News about what is happening in technology today!

LAS VEGAS—Microsoft is beginning to articulate a concrete plan for turning Windows Live into a developer platform.

Here at Microsoft’s Mix 06 conference on March 20, Microsoft officials explained in a session on Windows Live how the company is thinking about making Windows Live appeal to third-party developers, not just to Microsoft’s own product teams.

Microsoft has been mulling how best to articulate its Windows Live developer story for several months, as noted on the LiveSide.Net Web site. To help simplify its message, Microsoft has consolidated its content and tools for Windows Live developers on a single Microsoft Developer Network site.

“We are opening the Windows Live platform to third parties to create a virtuous ecosystem” for users, developers, partners, advertisers and Microsoft, said Brian Arbogast, corporate vice president for the MSN Communications Platform with the MSN and Personal Services Division.

Arbogast outlined for session attendees the set of programming interfaces that Microsoft now considers the core of its Windows Live developer platform.

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1940334,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535

For now at least, the Alienware division will still operate separately from Dell. Dell is going to keep their XPS line of awesome gaming hardware.

This is from Alienware’s CEO Nelson Gonzalez about the acquisition:

Given all that, why then agree to an acquisition by Dell? Wouldn’t an acquisition by a larger, more established PC company like Dell violate the core brand tenets of Alienware, not to mention alienate (no pun intended) the core fanatical customer base we have built up such a huge following with?

The simple answer is no. We believe that this acquisition will offer our customers the best of both worlds — an Alienware that takes advantage of the world-class business practices and operational efficiencies that have made Dell one of the most respected companies in the world, while preserving the DNA of the Alienware brand and product strategy portfolio.

http://www.alienware.com/main.aspx

If you love Howard Stern, this news might make you happy; if you love having choices, this news will make you sad. Audi and Volkswagen recently announced they will be dropping XM satellite radio receivers as an option for their cars beginning with the 2007 models in favor of an exclusive deal with Sirius. Both Audi and Volkswagen will be offering Sirius satellite radio receivers with new cars through 2012. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but Volkswagen will be offering three free months of Sirius radio to new buyers and expects to equip 80% of new vehicles with their receivers.

We’re not saying that Sirius is inferior to XM, mind you, just disappointed that consumers are losing the option to choose the satellite radio that get bundled into their new cars. They can always get go buy a XM receiver later on if they really want to, of course, but having a choice effectively made for you sucks nonetheless because the whole point of having satellite radio has always been one of choice—of choosing to not have to listen to annoying ads, stupid promos, and the same lame songs at the top of the charts on almost every single radio station because of music industry payola.

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Sony President Ken Kutaragi pulled an Apple yesterday at an agonizing press conference where he leaked information, bit by bit, like a mad Steve Jobs. The first news? PSP is getting its own EyeToy.
This new camera will allow you to play interactive games and presumably take pictures and video. Next, we’ve got PS1 game downloads to the PSP so you can rock some portable early times action. Then you’ve got a full firmware upgrade to enable a videophone and VoIP as well as a GPS module. Finally, he whips out the big guns: PS3 will launch in November 2006 as soon as they figure out how to get all the tasty DRM onto the Blu-Ray disks. The PS3 will come with a 60GB hard drive and run both PS2 and PS1 games. We’re as giddy as schoolgirls. PS3 loving school girls!

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According to a story on eWeek, lab rats at Microsoft Research and the University of Michigan have teamed up to create prototypes for virtual machine-based rootkits that significantly push the envelope for hiding malware and maintaining control of a target OS. The proof-of-concept rootkit, called SubVirt, exploits known security flaws and drops a VMM (virtual machine monitor) underneath a Windows or Linux installation. Once the target operating system is hoisted into a virtual machine, the rootkit becomes impossible to detect because its state cannot be accessed by security software running in the target system.