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Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday launched two new programs that allow people to place calls right from the Outlook e-mail program, but analysts say businesses won’t throw away their reliable office phone systems until the software maker’s tools are just as good.

The new programs build on server and desktop software Microsoft introduced in 2005 that wove both instant messaging and indicators of “presence” _ when a user is online, busy or logged off _ into other communications programs in the Office suite.

The latest versions of Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 add voice calling and video conferencing. Computer users looking at an e-mail in Outlook can see whether the sender and other recipients are online and available to talk. With one click, a user can invite the whole group to an IM chat, a call or a video conference.

Communicator, a desktop application, also shows users whether their contacts are online, much as an IM buddy list does. Users also can see their contacts’ presence on Windows smart phones and new desk and speakerphones that plug into Ethernet jacks or PCs.

Based on whether someone is on the phone or has a meeting scheduled in Outlook, for example, their presence suggests to colleagues whether to call, e-mail or IM.

The changes are “as profound as the shift from typewriters to word processing software,” said Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, at a launch event Tuesday in San Francisco.

Until recently, corporate telephone networks were separate from networks connecting office PCs to the Internet.

But as vendors started using the same underlying technology, and software-based Internet calling programs like eBay Inc.’s Skype gained traction, “traditional” phone system makers and software companies have begun converging. And both kinds of companies are working to mesh calling, conferencing, e-mail and instant messaging.

“Everybody at this point gets it,” said Gartner research analyst Bernard Elliot. “These people have come into it from different backgrounds, but they really all have a common vision that you could bring it together.”

On the one hand, Microsoft continues to forge partnerships with telephone system providers like Nortel Networks Corp. and Avaya Inc., and has said it will work with Cisco Systems Inc., which has a “unified communications” solution of its own.

But executives also said Tuesday that they expect business customers to eventually give up their traditional PBX office phone systems.

“Three, five years down the road, (companies will) go completely towards a software-based (solution) from Microsoft rather than buying a PBX,” said Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft’s business division.

Microsoft contends its unified communications set-up will save companies money on telephone hardware and maintenance and cut employee travel expenses.

Phone system providers don’t necessarily see the future in the same way. In an interview, Louis D’Ambrosio, Avaya’s chief executive officer, said Microsoft remains a partner and its programs don’t compete directly with software that Avaya is developing. While customers may install Microsoft’s programs, he said, they will also continue to buy infrastructure from Avaya and use it for sophisticated conferencing and other phone features.

Analysts say Microsoft’s solution has the potential to be a real player in this next generation of office communications.

Microsoft “is a real challenger,” said Forrester research analyst Henry Dewing. Companies including Cisco and Avaya have their own efforts on the desktop, but he said Microsoft, whose software already runs most of the world’s personal computers, is changing how people communicate faster than efforts by other vendors.

Yet traditional phone equipment companies retain advantages of reliability and scale.

“People pick up the telephone, they expect to hear dial tone,” Dewing said.

The Internet and corporate servers don’t always work. Casual home users may be willing to accept a scratchy Skype connection, but business users are not. And he said Microsoft’s system will have to prove it can handle the same call volume at the same quality.

AP

Apple said on Tuesday its next-generation operating system, Mac OS X “Leopard”, will go on sale October 26 for $A158.

Apple’s online store is taking pre-orders.

Apple had planned to ship Leopard in June, but said in April it needed to divert resources so it could launch the much-anticipated iPhone on time.

Leopard is Apple’s sixth major upgrade to Mac OS X since the desktop operating system debuted in 2001.

Its “Boot Camp” feature lets users install a copy of Windows on Intel-based Macs, though the two operating systems can’t run at the same time.

Microsoft launched Vista, its first major overhaul to the Windows operating system in five years, in February.

A version of Leopard for servers will launch at the same time as the consumer version, Apple said.

Apple shares fell $US2.06 to $US164.92 in premarket electronic trading.

AP

Thousands of bloggers including a European Commissioner traded tips on Monday about how to confront climate change and other environmental problems in an internet blitz.

Organisers of the Oct. 15 UN-backed “Blog Action Day” said about 15,800 sites had signed up and were offering ideas to millions of people via blogs, or online diaries, ranging from planting more trees to how to recycle plastics.

“Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future,” according to http://www.blogactionday.com.

The blogs are a new sign of concern about the environment, reflected in everything from a UN summit about climate change last month to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to former US. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel on Friday.

“There are big differences in national levels of environmental awareness - though my impression is that the level is increasing pretty much everywhere at the moment,” EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas wrote in his blog.

The UN Environment Programme said that “by uniting the world’s blogging community, we can reach a combined audience of millions to raise awareness of the environment, get people thinking and trigger a global debate.”

UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall said people often felt overwhelmed by global environmental problems - bloggers such as one called “Dumblittleman.com” could help with their tips on recycling household items such as blue jeans or eyeglasses.

Jeans, for instance, can be cut up and used in other clothing. Glasses can sometimes be re-used, often by people in developing nations, if handed in to a specialised recycler.

“This is the first blog action day of its kind. Hopefully it can go from strength to strength,” Nuttall said. Any revenues were meant to go to green charities.

Fielding online questions, Dimas said new EU members Romania and Bulgaria would have to invest in curbing pollution to meet EU standards. And he said the EU would consider going it alone if U.N. rules on pollution from ships seemed too lax.

Among other blogs, Copyblogger.com said that “tiny actions can save the world” and encouraged people to shift to lightbulbs that used less energy, or to quit a job requiring a long commute and instead start up a home-based business.

Others included more practical sites such as “ask the career counsellor” or “Indian cookery podcast”.

The U.N. climate panel said this year it was at least 90 percent likely that human activities, led by burning fossil fuels, were stoking warming that would lead to more heatwaves, droughts, floods and rising seas.

Reuters

Online video leader YouTube rolled out long-awaited technology to automatically remove copyrighted clips, hoping to placate movie and television studios fed up with the website’s persistent piracy problems.

The filtering tools are designed so the owners of copyrighted video can block their material from appearing on YouTube, which has become a pop culture phenomenon in its two-year existence. They also give the owners of copyrighted video the option to sell ads around their material if they want the clips remain available on YouTube.

To find and remove copyrighted music, YouTube already uses separate filtering tools developed by Los Gatos-based Audible Magic Corp.

YouTube’s previous lack of copyright protections for video content prompted Viacom Inc to sue it for $US1 billion ($A1.11 billion) for showing thousands of clips the New York-based company owned.

As YouTube’s traffic soared, movie and TV studios became increasingly frustrated with the rampant piracy fuelling its popularity, though YouTube said it has followed copyright laws by removing protected video upon request.

Studios’ exasperation with YouTube escalated as other popular web sites introduced filtering technology in recent months to prevent copyrighted material from being uploaded.

YouTube’s critics have argued that the site turned a blind eye to flagrant piracy so it could show more appealing material to build its audience, and pump up its value. Google prized San Bruno-based YouTube so much it paid $US1.76 billion ($A1.96 billion) to buy the site 11 months ago.

YouTube has been working with Google engineers ever since to develop the tools needed to flag copyrighted video, said David King, a YouTube product manager.

Google and YouTube executives began promising the new copyright protection technology six months ago.

“It has taken until now to get it right,” King said Monday.

It’s still too early to tell how YouTube’s new filtering system will affect the 7-month-old Viacom suit, said Mike Fricklas, Viacom’s general counsel. “We are delighted that Google appears to be stepping up to its responsibility and end the practice of infringement,” he said today.

YouTube now needs the cooperation of copyright owners for its filtering system to work, because the technology requires copyright holders to provide copies of the video they want to protect so YouTube can compare those digital files to material being uploaded to its web site.

This means that movie and TV studios will have to provide decades of copyright material if they don’t want it to appear on YouTube, or spend even more time scanning the site for violations.

“We really need the content community to work with us,” King said. “We need them to help us help them.”

Without the help of copyright owners, YouTube has no way of knowing whether material has been legally or illegally posted to the site, King said, because copyrighted video is sometimes provided by the legal owner for promotional purposes.

But YouTube’s critics have long derided this defence, arguing that it doesn’t take a legal expert to spot some of the pirated material cropping on the web site. “If there has been a clip from ‘American Idol’ posted to the site by Joe Schmo in Oklahoma instead of Fox, you can be pretty sure it’s not supposed to be there,” said Rob Gould, vice president of marketing for Broadcaster.com, a rival video site.

