03.18.10
Posted in Europe, GNU/Linux, Windows at 11:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft accused of blocking GNU/Linux and more leaks about this scandal are high in demand
THREE WEEKS ago we were offered some leaks that expose more corruption (see links at the bottom) behind the Magalhães initiative. No sooner than yesterday we found the following post in USENET:
Subject: Magalhães: Microsoft made pressure to make it not possible to choose another operating system
From: Lusotec
Date: Wednesday 17 Mar 2010 22:57:50
Groups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
<quote translated from Portuguese>
According to Paulo Trezentos, in the inquire commission to the Foundation for the Mobile Communications
Magalhães: Microsoft made pressure to make it not possible to choose another operating system.
A representative of the company Caixa Mágica (Linux) – software supplier
for the Magalhães – Paulo Trezentos, said yesterday in the inquire commission to the Foundation for the Mobile Communications (FMC) that Microsoft made pressures so that the users of the device could not choose the operating system.
(…)
The Magalhães computer provides ‘dual boot’, meaning, it has installed two operating systems – Windows XP and Linux – and the users can choose in which they want to start the work.
However, a representative of the Caixa Mágica, company responsible for the installation of Linux on the Magalhães computers, said yesterday that Microsoft made pressures to make this choice not possible, so that Windows would start automatically.
“Microsoft used all kinds of pressures so that Windows would start automatically, but both the Ministry of Education and the JP Sá Couto succeed” in making it possible to select the operating system., said Paulo Trezentos, during the audition in the inquire commission to the FMC.
(…)
</quote>
http://www.publico.pt/Tecnologia/magalhaes-microsoft-…
For those that don’t know, Magalhães computers are laptops that where supplied to almost all of the nearly half million Portuguese elementary students, ages 6 to 10. The Magalhães laptops had both Windows XP and Caixa Mágica, a distribution based on Mandriva but adapted to the Portuguese market.
Also to make it clear, this particular news puts focus on Microsoft but the inquire commission main objective is to investigate the spending of public funds by the FMC. Microsoft’s actions are not central to the inquire.
As for the news, it is just Microsoft’s traditional and unethical way of doing business. Fortunately this time it was unsuccessful.
Regards.
Can any of our Portuguese readers obtain/gain access to those sensitive documents that we keep hearing about? As the links below show, Microsoft corruption in Portugal is rather commonplace, but publishing concrete proof would be invaluable. █
Related posts:
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03.17.10
Posted in Microsoft, Security, Windows at 4:34 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Internet Explorer 9 removes security features and lies about its standards compliance using improper benchmarks
MICROSOFT made some Internet Explorer patches available last week, only to discover that Internet Explorer is under a new wave of attacks (due to flaws which cannot be patched until next month). What did Microsoft do? To the gurus out there it advised that they apply some registry hacking. Windows is easy, eh? SJVN writes about this issue which we covered before:
A Quick IE Fix
[...]
The first one disables the peer factory class in the Windows registry. ‘Peer factory’ is used by the iepeers.dll binary program in IE 6 and 7 on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to call some kinds of Windows functionality from within IE. The most common way it’s used is to print from IE. The downside of this fix, as you might guess, is that it will stop IE’s print functionality from working.
Try explaining this security measure to people who are fearful of computing.
According to another new article from SJVN, Internet Explorer 9 will fix almost nothing when it comes to security. Just like when Vista 7 was planned and released, Microsoft said nearly nothing about improved security; it’s the same when it comes to Internet Explorer.
While Microsoft seems focused on some good things, like improving IE’s speed and finally making it more compatible with the forthcoming HTML 5 standard, I didn’t see a lot about improving the program’s own built-in security. Indeed, this early test-drive model [of IE 9] doesn’t even include IE 8’s SmartScreen anti-malware filter and private-browsing function.
This sounds familiar because according to two separate sources, Vista 7 is also less secure than Vista [1, 2]. They go backwards.
But now comes the interesting part. A reader who wishes to remain anonymous has told us that, regarding Microsoft’s “test browser compliance”, it will “test browsers, except for their current version, Internet Explorer 8″. To quote the message:
“Download the latest Windows web browser”. Is it fair testing a future release against the current versions of the rest? Also the original stand alone SVG files appear to be missing.
