CORRECTION: Microsoft Voltage to Charge Up Robotics Industry
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By Benjamin J. Romano, Seattle Times  CORRECTION: Information in this article, originally published December 13, 2006, was corrected December 18, 2006. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the price of a Pioneer P3DX robot at a Microsoft laboratory.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft expects to take an earnings charge of more than $1 billion for the quarter that ended in June related to expenses it will incur fixing faulty Xbox 360 machines. On Thursday, Microsoft said it will expand its warranty coverage to Xbox 360 customers who have a certain type of hardware failure. The new program is a result of an "unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles," Microsoft said. Customers who have a general hardware failure that is indicated by three flashing red lights on their consoles will now be covered by a three-year warranty starting on the date of purchase. Microsoft will repair or replace the console, including cost of shipping, within that time frame. The company will also reimburse customers who have already paid for the repairs. After investigating this high number of hardware failures, Microsoft identified factors that cause the problems and has made changes to prevent them, the company said. Microsoft expects to take a $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion pretax charge for its quarter ending June 30 because of expenses related to fixing the consoles.
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Microsoft is applying for a patent for an operating system that starts out crippled.  You must pay to do things like take the throttle off network speed, disk access, install drivers, install software, and more.  Trust me, I rarely even visit Groklaw, even if this is my second consecutive blog entry with a link to a Groklaw article. My VarLinux.org readers posted the article, A Brave New Modular World, and I had to share it.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft managed to earn a slight profit for its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter despite a billion-dollar-plus charge related to expenses the company incurred to fix faulty Xbox360 consoles. For the quarter that ended June 30, Microsoft reported net income of $3.04 billion compared to net income of $2.83 billion for the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $0.31, a number that took into account a previously announced charge related to extending warranties for its Xbox 360 console. Excluding that charge, EPS for the quarter was $0.39, in line with estimates from Thomson Financial analysts. Revenue for the quarter was up 13 percent at $13.37 billion, compared to revenue of $11.8 billion for the same period last year. In a statement, Microsoft attributed revenue growth to demand for its new client OS Windows Vista, as well as business products such as SQL Server and Windows Server. Microsoft's Visual Studio developer tools and Xbox360 consoles also did well in the quarter, the company said. Microsoft said earlier this month it would take an earnings charge of more than $1 billion for its fourth quarter related to expenses for expanding its warranty coverage to Xbox 360 customers who have a certain type of hardware failure, which required an "unacceptable" number of repairs to the consoles. Microsoft revenue also was up for the year and topped $50 billion for the first time. For the 2007 fiscal year ended June 30, revenue was $51.12 billion, a 15 percent increase over the prior year, when the company reported $44.28 billion. Diluted earnings per share for the year were $1.42, which includes $0.07 in charges for certain items. Excluding those charges, EPS for the year would have been $1.49, an increase of 17 percent over the prior year when the company also adjusted for certain items and reported EPS of $1.21. For the current quarter, which began July 1, Microsoft is expecting revenue in the range of $12.4 billion to $12.6 billion, with diluted EPS in the range of $0.38 to $0.40. For fiscal-year 2008, which will end June 30, 2008, revenue is expected to be in the range of $56.8 billion to $57.8 billion, and diluted EPS is expected to be in the range of $1.69 to $1.73. However, Microsoft noted its guidance does not include the as-yet-undetermined impact of costs associated withÂ the company's acquisition of aQuantive, which is expected to close in the current quarter. Microsoft announced in May that it would purchase the digital advertising and marketing services agency.
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When you're a UK company trying to buy US computer gear Microsoft's shameless assumption of a 1:1 exchange rate when re-pricing Vista for the UK market brought back memories of the bad old days when most IT companies simply swapped the dollar sign for a pound sign when preparing their UK price lists.â¦
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The computer company recalls nearly a 1 million power adapters that could start fires. Also: Microsoft continues pursuit towards the computer television & hellip;. Nextel & rsquo;s phone is a mapquest in your hand & hellip;. and more.
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Logitech International unveils the world's first computer mouse to use a sensor based on a laser. Also: Nintendo slashes some prices & hellip;. Sales of Boston Scientific's new heart stent dip & hellip;. and more.
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SBC and Microsoft strike a $400 million deal to provide internet TV.   Also: Gates agrees to computer charity work in developing countries & hellip;.  Japan gives us surround-sound cell phones & hellip;. and more.
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Gabe: We did a really awesome project (can I say it"s awesome, is that okay?) for Wired magazine. You can either go pick up the most recent issue and read it there or check it out on their site. They asked us to do a piece for them handicapping all three of the next generation systems. We tried to be as fair as we could and hopefully you"ll get a kick out of it.
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(Corrects paragraph 24 to show prior art change has been  proposed, but does not go into effect on Nov 1, as earlier  sent)
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Blog: The PC maker says it is voluntarily taking back 14,000 notebook batteries, but this time, they're not made by Sony.
