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Silverlight 2 Beta 1 arrived in March, Beta 2 was then released in June, and while many expected the final version late this summer, Microsoft instead sent out a slightly newer build in July. The official response about the arrival of the final Silverlight 2 has been "when it's ready," but late last month Silverlight 2 RC0 was released to help developers transition to the final Silverlight 2 code.
Microsoft still hasn't given an official date for the final release, but according to a press release, Scott Guthrie, the corporate vice president of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division, says that the company "will make a significant announcement about Microsoft Silverlight" on Monday, October 13 at 9AM PDT.
 Full story: One Microsoft Way
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YouTube is getting its Hulu on. The Google-owned video site has partnered with CBS to air full-length TV shows, starting today. CBS will sell pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll ads and YouTube will get a cut of the revenue. For now a select group of old and new shows will appear, including "MacGyver," "Star Trek" and the original "Beverly Hills 90210," the season premieres of Showtime's "Dexter" and "Californication," and current episodes of "The Young and the Restless."
Full story: Advertising Age
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The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned.
It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution's highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank's network for nearly a month in June and July.
In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month.
Full story: Fox News
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The announcement of the collaboration came back in July, and now Facebook has finished integrating Live Search into its web site, at least for those visiting from the US. This is, of course, a big deal for Microsoft; Facebook is the biggest social network in the world and is quickly catching up to MySpace in the US. When Microsoft beat out Google exactly a year ago for a $240 million investment in the social networking site, it was obvious that the software giant had pushed at the right moment. Microsoft then began selling ads for Facebook outside of the US and became the site's exclusive ad provider in the country. This recent search integration is a great accomplishment for the Live Search team, but overall, it's not that huge for Microsoft.
Full story: One Microsoft Way
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As has been copiously reported here and all over, Yahoo and AOL have been engaged in never-ending talks about a possible deal to merge their flagging Internet businesses. Now, sources tell me, the circle of executives at both companies interfacing with each other has been widened, for purposes of due diligence. That includes Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who is indeed in New York this week–where AOL parent, Time Warner, is located–to meet once again with its CEO, Jeff Bewkes, and see if they can actually complete the merger. Now, all this frantic activity does not mean a deal will necessarily be struck.
Full story: BoomTown
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Do you develop or publish web-based games? If so, you're contributing to a growing trend - according to comScore, over 25% of Internet users play online games every week, which is over 200 million users worldwide. As a beta user of AdSense for Games, you can display video ads, image ads, or text ads within your online games to earn revenue. You'll be able to show these ads in placements you define, such as interstitial frames before a game, after a level change, or when a game is over. Members of our AdWords team will sell your in-game ad placements directly to top brand advertisers, and you'll also see contextually targeted text and image ads based on content and demographic information. In addition, you'll be able to control the ads you see on your pages using our filtering options.
Full story: Google AdSense Blog
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RIM's a little late to the touchscreen party, but comes bearing goodies. The BlackBerry Storm is a beast of a phone in more ways than one. Fronted by a meaty, high-resolution touchscreen with an innovative clicking mechanism, the phone is easily the prettiest by RIM to date. There's a brushed metal back, a beautiful new OS interface, and enough radios to give your grandkids cancer (EV-DO Rev. A, quad-band GSM, Europe-friendly HSPA, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, though sadly no WiFi). But the real test of a phone is usability, not flash. Check out our impressions after the break.
Full story: Engadget
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Over at JKOnTheRun, James Kendrick uncovers a fascinating statistic originally published in Laptop Magazine: Andy Tung, Director of US Sales for MSI … told Laptop that their experience shows that netbooks with Linux are returned four times more often than those with Windows XP. This would indicate what others have already noted, many consumers pick up the cheaper systems and then realize that the Linux system is not what they are used to so they return it.
And this is for a product that is targeted at early adopters who are far more technically sophisticated than average; the MSI Wind is a tiny, dirt-cheap portable PC that has been selling like gangbusters to the digital elite and gadget freaks since its launch in June. I would assume that this audience would be more forgiving of rough edges and usability gotchas than more mainstream PC buyers. This comment by MSI’s Andy Tung from the original interview highlights the uphill struggle that PC makers have when dealing with Linux:
Our internal research has shown that … the main cause [of the higher return rates for Linux-based machines] is Linux. People would love to pay $299 or $399 but they don’t know what they get until they open the box. They start playing around with Linux and start realizing that it’s not what they are used to. They don’t want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store.
