Print - WinInfo Short Takes: Week of August 15

An often irreverent look at some of the week's other news, including a silly Windows AntiSpyaare rumor, Apple's iPod patent flub, iPod competition from Microsoft, Dell revenues Microsoft at LinuxWorld, Vista WAIK, Xbox 360 add-ons and so much more...

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I spent the past week with my family on vacation in Quebec City, Quebec, which was fantastic. Thanks again to everyone who wrote to me about Quebec City after I first mentioned the trip. We tried to visit as many of the places you recommended as possible and got what I think was a great overview of the city. Highlights of this amazing European-like city included Vieux Quebec (old Quebec), the Terrasse Dufferin and Funicular (elevator), the St. Lawrence River ferry, the views from L' Observatoire (the observatory), and the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel. We took a horse carriage tour of the city, and we visited a few places outside of town, including La Chute Montmorency (a gorgeous waterfall) and Valcartier Village Vacances (the largest water park in Canada). Everyone had a great time. In fact, we'd still be there if the kids were paying the bills.

I've done a lot of travel, both inside the United States and internationally, and a few things about Quebec City, specifically, and Quebec, in general, really stood out. First, Quebec is a tidy and orderly place, and it seems like parts of it are always being cleaned. The people are wonderful and friendly, in sharp contrast to what we experience here in Boston. Interestingly, there's more of a language barrier in Quebec than we experienced in Germany. Many people can speak English but typically don't. This wasn't a problem because my wife speaks French, plus whenever people claimed to speak just a little English they were actually quite fluent. The food was superb, the weather fantastic. I feel like Quebec is a secret most people don't know about. It's just hours away by car, and yet it's more European than much of Europe, if that's even possible. We'll be going back--soon, I hope.

Because I was away for an entire week, I figured Microsoft would drop an enormous news bomb on me the way the company did in July when I was on vacation in Vermont. That didn't happen, thankfully. But this time I was prepared: The hotel we stayed in (Hotel Palace Royale, which I recommend) was nicely decked out with Ethernet connections, and I brought an extra notebook computer, just in case. You just can't trust those guys at Microsoft.

Email: I'm behind. Way behind. Perhaps even epically behind. If you've written to me recently and haven't received a reply, please try again.

Short Takes

Rumor Control: Windows AntiSpyware Will Be Free
Reports inexplicably circulated on the Internet this week that Microsoft will eventually cease development of the free Windows AntiSpyware tool so that the company can instead sell a service called Windows OneCare Live. Those reports are completely bogus. Microsoft will continue to offer the unmanaged Windows AntiSpyware product for free, will update it for the foreseeable future, and will include similar technology in Windows Vista. The Windows OneCare Live service will include a managed version of the Windows AntiSpyware technology and will be available for a yearly subscription fee, probably starting early next year. Microsoft won't stop supporting or upgrading Windows AntiSpyware when Windows OneCare ships.

Is Microsoft Behind Apple Patent Misfire? Not Exactly
It was a busy week for conspiracy theorists, thanks to the news that Apple Computer was rejected--again--in its bid to acquire patents for the iPod UI. The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rejected Apple's patent application for two reasons. First, other companies (notably Creative) were selling devices with iPod-like interfaces long before Apple entered the MP3 market. Second, someone else had already registered for a patent for the same UI before Apple made its application. Here's where it gets interesting: That someone, John Platt, is a former employee of Synaptics, the company that designed the iPod's innovative scroll wheel. But Platt now works for Microsoft. So the conspiracy is obvious, right? Microsoft is trying to prevent Apple from getting a patent on the UI for its lucrative iPod. That's a cute idea, but the truth is much less exciting. If Apple had simply filed its application earlier, Platt never would have had a chance to do so. I guess procrastination isn't necessarily the best strategy.

