Warming to a video iPod?

During an interview with ABC News, published online yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was asked the recurring question about whether the company would ever offer a video iPod. Here's what he said:

Well, you know us. We never talk about future products. There used to be a saying at Apple: Isn't it funny? A ship that leaks from the top. So --I don't wanna perpetuate that. So I really can't say.

His comment, or lack thereof, might not seem notable at first. But consider what he didn't say. By comparison, when Jobs was asked the same question in April 2004, he went out of his way to ridicule the notion of video on the iPod -- suggesting that Apple would just as soon turn the music player into a toaster as add video.

Music is a wonderful thing because A, it's music, and B, because it can be listened to as a background activity. And a lot of these other things that people are talking about building in, such as video and things like that, are foreground activities. You can't drive a car when you're watching a movie. You know? It's really hard. So we really are very focused on music because that's what we think the revolution is here.

The strategy put Apple at philosophical odds with Microsoft and its Portable Media Center audio/video devices. But the April 2004 comments came before the unveiling of the iPod Photo and the expected unveiling of a Motorola/Apple iTunes phone. Add it all up and suddenly the notion of a video iPod doesn't seem so much like toast.

RSS: Embrace, Extend ...

Looks like some people see something other than altrustic motives in Microsoft's plan to incorporate RSS features into the next version of Windows. On the Wikipedia page explaining Microsoft's "embrace and extend" strategy -- known to critics as "embrace, extend and extinguish" -- someone has already added "RSS 2.0 - Microsoft in Longhorn" as an example. (Via The Register.)

AMD, Intel and Microsoft

The preamble of AMD's antitrust complaint against Intel (download the PDF here) begins with this sentence:

Like Standard Oil at the turn of the Nineteenth Century and Alcoa Aluminum during the Twentieth, Intel holds a monopoly in a market critical to our economy.

Alcoa? Sure, aluminum markets are important, and it might be unreasonable to expect AMD to single out one of its main industry partners, the dominant PC operating system vendor, as a monopolist. But given the subject of this particular case, wouldn't there have been a more obvious comparison to make?

Starter Edition: Spanish

Microsoft's launch of Spanish-language versions of Windows XP Starter Edition, announced yesterday, departs from the company's approach in previous Starter Edition launches in a few ways. For one thing, as explained in this morning's story on the subject, the company says the Spanish-language version is not considered a pilot program, as were the previous launches in such places as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. In that way, Microsoft seems to be suggesting that it expects Starter Edition to be a more permanent approach as a secondary marketing strategy in developing nations.

Mary Jo Foley of Microsoft Watch notes that the Spanish-language version also is targeted to several countries at once, unlike the previous launches. "It'll be quicker for Microsoft to introduce stripped-down Windows releases across the globe if it takes this approach, rather than aiming at one country at a time," she observes.

And Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox points out on the Microsoft Monitor weblog that the Mexico launch is as close as the company has brought Starter Edition to the United States. Company executives have steadfastly said they won't introduce Starter Edition for beginning computer users in the U.S. or in other highly developed nations, but Wilcox is holding out hope: "PC vendors could offer a U.S. Windows Starter Edition to first-time computer buyers, at lower cost and with less complexity, assuming grandma won't run more than three applications at one time."

Gates not the 'greatest'

Ronald Reagan was named the "Greatest American" Sunday evening in the Discovery Channel's series of the same name. Bill Gates, who had made it into the top 25, based on viewer polling, ultimately didn't finish in the top five. But considering the historical luminaries who did, that probably isn't such a surprise. Immediately behind Reagan were Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

CNet News.com summarizes the outcome for the Microsoft chairman in this post.

RSS in IE7 for Windows XP

Announcing plans last week to put RSS capabilities into Internet Explorer, Microsoft focused much of its attention on Longhorn, the next version of Windows. But the word from the company is that the upcoming version of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP will also include some of the more basic RSS functions. Here's the statement Microsoft issued on the subject:

Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP SP2 will focus on interoperability, providing basic RSS functionality for discovering, viewing, and saving RSS feeds to the common feed list. Longhorn goes much further with a comprehensive platform for handling of RSS feeds. Specifically the common data store and sync engine will only be available in Longhorn to easily enable any developer to add RSS capabilities to applications.

Ballmer on MSN, Google

ZDNet reports on a trip by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Australia, including a session with Microsoft partners in which he touched on subjects including .Net and MSN's competition with Google in search business:

"What you're saying is, 'you're so far behind, why bother'?," he said when pressed to reaffirm Microsoft's commitment to search technology as it struggles to catch-up with Google. "Well, if anyone thinks innovation is done in search, you're wrong.

