Technology News

Microsoft Corp. today announced that HDR Inc., a leading architectural, engineering and consulting firm, has implemented an enterprisewide collaboration portal built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to support its growth and commitment to client service.

With more than 7,500 professionals in more than 160 locations worldwide, HDR relies on the new portal to deliver an efficient and easy-to-use collaboration environment with advanced security features for its people, intellectual property and client relationships. The Omaha, Neb.-based HDR has grown substantially over the past decade. With Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, the firm is able to provide its expanding work force with quick, authorized access to documents regardless of where they are stored and enable real-time communication and collaboration across departments, disciplines and geographic locations.

“As we grow, we’re acquiring other companies and blending different Web sites and locations. We’re also addressing cultural and physical differences between teams and organizations,” said Angelo Privetera, vice president and chief information officer, HDR. “We needed an integrated collaboration solution to achieve our goal of building one great, sustainable company. With its real-time capabilities and business data search functionality, Office SharePoint Server 2007 enables us to improve work sharing for our geographically dispersed teams and puts the power back into the hands of individuals.”

“More than ever, professional service firms like HDR are using innovative tools to help their employees deliver their very best on each client engagement,” said Brian D. Zeve, managing director, U.S. Professional Services Group, Microsoft. “Using SharePoint Server as a collaborative enterprise portal, HDR is empowering its professionals to foster teamwork, share knowledge, and access information and data so everyone can do their jobs with greater efficiency, independence, speed and risk control.”

HDR has realized significant outcomes following a four-month implementation:
• Empowered mobile information work force. HDR workers, who frequently manage multiple projects in multiple worldwide locations, can access essential design and project information at any time from anywhere they are online to easily collaborate.

• Increased competitive advantage. Workers responding to requests for proposals (RFPs) can do so more quickly and with the knowledge that the information is current, thus eliminating potential for rework.

• Achieved cost savings. Building on its SharePoint success, HDR expanded its work-sharing capabilities by investing in the Microsoft Enterprise Client Access License (CAL) Suite for business intelligence, collaboration, content management and security, under a single license. CAL has saved HDR about 60 percent of the cost of acquiring individual product licenses and has reduced integration costs, eased license management and limited third-party software.

• Preserved existing investments. With the easy integration capabilities of SharePoint, HDR was able to preserve its existing investments in computer-aided design (CAD) and project management software. HDR will be integrating its Bentley ProjectWise CAD collaboration system with the portal so that project teams can access the new search and indexing, through Bentley’s Web Parts, in SharePoint Server 2007 at the design and review stages.

“We have made it easier to share files, find information and access useful materials with fewer clicks from virtually anywhere in the world, while enhancing security and performance,” Privetera said. “By streamlining the flow of information between people, systems and processes, we have transformed the way that people use information to drive informed, creative decision-making.”

In addition to Office SharePoint Server 2007, HDR uses a number of additional Microsoft technologies in its operations, including Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition; Microsoft Office Professional 2007; and Microsoft Windows Rights Management Services. HDR also plans to implement Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Enterprise Edition, to take advantage of the unified messaging functionality that combines voice mail, e-mail, faxes and calendaring in the same inbox

New licensing, expanded product support policies and a worldwide series of events from Microsoft Corp. help business customers create more dynamic datacenters and enterprise IT systems with virtualization software. Beginning Sept. 1, 2008, customers will be able to move any of 41 Microsoft server applications between servers within a server farm as often as necessary without paying additional licensing fees, and they can take advantage of expanded specialized technical support.

“Businesses are taking steps to make their IT operations more dynamic and are delving into virtualization as a cornerstone strategy,” said Zane Adam, senior director of integrated virtualization in the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. “Microsoft recognizes this and is innovating its licensing policies, product support and a wide range of IT solutions to help customers get virtual now.”

To highlight the recent innovations in virtualization, Microsoft also will begin a worldwide series of “Get Virtual Now” events this month that will showcase Microsoft virtualization products and partner solutions, reaching more than 250,000 IT professionals.

New Licensing Flexibility - Microsoft is updating its software licensing terms for 41 server applications, including Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise edition, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Standard and Enterprise editions, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Enterprise and Professional editions, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Microsoft System Center products. With the new terms, the company is waiving its previous 90-day reassignment rule, allowing customers to reassign licenses from one server to another within a server farm as frequently as needed. For many customers, the change will reduce the number of licenses they need to support their IT systems, increase agility, and simplify the tracking of application instances or processors because customers now can count licenses by server farm instead of by server.

