PC & Network Support Services Limited

Skype on Monday announced a beta that will allow it to connect to corporate telephone networks across the globe.

Technically, Skype’s beta is dubbed Skype For SIP for Business users. SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol, which is a standard for voice over Internet protocol used it corporate networks. Simply put, Skype will now connect to corporate phone systems so you can Skype fixed line phones and mobiles from a traditional PBX system — your standard phone set-up.

For now, Skype’s pricing once the beta runs its course is to be determined. In the meantime, standard rates—a little more than 2 cents for most global calls—apply. However, it’s likely that the margins might be a little better than its current a few pennies here and there to call a land line setup. If not, Skype may at least get more volume if it’s an official member of the corporate network club. Skype already works with corporate hardware and integrates with Outlook and Salesforce.com, but its latest move solidifies its corporate standing and at least allows for better enterprise support.

Skype’s customer base is mostly consumer, but it has been reaching out to be more business friendly. Call quality and security have been ongoing concerns, but it’s not like Skype has been locked out of the business market — Skype calls for business happen all the time on the sly.

Here’s what this latest move means to Skype:

* Skype can go from being an ancillary product that enterprises support quietly to one integrated into phone systems;
* Click to call will be more of a reality for businesses as Skype 405 million users connect to corporate systems;
* Skype will get incremental revenue because businesses will throw business at it to save on global calling.

For the enterprise, Skype for SIP means businesses can manage Skype calls, use their existing equipment and software to route calls and buy online numbers.

And the key point:

During the beta period all calls will be charged at standard Skype rates. Further pricing details will be announced when the product is fully launched later this year.

That pricing, which is likely to be tweaked for corporations, is likely to translate into more revenue for Skype and its parent eBay, which may be looking to unload it. Perhaps eBay can use Skype to drum up more corporate business.

Further Information:

Yahoo Finance Statement
Skype Blog Article
Original Article on ZDNet

When I look at the current PC hardware ecosystem I see one device which has the potential to significantly dent Microsoft’s future revenues, far more than either the Mac or Linux could achieve - the netbook.

The problem isn’t that netbooks are cannibalizing Windows sales (they aren’t, especially when you take into account that Windows-powered netbooks out-sell Linux models by a significant margin), the problem is down to the fact that Moore’s Law has finally caught up with Microsoft and the OS is rapidly becoming one of the most expensive components of a new PC. And as hardware prices continue to fall (which they will), this is only going to get worse for Microsoft.

The current raft of netbooks are modest in terms of power, but are yet very capable systems based around the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and 1GB of RAM, but they are perfectly capable of running Windows 7 Ultimate and several applications simultaneously. OK, games and resource-heavy apps such as Photoshop are a no-go, but apart from those sort of apps there’s not much that a netbook can’t handle. A year from now and these devices will have even more horsepower at their disposal. By the time that Microsoft is thinking about releasing the successor to Windows 7 these netbooks will be at a point where they could well serve as desktop replacements for many people (all you need is a dock and a monitor, keyboard and mouse).

When it comes to netbooks, Microsoft has, without a doubt, been caught off-guard. Currently the Redmond giant is having to license the older, cheaper Windows XP for installation on netbook devices because Vista isn’t a viable option because it’s too bloated to work properly. Once Windows 7 hits OEM PC (probably by August of this year) Microsoft will make available the cheaper “Starter” edition of Windows in both developed countries and developing nations (previously this edition was only available in developing nations). But there’s a big problem with the “Starter” edition, and that is the built-in “three applications running at any one time” limit. Rather than tearing down walls, when it comes to low cost systems such as netbooks and low-end notebooks, Microsoft is putting in place arbitrary partitions in order to protect revenues and sell the higher-priced editions of Windows. In effect, what Microsoft is doing is putting in place a multitasking tax on users where users will need to pay more to run more than three applications.

By now you’ve probably caught on to the fact that I’m no fan of application limit that Microsoft has imposed on the “Starter” edition. You’d be right. I can accept different features being made available in different editions, but to go as far as to control the number of third-party applications that can be run at any one time is a step too far. What next, an arbitrary limit on CPU horsepower? Disk space? Not only is this an example of the fact that Microsoft has yet to catch on to the fact that the OS is increasingly becoming irrelevant on a modern PC as more users turn to cloud services, but if Apple ever enters the netbook game then you’ll see this particular “feature” being used to hammer home the advantages of a “one size fits all” Mac OS.

