Microsoft plans to ease format rules

Microsoft said on Monday that it would seek approval to make the software formats behind its Office programs an "open standard" that it would license free to competitors, partners and developers.

The New York Times reports (22 November) that Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, said some pressure had been brought to bear on the company in recent years by members of the European Union and by the European Commission, asking it to be more accommodating of open standards.

Open standards are publicly available software or hardware specifications that provide a common method of achieving a particular goal. Under the change, the so-called Office Open XML format could be used by others to make applications and tools that work with Microsoft's popular Office document programs.

The newspaper reports that Microsoft Office is the best-selling package of business software, but many people complain that they are unable to customise the software for their specific business needs. Or, they say, they need to exchange documents with other word-processing or spreadsheet applications that cannot translate Office documents.

According to the NYT., Microsoft said it was putting the format through a "fast track" process that could result in approval next year by the International Organisation for Standardisation, well in advance of the arrival of its next Office version, code-named Office 12, at the end of 2006. The company finished the first full trial version of Office 12 this month.

Some analysts said Monday's move was an attempt to pacify some parts of the customer base for Microsoft Office, which is the company's biggest source of revenue after its Windows operating system software. Some buyers, especially governments, have considered alternatives like Sun Microsystem's StarOffice word processing programs.

The State of Massachusetts, for instance, decided this fall to use a rival document format supported by Sun and IBM called OpenDocument, although the decision is not final and has been embroiled in its own political controversy.

The newspaper reports that Microsoft said the application was being supported by several partners and customers, including Apple Computer, Intel, Toshiba, Barclays Bank and the British Library.

{mospagebreaktitle=Apple iTunes into top ten music retail chart}Apple iTunes into top ten music retail chart

Apple's iTunes Music Store is now one of the US' top ten leading music retailers, market watcher NPD has claimed.

The Register reports (22 November) that NPD based its chart on unit sales made during Q3, counting every 12 downloaded tracks as the equivalent of a CD purchase. Apple's online shop is in seventh place, up from position 14, which it held in Q3 2004.

ITMS is the only dedicated download provider in the top ten, which also includes online retailers and bricks'n'mortar stores. It's no great surprise, says The Register, to see US retail giants Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target in the top three slots, positions they have retained year on year.

The Register says that Amazon.com likewise kept its fourth-placing, ahead of fifth-placed online retailer For Your Entertainment (FYE), up from its Q3 2004 position, ten. It pushed Circuit City into sixth place.

The highest-placed music specialist, Tower Records, was pushed from seventh place into eighth by ITMS. Sam Goody, also a specialist, fell from fifth place to ninth. Books retailer Borders took ten place, down a rung on its Q3 2004 placing.

The Register reports that Apple said it has shipped more than 30 million iPods to date. In October, it said ITMS had sold more than 600 million downloads worldwide.

{mospagebreaktitle=Europe's telcos united on anti-patent laws}Europe's telcos united on anti-patent laws

Vodafone, Orange, T-mobile and other big telcos are joining up to tell Europe's main standards body to tighten up its rules on intellectual property.

The Register reports (22 November) that the telcos will tell the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, the body behind the GSM standard, that current rules leave companies at risk of "excessive" demands for royalty payments. The group warns that the benefits of standardisation are at risk unless rules are changed.

According to the publication, the European Commission has already asked ETSI to sort out rules to stop members carrying out a "patent ambush" - where one company gets its technology sneakily included in a standard before sending out large invoices to companies forced to use its technology.

Mobile handset makers complained last month that Qualcomm used its 3G patents in this way.

The group wants ETSI to set a cap on maximum royalty payments because failure, reports The Register.

{mospagebreaktitle=Vienna move to open source going well}Vienna move to open source going well

The city of Vienna's move to open source is going well but will never embrace every desktop machine, according to a report in The register (22 November).

The Register says that Vienna's IT director Erwin Gillich told the publication: "It's all going well. We carried out a study two years ago looking at how many desktop machines we could move to Linux. The percentage is higher now but still not 100 per cent." Gillich said the council would ignore some desktop machines which would be too difficult to move to Linux. Gillich said some applications would not work properly on Linux.