Microsoft Promises Better iPod Competition. Pffftttt ...
Speaking of the iPod, 6 months must have passed because Microsoft is once again promising that its hardware partners are on the cusp of offering real, viable competition for Apple's seemingly ubiquitous MP3 player. Microsoft, of course, doesn't make MP3 player hardware (not yet, anyway), but the company is now working with partners such as Creative and iRiver to ensure that the next generation of PC-based MP3 players work as well as, look as good as, and integrate as well as Apple's iPods. People, let me save you a lot of time and money: It ain't gonna happen. Even if it does, Apple could simply open up the iPod to Windows Media Audio (WMA) files and PC-based online music services and accomplish two things: The iPod would then literally be perfect, and it would blow away any reason to consider any other kind of music player. Don't think Apple will take those bold steps? My guess--and it's only a guess--is that the company will do so if competition finally starts to appear. But, again, that won't happen.

Creative Loses Even More Money
If we can continue the iPod theme for just one more news item, let's take a look at poor MP3 maker Creative, which announced earlier this year that it was going to spend oodles of money to advertise its MP3 players and take back market share from the iPod. That didn't happen. The company just announced worse-than-expected quarterly results, thanks to price cuts and inventory write-downs associated with its failed bid to compete with the iPod. Creative lost $31.9 million in the quarter that ended June 30 (compared with a $6.6 million profit a year earlier) on revenues of $305.4 million. Although Creative's MP3 player shipments increased by more than 300 percent, they didn't live up to the company's expectations.

Dell Rockets to Record Revenues, but Investors Aren't Impressed
Only when we're talking about Dell could a record rise of revenues (28 percent) and a 15 percent rise in earnings be considered disappointing. But that's what happens when you're the computer juggernaut and analysts expect constant growth of more than 20 percent. Is Dell starting to mature (and, thus, slow down)? You be the judge: The company posted earnings of $1.02 billion on revenues of $13.4 billion for the quarter ending July 29. But its average revenue per product fell from $1610 a year ago to $1480. Dell blames the shortfall (ahem) on overly aggressive pricing. The company typically lures PC buyers to its Web site with promises of lowball prices, then successfully upgrades those products with lucrative memory and peripherals. This quarter, apparently, fewer consumers took the bait, with many sticking to the stock PC configurations. Dell says that it's addressing that concern. I'm a big fan of Dell's products, and I don't understand how anyone can see bad news in this quarter's results.

Microsoft Goes to LinuxWorld
Visitors to the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco this week were treated to all kinds of free goodies. The surprise was that some of those freebies came from Microsoft, a company not particularly well known for its free software (and, please, don't cite Microsoft Internet Explorer--IE--or any of the other applications you need to own Windows to run). Microsoft didn't offer much in the way of free beyond some simple goodies, however. Instead, the company was really trying to sell its Linux interoperability story, which, from what I can tell, isn't exactly broad or deep. "My role is not to exterminate Linux," Microsoft Director of Platform Technology Bill Hilf told attendees during a session. "It is to be very critical and objective for Microsoft, our customers, and the open-source community." Then, presumably, he'll try to exterminate Linux. That's the Borg way, after all.

WAIK Is Nice but Where Are the Promised Windows Vista Deployment Tools?
When Microsoft briefed me about Vista Beta 1 in early July, the company promised me that the beta would (finally) include the new image-based corporate deployment tools that Microsoft has been touting for more than 3 years. That wasn't the case. Last week, however, Microsoft released to testers a tool called the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), which is basically a wizard that walks IT pros through the process of creating new XML-based automated installation files for Vista. WAIK isn't quite everything the company has been promising, but it's a start. Although the WAIK beta isn't available for public download, the user guide, curiously, is.

Microsoft's Case Against Google Rests on File Found in Recycle Bin
You've probably heard about Microsoft's lawsuit in which the software giant is attempting to prevent one of the people who helped found its China-based research center, Kai-Fu Lee, from starting a similar enterprise for Google. What you might not know is that Microsoft's legal case is apparently based largely on a file the company found in the Recycle Bin of one of Lee's XP computers. The document describes terms of the hiring agreement between Google and Lee and notes that Google anticipated Microsoft's lawsuit. That's pretty hilarious because Google's public comments about this case are quite different. The company at one time noted that Lee isn't a "search expert" and therefore shouldn't be bound by the employment agreement he signed when he originally joined Microsoft. So if he isn't a search expert, why would Google believe that Microsoft would attempt to block his hiring, based on the fact that the employment agreement prevented him from seeking a job at a direct competitor of Microsoft? More important, why wasn't Lee smart enough not to load Google documents on his Microsoft work PC and not delete them properly? He must not be a PC expert, either.

