July 27 2002 PC News

Technical, Business and Product News from the Modern Computer World... Updated Once Per Month

News for the Week Ending July 27, 2002

BetaNews - Next-Gen Windows Media Player Leaks to the Web
By Nate Mook, BetaNews

A beta version of Windows Media Player 9 leaked out onto Internet sites Friday, providing an early glimpse at Microsoft's upcoming Windows Media 9 Series platform. Although the leaked build -- numbered 2601 -- appears to be from late January, its new features showcase Redmond's digital media plans.

Version 9 appears almost identical to its predecessor on the outside, but adds DVD copying, improved encoders and better plug-in management. Cross-fade and normalization plug-ins have been included as standard offering in the new Windows Media Player.

The biggest changes come with a new focus on audio and video subscription services. A "Services" button has been added to the menu bar, which leads to a page with options for removing a service and selecting a default - although neither are currently functional. The feature suggests Windows Media Player will integrate with online services such as Pressplay and MusicNet, allowing users to easily download music directly to their libraries.

Besides listing subscriptions, the Media Library now supports Microsoft's new XML-based Windows Media Metadata and "Smart Playlists." This metadata can be used to view and sort music and video by a variety of different categories, along with creating rule-based playlists. The search tool has received more prominent placement in the Media Library, and now supports advanced rule-based searches.

To facilitate editing of Windows Media Metadata, Microsoft has included a new tool called Advanced Edit. For each song or video, users can input a massive amount of details such as mood, beats per minute, Web sites, multiple comments, pictures and even synchronized lyrics.

While in the past it has kept away from the issue, Microsoft has included support for file sharing from within the Windows Media Player 9 beta. A "Send to Friend" option allows users to send a song or video to others on MSN or Windows Messenger with a simple click of the mouse. Such a feature could spark immense controversy, as Microsoft may be one of the few companies with pockets big enough to fend off the Recording Industry Association of America.

For home users, a big addition to Windows Media Player 9 is the ability to copy DVD movies to disk. It is unclear whether version 9 will also be able to create DVD movies, however in early January Microsoft licensed DVD recording technology from Sonic and has begun pushing Windows Media-enabled DVD players with hardware partners.

What features make it into the final release of the next-generation Windows Media Player will not be known until a public beta of Windows Media 9 Series launches on September 4 in Los Angeles.

Toms Hardware - ATi Takes Over 3D Technology Leadership With Radeon 9700

It might not quite be justified to call today historical, but this July 17, 2002 is certainly marking a significant quirk in the continuity of the PC graphics scene. For years, the Toronto-based 3D chip maker ATi used to run behind technology leader NVIDIA, often just about managing to catch up for a short time, but utterly unable to take a meaningful lead in terms of technology or performance.This trend is over today, as ATi is attacking its Californian arch enemy in three areas. Radeon 9000 (Pro) marks the first DirectX 8-capable 3D chip in the value segment that is so financially important for 3D chip makers, while Radeon 9700 will take the crown of the technology as well as performance leader. Additionally, ATi is giving the first presentation of its highly anticipated 'RenderMonkey' 3D-tool suite, which will finally be beta-released next week at SIGGRAPH. Different to previous releases of ATi products, NVIDIA will not be able to counter ATi's attack with the launch of an even more powerful product a few weeks later. Mysterious 'NV30,' NVIDIA's "DX9 weapon," is still months away from its inception. The Santa Clara-based 3D chip maker will have to live with the No. 2 status for a while.

Of course, it wouldn't be an ATi launch if there weren't a few of the ' regular irregularities.' While cards with Radeon 9000 Pro, ATi's new DX 8.1 value chip, should be found on store shelves within the next days, the world will still have to wait a few weeks until cards with the new 'super chip' Radeon 9700 will become available. ATi says it won't be before the second half of August 2002 that you can purchase their new wonder product. This article will focus on Radeon 9700, while a parallel piece is dedicated to Radeon 9000 Pro...

...ATi's new high-end 3D chip, also known under its code name "R300," was designed for Microsoft's upcoming DirectX 9 specification. ATi calls it 'VPU' for Visual Processing Unit to distinguish it from the term 'GPU,' which was invented by NVIDIA at the introduction of GeForce256 in 1999... The real key feature of DirectX 9, however, is the introduction of RGBA values in 64 (16-bit FP per color) as well as 128-bit (32-bit FP per color) floating point precision. This great increase of color precision allows a stunningly new amount of visual effects and picture quality...

