In July of last year, Microsoft threw its weight behind supporting the OpenID protocol. In February of this year, Microsoft joined the OpenID foundation’s board. Now, Microsoft has committed to OpenID further by announcing that Windows Live will become a OpenID provider and that you will soon be able to use your Windows Live ID account to sign in to any OpenID enabled website.

OpenID is a distributed authentication method for allowing users to securely use a single digital ID to sign into multiple websites on the Internet. AOL and Yahoo already allow users to authenticate against their AOL or Yahoo credentials on sites using OpenID. Google so far has not adopted OpenID through any supported means.

Currently Microsoft’s OpenID implementation is on their Windows Live ID Integration environment, intended for sites and software providers who provide OpenID authentication to test against the service. Your normal Windows Live ID cannot currently be used for OpenID. Microsoft does not seem to have any plans to allow the use of your OpenID to login to sites that require a Windows Live ID. Meaning you’ll still need to maintain accounts at Yahoo, AOL and Windows Live to login to services on their individual sites. However, in becoming a provider, Microsoft has taken a step in the right direction towards opening up their services.
Microsoft has given no specifics on when they plan to make OpenID authentication available on their public servers.

View: Sign-Up for Testing

Microsoft is deploying tiny sensors throughout its datacenters to capture data that will allow it to better regulate energy consumption and reduce their carbon footprint.

Sensors can also be deployed in the wild to help scientists monitor and track environmental changes. The SenseWeb technology was shown at the PDC 2008 conference.

SensorMap is an application that mashes up sensor data from SenseWeb on a map interface, and provides interactive tools to selectively query sensors and visualize data, along with authenticated access to manage sensors.

This is a pretty interesting project that has lots of applications. The sensor technology needs to be strong enough though to become manageable on the power supply and networking side.

More details about SenseWeb can be found here.

The new HP Mini 1000 already leaked a bit on Monday on the HP site. Now HP officially announced their new netbook with all the details.
HP is now using Intel Atom CPUs for the HP Mini 1000. The currently available HP 2133 Mini netbook uses a VIA CPU.

Features of the HP Mini 1000 include 8.9 or 10.2 inch screen options, Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU, Wi-fi, near-full-size keyboard, 8GB SSD, webcam, and Windows XP.
Besides the standard HP Mini 1000, HP will also offer an HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition and HP Mini 1000 with MIE running Linux.
The HP Mini 1000 is available today in the United States with a starting price of $399. The HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition is expected to be available in the United States in mid-December for $699. The HP Mini 1000 with MIE is expected to be available in the United States in January with a starting price of $379.

The new HP Mini 1000 are going to sell on Amazon.com now.

Boy, oh boy. The bunch who brought you the BlackBerry sure has been a band of busy beavers.

With do-everything wonderphones like the iPhone and the G1 “Google phone” breathing down its neck, the BlackBerry’s status as the best-selling smartphone isn’t guaranteed forever. So this fall, Research in Motion is introducing three radically different BlackBerry models, running all of them up the flagpole at once to see who salutes.

First, there’s the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 ($150 with a two-year T-Mobile contract), the first folding clamshell BlackBerry. Second, there’s the BlackBerry Bold 9000 ($300 with a two-year AT&T contract), a luxury-tinged design statement that screams, “Apple isn’t the only one who can do gorgeous!” Finally, there’s the BlackBerry Storm (coming soon from Verizon), the first BlackBerry with a touch screen.

That last phone isn’t ready for review yet; evidently, that Storm is still brewing. But the Flip and the Bold are here — and they’re very, very nice indeed.

Both phones feature new software, loaded with useful programs (like a slick Clock/Stopwatch app) and white line-drawing icons against a jet-black background. As on the BlackBerry Pearl and the Curve, you navigate by turning a tiny, clickable trackball.

Read more @ NY Times

AT&T has announced that they are now offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone subscribers across the U.S.

AT&T knows Wi-Fi is hot, and FREE Wi-Fi is even hotter. Which is why FREE AT&T Wi-Fi access is now available for Apple iPhone at thousands of hotspots nationwide, including Starbucks*. Users can relax and access music, email and web browsing services with their favorite blend in hand from the comfort of their nearest location. For information visit www.att.com/attwifi.

AT&T provided a number of early hints that the service would be coming. AT&T has also sent out an SMS message to iPhone users announcing the plan.
Customers can locate Wi-Fi spots through AT&T’s online tool or can locate a Starbucks using this tool. In order to access AT&T Wi-Fi from your iPhone, you must follow these steps:
- Activate Wi-Fi from the settings icon on your iPhone
- Select "attwifi" from the list of available networks
- Enter your 10-digit mobile number and check the box to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy. Tap ‘continue’
- You will receive a text message from AT&T with a secure link to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot. You will not be charged for the text message.
- The SMS link will only be valid for 24 hours at the location it was requested. Another request must be submitted when using another hotspot location.
- Open the text message and tap on the link for 24-hour access to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot

Source: MacRumors

A couple of hours ago, the Google Security Team posted an article claiming that Google’s made the switch to OpenID, joining Yahoo! and Microsoft in the ranks OpenID providers.