My guess is that in the end no one (in particular customers and probably the OEMs themselves who will be trying to sell these machines) will be happy with the limits of the “Starter” edition on netbooks and low-priced notebooks. OEMs will negotiate a cheaper Home Premium license (using Linux as a bargaining chip) and “Starter” will become a non-starter. A cheaper Home Premium license for the netbook will mean cheaper Home Premium license for the desktop. This is good for consumers, good for OEMs, but bad for Microsoft.

Orignal Article: ZDNet

It is a question we are frequently asked. It’s a valid question since laptop batteries are usually expensive to replace.

First of all, how long should your battery last?

2-4 years is generally acceptable depending on how frequently you use and charge the battery. If you travel a lot and use and charge your battery frequently then you might only get a couple of years at the most out of your laptop battery.

Laptop batteries are usually made with Li-Ion batteries and the very nature of Li-Ion batteries is that they have about 500-600 charges and last at most about 4-5 years (shelf life). They also have a self-discharge rate of about 1% per day so you need to be sure to charge them at least every 6 months.

How can you care for your battery to get the maximum life out of it?

1) Always use your laptop on a hard surface.

Laptops are portable and it’s easy to set your laptop on a soft surface to use it at your lesiure, that’s one of the benefits of having a portable computer. Flexibility - but if you want to extend your battery life you have to watch out for overheating your laptop.

Heat is one of the biggest obstacles to battery life longevity. Your laptop computer fan cannot circulate the air properly when your laptop is sitting on soft surface.

2) Do not keep your battery installed when you use your laptop on AC for an extended period of time.

While your laptop is undoubtedly using a smart charger to charge your battery even a constant trickle charge over months can reduce your battery life. For best results, only charge your laptop battery when you need to charge it, don’t leave the laptop battery plugged in all the time.

More importantly than the trickle charger affect is the ’storage’ of a Li-Ion battery at elevated temperatures. The optimum storage temperature for a Li-Ion battery is at 0 deg. C. The optimum storage charge level is about 40%. Unfortunately we tend to store fully charged and at the temperatures found in a running laptop you’ll find a significant reduction in battery for your laptop performance after only 12-18 months.

3) Use a full charge cycle before recharging

Li-Ion and Ni-MH battery (which most laptop battery are), do not have a memory which you might find in NiCad batteries, however, each chemistry has a limited number of charge cycles, so use a full charge cycle before re-charging to maximize your laptop battery usage.

This may prove to be difficult to manage as you’ll need to consider the cost-benefit ratio for keeping track of how far discharged the battery is before you charge it again.

4) Be careful where you store your laptop

This goes back to the heat issue. Don’t leave your laptop in the car where it can get very hot. Batteries hate heat and your battery will go on strike permenantly if you expose it to too much heat.

Remember that all laptops are not created equal. You may have gotten 4 hours from your last laptop while on battery, but your new laptop might pull more juice to run that gaming quality processor, or the power hogging programs you’re running now.

Read your owner’s manual to find out what you should expect from your laptop battery and be sure to compare apples to apples when purchasing a replacement laptop battery. Not all laptop batteries are made equal. We recommend buying a battery that has at least as much capacity as your original battery (that’s the mAh rating), and preferrably the same chemistry as well (Li-Ion, Ni-MH).

If you simply aren’t sure what to get, check with a professional.

If you are not able to remove or uninstall an application in Windows XP using the Add/Remove Programs Wizard or Uninstall option you could try the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility. As long as you installed the application using the Windows Installer, this utility will remove all the folders, files, registry keys, and entries from your system.

Here’s how:

1. Download the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility from the Microsoft Download Center.
2. Run the msicuu2.exe file you downloaded to install the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility.
3. Locate and launch the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility on the Start menu.
4. From the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility window, locate the application in the list you want to remove and click the Remove button.
5. Once the application has been removed, click the Exit button to close the utility.

When you use Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, you can perform the following functions:

* Select one or more programs that were installed by Windows Installer from the Windows Installer CleanUp dialog box.

To do this, select the programs that you want in the Installed Products list in the Windows Installer CleanUp dialog box. After you make this selection, the utility removes only Windows Installer configuration information that is related to those programs.

* Remove all Windows Installer information associated with the selected programs. This includes the entries for the programs in the Add Or Remove Programs item in Control Panel. Be aware that only the Installer information for that particular program is removed, not the files.

Windows Installer CleanUp Utility does not perform the following functions:

* Remove Windows Installer
* Remove files of any programs that are installed by Windows Installer, such as Microsoft Office 2003

If you use this utility to remove Windows Installer configuration information for your program and you plan to reinstall the program, you should reinstall the program in the same folder where you originally installed it. This prevents duplication of files on your hard disk or disks.