...Besides all this new stuff, Radeon 9700 will also have enough brute force to accelerate today's DX7 and DX8 games to beyond what we have seen before. The eight-pixel-pipeline rendering unit, four parallel vertex shaders and a 256-bit memory interface with a bandwidth of 20 GB/s make sure that the previous performance leader is left in the dust....

...The power requirements of the chip plus memory will be higher than what ATi wants to run through the AGP-slot. Therefore, Radeon 9700 cards will have an extra floppy drive-size power connector...

...It is not surprising that Radeon 9700 is an AGP 8x part, as all new 3D chips today follow this new standard. AGP 8x is not exactly an exciting specification, as it merely doubles the already meager 1 GB/s bandwidth of AGP 4x...

...Radeon 9700 will be able to be equipped with up to 256 MB of onboard memory, but the initial version will come with the lately common 128 MB.

R300 has already been designed with the new DDRII memory type in mind, so that future cards can be equipped with this upcoming memory type as well, once it becomes available...

...Unfortunately, Radeon 9700 is still a few weeks away from its final form, which is why ATi was not supplying test samples to the press. However, to back up the claims in the white papers, ATi allowed us to run tests on a Pentium 4 2.5 GHz system equipped with a Radeon 9700 prototype alongside an identical system equipped with NVIDIA's GeForce4 Ti4600. ATi asked us to refrain from publishing the actual numbers we saw, but to just report our impressions. The three hours of hands on testing did not disappoint us....

...Tests showed that Radeon 9700 is clearly superior to NVIDIA's GeForce4 Ti4600, especially once high resolutions, FSAA or anisotropic filtering are used. However, what would you expect from a card with twice the memory bandwidth of its competitor? ATi promises twice the performance of GeForce4 Ti4600 in any game, but that should be considered pure marketing hype...

...The 3DMark2001SE score...GeForce4 Ti4600 was able to get a mere 4500 points, while Radeon 9700 scored 10,000 points, thus, more than twice the points of the competitor from NVIDIA...

...There's no denying that right now, Radeon 9700 is way ahead of the competition. It plays in a different performance league than the rest of the graphics cards that are available today. Different to Parhelia, it doesn't take major exploration to find the performance of Radeon 9700. However, in three months NVIDIA is certain to get its revenge. We will see how the upcoming 'NV30' will fare against Radeon 9700. Until then, ATi has all the reason in the world to enjoy its new leadership role...

BetaNews - Microsoft: Windows 2000 SP3 Very Close
By Nate Mook, BetaNews

Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 is on track to make its summer deadline despite numerous delays that pushed the long-awaited update from a planned early 2002 release. Indicating SP3 is near completion, Microsoft today made available to testers a release candidate refresh, marked build 3.151.

"Thank you for all your help in testing Windows 2000 Service Pack 3. We are getting very close to our final build and would appreciate it if you could download and test our current release candidate, build 3.151 without delay," Microsoft's Sustained Engineering Team wrote in an e-mail to beta testers. "Since we are so close to the end of this product cycle, we will need your feedback in the newsgroup right away."

Service Pack 3 will include a slew of security and compatibility updates, along with support for automatic updates. With SP3, network administrators can set Windows 2000 to automatically download or schedule updates to the operating system.

Due to the company's antitrust settlement with the Department of Justice and nine states, Microsoft has included a new configuration pane in SP3 called Configure Programs. Users will be given the option to override Microsoft defaults and select a custom Web browser, e-mail client, media player, instant messenger, and Java virtual machine. The pane will also feature an option to hide integrated Windows components such as Internet Explorer or Windows Media Player.

Microsoft began beta testing SP3 last November, but faced multiple issues -- including a security code review in February -- that constantly delayed its release.

The lag sparked rumors earlier this month that SP3 was delayed indefinitely due to problems with Microsoft Installer 2.0, which was to be dropped from the update all together. But a Microsoft official dispelled such hearsay in a newsgroup posting, stating MSI 2.0 "will be included in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 when it releases this summer."

www.lindows.com - Lindows Adds Click-n-Run Star Office FOR FREE

Each day, we seem to add another gem to the vault of software applications that we call the Click-N-Run Warehouse. Yesterday, we added a true treasure, Sun's StarOffice www.lindows.com/staroffice. Now with just one click you can download, install and be ready to run StarOffice.

In our latest Press Release (see www.lindows.com/press), Mike Rogers, vice president and general manager for Desktop and StarOffice products at Sun Microsystems made the following comments: "We find the Click-N-Run concept extremely innovative, and Sun is proud to now be part of the LindowsOS Warehouse."

StarOffice is described as a Microsoft Office compatible suite, but what does that really mean? The question many ask is “Just how compatible is it?”

