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Regional versions of Hotmail launched
Microsoft has expanded its flagship MSN Hotmail internet email service to include European and Japanese domain names, it said.
Microsoft said people signing up for new email accounts in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan would get a country-specific email address.
“If you live in the UK, instead of getting an email address @hotmail.com, you’ll be able to get one @hotmail.co.uk,” Microsoft vice-president Brian Arbogast said in a statement on Microsoft’s website. Until now, all Hotmail addresses have been of the form someone@hotmail.com.
“The new domains will allow for Hotmail customers to more easily find desirable email names within their country,” Arbogast added.
Microsoft says it will be increasing free storage for email accounts to 250MB for new Hotmail customers in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Britain. More storage is available for a fee.
Shifting focus of Itanium
An effort by Intel to sell its Itanium 2 chip into high-volume, lower-end computer servers has not worked, the president of the world’s largest chip maker said.
Itanium, which was jointly developed by Intel and Hewlett-Packard Corporation, has not yet found a large following in a server market crowded with competition from chips made by IBM, Sun Microsystems and AMD.
“Itanium is showing success in the high-end, not in the mid-range,” said Intel president Paul Otellini, who was chosen to take over as Intel chief executive next year, in an interview with BusinessWeek. “It just doesn’t work in terms of the economics of the low-end of the industry.”
Otellini said Intel is repositioning Itanium 2 to be designed into higher-end servers and mainframes that do the heavy lifting for corporations and research institutions. Intel’s less-expensive Xeon chip, a cousin of the Pentium 4 chip that is used in home computers, remains the company’s mainstay for low-end servers.
MS warns of Linux suits
Microsoft Corporation warned Asian governments that they could face patent lawsuits for using the Linux operating system instead of its Windows software.
The growing popularity of Linux is a threat to the global dominance of Microsoft’s Windows.
Linux violates more than 228 patents, according to a recent report from a research group, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said at the company’s Asian Government Leaders Forum in Singapore.
“Someday, for all countries that are entering the World Trade Organization (WTO), somebody will come and look for money owing to the rights for that intellectual property,” he added.
Oracle 10g for Solaris 10 OS
During its network computing launch, Sun Microsystems and Oracle announced that Oracle 10g (including Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Application Server 10g) will be supported on Sun’s Solaris 10 Operating System for Intel Xeon, AMD Opteron and SPARC processor-based architectures. Additionally, the companies are announcing the general availability of Oracle Database 10g for Solaris 9 OS for x86 systems.
“The enhancements in Solaris 10 further expand the opportunity to combine Oracle’s grid technology with a high-performance Solaris platform,” said Bronwyn Hastings, vice-president, Global Alliances and Channels, Oracle.
Google’s academics service
Google has unveiled a new search service designed specifically for scientists and academic researchers.
Currently in beta release, Google Scholar allows users to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, books, technical reports, theses, abstracts and preprints.
The resource spans a wide variety of academic disciplines, and includes a large number of professional societies and publishers, according to Google.
Similar to Google’s web search tool, Google Scholar has a nearly empty screen except for a search field and a tagline. The line is a familiar chestnut in the academic world about learning from the expertise of others: “Stand on the shoulders of giants.”
Search results are ranked according to reference, as with Google’s other search capability, and ranking takes into account the full text of each article as well as article author.
In its information pages, Google notes that additions to its index will be forthcoming, and urges authors to contact their publishers and scholarly societies to expand the available content.
Kazaa offers free net phone
Sharman Networks, distributor of the Kazaa file-sharing software has launched its latest version which enables users to make free online calls anywhere in the world.
Kazaa v3.0 includes the integration of internet telephony software from Skype Technologies SA and also offers advanced search capabilities and a free weblog trial. — Sci-tech World Report
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