Microsoft launches database, business programs

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, has launched its corporate database software program aimed at taking market share from Oracle.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (7 November) that Microsoft's SQL Server 2005, delayed several times as engineers sought to make the software more reliable and secure, is a corporate database program designed to store and retrieve business data.

According to Reuters in the NYT report, apart from databases, both Microsoft and Oracle are investing in business software, which allows companies to track customer accounts, manage payroll, finances and human resources.

Along with SQL (pronounced ``sequel'') Server, Microsoft also launched Visual Studio 2005, a software tools program used to create applications, and said it would launch a program for tracking business processes, called BizTalk Server 2006, next year, says Reuters.

Reuters says that in order to promote the use of SQL Server and Visual Studio, Microsoft also said that it would offer free versions of the two programs for personal use so that individuals can create their own databases, web sites and software programs.

The launch of SQL Server kicks off a busy year of product launches for Microsoft, says Reuters.

{mospagebreaktitle=Yahoo, Google to launch new wireless services}Yahoo, Google to launch new wireless services

Yahoo and Google are set to roll out new wireless services, taking advantage of advanced networks and cellphones to provide features similar to those available on computers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (7 November) that Yahoo soon will introduce a cellphone it will sell through a partnership with SBC Communications, according to SBC executives. The phone will take Yahoo a step closer to linking music, photos and email with consumers' existing online accounts, address books and preferences, the paper said.

Google is tailoring some internet services for use on wireless devices. Starting immediately, consumers using some types of cellphones will be able to access satellite maps wirelessly as they can on the Google Maps service, the paper said.

Reuters also reports that the WSJ said the moves will mark a further step in the evolution of cellphones from communications devices to minicomputers that can be used for email, Web browsing, music downloading and even watching TV, in addition to calls. Handset manufacturers have already started to produce single devices that combine cellphones, Web surfing, wireless email and MP3 players.

According to the report, SBC and Yahoo have had a partnership since 2001 and have steadily expanded it beyond traditional telecom and online services to merge video, wireless and phone services. SBC executives said the SBC-Yahoo phone, which will be manufactured by Nokia, is expected to be available as soon as early next year and will cost US$200 to US$300.

{mospagebreaktitle=Japan's DoCoMo, Tower Records to announce deal}Japan's DoCoMo, Tower Records to announce deal

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile operator, and Tower Records Japan have reached an agreement under which DoCoMo will become the main shareholder in the music retail chain, DoCoMo sources said on Monday.

Reuters reports in The new York Times (7 November) that DoCoMo plans to invest about 10 billion yen for a roughly 40 percent stake, the sources said. This would be its first acquisition of a non-mobile-related retailer.

The combination would allow the two companies to jointly promote DoCoMo's wallet phone service and Tower Records' new music download service, which will launch in the spring.

According to Reuters, DoCoMo's wallet phone allows consumers to use their phones like debit cards and buy CDs with a quick swipe of their handset. Tower Records Japan is independently run and separate from US-based Tower Records, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2004.

The Japan business includes Nikko Principal Investments and Itochu as its lead investors, says Reuters.

{mospagebreaktitle=Dell may be past its best days: Barron's}Dell may be past its best days: Barron's

The best days of personal computer maker Dell may be behind it, financial weekly newspaper Barron's wrote in its November 7 edition.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (6 November) that, following the news that the company on 1 November had lowered its third-quarter revenue forecast, the paper noted "Dell's revenue growth has now slowed for seven quarters in a row."

"If Dell's revenue fails to grow faster, and certainly if the company continues to miss earnings targets, it will be time to admit that Dell is past its best," Barron's said, as reported by Reuters.

{mospagebreaktitle=Yahoo & TiVo in deal}Yahoo & Tivo in Deal

In the US., Yahoo and TiVo plan to announce a deal that will connect Yahoo's vast online service to TiVo's set-top boxes, which, in addition to recording television programs, have a largely unused capability to connect to the internet.

The New York Times reports (7 November) that the deal will allow TiVo, which has been struggling to differentiate its service from generic video recorders offered by cable and satellite companies, to offer a range of content and services linked to the internet.

Conversely, Yahoo is working to move its services from personal computers to other devices, including mobile phones and - by way of devices like TiVo - the television set.

According to the NYT., the first fruits of this arrangement are relatively modest: this month, TiVo users will be able to use Yahoo's television listings to find programs and, by checking the appropriate boxes, send instructions to their TiVos to record those shows.

In coming months, TiVo users will be able to view on their televisions pictures that have been stored on the Yahoo Photos site, as well as local weather and traffic information from Yahoo.

The newspaper says that as Yahoo and most other major media and internet companies rapidly develop video programming, users may want to watch some of it on big screens in their living rooms, rather than on PC monitors.

{mospagebreaktitle=Many suitors, many pitfalls, as AOL seeks partner}Many suitors, many pitfalls, as AOL seeks partner

Microsoft has emerged as the front-runner in the talks surrounding the potential sale of a stake in America Online, two people involved in the negotiations said. But despite a flurry of interest in AOL from Microsoft, Google and others, finding a deal has been harder than Time Warner may have hoped.

According to The New York Times (7 November), behind the scenes, a number of questions remain that could hold up or even derail a potential transaction.

