Software Industry Announcements and News


Red Hat Prevails in Federal District Court

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 04.30.10 under Development

RALEIGH, N.C.–Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, announced that today a jury in federal court in Marshall, Texas, returned a verdict in favor of Red Hat, Inc. and Novell, Inc. in a case alleging patent infringement brought by IP Innovation LLC, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation and Technology Licensing Corporation.

The patents at issue were found to be invalid and worthless.

“This is the result we expected and we are gratified that the jury recognized the tremendous innovative value of open source software. The jury knocked out three invalid patents that were masquerading as a new and important inventions, when they were not,” said Michael Cunningham, Executive Vice President at Red Hat. “We appreciate the jury’s wisdom and remain committed to providing value to our customers, including through our Open Source Assurance program. We also remain stalwart in resisting bogus shakedown tactics.”

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions and a component of the S&P 500, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 65 offices spanning the globe. CIOs ranked Red Hat as one of the top vendors delivering value in Enterprise Software for six consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value survey. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with virtualization, applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.

Adobe Ships Creative Suite 5

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 04.30.10 under Desktop Publishing

Breakthrough Interactive Design Tools and Innovative Online Services Maximize Impact of Creative Content and Digital Marketing Campaigns

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the availability of the Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 product family, the highly-anticipated release of the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. With more than 250 new product features, the Creative Suite 5 product line brings exciting full-version upgrades of flagship creative tools and workflow enhancements to designers and developers — enabling the creation, delivery and optimization of content across media for greater impact and results.

The Adobe CS5 product family is powering the creation of content and applications for the upcoming releases of Flash® Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR® 2, which are optimized for high performance on mobile screens and designed to take advantage of native device capabilities for a richer, more immersive user experience. Featuring integration with online content and digital marketing measurement and optimization capabilities for the first time, Creative Suite 5 products include access to signature Omniture® technologies, to capture, store and analyze information generated by websites and other sources. Adobe Creative Suite 5 products also integrate with Adobe CS Live*, a set of five innovative online services that accelerate key aspects of the creative workflow and enable designers to focus on creating their best work (CS Live services are complimentary for a limited time).

The Creative Suite 5 line-up includes five new versions: Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, Creative Suite 5 Design Premium, Creative Suite 5 Web Premium, Creative Suite 5 Production Premium, Creative Suite 5 Design Standard, as well as 15 point products and associated technologies. Creative Suite now includes a brand-new component, Adobe Flash® Catalyst™, a professional interaction design tool that allows designers to rapidly create expressive Web application interfaces and design interaction without writing code.

“We’ve seen from early customer reaction that Creative Suite 5 continues to inspire the design and developer world by combining time-saving workflow and productivity features with astonishing new capabilities, such as Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop CS5, that really push the creative envelope,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe. “Whatever the media, CS5 is ensuring that publishers and creatives can deliver stand-out work and build great businesses around their unique digital assets and content.”

Also available as part of the Creative Suite 5 product family, sold separately or in one of the five Creative Suite editions, are new versions of the Adobe Creative Suite tools, including Photoshop® CS5, Illustrator® CS5, InDesign® CS5, Flash Catalyst CS5, Flash CS5 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS5, Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS5, After Effects® CS5 and more.

The Creative Suite 5 products offer more than 250 new features that embrace interactivity, enhance performance and maximize the impact of creative content and digital marketing campaigns. InDesign CS5 powers the transition to digital publishing with new interactive documents and enhanced electronic reader device support. Image creation and editing get a boost with Truer Edge technology in Photoshop CS5, which offers better edge detecting technology and masking results in less time. Photoshop CS5 also includes the ability to remove an image element and immediately replace the missing pixels with Content-Aware Fill. New stroke options allow Adobe Illustrator CS5 users to create strokes of variable widths and precisely adjust the width at any point along the stroke. New Text Layout Framework in Flash Professional CS5 provides professional-level typography capabilities with functions like kerning, ligatures, tracking, leading, threaded text block and multiple columns. In addition, Dreamweaver CS5 now supports popular content management systems Drupal, Joomla! and WordPress, allowing designers to get accurate views of dynamic Web content from within the product.

Performance improvements abound in the Creative Suite 5 product line with engineering breakthroughs, including native 64-bit support on both Mac and Windows® in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, that allows users to work more fluidly on high-resolution projects. The much anticipated NVIDIA® GPU-accelerated Adobe Mercury Playback Engine allows Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 users to open projects faster, refine effects-rich HD sequences in real time and play back complex projects without rendering. The revolutionary timesaving Roto Brush tool in After Effects helps users isolate moving foreground elements in a fraction of the normal time.

