TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

It's not uncommon for me to hear about some new technology product or feature, from some company other than Microsoft, and realize that it sounds very similar to something I've covered before. More often than not, that something similar from the past ends up being a Microsoft Research project.

We've covered this phenomenon before in the case of Apple's Magic Mouse. It happened again today with the announcement of Google's new "Priority Inbox," a Gmail feature that uses a variety of inputs, including user correction, to automatically determine whether a particular message is deserving of higher attention.

The Microsoft Research project this reminded me of is called Priorities. It uses machine learning to analyze messages and determine their importance, ranking them and in some cases sending a text message when an email is deemed particularly important.

Having finished its takeover of Yahoo's underlying search engine in the U.S. and Canada, Microsoft is now turning its attention to combining the search advertising systems of the two companies.

In a blog post today, Microsoft said companies that advertise next to Yahoo search results will be able to shift their campaigns from Yahoo's Search Marketing system to Microsoft adCenter starting this week. The transition is on track to finish at the end of October in the U.S. and Canada, according to the post. At that point, advertisers will be able to operate a single adCenter account to run search campaigns across Bing and Yahoo.

Is there some kind of secret brotherhood of lesser-known Microsoft and Apple founders? Steve Wozniak, the Apple co-founder better known as Woz, is voicing some surprisingly strong support for Paul Allen and the Microsoft co-founder's patent litigation against Google, Apple, Facebook and other tech giants.

Asked about the lawsuit during a video interview with Bloomberg News, Wozniak says he's "not at all against the idea of patent trolls," and he believes Allen's suit represents the fact that inventors have rights under the U.S. patent system.

Here's an excerpt from his comments.

Microsoft is overhauling the Xbox 360 controller with some interesting tweaks, but people buying the video-game console won't get the new design with the standard bundle for now.

The controller has a new directional pad, better known as a d-pad, that can quickly shift from a disc design -- good for sweeping movements -- to a plus design, better for games that require specific pointing in any of the four cardinal directions. It also has concave analog sticks and gray A, B, X and Y buttons, instead of the traditional colors.

But for now, at least, the company says the new controller will only come as part of a Play and Charge kit, selling for $64.99 and slated to be available starting in November in the U.S.

Microsoft is suing software reseller Jigantic.com, and trying to identify the people behind the site, alleging that they've engaged in a bait-and-switch scheme involving Microsoft's SQL Server database program.

Delighted, excited, thankful, pleased, proud.

Those were the words of officials from Mecklenburg County, Va., falling all over themselves on Friday to welcome the Redmond company's decision to spend up to $499 million to build a massive data center in their community. Gov. Bob McDonnell called it "the largest investment project in the history of Southern Virginia."

But the news is also interesting as further confirmation that Microsoft is getting back in the game of constructing data centers again, after slowing things down a bit during the recession.

Microsoft's Bing team today is debuting its new application for Google Android, expanding its footprint in the mobile world. As a follow-up to the well-received Bing app for the iPhone, the rollout for Android continues the pragmatic approach that the Bing team has been taking in the mobile world -- embracing mobile operating systems that compete with Microsoft's own Windows Mobile and Windows Phone platforms.

That said, the Bing rollout on Android is truly the tech industry's equivalent of confronting the enemy on its own turf, given Google's position as the Internet search king. The pressure is on Microsoft to deliver a high-quality release, given the native Google search functionality built in to Android devices.

Microsoft today rolled out Exchange ActiveSync support for Windows Live Hotmail -- a long-awaited feature that promises to make it easier to access and synchronize Hotmail messages, contacts, and appointments on mobile devices.

According to the setup page, supported devices right now include Windows Mobile 6.x phones, Windows Phone 7, the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, in addition to Nokia E-series, S-series, N-series running Mail for Exchange application. Support for Google Android devices is spotty, but Microsoft is promising full support for Android as its testing continues.

Microsoft is boosting the price of its annual Xbox Live Gold subscription by $10, to $59.99, starting Nov. 1 in the U.S., according to a post this morning by Microsoft's Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson.