“This website contains several collections of test pages that were developed in conjunction with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) working groups. These tests make it possible to validate a browser’s compliance with specific web standards”
http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/ietestcenter/#svg11e2
Microsoft never likes to compare the comparable. It pits vapourware against real products, as usual. It must mean that Microsoft is behind, not ahead. █
“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
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03.16.10
Posted in FOSS, Microsoft, Windows at 8:06 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Wikipedia is my default search facility under Firefox
Summary: A reader alleges that Microsoft is playing dirty on Windows in order to suppress the use of Google (assuming AVG agreed to reroute traffic to Microsoft via Yahoo!)
ON TWO occasions earlier this year we echoed separate complaints from people who said that Microsoft uses Internet Explorer 8 (which it shoves down users' throats) to suppress the use of Google. The details were revealing and the claims sufficiently compelling.
A reader got in touch earlier today in order to say more things about a post we made earlier. To quote the relevant part:
| lpbbear |
hi all, sorry to butt in, could i mention something about the bing issue to you roy? |
Mar 16 18:25 |
| lpbbear |
OK, I will just throw it out there, noticed your item about Bing this morning, seeing some other related issues not seen mentioned anywhere yet. |
Mar 16 18:28 |
| lpbbear |
I work as a PC tech, seeing an issue with AVG AntiVirus in Windows related to Bing |
Mar 16 18:28 |
| lpbbear |
I haven’t had the luxury of time to tradck all of it down but it appears that sometime recently AVG has entered into some background agreement with microsoft. |
Mar 16 18:29 |
| lpbbear |
during AVG install it asks to install a Yahoo toolbar, it seems to be over riding search settings in Firefox in Windows and locking Firefox search box to bing. |
Mar 16 18:30 |
| neighborlee |
im not happy with avg either..it said it removes trial and gives free versoin back.but it keeps nagging you about switching to non trial version regardless…not sure about bing but defintely yahoo, which M$ owns now of course.. |
Mar 16 18:32 |
-BNtwitter/#boycottnovell-[eduvid] Wow, I have a static ip now  now thinking for firewall |
Mar 16 18:34 |
| *lpbbear_ (~quassel@66.172.105.203) has joined #boycottnovell |
Mar 16 18:34 |
| neighborlee |
http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2009/12/obama-falsely-claims-that-senate.html < this is also interesting |
Mar 16 18:34 |
| phIRCe-BNc |
Title: DISSENTING JUSTICE: Obama Falsely Claims that the Senate Healthcare Bill Matches His Campaign Promises .::. Size~: 190.69 KB |
Mar 16 18:34 |
| *lpbbear has quit (Ping timeout: 260 seconds) |
Mar 16 18:36 |
| *lpbbear (~quassel@75.139.216.174) has joined #boycottnovell |
Mar 16 18:42 |
| *lpbbear has quit (Client Quit) |
Mar 16 18:43 |
| *lpbbear (~quassel@75.139.216.174) has joined #boycottnovell |
Mar 16 18:43 |
| *lpbbear_ has quit (Ping timeout: 245 seconds) |
Mar 16 18:46 |
| lpbbear |
anyone see that earlier mention of AVG/Bing lockin thing I mentioned, I glitched out for a moment |
Mar 16 18:46 |
| schestowitz |
jono: hey |
Mar 16 18:51 |
| schestowitz |
lpbbear I meant |
Mar 16 18:51 |
| schestowitz |
Catching up…… |
Mar 16 18:51 |
| lpbbear |
hi |
Mar 16 18:51 |
| schestowitz |
lpbbear: has anyone reported this avg thing” |
Mar 16 18:52 |
| schestowitz |
? |
Mar 16 18:52 |
| schestowitz |
That’s why Windows is bad for Firefox |
Mar 16 18:52 |
| schestowitz |
Or any developer |
Mar 16 18:52 |
| schestowitz |
Microsoft bullies competition over there |
Mar 16 18:52 |
| schestowitz |
lpbbear: I can’t reproduce here cause I don’t have Windows |
Mar 16 18:53 |
| lpbbear |
no, I don’t believe I have seen mention of it anywhere yet |
Mar 16 18:53 |
| schestowitz |
Maybe someone else can test..? |
Mar 16 18:53 |
| lpbbear |
saw your article on Bing this morning and thought you would like the additional info |
Mar 16 18:53 |
| lpbbear |
