Softpedia claims that Windows Home Server should be going gold in either August or September, just 1-2 months away. They base their assumption on the fact that the Home Server add-on contest, Code2Fame, ends August 31, and that it is supposed to coincide with the final release, as well as the Release Candidate of Home Server that came out 23 days ago. Not sure how right they are, but it could be.
I can’t wait to see Home Server systems being sold, and to try it out myself. My wife’s new PC is almost ready to go live, and I’m going to have it run half as a Media Center, half as a Home Server. Should be a fun exercise.
July 5th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Home Server, Server, Windows |
2 comments
Microsoft has made some announcements that point to problems with the Xbox division.
First off, Microsoft acknowledged the Three Rings Of Death problem, calling it “unacceptable”, offering a hugely extended warranty for consoles with the fatal error. All new 360s have a one-year warranty, but 3-ring consoles receive a special 3-year warranty from date of purchase, complete with free shipping. The cost of this new program will be $1.05-1.15 billion for the previous quarter, a major hit to the stock and the bottom line.
Microsoft is doing a very good thing for its customers, finally acknowledging a problem and fixing it for three years, at a great cost to itself. The 360 shipped with a major manufacturing defect, and they are paying over a billion dollars to repair it. I’m thrilled that Microsoft is doing this, but saddened that the company has to take such a major blow. Thanks to this, the Xbox division is going to have a hard time making a profit in the forseeable future.
If you have had to pay to repair your console, ever, for ring of death errors, you will receive a full refund. What about customers like me, who did the smart thing and paid for an extended warranty? It looks like we’re screwed, but I will be calling Best Buy for a refund, and let you know how it goes.
Division President Robbie Bach said, “this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologize”. VP Peter Moore went further, saying “We haven’t done right by our customers, and for that I apologize… We listened, and we’re going to make it right”. It’s clear that they have listened to a recent outpouring by the independent media and their customers, demanding an explanation, and they have decided to go all-out and do the right thing. I applaud Microsoft, they have truly done right here.
Microsoft also announced it fell short of its sales projections for the console, shipping 11.6 million units by end of June. It had previously projected sales by that point of 12 million consoles. No word on if the difference between the word “sales” and “shipped” is intentional, but if it is, that announcement is significantly worse than just a miss of 400,000 units.
July 5th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Xbox 360, Xbox, General |
one comment
Microsoft sent out an email inviting closed beta testers to test out Windows Live OneCare 2.0, according to LiveSide. I am in the 2.0 beta, which is supposed to be confidential, but this website decided to leak anyway, including a link to the installer. They say that 2.0 includes these features:
- Multi PC management - designate a hub PC and then add additional PCs to your OneCare circle using a common Windows Live ID. You can then see the status of the other PCs within the group.
- Printer Sharing - share your printer with all the PCs in your OneCare circle
- OneCare Online Photo Backup - paid storage is available online for photo backups (we’re hearing 10GB but that could change by the end of the beta)
- Securing wireless networks - if your router is supported OneCare 2.0 will allow you to secure your wireless network.
- X64 support.
This blog has a screenshot of the email, but kept things confidential, as they are supposed to be. The OneCare beta is free and not recommended for subscribers. For some reason, members of the “perpetual beta” (which I am also) have to uninstall, then install the 2.0 beta.
The beta 2.0 installer actuall installs OneCare 1.6, but the version you install is “special”, and will turn into a 2.0 install in a few days.
July 5th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
OneCare, Live, Windows, Security |
no comments
The Word team found a useful add-on for Word 2007 that adds a new “Get Started” tab to the Ribbon. If you have installed Word 2007 on a system used by someone who might be confused or overwhelmed by the new interface, you can use this add-on to give them a bunch of resources to aid them in understanding how everything works. The buttons on the tab open up different websites, with guides showing the changes between Word 2003 and 2007, demos, group discussions, training and more.
July 5th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
General |
no comments
