Following lukewarm sales of Vista and also following the US lead into cutting prices, Microsoft Australia is hoping to get in more buyers by slashing prices up to 40 percent from the retail versions.

The Vista Ultimate Edition will now sell at $449, from $751; while (old price in brackets) Home Basic will sell for $299 ($385), Home Premium for $349 ($455) and Business for $449 ($565).

Similar cuts are also going to affect the upgrade editions, which will cost from $149 - $399, from the original price of $199 - $495.

This comes after one year of lackluster sales when it was launched worldwide on January 30th, with many computer makers demanding XP and even allow buyers to downgrade.

But Microsoft is denying that it is reducing prices to pick up its market share. ““Windows Vista has been on the market for more than a year now and has been doing well, with more than 100 million licences sold in its first year,” a company spokesman said to Smarthouse.com.au.

In a surprising move, Microsoft has said that it will lower the prices to several different versions of its latest version of its operating system, Windows Vista.

For those in the US, it’s only cutting the higher-end versions of Vista, but only those that are used for upgrading a version from an earlier copy of an Windows OS. Vista Ultimate drops to $219 from $299 and Home Premium falls to $129 from $159.

Other countries will also see the price cuts, while Microsoft is elimnating the names of “Full” and “Upgrade” versions between Home Basic and Home Premium in emerging countries to convince many users to use genuine software.

It has surprised analysts by the news.

According to CNET News.com, Vista’s sales have been badly trailing those seen in XP for the first six months. This could be due to the price or that you will need a new computer or buy new computer parts to get Vista running in top condition. It is rare to have a computer that will have a Base Score of 5.

Price cuts have been rare in Microsoft’s case, with many retailers opting to do small price cuts as specials. However, this will change the Recommended Retail Price (RRP) to the amounts mentioned. Microsoft did the same thing to its Windows XP Media Center Edition. Initially pitched as an high-end version above XP Pro, it lowered its price to be higher than XP Home and not XP Pro. That move has seen an increase of sales and also saw XP Media Center being the dominant consumer version.

Vista’s code was finalized in late 2006, however it held back the retail launch until January 2007. It has currently sold more than 100 million copies, but is trailing behind XP’s sales in its early days.

The European Commission has fined Microsoft for 899 million euros last night after Microsoft failed to comply with its 2004 anti-trust lawsuit.

This fine adds to the 499 million euros that it has to pay to the European Commission, after finding it was abusing its dominance.

The new penalty is a sum of daily fines between June 21, 2006 and October 21, 2007 - after it was found that it was putting rivals unreasonable prices to get access to Microsoft’s source code.

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) has published its final report on Microsoft latest products in its Office and Windows product lines, Windows Vista & Office 2007. The agency is sticking with its previous recommendations that schools should stay clear from Vista in existing deployments and also not to use Office 2007 altogether.

Schools have used Microsoft Office for producing documents that can be presented by the student. Students will regularly use Word and Powerpoint, with other subjects using Excel, Access and other applications. Office 2007 introduced new changes, including a new document file format.

Windows Vista, the successor to the popular Windows XP, sees a brand new graphical interface as well. That new graphical interface, which is named Aero, is also a resource hog if it is installed in existing computers.

Becta Recommedations

Vista

In the document, Becta recommens that schools should not deploy on the current existing computers in schools, saying that the upgrades aren’t worth the cost. According to Becta, only 22% of the school PCs in the UK can run Vista “effectively”; while 66% falls under Microsoft’s definition of being “Vista capable”. The agency pegs the upgrade will cost at £125 per machine for primary schools and £75 for secondary schools. This means £175 million will be needed if all the machines were upgraded to Vista in England and Wales alone; with one-third will be from licensing costs.

They also advise schools not to deploy Windows Vista and an older Windows OS side-by-side. “We advise that… mixed Windows-based operating-system environments should be avoided.” Schools are also advised to stick with XP with they want to extend a current Windows set-up.

Office 2007

Becta, in its interim report last January, called Microsoft to come up with a reason why schools should use Microsoft Office 2007. The company, according to Becta, has not responded.

The main reason was the concern of interoperability with the new Office Open XML file format. In contrast, the ODF format used by OpenOffice.org and a handful of others is an approved international standard. The report said that Office 2007 was not effective on running ODF. It has also criticised Microsoft for its efforts of making the OOXML an additional standard.

“The interoperability that Microsoft makes available in Office 2007 for competitor products is less than it makes available for its own family of products,” the report said. “We have complained to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that this puts competition at risk and is an abuse of a dominant position by Microsoft. The OFT is considering our complaint.”