uwhat it appears to be doing is locking the little searchbox in the upper right corner area of Firefox to Bing |
Mar 16 18:54 |
| lpbbear |
ucan’t manually change to Google or anything else until you go into addons and disable the AVG yahoo addon, may have names a bit wrong, from memory |
Mar 16 18:55 |
| neighborlee |
lpbbear: yup I did |
Mar 16 18:55 |
| lpbbear |
I am always on the “clock” at customers sites so I haven’t had the luxury of time to follow it up more. |
Mar 16 18:56 |
| neighborlee |
lpbbear: I uninstalled unhappy with their constant nagging about switching from free to pay version |
Mar 16 18:56 |
| neighborlee |
lpbbear: but I dont recall bing issues..yahoo toolbar yes < not good since M$ owns yahoo now> |
Mar 16 18:57 |
| lpbbear |
its fairly recent, just started seeing this issue on customers systems that use Firefox |
Mar 16 18:57 |
| lpbbear |
seems to me to be a clear antitrust issue even though its being used through a third party proxy by Microsoft. |
Mar 16 18:58 |
| lpbbear |
I could understand if it just added a choice for Bing in the list but its locking the list to just Bing and not allowing the user the ability to switch to other choices. |
Mar 16 19:01 |
Can any of our readers (with a Windows partition) test this to confirm? This is why Free software on top of Windows is far from ideal; Microsoft has a long history of pulling such tricks because it controls the underlying platform and vainly disregards the rule of law. How about when Microsoft “sabotaged” Firefox last year [1, 2, 3] (more than once)?
Speaking of Web browsers, one reader alerts us that “Microsoft innovates plug-in-free video”. According to the article he cites (CNET warning), “Coming in the new version is support for new Web standards including plug-in-free video; better performance with graphics, text, and JavaSript…”
Does that mean that Microsoft might support embedded Ogg? Is Microsoft relenting on Silver Lie then [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]? It’s hard to believe. █
“…[Windows 98] must be a killer on shipments so that Netscape never gets a chance…”
–Former Microsoft Vice President James Allchin in an internal memo
“We are going to cut off their air supply. Everything they’re selling, we’re going to give away for free.”
–Paul Maritz, former Microsoft Vice President (now VMware CEO), referring to Netscape
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Posted in BSD, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 6:13 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Prelude to a new campaign which strives to change the coverage of Windows-specific security problems
ONE of our readers is in the process of starting a new campaign he wishes to name “Let’s call out Windows” or simply “Call out Windows.” The purpose of this information campaign is to urge journalists to call Windows malware and Windows viruses just what they are: Windows malware and Windows viruses. Reporters have become knowingly negligent of the fact that these problems affect Windows and not all computers run Windows. It’s time to restore journalistic integrity and accuracy.
The following new post, titled “GNU/Linux: Don’t Call Them PC Viruses”, arrives in a very timely fashion and states:
I call that hogwash. The reason Microsoft Windows is so often successfully attacked is because of its flawed security design. I run FreeBSD Unix and Mandriva GNU/Linux on my PC systems. I keep my systems patched with up to date bug fixes and security fixes. I will not install software that I do not know from whence it originates. I do not run any anti-virus software and yet I will never get a “PC Virus” on these systems. There is no such thing as a “PC Virus”, call them “Microsoft Windows Viruses” or “GNU/Linux Viruses” or “Apple OS X Viruses” depending on the operating system which they successfully attack. Don’t call them “PC Viruses”.
Last week we showed that Apache was only vulnerable on Windows (not IEEE POSIX®).
There is a lot of correspondence going on privately, trying to establish an effective campaign that changes how people cover Windows malware and Windows viruses without coming across as rude. █
“Our products just aren’t engineered for security.”