"Does anyone here really believe search is going to look like it does now in 10 years?," he asked attendees. He claimed Microsoft's long-term view was already making ground on Google. "In the next six months, we'll catch Google in terms of relevancy," he said.

(See also Inside Microsoft, Search Engine Lowdown, and Search Engine Watch. )

Longhorn RSS roundup

There has been a wide range of reaction to Microsoft's plan to incorporate RSS functions into Internet Explorer and other elements of Longhorn, the next version of Windows. In Monday morning's Insider column and Saturday's story on the subject, my colleague John Cook described the mixed reaction at the Gnomedex conference, where Microsoft announced the news last week. Pictured at right is IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch's shoe during the event. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

The online reaction has also been interesting. One question is how the integration of RSS capabilities into Windows will affect smaller software developers who make RSS aggregators. Other questions revolve around the company's plan to offer extensions for managing and sorting lists delivered in RSS streams. Excerpts from coverage and commentary on various news sites and weblogs:

• eWeek: "The idea of extending RSS to other applications may be attractive to some, but Microsoft's approach drew criticism from Bob Wyman, co-founder and chief technology officer of PubSub Concepts Inc., a startup service that aggregates RSS feeds. He criticized Microsoft for focusing on a specific format, RSS 2.0, and for not bringing the extension before an open standards body such as the Internet Engineering Task Force."

• Lawrence Lessig comments on the company's decision to offer the RSS list extensions under a Creative Commons license: "These steps signal important flexibility and sophistication within Microsoft. For anyone who knows people at that place, this is old news. But even if old news, very very good news."

• Joe Wilcox, Jupiter Research: "Microsoft contends that its approach will greatly extend RSS capabilities, usefulness and adoption, which certainly might be the case. I'll put the contention in this context: If you believe that Microsoft's turning Web browsing into a development platform and integrating the technology into Windows benefitted software development and Internet adoption, then Microsoft's position is sound. If you don't agree that the integration brought these benefits or that it hampered development of innovative, competing products, then Microsoft's reasoning is flawed."

• Jay Greene, BusinessWeek: The fact that Microsoft is putting so much effort behind RSS suggests that the technology's time has come. Michael Gartenberg, vice-president and research director at Jupiter Research, estimates that about 10% of U.S. Web surfers use RSS readers, software designed to view feeds from Web sites. "This is the type of thing that will bring it into the mainstream," Gartenberg says. "It's going to change behavior, and it's going to do it very quickly."

• On his weblog, Gartenberg addresses some of the initial criticism of Microsoft's planned RSS list extension: "There is no fork in the spec here. What worked before will still continue to work. This is a way to extend RSS so people can do more with it. It was inevitable that it was going to happen by one of the big players and likely by Microsoft. What's cool here is that they are doing this in a way that really show's they are adding to the community, not co-opting. This is a win for MSFT, Longhorn, developers and customers. It's also the first interesting thing I've heard about Longhorn in a long time."

• Charlene Li, Forrester Research: "[T]aken in whole, the Microsoft announcement is fairly sweeping -- it will do the basic block and tackle work of working with feeds, allowing developers to build neat little applications ... "

• Microsoft's MSDN site describes how Longhorn will work with RSS: "While browsing the web, users will be able to easily discover RSS feeds through an illuminated icon, as well as read the feed while still in the web browser. Additionally, users will be able to subscribe to an RSS feed as easily as adding a web page as a favorite. Once a user chooses to subscribe to a feed, the fact that the user has subscribed is available to any interested application."

• Microsoft Watch's Mary Jo Foley points to a variety of related links, including this video, with demonstrations, on Microsoft's Channel 9 site.

• Hachamovitch's post on the IEBlog drew a range of comments, including this one, implicitly pointing out that Longhorn is still more than a year away: "[W]on't integration into Longhorn push widespread availability of this functionality too far into the future? In other words, by the time Longhorn is released, wouldn't it be the case that these problems have already been solved in other ways, and that generally, the usage [scenarios] would have changed by then? It just seems like there is a strong need for this now, but putting it into Longhorn doesn't really seem to meet the desired time-to-market."

• Steve Rubel explores the question of which RSS feeds should be included as defaults: "What I would like to see in IE 7 are some basic Microsoft.com feeds (e.g. support/security alerts) to prove the concept to the everyday user and then a Favorite that points to an open directory of feeds. This could be either a new directory that Microsoft creates or one or more established indexes, such as Nooked. Either way, the directory needs to be open so that anyone can submit their feed and categorize it."

