Microsoft, Siemens to develop in-car infotainment
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Microsoft  and Siemens  will join forces to develop in-car entertainment and navigation products that should make it easier for consumers to connect devices such mobile phones and music players.
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When Hyundai introduces its still-unnamed premium sports sedan for 2008, it will arrive with a built-in feature that most other new cars won't have: high-definition radio.
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Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O said on   Thursday the ability to share music through wireless   connectivity is a key element for its new "Zune" portable media   player to win over consumers from Apple's market-leading iPod.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft will work with 3D design and visualization software developer Dassault Syst&#232;mes, to add a new dimension to its Virtual Earth mapping and satellite imagery service, the companies announced Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - MicrosoftÂ researchers are working on a variety of location-based tools, some of which could turn into interesting commercial applications. In one project, the researchers lent out cheap GPSÂ devices to drivers and asked them to leave the devices on the dashboards of their cars for a couple of weeks, said John Krumm, a researcher at Microsoft Research. He discussed the results of his work at the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit in Redmond, Washington, on Monday. Krumm's group examined the data they collected from the GPS units for a number of different factors, including what time of day people were most often in their cars and where they most commonly were going at what times, such as to commercial or residential areas. That data was perhaps most relevant to the group's efforts to create a model to predict where and when users would stop and get out of their cars. Krumm imagined a number of reasons why that information might be useful. For example, the provider of a navigation system might be able to predict that because a user is near the airport, the user is likely to go there, and so offer the user a coupon for airport parking. An intern on Krumm's team is working on determining whether hybrid cars could use such predictive modeling, which could predict the length of a trip as well as hills and the speed of the vehicle during the trip, in order to efficiently allocate the car's resources. Scott Counts, another researcher, is working on a community application that would let fitness enthusiasts share exercise routes. SlamXR users carry a small device that includes a range of sensors, such as heart rate monitor, temperature sensor, altimeter, GPS receiver, and Bluetooth radio. Users of the device can collect data along their favorite bike route, for example, and upload that data onto the Web site. The site shows the route on the map and includes such dataÂ speed and altitude along the route. Other users can search for routes based on difficulty, distance, target heart rate, elevation change, and activity. Users can also tag the routes for easier searching. Technologies developed at Microsoft Research could become commercial products from Microsoft, or the company may sell them to external sources. More than 700 researchers work in the group in five labs around the world. The event in Redmond is an opportunity for Microsoft Research workers to spend time with members of academia, in part to discuss issues in computer science research.
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For this year's cars, personal navigation and search services will be in the driver's seat.
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Microsoft is launching a new program that will give new music artists an opportunity to get discovered by 30 million Zune, MSN, and Xbox users through a program it calls "Ignition."
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(InfoWorld) - Connectivity is a key theme running through Microsoft's Dynamics development work as the vendor begins to meld its disparate business applications families into more of a single integrated platform. Microsoft is due to release a flurry of announcements Monday at its Convergence 2007 conference in San Diego. "It will be the biggest news day we've ever had," said James Utzschneider, general manager of Dynamics marketing at Microsoft. At the heart of the Dynamics announcements will be the vendor's attempts to improve different levels of connectivity, for instance, between employees and the business processes in the applications they use or better connecting a company via its software with its external community of customers, partners and suppliers. One way of making it easier for staff to use the Dynamics ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications is to improve the user interface. Microsoft will be showing off its RoleTailored UI which brings the look-and-feel of its Windows Vista operating system and its Office 2007 desktop suite to Dynamics. The intention is that RoleTailored will become the common user interface across all four of Microsoft's Dynamics families -- NAV, AX, GP and SL. Some of the work that went into RoleTailored was previously known by the Fenway code name. The new UI will first appear in Dynamics NAV 5.0 due out later this month, then in Dynamics GP 10.0 and Dynamics SL 7, which are both on track to ship in June. Microsoft began shippingÂ Dynamics AX 4.0Â in June 2006 and expects to release Dynamics AX 5.0 in the first half of 2008. Microsoft is adopting "a fairly conservative approach" to bringing its Dynamics offerings together by taking incremental steps to share code across the application families, Utzschneider said. "What you're seeing Microsoft doing is starting to form a single platform in order to serve business applications' needs," said Yvonne Genovese, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. The platform will consist of Dynamics NAV at the low end serving the needs of a maximum of 50 users and Dynamics AX at the high end, she added. Microsoft will continue to come out with new versions of Dynamics GP and SL, but those largely U.S.-focused products won't make major contributions to the future Dynamics platform. Microsoft mostly acquired its business software through the purchases of Great Plains Software and Navision completed in April 2001 and in July 2002 respectively. Genovese believes that Microsoft didn't appreciate the complexity of the business applications market at the time of the acquisitions and it's been a hard transition for the company. "They're just now growing up," she said. "They're in their late teenage years as a business applications company" versus older, more established players like SAP and Oracle. Genovese views the midmarket for business applications largely as a vendor invention. What she's hearing from customers of all sizes, including those with annual revenue in excess of $2 billion, is that they're looking for business applications that don't require them to invest in their own IT development and that offer a broad range of functionality and have a predictable cost structure. "Microsoft is a prime candidate to be a leader in that market," she said, provided the company can execute on its strategy. Â
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Microsoft Corp. confirmed Friday it's working on music and entertainment products that are expected to compete with Apple Computer Inc.'s wildly popular iPod and iTunes music service.