“IDC research is finding that the use of server virtualization is moving past the early adopter stage and is quickly becoming a mainstream solution,” said Al Gillen, research vice president for system software at IDC. “As IT professionals update their standard server images for new installations, they are increasingly integrating virtualization to simplify deployments, to increase the system flexibility, boost usage rates and increase portability of the applications. With this latest update to its licensing rules, Microsoft is knocking down barriers to virtualized deployments, which should help further accelerate the adoption rates.”

Expanded Technical Support - Microsoft has updated its technical support policy for 31 server applications so that customers can receive technical support when deploying those applications on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server or any other third-party validated virtualization platform. Now customers can get the same level of product support in a virtualized environment that they are accustomed to with nonvirtual environments. More information is available at http://support.microsoft.com.

To enable this support policy, Microsoft launched the Server Virtualization Validation Program in June 2008. The program is open to any software vendor to test and validate its virtualization software to run Windows Server 2008 and previous versions of Windows Server. To date, Cisco Systems Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., Novell Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Virtual Iron Software Inc. are participating in the program.

“Technical support of virtualized images is an industrywide challenge,” said Roger Levy, senior vice president and general manager of open platform solutions at Novell. “Novell and Microsoft continue to collaborate to optimize bidirectional virtualization between Windows Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise with Xen. Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program provides customers with additional peace of mind when they run Windows as a guest in a validated environment such as SUSE Linux Enterprise.”

Microsoft knows that Windows Vista was a huge letdown for them, which is why the software giant has been working hard on a new operating system. Windows 7 is hoped to be a huge leap forward over Vista, but what Microsoft has in store for the new OS is anyone’s guess.

Many believe that Windows 7 will be with us in 18-months, that is a long time of but we should see a preview of the new OS in October. We should learn a little more about Windows 7 from two major conferences that are on the horizon.

The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) will give us a chance to see the new operating system in the flesh.

What we will get to see is anyone’s guess; it could be a technical build of a beta version or something different. One thing is certain it should be far better than Windows Vista.

What we do know so far is that Windows 7 will have touchscreen technology; this is the kind of technology that users have been crying out for. October seems like such a long way off, I will have plenty of sleepless nights until then.

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Microsoft Corp. today announced the worldwide availability of Microsoft Services Premier Ultimate, a new addition to the Microsoft Services Premier Support family. Premier Ultimate offers a new level of collaboration to select customers who have made the conscious decision to direct their technology investments toward a proactive support strategy focused on attaining IT health.

For a fixed price, Premier Ultimate combines a “road map to IT health” — leveraging Microsoft’s expertise through pre-agreed proactive services — with unlimited* problem resolution support.

“IDC recommends that vendors provide preventive and proactive support services to help customers minimize downtime and to ensure consistent availability of their business-critical processes,” said Elaina Stergiades, senior research analyst, IDC. “Microsoft is doing just that with Premier Ultimate, highlighting the industry shift toward deeper, more collaborative support relationships with customers.”

Premier Ultimate builds on the current Premier Support family of offerings by combining unlimited* problem resolution support with current Premier features such as proactive IT health assessments, account management (both on-site and dedicated) and on-site support, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Customers told us they wanted risk reduction, support planning simplification and easy administration in an increasingly complex IT environment,” said Luca Barone, general manager, Support and Health Offerings for Microsoft Services. “By adding Premier Ultimate to our existing Premier Support portfolio, we are investing alongside our customers to plot an individualized road map to a mature and healthy IT infrastructure, while sharing the risks and responsibilities of optimizing their software investments.”

More information about Microsoft Premier Support is available at here.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is still a very popular games console but as it ages its becoming clear that the next-generation games console has some major weaknesses compared to the Sony Playstation 3.

When we look closer at Microsoft’s strategy for the Xbox 360 its clear that this needs addressing if the 360 is to get its mojo back. The Sony PS3 has been consistently been chipping away at the 360’s lead in both hardware and software sales in the US.

The PS3 looked like it had no chance when it launched thanks to the Xbox 360 having a hold on the next-gen gamer with better games, and a better online strategy. Microsoft also cornered much of the gaming market by taking some of the largest franchises.

The Xbox 360 has Devil May Cry, Grand Theft Auto, and now Final Fantasy! But the PlayStation 3 still has these games, and with Microsoft backing the wrong optical format (HD-DVD), how many discs will Fantasy XIII take up when it hits the Xbox 360?

Microsoft has some amazing racing franchises, but none of these compare to the power that Gran Turismo brings to the Playstation 3. Halo makes the 360 a system-seller, but MGS4 is still a PS3 exclusive. Gears of War 2 is an amazing game, but Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 look just as good in terms of online play, scale, and graphics.