Accelerate Creative Workflows with Adobe CS Live

Adobe Creative Suite 5 products integrate with Adobe CS Live*, a set of five online services that accelerate key aspects of the creative workflow and enable designers to focus on creating their best work. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time and currently include: Adobe BrowserLab, Adobe CS Review, Acrobat.com, Adobe Story and SiteCatalyst® NetAverages™ from Omniture. Adobe CS Review enables online design reviews from directly in Creative Suite 5 applications, while Adobe BrowserLab is an indispensable tool for testing website content across different browsers and operating systems. NetAverages provides Web usage data that helps reduce the guesswork early in the creative process when designing for Web and mobile. Adobe Story is a collaborative scriptwriting tool that improves production and post-production workflows in CS5 Production Premium. Access to Acrobat.com services, such as Adobe ConnectNow Web conferencing, is also included to enhance discussion and information exchange with colleagues and clients around the globe.

Create and Deliver to More Mobile Platforms

Using Flash Professional CS5, designers and developers can create, test and deliver Web content across a wide range of mobile platforms and devices such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks and other consumer electronics. Users can look forward to deploying content in the browser with Flash Player 10.1 and as a standalone application with AIR 2.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Creative Suite 5 products and its associated point products will be available through Adobe Authorized Resellers, Adobe Direct Sales and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store. Estimated street price for the suites is US$1899 for CS5 Design Premium, US$1799 for CS5 Web Premium, US$1699 for CS5 Production Premium, US$1299 for CS5 Design Standard and US$2599 for Master Collection CS5. Upgrade pricing, volume licensing and education discounts are available. Adobe CS5 products integrate with Adobe CS Live online services which are complimentary for a limited time. For more detailed information about features, OS support, upgrade policies, pricing and international versions please visit: www.adobe.com/go/creativesuite.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

© 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe Premiere, AfterEffects, Creative Suite, Dreamweaver, Flash, Flash Catalyst, Illustrator, InDesign, Omniture, Photoshop and SiteCatalyst NetAverages are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Prices listed are the Adobe direct store prices in the U.S.; reseller prices may vary. Prices do not include tax or shipping and handling.

This press release contains forward looking statements, including those related to Adobe’s future product plans, which involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, individuals should refer to Adobe’s SEC filings. Adobe does not undertake an obligation to update forward looking statements.

* This product may allow you to extend its functionality by accessing certain features that are hosted online, including CS Live online services (“Online Services”), provided you have a high-speed Internet connection. The Online Services, and some features thereof, may not be available in all countries, languages, and/or currencies and may be discontinued in whole or in part without notice. Use of the Online Services is governed by separate terms of use and by the Online Privacy Policy, and access to some services may require user registration. Some Online Services, including services that are initially offered at no charge, may be subject to additional fees and require a separate subscription. For more details and to review the applicable terms of use and Online Privacy Policy, visit www.adobe.com. For more information about CS Live online services, see www.adobe.com/go/cslive.

McAfee, Inc. to Offer Anti-Malware for Android

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 04.29.10 under Security & Privacy

McAfee VirusScan Mobile Technology Now Available Free of Charge at SK Telecom’s TStore

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–McAfee, Inc. (NYSE:MFE) today announced the availability of its anti-malware solution to secure Android-based smartphones. The McAfee® VirusScan® Mobile technology is available now for users of Android and Windows Mobile-based smartphones from SK Telecom in Korea. The software can be downloaded at no additional charge by SK Telecom customers from SK Telecom’s mobile application store “TStore.”

Mobile Internet access and mobile service usage is growing rapidly and cyber criminals are expected to pay more attention to this sector. Mobile device platforms compete for innovation created by application developers and other content creators who are increasingly demanding more device access. As their requests grow in numbers and they distribute their products more widely, security breaches will be inevitable.

“Wherever mobile consumers go, threats will follow them,” says Jan Volzke, worldwide head of mobile marketing for McAfee. “McAfee is committed to tackling mobile threats. The introduction of McAfee VirusScan Mobile technology for Android allows McAfee to protect more consumers in more situations of their rapidly changing digital life.”