–Brian Valentine, Microsoft executive
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Posted in Antitrust, Asia, GNU/Linux, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Servers, Virtualisation, Windows at 6:07 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“[Microsoft's] Mr. Emerson and I discussed a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would ‘backstop,’ or guarantee in some way, BayStar’s investment…. Microsoft assured me that it would in some way guarantee BayStar’s investment in SCO.”
–Larry Goldfarb, Baystar, key investor in SCO
Summary: Poor Microsoft complains about a “mainframe monopoly” which does not run Microsoft Windows and the same strategies it used in Europe are being extended to India
THIS morning we wrote about the suggestion (not ours) that Microsoft had something to do with Apple’s patent lawsuit against GNU/Linux [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Evidence for this is lacking, whereas the following case is clearer because Microsoft owns part of the firm that is issuing the legal challenge against IBM. For background about Microsoft’s ’second SCO’, those who have not read the following posts ought to consider reading them first. It’s rather clear that Microsoft uses at least one firm, T3, to attack GNU/Linux on the mainframe (the other potential one is Neon [1, 2]).
Based on the following two articles from the Economic Times (India), Microsoft seems to be doing in India what it has already done in Europe:
1. IBM accused of mainframe monopoly
Rarely do you see IBM under attack in India. But it is now. And IBM believes that it’s actually Microsoft that is behind the attack, under the facade of a forum called Open-Mainframe.
The issue first arose late last week when two Indian research bodies, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and Indicus Analytics, released a report suggesting that IBM had misused its dominance of the Indian market for mainframes (high end computers used when the scale of operation is massive), and that if this misuse continued, it could adversely impact India’s efforts towards inclusive growth.
2. IBM, Microsoft point fingers at each other
IBM, the world’s largest IT services company, has accused Microsoft, the world’s largest operating system manufacturer, of sponsoring an India report released last week that criticises IBM India’s trade practices in the $500-million local server market, terming them as restrictive. The report calls for unbundling of hardware and software by IBM.
Microsoft accuses others of “monopoly”. Does that sound familiar? Microsoft also used firms in Europe against Google just a few weeks ago, by its very own admission. The company is almost gloating about it. From the past week’s news:
1. EC antitrust probe is latest clash in Google-Microsoft war
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week acknowledged his company’s role in pushing government regulators to pursue such investigations.
2. Ten Years After, Microsoft Reverses Its Role With Google
Hang on: Microsoft complaining that Google is being unfair? Yes, you heard that right.
Microsoft is being a huge hypocrite. Just because it faces strong competition from Google (and Microsoft is not used to competition), it tries to evoke laws that are typically used when one breaks the law and abuses rivals (like Microsoft did so many times).
A few days ago we wrote about Microsoft's sheer hypocrisy at SXSW, courtesy of Danah Boyd. This is now covered in the following posts:
Microsoft is a nightmare when it comes to privacy [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], so how dare it pull this card? This is the behaviour of a company that sees itself as above the law, such that ends justify the means.
Going back to the IBM case, Microsoft would love to abolish GNU/Linux through hypervisors (its partners at Citrix already help in that regard). Other allies in India, companies such as Wipro [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], are signing new deals with Microsoft in order to keep Free software out of the country (Wipro has a history of going against standards too).
Bangalore, India-based IT services firm Wipro Technologies has embraced the cloud computing model and announced its plans to offer Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).
Under a “Dedicated Advisor” agreement with Microsoft, Wipro Technologies will be able to assist its global enterprise customers in migrating to BPOS via a palette of professional services including assessments, migration and solution implementation accelerators, according to the company.
Microsoft’s scandals in India [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10] are a broad subject that we won’t be repeating today. But in summary, Microsoft is now abusing the Indian system in order to declare mainframes running GNU/Linux “illegal” (monopoly abuse). █
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Posted in America, Antitrust, Bill Gates, Microsoft, Office Suites, Windows at 4:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft expands its indoctrination programme in California with endorsement from Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Elevate America” is a harmful programmes whose effects we have explained in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. It’s similar to EDGI, but it happens in the West. State by state, Microsoft goes finding gullible politicians who can help turn citizens into volunteers who help Microsoft, a convicted monopoly abuser that states are suing at the same time.
