News Day

Latest preview showcases several features added to system

Microsoft Corp. released another "community technology preview" of Windows Vista, adding a number of new features to the preliminary version of the upcoming operating system.

Monday's preview added new security features and updated the program's on-screen appearance, giving a further sense for where the company is headed with the new Windows version.

The operating system is Microsoft's biggest moneymaker, used on most of the world's PCs.

It was the third such preview, issued for use and testing by software developers, information-technology professionals and others along those lines.

But Microsoft declined to give a date for the second beta release of Windows Vista, a more formal preliminary version that will also be made available to some end users.

The first beta was issued in July, and the second beta was originally expected this month, but the company said it won't have more details on its timing until early next year.

Microsoft has said a final version of Windows Vista will be released in the second half of 2006..

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Microsoft Corp. is counting on the online gaming capability and high-definition graphics of its Xbox 360 console to win a new following in Japan, a key market in its quest to unseat Sony Corp. as the dominant game console maker, a senior executive said on Friday.

Microsoft, which launched the Xbox 360 in Japan this week, has struggled hard to gain ground in that market against home-grown rivals Nintendo Co Ltd. and Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), whose PlayStation 2 console is the global best seller.

"We are up and running here," Microsoft's Xbox marketing chief Peter Moore told Reuters in an interview from Tokyo.

Microsoft, which was a distant third in Japan with its first Xbox, held a launch party for hard-core gamers in Tokyo's Shibuya, a trendy shopping and entertainment center.

"We think (Japan) is the springboard to Asia," said Moore, who added that he thinks Japanese gamers will take to its Xbox Live online game service that enables players to chat, compete, try game demos and shop.

Moore said that as of three hours into the Saturday launch, the company appeared to have sold several hundred units at the store he attended.

Microsoft is selling only the premium Xbox 360 package in Japan. It is priced at 37,900 yen and includes a removable hard drive that lets owners play games written for the first Xbox.

The world's biggest software maker sold fewer than 500,000 of its original Xbox consoles in Japan, where Sony is estimated to have 80 percent share.

Microsoft is expected to easily surpass that number with its follow-on console, which will have the market all to itself for several months while Sony and Nintendo ready their next-generation PlayStation 3 and Revolution consoles for launch next year.

Moore would not say how many units were released in Japan, adding it was too early in the day to tell whether stores would sell out. Meanwhile, supplies in the United States and Europe disappeared quickly and remain in short supply.

A spokeswoman for Japanese electronics retailer Bic Camera said it expects to have remaining stock at its main store.

In 1951, the United States Military Academy at West Point was rocked by scandal when it was discovered that 83 cadets, many of them members of the academy's prestigious football team, were involved in an academic cheating ring.

The revelation was a particularly hard blow to West Point, which prided itself on its cadet code of honor: "A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal." And the students caught up in the scandal included many young men with promising military careers ahead of them, including the son of the school's hard-nosed football coach, Earl "Red" Blaik.

The events leading up to the scandal and its aftermath are examined in CodeBreakers, an ESPN original movie making its debut at 9 p.m. today.

The film was produced by Orly Adelson, who previously produced the ESPN movies 3, about the life of NASCAR racing great Dale Earnhardt, and Hustle, about Pete Rose's fall from grace. She also produced the ESPN weekly drama series Tilt, about the world of professional poker, and Playmakers, about professional football.

"For me, this movie (CodeBreakers) was very special, because I was an officer, too, in the Israeli Army," she said. "It's about morality, it's about dignity, it's about the code of honor - all the things that are always in the forefront of what we think of the military." MOre

Logitech and Skype have announced a tie-up, bringing free video calling to Skype users across the globe.

Skype Video, which includes a full-screen video mode, has been released to the Skype community as part of the Skype 2.0 beta launched yesterday. The latest version of Skype includes video calling, and is designed to work with Microsoft Outlook. Skype 2.0 is initially available, only for Windows XP.

Skype's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology enables users to talk to each other free-of-charge, via a headset or microphone. Cheap calls to landlines and mobile phones are also possible and now with video calling integrated into Skype 2.0, users can see each other as well.

