Microsoft reveals Vista media features

Microsoft said it's building in audio and video features for its Media Centre software to coincide with the launch of its Vista operating system.

Meanwhile, in the court of First Instance in €urope, Microsoft has started belting out high volume Steve Ballmer-like 64-bit level audio intended to convince the court that not shipping Media Player with current PCs is a really really really bad idea. It wants the court to modify an earlier judgment that it had behaved like a rotten monopolist in Europe and should therefore pay a rack of €uro and stop misbehaving.

Microsoft claimed that inventions it's pumping into Vista will make it a good choice for content creation, delivery and playback.

How so? It said it will release a multimedia API giving application isolation with re-usable components which support low latency audio processing as well as Direct X video acceleration for hardware.

Content creators have told Microsoft they want an OS that can perform without going blue, and the Vole claims that Vista will raise priorities for audio and video processes that is more resilient to glitches.

The OS will include 32-bit floating point by default, allowing higher quality digital signal processing. It will allow specific apps to transmit content through particular devices, so you don't hear that irritating pinging noise from your email while you're listening to a Mozart violin concerto, or you want to listen to Steve Ballmer whispering sweet nothings into your ear while watching the Rolling Stones playing I Can't get no Satisfaction

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US says world safer, despite 11,000 attacks in '05

The U.S. war on terrorism has made the world safer, the State Department's counterterrorism chief said on Friday, despite more than 11,000 terrorist attacks worldwide last year that killed 14,600 people. The U.S. State Department said the numbers, listed in its annual Country Reports on Terrorism released on Friday, were based on a broader definition of terrorism and could not be compared to the 3,129 international attacks listed the previous year. But the new 2005 figures, which showed attacks in Iraq jumped and accounted for about a third of the world's total, may fuel criticism of the Bush administration's assertion that it is winning the fight against terrorism. Asked if the world was safer than the previous year, U.S. State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator Henry Crumpton told a news conference, "I think so. But I think that (if) you look at the ups and downs of this battle, it's going to take us a long time to win this. You can't measure this month ...

Web users to 'patrol' US border

A US state is to enlist web users in its fight against illegal immigration by offering live surveillance footage of the Mexican border on the internet. The plan will allow web users worldwide to watch Texas' border with Mexico and phone the authorities if they spot any apparently illegal crossings. Texas Governor Rick Perry said the cameras would focus on "hot-spots and common routes" used to enter the US. US lawmakers have been debating a divisive new illegal immigration bill. The Senate has approved a law that grants millions of illegal immigrants US citizenship and calls for the creation of a guest-worker programme, while beefing up border security. But in order to come into effect, the plan must be reconciled with tougher anti-immigration measures backed by the House of Representatives, that insist all illegal immigration should be criminalised. The issue has polarised politics and US society. Right-wing groups have protested against illegal immigrants, while ...

Al-Qaeda number two in new video

Al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri has appeared in a video saying that Iraqi insurgents have "broken the back" of the US military. He praised "martyrdom operations" carried out by al-Qaeda in Iraq in the video, posted on an Islamist website. And he called on the people and army of Pakistan to fight against President Musharraf's administration. This is the third message from prominent al-Qaeda leaders to emerge within a week. A tape from Osama Bin Laden was broadcast on 23 April, followed two days later by a message from Iraqi insurgent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Pakistan focus Zawahiri, who wore a black turban and a white robe in the video, described the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq as traitors, and urged Muslims to "confront them". He praised Iraqi militants, saying that the US, Britain and allies had "achieved nothing but losses, disasters and misfortunes" in Iraq. "Al-Qaeda in Iraq alone has carried out 800 ma...

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