Gillich told The Register: "SAP's Business Warehouse needs Microsoft Excel to work properly and our electronic filing system is not totally able to run on Linux."

The publication says that, although the move to the Linux operating system is going slowly, interest in applications, specifically Open Office, is growing faster. Some 2,500 users are now running Open Office against 200 running the Linux operating system.

Vienna's IT department charges users a maintenance or service fee rather than a licence fee. Gillich said charges for Microsoft and Linux were the same because the amount of maintenance required was the same.

Charges vary according to type of machine and could be as high as €1,500 a year. Users moving to Open Office get a €62 discount, and those running it on Linux get an extra €31 discount, The register reports.

Vienna is using its own version of the Debian distro for the project.

{mospagebreaktitle=Exploit code unpicks IE flaw}Exploit code unpicks IE flaw

Hackers have created a potent exploit for a six-month old vulnerability in Internet Explorer which was previously believed to be only a Denial of Service risk.

The Register reports (22 November) that a fresh exploit posted on computerterrorism.com proves that the security bug can be exploited to gain system access, even on systems running Windows XP with Service Pack 2. The flaw stems from a failure by IE to properly handle requests to the window() object.

According to The Register's report, successful exploitation involves tricking a Windows user running IE into visiting a maliciously constructed website contain hostile JavaScript code. Users of both IE 5.5 and 6.x are potentially at risk. "Currently, the only way to protect against exploitation of this vulnerability is by disabling active scripting or by using another browser," said Thomas Kristensen, CTO of security notification firm Secunia, reports The Register.

{mospagebreaktitle=Intel and Micron plan flash-memory venture}Intel and Micron plan flash-memory venture

The Intel Corporation, the leading semiconductor maker, and Micron Technology have just announced a joint venture to manufacture NAND flash-memory chips in an effort to tap into one of the chip industry's fastest- growing segments.

The New York Times reports (22 November) that the rising demand for NAND flash memory is being driven by the popularity of portable music players like the Apple iPod, digital cameras and other consumer devices.

According to the newspaper, Intel and Micron have agreed initially to contribute approximately US$1.2 billion each in cash, notes and assets to the new company, which will be called IM Flash Technologies. The companies will each contribute an additional US$1.4 billion over the next three years, followed by additional investments to expand the operation.

Micron holds roughly 3.5 percent of the total NAND market, making it the fifth-largest supplier.

{mospagebreaktitle=Sony BMG sued over CD's with anti-piracy software}Sony BMG sued over CD's with anti-piracy software

In separate legal actions, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an influential digital rights advocacy group in California, and the Texas attorney general filed lawsuits against the music publisher Sony BMG, contending that the company violated consumers' rights and traded in malicious software.

The New York Times reports (22 November) that they are the latest in a series of blows to the company after technology bloggers disclosed this month that in its efforts to curb music piracy, Sony BMG had embedded millions of its music CD's with software designed to take aggressive steps to limit copying, but which also exposed users' computers to potential security risks.

The newspaper says that the copy-protection software, called XCP, was bought by Sony BMG from a British company, First 4 Internet, and was installed on 52 recordings, totaling nearly five million discs, according to the music publisher, which is jointly owned by Sony and Bertelsmann.

In response to the concerns, the company posted a public apology on its web site last week, began recalling the affected CD's from retail and warehouse shelves and offered restriction-free versions of the CD's - as well as MP3 files - to consumers in exchange for purchased CD's carrying the XCP software.

According to the NYT., the class-action suit filed by the foundation in State Superior Court in Los Angeles County, however, takes aim at a much broader range of Sony BMG titles than those identified in the recall - including 20 million CD's that used copy-protection software from another company, SunnComm International of Phoenix.

Sony BMG contends the SunnComm software has been installed on only 12 million CD's. In a letter to the foundation on Friday the company stated that while it would be "reviewing its use of copy protection on all of its compact discs," it did not believe that the SunnComm discs needed to be removed from the market.