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Corrects company name to Advanced Micro Devices in first paragraph
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(InfoWorld) - Computer peripheral maker Belkin said Friday it has settled a patent infringement complaintÂ brought against it by software giant Microsoft. "We are glad to have reached a settlement and we are satisfied with the outcome," said Belkin spokeswoman Melody Chalaban, who declined to provide details of the settlement terms. On Aug. 1,Â Microsoft filed a patent-infringement complaintÂ with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that said Belkin was importing products that infringed on a Microsoft patent for peripheral device technology. According to Microsoft, Belkin uses a technology called "U2" in several of its mouse products. Microsoft's patented U2 technology enables a peripheral to automatically sense whether the device is being plugged into a PS2 or USB (Universal Serial Bus) port on a computer and then make the connection. Microsoft filed the complaint after failing to reach agreement in licensing discussions with Belkin over more than two years, said Tom Burt, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Microsoft, in an e-mail statement when the ITC complaint was filed. Microsoft said it filed the complaint with the ITC rather than in a U.S. court because it wanted to prevent Belkin from bringing infringing products into the U.S. in the first place. Although Belkin is a U.S. company, the products in question are manufactured outside the country, Microsoft said.
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We meet the nerds with the world's cleanest floors In Silicon Valley, any conference calling itself the "Best of the Best" promises more fluff than stuff. But a recent Churchill Club event which promised the cream of the robotics industry confirmed the sceptics' worst fears. Consumer robotics is a business built mostly on play, hope and tinkering - rather than profit or technical accomplishment - to the point that huge, obvious, deal-breaker truths are never even mentioned.â¦
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(Corrects dollar amount in first paragraph from $10 million to $40 million)
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(InfoWorld) - No one used the 'L' word, but both sides in the Microsoft Corp. antitrust battle in Europe accused each other of lying about basic facts surrounding the latest twist in the long-running saga that emerged Thursday. The European Commission sent Microsoft a so-called statement of objections Thursday accusing the software vendor of failing to provide interoperability information on "reasonable and non-discriminatory terms." This was a requirement laid out in the landmark 2004 antitrust ruling against the company. In its statement the Commission said the software giant proposes overcharging for vital interoperability information needed by software makers to allow their products to work properly with the Windows operating system. It dismissed almost all of the information Microsoft proposed revealing as not innovative and therefore not worth the price the company wants to charge to license it. Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said Microsoft had agreed that the innovativeness of the information should be the main criterion when setting the price, but in a conference call with journalists later Thursday, Microsoft top lawyer Brad Smith denied his company had agreed innovativeness should be the main criterion. "We told the Commission we believe innovation is one of three main elements. We don't have the same interpretation of what had been established [between Microsoft and the Commission]," he said. Then ECIS, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, accused Microsoft of misleading journalists by citing a study by accountants Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), which, according to the software company, shows that the prices Microsoft wants to charge for licenses to the interoperability information are 30 percent below normal market rates. "It is an outrageous comparison," said Thomas Vinje, ECIS's legal advisor and a partner in the Brussels office of law firm Clifford Chance. "The PWC study compares the prices Microsoft wants to charge with the market price for much more valuable information such as software code, documentation, and full redistribution rights," he said. "What people will get with Microsoft's interoperability information is a lot less valuable. To compare it with the sort of information in the PWC study is like comparing apples with... some withered fruit," he added. The actual prices Microsoft wants to charge for licensing out the interoperability information are too complicated to share with journalists, Microsoft spokesman Tom Brookes said. He warned inquisitive journalists that there is no simple price list. The Commission believes that if all software vendors bought licenses it would amount to around 35 percent of the net profit of the industry. Microsoft's Smith dismissed this, saying: "I don't think you can conclude that." He said that if all vendors bought the licenses the total revenue Microsoft would earn would total around US$30 million -- a tiny fraction of annual software industry profits. "That $30 million figure bears no resemblance to reality, and if Microsoft can't explain how they reached this figure it has absolutely no value," Vinje said. Microsoft has four weeks to respond toÂ the latest statement of objections, after which it faces daily fines of up to â¬3 million (US$3.9 million). In the meantime, the Commission is expected to conclude its assessment of the substance of the interoperability information Microsoft submitted. It doesn't have to be innovative. In fact Microsoft's rivals, including ECIS, argue that much of the information competitors need in order to build their software so that it interoperates with the ubiquitous Windows OS on PCs is quite straightforward. Nevertheless, if it isn't revealed then rivals are stuck, Vinje said. Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd told journalists Thursday that Microsoft's continued failure to comply with the antitrust ruling is unprecedented. "In the 50 years of European antitrust policy, it's the first time we've been confronted with a company that has failed to comply with an antitrust decision," he said. "You have to look at their attitude faced with other antitrust authorities in other jurisdictions. This is a company that apparently does not like to have to conform with antitrust decisions," Todd added.
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The European Commission has again criticized Microsoft's response to a 2004 antitrust ruling, opening up the possibility of further fines for the company. The regulator said that the software giant proposes overcharging for vital interoperability information needed by rival software makers to allow their products work properly with the Windows operating system.