YouTube said it has been encouraged by early tests of its filtering system with nine content providers. Only two of the test participants, Walt Disney Co and Time Warner Inc, were willing to be identified.

Messages left with Walt Disney and Time Warner weren’t immediately returned today.

The system found 18 copyright violations over a limited 10-day trial of the filtering tools involving one of the test participants, King said.

AP

Maybe Sony should start watching one of television’s many home makeover shows.

When those groups redo a house, there’s rarely anything left of the original by the show’s heartwarming conclusion.

Sony seems to have taken the easy way out with its latest PlayStation Portable. Its revision adds a few nifty features but leaves most things unchanged from the original PSP released more than two years ago.

You could almost feel the excitement draining out of this summer’s E3 Media and Business Summit after Sony announced the new PSP with amazing new features like … get ready … wait for it … television output!

That’s about it, really. Now we can watch all those games and Universal Media Disc movies scaled onto a giant TV screen.

On the upside, the new PSP comes with double the original’s 32 megabytes of internal memory, a spacious 1-gigabyte memory card and a slimmer design that shaves off a few ounces.

But it has the same 333 megahertz processor, even tinnier speakers than before and a flimsier plastic door to load the system’s proprietary UMDs. And the continued lack of a right analog control means first-person shooter games are still nearly impossible to play on the PSP.

At least the wireless on/off switch was moved from the lower left side to the top, where it’s harder to hit accidentally in mid-game.

The video output also has a few glitches. It’s not really worth buying the $US19.99 cable to hook it up to your TV, unless your set has progressive scan because older interlace scan sets can only show pictures and movies, not PSP video games. And I was disappointed with the visuals on my 37-inch HD set, because games weren’t in high-def and only filled a small rectangle in the centre of the screen.

Beyond that, if Sony’s touting the PSP for its TV output, why didn’t it toss in the cable for free?

Better to stick with the PSP’s own sharp display, still a gorgeous sight when polished clear of fingerprints, which glaringly mar the mirrorlike surface.

While I’m picking on Sony, it’s worth noting that the company isn’t alone in marketing minor tweaks as new products. Nintendo last year redesigned the original Nintendo DS handheld into a colorful fashion accessory called the DS Lite. Better looking, for sure, but hardly a game-changing experience.

Nintendo has been revamped, repainted and redesigned the Game Boy many times over the years, too, culminating with the Game Boy Micro, a device so small you could probably play it better with tweezers - and a microscope - than your fingers.

The updated PSP is available now, either in no-frills black for $US169.99 or in one of two entertainment packs for $US30 more.

I tested the Limited Edition Daxter Entertainment Pack, which comes with a 1-gigabyte memory stick, the Daxter video game and the five-episode Family Guy: The Freakin’ Sweet Collection.

Another entertainment pack was released Tuesday. The Star Wars Battlefront PSP Entertainment Pack includes the same accessories and a white PSP with Sith Lord Darth Vader’s image on the back.

The new PSPs seem like a hard sell for existing owners and a curious choice for would-be newcomers who probably passed on this product the first time it went on sale in 2005.

So, yes, a fresh coat of paint certainly helps. I just wish Sony had hired one of those TV demolition teams and brought us something really new.

AP

Chalk another one up for the hackers - the iPhoneSimFree team has come out with a way to breathe new life into iPhones that were “bricked” by Apple’s latest software update.

It’s likely future updates from Apple will again disable iPhones that were hacked to support third-party applications and non-AT&T mobile carriers, but the iPhoneSimFree software upgrade, released today, means Australians can once again use their imported iPhones.

Swarms of Australians bought the device from US stores after hacks were developed to unlock it for use on Australian mobile networks. The touch screen iPod/phone hybrid isn’t due for official release in Australia until next year.

An iPhone firmware update, released by Apple late last month, had permanently disabled hacked handsets, which incensed iPhone buyers who were effectively left with $US399 ($443) paperweights.

Meanwhile, a civil lawsuit was this week filed by a Californian man against Apple, accusing it of creating a monopoly by barring US customers from choosing a service provider other than the AT&T network. Apple struck a five-year deal with AT&T, selling it exclusive rights to carry the iPhone in the US.