The latest victim that Microsoft has found is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who agreed to let Microsoft indoctrinate individuals with support from the state.
Microsoft is giving California 166,500 vouchers for certification exams and e-learning classes as part of its Elevate America initiative.
As we learn from EDGI (i.e. Microsoft’s own words), it’s about getting people addicted to and dependent on Microsoft. According to an article from 2007, Microsoft already owes California hundreds of millions of dollars that it hasn’t paid (probably still to be ignored and not reclaimed). The news sites, unsurprisingly, are repeating the PR nonsense rather than expose what Microsoft is really doing here. They are not interested in real investigation [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] maybe because they are lazy and maybe because they are fearful (Microsoft is a major advertiser of theirs). The funniest headline that we found is “Microsoft Helping California’s Unemployed”. It’s like calling a drug dealer “a helper” (to people who are depressed).
“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
–Bill Gates
Microsoft uses the same tactics for sentimental merit with war veterans right about now. The monopolist is turning them into helpers of the Microsoft monopoly while pushing out PR nonsense about “donation” (where it actually refers to software [1, 2, 3, 4]).
This initiative builds on the company’s Elevate America program launched last year, designed for all Americans, to provide people with technology skills training, industry-recognized certifications and work force readiness tools to help them prepare for 21st century jobs.
Some sources claim $8 million in donation, but 75% of this money is fake. It’s just some price on licences to use binaries until they expire. They become dependent on Microsoft this way (higher exit barriers).
The Elevate America’s Veterans Initiative will spread the cash around to veterans service organizations, workforce agencies and community colleges. The Initiative also will provide training and help with job placement, child care and housing. The initiative is intended to support active duty service members who are transitioning out of the military as well as members of the National Guard and Reserves who are returning to their civilian jobs.
They neglect to talk about the proportions. It’s mostly just dumping of software, which creates a lock-in that in turn makes profit for Microsoft. Microsoft is not a charity, this is just a business decision. Assuming that knowing menus in Windows and Word is a “21st century” skill (as Microsoft puts it in the above), then this new class which makes people familiar with Microsoft tools is perhaps worth something. It’s worth a lot to Microsoft.
Saint Paul Central Library presents free computer classes on Microsoft Word, a word-processing software program that allows users to create documents and compose letters.
Since when does education mean “training”? And by the way, this is why Gates is giving money to libraries. The education system is one of the best mechanisms (state funded) for ensuring that people turn into Microsoft customers before they reach puberty. Why can’t people like Schwarzenegger see this? █
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Posted in Microsoft, Security, Windows at 3:41 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Security guru Eugene Kaspersky has harsh words for Microsoft, which still fails to secure its platform and even patch software without breaking it
IT HAS been another tough week for Windows, which simply cannot be secured, not even with ’snake oil’ software that’s called “anti-virus” (unless the placebo effect counts).
A few months ago we wrote about Microsoft being allowed into Ford cars. There are already security concerns about that at Ford. They worry about Windows/WiFi in the car getting hijacked.
“Sadly, we live in a world where Microsoft pressures journalists to misreport incidents.”We wish to discuss for a moment an interesting phenomenon. When a car breaks down (let us say a Toyota), the news will say a Toyota car is having issues, it won’t say that cars in general have issues. That’s because the market is full of choices. Yes, choices, diversity, not “fragmentation” as Microsoft would probably put it. If “Windows” is embedded in PCs, then Windows can become interchangeable and synonymous with “computing”. Then, people would not realise what’s really wrong and that they also have better choices. Sadly, we live in a world where Microsoft pressures journalists to misreport incidents. Taken from a long discussion we’ve had by E-mails for a few days now, consider the fact that we have documented examples where journalists received mail from Microsoft’s PR agencies (e.g. W-E) to tell them off and ask them to change articles about Windows security. The Inquirer is good in that regard because without much reluctance it spilled the beans when that happened. We have given articles from them where content was being tempered by Microsoft PR agencies, whose job was to spin the vulnerabilities in Vista.