Original Article by Greg Schultz for Tech Republic

Additional Information from Microsoft Support Knowledge Base Article 290301

Experts are warning that hackers have yet to activate the payload of the Conficker virus.

The worm is spreading through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without current security updates. The malicious program - also known as Downadup or Kido - was first discovered in October 2008. Although the spread of the worm appears to be levelling off, there are fears someone could easily take control of any and all of the 9.5m infected PCs.

Speaking to the BBC, F-Secure’s chief research officer, Mikko Hypponen, said there was still a real risk to users. “Total infections appear to be peaking. That said, a full count is hard, because we also don’t know how many machines are being cleaned. But we estimate there are still more than 9m infected PCs world wide. It is scary thinking about how much control they [a hacker] could have over all these computers. They would have access to millions of machines with full administrator rights. But they haven’t done that yet, maybe they’re scared. That’s good news. But there is also the scenario that someone else figures out how to activate this worm. That is a worrying prospect.”

Experts say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft’s MS08-067 patch. The patch is known as KB958644.

Speaking to the BBC, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with anti-virus firm Sophos, said the outbreak was of a scale they had not seen for some time.

“Microsoft did a good job of updating people’s home computers, but the virus continues to infect business who have ignored the patch update. A shortage of IT staff during the holiday break didn’t help and rolling out a patch over a large number of computers isn’t easy.” “What’s more, if your users are using weak passwords - 12345, QWERTY, etc - then the virus can crack them in short order,” he added. But as the virus can be spread with USB memory sticks, even having the Windows patch won’t keep you safe. You need anti-virus software for that.”

Method

According to Microsoft, the worm works by searching for a Windows executable file called “services.exe” and then becomes part of that code.

It then copies itself into the Windows system folder as a random file of a type known as a “dll”. It gives itself a 5-8 character name, such as piftoc.dll, and then modifies the Registry, which lists key Windows settings, to run the infected dll file as a service.

Once the worm is up and running, it creates an HTTP server, resets a machine’s System Restore point (making it far harder to recover the infected system) and then downloads files from the hacker’s web site.

Most malware uses one of a handful of sites to download files from, making them fairly easy to locate, target, and shut down.

But Conficker does things differently.

Anti-virus firm F-Secure says that the worm uses a complicated algorithm to generate hundreds of different domain names every day, such as mphtfrxs.net, imctaef.cc, and hcweu.org. Only one of these will actually be the site used to download the hackers’ files. On the face of it, tracing this one site is almost impossible.

Variant

Speaking to the BBC, Kaspersky Lab’s security analyst Eddy Willems said that a new strain of the worm was complicating matters.

“There was a new variant released less than two weeks ago and that’s the one causing most of the problems,” said Mr Willems “The replication methods are quite good. It’s using multiple mechanisms, including USB sticks, so if someone got an infection from one company and then takes his USB stick to another firm, it could infect that network too. It also downloads lots of content and creating new variants though this mechanism. Of course, the real problem is that people haven’t patched their software,” he added.

Microsoft says that the malware has infected computers in many different parts of the world, with machines in China, Brazil, Russia, and India having the highest number of victims.

Original Article

McAfee Info

The UK’s second largest ISP, Virgin Media, will next year introduce network monitoring technology to specifically target and restrict BitTorrent traffic, its boss has told The Register.

The move will represent a major policy shift for the cable monopoly and is likely to anger advocates of “net neutrality”, who say all internet traffic should be treated equally. Virgin Media currently temporarily throttles the bandwidth of its heaviest downloaders across all applications at peak times, rather than targeting and “shaping” specific types of traffic.

The firm argues that its current “traffic management” policy allows it to ensure service quality at peak times for 95 per cent of customers while still allowing peer-to-peer filesharers to download large amounts of data.

The details and timing of the new application-based restrictions are still being developed, Virgin Media’s Kiwi CEO Neil Berkett said in an interview on Monday following the launch of his firm’s new 50Mbit/s service. They will come into force around the middle of next year, he added.

A company spokesman later declined to provide more detail on the CEO’s comments. He said: “Broadband has become integral to delivering home entertainment services and with data consumption growing rapidly, we are exploring new ways to enhance our product offering. Part of this involves intelligent monitoring and understanding the way people use our broadband service.”