Schools should not use Office unless schools have a plan to deal with the interoperability and “potential digital divide issues”. As well, Becta advises schools to not use the new file format, instead using the old format. Those running the older versions of Office should install the compatibility pack provided by Microsoft at its website.

Conclusion

They have advised users that you only install the software on institution-wide developments; meaning every computer should be upgraded all together with the same computers.

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) founder Nicholas Negroponte has hinted that a dual boot version of the XO Laptop could be on its way. Speaking to the IDG News Service yesterday, the OLPC is working with Microsoft on a version of the laptop that is capable of booting either Linux - the current OS - or Windows.

CNET’s Tom Krazit has written that it appears to be a similar technique like Apple’s Boot Camp; where it does not provide true virtualisation but the ability to boot to either operating system depending on the applications.

This new move could address some of the reasons have gone to Intel’s Classmate, which can run either Linux or Windows. The Classmate PC, however, does not have any dual-boot functionality.

Microsoft and the OLPC have been talking for months about getting Windows to run on the XO laptop, but until now the discussion had indicated that the project would result into two different laptops. A dual-boot XO laptop would be a different concept; as it it requires additional power, storage, memory or all three. This may result in a price hike from the original XO.

This comes after a “divorce” between the OLPC and Intel, caused by Intel’s Classmate PC. The OLPC wanted Intel to stop selling the Classmate PC in areas which the OLPC is being promoted.

Microsoft also have a low-cost Windows operating system for developing countries. Called the Windows Starter Edition, it cannot be sold in developed nations like the United States and Australia.

Microsoft has now acknowledged that it had made a mistake over a “security advisory” it released with the latest service pack for its Office 2003 product. The advisory, which was released in December, said that certain older file types were blocked as they were deemed “insecure”.

It also provided a workaround for users who wanted to unblock the file types; but made it complicated, requiring users to make changes to the registry - which could have made computers inoperable if it was done incorrectly.

On Friday, Microsoft admitted that the information it had provided was wrong, and had underestimated how many users were affected. It now says that instead the file types being insecure, it is the parsing code that Office 2003 uses to open and save the file types that are less secure.

Speaking to ZDNet.co.uk last week; Reed Shaffner, the worldwide product manager for Microsoft Office, confirmed that the advisory provided was incorrect and the registry fix that it provided had been difficult to implement by users.

Microsoft has released four downloadable updates that would unblock the file types. One update was provided for each of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and CorelDraw file types. The new updates should prove to be much easier that the manual registry fix, which is still up on the updated advisory.

It has also provided four downloadable updates that would do the opposite of what was said above - reblock the file formats. “For IT administrators, we recommend that they use the (registry) fix that was there before. For end users, if they frequently use the older formats, this (the downloadable update) is the way,” Shaffner said to ZDNet.co.uk.

He suggested that if you do not use the older file types frequently, then you should apply the new update.

Bill Gates has presented his last ever keynote for CES in a move to prepare himself to slowly transition himself for his role as part-time and advising products.

In the keynote, he noted that Vista sold 100 million copies; and start talking about the first “digital decade” and Microsoft’s involvement. As well in the speech, he said that PC base has grew to 1 billion.

A video was shown to the press “detailing” Bill Gates’ final day at Microsoft; with guests like Bono, Al Gore, Hilary Clinton and Brian Williams. Shown as what Engadget called it “The Office style”, it shown employees talking about Bill Gates transition.

Continuing back to his speech, Bill also said that there were 10 million users using Windows Mobile and hopes that it would double by next year. As well, he also noted that 420 million are currently using the Windows Live suite of software and web applications.

Windows Live was first shown as a demo, and detailing different software/web applications that could be used to plan a party. Using Windows Live Calendar, Events, Photo Gallery, Spaces, Video Search and Mobile; it showed that Microsoft is dedicated in integrating many of its services as online applications.

Surface was next up and was being shown by Bill Gates as he was looking to buy a new snowboard. In this demo, it shows us how Surface could work with many different applications by using touch to resize, change a colour, add handwriting and drag and drop. Also in the demo, it showed an integration between Windows Live and Windows Mobile by placing your device on the Surface table.

Silverlight was presented next and said that it had a great response in it’s first version. As well, he announced that NBC has partnered up with Microsoft and will use Silverlight to use to on its online video footage. The new partnership will bring High Quality video and interactive features.

