TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Windows Mobile 6.5 Home Screen

Microsoft and its industry partners will try to make a big splash on Tuesday as they release the first mobile phones with Windows Mobile 6.5 -- complete with a mobile application store, a mobile synchronization service, a new look and features designed to streamline the process of accessing information on a device.

However, Microsoft executives acknowledge behind the scenes that they wish their mobile operating system was further along. Perhaps most noticeably, the new Windows Mobile supports single-finger touch input but not native multi-touch, the ability to interact with the screen using multiple fingers at once -- to pinch or expand a Web page, for example.

Can a new-and-improved Mario and an elite squad of “Halo” troopers lead a successful battle against the recession? The video-game industry is about to find out.

After initially proving resilient to the economic downturn, sales of video game hardware, software and accessories have suffered six straight monthly declines in the U.S. — pointing to a difficult struggle ahead as game companies prepare for the critical holiday shopping season.

Paul Allen

Health concerns last year sidelined billionaire Paul Allen, who was forced to skip the Seattle King County Realtors' First Citizen award due to a medical procedure.

But Allen -- sporting a new beard that's changed a little in color since this iconic 1978 photo -- is healthy again, according to John Canzano's column this week in The Oregonian.

"I'm fine, finally," Allen told Canzano. "I'm much, much better. I hit a few bumps in the road. Your health ... is the most important thing in the world, isn't it?"

Microsoft is discontinuing Recite, a Windows Mobile application that lets people record audio notes to themselves and search them later by voice, according to a notice today on the Microsoft Recite site. The app will no longer be offered as of Dec. 31, 2009, the company says.

The notice doesn't provide a reason for the discontinuation, but it suggests that Microsoft might revive the concept in some other form. "The ability to capture notes and reminders is an area we are still focused on and we will continue to consider your feedback to build out these rich experiences in upcoming product," it says.

Last spring, when we published our initial listing of notable women in Seattle technology, we received lots of feedback: First, many TechFlash readers wanted us to recognize more scientists, engineers and others in technical careers. And second, many of the women on the list suggested that we organize an event where they and others could meet.

So we're doing both. We've expanded the list to include many of your suggestions, and we're inviting all of the women on the list, along with the rest of the Seattle tech community, to register and join us for the upcoming TechFlash Live: Women in Technology event -- to be held the evening of Oct. 28 at the W Hotel in downtown Seattle.

See the expanded list, get details and register for the event here.

Last month, Microsoft unveiled a prototype for a keyboard that senses, with precision, the amount of pressure the user is putting on the keys. Next week, students will be unveiling their applications for the keyboard as part of a contest at the User Interface Software and Technology conference in Victoria, B.C.

During a visit to the Microsoft campus yesterday, Paul Dietz, a senior researcher in Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group, showed us the inner circuitry of the keyboard and demonstrated how it works.

Microsoft's annual proxy statement, filed yesterday afternoon, disclosed not just the annual bonuses of the company's top executives (down 29 percent overall) but also the performance evaluations used to determine how much cash and stock executives took home for the year. So how did Microsoft's leadership do in the eyes of the company's board? Read on for excerpts.

A federal court on Tuesday overturned a $388 million ruling against Microsoft -- reversing what was believed the fifth-largest patent verdict in history. A jury in April had found that a Microsoft product activation system for Windows and Office violated an anti-piracy patent held by the Uniloc security software company.

Steve Ballmer

It's been a tough year for most of corporate America. And Microsoft has not been immune to the economic slow down. As a result, top executives at the world's largest software company saw their stock and cash incentive bonuses chopped by 29 percent, according to a proxy filing issued today.

Of the five top executives listed, four saw their total compensation (including base salaries, cash bonuses and stock awards) decline. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer -- who is no longer accruing any stock compensation -- earned $1.2 million for the 2009 fiscal year. That compared to $1.3 million in 2008.

Microsoft hasn't yet announced a specific release date for the initial debut of Facebook and Twitter on Xbox Live this fall, but the Xbox team appears to be having lots of fun with them in internal tests.

Marc Whitten, the Xbox Live general manager, posted his first tweet from the console on Sept. 16, as made clear by the tag "posted from Xbox LIVE" where Twitter identifies the application being used.

The Windows Vista era was a rocky one for Microsoft and Intel, longtime partners in the "Wintel" alliance. First, during Vista's development, Intel started playing both sides of the fence by working with Apple. Later, as Windows Vista was being prepared for release, Microsoft loosened an important standard for the operating system to help Intel unload some older chips -- triggering a huge behind the scenes mess that was revealed in a subsequent lawsuit.

Then, to top it off, Intel decided to skip Windows Vista in its own operations -- effectively kicking the beleaguered Microsoft operating system when it was down.

But with Windows 7, it looks like all is well between them again.

With the launch of Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile just over the horizon, Apple is making it clear just how much catching up Microsoft will need to do. More than 85,000 apps are now available for iPhone and iPod touch from the Apple App store, and more than 2 billion individual apps have been downloaded, the company announced this morning.

Of course, Microsoft isn't starting from scratch. Third-party apps have been available for years for Microsoft's Windows Mobile. But the Redmond company has been slow to bring everything together into a centralized store, leaving the door open for Apple to charge out ahead with its own community of developers.

Monica Harrington

Monica Harrington: Mike Maples, formerly Senior Vice President of Microsoft Applications, once famously said “our rightful share is 100 percent.” People who heard that later and never had to motivate development teams were aghast.

But Mike was right. I say this as someone who worked for Mike and who later helped start a company that competed very successfully against Microsoft.

Mike’s whole point I think was that anybody who didn’t set audacious goals and then work relentlessly toward them shouldn’t be in tech.The pace of change is too quick, the competitors too close, and the chance for failure too great.

This actually shouldn't be newsworthy, and users of Google Docs will probably just shrug, but Microsoft's decision to omit the editing function from the initial technical preview of its Microsoft Word Web App means that it's interesting to catch a glimpse of it in action. LiveSide.net has an "exclusive" look at the feature in this post today.

Microsoft's Windows advertising gurus made us suffer through Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, and Churros, before providing mildly more interesting food for thought with the company's Laptop Hunters ads.

But the advertisements for Windows 7, like the software itself, finally seem to be hitting the right notes.