Logitech and Skype have worked together, to certify Logitech QuickCam webcams and PC headsets with the newly announced Skype Video feature, with a view towards providing a superior experience for Skype users.

Both companies will engage in world-wide joint marketing of Skype Video and Logitech webcams and headsets, targeting Logitech customers as well as the Skype community.

Skype gets into video

The video features won't be enough to make it a serious business tool, say analysts

Placing video calls over the Internet with the help of a Web cam is nothing revolutionary and is already available in competing products from the likes of AOL, MSN and Yahoo, but Skype is hoping to bring the same P2P magic it brought to voice calls. Though Skype was not a pioneer in offering free VoIP calls, it's become one of the biggest brands in the arena, with more than 58 million registered users.

The move to video was largely in response to Skype users' demands, according to James Bilefield, vice-president of global business development at Skype. He told silicon.com: "We sensed a frustration with users — 'You did a great job with voice, can you help us out with video too?'."

Skype Technologies, the Luxemburg company famous for its free Internet telephone calls, last week launched an update that brings us closer to an elusive technological dream: the videophone.

The Skype 2.0 software offers the ability to see as well as hear computer-to-computer callers — provided that both parties have webcams.

AMItABH Bachchan — the superhero whose fans span many countries, many communities, many age groups. The smallest ailment affecting the star has the nation in a frenzy. Which is why when the Big B underwent a surgery at Lilavati Hospital, all hell broke loose. But somethings are preordained. Like the stars in Amitabh’s case. The same astrological situation that had bogged down Amitabh in 1982 during the making of Coolie, has returned. The planetary configuration is not favouring the superstar of the millennium. It was mass hysteria in its fullest form! The sudden illness of Indian cinema's biggest superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who was earlier this week hospitalised with stomach pain at Delhi's Escorts Heart Institute and later at Mumbai's Lilawati hospital where he underwent a major surgery for inflammation and perforation of the small and large intestine, seemed to have shaken a nation for whom the Big B epitomised Bollywood, one of the two favourite obsessions of its people (the other being cricket).

The huge crowd of people that gathered outside the Delhi's Escorts hospital on Monday and, later, outside Mumbai's Lilawati hospital, had to be seen to be believed and symbolised the Superstar Of the Millennium's "immense hold over the public psyche"

The condition of megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who underwent a surgery for an intestinal problem, is steadily improving.

Doctors at Lilavati hospital say that he could even be discharged from hospital in about a week.

On Saturday, nasty smses about the actor's health had upset his family. To clarify the status about his health, an impromptu press conference was organized.

The actor reportedly read a newspaper and even chatted with the nurses for a while.

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 1 : Chip giant Intel Corp. said on Thursday it named Justin Rattner chief technology officer and Eric Kim chief marketing officer.

Rattner, 57, is senior fellow and director of the corporate technology group. He oversees Intel's microprocessor, communications and systems technology labs and Intel Research. He has been with the company since 1973.

Kim, 51, was also promoted to senior vice president and general manager of the sales and marketing group. Along with Anand Chandrasekher, who also was made a senior vice president, Kim is responsible for the company's sales and marketing operations worldwide. Kim joined Intel in 2004 from Samsung.

The two will be in charge of global sales, which hit $34.2 billion in 2004 and are expected to rise about 15 percent this year amid solid sales of personal computers and laptops.

"The creation of the CMO position certainly points to the increased importance of marketing and the focus that Intel has on marketing platforms," spokesman Tom Beermann said.

Justin Rattner, an engineer with a 22-year history at the Santa Clara, California-based company, was named chief technology officer in charge of running Intel's multibillion-dollar research operations.

Rattner replaces Patrick Gelsinger, who left the position about a year ago to become general manager of Intel's digital enterprise group.

Intel shares rose nearly 2 percent to $27.18 on Nasdaq as signs of strong demand for computers and consumer gadgets fueled widespread enthusiasm for semiconductor stocks