Reporters who are contacted because they describe Windows security problems as just “computer problems” often cite the “popularity” myth of Windows as the cause. It’s PR. Given the widespread use of GNU/Linux in servers and devices everywhere, people should struggle to reason about lack of cracking as related to “popularity”. Windows is not popular by the way, it’s just ubiquitous*. Moreover, Microsoft commissions and manufactures its own ’studies’ where it hides flaws and reports bogus numbers. There are many examples to that effect.
Here is what Eugene Kaspersky said about Windows earlier this month:
Security chief Eugene Kaspersky has launched a scathing attack on Microsoft’s security record.
[...]
There are already some new examples of Microsoft’s poor patching. Last week Microsoft delivered broken/rogue security patches and later admitted the problem which had the following effect:
Microsoft confirmed today that a security update for its Excel spreadsheet had turned English text in an important Windows tool into Chinese.
The admission was the second in the past two days from Microsoft’s Office team of a gaffe involving a recent security update.
How does Microsoft break languages while fixing a security problem? One might remark that this implies poor software design.
Speaking of Office, this area is in a state of transition in an economy where people use Free software or access software in the form of a service. Don Reisinger, typically a troll/baiter who writes bizarre reversals of truths at CNET, explains some of the issues and Microsoft resorts to more AstroTurfing by offering money to those who create “viral Office 2010 videos” for YouTube.
Want a chance to win $10,000 for your small Seattle business or start-up? The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and Microsoft have partnered up in a contest for making videos about Office 2010.
In case it sounds familiar, it should. Microsoft also hires people to post comments favourable to Windows in social networking sites.
Anyway, going back to the subject of insecurity, someone writes a guest post at ZDNet about “the cadence of Microsoft security patches” and ECT notes that Windows is already vulnerable again, as usual.
The expected batch of patches wasn’t the only thing Windows users got with Microsoft’s latest Patch Tuesday update. The set of fixes was accompanied by a warning about an unpatched zero-day exploit for Internet Explorer.
All that Microsoft can offer is a workaround:
Microsoft has revised their advisory for the newest IE 0Day vulnerability to note that working exploit code is now available and that they are aware of “targeted attacks attempting to use this vulnerability.” They have also created “Microsoft Fix it” links to disable and re-enable the vulnerable software components.
The Inquirer wrote:
The flaw in Internet Exploder versions 6 and 7 allows an attacker to take control of a victim’s computer.
Internet Explorer was the cause of a lot of damage earlier this year [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. In 4 countries, authorities recommended that citizens abandon Internet Explorer. █
____
* It’s more about reminding reporters that people choose to buy a computer, they don’t choose to buy Windows. Calling Windows “popular” is like calling cockroaches “popular” because there are many of them out there. It ought to be one of those things that people should train themselves to avoid saying because Windows is not “popular”.
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03.15.10
Posted in Apple, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 7:07 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Lacking any progress for Windows or Microsoft in general, the company seems to be disclosing some more fake “leaks” of something that does not exist
THE PAST week has been a particularly weak one for Microsoft, at least based on the news. In the next few days we’ll produce proof of this.
First of all, versions of Windows are being retired and this is the only article that we found about “Vista” in the past week. That’s unusual. Secondly, we also found just four clusters of headlines about “Windows 7″ (Vista 7), which is very little. News for “Microsoft” has generally been low in volume over the past week, for no apparent reason. There is almost nothing of substance that we haven’t covered yet and we mentioned Courier last week for being Microsoft's catch-up and also vapourware. Someone wrote this article about it.
Microsoft is a well known brand, but why do they always seem to be adding products right after another, *cough* Apple *cough*, company has already released something new? As reported in PC World, the Microsoft Courier doesn’t really seem to be anything that is actually in the making, BUT Engadget reports on some key points that sure as heck seem like a real product.
Microsoft claims that details were “leaked”, but this lying company is the boy who cried “Wolf!” when it comes to leaks [1, 2]. Just like Apple, Microsoft routinely fakes “leaks” in order to create hype and the nature of the “leaked” images suggests that they are too professionals to be of that nature. It’s more like OLPC’s mockups. █
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