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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (48298)	8/1/2000 12:20:29 PM
From: The Duke of URL©	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Here is a very favorable review of Win Me by a normally anti-microsoft ezine: Win ME - not bad at all By: Andrew Thomas Posted: 31/07/2000 at 15:22 GMT September 14 is the date when the Windows Millennium Edition, or Win ME to its friends, hits the streets. The latest (and last) version of Win9x, should perhaps be more accurately named Windows 98 Third Edition, as it is more of a service pack than a new operating system. But there is enough new and improved stuff on the CD to make it worth looking at an upgrade. We took a look at the gold code (Build 4.90.3000) DOS still lurks behind the scenes but is better hidden than before. A result of this is that some system functionality has been removed - for example, you can't SYS a floppy disk, you have to copy IO.SYS and COMMAND.COM by hand if you need a floppy to do things like updating the system BIOS. The removal of a lot of legacy deadweight also means ME fires up a damn sight faster than any other version of Windows. On our 1GHz Athlon (Thunderbird) we got from the OS selection menu to the Win ME logon box in 22 seconds, while an 800MHz Pentium III was a tad slower at 25 seconds. Win98 SE took the best part of a minute on both these machines. Shutting the system down is so fast that you can't help being surprised - both the above machines tidied everything up and switched themsleves off within four seconds of clicking on 'shutdown' - you don't get a chance to even glimpse the 'Windows is shutting down' or 'It's now safe to switch off' splash screens. Overall system performance is on a par with Win98 SE. Slick The adoption of the much slicker GUI from Windows 2000 is a welcome improvement, adding such delights as cascading menus for control panel, printers, my documents etc. An undocumented but extremely useful feature is the ability to drag any disk, or the My Computer icon, onto the start button. This provides a cascading menu for the entire contents of the disk, making finding a file considerably faster than opening loads of separate folders. Internet Explorer and Outlook Express 5.5 are included, IE5.5 finally getting a decent print engine featuring print preview. Of course, you can already download both of these for free should you feel so inclined. The revamped media player 7 is a pretty good stab at an all-singing, all-dancing MP3 player with better usability than most of the competition. It works with most standard audio and video formats, (but not RealMedia), and features a Web radio tuner, a jukebox, and a file transfer utility to copy and compress files or streaming media to portable MP3 players and Windows CE devices. Some pretty animations and skins allow you to spiff up your listening. Windows Movie Maker records video either from a camera or files. Existing videos can be imported from most formats (again with the exception of RealMedia) but can only be saved in Windows Media Format, not AVI or MPEG. Minimum system requirements for ME are more stringent than for Win 98. Unless you have at least a 150MHz Pentium, 32Mb of RAM and around 500Mb of free disk space, setup will tell you to get lost. Setup was completely painless on our two machines, taking less than 30 minutes to upgrade from Win 98SE with no manual intervention apart from typing in the licence number. System Restore is a new feature that backs up vital system files when the machine is idle, by default taking a system snapshot every 10 hours. If the system stops working, and - providing you can at least reboot - you can fire up a wizard and choose from earlier saved system states. Only damaged system files will be repaired, documents and emails created after the snapshot will remain unchanged. Windows ME will be available as an upgrade (earlier versions of Windows or Office) for around $110 or as a full product for $210. It will likely start appearing pre installed on new PCs in the next few weeks, but if you're currently using Win 98, Win 95, or - God forbid - Win 3.x, put your name down for an upgrade today. ® theregister.co.uk

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (48298)	8/1/2000 3:37:57 PM
From: SunSpot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

What influence does the ADSL revolution have on MSFT? In most of the world, telephone calls are charged per minute (not in the U.S.), and flat-rate ADSL with fixed IP suddenly changes all that. Now that it seems that everybody gets a fixed line at home with a fixed IP address, the amount of Windows95/98/ME computers acting as Webservers must increase tremendously... And suddenly ICQ, MSN Messenger etc. make much more sense. Additionally, people want access to their files at home when they are in town, and games on the internet are more important than ever before. What does this all mean to MSFT and Windows (vs. Linux, consoles etc.)? It is clear that Windows 2000 Prof. is too hard for most people to set up for networking at home. Several of my friends haven't figured out how to share files, and several of them use the FTP server just because of that. Additionally, multimedia is not good on Windows 2000. Windows ME seems much better for home use, and will probably, like Windows 98, be able to share files on the internet using Microsoft File Sharing mechanisms. There is no other remote control program than Netmeeting built into Windows, and Netmeeting doesn't work with many routers, so this could be a unfulfilled demand? Will Linux get an advantage now that everybody can set up an internet server at home? I mean, people at home don't buy a Windows 2000 Advanced Server.... If anybody has ideas about this, please tell!