Virgin Media has launched its 50Mbit/s broadband package without any form of traffic restriction, but it said it would do so as take-up increases. Berkett said top package customers would be reined in from the middle of next year; the same time he proposes to introduce application-based restrictions.

Asked why the firm would ditch its system of choosing who to throttle based on their total usage, in favour of singling out BitTorrent, Berkett said: “I think it’s an issue of fairness.”

BitTorrent is a major problem for network operators, who characterise its heavy users as “bandwidth hogs”. The US provider Comcast was last year summoned to Congressional hearings over measures it took to reduce the impact of BitTorrent on its network. The Federal Communications Commission subsequently banned the practice and fined Comcast, prompting celebrations from net neutrality campaigners.

In the UK there has been no regulatory opposition to application-based bandwidth restriction. Major ISPs including BT and Carphone Warehouse use specialised “deep packet inspection” (DPI) equipment to monitor and manage the protocols running over their networks.

As recently as June this year, however, Virgin Media told The Register it had no plans to follow suit. “Our policy does not discriminate internet traffic by application and we have no plans to do so,” it said.

That statement was made in response to the suggestion that Virgin Media’s purchase of DPI kit from the Israeli firm Allot was a precursor to restricting bandwidth-hungry applications such as BitTorrent.

“Whilst we do use equipment from Allot within parts of our cable network, this is used to build usage metrics and does not affect customers’ service in any way. It is certainly not used to do any form of packet shaping or change internet traffic priorities,” came the denial.

Yet Berkett was clear yesterday that application-based restrictions would form part of a broader strategy to “monetise the intelligence” in the Virgin Media network. The firm did not, as reported by The Guardian today*, promise “to press ahead with its targeted online advertising technology”.

DPI technology is at the centre of Phorm’s system, but it’s understood Berkett’s comments about DPI yesterday did not refer to a behavioural advertising strategy. He also said comments he made at an analyst presentation in New York last month (”Our next initiative probably won’t be with the Phorms of the world”) did not preclude the possibility that Virgin Media will adopt such technology, but indicated it will look to other services powered by DPI - ones likely to be perceived as more consumer-friendly - first.

For example, Virgin Media is known to be in advanced talks to launch a legal, licensed peer-to-peer music service. DPI would be used to monitor the popularity of music files, enabling it to fairly divide subscription revenues among record labels.

Original Article Taken From The Register

By Dan Whitworth
Newsbeat technology reporter

Facebook’s 120 million users are being targeted by a virus designed to get hold of sensitive information like credit card details.

‘Koobface’ spreads by sending a message to people’s inboxes, pretending to be from a Facebook friend.

It says “you look funny in this new video” or “you look just awesome in this new video”.

By clicking on the link provided they’re then asked to watch a “secret video by Tom”.

When users try and play the video they’re asked to download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player.

If they do, that’s when the virus takes hold and attacks the computer.

Guy Bunker works for Symantec, who make Norton AntiVirus, and says there are two ways Koobface gets people’s credit card details.

“It can either wait for you to buy something online and just remember the details you type in on your keyboard.”

“Otherwise it can search your computer for any cookies you might have from when you’ve bought something in the past, and take them from there.”

Networking threat

The Facebook case is the latest example of hackers using social networking sites to try to cash in.

MySpace was targeted by Koobface in August.

Security experts say people are far less suspicious about viruses on sites like Facebook because you need to be a member to log in.

Facebook won’t give any specifics on how many users have been hit by the virus, only saying it’s a small percentage.

But they have posted some advice on the site about what to do if you come across it.

“We’re currently helping our users with the recently discovered ‘Koobface’ worm and phishing sites.”

“If your account has recently been used to send spam, please visit one of the online antivirus scanners from the Helpful Links list, and reset your password.”

Original Article Here

Does it all at a Touch

* Intuitive and interactive touchscreen PC
* Versatile mobility anywhere at home
* Connect to the Internet with ease, anytime, anywhere
* Near-silent operation at just 26 dB
* Exclusive touch-optimized software applications

You´ve got that magic touch.

Add a touch of fun to your home with the Eee Top, an easy-to-use one-stop desktop that puts the Internet at your fingertips—literally. It features a touch panel that allows you to do everything you can with a regular desktop by simply applying direct pressure on the screen with your fingertips!

One touch. Infinite possibilities.

With its touch-and-select interface and exclusive touch-optimized software, everyone in the family will find the Eee Top instantly easy to use! Scribbling memos to each other, surfing the Net, drawing custom emoticons during instant messaging—the possibilities are endless!

Easy to set up. Even easier to use. Everywhere at home.

