More Microsoft Karma - Kin Discontinued After 48 Days

Microsoft Kin Discontinued After 48 Days

By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: June 30, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO — That didn’t take long.

Just 48 days after Microsoft began selling the Kin, a smartphone for the younger set, the company discontinued it because of disappointing sales.

The swift turnabout for the Kin, which Microsoft took two years to develop and whose release was backed with a hefty ad budget, is the latest sign of disarray for Microsoft’s recently reorganized consumer product unit.

“It’s an absolute failure,” said Charles S. Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. Mr. Golvin said he was surprised to see Microsoft kill a product so quickly, given the company’s history of sticking with new products and improving them over time.

Microsoft’s consumer products unit has struggled to offer a credible competitors to Apple’s iPod and more recently the iPhone and an array of smartphones powered by Google’s Android software.

Microsoft also recently canceled a project to develop a tablet computer that would compete with Apple’s popular iPad.

Microsoft said that it would shift employees who worked on the Kin to the team in charge of Windows Phone 7, a coming revision of Microsoft’s operating system for smartphones, which is due in the fall. The Kin, which came in two models, was aimed at young users and emphasized access to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. While neither Microsoft nor Verizon Wireless, which sold the phone exclusively, disclosed sales figures, people close to the companies said that sales were disappointing. Verizon slashed the prices of the phones to $50 from $200 for the higher-end model and to $30 from $150 for a stripped-down version.

Microsoft said it would cancel the pending release of the Kin in Europe and would work with Verizon Wireless to sell existing inventories. Brenda Raney, a Verizon spokeswoman, said the Kin “is still an important part of our portfolio.”

A version of this article appeared in print on July 1, 2010, on page B6 of the New York edition.

====

The Secret Government Surveillance Document Microsoft Doesn't Want You To See

Microsoft's Global Criminal
Compliance Handbook Leaked
By Addy Dugdale
2-24-10

Microsoft has acted swiftly after the Web site Cryptome leaked its "Global Criminal Compliance Handbook." The guide does exactly what it says: outlines the surveillance services the software company will perform for law enforcement agencies on its online platforms.

These include its email services, such as Hotmail, MSN, Messenger, Office Live, Windows Live, and even Xbox Live. Gulp.

The 22-page guide has "Confidential For Law Enforcement Use Only" stamped all over it, but that didn't stop the website from putting the PDF up over the weekend.

Cryptome Editor John Young received an notice from the site's host, Network Solutions yesterday, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Unless he removes the guide, they fingerwagged, Cryptome will be disabled tomorrow, February 25.

(Update: the Cryptome.org website is already showing a "currently unavailable" message from Network Solutions.)

Young is most incensed by "its improper use of copyright to conceal from its customer violations of trust towards its customers," he told the Geekosystem Web site. He added that Microsoft was "repugnant" in the way it was allowing the law enforcement agencies to grab its clients' data. "This information would also be equally useful to customers to protect themselves when Microsoft cannot, due to its legal obligations under CALEA." [CALEA is the wiretap bill that was passed in 1994.] Will he take down the guide? Like hell he will!

This is not the first time that Cryptome has been pursued using the DMCA. Last year it put up Yahoo's surveillance guide, which included a price list. Yahoo shouted until it was even more purple in the face than it normally is, but to no avail: the guide is still online--although, one assumes, the prices have gone up.

Via Geekosystem

and Gizmodo

click here to download 22 page .pdf [1.26 mb]

====

UPDATED note on comments

====

UPDATE: we've installed intense debate commenting system. you might not be able to see the comment link or the number of comments from viewing a post. however, for now, if you click the time stamp (i.e. Posted by chat bloggers at 12:00 ) of a post which is its permanent link when the individual post page opens you should be able to see at the bottom of the post the intense debate comments section. we'll continue to try and tweek it as time permits.

we will also attempt to import all the previous comments to intense debate.

====

we've received notice that haloscan is discontinuing its free comment system in order to "upgrade" to a paid commenting system called echo.

so while we were able to save all 1,700 + comments to import them into another commenting system we've decided that for now we will go with the comments that blogspot.com supplies.

so thats what happened to your comments. (we dont see a way to import the haloscan comments into the blogspot.com comments yet).

UPDATE: for now we cant seem to get the blogspot.com comments to work either.