 News source: ZDNet Blogs
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| Last comment was by MicroNix
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Steve Ballmer claims he wasn't involved in the "operational decisions" involving Microsoft's controversial Vista Capable scheme. The software giant is currently facing a class action in the US over claims that the Vista Capable sticker scheme misled people into buying machines that were only able to run the stripped-down version of the OS, Vista Home Basic. Plaintiffs in the case want Ballmer to give evidence, but in a document filed to the court, Ballmer denies all knowledge of the intricacies of the scheme.
"I was not involved in any of the operational decisions about the Windows Vista Capable program," Ballmer claims in the document acquired by the Seattle Post Intelligencer. "I was not involved in establishing the requirements computers must satisfy to qualify for the Windows Vista Capable program.
Full story: PC Pro
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| Last comment was by enuffsaid
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In April, Microsoft extended the life of Windows XP Home by two years for budget laptops. In June, the software giant did the same for ULCPCs as its partners continued to report strong demand. Now Microsoft is making another extension, this one affecting a much less specific market; the software giant has decided to halt XP Professional media shipments to major computer makers (system builders are not included) not on January 31, 2009, but instead on July 31. An e-mail from a Microsoft spokesperson explains the reasoning for the change:
"As more customers make the move to Windows Vista, we want to make sure that they are making that transition with confidence and that it is as smooth as possible. Providing downgrade media for a few more months is part of that commitment."
Full story: One Microsoft Way
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| Last comment was by cannie
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Last week, Microsoft unveiled its latest attack against Google's search empire: SearchPerks!, a program that rewards users with tickets for searching that can then later be redeemed for prizes. The idea has potential, but the software giant stumbled when it came to the execution. Redmond likely decided to launch SearchPerks! based on its impression of how well Live Search Cashback, which went live in May, was doing. The cashback program lets searchers use Live Search to find the cheapest store that a product is being offered at, and then also receive a portion of the purchase price back from Microsoft (based on a percentage determined by the retailer). The results for Live Search Cashback weren't so bad a month in, and according to Hitwise Intelligence, new data shows the service is now starting to pick up.
Full story: Ars Technica
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U.S. stocks tumbled, driving the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its biggest intraday drop since October 1987, after bank bailouts in Europe widened and commodities producers slid on concern global growth is slowing.
Equities fell worldwide, erasing about $2.5 trillion in market value. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lost more than 8.2 percent after the German government led a bailout of Hypo Real Estate Holding AG and BNP Paribas SA bought parts of Fortis, Belgium's largest financial-services company. ConocoPhillips and Chevron Corp. declined more than 7 percent as oil traded below $90 a barrel, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Energy Index to a two-year low.
Full story: Bloomberg
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Yahoo's price target was snipped to $21 a share from $24 on Monday by a Wall Street analyst, following the Internet search pioneer's confirmation that it is delaying its controversial search-advertising deal with Google. Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay noted in a research note that despite reports that Yahoo is in talks with Time Warner, the probability of a deal between the media conglomerate's struggling AOL unit and Yahoo remains relatively low, in part due to antitrust regulators' concerns about the proposed Yahoo-Google deal.
Full story: News.com
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| Last comment was by crahak
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Zune + Windows Mobile rumors were being whispered around quite forcefully earlier this year, and now we know why. In February, Mel Sampat asked the following question on the Windows Mobile Team Blog: "What are some ways the Zune player and a Windows Mobile device can work better together?" In April, blogger Chris Lanier reported that we would be hearing details of a "Zune integrated with a phone later this year." Apparently, it's late enough in 2008. In an interview with CIO, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that the Zune software will be coming to Windows Mobile.
"At the end of the day, one of the big trends is that all content is going digital. And if we don't have the software and services that are useful, helpful and valuable for the consumption of music and video, we are sort of not really a player," Ballmer told CIO. "Now, we built the Zune hardware with the Zune software—and what you'll see more and more over time is that the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices, etc."
Full story: Ars Technica
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Apple TV owners also got some love after last night's iTunes 8.0.1 update—in fact, I would say that the Apple TV got more love than iTunes this time around. Apple TV 2.2 has been unleashed, and it adds a number of new features that some Apple TV users have been waiting for since... well, the Apple TV's release.
According to an update page detailing the changes of the release (which is rather unlike Apple, we must say), Apple TV 2.2 adds some basic playlist functionality like Genius playlist and On-the-Go playlist creation. But forget making music playlists from your TV. More importantly, you can now create playlists with music videos in iTunes, playing them continuously on the Apple TV! Those who like to entertain guests in the same room as the TV knows that music videos would be way more entertaining than just a stupid music playlist, right? I have at least one friend who is going to die of excitement once he sees that one on the list.
Full story: Infinite Loop
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