Saying that the Eee Top needs to be set up is an exaggeration. All you have to do is plug the power cord into a socket, and it´s ready for use. Moving it about the house is virtually effortless!

The Eee Top is also the perfect computer for beginners. It features an exclusive Easy Mode within Windows® that makes commonly-used applications easily accessible. Everyone will be running programs like experts in no time!

Small in size. Big in features.

The Eee Top may have the tiny footprint of a slim LCD monitor, but it is massive in terms of features. Among its rich complement of features are Wi-Fi 802.11n connectivity for speedy and reliable Internet access, and an integrated 1.3 megapixel web camera and microphone for convenient web conferencing.

Designed for life.

The Eee Top is clearly user-friendly. But is it also home and earth-friendly? You bet it is. Its svelte design allows it to fit into the most space-starved of settings, and its sleek, modern looks allow it to blend in nicely with contemporary interiors. It operates at a hushed 26 dB and yet remains extremely cool, thanks to its unique cooling system, collectively known as ASUS Tranquiller Technology.

Top-notch entertainment at a touch.

With its sharp and vibrant widescreen (16:9) LCD, the Eee Top is a full-fledged entertainment center. Splendid™ Video Intelligence Technology ensures that the display remains vivid and clear regardless of environmental lighting, and SRS technology works in tandem with the Eee Top´s built-in high fidelity speakers to deliver crystal clear audio.
For added graphics power, the Eee Top ET1603 features a discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD3450 graphics solution, enabling the system to run graphically-intensive 3D applications and games more fluidly.

Tying in all of the Eee Top´s multimedia capabilities is Eee Cinema, a rich-featured multimedia center that will enhance your enjoyment of photos, videos, music and movies. Eee Cinema puts the ability to browse, select and play all of your media at your fingertips.

For current Asus Eee Top Offers Click Here

Author: Greg Shultz

Someday, someway, your organization is going to have to make a decision regarding the next operating system deployment. Do you know the facts of the current debate? Don’t you think you should?

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It seems like everywhere you turn on the Web these days, there’s another article bad-mouthing Microsoft Windows Vista and telling you to stay with Windows XP — arguing that XP is the greatest Microsoft OS ever. It also seems like there are just as many articles praising Windows 7 as our OS savior — and it’s barely even a twinkle in Bill Gate’s eye at this point. While reading these types of articles recently, I began to recall other points in the history of Microsoft operating systems and to draw parallels with what happened then with what is happening today with Vista.

Windows Vista vs. Windows XP

As you know, Windows XP has been around quite a long time now. In fact, if you calculate the duration between the official release date and the date on which Microsoft officially stopped general licensing to OEMs and terminated retail sales of the operating system, you get six years, eight months, and six days. These dates and the other milestones in between are shown in the timeline in Figure A.

The Windows XP timeline

While this timeline looks rather short, a lot can happen in six years, eight months, and six days. If you can remember that far back, you know that in between the original release date and the SP1 release date, Microsoft caught a lot of flak for Windows XP’s flakiness. When Microsoft released SP1 and touted it as a vast improvement, many users reported major problems with the update. (Don’t remember? Just Google “XP SP1 Problems.”)

In between SP1 and SP2, malware popped up everywhere, and Microsoft caught a lot more flak for Windows XP’s inadequate security mechanisms. When Microsoft released SP2 and touted its enhanced security features, such as the Windows Firewall, which was enabled by default, there was a major uproar as the firewall seemed to “break” a ton of applications. (Don’t remember? Just Google “XP SP2 Problems.”)

In between SP2 and SP3, the majority of the problems with SP2 were worked out and other improvements were added to the OS as patches and fixes delivered by Windows Update. In that time, Windows XP became the great OS that it is today — the OS that many people swear by. It didn’t happen overnight; in fact, it took a little over four years.

The point that I’m trying to make is that I think that it is unfair to compare Vista at this early point in its lifecycle to XP, which at this point in its lifecycle is an extremely mature OS. All the kinks have been worked out, and it is able to hum along perfectly. If you really want to compare today’s Vista to XP, then compare it to XP SP1. When you do, you’ll see that Vista has gone through the same type of growing pains that XP went through and that Vista’s growing pains at this stage really aren’t as major as XP’s were.

Furthermore, if you take a look at Vista’s timeline and calculate the duration between Vista’s official release date and the proposed SP2 release date of April 2009, you get about two years, three months — shooting at April 30 as a potential release date (Figure B).