Amazon Considers Online Music Service
Online retailer Amazon revealed this week that it's looking into starting an online music service to rival entries from Apple and a wide field of pretenders no one much cares about. Amazon recently held talks with record company executives about its plans, which would include per-song downloads and a subscription service. If it happens, the company will likely launch the service in late 2005, just in the time for the lucrative holiday selling season. I guess the big question is whether an established player such as Amazon can make a dent in Apple's sales. I'd point to Wal-Mart's lame digital music service as evidence to the contrary.

Microsoft Lowers the Boom on Xbox 360 Peripheral Makers
Companies that are interested in making controllers and other add-on peripherals for the Xbox 360 will need to pony up some extra cash to do so. Microsoft is requiring all companies that want to milk Xbox 360's expected success to sign a license in which they agree to pay the software giant a commission on each peripheral sale. So is this really a problem? Will it result in fewer or more expensive Xbox 360 peripherals? I'm not sure that Microsoft's requirement is all that onerous, frankly. It's a good thing if the company uses the licensing scheme to ensure that only high-quality products appear--as Nintendo has done for ages with its video games. Besides, Microsoft would understandably want to profit from its Xbox product line for a change. The last time I looked, buying an Xbox was like getting a check for $100 from Microsoft. The company isn't exactly making money on the current-generation Xbox.

The clickwheel on the iPod is patent pending and the rejected patent has nothing to do with the clickwheel. Also, it's a strong patent claim on the clickwheel. That's why you don't see it on any other player. You know for a fact someone would include a wheel if they could . They can't.

"The last time I looked, buying an Xbox was like getting a check for $100 from Microsoft. They're not exactly making money on the current generation." They started making a profit a while ago.

Actually another addition I think would make the iPod perfect would be the ability to play AM/FM radio through the device. Of course iPod users would think that this feature would make the device "unhip".

The Xbox division had a profitable quarter when Halo 2 launched, but they've only had the one. MS doesn't lose as much on Xbox hardware as they used to (the cost of components has gone down more than the cost of an Xbox), but they still lose money on hardware and the division itself is not consistently profitable.

"Creative's MP3 player shipments did rise by over 300 percent, however..." Translation: They sold 50 units. ;-)

"The Xbox division had a profitable quarter when Halo 2 launched, but they've only had the one. " Actually, that is inaccurate. They still are making a profit after that quarter.

Visit Quebec City Before You Do! More than 800 pictures of Quebec City at : http://www.telegraphe.com/photograf/quebec/indexen.html Maurice from Quebec City

Where is the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup 2 ???? I thought I had read a couple of places that it was supposed to be out today! I was looking forward to seeing if MS implemented CableCARD or QAM in the rollup. Any news, Paul???

Pretty good news this week Paul, thanks. Kai-Fu Lee could have emptied his recycle bin, but it's still a Windows recycle bin. Even if you empty it, files can always be brought back by professional methods of retrieving them. Methods which some seventh graders might be capable of now days... He wouldn't have had to worry about it if he deleted those files using OS X's secure trash bin feature. I guess that's what he gets for using Windows :p how ironic.

"They started making a profit a while ago." They lose hundreds of millions on this thing.. lets see a link, please.

"Of course iPod users would think that this feature would make the device "unhip". Uh, what the hell can Radio offer me that playlists from a libary of about 2000 songs can't. Seriously. Smart playlists killed radio. Sorry. No ads for me.

Dell was short on profits.. so people freak out. Big deal.. you should see when Apple beats profit expectations, the stock goes down. Investors are schizophrenic. They'll buy before the announcement, knowing others will do the same, so the stock steadily rises, then when the announcement is made, they sell, knowing others will sell, to protect their gains. So it looks like the stock plummets because of good news.