• Nathan Weinberg, of the Inside Microsoft blog, tells the story of a blogger's feedback changing one aspect of Microsoft's RSS plans. He comments: "When was the last time a blogger’s good idea changed the way something worked at Microsoft, let alone this quickly?"

Tracking Microsoft's 'BitTorrent killer'

There have been tons of stories on Microsoft's Avalanche file-sharing project in recent weeks. So what exactly is it?

The official Microsoft Research page describes it as "a research project that studies how to enable a cost effective, internet scalable and very fast file distribution solution." A related research paper (PDF) explains that the proposed system could avoid what the Microsoft researchers describe as technical challenges inherent in the approach used by the popular BitTorrent file-sharing system.

OK, fair enough. In basic terms, it seems on the surface like a research project proposing some key advances in the area of cooperative file-sharing systems. At the same time, Microsoft often transfers technology from its research unit to its product groups, with Web and hard-drive searching being just the latest high-profile examples. And file-sharing is a hot area of the technological world. So Avalanche is clearly something that bears watching in the long run if you're someone interested in the company and its impact on the industry.

But you would probably come away with a very different impression after reading some of the recent news reports and commentary on the subject. Follow along below to get a sense for how the story evolved as it progressed from site to site:

• IDG News Service: "Avalanche technology could make it easier to distribute big files over the Internet"

• Search Engine Journal: "Microsoft Avalanche to Challenge BitTorrent"

• ITP Technology: "Avalanche threatens BitTorrent"

• Slashdot: "Microsoft wants P2P Avalanche to Crush BitTorrent"

• BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen: "First of all, I'd like to clarify that Avalanche is vaporware. ..."

• The Inquirer: "BitTorrent creator laughs at Microsoft P2P; But then so did IBM at Windows."

• John C. Dvorak: "The Scheme to Discredit BitTorrent"

At that point, Microsoft Research's Kevin Schofield couldn't help but chime in. In this lengthy post on his weblog, he explains what the Avalanche project is and what it isn't. He also outlines and analyzes much of the media coverage:

"Um, let me get this straight. In six days, a research project went from some algorithms in a paper to Microsoft's competitive answer to BitTorrent, to "vaporware" to an evil conspiracy. Oh please. We've never claimed that this was anything more than a research project. We released a paper so that everyone -- including Microsoft's fiercest competitors -- knew exactly what we were doing, and could comment."

MSN cites search progress

On the MSN Search weblog, general manager Ken Moss posts about the company's new local search service, explaining that improvements in that area were a top request from MSN Search users. But beyond the new local search feature, Moss also says the team has made improvements in the relevancy of the basic MSN Search results:

Our team focuses obsessively on the relevance of the web results. We want to get the most relevant result in the top position all of the time. The ranker we released in February served us well, but had some flaws that we weren’t happy about. In collaboration with Chris Burges and other friends from Microsoft Research, we now have a brand new ranker. The new ranker has improved our relevance and perhaps most importantly gives us a platform we think we can move forward on quicker than before.

N, as in 'not interested'

One of Microsoft's products appears poised to bomb, big time, but don't expect the company's executives to shed any tears over it. This Associated Press story out of Paris today reports little or no interest in Windows XP N, the version of the operating system that European antitrust officials have ordered the company to sell without Windows Media Player pre-installed. That lack of interest goes not only for computer makers but also for consumers. Reports the AP: "Many stores say they will not bother stocking the product."

The situation isn't unexpected, given the fact that Microsoft is selling the stripped-down version for the same price as the full-fledged one -- something the company says it's allowed to do under its reading of the European Commission's antitrust order. Digital-media competitor RealNetworks and others have pointed out the obvious challenge created by Microsoft's pricing arrangement, but the commission hasn't publicly pressed that issue in the way that it has pressed others, such as the terms under which Microsoft must offer technical information to rivals in the server market.

'Pizza in Redmond' again

At long last, the "Pizza in Redmond" debacle appears to be over.

Some background for anyone just tuning in: Back in February, while idling behind a Microsoft campus shuttle, I noticed an advertising banner that promoted the MSN Search service by suggesting that it could easily help someone find "Pizza in Redmond." So I took the opportunity to try that search on a variety of different sites. As it happened, the MSN Search service was pretty clearly the worst of the major search sites on that query, even using a variety of different approaches. See my original post and some of the related coverage for more details. It was one sign of how much Microsoft still needed to do just to catch up in the search business.

