Finally, Microsoft has honored their promise of SP1, and it ushers in a startling amount of changes. I would have posted the release notes here, but they are several pages long and can be found here instead. The pack, weighing in at 434.5MB (or 726.5MB for the 64-bit version), rolls in 23 security updates and 550 hotfixes. Apparently the update is taking its sweet time showing up, and if you cannot wait to download it, here are the direct links:
With the usual spin, Microsoft released figures the other day that claim 42% market share for the Xbox 360. This figure factors in hardware, software, and accessories. Assuming that 360 owners, who usually tend to be more active gamers, buy more games than Wii owners for instance then the figure could be skewed. Also factored in is the Xbox Live subscription fee, and as Kotaku puts it, this figure is good for revenue showboating, but not so much for apples-to-apples dick waving contests. The reported install base of the 360 is about 17.7 million, but we don’t know if that factors in the extra 16% that have failed.
Over 18 million Xbox 360s have sold through since the console’s launch in November 2005, but just how many of those are still working? Squaretrade, a company that specializes in providing warranty support to purchasers of electronic goods from various manufacturers, claims 16% of Xbox 360s experience a hardware failure within six to ten months after a warranty purchase. Three out of every five failures were for the infamous “Red Ring of Death” general hardware failure error, a problem often linked to overheating.The Xbox’s figures compare poorly to competing consoles, which have a failure rate of around 3% — and if anything, the Squaretrade figure underestimates the scale of the Xbox 360’s reliability issues. It’s a good bet that some buyers of Squaretrade warranties went straight to Microsoft after experiencing hardware issues and don’t factor into the 16% number. On its company blog, Squaretrade pointed out that failure rates are “certain to go up” as the machines in their study group grow older.
Obviously realizing that there is some trouble afoot, Microsoft on Thursday announced price cuts on its most expensive versions of Vista and said those discounts will range from 20 percent to 48 percent. Ironically, those discounts are designed to coincide with the release of Vista Service Pack 1, which according to Microsoft, will usher in a slew of security fixes and improvements that should make the Vista experience much better. I’m still skeptical that Vista will ever truly get off the ground, and it looks like Microsoft is starting to wake up and smell the rotten eggs. Read the rest of this entry »
In their keynote at the Game Developer’s Conference earlier today, Microsoft brought Epic Games on to announce Gears of War slated for this November. It has also been announced that there will be a limited edition Gears of War 2 with extra concept art and the like, expect that at an extra $10 or so.
Apparently they made quite a show out of the big announcement. Immediately after talking about Fable, the screen turned red and the following teaser trailer started to play. It doesn’t have much information about gameplay, so don’t get too excited.
This article comes from ars technica.
The Yahoo board has mulled it over, and its answer for Microsoft is a simple “no.” The “hostile” $44.6 billion bid was rejected by the board, as largely expected. The question now is, why?
Reported first this morning by the Wall Street Journal, a person “familiar” with the situation says that Yahoo believed the offer of $31 a share “massively undervalues” the company and provides no protections for the risks Yahoo would incur by entering into a deal that would be heavily vetted and possibly overturned by regulators. According to the WSJ’s source, Yahoo is looking for bids north of $40 per share, or something in the $56+ billion range. At $31 per share, the board apparently feels as though Microsoft is trying to “steal” the company and take advantage of recent weaknesses. Such “weaknesses” aren’t necessarily recent, however. Yahoo’s stock price hasn’t been north of $40 since the end of 2005. Read the rest of this entry »
Firstly, a new development in the Middle East internet cable story has come in. Earlier this week, two cables were supposedly cut in the Mediterranean Sea by a boat anchor during a storm. The fact has now been revealed that those two cables were in a restricted area that no boats were allowed into. The cables are only 2 cm thick. It also seems that a third and possibly fourth cable has been cut and Iran had a short outage but is now operating at %40 capacity. Repair of the cables has been delayed so all traffic going through the Middle East and some of India will be significantly slowed.
EDIT: According to this article, a fifth internet cable has been cut.
Windows Vista SP1 has recieved an RTM status, which means that it is slated for a release in mid-March. Although it fixes some driver problems, it reportedly introduces some more, so Microsoft has made it a non-automatic update for those who have known errors. At least Microsoft knows that they have made mistakes. SP1 will increase operating speeds and should fix some other errors, but we’ll have to see once it comes out. Read the rest of this entry »
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