" Uh, what the hell can Radio offer me that playlists from a libary of about 2000 songs can't. Seriously. Smart playlists killed radio. Sorry. No ads for me. " Did you ever think there are people like myself that like Radio? At least AM. I for one love talk radio, that is why i dont listen to FM crap since i can download my music or play my CD's. AM is just about fresh everyday with new topics being discussed and new things to learn. You got sports, political, tech, general, comedy. I would love an iPod that gave me that plus the ability to play the songs i download and rip. Of course that is just me, perhaps everyone else here does not share the same feelings. The ultimate would be to listen to music and when the game is on and im on the road or whever listen to it thru the headphones. The best of both worlds for me :)

Obligatory "Video Killed The Radio Star". "Big deal.. you should see when Apple beats profit expectations, the stock goes down. Investors are schizophrenic." Now I could rub salt in this wound to irritate the Apple people, but i'm not going to. Your company does well, yet your stock goes down :\. There's probably a logical reason this happened, I just don't know it. "Dell was short on profits.. so people freak out." Some attribute that to the fact that Dell might be coming of age and slowing down. They're still making considerable profits though :).

Shouldn't you guys be off installing all those patches from this week's "Patch Tuesday?" Or perhaps running anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall, and registry cleaner in your system tray, sucking up resources? Maybe doing a reinstall since Windows gets super-slow every six months? How about running in an admin account in the year 2005? Have fun waiting another two years using Windows XP to get the features Mac OS X already innovated. Windows--for playing videogames, like The Sims. Macs--for getting real work done.

"Windows Internet Explorer 7?" Four words to describe one browser? Is Microsoft's marketing department stupid or something? I thought Windows Vista sounded stupid enough, but now there's a redundant "Windows" in front of every instance of "Internet Explorer?" God, this company sucks.

Windows--for playing videogames, like The Sims. Macs--for getting real work done.

Now I could rub salt in this wound to irritate the Apple people, but i'm not going to. Your company does well, yet your stock goes down :\. There's probably a logical reason this happened, I just don't know it. ---- last time Apple posted amazing numbers, but warned the next quarter might be slower.. investors overreacted.. I dont know if it's legal for them to LIE.. but I think they just say that all the time so investors don't have high expectations. Apple goes on to blow away expectations next quarter, and the investors act surprised. tee hee.

"Shouldn't you guys be off installing all those patches from this week's "Patch Tuesday?" Or perhaps running anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall, and registry cleaner in your system tray, sucking up resources? Maybe doing a reinstall since Windows gets super-slow every six months? How about running in an admin account in the year 2005?" The updates installed more-or-less automatically for me. I don't ever run anti-spyware software, because thanks to firefox, I don't need to. I'm behind a hardware firewall because *gasp* my router came with one built-in. No crappy ZoneAlarm here. I've never had to use a Registry Cleaner either, although I might just for the hell of it. "Maybe doing a reinstall since Windows gets super-slow every six months" Most of the people I see on IRC who have to re-install Windows are non-technical people (usually young teenagers) who refuse to use anything besides IE. They also seem to hate Apple, so I guess you're SOL there. If anything over the past year, my Windows has actually gotten faster. Go figure :P. Windows--Visual Studio, Office, MS-SQL, MySQL, Photoshop, Massive Hardware Support, Craploads of utilities for all sorts of stuff (tons of MIDI sequencers, some which are FREE, for instance) (that also includes stuff like IRC clients), lots of games, lots of editors, and the list just goes on and on and on... Macs--xcode (which is free, i'll give them that), Office, MySQL that runs poorly, Photoshop, Sub-par Hardware Support, Built-In Desktop Searching, Dashboard Stolen From StarDeck ... um, yeah. Oh, and SOME utilities.

"sucking up resources?" In order for the phrase "sucking up" to work, they would have to eat a TON of resources. Explorer's system tray really doesn't. It uses up some, but it's just a minor part of the Memory Footprint that Windows occupies. I will say that Explorer generally eats more processor than other stuff, but I guess that makes sense, considering what all Explorer does.

Windows - For Getting Real Work Done. Macs - For Playing Around With Your Pictures, Creating Crappy Music, and Wasting People's Time.

Take a look at the WAIK before you criticize it, Paul. It has the imaging tools in it.