Playstation’s Home could be the secret weapon that gives the PS3 an edge that it needs in online play. LittleBigPlanet is another point for the PS3, and its one of the most anticipated casual games ever.

If you live in the United States, then you will tend to focus on U.S. gaming sales but remember that video games are an international business. Microsoft has been ruling the U.S. gaming market, but is struggling in other markets. The Sony PS3 does good business in Europe and Japan, how can Microsoft improve in these markets?

We have seen sales spikes for the 360 in Japan and Europe, but this is when there is a launch of big-name titles, otherwise the 360 fails to impress. Microsoft depends on US sales.

Microsoft has one system that does well in one market. The 360 simply have to step it up outside of the United States.

Now Microsoft may have fixed the Red Ring of Death problem, but most gamers still do not trust the hardware. You hear about this in game stores, forums and even the casual gamer. Most gamers have had a 360 go back or know someone that has.

The hard drive of the PS3 is getting larger with each new system, and the real advantage is that anyone can swap out his or her drive for a larger one. Sony even suggests this, and supports the PS3 owner with DIY tutorials on the upgrade. Microsoft can’t begin to match this and with game downloads an increasing factor, more storage is needed.

While Xbox Live is better than Sony’s PSN, how much better is the question. The fact that Sony’s online offerings are free makes a big difference to many gamers. Why should you pay for online pay when you can get it free on the PS3?

Microsoft has no competition for the PSP-PS3 connection; consumers want to own both the Playstation 3 and Sony PSP thanks to so much cool functionality. You get a great media experience. Video sales and rentals work seamlessly with the PSP, and the Blu-ray drive adds more multimedia functions to create an amazing package.

How should Microsoft fix these issues? The problems are there and things are not getting better for Microsoft. The fact is, competition is much stronger now and this is a great thing for gamers.

Source: Read

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts and Microsoft Corp. today introduced an entirely new hotel guest experience with its debut of Microsoft Surface, Microsoft’s first commercially available surface computer. Featuring easy-to-use technology and a natural way of accessing information, Surface units will be placed in the lobbies of select Sheraton hotels in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. Microsoft Surface breaks down the traditional barriers between people and technology, providing simple and instant access to information and entertainment. Sheraton will be the first hotel to offer Microsoft Surface, creating a new Sheraton brand experience that will bring interaction, connectivity and a social setting to the lobby, providing guests with an entirely new way to explore local tourist highlights and enhance their hotel stay.

Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch display in a tablelike form factor that several guests can use simultaneously. The intuitive user interface works without a traditional mouse or keyboard, allowing people to interact with content and information in a more natural and familiar way, by using their hands and gestures. Sheraton will unveil Surface today at five hotels: Sheraton Boston Hotel, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Airport Hotel and Sheraton Seattle Hotel.

With each unit, Sheraton is offering a customized version of the Microsoft Surface developed suite of applications to provide entertainment and information about local attractions. Surface, and these unique applications, are designed to serve the needs of the brand’s core guests who are social individuals seeking to share the travel experience with one another. The placement of the Surface units in Sheraton lobbies enables guests to leverage and experience the offerings in a social way. Three highlighted applications are the following:

CityTips®. At the guests’ fingertips are the Surface 360-degree satellite maps and tools to search for local restaurants and bars, entertainment, recreation, shopping, transportation and services, such as banks and pharmacies. Guests can discover all a city has to offer by simply moving their hands across Surface.

Sounds of Sheraton. Microsoft Surface also serves as a lobby-based digital jukebox, enabling guests to create personal music playlists by choosing selections from Sheraton’s exclusive offering of Sony BMG artists, including John Legend, Kenny Chesney and Lauryn Hill.

Sheraton Snapshots. Guests can explore Sheraton hotels and resorts throughout the world by simply browsing the Surface photo library of Sheraton resorts and hotel properties to help them plan for future business or leisure travel.

“Sheraton is redefining the hospitality experience by offering our guests technology that will allow them to interact with each other and our hotel in a revolutionary way,” said Hoyt H. Harper II, senior vice president for Sheraton. “We are proud to partner with Microsoft to offer the groundbreaking Microsoft Surface product, which will enable our guests to stay informed, connected and entertained while traveling.”

“We’re excited to be working with Sheraton in its efforts to feature innovation and redefine the guest experience in its hotel properties,” said Pete Thompson, general manager, Microsoft Surface. “Surface takes a common activity, such as looking up information about a local city, and transforms it into an intuitive and social way for hotel guests to plan their visit. We believe this is just the beginning of how Surface will completely change the hotel guest experience.”

