Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb wrote on his blog today, that the Xbox Live Gamertags of confirmed cheaters have been corrected. He explained what his team is doing to the accounts of the most serious offenders:

• Resetting the entire Gamerscore for an account to zero
• The account will be unable to regain all previously obtained achievements and Gamerscore, however, the players will have the ability to gain future Achievements by earning them fairly, like the majority of the Xbox LIVE community does.
• The account will be clearly labeled as a cheater for the community to view on xbox.com. In dash, the personal view of the gamercard will be labeled as well.

"Xbox Live remains committed to keeping the service free of cheating in order to maintain a fair and level playing field for everyone," Hyrb wrote. To find out more about Gamerscore corrections read the FAQ on Xbox.com.

All Windows Vista users encountering problems when they upgrade to Service Pack 1 will be given free support, Microsoft informed today.

We are offering free-of-charge support to anyone who is having issues installing Windows Vista SP1,

Microsoft blogger Brandon Le Blanc said. There are three options available under the free support plan: e-mail support, which will be answered within one business day; online chat, which has a current waiting time of around 40 minutes; and call, available only for users who have a software-assurance agreement, professional contract, TechNet subscription, or MSDN subscription, or for those who come under the Microsoft Partner Program. The free support is available for all users till March 19, 2009. Please proceed here.

Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corp. are partnering with academia to create two Universal Parallel Computing Research Centers (UPCRC), aimed at accelerating developments in mainstream parallel computing, for consumers and businesses in desktop and mobile computing. The new research centers will be located at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Microsoft and Intel have committed a combined $20 million to the Berkeley and UIUC research centers over the next five years. An additional $8 million will come from UIUC, and UC Berkeley has applied for $7 million in funds from a state-supported program to match industry grants. Research will focus on advancing parallel programming applications, architecture and operating systems software.

The final version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is here! Microsoft Corp. posted the final SP1 package of updates today, and it's now available free for everyone.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)
32-bit version (434.5 MB) | 64-bit version (726.5 MB)

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced that Microsoft has licensed Adobe Flash Lite software, Adobe's award-winning Flash Player runtime specifically designed for mobile devices, to enable web browsing of Flash Player compatible content within the Internet Explorer Mobile browser in future versions of Microsoft Windows Mobile phones. Microsoft has also licensed Adobe Reader LE software for viewing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) documents including email attachments and web content. Both Adobe products will be made available to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide, who license Windows Mobile software.

Microsoft Corp. today announced plans to acquire Rapt Inc., the leading provider of advertising yield management solutions for digital media publishers. Rapt's technology, along with its information and advisory services offerings, will become key components of the Atlas Publisher Suite, part of Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group. With the inclusion of Rapt, the Atlas Publisher Suite allows Microsoft to provide its customers with integrated asset and inventory management, forecasting, yield and sales management, and ad delivery and operations.

According to information posted on Amazon.com and reports from TechARP.com that correctly called SP1's ship date last month, Microsoft will release Windows Vista Service Pack 1 next week to a wider audience. Amazon currently lists Vista SP1 retail copies as available next Wednesday, March 19, while TechARP.com, the Malaysian Web site that nailed the update's release to manufacturing (RTM) date several days early, said users would be able to download SP1 starting Tuesday, March 18. Vista SP1 shipped to duplication and OEMs on February 4th, but since then it has only been available to previous beta testers, volume licensing customers and subscribers to IT subscription services. Hopefully, next week the long awaited Vista update will become available once and for all.

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 is on track for release in 2010. During its internal "MGX" global sales meeting this week, Microsoft witnessed that the code name for Vista's successor is "Windows 7" and the project is due to see light in approximately three years.

We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista Consumer GA. The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release

a Microsoft spokesperson revealed to Softpedia via email. Outside of the confirmation quoted above, Microsoft did not comment more on Windows 7.

