new objective games. A “horde” mode offers instant action, pitting you against waves of Locust. And you can always bring a friend, online or at home, into the campaign mode, picking up from where you left off on your own. We’ve previously lamented the death of split-screen multiplayer, but Gears of War 2 remains a shining example of how it can still be done. Your best kills and the sweetest action sequences are even better when shared with someone else.

I approached this game with skepticism. Sequels have scorned me before, promising the world but delivering more of the same. In a sense, Gears of War 2 can’t avoid that trap. Despite all the fun I had, the game didn’t floor me like the original. True, it has shinier graphics and epic environments, but neither awakened me to the next console generation in the way the first game did.

But, admittedly, that’s a pitfall in any sequel. At least this one’s a winner.

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The Best and Worst Windows Versions of All Time

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 10, 2008 at 1:53 am

A week ago, I listed the major version of Windows that Microsoft has released over the past 23 years, summarizing their pros and cons and asking the Technologizer community to vote on the best and worst editions ever. The polls are now closed. And we have a winner–and a loser. And a couple of runners-up.

None of them is exactly a shocker, but it was still a useful reality check. After the jump, a full report.

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I’m a PC, and I’m Kind of Obnoxious. And/or Creepy.

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 7, 2008 at 7:29 pm

I’m not as good about taking public transportation around San Francisco as I should be, but for the past three days I’ve been attending the Web 2.0 Summit conference at the Palace hotel, which is right upstairs from the Montgomery St. subway stop. So I’ve been riding to and fro each day, and spending time in the station. Which, at the moment, has devoted every single bit of its advertising real-estate to ads in Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” series, part of its “Life Without Walls” campaign for Windows.

If you’ll recall the TV component of the campaign, you may remember that the folks in it were a pretty wholesome bunch. Inspiring, even: an astronaut, a South African teacher and her students, a farmer, an underwater explorer, and several brainy geek types (including Bill Gates himself). They made the PC seem like a force for good.

Strangely enough, the “I’m a PC” folk in the subway ads are a distinctly different bunch. Most of them scowl. They threaten. They’re a little too into themselves. I don’t want to spend any time with most of them than I have to. (I apologize if I’m overthinking all this, but I’ve spent a lot of time staring at them while waiting for trains.)

After the jump, a gallery of Microsoft’s mass-transit spokespeople. (My apologies for the quality of the photography–subways aren’t great places to take snapshots, especially when you’re worried that a transit cop might assume you’re a terrorist.)

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Windows 7. Coming for Holiday 2009 Season. Probably.

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 7, 2008 at 8:52 am

Over at CNET News, Ina Fried is reporting that Microsoft is pretty much admitting that it intends to ship Windows 7 in time for it to land on PCs that are available for next year’s holiday season. Even without that new information, simple logic would tend to lead to that conclusion. The OS still needs enough polishing that it’s hard to imagine it shipping that much before the holidays, and Microsoft doesn’t want to repeat the slippage that led to Windows Vista shipping at the worst possible time: right after the holiday PC-buying rush.

(That delay gave Vista bad karma from the get-go: Microsoft rushed the release, and therefore shipped an OS before hardware and software companies were ready with compatible drivers and applications. Which resulted in a crummy experience for many early Vista buyers. Given that Microsoft had missed the holidays anyhow, it surely would have been wiser to delay Vista a few months further in order to get the launch right.)

Of course, almost 25 years of Windows releases proves that the fact that Microsoft intends to ship the OS on a certain schedule doesn’t mean it’ll hit it. But W7 is a relatively simple update from a technical standpoint, and it’s fairly far along already–and new Windows chief Steve Sinofsky has a better record than your average Microsoft exec for getting things done on time. So until there’s evidence that suggests otherwise, I’m assuming that the the first Windows 7 PCs will show up in stores roughly one year from now.

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Please, PC Makers: Don’t Screw Up Windows 7

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 6, 2008 at 5:37 pm

For the past eleven days or so, I’ve spent a meaningful amount of my computing day in Windows 7. It’s very much a rough draft of the operating system that will eventually ship: It’s missing major features and a meaningful percentage of the apps I’ve tried to use wouldn’t even install. Even so, I’ve been enjoying the experience. The preview version boots up quickly. It’s surprisingly stable. Best of all, it’s the most mellow and dignified Windows environment I’ve used in a long time, thanks to its minimization of pushy notifications and new tools for managing the System Tray and other venerable sources of Windows annoyances.

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