Microsoft's OOXML made the cut as an international standard this week, but it will still take time for the file format to be widely implemented. Meanwhile, expect to see mobile Internet devices using Intel's Centrino Atom chip hit the market, even though not many were on display at Intel's Developer Forum. Google started to deal with some growing pains from its DoubleClick acquisition, claiming that it will cut some DoubleClick jobs and sell off the Performics search-engine marketing and optimization business, and it also has been experimenting with a bit of IT heresey: Letting users pick out and manage their own hardware and apps.
[ Video: Review the week in IT news with the World Tech Update ]
1. OOXML adoption only first step on road to approval and Microsoft's ISO win may worsen its antitrust woes: The International Organization for Standardization approved Microsoft's OOXML file format, which the company had pushed onto the fast track to become an international standard for document exchange. Protests and grumblings of foul play continued even though it will take a while for Open Office XML to see more widespread adoption. The grumbling could, in fact, hold sway with the European Commission as it wraps up its latest antitrust probe of the software behemoth's business practices.
2. Centrino Atom devices will run XP and Vista: Intel and Analysis: Intel has a chip, but where are the MIDs?: Mobile Internet Devices (or MIDs, because technology does not have enough acronyms) powered by Intel's new Centrino Atom chip will run on Windows XP and Vista as well as Linux, Intel says. The chipmaker previously had said MIDs would run Linux, and the company started the Moblin initiative to develop a Linux version for MIDs. Oddly, for all the ballyhoo over Atom and MIDs, there wasn't much in the way of new products based on the chips at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. If the hype is to be believed, MIDs are going to unlock a new frontier of computing or at least give users new ways to goof off with mobile Internet access, communications, and the ability to play multimedia files all in one package. "As with most Jetsons-like products, they tend to suffer from too much hype and overly high expectations," says Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific, commenting on the likelihood of the devices hitting the market in any serious volume in the second or third quarter.
Sign up to receive Business Resource Alerts
Recommend This
