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Microsoft settlement
MICROSOFT
has announced it would pay $10.5 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit
brought by US customers who claimed the company used its monopoly to
overcharge them for direct purchases of software, says a Reuters report
from Seattle. Under the settlement, consumers and businesses who bought
Microsoft’s software directly from the company’s Website or direct
marketing campaigns agreed to drop their charges. Microsoft, which
admitted no wrongdoing, said it will pay each purchaser a portion of the
price paid for software bought up until April 30, 2003. It is estimated
that the total value of the payout would amount to $10.5 million. The
settlement, which is pending in the US District Court in Maryland, must
be approved by US District Judge J. Frederick Motz.
Simplifying PCs
Microsoft and Phoenix
Technologies, the maker of the system software that allows hardware to
communicate with the operating system in most PCs, have announced a
joint effort aimed at making computers easier to use, says a Reuters
report from San Francisco. The companies are expanding their existing
relationship to include joint development and cross-licensing, says
Albert Sisto, president, chief executive and chairman of San Jose,
California-based Phoenix. The goal of the venture is to make it easier
for consumers to restore a crashed computer to its previous state and
for corporations to diagnose and fix computer problems, he said. Systems
with features resulting from the collaboration are expected to be on the
market within a year or two, Sisto said. Phoenix makes the BIOS—Basic
Input Output System—software that is activated when a PC is turned on,
as well as other core system software.
Downloading movies
Internet movie services
Movielink and CinemaNow have signed up to offer films for downloading
with Microsoft’s new Media Center computer systems as a way to expand
their market to home televisions, reports Reuters. The services are in
the vanguard for offering movies on demand to Web surfers who can watch
them on PCs or laptops, but a key to long-term revenue growth for both
services is for users to
have the ability to download movies via a computer then watch them on a
TV set where the picture and sound are better. Currently, PC or laptop
users can connect to TV sets via special cabling, but the Media Center
PCs can be connected directly to a TV set, thereby eliminating the
cabling. New PCs equipped with Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center,
too, can be operated using a TV-like remote control making the process
of downloading films much like operating TV controls.
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