Yesterday, however, the company announced the preliminary version of its new MSN Local Search. As you can see here, the result for the "Pizza" search in the Redmond area is considerably better. That appears to be due largely to the fact that the company has added yellow-pages listings, licensed from a third party. But if you scroll down, the pure MSN Search results also appear to be slightly improved. The janitorial supplies listing, previously the top-ranked result for the "Pizza in Redmond" search, is now fourth, with some actual pizza-related results coming in higher.

See this morning's story for more details on the MSN Local Search beta and how it plays into a broader industry trend. Related coverage: CNet News.com, PC Magazine, and Associated Press.

Xbox 360 deal, target

Microsoft's Xbox division announced a deal with game developer Real Time Worlds, from Scotland, to develop exclusive games for the upcoming Xbox 360 console. The news release summarizes the backgrounds of the Real Time Worlds principals:

"Real Time Worlds creative director David Jones, founder of DMA Design, was the creative director behind two of gaming's most successful franchises, 'Grand Theft Auto' and 'Lemmings.' Ian Hetherington, former managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, founded Psygnosis, one of the United Kingdom's first videogames publishers. Tony Harman, former director of development and acquisition for Nintendo of America, was the executive producer of the 'Donkey Kong Country' franchise."

Meanwhile, Xbox executive Peter Moore said during a games conference in London that the company could envision selling 10 million Xbox 360s in the first 12 to 16 months after the console's launch later this year, according to several reports. See coverage and commentary from the BBC, GamesIndustry.biz and joystiq.

Jackson: 'Nothing changed'

Thomas Penfield Jackson, the judge in Microsoft's U.S. antitrust trial, today defended his order to break up the company five years ago. CNet News reports on the former judge's comments during an American Antitrust Institute conference:

"Windows is an operating system monopoly, and the company's business strategy was to leverage Windows to achieve a comparable dominion of all software markets," Jackson said. "Nothing has changed, to my observation, in the five years that have elapsed since my decision ... Microsoft has won the browser war in the United States. Netscape Navigator, if it is still available at all, has only a small fraction of the browser market."

Update: Declan McCullagh, one of the CNet reporters who wrote the story, posts a response to Jackson's remarks from Jim Prendergast, executive director of Americans for Technology Leadership.

Update II: James Rowley of Bloomberg News has much more on Jackson's comments in this story from Wednesday's newspaper.

Allchin's music files

Microsoft Windows chief Jim Allchin is an avid guitar player, and the company's Channel 9 site has posted two recordings of his music. As CNet News.com's Ina Fried notes, they're in Windows Media format, of course. For much more on Allchin's guitar playing, see this post from last year.

Vietnam PM at Microsoft

Microsoft employees had some unexpected company on their commute to work today. Phan Van Khai, the prime minister of Vietnam, visited Microsoft's Redmond campus this morning, traveling via motorcade from Seattle over the 520 bridge for a 9 a.m. meeting with Bill Gates. Khai's visit to Microsoft was a constant topic on Seattle's morning radio news programs, in part because traffic was held up to make way for the motorcade.

There was a large police presence outside the Microsoft conference center, but there were none of the demonstrations faced by Khai after he arrived in Seattle over the weekend.

Gates and Khai made a few remarks and then met in private while the Vietnamese delegation toured Microsoft's Center for Information Work and the Microsoft Home, where the company shows its vision for future technology. Microsoft representatives signed two memoranda of understanding for technical and educational assistance, one with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and another with the Vietnamese Mininistry of Education and Training.

See this AP story for more on the prime minister's Microsoft visit.

Judge Jackson resurfaces

Could be some interesting Microsoft-related coverage coming out of Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning: Thomas Penfield Jackson, the outspoken former federal judge who presided over the company's U.S. antitrust trial, will speak during an American Antitrust Institute conference at the National Press Club tomorrow morning. His topic: "Microsoft: The Remedy Phase."

Three takes on MSN China

USA Today's Monday editorial takes up the issue of Microsoft's cooperation with Chinese government censorship on the MSN site in the country, banning such words as "democracy" and "freedom": "What's actually profane is a company that built its fortune on the freedom provided by the American system helping a repressive regime censor such ideas."

David McHardy Reid, director of the Rochester Institute of Technology's Center of International Business, responds in this opposing view: "It is not the role of major corporations to police the behavior of other cultures. Companies of all hues regularly adjust their positions to meet the acceptable standards of the countries in which they operate. Adaptation is intrinsic to the reality of doing business around the globe. Brands and products must be adapted and trade-offs made."

Meanwhile, Drex Heikes of the Los Angeles Times writes that the practices of spammers might be helpful to Chinese bloggers looking to sidestep the restrictions. He points out that there are "a zillion permutations of dem*cra*y."