Sheraton Locations Featuring Microsoft Surface

• Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers – 811 7th Ave. 53rd St., New York
• Sheraton Boston Hotel – 39 Dalton St., Boston
• Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers – 301 East North Water St., Chicago
• Sheraton Seattle Hotel – 1400 6th Ave., Seattle
• Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Airport Hotel – 600 Airport Blvd., Burlingame

Source - Press release

Other Microsoft Surface News

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is packed with easy-to-find tools and features that aid in every aspect of the learning process for all students. The new suite allows students to create great-looking reports and presentations with ease as well as study tools to use on an iPod or iPhone. Several aspects of everyday coursework can cause stress for students, however, a recent education-based study* shows how Office 2008 for Mac can simplify students’ work.

Fact: Today, nearly half of all college students in the United States use both a Mac and a PC to complete their schoolwork, and a majority of students feel it’s important to be able to share and edit documents on both platforms.

Simplified with Office for Mac. The new suite addresses students’ need to confidently share Office documents that are the same on either platform. Office 2008 and the 2007 Microsoft Office system share core technologies, including Office Open XML-based file formats and OfficeArt.

Fact: More than 75 percent of surveyed college students agree that writing a bibliography is a tedious and painful process.

Simplified with Office for Mac. Users can easily create and update citations to meet their needs by moving from Associated Press style to MLA style with the click of a button in Word 2008 for Mac.

Fact: The majority of college students agree that at times their hands get physically sore from taking extensive class notes.

Simplified with Office for Mac. In Word 2008, audio recording lets students put down their pens and record lectures to ensure they catch every word. The audible notes can even be exported to students’ iPods, enabling on-the-go studying. And the Notebook Layout View lets students organize notes based on individual learning styles, providing access to customized backgrounds and color-coded tabs.

It’s a Simple Equation: Buy Today and Save

Office 2008 for Mac is available for up to 30 percent off with the purchase of any Mac at Apple resellers now through Sept. 8, 2008. A full list of participating Apple resellers is available by going to http://www.microsoft.com/mac/promotions/default.mspx and clicking on a “Save Now” link. In addition, many schools have volume licensing agreements with Microsoft Corp. and are able to provide discounted licenses of Microsoft software for student use. To learn more about academic pricing and software availability, students should contact their school’s bookstore or visit http://www.microsoft.com/education/howtobuystudents.mspx for special pricing.

You got to love results of game sales, it seems that market companies and the brands themselves always get confused and can never agree who is right.

Today we see some confusion over third-party games sales and who sells the most. Is it the Nintendo Wii or Xbox 360?

Nintendo made a claim that the Wii sells more third-party games than the Xbox 360, but now we hear that Microsoft claim the Xbox 360 is the real winner.

NPD sales figures have this to show: The Nintendo Wii has sold 33,394,311 third party games compared to the Xbox 360’s 67,929,999 third party game sales. If those results are right, it puts the 360 well ahead of the Wii.

So whom do we believe if we wanted to know who has sold the most third party games? It looks like things are never that clear with conflicting numbers like this. Read more Nintendo news here and Microsoft news here.

Via Euro Gamer

There is so much to talk about when it comes to the Madden ‘09 game, but it seems that a number of people have been wanting to find out information about player ratings.

After searching on the Internet for the best place for Madden 09 player ratings, it reckons that IGN has to be it.

These player ratings go in-depth, they seem to cover everything. IGN have a whole list of player ratings for each division. IGN have been adding the Madden 09 player ratings a day at a time, what we now have is a huge list of all the divisions and teams.

All the divisions are in now and they include, AFC East, AFC West, AFC North, AFC South, NFC East, NFC West, NFC North and NFC South.

Just click on each team logo and you will have all the information you need on each of the teams, there you will be able to make your decision as to what to choose.

Source

More news on Xbox 360

New details not long in shows that Microsoft are release the 60GB Xbox 360 in the UK on August 15, the 60GB edition of the Xbox 360 gaming console has been mentioned a few times but now it is indeed true that it will be releasing in the UK on the date giving above.

It will retail at the same price as the phased-out 20GB edition for only £199 GBP, both the Xbox 360 Arcade that sells for £159.99 and Elite version that sells at £259.99 GBP will not be affected what so ever by this brand new model.

Many gamers knows that the Xbox 360 can deliver and now with the stunning 60GB we know this will be much appreciated, gamers are always crying about more space without the need for an external option.

Will you be buying the Microsoft 60GB Xbox 360 when it releases in the UK?

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