The man, Damian Fernandez, in court documents alleged that by releasing the 1.1.1 software update, which “bricked” unlocked iPhones, “Apple punished consumers for exercising their rights to unlock their iPhones”.

Fernandez is seeking to expand the case into a class action suit, but that may not be necessary now that version 1.6 of the iPhoneSimFree software is out.

“We are very proud to announce, (after some very difficult and lengthy hardware hackery), we were able to retrieve the necessary info to create the world first 1.1.1 unlock solution,” the team announced triumphantly on its website.

“This now means that SimFree v1.6 release, is now capable of completely restoring/repairing software unlocked ‘bricked’ iPhone.”

iPhoneSimFree was the first team of hackers to release an iPhone unlock that could be performed by the user entirely through a software program.

The commercial software is sold through a worldwide network of resellers for between about $80 and $130, but those who already bought the software do not have to pay for the upgrade.

However, a rival team of iPhone hackers, the iPhone Dev Team, has urged bricked iPhone owners and prospective iPhone buyers to hold off on using the iPhoneSimFree software, as free unlocking software was “coming soon”.

Asher Moses

An action-adventure game, “Assassin’s Creed,” that lets players control a Crusades-era hitman stalking and killing his targets, is gearing up to be one of the biggest titles this holiday.

With “Halo 3″ now in stores, players and developers alike are keeping a close eye on November, the month during which Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” and some of its biggest competitors will hit the shelves.

The game, which will be available for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC, is generating lots of buzz.

Video game Web site IGN.com counts it among “our most anticipated games of 2007.” A trailer released in May was downloaded more than 1.3 million times in less than a week.

Ubisoft invested in realism for the game, and it shows.

Beautifully rendered visions of cities like Jerusalem and Damascus circa 1191 are no accident. The company hired an Oxford historian to help with detail and brought in a consultant who worked on the film “Kingdom of Heaven,” which was set during the same historical period.

The game takes place as the Third Crusade rolls across the Holy Land. The player takes on the role of Altair, an assassin tasked with taking out targets on both sides of the conflict with a mixture of acrobatics and swashbuckling skill.

“But there’s also kind of this hidden sci-fi aspect to it which they (Ubisoft) have been playing very, very close to the vest,” says Jeff Haynes, PlayStation editor at IGN.com.

Ubisoft has kept quiet about the futuristic touches, like the symbols that envelop some characters.

The developers also spent a lot of time making the crowds in the game interactive and often crucial to success.

“We wanted to create a crowd that not only was believable, — living and breathing and did things that were interesting — but also created gameplay,” Jade Raymond, the producer on Assassin’s Creed, said in an interview.

This has the potential to lead to unique and unpredictable scenarios and that, combined with the promise of a deep plot, has anticipation running high.

Raymond admits trying to live up to the hype can be intimidating.

“I was pretty worried for a while, to tell you the truth, just because you never know,” she said. However, after presenting a near-final version of the game to testers and game media, she said the response has been universally positive.

“So that’s reassured me a little bit,” she said.

IGN.com’s Haynes said there were some concerns earlier this year about the controls but these have improved since then.

“I think it’s still one of the bigger titles,” he said of the game. “I have a feeling that it’s going to be one those games that will probably wind up surprising people, especially when they get their hands on it.”

Wojtek Dabrowski

For more than two years, a large group of engineers at Google have been working in secret on a mobile-phone project.

As word of their efforts has trickled out, expectations in the tech world for what has been called the Google phone, or GPhone, have risen, the way they do for Apple loyalists before a speech by Steve Jobs.

But the GPhone is not likely to be the second coming of the iPhone and Google’s goals are very different from Apple’s.

Google wants to extend its dominance of online advertising to the mobile internet, a small market today but one that is expected to grow rapidly. It hopes to persuade wireless carriers and mobile-phone makers to offer phones based on its software, according to people briefed on the project. The cost of those phones may be partly subsidised by advertising that appears on their screens.

Google is expected to unveil the fruit of its mobile efforts later this year, and phones based on its technology could be available next year.