{mospagebreaktitle=Sprint to acquire affiliate for US$3.4 billion}Sprint to acquire affiliate for US$3.4 billion

In the US., Sprint Nextel Corporation said on Monday that it would acquire Alamosa Holdings, its largest Sprint-branded wireless affiliate, for US$3.4 billion.

The New York Times reports (22 November) that Alamosa shareholders will receive US$18.75 a share, a 15 percent premium to the stock's close on Friday of US$16.26. The deal includes the assumption of US$900 million in debt.

Alamosa sells Sprint-branded services in 19 states and has 1.5 million subscribers.

The newspaper reports that Alamosa is the fourth affiliate that Sprint Nextel has acquired since the Sprint Corporation bought Nextel Communications in August for US$35 billion to form the nation's third-largest wireless company in the US.

Prior to the Alamosa deal, Sprint acquired Unwired for US$1.3 billion; Gulf Coast Wireless for US$287.5 million; and IWO Holdings for US$427 million.

{mospagebreaktitle=Google unveils tool to map shopping trips}Google unveils tool to map shopping trips

Joining the herd of web sites jostling to cash in on the holiday shopping season, online search engine leader Google is adding a tool designed to make it easier for consumers to map out their local trips to the mall.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (22 November) that the feature, to be unveiled immediately at Google's Froogle shopping site, will pinpoint the merchants selling a specific item within a designated ZIP code. Besides displaying a map showing all the local stores carrying the merchandise, Froogle also will list price differences.

According to AP., Google developed the free tool to help consumers avoid the frustration of traveling to a store that no longer has an item on their shopping lists, said Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer products.

Froogle, a comparison shopping site that Google launched three years ago, will continue to give visitors the option to buy the merchandise online. Google receives a commission for the online referrals.

AP says in the NYT report that, iinitially, Google is depending on a contractor to pull the inventory information from several hundred major merchants. The search engine hopes to make the service even comprehensive by encouraging stores to submit their own customised merchandises list to the newly created ''Google Base'' -- an information clearinghouse for everything from family recipes to scientific formulas.

Froogle will pull the product inventory lists from Google Base and include them in its index, Mayer said.

According to AP., with the busiest shopping season just days away, other major shopping comparison sites also have been upgrading in a bid to lure more traffic. Yahoo, perhaps Google's biggest rival, recently expanded its shopping site so it spans 90 million products, up from 60 million a year ago.

{mospagebreaktitle=AOL joins start-up company to offer web video distribution}AOL joins start-up company to offer web video distribution

America Online reached an unusual arrangement yesterday with a start-up company that will allow almost any producer of video content to distribute programming on its service, splitting revenue from advertising or fees.

The New York Times reports (22 November) that AOL made its arrangement with Brightcove of, which is building a system that gathers and distributes video content. Brightcove gives producers a way to put video on their Web sites while also making the video available on other sites, with AOL being first.

AOL, which is part of Time Warner, has cut many deals to distribute text and more recently video from a variety of sources, paying for the content or splitting the advertising revenue with the publishers. This deal is unusual because it allows video producers an automated way to put content on AOL without having to negotiate a separate deal, reports the newspaper.

Brightcove is focused on gathering content from independent filmmakers and smaller cable networks.

The newspaper says that to use the system, producers will upload their video through a web site run by Brightcove, and specify the terms of its distribution. They can select which sites, like AOL, will have access. Eventually they will be able to select how they want to be paid. When the service starts early next year, Brightcove will offer only advertising-supported video. Later it will allow publishers to charge viewers to rent or buy videos.

{mospagebreaktitle=Oracle chief to pay millions in legal fees}Oracle chief to pay millions in legal fees

The chief executive of Oracle, Lawrence J. Ellison, has agreed to pay US$22 million in legal fees as part of a settlement of a shareholders' lawsuit that already included a US$100 million donation to charities, according to court documents.

The New York Times reports (22 November) that John Schwartz, a superior court judge in California, previously rejected the settlement because it required Oracle to pay US$24 million in fees to the shareholders' lawyers.

Mr. Ellison was sued by shareholders who claimed he improperly sold US$900 million worth of Oracle stock in 2001, days before the company said that earnings missed forecasts, sending share prices down 8.7 percent.