====

Open Thread

====

Yes we're still around. There just hasn't been anything to post about chat in awhile since its mainly dead everywhere.
=
=
=

Microsoft blocks instant messenger service in: Iran, Sudan, Cuba, Syria and North Korea

Microsoft blocks Live Messenger access

Users in five countries will be without access due to US sanctions

Phil Muncaster

vnunet.com, 23 May 2009

Microsoft has said it is shutting off access to its Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service for users living in countries embargoed by the United States, according to reports.

The countries affected by the ban are Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan and North Korea, said a ZDnet.com report.

When trying to log in they will be met with an error message: “810003c1: We are unable to sign you into the .NET Messenger Service. Reason: Microsoft has discontinued providing Instant Messenger services in certain countries subject to United States sanctions. Details of these sanctions are available from the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control.”

According to ZDNet, a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed the move, although as many of the sanctions imposed by the US date back nearly ten years, it is currently uncertain why Microsoft has decided to follow them now by banning the service. ~ read more
====

Microsoft's days as an unstoppable force are over

www.telegraph.co.uk

The software giant's below-expectations second-quarter earnings shocked investors.

By Jeff Segal, breakingviews.com
Last Updated: 6:14PM GMT 22 Jan 2009

And it's cutting 5,000 jobs, the first big layoffs in its 33-year history. The economic mess has highlighted Microsoft's vulnerabilities. It is time for boss Steve Ballmer to stop dabbling in unprofitable business ventures and focus on his exposed core product lines.

Even in the downturn, Microsoft remains the 800-pound gorilla of the software industry. It earned $4.2bn last quarter. But that's an 11pc drop from a year ago and well below what the market expected.

Shareholders responded by wiping some $14bn of value off Microsoft's market capitalisation following the announcement.Its layoffs are even more worrying than its earnings disappointment.

When Microsoft's cash flow was surging, keeping 90,000 employees on hand seemed worthwhile. Its desire to cut costs now is a sign that it sees tougher times ahead.

Indeed, sales of its Windows operating system - the company's bread and butter - were down 8pc last quarter as consumers bought fewer PCs.

Software, including Windows and a host of other offerings, generates nearly all of the company's operating income.

Yet Microsoft has been diverting much of its resources from its core businesses toward side projects like video games, music players and online search. None of those contribute significantly to its bottom line.

Microsoft's Xbox gaming console only entered the black in 2008 after seven years in the red. Its Zune music player has been bedevilled by bugs. And its MSN search engine commands less than one-tenth of the US search market.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's mainstays are under pressure from companies like Google that are pursuing so-called cloud computing initiatives - essentially, free online software products - to target its cash cows.

To keep a dip from turning into a rout, Ballmer needs to abandon Microsoft's host of also-ran distractions and train his focus back on the core business.

For more agenda-setting financial analysis, visit www.breakingviews.com

msn closing groups

You may have heard rumors that MSN Groups will in closing, I’d like to respond to those here so that our most active users have the information you need to manage your groups effectively. It is true that we are planning to close the MSN Groups service on February 21, 2009 and will offer you the opportunity to move your group to our new partner service, Multiply. We understand the importance of keeping your group together, so we partnered with Multiply to create a migration process that moves your group to their service to preserve your online community and its history.



The migration method that Multiply has built for you is still in the beta stage, we plan to open it next week. Once the service is ready we’ll be sending all of our users an email and will post notices within the MSN Groups site with more information, including instructions for beginning the migration process. In the meantime I encourage you to visit http://Multiply.com to get to know the service and see some of the thousands of groups they host already.



The natural question to ask in this situation is why we are closing MSN Groups. It is our goal to provide our customers with the most current and user friendly technology available today. We made the difficult decision to close the MSN Groups service as part of an overall investment in updating and re-aligning our online services with Windows Live. In the long term we believe that closing the service is the best way to continue to offer innovative, best of breed services that help you stay in touch with the people you care about. It’s very important to us that you keep the data you created using MSN Groups and that is why we have partnered with Multiply, so you can keep your group going into the future despite the closure of MSN Groups.



Between today and February 21, 2009 the MSN Groups service will remain the same as it is now. We will remove the option to add more storage to your group but other features will remain until the service is shut down and you can use it the same way you do today until the date of closure. Watch the site and your email inbox over the next week as we will post updated information there, including a more detailed outline of your options and next steps.