Microsoft has commented that there are still no plans in place to introduce a Blu-ray player for the Xbox 360, despite comments by Stan Glasgow which seemed to hint that such an add-on could be on the way. A spokesperson for the company said:

There are no plans to introduce Blu-ray. In response to Stan Glasgow's statement that Blu-ray is a possibility for Xbox 360, we have made no such announcement. Games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available.

So Xbox 360 owners could find themselves without the ability to watch new HD movies in the coming months as film producers stop selling HD DVDs.

Microsoft today hoped to translate the visuals of Windows Vista into a new pair of keyboard and mouse sets. Though they work with most USB-equipped computers, the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 and the wired Digital Media Keyboard 3000 are styled after the Aero Glass interface found in Microsoft's own operating system and incorporate shortcuts designed for the platform. The 7000 includes shortcut keys for Favorites in Vista on the ergonomic keyboard itself along with a Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 that has a button usable for task switching through Flip 3D (also reusable in other operating systems). The Digital Media Keyboard 3000 also has media keys, image zoom, and a Flip 3D switcher along the edges. The premium Wireless Laser Desktop ships first in April for $130 and will be followed by the Digital Media Keyboard in June for $30.

Microsoft today reported progress on the corruption issue with the Windows Home Server-based computers that have more than one hard drive. First reported in December 2007, an update to the KB article was posted today that provides more information regarding symptoms, cause, status and guidance. You can read the KB here. The Windows Home Server team plans to release beta test versions of a fix over the next few months. The final version of the patch is currently estimated for June 2008, although that date could change as testing progresses.

Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. today announced two new milestones in their ongoing alliance: the official opening of the Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center on Microsoft's Redmond campus for optimizing Microsoft applications on Sun Fire x64 server systems storage, and the availability of the Sun Infrastructure Solution for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. More information on the Sun Infrastructure Solutions for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is available here.

International Business Machines Corporation and Hitachi today announced that they have signed a unique, two-year joint semiconductor metrology research agreement in order to speed the pace of semiconductor innovation. The agreement marks the first time Hitachi and IBM have collaborated on semiconductor technology - the two companies currently work together on enterprise servers and other products.

Microsoft today announced it is lowering the estimated retail price (ERP) for its Xbox 360 family of consoles in Europe. Now with an entry-level ERP of €199.99/£159.99, Xbox 360 is a mass market entertainment proposition with something to offer for every interest and budget. From Friday, 14th March, Xbox 360, which includes a 20GB hard drive and one wireless controller, will have an ERP of €269.99/£199.99 - a saving of €80/£50 on the current ERP. The Xbox 360 Elite, which comes with a massive 120GB hard drive enabling consumers to store huge quantities of content downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace as well as their own music, will have an ERP of €369.99/£259.99 - a saving of €80/£40. The Xbox 360 Arcade console, perfect for those wishing to make their first foray into the gaming and entertainment world of Xbox, will have an ERP of €199.99/£159.99 - a saving of €80/£20. The new ERPs are part of Microsoft's ongoing strategy to make the console affordable for even wider audience of potential buyers.

A new rumor that the 20GB version of Xbox 360 will be replaced by a 60GB HDD model is spreading around the net. TrustedReviews citing "rock solid source" claims that Microsoft will probably launch the new gaming system sometime in Q2 2008, unfortunately there's not a sign of any price or proof that this is true. The link to the full story is placed as news source, but there you won't find anything more than what I just said.

Microsoft has released a new update for DirectX, which is recommended for all users of Windows 2000 and newer (including Vista and Server editions). You can download the web installer here (validation required), or the 69.5MB redistributable version here. There doesn't seem to be any information about the changes in this version, although they are most likely to be minor performance and security updates.