"Did you ever think there are people like myself that like Radio? At least AM. I for one love talk radio, that is why i dont listen to FM crap since i can download my music or play my CD's. AM is just about fresh everyday with new topics being discussed and new things to learn. You got sports, political, tech, general, comedy. I would love an iPod that gave me that plus the ability to play the songs i download and rip. Of course that is just me, perhaps everyone else here does not share the same feelings. The ultimate would be to listen to music and when the game is on and im on the road or whever listen to it thru the headphones. The best of both worlds for me :) " This is what podcasts are for!!!

"This is what podcasts are for!!!" Umm, yeah, because live talk radio is all over the podcast community.... If anyone wants to see a better MP3 player than the iPod, check out Dell's. A 30 gb Dell DJ is $199, while a 20 gb iPod is $299. Not to mention that the Dell DJ does not require iTunes, the world's worst media player.

"the world's worst media player." You do have to admit, RealPlayer is probably worse than iTunes. RealPlayer makes me want to hurt people. "If anyone wants to see a better MP3 player than the iPod, check out Dell's." What makes it better? Can you do ... DJ-Casting with a Dell DJ? Can you sync your DJ with iSync (i'm not entirely sure what that means)? Is there a commercial that features shadow people dancing with the DELL DJ? Is the Dell DJ made by Apple? Why would even want to buy the Dell DJ?!?! It's not made by Apple! You are a brainwashed sheep and your ignorance flabbergasts me.

"You do have to admit, RealPlayer is probably worse than iTunes. RealPlayer makes me want to hurt people." That is true. While Real's functionality is better, it's infestation is aggravating. Thank you very much for making me laugh. Really hard.

Does anyone really think that the average person has any idea what a podcast is? Seriously. MP3, iPod's, sat radio, podcasts, have NOT killed anything yet. Last I checked, they still sell an awful lot of portable CD players, and they still have a huge market called the automobile that you Apple people don't typically own (too much pollution), to make you realize that the market for traditional radio is still huge. Let's wait a little bit before we sound the death bell yet on radio. It's still has some legs in it, and will for some time.

Podcasts are not live. Give me live AM/FM, MP3, Pod Casts and whatever else and i will be very happy

Excuse my ignorance but can somebody explain to me what an iPod is. Living in Europe I have never seen one/them. Is it/Are they one of these West Coast - California - everybody dreaming - type of objects/services/lifestyle thingies? Podcasting ?? Some sort of auditioning for a Reality TV show ?

>Living in Europe Not sure where in Europe *you* live! Radio on an Ipod or similar makes sense in the UK as we don't have to put up with Commercial radio. None of this "we'll be right back after...."

Yeah. The UK. Where you have to get a license from the government to watch TV. Bleh.

"Umm, yeah, because live talk radio is all over the podcast community...." well if you know what a podcast is.. you know it's not live..but there's tons of mainstream talk radio on there.. and it's only gonna grow exponentially..

they still have a huge market called the automobile that you Apple people don't typically own (too much pollution), --- are you kidding? check again.. the iPod connector is in most major companies' 2006 models.. around the world.

"well if you know what a podcast is.. you know it's not live..but there's tons of mainstream talk radio on there.. and it's only gonna grow exponentially.." Ummm, yeah, that's kinda the point. "are you kidding? check again.. the iPod connector is in most major companies' 2006 models.. around the world." Ummm, yeah, for how much? There are so many more affordable options (such as directly connecting your MP3 player to your car stereo (works better with after market units)).

The Zotob MS05-039 worm mentioned on Slashdot last Sunday may be the most recent virus that has gone global, hitting Windows 2000 desktops at CNN, ABC, the New York Times, and many others. The virus is spreading around the world rapidly as compromised systems become bots and propagate the worm, with reported outbreaks in Germany and China. InformationWeek has a decent article titled Zotob Proves Patching "Window" Non-Existent. Microsoft calls it a "low impact" threat and tells you What you should know about Zotob. Symantec has W32.Zotob.D removal instructions. Trend Micro thinks that this is a new, different worm altogether and says it is one of the fastest-spreading infections in history.