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Microsoft Corp.  on Monday  will announce the availability of software tools aimed at  encouraging independent and hobbyist video game makers to  create titles for its new Xbox 360 console.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has chosen what it sees as the next-generation in PC form factors -- a computer the size and shape of a coffee table with a flat, touchscreen display -- as the third major product it has designed and is branding for the consumer electronics market. On Wednesday, the company revealed five-year old project "Milan," a computer that uses wireless autosync and touchscreen technology to allow users and devices to interact with files and applications using a flat, table-top screen. The company designed and is branding the computer, as it did with consumer electronics products like the Xbox game console and Zune MP3 player. To accompany Milan, Microsoft has renamed as Surface Computing a team within its Entertainment and Devices Division previously called New Consumer Products. General Manager Pete Thompson leads the group, which has worked quietly in new projects to give computers and other devices more human interfaces. "The idea is how do we start to blur the lines between the digital world and the physical world," Thompson said. The team's projects have been hush-hush, which is why Microsoft revealed the true name of the group now. Milan is the group's first commercial product. As demonstrated by Thompson and his team, Milan needs no wires to sync up with devices and users don't need a mouse to communicate with it. By placing hands on a 30-inch horizontal display, users can move around photos or videos, and even flip them over or display them from different angles. Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, wireless cameras and Microsoft's Zune also can communicate directly with Milan simply by being placed on the screen. Applications will automatically launch and open the correct file library -- such as music or photos -- depending on the device. The prototype the company showed has a black body with a 30-inch horizontal display and stands 22 inches (55.88 cms) in height, 21 inches (53.34 cms) in depth and 42 inches (106.68 cms) in length. It runs a version of Windows Vista with the Microsoft Surface custom infrastructure that allows for the touchscreen and autosync capabilities, but the OS is transparent to end users. Before introducing Milan to a broad consumer market, Microsoft is targeting market segments, such as leisure/entertainment, hospitality and retail environments. The product won't be offered in full production until next year, but Milan's first customers -- Harrah's Entertainment, Starwood Hotels, and Resorts Worldwide and T-Mobile USAÂ -- should deploy the first computers by year's end. Harrah's is developing custom applications for about 50 Milan units it ordered, and expects to have as many of these in production as possible by year's end, said Tim Stanley, Harrah's CIO. This is customers' initial approach for Milan: Microsoft provides the computer guts, including the OS, some basic applications for photos, music and the like, and a software development kit (SDK), and customers build their own applications, Stanley said. Stanley, a former Microsoft employee, saw an early Milan version 18 months ago and was intrigued by it. Although Harrah's is not a Microsoft shop, he thought Milan would provide a "platform to do some new and innovative things for our customers." Harrah's is developing a mapping program for Milan that links to its Total Rewards customer VIP program, Stanley said. At VIP lounges, members will be able to place their Total Rewards cards on the screen and be identified by the kiosk. They will be able to browse through interactive maps that show amenities, entertainment and restaurants from Harrah's eight properties in Las Vegas -- where Harrah's will first launch Milan -- and order tickets or make restaurant reservations on the kiosk. Harrah's also is working on other applications, including one that will let customers in VIP areas of popular nightspots, such as Pure Nightclub at Harrah's property Caesar's Palace, order beverages or send beverages to other patrons, Stanley said. T-Mobile plans to deploy Milan kiosks to provide customer service in 1,200 of its retail stores, said Jeffrey Gattis, director of product management for Microsoft's Surface Computing group. Customers can take the handset model they want off the shelf, place it on Milan and use the touchscreen to configure their desired services and applications. They can then take that model to a customer service agent, he said. Microsoft said it will release an SDK for third-party developers once the computers catch on in the market. And while the company initially plans to offer the Milan hardware, manufactured by a third-party contractor, Microsoft said it might let hardware OEMs build and brand Milan computers in the future. That move will be necessary for Milan's long-term success, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. "To turn it into a real business they have to take a very Microsoft approach and OEM the hardware out," he said. It will be some time before consumers will want to put in their living rooms the rather bulky prototype Microsoft is demonstrating, though this is where Microsoft is going with Milan, said David Dauod, an analyst with IDC. "Ultimately, Microsoft's goal is to see the product become something like what used to be a plasma TV," Dauod said. "As awareness grows and prices go down, [it will be more ubiquitous]. ... Ultimately, mainstream will become something you will see in the mid- to long-term." Microsoft said Milan's price will be between $5,000 to $10,000 per unit, which is too expensive for consumers in the near term, he said. Microsoft hasn't disclosed its manufacturing costs, but Dauod guesses that Microsoft does not expect a profit from Milan in the near term. More importantly, however, the product shows real innovation from Microsoft for the consumer market, the first the company has shown in a long time, he said. Both the Xbox and Zune were me-too products that entered competitive markets. Milan raises the bar for other consumer electronics vendors, Dauod said. "I've regained confidence in Microsoft with this product," he said. "It's showing a different side of Microsoft, which is cool."
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The ViaMichelin X-930 is an in-car navigation device with Michelin-approved information about points of interest along the way.
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Siemens VDO Automotive and Freescale Semiconductor have renewed their automotive relationship, representing about $245 million for components including ASICs, microcontrollers, analog and sensor components, beginning in 2006.
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Microsoft will work with a division of Germany's Siemens to create in-car entertainment and communications systems that will be available in 2009.
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The company seems to be focused on developing a solution that would enable users to access complete directions and maps using a portable device.
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Honda Motor Co., with software help from IBM, is preparing to introduce an improved speech-recognition system as standard equipment on the 2005 Acura RL sedan.
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Ford Motor Co on Wednesday said it  would offer high-definition digital radio on nearly all 2008  model year Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles as a  dealer-installed option.