Mossberg on MSN Spaces

Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walter Mossberg reviews the major tools for weblog publishing. His conclusion: "Microsoft's MSN Spaces did the best job of performing these tasks in a way that was organized and self-explanatory. Yahoo 360 was almost as easy, but it tries to tie in the use of too many other Yahoo services. Blogger.com has a long way to go until it becomes as easy to use as the others."

Inside 'Blue Hat'

CNet News.com today offers an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at an event called "Blue Hat," in which Microsoft executives met with hackers a few months ago on the company's Redmond campus.

Mail from Britney and Bill

In terms of prestige, it's not quite up there with the Forbes list, but it's notable nonetheless: Britney Spears, Bill Gates ranked top e-mail virus celebrities.

The story behind PC fonts

During his commencement address at Stanford University over the weekend, Apple CEO Steve Jobs recalled a calligraphy course he took after dropping out of college. He described the effect of that experience on the design of the Mac -- and, by extension, he says, on the design of Windows:

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Horsey on MSN China

P-I editorial cartoonist David Horsey weighs in today on the issue of U.S. Internet companies, most recently Microsoft's MSN site, cooperating with Chinese government censorship:

Microsoft's Gentoo guy

The founder of Linux distributor Gentoo, Daniel Robbins, has taken a position with Microsoft. In a post on the organization's Web site, Robbins writes that he will help Microsoft "understand Open Source and community-based projects." See coverage by eWeek and CNet News.com.

A Microsoft maestro?

Wall Street Journal: "Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has quietly tapped a rising star, 43-year-old Senior Vice President Robbie Bach, to revamp Microsoft's digital-music strategy and compete better with Apple Computer Inc., people familiar with the matter say. Mr. Bach, who heads Microsoft's Xbox videogame unit, will take on the additional role in music and may oversee strategy for some other consumer markets, these people say."

Such a move, giving one person oversight of Microsoft's widespread digital music initiatives, had been encouraged by some company observers. See, for example, this open message to Microsoft earlier this year from Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg.

Raikes and Buffett, Part 2

As reported over the weekend, U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz dismissed four of Novell's six claims in a suit alleging that Microsoft took anticompetitive actions against WordPerfect in the 1990s. (See the third paragraph of this news release for past background on the suit.) But in allowing two counts to go forward, Motz pointed to evidence including a 1997 e-mail from Microsoft executive Jeff Raikes to Warren Buffett that first surfaced in a separate antitrust case last year.

Novell cited the e-mail as evidence that Microsoft saw WordPerfect as a threat to Windows, because of the ability to use WordPerfect on a variety of operating systems. In contrast, the popularity of Microsoft Office, and its close connection with Windows, helps lock users into the Microsoft operating system. Raikes explained the logic to Buffett as he tried to persuade the renowned investor to consider Microsoft's stock. Here's the portion of the e-mail that was quoted by Motz in his ruling:

If we own the key "franchises" built on top of the operating system, we dramatically widen the "moat" that protects the operating system business. ... We hope to make a lot of money off these franchises, but even more important is that they should protect our Windows royalty per PC. ... And success in those businesses will help increase the opportunity for future pricing discretion.

For more background, click here for a PDF of Motz's ruling, which he put in the form of a letter.

MSN China censorship

There are a variety of reports today that Microsoft, cooperating with the Chinese government, has agreed to censor words including "democracy" and "freedom" from weblogs on its MSN Spaces service in China. Some of the coverage: Associated Press, Financial Times, and CNet News.com.

MSN Music in New York

I spent some time in New York City last week, where billboards for Microsoft Office's "new era" dinosaur campaign are difficult to avoid. So it was refreshing to see a Microsoft billboard in Times Square advertising something else -- a Gwen Stefani promotion on the MSN Music service. (It's in the lower left of the photo at right; click the image for a close-up.)

I don't know how long it has been there, but the location of that MSN Music billboard was interesting for another reason, as well: CNet News.com, citing unnamed sources, reported last week that Microsoft is planning its own monthly music subscription service, to complement the existing pay-per-download MSN Music service. Microsoft isn't talking publicly about its plans, and the ad above relates to its current service. But CNet, citing its sources, reported that the company "held an event earlier this week in New York aimed at providing an update on the project's progress."

Gates, Jobs and Lincoln

Bill Gates still has a shot to be named the "Greatest American." Viewers of the Discovery Channel series of that name have voted the Microsoft chairman into the top 25 under consideration for that title, along with historical and contemporary figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, John F. Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey and Lance Armstrong, among others. The show revealing the top 25 aired over the weekend.