Prices for the online video-game service are also increasing in the U.K., Canada and Mexico, and they're going up for one- and three-month increments, as well. If you want to avoid the price increase for now, Microsoft is offering a lower-priced renewal of $39.99 to existing Xbox Live Gold customers prior to the new pricing structure. But be sure to read the fine print about the future auto-renewal.

This week on the TechFlash Podcast, we discuss the implications of Paul Allen's lawsuit against Google, Facebook and just about everyone else on the Internet; Google's integration of phone calls into Gmail; the release of an official Netflix app for iPhone, and the opening of a new DigiPen campus.

Then we're joined by special guest Peter Wilson -- a veteran of Microsoft and Google and a newly named adviser to Facebook -- for a wide-ranging conversation about those companies and many other technology topics.

In the final segment, we continue our new weekly feature, TechFlash Trivia. Go here to submit your answer to this week's question, about one of the quirks of the Google founders' personal Boeing 767, and see this updated post for the answer to last week's question about the origins of Nintendo's Mario character.

Listen below or subscribe to the podcast using this RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/techflashpodcast), or via iTunes or Zune. Call 206-876-5465 to leave a message for our next show, and continue reading for links related to this week's episode. Archive available here.

Microsoft has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a $290 million patent ruling in a long-running dispute with i4i Inc. of Toronto over the use of technology known as custom XML in Microsoft Word.

Here's a copy of the company's filing: PDF, 36 pages.

It's tempting to call the timing ironic, coming on the same day that a company controlled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen filed a high-profile patent infringement lawsuit against Google, Facebook, Apple, eBay and several other tech companies and retailers. The situation underscores how prevalent patent litigation has become in the tech industry.

A tech licensing company controlled by Paul Allen is suing eleven Internet and retail giants — including Google, Apple, Facebook, Office Depot, Yahoo, YouTube, Netflix and eBay — alleging that they're violating patents on “fundamental web technologies” developed by Interval Research, the now-defunct Silicon Valley lab that Allen created with Xerox PARC veteran David Liddle in the 1990s.

Noticeably absent from the list is Microsoft, which Allen founded with Bill Gates. Also missing is Amazon.com, the Seattle e-commerce giant that just moved into a new headquarters campus developed by Allen’s Vulcan Inc. in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.

The allegations are laid out in a complaint filed in federal court in Seattle this morning by Allen’s Interval Licensing LLC, identified as the current holder of Interval Research’s patents. Update: Here's a copy of the complaint: PDF, 15 pages.

[Follow-up: A closer look at the patents at issue in the case]

Former Microsoft senior vice president Brad Silverberg, now a venture capitalist at Ignition Partners in Bellevue, takes a trip down memory lane with the folks at Alley Insider to describe what it was like to launch Windows 95. It was 15 years ago today that Microsoft unveiled the historic piece of software, with Silverberg recounting how the launch nearly brought him to tears. Here's a look at Silverberg and Bill Gates on stage:

Silverberg reflected: "What an incredible feeling to see people all over the world, of all shapes, colors, ages, social classes, and occupations -- not just white collar knowledge workers, but everday people, blue collar, kids, grandmas -- running our software. That was our vision when we started the project, and to see it come true, was amazing." Full Alley Insider interview with Silverberg here.

Less than a week after starting the behind-the-scenes shift, Microsoft's Bing search engine is now providing the search results for Yahoo search in the U.S. and Canada, according to blog posts by the companies today.

To be precise, the transition of the "organic" search results is complete. Those are the main results you see in the center column of the search engine results page. The companies are now turning their attention to the transition to Microsoft adCenter for paid search -- the sponsored results in the sidebars.

This may be the tech industry's equivalent of a Super Bowl ad. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates just tweeted to his 1.3 million followers about his friend Nathan Myhrvold's cookbook for geeks — a massive firehouse of social media exposure guaranteed to put the title on the map.

Of course, Gates may be the one of the few people with the disposable income to buy the six-volume set, currently selling for $500 on Amazon.com. But Gates is certainly showing the power of Twitter publicity. Perhaps other product plugs are in his future?