Once installed, McAfee VirusScan Mobile technology protects SK Telecom’s mobile devices from malware, secures personal information and helps ensure critical communication functions work while users are on the go. Featuring automatic protection updates the technology secures the mobile device as soon as new threats are found. Using real-time scanning it protects users from both known and suspicious Android-based malware. McAfee VirusScan Mobile technology is available now for the Motorola XT720, the first Android device available in Korea, and will soon be available for other planned Android phones.

“The user environment of a smartphone is similar to that of a PC, so many security issues can be applied equally,” said Hu jong Kim, service technique director of SK Telecom. “Infections can occur over message attachments, application downloads and Bluetooth. Through this partnership, we are pleased to now offer our SK Telecom users peace of mind that their smartphones have a new level of security.”1

McAfee has shipped mobile security technology on more than 100 million mobile devices and is a clear leader in the mobile security market. SK Telecom is the leading mobile carrier in South Korea with more than 50 percent market share and more than 20 million mobile subscribers. SK Telecom marks the first time that McAfee is providing McAfee VirusScan Mobile technology as an Android application download. McAfee has been offering its mobile protection technology for other device platforms since 2003.

About McAfee, Inc.

McAfee, Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is the world’s largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee is committed to relentlessly tackling the world’s toughest security challenges. The company delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure systems and networks around the world, allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the web more securely. Backed by an award-winning research team, McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. http://www.mcafee.com

McAfee and VirusScan are trademarks or registered trademarks of McAfee, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. The product plans, specifications and descriptions herein are provided for information only and subject to change without notice, and are provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others.

Economic Optimism Surfaces at Intuit Town Halls

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 04.29.10 under Business

Small Business Owners, Teens and Consumers Discuss Recovery Economy

NEW YORK–Spending, saving and a growing sense of optimism were common topics heard from small businesses, teens and consumers at the Intuit Money Matters Town Hall this week in New York City.

As the Great Recession has taught Americans they can’t afford to ignore their money matters, Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), maker of QuickBooks and Quicken, gathered groups of East Coast-based small businesses, teens and consumers to hear how they are surviving and thriving in the “recovery” economy.

Town Hall Highlights

* Small Business – New York-based small business owners are optimistic, with many willing to take risks and expand, despite the uncertain economy. Among their concerns: the ability to offer employee benefits, especially healthcare; the effectiveness of marketing expenses, and getting paid. The session was hosted by Rhonda Abrams, small business expert and author of best-seller, “The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies” and “Hire Your First Employee,” and Cameron Schmidt, vice president of Intuit’s Employee Management Solutions Division.
* Kids and Money – New York area high school students want to make the most of their money today and learn how to save for the future. Whether it’s paying for prom, or saving for college, becoming financially literate is a priority for today’s teens. Anya Kamenetz, author of “DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education” and “Generation Debt,” and Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group and the founder of Mint.com, moderated a lively discussion focused on financial literacy. Emmons Patzer, Aaron’s father, also joined the session.
* Personal Finance – Residents from in and around New York discussed how they’ve changed their financial habits as a result of the recession. They’ve become more aware – setting financial goals, looking closer at spending habits, paying off credit card debt and saving for an emergency. This session was led by Patzer and Beth Kobliner, personal finance expert and author of the New York Times best seller, “Get a Financial Life.” Patzer’s closing advice: “Save. Invest. Be protected.”

Quotes

Cameron Schmidt, vice president of Employee Management Solutions division

* “Now, more than ever, the best resources small businesses have are each other. They are eager to hear from others on what has worked for them, and share their own experiences. At Intuit we’re encouraging important dialogue just like this through our communities of entrepreneurs every day.”

Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group and Mint.com founder

* “The recession forced Americans to pay attention to essential money matters like budgeting and saving. And that’s made people more comfortable talking about finances. We had a great conversation about how to best help people address immediate challenges to be better able to reach life goals. It’s important to remember that money is for living – it’s not the number that matters, as much as being sure you have what you need to do the things you want in life.”

Intuit Money Matters Town Hall survey findings

The Intuit Money Matters Town Hall Small Business Survey revealed several trends among entrepreneurs:

* Uniting for help
o 64 percent of small businesses said the recession made them more likely to get advice from fellow small business owners.
* Choosing the small business path
o 62 percent said they would recommend starting a small business to their family or friends, even as they continue facing uncertain financial times.
* Looking to hire
o 52 percent of small business owners with at least one employee said they plan to hire in the next 12 months. That’s up from 44 percent who were surveyed in September 2009. Additional data on small business hiring appears in the Intuit Payroll Index.