The Financial Times citing an unnamed senior executive reports that rivals Sony and Microsoft are discussing the possibility of offering a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360. Sony Electronics US president Stan Glasgow also noted that the company was holding discussions with both Microsoft and Apple over Blu-Ray. The report even claims that there is also the possibility of an internal Blu-ray drive being incorporated into a new, more expensive Xbox 360 model, as it is already done in the PlayStation 3. Currently all Xbox 360 consoles support the HD-DVD format only, but since Toshiba abandoned production last month, Microsoft has no choice but to reconsider Blu-ray as vital step forward. Microsoft refused to comment on the story.

A number of industry sources have indicated that Microsoft is due to cut the price of all Xbox 360 SKUs in Europe. According to TechRadar backed up by numerous UK retailers, the price of every Xbox 360 SKU is to be slashed by as much as €50 on March 14th across Europe. If true, the Arcade Xbox 360 will retail for around GBP 150 in the UK - cheaper than Nintendo's Wii console - the Elite will sell below GBP 240 and the Premium at just under GBP 200. Microsoft of course declined to comment on the story before press time, as expected.

Coming as a big surprise for me, the first public beta of IE8 was published by Microsoft this morning. Internet Explorer 8 can now be installed from virtually anyone on both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Download the apropriate version from here. See also the release notes for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1.

Nokia today announced plans to make Microsoft Silverlight available for S60 on Symbian OS, the world's leading smartphone software, as well as for Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets. Adding support for Silverlight will extend opportunities for developers to create rich, interactive applications that run on multiple platforms in a consistent and reliable way.

Aiming to demonstrate that its commitment to interoperability Microsoft said Monday that it is shifting its plans for the next version of Internet Explorer to make the program more friendly to Web standards. The software maker said that a planned standards compatibility mode will now be the default rendering engine when IE8 makes its debut. Now IE will finally be able to render the Acid2 browser test correctly. "We think that acting in accordance with principles is important, and IE8's default is a demonstration of the interoperability principles in action," IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch said in a blog posting. With IE8, Microsoft plans to have three rendering modes: the new standards-compliant mode, the IE7 rendering engine, as well as an option for displaying older Web sites. Because of the default shift, Web sites that want IE8 to use its IE7 engine will have to add a tag to their site's code. Microsoft hasn't said when the final version will be out, but a beta version of the browser is due out in the first half of the year.

Microsoft has decided that Windows Vista isn't flying off the shelves quite as quickly as it would like and has issued a price cut for three of the retail versions of the software. The retail version of Windows Vista Ultimate will see its price fall by $80 from $399 to $319, and the upgrade versions of Vista Ultimate and Home Premium will have price cuts of $40 and $30 respectively, meaning they'll now set you back $259 and $129. The price cuts will apply to 70 countries world-wide (although figures may vary slightly), and will come into place with the introduction of Service Pack One for Vista. Microsoft has already sold over 100 million copies of the operating system since its release late in 2006, but sales have been hindered slightly by users preferring to stick with Windows XP rather than move to Vista.

The European Commission fined yesterday US computer giant Microsoft for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour. Microsoft must now pay a record 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680.9m) after it failed to comply with a 2004 ruling that it abused its position. The ruling said that Microsoft was guilty of not providing key code to rival software makers. EU regulators said the firm was the first to break an EU anti-trust ruling. The fines come on top of earlier fines of 280m euros imposed in July 2006, and of 497m euros in March 2004. "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the Commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement. "As we demonstrated last week with our new interoperability principles and specific actions to increase the openness of our products, we are focusing on steps that will improve things for the future," Microsoft responded.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it is working with IBM Corp. to deliver a powerful Windows Embedded-based plug-and-play solution to help make it faster and easier for retailers and hospitality organizations to deliver information and services to time-conscious, empowered consumers.

Lawsuit filed against Microsoft's Vista Capable certification

A federal lawsuit has been filed against Microsoft, claiming that thier "Vista Capable" stickers are misleading. Many of the computers sporting them will only run Vista on the lowest, most basic settings. The lawsuit has been accepted by US District Judge Marsha Pechman. The issue is whether or not Microsoft tried to sell more "Vista Capable" computers by misleading customers.