So to help answer this and show you how compatible StarOffice is, we have setup a special email address at Lindows.com – just send some of your non-confidential Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents to us at documents@lindows.com. We’ll open them using StarOffice running on top of LindowsOS and email you back the document after making a small edit to it so that you can see just how good it looks.

Many of us here at Lindows.com have already moved over to using StarOffice on a daily basis. Most of us make use of the word processor, but the suite also includes a spreadsheet, a database manager, a presentation manager, an HTML editor, and graphics editing programs. Everything works fluidly and seamlessly together. StarOffice even allows you to save your documents in .doc file format allowing you to continue to communicate to those who insist on giving excess amounts of money to Microsoft. Checkout the screenshots of StarOffice in action at www.lindows.com/staroffice

StarOffice is the first commercial application that we have added to our warehouse, it normally costs $75, but Insiders can download both LindowsOS and StarOffice, and obtain a full year's Click-N-Run Warehouse membership for just $99. So if you want to try StarOffice out for yourself on LindowsOS then just go to www.lindows.com/signup - we offer a 30 day money-back guarantee.

BetaNews - Windows .NET Server RC1 Set to Ship
By Nate Mook, BetaNews

Beta testers of Microsoft's forthcoming Windows .NET Server received notice this past weekend that Release Candidate 1 would soon arrive in the mail. "In the coming weeks, we will be shipping your Windows .NET Server RC1 kit," beta coordinators wrote in an e-mail. "A definitive delivery date is not available. Inquiries regarding a ship date will not receive a response."

Along with the announcement, Microsoft issued interim build 3660, a "checkpoint to ensure that no new, major issues have been introduced." All beta testers are encouraged to install the build, which may serve as the final pre-RC1 release if all goes well.

Initially released alongside client versions of Whistler, which became Windows XP, server editions were renamed last June to reflect different shipping schedules. Windows .NET was originally slated to ship at the end of 2001, but numerous delays forced Microsoft to move RTM to the end of this year and a public debut to early 2003.

Windows .NET will ship in four flavors: Web Server, Standard Server, Enterprise Server, and Datacenter Server. Microsoft has set up a Web page to explain differences in each version. All releases will include IIS 6.0, ASP.NET and the .NET Framework.

ITWorld Canada - Bell West expands Alberta SuperNet with fibre purchase
By Jeff Wilson

Western Canadian-based service provider Bell West has purchased six fibre lines in Alberta from broadband network owner/operator Total Telcom, taking another step towards completing its SuperNet Network. The network is aiming to provide broadband services to most businesses and residences in the province.

The six dark fibres, which stretch for 473 kilometres, run northwest between Edmonton and Grand Prairie, Alta. Under the agreement, Total will maintain the lines for at least 20 years. Bell West plans to use the lines to provide inter-exchange transport connectivity between the two cities.

The brainchild of the Alberta provincial government, SuperNet is being designed to link 4,700 hospitals, libraries, schools and provincial government offices in 422 communities across the province. It is scheduled to be completed in 2004.

Brian Olafson, vice-president, SuperNet project with Bell West, said the company set out some detailed plans that make it confident of completing the network by the July 2004 deadline. A pilot section was constructed between Calgary and Red Deer, Alta. and is operational with 44 users. During the rest of this construction season, Bell West will lay as much as 1,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable to create 18 additional sections.

"To build a network of this type, you have to build a backbone network, and we have Edmonton-Calgary operational. The deal we signed…with Total Telcom will give us the backbone from Edmonton to Grand Prairie, which will be implemented in the next few months," he said. "The next one we are looking at is Calgary to Medicine Hat (Alta.)."

Olafson says Bell West will look at signing service agreements with other network operators to use their existing cable, instead of laying their own. The Alberta government had requested Bell West approach other operators to see if service deals could be reached, he added.

Bell West plans to use wireless technology in as many as 70 communities in the province. Instead of laying cable to each business and residence, one cable line is located in a central area of a community equipped with a transmitter and a receiver is provided to the service user.

"They are doing it (the SuperNet project) in a very cost-efficient way with the use of base stations," Lo stated. "It would get quite costly to run a fibre cable up to each farm," said Kevin Lo, a Calgary-based investment analyst with Lightyear Capital Inc.

Lo says similar type projects, to provide high-speed Internet access to rural communities, has been undertaken in both Northern Ontario and Korea.

The only difficulty Lo had with the project was if it would ever become profitable. He feels that the government may have to subsidize it for a number of years.

"The question is, how long before it will become profitable?" Lo questioned.

The Alberta government will provide businesses and residence with access to the SuperNet at current market rates.

Click HERE to return to the www.commodore.ca Home Page