Microsoft has released on Monday its flagship development tool, Visual Studio 2008, to developer subscribers as a download.

The product line has included several editions, ranging from the low-end Visual Studion 2005 Express (used by students and hobbyists) to Visual Studio Team System (a suite with a server geared at a team of programmers).

Formally code-named Orcas, Visual Studio has features for developer productivity, workflow, data handling and also front-end development for Windows Vista.

The release includes a new developed technology from Microsoft called Language Integrated Query (LINQ), aimed at making it easier to build applications that tap into different data sources.

The product will also include visual modelling tools, a step in the company’s plans to simplify application modelling and make it mainstream. It is based on the latest version of the .Net Framework, the underlying software written with Visual Studios to run applications.

Visual Studio 2008 will be formally launched on February 27 next year, along with Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

Asus is helping Apple build a Tablet PC, Stewart Wilson reports.

I, Stewart Wilson hate Apple, I have an Apple iPod Nano first generation and only use it RARELY. It hardly leaves my room but according to cnet, Asus is help APPLE to build a new Tablet Mac PC. According to Asus it will be completely different to their other tablet pc’s.

Thats all I can report….

After complaints over the Mac OS X 10.5 problems with Firewalls and Upgrading and most new (and old) features being a pain, AppleInsider has the scoop over a launch of 10.5.1 for Leopard. AppleInsider cite Apple that Apple has highlighted “Time Machine, Mail, iCal, Back To My Mac, Bonjour, AirPort, gaming graphics, networking and the Finder” as areas that deserve close attention.

But that’s not all, early adopters have said to Apple to have a closer look over a raft of issues with the newly-released system. However, Anti-Mac readers should note that all but one release has had at least an update after 4 weeks. The original 10.0 ‘Cheetah’ had four updates (10.0.1 - 10.0.4) between March 24 to June 21 2001; with a mere 20 days for the first update.

OS X 10.1′Puma’ had just arrived 6 months after the original one, with it’s own update of 10.1.1 on November 13; however, three weeks later, it released 10.1.2.

OS X 10.2 ‘Jaguar’ unveilled on August 23, 2002; to be only succeeded by 10.2.1 ‘Jaguar Red’ on September 18. Two more updates, Titled Blue & Green. came out during November & December. Though the colour updates got a but silly with Jaguar Plaid, The can’t-go-wrong Jaguar Black 10.2.6 was released in May.

OS X 10.3 ‘Panther’ was released on October 24, 2003; with only an update, 10.3.1, just 18 days after on November 10.

OX X 10.4 ‘Tiger’ was the gold for Apple, being released on April 29, 2005. It released 10.4.1 just 17 days later.

APC Magazine is expecting that the new update won’t be released until early December, saying “By those standards… it’s not expected to break cover until early December, some six weeks after launch.”

Microsoft has fired the Chief Information Officer, Stuart Scott, on Friday after two years with the company; saying he violated company policies.

“We can confirm that Stuart Scott was terminated after an investigation for violation of company policies,” a Microsoft representative said.

General Manager Shahla Aly and Corporate Vice President Alain Crozier will be taking over the role until a replacement can be found. It declined to comment further on the termination of Scott’s position with Microsoft, nor specified on what company policy or policies did he violate.

Stuart Scott joined Microsoft from General Electric (GE) in 2005 after serving 17 years with GE. He was named as one of the top 100 Chief Information Officers by CIO Magazine.

Liveside is reporting that a new installer has been released for the final Wave 2 applications to be released. According to Liveside, not much as changed but this one is the final version.

If you are keeping tabs on product numbers, Messenger is at 8.5.1302.1018 and Mail is at 12.0.1606. The download link is http://g.live.com/1rewlive/en/WLInstaller.exe

Microsoft has announced that it will release the latest version of its flagship development software, Visual Studio 2008, at the end of November.

The company has also announced that it has changed it’s licensing terms for Visual Studio 2008 to allow its partners to build add-ons that works with other operating systems other than Microsoft’s Windows OS.

It also allowing that its Premiere-level partners to view the source code of the software for debugging. It also announced the Community Technology Preview of its Sync Framework, a software kit to help design peer-to-peer applications.

It has also released the Popfly Explorer, a tool to integrate Silverlight Gadgets built in Popfly to Visual Studio.

Microsoft has a difficult challenge ahead of them in convincing people that they need Windows Home Server. After all, having another computer in the house—especially one that doesn’t have a screen, a keyboard, or a mouse—isn’t something people are shoving each other in the face for. But when families take a good long look at what WHS can do, like automated, centralized daily backups, simplified remote access, storage expansion and network file sharing, they may just change their minds. We got our hands on a Norco DS-520 Home Server, one of the first pre-made boxes available, and definitely loved what we saw.

Before the software, here’s the hardware we used to explore WinHoServer. Norco’s DS 520 has a 1GHz Celeron M processor, up to 1GB RAM, eight SATA II channels, 3 eSATA ports, four USB 2.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports and a total capacity of 8TB when using 1TB drives. It’s got an MSRP of $649, which may seem high for a headless machine, but it’s not quite like a standard Windows machine you’ve used. True, you can make a Windows XP or Vista machine into a NAS that backs up and has RAID and allows remote access, you need deep networking and computer experience to do so. WinHoSo is designed for the average family with more than one computer. And you pay for both the convenience and the upgrade ability.

Review and more information @ Here

Apple has finally launched details about the new operating system called Leopard. It will be launched on October 26 at 6pm. If you want it now, you can pre-order it from the Apple Store.

It will cost $158 (including GST) for a single user license and $245 (including GST) for a five-user license. The server edition will cost $598 (including GST) for a single user license and $1,199 (including GST) for a 10-client license.

However, people who got their Macs from October 1st will be able to receive an upgrade disk to Leopard for only $12.95 (and that includes me…yay!) It’s all part of their Up-To-Date scheme.

Minimum Requirements are 512MB of RAM, and any Mac that has Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4. To run server, you will need 1GB of RAM and at least 20GB of space. Full specs are here.

So there you have it… the long (and very, very painful) wait is now officially over!

Microsoft has bowed down to pressure after several PC makers were upset that they could not sell XP anymore, even though the consumers demanded it beforehand, after the 30th of January 2008. Now, they have pushed it 5 months later, to the 30th June 2008.

It said that customers needed more time to switch over.

Microsoft has also extended the availability for Windows XP Starter Edition, the low-cost and cut down version of XP for third-world countries, to 30 June 2010.

Office 2008 for the Mac is set to be released soon, with it being launched in Australia on the 31st January 2008; with a mix of three versions.

The full version of Office 2008 will contain Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Entourage. The ‘Home & Student’ edition will feature Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Entour… basically the same thing. How weird?

The third version is called Office 2008 for Mac: Special Media Edition. This will feature Microsoft’s Expression Media for managing digital media assets. Is this another ploy to get a stake at what Adobe does?

Pricing wasn’t revealed, though the ‘Home & Student’ edition will be priced different to the Full Version.