Andy Patrizio

A new Microsoft patent is causing a little heartburn in some quarters, but the patent for a so-called “super cookie,” may have come so long after Microsoft’s application that it’s been superceded by newer technologies. U.S. Patent 7,039,699, or ‘699, will provide developers with a permanent cookie that can contain bits, counters, dates and strings […]

Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 5 has been given the green light by the Java Community Process just ahead of the annual JavaOne conference, and Sun Microsystems is talking up its benefits in advance of the show. The Java Community Process Java EE/SE Executive Committee gave Java EE, formerly known as Java 2 Enterprise […]

Microsoft has spent the last week in a very rare circumstance: on financial defense. But that hasn’t stopped it from pressing on to new opportunities, including ramping up its MSN ad network. The latest moves from the world’s biggest software developer come after it reported slightly lower-than-expected earnings and gave weak guidance going forward. Microsoft […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. — One of the benefits of being the world’s largest software company is having the resources to do less time-sensitive research. At its silicon valley facility here, Microsoft researchers are free to dream up all manner of new computing ideas free of the pressures of shipping deadlines. The Microsoft Research campus, spread […]

IT research firm Gartner Group is predicting Microsoft will need several more months to test Windows Vista before it’s ready to be released. However, the formulation for that prediction is based on Microsoft’s past missteps, not specific problems in the ambitious and long-delayed operating system. In a report titled Windows Vista Unlikely to Ship Before […]

Microsoft has given its MapPoint software quite an overhaul for the 2006 edition, adding full GPS support and enabling the importation of data for doing regional analysis. The previous release of MapPoint was a desktop professional experience and somewhat similar to Microsoft’s Streets & Trips consumer mapping tool. This release is geared toward the mobile […]

Microsoft demonstrated a new method for newspaper content delivery via its Windows Vista technologies that promises a truer representation of the dead tree version. Bill Gates demonstrated a prototype viewer called Times Reader, developed in conjunction with the New York Times and built on the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) library. It allows for presenting newspaper […]

The market for handheld computers continued their decline, now reaching nine consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline, according to International Data Corp. According to IDC’s Worldwide Handheld Qview report, worldwide shipments of handheld devices totaled just 1.5 million units in the first quarter of 2006, down 22.3 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Adding […]

So, what’s a little piracy between friends? Despite the fact that the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) estimates 88 percent of all business software sold in China is pirated and $1.27 billion in sales was lost to piracy, Microsoft plans to buy US$3.2 billion in hardware over the next five years, plus another US$200 million […]

Microsoft’s fiscal third-quarter sales and earnings fell just short of Wall Street estimates, due to a combination of legal expenses and slightly lower sales. The fourth quarter looks to be more of the same. Microsoft’s earnings of 32 cents per share were a penny shy of estimates. Quarterly sales rose 13 percent over the same […]

WS-Policy has been submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for formal approval as a standard after its developers filled a hole in the spec that made companies reluctant to write to it. The move should open the floodgates for Web services security specifications that have been held up by the omission. WS-Policy was […]

Assuming you’re safe from viruses and other malware just because you are on a non-Windows platform is a big mistake, as the number of Linux-based malware doubled in 2005, and Mac OS X is next to get hit, according to a report from Kaspersky Labs. In a report titled “2005: *nix Malware Evolution,” the Russian […]