Windows Vista timeline

If you compare this Vista timeline to the calculated duration between XP’s release date and the SP2 release date, you get two years, nine months, twelve days. That puts Vista about six months ahead of XP at this stage of the game. And if the relatively mild disruptions caused by SP1 are any indication of how well SP2 will go, then Windows Vista will eventually become a great OS too. It won’t happen overnight, but it will be closer to three years as opposed to the four or so years that it took XP.

Windows Vista vs. Windows 7

When it comes to Windows 7, I’m reminded of the story of Microsoft’s first attempt at a GUI windowing system, called Interface Manager. In their 1992 book titled Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire about Bill Gates and the making of Microsoft, James Wallace and Jim Erikson describe that in 1981 Microsoft first began working on Interface Manager. After about a year and a half into the development of Interface Manager, Gates realized that other software companies were developing similar GUI programs for the IBM PC. One such product was called VisiOn from VisiCorp.

Not wanting to lose out to VisiOn, in January of 1983, Gates let it be known to the computer press that Microsoft would ship its product before VisiCorp could ship VisiOn. However, the back story was that Gates had made this promise weeks before a prototype of Interface Manager had even run on an IBM PC. Even so, the story goes that Gates spent months selling computer manufacturers and software developers on his vision of the GUI. Somewhere along the line Interface Manager became known as Windows.

In October of 1983, VisiCorp announced that it planned to start shipping VisiOn, and at around the same time Quarterdeck announced that it was building a GUI called DESQ. To steal some of the thunder back, Gates immediately orchestrated the formal announcement of Windows — even though that actual product was not really ready. Apparently Gates had learned from IBM that one way to prevent potential customers from moving to a competitor’s product was to announce that your company was working on something even better. Soon afterward, the term “vaporware” was coined by the folks at InfoWorld to describe this marketing technique of announcing a product before it actually exists.

Now, we’ve all read stories about the promise of Windows 7 and we’ve seen some very nice screen shots; but is Windows 7 real? Sure, Microsoft is working on Vista’s successor, but is it just vaporware at this point in time? Is the Windows 7 announcement just designed to prevent us from defecting to Apple and to keep us hanging on to Windows while Microsoft fixes up Vista SP2? Based on the story about Interface Manager, it is a very real possibility.

What’s your take?

Regardless of whether Windows 7 is vaporware, Vista is real and I believe that based on the level of improvements that we’ve seen so far, Vista is going to get better and better, and before we know it, Vista will be a great operating system. And when Windows 7 does come out, chances are good that we’ll start this whole process over again — there will be lots of articles bad-mouthing Windows 7 and telling you to stay with Vista. Then, we’ll start hearing about Windows 8.

What’s your take on the notion of Vista vs. XP and Vista vs. 7? Do you think that Vista SP1 is better than XP SP1? Are you waiting for Vista SP2? Do you think that Vista SP2 will be better than XP SP2?

Original Article Found Here

Release candidate’ in February, says site that nailed Vista SP1, XP SP3 dates

Microsoft will deliver Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) to manufacturing in April 2009, two months after it issues a final test version to users, according to a Web site that accurately predicted several Windows ship dates in 2008.

TechARP.com, a Malaysian Web site that nailed the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) dates for Windows Vista SP1 and XP SP3 earlier this year, said that Microsoft will post a release candidate — the final test version — of Vista SP2 in February 2009, finish the service pack next April and offer it to users via download from the Web at some point afterward.

The last was necessarily vague, if only because Microsoft has had trouble this year synchronizing service pack RTM dates with availability on Windows Update. It took six weeks last winter to get Vista SP1 in the hands of most users — and then only after a ruckus when Microsoft initially denied access to subscribers of its for-pay developer services — and a week to issue Windows XP SP3 in the spring. XP SP3 was delayed because of a data-corrupting compatibility bug with Microsoft’s own point-of-sale software.

Although Microsoft issued the beta of Vista SP2 to a limited number of testers a month ago, company officials have so far only committed to shipping the update sometime in the first half of next year.

According to Microsoft, Vista SP2 will include Windows Search 4, Bluetooth 2.1 wireless support, faster resume from sleep when a wireless connection has been broken and support for Blu-ray. Some of those features, including Windows Search and the Bluetooth support, have been available to Vista users for months through individual updates.

The service pack will update both Vista, the client version of Windows, and Windows Server 2008, the company’s corresponding server software.

Vista SP2 will require SP1 as a prerequisite, a factor that played to Microsoft’s ongoing recommendation that users deploy the first service pack as soon as possible.