International Gadget Blog
Microsoft
Microsoft loses; Word and Office to be barred from sale starting January 11
Dec 22nd
It’s getting closer and closer to check-writing time for Steve Ballmer, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just upheld a decision that would see Microsoft Word and Office banned from sale starting January 11. If you’ll recall, Microsoft lost a patent infringement suit against XML specialists i4i back in May when it was found that Word’s handling of .xml, .docx, and .docm files infringed upon i4i’s patented XML handling algorithms, but the injunction against further Word sales was put on hold pending the results of this appeal. Now that Microsoft has lost once again, we’d expect either another appeal and request for the injunction to be stayed, this time to the Supreme Court, or for a settlement between these two that would end this whole mess right now.
P.S.- Just to be clear on this, i4i isn’t a patent troll — it’s a a 30 person database design company that shipped one of the first XML plugins for Office and was actually responsible for revamping the entire USPTO database around XML to make it compatible with Word back in 2000. What’s more, the patents involved here don’t cover XML itself, but rather the specific algorithms used to read and write custom XML — so OpenOffice users can breathe easy, as i4i has said the suite doesn’t infringe. Existing Office users should also be fine, as only future sales of Word are affected by the ruling, not any already-sold products.
Source: Engadget
Windows “8″ confirmed for 2012.
Nov 21st
It’s somewhat hard to believe that we’re already talking about Windows 8 given that Windows 7 just hit the shelves two months ago, but you know the engineers at Microsoft are already planning ahead. According to a roadmap constructed over at Microsoft Kitchen, the next iteration of Windows is tentatively stated for release in the year 2012. Of course, a three-year window between Windows 7 and the next version is totally believable, but we wouldn’t go planning your end of the world party with the assumption that a new OS will be the main attraction.
Microsoft forbidden to sell Word, will probably still sell it anyway.
Aug 12th
Latley Mirosoft was sued by a company that had a patent on opening custom XML files (the basis for word 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008(witch is pretty much all of them)) The judge forbidden Micosoft from selling Word (all editions) that can open .doc, .docx, or .docm. So what is it going to be Microsoft, are you going to find a way out of this, or are you going to pay up.
Windows 7 to be realeased October
Jul 11th
Well, the new windows OS is to be released on October 22th. I get the RTM (Release to manufacturer) on the 13 of July. I get the full version out of beta before all. The reason, I have a Microsoft Technet Subscription (well my dad does and he lets me use it when I want to). So I might get a review running before it releases. If you have not heard, you can pre-order Windows 7 in a lot of online shops. And you get it 50% off (while I get it for free).