Some analysts say that the Google project’s effect on the wireless industry is not likely to be as profound, at least initially, as that of Apple’s iPhone, whose revolutionary look and features have redefined consumer expectations for mobile phones.

The GPhone, if it does come out, will help Google with distribution for their online services.

At the core of Google’s phone efforts is an operating system for mobile phones that will be based on open-source Linux software, according to industry executives familiar with the project.

In addition, Google is expected to develop mobile versions of its applications that go well beyond the mobile search and map software it offers today. Those applications may include a web browser to run on mobile phones.

In short, Google is not creating a gadget to rival the iPhone, but rather creating software that will be an alternative to Windows Mobile from Microsoft and other operating systems, which are built into phones sold by many manufacturers. And unlike Microsoft, Google is not expected to charge phone makers a licensing fee for the software.

Industry analysts say that Google, which has little experience with complex hardware, faces significant challenges.

“Running a website and a search engine is one thing,” says Weide of IDC. “But developing a phone is a whole different game. It will not be easy for them.”

The mobile-phone project at Google is built in part around Android, a small mobile software company it acquired in 2005. An Android co-founder, Andy Rubin, had founded Danger, which created the popular T-Mobile Sidekick smart phone.

Some analysts say there are no guarantees that Google will be able to replicate its online success in the mobile world.

Microsoft declined to comment on potential competition from Google.

The New York Times

Nintendo Co Ltd said on Wednesday it would start selling its “Wii Fit” home fitness game in Japan in time for the critical year-end shopping season, sending its shares to a record high.

Nintendo’s announcement comes just a day after Sony Corp said it would cut the price of its PlayStation 3 by 10 percent in Japan and launch a new, lower-priced PS3 model, to battle Nintendo’s dominance.

The new game, which goes on sale on December 1 for 8,800 yen ($75), features a pressure-sensing mat called the “Wii Balance Board”, which looks like a set of bathroom scales and can sense when a person moves and leans, enabling players to “head” virtual soccer balls and experience ski jumping on a TV screen.

The board can also be used for such activities as yoga and aerobics.

The new software is likely to be the next major sales driver for Nintendo’s Wii game console after initial demand was stirred by popularity of “Wii Sports” software, which lets gamers play a virtual tennis match in the living room, analysts have said.

The Wii has far outsold Sony’s PS3 since the two consoles were launched late last year as Nintendo’s strategy to offer easy-to-play but innovative games expanded the gaming population beyond young males to women and the elderly.

“This is our most important product for this coming year-end,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told a news conference. “With ‘Wii Fit’, we will be aiming to expand the definition of videogames as well as our user base.”

Sony has packed its cutting-edge technology such as a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player in the PS3, enabling lifelike graphics.

But the advanced functions have driven up manufacturing costs and made it difficult and time-consuming for software creators to develop PS3 games.

Shares in Nintendo closed up 4.9 percent at 65,800 yen, a record closing high, while Sony fell 0.7 percent to 5,780 yen and the Nikkei average was up 0.1 percent.

Nintendo, locked in battle with Sony and Microsoft Corp in the global videogame industry, said “Wii Fit” will be launched in overseas markets in 2008.

($1=117.18 Yen)
Reuters

Google on Tuesday set out to profit from its 1.65-billion-dollar purchase of YouTube by letting websites use advertising-laced videos and then share in the revenues.

Google’s “video units” program enables publishers to embed YouTube videos on their websites using a customized player and then make money from overlay text ads that fade in and out as videos play.

The move is Google’s initial foray into squeezing money from YouTube, which it bought last year in a stock deal, and marks the first time the US Internet titan is serving up content along with ads.

“Nowadays, website publishers realize that getting people to visit your website is only half of the equation,” Google product marketing manager Christine Lee wrote in a posting at the company’s website.

“Growing your audience is important, but keeping your audience engaged and staying on your site longer is just as important, if not more so.”

Ads are matched to video content and revenues are shared with website publishers as well as Google partners that provide video content, according to Lee.

Google said partners providing video content include TV Guide Broadband, Expert Village, Mondo Media, lonelygirl15, Extreme Elements, and Ford Models.

Video units are available in the US for English language websites but the program will be expanded in coming months, according to Google.

AFP