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New Releases This Month
Symantec Backup Exec 12
Norton 360 v2
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Adobe Flex Builder 3
Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac
Windows Server 2008

Briefly…

• Mac Security company Intego is questioning Symantec’suse of their name “Dual Protection” on its Antivirus for Mac software boxes.
• Tests show that Windows-based ATM machines are easily hacked, with all personal data clearly readable.
• Sage Software has named telecom industry veteran Sue Swenson as its new president and CEO.
• Microsoft announced plans to develop and offer software for the iPhone, including Microsoft Office Suites.
  
• Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said they will work with Apple after all to bring Flash to the iPhone.

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Microsoft brought out former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw late last month to start the launch of Windows Server 2008. “I’m not here to write code,” began Brokaw. Instead he spoke of the radical transformation of society by today’s technology. At the height of that technology is Microsoft Windows Server 2008, what Microsoft calls its biggest IT launch in history. It delivers advancements in speed, security and management, but some agree its virtualization and network-access control features come up short.
New server administrative role schemes boost security, the Server Manager program improves manageability, Internet Information Server (IIS) Web management functionality is revamped, Active Directory is easier to control, and Windows Terminal Services has been redesigned. It’s also significantly faster than Windows Server 2003, especially when client machines are running Vista. But Microsoft’s server virtualization tool Hyper-V (available in beta with Server 2008) will not be final until later this year. Compatibility between non- and older Windows versions is also missing. Microsoft also launched SQL Server 2008 at the event, but the product won’t actually be released until the second half of 2008.

Speculation and reports are abound that Microsoft has plans to release the third and final service pack of Windows XP in the second half of April 2008. Currently in Release Candidate 2 stage, the first beta version of SP3 was available last December. There are an estimated 1,073 fixes to come, including some features backported from Windows Vista. A few weeks ago the newest build was leaked to sites such as The Pirate Bay. Microsoft has warned that “this build was not intended for public release,” and “bits may have been modified with malware or other bad code that Microsoft hasn’t tested.” On another note, some are asking whether Microsoft is purposely delaying the release of SP3 while it hypes up Vista SP1.

Windows Vista SP1 was released this month with 573 bug fixes and patches. “Changes focus specifically on addressing specific reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware and adding support for several emerging standards.” Some reviews from around the Web:
“Crisper performance” – PC Magazine
“Downloading and installing the update will take some users a few hours” –CNET
“Doesn’t have enough noticeable changes to make you jump out of your seat” –Gizmodo
“I can definitely notice a difference in network transfer speeds” –Giz commenter
One issue that still remains is that users running certain Symantec security software still cannot download SP1. Certain drivers, including a software driver for Symantec’s Endpoint Protection 11 and Network Access Control products, were reportedly causing technical issues after SP1 was installed. Symantec has fixed the driver issue in an upcoming maintenance release, but until then users will have to wait.

Microsoft rival Apple caused some controversy of its own this month when it released the updated Safari Web browser for Mac and Windows. It offered the new version up for download on its website, but the controversy came in the push they made to Windows users – whether they had previously installed it or not. The Apple Software Update application is installed on Windows PCs when iTunes is installed, which means quite a few people have the updater. But the issue is that even if the user doesn’t have Safari installed, Apple pushes the update to users, automatically checking the “install” box by default.