As reflected in some of the comments to this earlier post, some people might object to the inclusion of Gates in such company, at least when it comes to the likes of Lincoln, Kennedy and Franklin. But it's worth noting that the televised segment on Gates focused as much on his philanthropic work as on his record in the software business.

At the same time, Apple fans will no doubt be disappointed that Steve Jobs ranked considerably lower than Gates in the voting. But the show went out of its way to underscore Jobs' contributions. In fact, it may have gone a little too far. The segment on Gates included this line: "No, Bill Gates did not invent the PC. You can thank No. 76 on the list, Steven Jobs, for that."

There's no disputing Apple's status as a pioneer, especially for popularizing the graphical user interface invented by Xerox researchers. And people might quibble over exactly what qualified as "inventing" the personal computer. But the person most commonly thought of in that manner is Ed Roberts, the electrical engineer whose company, MITS, created the Altair 8800, the computer widely credited with launching the PC revolution.

IE leader at Gnomedex

Next week's Gnomedex conference in Seattle will include a keynote address by Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch, who leads the Internet Explorer team, conference organizer Chris Pirillo announced today. The appearance is likely to get considerable attention, given the large numbers of bloggers attending the conference, and the interest in the upcoming beta releases of Internet Explorer 7 and Longhorn.

No OS X on non-Apple PC

Leading up to Apple's announcement that it will switch to Intel microprocessors, one of the big questions was whether Apple would let OS X run on Intel machines that would otherwise be Windows PCs -- posing a new challenge to Microsoft's market dominance. For the record, reports following the announcement make it clear that the answer is no. CNet News.com explained the situation in this report (via Dwight Silverman):

After Jobs' presentation, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller addressed the issue of running Windows on Macs, saying there are no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac. "That doesn't preclude someone from running it on a Mac. They probably will," he said. "We won't do anything to preclude that."

However, Schiller said the company does not plan to let people run Mac OS X on other computer makers' hardware. "We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac," he said.

At the same time, Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg predicts that "hacks will abound," letting people with enough determination figure a way around the protections.

Apple's Longhorn widget

Jokes about Longhorn, the very-long-awaited next version of Microsoft Windows, are becoming something of an annual tradition at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. Actually, when you think about it, the very fact that it can be an annual joke underscores the point.

At any rate, whereas last year it was banners in the conference hallways, this year the joke came during a short segment in the middle of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote. Demonstrating a countdown clock "widget" for the Mac, Jobs typed in the word Longhorn and the date 12/31/2006 -- actually a couple months after Longhorn is expected to be on the market. (I've recreated the result here.) The crowd had a good laugh.

On a more serious note, Jobs said Apple will ship its next OS X operating system, to be known as Leopard, at the end of 2006 or in early 2007, giving it another new version right after Microsoft is scheduled to release Longhorn.

Microsoft, meanwhile, was more indirect in its commentary on Apple at its Tech Ed conference. In an on-stage, spoof news report introducing Steve Ballmer's keynote, "Daily Show" correspondent Samantha Bee reported that Apple had inked a deal with Toyota to create an iPod/Prius hybrid -- called the "hy-pod" -- which would get "74 miles to the gallon and hold 74 million songs."

Come to think of it, maybe that's not such a bad idea.

Open-source olive branch?

Speaking with Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith yesterday about the company's European Union antitrust concessions, I asked about recent reports on efforts by Microsoft to improve relations with open-source companies, in part through Smith himself. Here's what he said:

"We believe that it's constructive for everyone to have more of a dialogue about how to build bridges between the commercial software side of the industry and the open-source side of the industry. We're all engaged in software development, we're all here to stay, and if we're all to do the best possible job of meeting the needs of our customers, it is constructive to have more discussion and to focus on how we can both collaborate even while we continue to compete."

Note especially that "we're all here to stay" part. You probably wouldn't have heard that from a Microsoft executive, at least publicly, a few years ago. At the same time, the issue is still a balancing act for the company, as exemplified by what Microsoft was willing -- and not willing -- to do when it came to the open source issue in its EU antitrust concessions. See our story this morning for more details.

Recapturing the '95 buzz

On InformationWeek's Windows weblog, Aaron Ricadela notes that it has been about 10 years since people lined up at computer stores at midnight for the launch of Windows 95. Would computer users do that again today, with that degree of anticipation, for a new Windows version? Probably not. Of course, we'll get a chance to find out the answer in reality next year, assuming all goes as scheduled with Longhorn, the next Windows verson.