Back to more statistics. The Xbox has seen impressive growth, with 17.7 billion shipped and $3.5 billion in business (more than the Wii and the PS3). Also, Xbox Live has reached the 10 million mark - 6 months earlier than announced. ABC and Disney have signed up to bring their TV shows on the Xbox Live download service; and also, MGM will bring their entire library of movies to Xbox Live.

Oh, and new Media Center extenders are being produced by Samsung and HP.

Finally, we reach to Mediaroom - Microsoft’s new IPTV service. They announced that 1 million people have now got Mediaroom and also announced that CNN, TNT and Showtime will bring interactive features using Mediaroom; with CNN using it to cover the 2008 Presidential race. The Xbox 360 will also be used as a set top box thanks to British Telecom (BT). BT will also sell the console.

The Zune had also reasonable success, with good reviews and responses with the newer versions. In the keynote; they showcased the brand-new Zune Social, a music social site. It has already have 1.5 million people using it.

They also demoed Microsoft’s Sync. Ford is set to sell 1 million Sync enabled cars this year. It was also announced that a new upgrade, called 911-assist, will be available. Once the airbags are deployed, it will automatically call the emergency services unless you tell it to not to.

Microsoft also said that Windows Mobile have outsold the Blackberry; and showcased a demo from TellMe’s new service called Say and See. This new application will use GPS and voice recognition to find what you would like.

Finally, Bill showcases a brand new technology that was just off Microsoft’s labs. This new technology brings contextual information from a camera pointing to the person or a building.

We will wait and see what CES brings for us in the gadget sense.

Terence Huynh is reporting from Melbourne. The content shown here was notes from him by a live stream provided by Microsoft. Additional reporting was from Engadget and CNET News.com.

TECH.GEEK sadly cannot cover CES nor Macworld. This is due to travel expenses.

A recent service pack for the 2003 incarnation of Microsoft Office has seen many users cannot access certain file types that were supported before the update.

Included in the lengthy list include word processing filetypes for Word 6.0 and Word 97 for Windows and also Word 2004 for the Mac. It also blocks filetypes from older versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Lotus Notes, Corel Quattro spreadsheet, and Corel Draw graphics suite.

On releasing the service pack, Microsoft noted that they decided to block them since they aren’t used for day-to-day use anymore and also for easer for it nteroperate with Vista, the latest version of the Windows product line, and Office 2007, the successor of Office 2003.

However, this block makes it harder to view archived material.

The changes were released in a support document, released in December; however, users weren’t given the warning of the effects of installing SP3.  “By default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure. They may pose a risk to you,” it said.

It has released a workaround. This, however, needs you to make some changes in the Registry; which could leave your computer unstable if performed incorrectly.

Microsoft has announced that it will create a special version of it’s Windows XP Operating System for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). In a statement released today, the software developer has said that it will conduct “limited” trials in January.

However, it has warned for those in the US and Canada that it will not be able to be in this trial, particularly those who are participating in the Give One, Get One program.

“As part of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential effort to bring the benefits of technology to the next 5 billion people by transforming education, fostering local innovation, and enabling jobs and opportunity, Microsoft today announced plans to further expand flash-based Windows XP support for low-cost hardware computing devices,” the company said in the statement.

Microsoft has also said that governments wanting the operating system should call Microsoft on when will it be ready and how much will it cost.

However, there are many technical hurdles; for one, it needs to run on a 2GB SD Card. Microsoft conviced the OLPC to add a SD Card, and now it will use that to create a BIOS so it can boot from it.

As well, it needs to write 10 drivers to make it work with it’s mesh networking, camera and other unique features.

In an interview, James Utzschneider, General Manager of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential group, has said that Microsoft has devoted 40 people to work on the operating system, as it plans to fit the entire XP and Office programs in one 2GB SD Card.

Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for Windows Exchange Server 2007. The update includes additions to the Exchange management console, Outlook Web Access and also disaster recovery.

Disaster recovery already featured includes Local Continuous Replication and Cluster Continuous Replication. SP1 will add another disaster recovery tool Standby Continuous Replication, allowing content to be replicated in geographical dispersed areas.

However, the new tool will not run automatically. “It has to be manual because it is two separate pieces of data,” said Product Manager for unified communications at Microsoft, Mark Deakin to CNET.

Another feature will be a closer tie to Office Communications 2007, with the ability to move voicemails between two or greater variety of mobile devices.

Forefront Security has also been included in SP1, and also support for multiple scanning programs from different security vendors. Microsoft has said that this can be easily done by installing a module.