Windows and Halo boost Microsoft

Microsoft has seen strong quarterly profits, thanks to demand for its Windows operating system and its popular Halo 3 video game.

The software giant saw net profit rise 23% to $4.29bn from $3.48bn a year earlier, during its first financial quarter, beating expectations.

Revenue added 27% to $13.76bn over the three months to 30 September.

The firm also raised its yearly forecast. Shares rose 11% in after-hours trade, to more than $35.

Morningstar analyst Toan Tran described the results as a "blowout quarter".

"I think Microsoft is going to have a fabulous second quarter. Worldwide PC demand is still very strong and is going to benefit Windows and Office," he added.

"With the holiday season, we're going to have demand for Xbox 360, and for Halo 3 so the second quarter is shaping up to be fabulous for Microsoft."

Outlook

Revenue from Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system grew 25% from a year earlier, hitting $4.14bn while sales climbed 20% to $4.11bn.

Meanwhile the firm's entertainment and devices arm saw revenue climb to $1.93bn - nearly double that seen in the first fiscal quarter of 2006, helped by the Halo 3 game as well as the Xbox consoles on which the game is played.

Looking ahead the firm raised its forecast for the financial year to $58.8bn in sales from a previous estimate of between $56.8bn and $57.8bn.

The results come the same day that Microsoft announced it had paid $240m (£117m) to buy a 1.6% stake in Facebook.

The deal means Microsoft will sell internet ads for Facebook outside the US.

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Samsung Cancels Blu-ray Player, Delays Dual-Mode Unit

Samsung confirmed Wednesday that it was canceling one of its Blu-ray players, while delaying its dual-format model until the end of the year.

The Blu-ray-only BD-P2400 was set to debut at a price point of $649 USD. However, the device was essentially the same as the $100 cheaper BD-P1400, save for the addition of HQV video processing.

In an increasingly muddied market for high-definition players where there appears to be no apparent winner for the foreseeable future, Samsung's move might not be all that surprising. It could be making this move to focus on getting its own dual-format player out, the BD-UP5000. While the player was originally supposed to be released in October, the company now says it will not be released until mid- to late December.

Another reason could be that Samsung wished to ensure its set-top box was BD Profile 1.1-compliant, which is a requirement of all players after October 31. While the unit will not ship with the new code, a firmware update in January will enable playback of discs that fit that profile.

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Nokia N95 8GB now shipping

Finnish fone fabricator Nokia has now begun shipping its updated N95 mobile phone.

The 8GB N95 boasts 8GB of built-in memory, a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, built-in A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA and an innovative(?) 2-way slide. The N95 also features an all-important 2.8" (240 x 320) QVGA display that works great with GPS, Java games and Internet browsing.

The black, hot and heavy (129 g) N95 8GB is set to cost 560 euros without taxes.(WTF!)

Asus announces Silent Square EVO CPU cooler.

After the Silent Knight II, Asus has unveiled yet another cooler said to be perfect for keeping the temperatures of quad-core CPUs as low as possible. The Silent Square EVO works with Intel LGA 775 and AMD 939/940/AM2 sockets and features a "wave-shaped" double side fin design, a copper base and five copper heat pipes can efficiently transfer the heat to the fins.

The fan with which the Silent Square comes equipped is positioned inside the frame of the heatsink and measures 92×92×25mm. The fan spins its blades at 22dBA. The whole cooler and nothing but the cooler weights in 745 grams. A price tag for the new cooling solution has not been announced.

Eric Traut talks and demos Windows 7 and MinWin.

Microsoft’s distinguished engineer Eric Traut gave a presentation at the University of Illinois about Microsoft’s virtualisation technology and also mentioned Windows 7 - the next version of Windows after Vista. Believe it or not it was on video. Whilst the presentation is not directly about Windows 7, it does contain a demonstration of MinWin - an internal project to build the most efficient Windows kernel which will in turn be used in Windows 7.

The presentation (WMV) goes for approximately 1 hour and includes a very deep look into hyper visors. If you think Windows at its core is bloated, think again.

The 8 minute segment has been clipped out which Eric focuses on Windows 7 specifically to make it easier to watch.

Full WMV video (1 hour & 6 minutes)

Windows 7 Footage (8 minutes)

Want Vista SP1 Beta but you are not a certified tester?

That's right! There is a hack available that will permit you to access, download and install the official release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 straight from Microsoft.

The first service pack for Vista was initially released in pre-beta stage in mid July 2007, concomitantly with the original preview of Windows XP Service Pack 3. Microsoft subsequently dropped another pre-beta version of Vista SP1 in August and revealed that the first fully-fledged beta for the service pack would be delivered by the end of September. And the fact of the matter is that in the last week of the past month, the beta of Windows Vista SP1 Build 6001.16659 was open to in excess of 12,000 testers.

A public beta of Windows Vista SP1 is expected sometime near the moment Microsoft will make available the first Release Candidate for the service pack, but the company has offered no timetable in this sense. The final version of Vista SP1 is currently planned for launch in the first quarter of 2008, following the release of Windows Server 2008, at the end of February. In this context, in excess of 70 million Vista users are locked out of the beta testing process of Vista SP1. The Beta Build 6001.16659 of the service pack has been leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing networks but downloading the refresh as a torrent is not even close to an option. However, a hack that will permit users to grab the official Vista SP1 Beta Build 6001.16659 right from the Microsoft Windows Updates server, is.

All you have to do is a little registry hack, as exemplified by GHacks. Open a notepad file and copy paste the following code. Make sure to save the file with a name similar to the one that follows: WindowsVistaSP1_Beta_Hack.cmd. In the file format area of the dialog box do not select .txt but opt for All Files instead.

CODE
@echo off
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSp1 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d a2c3c14a-9586-4d37-9aaa-79fbd64069d2 /f
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP1 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d a2c3c14a-9586-4d37-9aaa-79fbd64069d2 /f

echo Vista SP1 registry key has been set. Please check for updates in Windows Update.

Then navigate to the location where you saved the file and right click it in order to select the Run as administrator from the contextual menu that will pop up. In this manner you will launch the registry hack with administrative privileges, otherwise the changes that the file is designed to introduce to the Windows Vista registry will fail. Microsoft is delivering the first beta for Windows Vista SP1 through the Windows Update infrastructure and the registry hack will render WU to display the refresh as available for download.

Following the execution of the WindowsVistaSP1_Beta_Hack.cmd and the associated registry alterations, run Windows Update in Vista. You will come across update KB935509 and you have to download and install it. After reboot make your way to Windows Update again and this time grab and deploy update KB937287. After yet another restart you will be able to find a third update – KB938371. The next time you boot into your copy of Vista and access Windows Update you will be able to find Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta.

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Sony and Blu-ray have lost their exclusivity in JB Hi-Fi stores with the announcement that effective from November, the major retailer will start selling HD DVD players and content. The big winner is Toshiba, with JB Hi-Fi Marketing Director Scott Browning conceding that it was the exclusive Paramount content deal with HD DVD that swung him over to the HD DVD format.

Back in February this year at the launch of the Blu-ray Disc Working Group, Browning said that JB Hi-Fi would only sell Blu-ray hardware and software because of the strength of the format.

But in an interview with SmartHouse today Browning said, "We have come to the conclusion that cutting the consumer out of a HD DVD opportunity was not right, as content is critical and the move by Paramount to support HD DVD exclusively influenced our decision. In addition, Toshiba is a strong brand and we are currently...

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