Ricadela observes that "something happened along the way from then till now, and what Microsoft's gained in market share and wealth it has arguably lost in the less-tangible category of buzz. Apple Computer and Google have it, and Microsoft wants some of it back." Ricadela points out some of the ways Microsoft is trying to accomplish that, drawing in part on comments from an interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The real Intel scoop

Much of the computer world has been feeling surprised over Apple's big decision to switch to Intel chips, but writer/journalist/blogger Paul Thurrott, of Windows IT Pro and the Windows SuperSite, is feeling something else -- vindication. Buried deep in one of his reports from Microsoft's WinHec conference in April was this line: "This one's bizarre, but we heard at lunch today that Apple is unhappy with the PowerPC production at IBM and will be switching to Intel-compatible chips this very year. Yeah, seriously."

As he points out in this post on his Internet Nexus site, that was well before any major papers picked up on the story.

Apple switch: It's official

Apple news release: Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006

EU antitrust details

Microsoft broke its silence this morning on the proposal it submitted last week about its compliance with the European Commission's antitrust decision, saying it made "a number of concessions" to try to address the commission's concerns. See these pages on the Microsoft site for the company's explanation of its plan.

Update: Here's our story on the subject from Tuesday's newspaper, including comments from an interview with Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel: Microsoft reaches compromise in Europe

Microsoft target: BlackBerry

Microsoft showed plans for its long-awaited instantaneous mobile e-mail system this morning, describing its approach as superior to Research in Motion's rival BlackBerry devices. The company says its "Direct Push" system will send messages directly from an Exchange Server to a mobile device, without first going through an intermediate server such as those used in the BlackBerry system. Microsoft says the ability to avoid that server and other infrastructure should result in significant cost savings for the people who use its system, scheduled to be made available through free updates to Exchange Server 2003 and Windows Mobile 5.0 this fall.

Coverage: Reuters, Information Week, and CNet Asia.

ThinkPad goes Tablet

Leading up to the event, Microsoft has been relatively quiet about any news the company might make at its Tech Ed conference, which opens in Orlando with a speech by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer Monday morning.

But one subject that will be touted during the conference week is Lenovo's move to release the first-ever IBM ThinkPad-branded Tablet PC (pictured at right, click for a larger version.) See Monday morning's Microsoft Notebook for more details. Lenovo, you may recall, is the company that bought IBM's PC division, and analysts see the ThinkPad's entrance as a positive sign for Microsoft's Tablet PC initiative. Although Microsoft and Lenovo were quiet about their plans until now, it hasn't exactly been the best-kept secret.

There should be news from Microsoft's conference beyond that, but Microsoft Watch's Mary Jo Foley, for one, is expecting "nothing too glamorous."

Apple's big move

All eyes in the personal computer world will be on Apple CEO Steve Jobs Monday morning amid multiple reports that Apple will indeed be switching from IBM to Intel for the microprocessors in its Mac product line.

A similar report by the Wall Street Journal (see earlier post) was met with skepticism last month, but CNet News broke the news late last week that Apple is expected to make the announcement Monday at its Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, where Jobs will give a keynote address. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are both now confirming the news, citing industry executives.

There have been lots of interesting online discussions over the weekend about the potential implications of Apple shifting to the chipmaker best known for its role in Windows PCs. See, for example, posts and related comments on Slashdot, and Robert Scoble's blog.

One question is whether the modified version of OS X would run on existing Intel chips, potentially serving as an alternative operating system on hardware that would otherwise run on Windows. Another question is whether programs written for Windows could run on Macs. Reports the Wall Street Journal in its Monday story: The change "makes it at least theoretically possible that some Macintosh systems could more efficiently run Windows and application programs for that operating system, though it isn't clear that Apple intends to encourage that practice."

And the Houston Chronicle's Dwight Silverman raises another intriguing question: Could Apple's relationship with Hewlett-Packard, so far limited to the iPod, expand into a computer partnership as part of Apple's latest move?

About those dinosaurs ...

This tongue-in-cheek open letter from software developer Jeffrey McManus to Microsoft's Bill Gates is primarily about the company's decision to begin using a default XML file format in Microsoft Office. But in his P.S., McManus takes the opportunity to offer the Microsoft chairman some advice on the company's current Office advertising campaign. He writes: "Please find the people within your organization who thought it would be a good idea to create an ad campaign likening your customers to dinosaurs and kick them in the trousers." (Via Stephen O'Grady)

Xbox 360 widgets

Apple's new Tiger operating system includes a layer of mini-applications called widgets, and one of the widgets created by an outside programmer counts down to the release of a decidedly non-Apple product. The creator is also promising versions for Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Revolution.