The Intuit Money Matters Town Hall Consumer Survey found that:

* The recession fuels more conversations about money:
o 75 percent are now more likely to talk about money issues with their coworkers.
o 39 percent say they now talk more openly about their finances.

* The recession weighs heavy on consumers’ minds:
o One out of three people are losing sleep over money – more than their careers or marriages combined.

The full surveys are available at:

* Intuit Money Matters Town Hall Small Business Survey.
* Intuit Money Matters Town Hall Consumer Survey.

Quick links:

* Intuit Town Hall website
* Intuit Town Hall sessions (replays)
* Intuit Town Hall on Twitter
* Satellite coordinates for video footage: Waterfront/accent loop 1625

Resources:

* Intuit Press Room
* Intuit Small Business Employment Index
* Small Business United Blog
* Mint.com blog

About the Survey Results:

Intuit Town Hall Money Matters Consumer Survey Methodology
The findings of the general population poll are based on an Ipsos poll conducted April 8-12 and 15-19, 2010 on behalf of Intuit. For the survey, a nationally representative, randomly selected sample of 1,001 adults (aged 18 and older) across the United States was interviewed via phone by Ipsos. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population in the U.S. been polled.

All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the actual U.S. population according to U.S. Census figures.

Intuit Money Matters Town Hall Small Business Survey Methodology
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos survey conducted online, April 15-20, 2010, with 300 small business owners in the U.S. The survey was conducted online among Ipsos panel members (aged 18 and older) who reported owning or operating their own small business.

All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. Data cited prior to April 2010 is from previous surveys. Please contact Intuit for more information on those specific methodologies.

About Intuit Inc.

Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax®, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit’s leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. Intuit Financial Services provides enhanced online banking solutions and unique insights to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.1 billion in its fiscal year 2009. The company has approximately 7,800 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

Sophos Reveals Latest Spam “Dirty Dozen”

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 04.28.10 under Security & Privacy

China Disappears from List of Top Spam-relaying Nations

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–IT security and data protection firm Sophos has published its latest report on the top twelve spam-relaying countries, covering the first quarter of 2010. The United States continues its reign as the king of spam, relaying more than 13% of global spam, accounting for hundreds of millions of junk messages every day.

However, most dramatically, China – often blamed for cybercrime by other countries – has disappeared from the “dirty dozen,” coming in at 15th place with responsibility for relaying just 1.9% of the world’s spam.

The Top Twelve Spam-relaying Countries for January to March 2010:
1. United States 13.1%
2. India 7.3%
3. Brazil 6.8%
4. South Korea 4.8%
5. Vietnam 3.4%
6. Germany 3.2%
=9. United Kingdom 3.1%
=9. Russia 3.1%
=9. Italy 3.1%
10. France 3.0%
11. Romania 2.5%
12. Poland 2.4%

Others 47.3%

“All eyes aren’t so much on which countries are on the list, but the one which isn’t. China has earned itself a bad reputation in many countries’ eyes for being the launch pad of targeted attacks against foreign companies and government networks, but at least in the last 12 months they have demonstrated that the proportion of spam relayed by their computers has steadily declined,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “South Korea, Brazil, India and the United States account for more than 30% of all the spam relayed by hacked computers around the globe.”

Spam accounts for a staggering 97% of all email received by business email servers, putting both a strain on resources and accounting for a huge amount of time to lost productivity. Used largely as a method for selling counterfeit or illicit goods such as fake pharmaceuticals, luxury watches and false diplomas, virtually all spam comes from malware-infected computers (called botnets or zombies) that are controlled by cybercriminals.

Computer users can unwittingly allow their PCs to become part of a botnet in a number of ways, including clicking on malicious links that are frequently contained within the spam messages that the botnets are used to distribute. The only way for users and administrators to reduce the risk of being compromised is to run anti-spam and anti-malware protection and ensure all software and hardware is up-to-date with security patches.

By continent, Asia continues to dominate in spam, with more than a third of the world’s unsolicited junk email relayed by the region. Although the United States remains the top offender by country, North America as a whole has reduced its spam throughput since last quarter, dropping from second to third place. The breakdown of spam relaying by continent is as follows:

January to March 2010:
1. Asia 33.7%
2. Europe 31.2%
3. North America 16.9%
4. South America 14.7%
5. Africa 2.6%

Other 0.9%

Sophos recommends that companies automatically update their corporate virus protection, and run a consolidated solution at their email and web gateways to defend against spam and viruses. Computer users must remember to refrain from buying from spam campaigns as even those very few that do, keep spammers in business and motivated to continue clogging email boxes.