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (48298)	8/1/2000 6:28:54 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 74651

Nvidia designing "mystery chip" for Xbox By Ian Fried Staff Writer, CNET News.com August 1, 2000, 3:10 p.m. PT Graphics chipmaker Nvidia, already selected to provide the graphics processor for Microsoft's Xbox, also is working on a second, unannounced chip for the gaming console. Nvidia chief executive Jen Hsun Huang said recently that there are three main chips for the Xbox: the microprocessor, the graphics processor and an unannounced third chip Nvidia will provide, possibly handling advanced sound or video functions. "Nvidia is developing two of the devices," Huang said during a presentation at the Robertson Stephens Semiconductor Conference in San Francisco last week. Intel's Pentium III has already been chosen as the microprocessor. Microsoft would not comment on the mystery chip. The Xbox, slated to arrive next fall, offers game playing, Internet access and a DVD drive. Analysts said there are several possibilities for what Nvidia's other chip might do. Microsoft has already listed a "custom 3D audio processor" in its list of specifications for the console. If Nvidia were doing the audio, it would be a whole new area for the company and something it might not want to advertise to the industry. Analyst Peter Glaskowsky of MicroDesign Resources said it's within the company's ability level. "It's supposed to require a whole lot of math," Glaskowsky said of the audio chip. "Nvidia certainly has a whole lot of know-how to do that." Nvidia also is doing the core logic for the Xbox--the technology that allows the Pentium III microprocessor to talk to the graphics chip and other components--although Huang indicated that the unknown chip goes beyond that function. The chip might provide additional power for video processing, Glaskowsky hypothesized. In March, Nvidia and Microsoft inked a deal giving Nvidia a $200 million advance on its graphics chip work, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nvidia, however, makes no mention in the filing of any other work it is doing. Nvidia beat out graphics start-up Gigapixel for the contract. Gigapixel subsequently was sold to 3dfx Interactive. The Xbox could prove to be a massive windfall for the graphics company, which is challenging ATI Technologies for leadership in that industry. ATI has held the top spot, in terms of market share, for the past few years. Recently, though, ATI has been saddled with problems. The company's CFO resigned, and it reported greater than expected losses in its most recent quarter. By contrast, Nvidia has been boosted by new contracts and positive reviews for its latest products. Nvidia could see $45 per unit in sales for the Xbox, Huang said, which is more than most graphics companies make from the chips that go into PCs. The Xbox could represent a $5 billion opportunity for company, he said, if Microsoft manages to meet optimistic projections for sales of more than 100 million units. Sony's PlayStation has sold more than 75 million units so far. Microsoft said last week that it plans to spend $500 million to launch the Xbox. What is clear is that Nvidia is getting a lot of on-the-job training with the Xbox. The company plans in the next year to introduce its own PC product integrating core logic and graphics processing functions, Huang said. The company had previously done so only in partnerships with other companies. "Nvidia will be able to enter the (integrated graphics and core logic) market segment without having to incur the costs of major development or retooling," said analyst Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Associates, a Mill Valley, Calif.-based consulting group Though combined offerings usually offer lower graphics performance than standalone products, more PCs are being sold with integrated graphics because of the cost savings. Both Intel and Via Technologies, among others, sell chipsets with integrated graphics. "They're going to take over more and more of the markets as we get better semiconductor technology," Peddie said. Huang also reiterated Nvidia's aim to go after the Macintosh and mobile markets, saying both are priorities, but not giving a time frame for entry to the Mac world. "We're really excited about the Mac market," Huang said. The graphics market has been consolidating rapidly, with five companies shifting away from the market this year.