One is whether such an alliance would represent yet another new and unproven partnership for Time Warner, a company that has spent much of its energy in recent years trying to simplify its business.  Another is whether, five rocky years after the AOL-Time Warner merger, bringing in a new partner at AOL would help Time Warner's wide-ranging media businesses navigate the digital world.

The newspaper says that were Microsoft to prevail, it would do so with an investment and partnership that includes folding its MSN Internet service into a venture with AOL. But Google remains interested in a deal that may also involve Comcast, while Yahoo and the News Corporation are in the wings.

According to the NYT., while the AOL sweepstakes is predicated on newfangled concepts like developing new models for advertising and melding software applications with entertainment products, what is afoot is roughly the cyberspace equivalent of two of the Big Four broadcast television networks trying to merge to dominate prime time.

According to comScore Media Metrix, Time Warner's sites attracted 119 million users in September, with most viewing AOL and related web sites. That made Time Warner the second-most-visited internet destination in the United States, after Yahoo sites with 123 million, says the NYT.

The newspaper also reports that MSN and other Microsoft sites attracted 114 million unique users, while Google attracted 87.6 million. An AOL-MSN deal would catapult the resulting venture into the No. 1 spot, and thus make it especially attractive to advertisers seeking broad audiences.

{mospagebreaktitle=Bringing the arcade home on a video game machine}Bringing the arcade home on a video game machine

Buyers of the Xbox 360, Microsoft's second-generation video game console, will, of course, expect to play big, expensive marquee games like Call of Duty 2 from Activision and Madden NFL 06 by Electronic Arts, says The New York Times in a 7 November report.

But, says the newspaper, Microsoft is also banking on them to play small arcade-style video games, purchased and downloaded from the internet.

According to the NYT., unlike its competitors, the Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, the new Xbox, which goes on sale 22 November, can play games on two separate tracks. One is the familiar terrain of big budget, deeply immersive games that feel more like interactive movies than games. The other is a return to the video game's arcade roots.

But don't call the arcade games simple, said Greg Canessa, group manager of Xbox Live Arcade, part of Microsoft's Xbox division.

The newspaper says that the arcade games will be sold only online, downloadable through the Xbox's broadband-only internet connection. While Microsoft has not officially announced prices for the games, it is widely expected that they will cost between US$5 and US$10. By contrast, new Xbox games sold at retailers like Best Buy are likely to cost US$60, or about US$10 more than previous Xbox games, according to some game publishers.

The new cream-colored machines, slimmer and more powerful than the original Xbox released in 2001, will cost US$300 for a basic model and US$400 for a model with a 20-gigabyte hard drive, says the NYT.

{mospagebreaktitle=Online travel landscape getting crowded}Online travel landscape getting crowded

In the US travel sites like Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz already have their hands full with airlines and hoteliers - their "valued partners" - luring consumers away with sites that look more like full-service travel agencies every day. Now, here come Yahoo and AOL, and maybe even Google, reports The New York Times (7 November).

The newspaper reports that AOL, Yahoo and others have intensified their focus on the travel category in the past year, beefing up destination features, introducing tools and scooping up new users and marketers in the process. This trend has the online travel agencies bracing for the possibility that the portals could one day evolve into full-fledged competitors.

Yahoo is coming closer to that, according top one analysts and Google, meanwhile, recently began offering airfare searches from its search box.

The newspaper says that the new measures represent a clear departure from what AOL, Yahoo and many other travel-related editorial sites offered even two years ago when the online advertising market began showing a pulse again after the dot-com crash in 2000.

Now that marketers will pay more to reach consumers reading about Caribbean beaches and playing with travel planning tools, the portals are in much less of a hurry to march readers off to an online travel agency and collect a commission for that click, says the NYT.

According to the newspaper, the latest evidence came late last month when Yahoo began testing new features in its travel section.

The newspaper reports that AOL and Yahoo executives said that increasing advertising revenue, not becoming travel agencies, was the real goal in enriching their travel offerings.

{mospagebreaktitle=Hutchison mulls prospects for Italy 3G IPO - source}Hutchison mulls prospects for Italy 3G IPO - source

Hutchison Whampoa is talking to its banks about whether its Italian 3G mobile business can be listed at the price they have valued it at, sources familiar with the company said on Friday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (6 November) that one source said the company is considering postponing the initial public offering. Another said some bankers were confident that, although the price may have to come down, the deal can still get done this year.

According to Reuters in the NYT report, the company has not decided yet, but is worried it may not achieve the 12 billion euro valuation that it and bankers first put on the business, the sources said.

Reuters says that IPOs in Europe have fared poorly over the last month as investors digested a recent glut of new deals and hedge funds, usually big buyers in flotations, pulled back.

The 3 Italia IPO process, which was looking to raise up to 2.5 billion euros, was initially scheduled to begin in December. Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported on Friday that the IPO could be postponed until 2006.

{mospagebreaktitle=Four indicted in case of technology smuggling}Four indicted in case of technology smuggling

An engineer, a Chinese television director and their wives were indicted on charges of stealing secret documents on American Navy warship technology and trying to smuggle them to China, prosecutors said.

The New York Times reports (5 November) that the engineer, Chi Mak, a naturalised American citizen from China, was ordered held without bail, said a spokesman for the United States attorney's office. Also arrested were Mr. Mak's wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu; his brother, Tai Wang Mak; and his sister-in-law, Fuk Heung Li.

The four face charges of stealing government property, aiding and abetting, transportation of stolen goods, and conspiracy, prosecutors said.