About Sophos

More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs – a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.

Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Available

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 04.26.10 under Development

Silverlight 4 will release to Web this week; next wave of developer tools and technologies re-defines simplicity, creates new opportunities for developers.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 11, 2010 — Kicking off a global launch consisting of more than 150 developer-focused events, Microsoft Corp. announced the general availability of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4. The company also announced that Silverlight 4 will release to Web (RTW) later in the week. Together, these technologies simplify the entire development process, enabling developers to target new platforms and build high-quality applications. Developers will be able to download Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 in conjunction with the Microsoft Visual Studio Conference & Expo launch event in Las Vegas.

“We’re excited to celebrate the launch of Visual Studio 2010 with developers around the world today,” said Bob Muglia, president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. “Customer and partner feedback was instrumental in shaping this release. The functionality of Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4 and Silverlight 4 creates a powerful and unique combination, opening up new opportunities for developers to build applications that take advantage of new and existing devices, as well as emerging platforms like cloud services.”

In addition, approximately 50 partners, including Micro Focus, Quest Software Inc., Telerik and Developer Express Inc., announced availability of products and solutions built on this latest wave of technologies. With the 2010 release of Visual Studio, developers will have access to popular partner extensions earlier than ever.

“Our customers rely on us to solve for the unique needs of their businesses, and in order to do that, we need tools and technologies that enable maximum efficiency, reliability, integration and creativity,” said Peter Duffell, vice president of Strategic Partners at Micro Focus. “Our next-generation developer tools build on the already-proven capabilities of Visual Studio, .NET Framework and Silverlight and expand the value to our customers even further.”

Enhancements for Everyone

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 have something for every developer. The new editor, now using Windows Presentation Foundation, delivers a more flexible, feature-rich environment that supports concepts such as the use of multiple monitors. This enables a developer to have one monitor with code, another with the user interface designer, and yet another with database structure.

With support for the latest Microsoft releases, developers can use their existing skills to create more types of applications than ever. Built-in support for Windows 7 multitouch and “ribbon” interfaces delivers stunning applications to end users. For the first time, developers have integrated access to SharePoint functionality into the Visual Studio integrated development environment. Windows Azure tools make it easy to quickly develop, debug, test and deploy cloud applications from within the familiar Visual Studio environment. Built-in support for ASP.NET Model-View-Controller gives developers the flexibility to separately update the appearance and core business logic of Web applications. Windows® Phone 7 developers will be able to build amazing mobile applications using Visual Studio with integrated phone design surfaces. Silverlight 4 creates a whole new way to deliver compelling applications that run inside and outside the browser.

To address the growing complexity of software development, Visual Studio 2010 provides powerful tools for the entire team. IntelliTrace, a “time machine” for developers and testers, makes nonreproducible bugs virtually a thing of the past by recording the application’s execution history and providing reproduction of the reported bug, enabling the tester to help squash the bug once and for all. This is just one of the many new features that have been added to help with Application Lifecycle Management, representing a quantum leap for anyone using the Visual Studio Team System products from 2005 or 2008.

“The enhanced testing features in Visual Studio 2010 automate the majority of common tasks and streamline the flow of information across our team,” said Steve Schlonski, vice president, Xerox Global Services, Global Technology and Offering Development. “This has led to a significant productivity increase; when you combine this with the ability to have a single unified view of project status, it dramatically drives down project risk.”

.NET Framework 4 adds additional support for industry standards, more language choice, new support for high-performance middle-tier applications including parallel programming, and side-by-side installation with .NET Framework 3.5. With the .NET Framework 4 Client Profile, the size of the runtime has been decreased by over 80 percent, making it easier for developers to get applications, and therefore users, up and running faster.

Silverlight 4, which will RTW later this week, offers powerful media and business application capabilities that enable developers to deliver compelling application experiences on or off the Web. New features in Silverlight 4 include extended out-of-browser capabilities, enhancements for enterprise application developers, and more than 60 customizable pre-written controls to quickly build rich, interactive applications.

Product Information and Availability

• To download, purchase or get more information on Visual Studio 2010: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio

• To download or get more information on the .NET Framework: http://www.microsoft.com/net

• To download or get more information on Silverlight 4: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

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