Regards,

Charlotte Jones, Group Product Manager, Microsoft

====

Cybersex Banned in Gaza

Gazans will have only till the end of this month to engage in cybersex on the Internet…. Hamas has banned all pornographic websites…

Gaza’s Ministry of Communications said in a statement that telecommunications firm PALTEL has agreed to block Internet users in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave from viewing adult websites starting this month.

“The aim of the move is to protect the Palestinian community from cultural pollution and to protect the young generations from the misuse of the Internet through viewing pornographic sites,” Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nono said.
read more

Insecure Koach.com Censors Chat!

so, today we finally broke down and visited the koach.com chat line. koach.com is the chat service formed by the clowns who were so terrible in managing msn's chatline that it was eventually closed down due to lack of use. (their shoddy management style ran off all msn's chatter/subscribers).

to say that koach.com is dead would be generous. we went in many rooms which had just a few chatters that werent chatting at all. finally we wound up in the koach's workshop chat room, which, despite saying that it contained seventy something chatters there was actually only two or three chatting and chatting intermittently at that. no host greeted us, in fact, a gaveled host was on "away."

as the following screen grabs show, we mentioned buzzen and phriek and immediately we were muzzled. koach.com seems to be so insecure that they muzzle then disconnect their users who make the mistake to merely mention another chat line.

former msn chatters might remember how then sysop_vsi and admin_koach deployed this technique against them shortly before msn chat closed. recall how koach.com was the only alternative chat line allowed to be promoted out in the general chat. mention of, for instance, buzzen immediately brought a ban.

however, buzzen to their credit does not seem to possess this childish insecurity, as we've documented in the past they have allowed koach.com personnel such as "global moderator/sysop" kiwigirl to come onto their chat service to promote koach.com with no adverse action taken against them.

as you can see, we actually made a typo and our text which should have been interpreted to mean, merely a comment by someone who was lamenting the loss of chatters across all chat lines and was actually complimenting koach.com.

Oasiz Communications Newsletter March 27, 2008

Oasiz Communications Newsletter | Volume One Issue Two
excerpt:

Welcome to the second edition of our official Oasiz Newsletter. Each month we'll aim to deliver you your very own copy, this way you're never going to miss out on the latest news, updates, and that all important gossip!

All hands on deck!

A regular or not, I think most of us have noticed the influx TheLounge has taken recently. We've seen room numbers sky rocket over the past few weeks, hitting an all time record of over 50 participants! Well, "What's caused that then?" I hear you ask, simple; 14 days of hard work, several pints of lager, and a superb collection of staff within the chat room.

We recently saw a huge welcome to Grapevine Edge, bringing with them tonnes of chatters, and so things were very much on the up. Still, TheLounge was in need of a face lift, a lick of paint, and some new staff with enormous mental energy. We took the decision to apply a new Guide to the chat room, to work alongside the current staff. Having then accepted several host applications for the chat room, and granted those who met the criteria, we're now well on our way to having a fully staffed, Oasiz official chat room.

Ladies and Gentlemen, TheLounge, the home of friendly chat! Check it out some day, and follow the motto...

"The future's bright, the future's Oasiz!

Meet the people behind the scenes!

We are again featuring an Oasiz Guide

Rex is originally from West Sussex and now calls London his home.

An Electronics Engineer with many years of experience here at Oasiz. Rex has had a number of Chat Rooms on various sites over the years and moved to Oasiz around 4 years ago, because he found the members and staff to be THE best he had ever found, he decided to stay, and we are thankful that he did because not only can he be found chatting up the girls in The Lounge he is extremely knowledgeable and helpful in HelpDesk.

Starting out as Moderator on the forums he has worked up to being a supreme Guide. I asked him if he had any saucy tales to tell from his experience in help desk, he elected to keep his antics to himself. So ladies your secrets are safe! You will have to stop by The Lounge one evening between 7pm and 10pm GMT and see if you can persuade him to tell you some tales.

What's developing!

WaveLengths a brand new chat room that is geared to the more mature 30's 40's and beyond. Admin Sarah has seen this idea through to fruition, from the choosing of its name via a competition on the forum to the opening of this relaxing place to catch up with old friends and maybe make some new ones. Keep a look out on the forum for a special event that will launch this exciting new room, which is being managed by Guide Wendi and Guide Martin, along with the charming hosts Voddie and LittleMissTerrie.

www.oasiz.net