Major Nelson, a.k.a. Microsoft's Larry Hryb, points out that someone has now created a slightly less cool but nonetheless interesting version for Windows computers. He also points out that the Xbox 360 release date anticipated by the widgets is merely an estimate. (Microsoft hasn't yet announced worldwide release dates, other than to say they will be before the holidays, although most people expect things to start with a U.S. release in November.)

Addendum: Barry, in the comments below, makes the good point that the phrase "decidedly non-Apple product" isn't exactly right, at this stage of the Xbox 360 development process. As widely reported when the console was unveiled last month, Xbox 360 game developers are using Apple Power Mac G5s until the actual console hardware is available to them. There are similarities between the IBM processors in the Macs and those that will be in the new Xbox console. See CNet's story on the subject for more background.

More on Office XML

Some additional reaction to Microsoft's decision to use XML as the default document format in the next version of Office:

• RedMonk analyst Stephen O'Grady questions why the company didn't use an existing XML format from the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, or OASIS. Microsoft's Jean Paoli, one of the co-creators of the XML 1.0 industry standard, offered an explanation in this BetaNews story. (Links via ZDNet.)

• Sun Microsystems' Tim Bray, another XML co-creator, calls Microsoft's move "a major achievement" for Microsoft and "a step forward" for its customers. But he qualifies his statement by pointing to some potential qualms about Microsoft's licensing arrangement. He also raises the OASIS issue cited above: "At one level, it’s sad that while the rest of the world (including, lately, Adobe and IBM) has been hard at work on one wide-open, shareable, portable, standardized XML office document format, Microsoft put their energy into inventing another one." (Via Frank Gilbane.)

• I've received a few e-mails from Mac Office users asking what this means for them. Rick Shaut of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit explains the situation in this post on his weblog.
  

Office XML truly 'open'?

"Microsoft Office Open XML Formats." That's the name the company is using for the new default document formats it plans to use in the next versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, due out next year. (See our story this morning for more details.) As the name implies, the format is based on XML. Outside software developers will get royalty-free licenses to the underlying guidelines, or schemas, to help them extract data from Office documents in their own programs.

But is it really an "open" format, with everything that implies? I quoted Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox on that subject in today's story. In short, he doesn't think so, and he expands on his reasoning this morning in the Microsoft Monitor weblog:

By my definition open means that some published standard, typically one governed by an independent group, makes a format easy to adopt and freely and ubiquitously distributable. Additionally, the format must maintain the integrity of the file as created by the author. JPEG is an excellent example of an accepted standard easily and widely supported. Most folks don't need to worry about the authoring program with JPEG, whether Adobe Photoshop, Corel PaintShop or Microsoft Picture It!. People saving images in JPEG are assured that they will look the same regardless of supporting program used to open the file. HTML is another example, as is XML. But XML's openness doesn't necessarily extend to a format. Raw XML and a XML format are not the same.

Microsoft contends the new formats are open because its proprietary XML schemas are published and available for license on a royalty-free basis. By my definition of open--and putting aside need for a standards body for a moment--that information would have to allow third parties to create products that could open Microsoft file formats exactly as how they were saved by the author. I haven't seen anything yet to suggest this would certainly be the case.

Additional coverage of Microsoft's planned format switch: Associated Press, Mac Observer, Slashdot, Microsoft Watch, CNet News.com, and InternetNews.com. Microsoft's Channel 9 has an interview on the subject with Brian Jones, a program manager on the Microsoft Word team.

Update: Brian Jones has his own blog about the format change, Ed Bott weighs in on the subject, and Nathan Weinberg rounds up the coverage, including links to Microsoft employee posts.

Mac mentality explained

David Pogue's readers weigh in on the New York Times columnist's recently published "Ground Rules for the Windows-Macintosh War" -- which included "Hate something for its failings, not for its success."

Responds one of Pogue's readers: "You're missing the point when it comes to Mac users' dislike of Microsoft. It's not jealousy of their great wealth, it's what they did to get it. I get most upset that no one cares about Microsoft's monopolistic practices of the past."

Symantec's Microsoft deal

Symantec Corp. is the latest company to license communications protocols from Microsoft under terms of the Redmond company's U.S. antitrust settlement. The deal was disclosed in an antitrust status report issued today by the U.S. Justice Department. (Download PDF here). The protocol licenses are meant to let competing server software work more effectively with versions of Windows for desktop computers. The deal is notable in part because Microsoft is increasingly becoming a direct Symantec competitor, by offering its own security software.