But it looks like someone may have been a bit to hasty to pull that switch (perhaps itching to get some of the limelight Microsoft has been receiving for adding OpenID to all Live ID accounts just the day before yesterday)… because whatever it is that Google has released support for, it sure as hell isn’t OpenID, as they even so kindly point out in their OpenID developer documentation (that media outlets certainly won’t be reading):

1. The web application asks the end user to log in by offering a set of log-in options, including Google.
2. The user selects the "Sign in with Google" option.
3. The web application sends a "discovery" request to Google to get information on the Google authentication endpoint. This is a departure from the process outlined in OpenID 1.0. [Emphasis added]
4. Google returns an XRDS document, which contains endpoint address.
5. The web application sends a login authentication request to the Google endpoint address.
6. This action redirects the user to a Google Federated Login page.

As Google points out, this isn’t OpenID. This is something that Google cooked up that resemblesOpenID masquerading as OpenID since that’s what people want to see – and that’s what Microsoft announced just the day before.

It’s not just a “departure” from OpenID, it’s a whole new standard.

With OpenID, the user memorizes a web URI, and provides it to the sites he or she would like to sign in to. The site then POSTs an OpenID request to that URI where the OpenID backend server proceeds to perform the requested authentication.

In Google’s version of the OpenID “standard,” users would enter their @gmail.com email addresses in the OpenID login box on OpenID-enabled sites, who would then detect that a Google email was entered. The server then requests permission from Google to use the OpenID standard in the first place by POSTing an XML document to Google’s “OpenID” servers. If Google decides it’ll accept the request from the server, it’ll return an XML document back to the site in question that contains a link to the actual OpenID URI for the email account in question.

This is shown quite clearly in the following image (courtesy of Google, ironically):

Read more @ neosmart.net

Microsoft just demonstrated the latest UI for Windows Live Messenger in a Windows 7 session here at PDC.

Check out the video here:

Also, the new messenger icon:

Asustek Computer plans to launch its first Android-based Google phone in the first half of 2009, according to company sources. Asustek may initially sell the Android-powered handsets under its own brand in the Taiwan market before also launching customized models for overseas clients, said market sources close to the company.

In other news, the company sources also noted that Asustek plans to gradually phase out EMP-based handsets and instead will switch to handset platforms from Qualcomm and Marvell.

While launching its 3.5G P552w PDA phone in the Taiwan market on October 28, Asustek plans to launch one 3G handset model built using Qualcomm’s dual-core solutions in the first quarter of next year, the sources noted.

Asustek’s shipments of smartphones in the Taiwan market totaled 30,000 units in the first nine months of this year, and the company expects the annual shipment volumes to reach 40,000 units by year-end.

Read more @ DigiTimes

Thanks to a special blessing from the folks in Redmond, we’ve had an opportunity to thoroughly give the rejiggered Xbox 360 Dash (AKA, the New Xbox Experience) a serious run through, and we’ve got the lowdown on the future of your gaming life. As you probably already know from the numerous posts we’ve done and generally available info (Microsoft has been pretty forthcoming with this stuff), the Xbox team has completely revamped the Dash experience, giving the system not only a visual overhaul, but trashing the underlying tech and rebuilding things from the ground up. The result is a beautiful, intuitive interface which loses almost nothing from previous versions while adding a considerable new feature set to the mix. Read on for our first impressions.
User interface

The first thing you’ll notice is that this new interface looks nothing like what you’ve known. Gone are the EXTREEEEEEEEME GAMERRRRR "blades" from the previous iteration of software — they’re now replaced with sparse "channels" containing "slots" of live content. The look is sophisticated and spacious, with soft gradients, smooth fades, and classy design touches throughout. From a visual standpoint, the NXE is roughly ten million times more pleasant and accessible than the previous version. For families weighing this and the Wii come holiday season, a lot of this will be tremendously appealing… especially those avatars (more on that in a moment). There are a variety of swappable themes which skin the entire system — nothing drastic, but a handful of handsome backdrops and color palettes that should please most users. You’ll surely see a slew of this content hitting when the NXE is in wide availability.

Read more @ engadget.com

Having followed activity in the BlackBerry ecosystem over the past few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that BlackBerry Storm should be called BlackBerry Stealth. Why? With little media coverage, its forthcoming launch is the sleeper play in the smartphone market; it is poised to make major market penetration on its launch later this fall. Let’s look at the reasons:

The carriers: BlackBerry Storm was designed for two major carriers, with proven 3G network performance, who aren’t able to carry the iPhone: Verizon and Vodafone (also coming to Canada on Telus and Bell). This opens up access to several large existing customer bases (70 million at Verizon) with strong presence in both consumer and enterprise markets. For roaming outside North America, the Storm for Verizon/Bell/Telus includes the appropriate European/Asian-supported GSM bands.

A smarter touch screen: It employs new “haptic” touch keyboard technology with three keyboard options: QWERTY in landscape mode, SureType and Traditional 12-key in Portrait mode. Kevin Michaluk’s “First Impressions” review talks about his user experience with the keyboard and its unique features. One example: Hover on a letter and you’ll get other language options for the letter such as “é”. This YouTube video demonstrates the dynamic nature of the Storm’s keyboard.

Enterprise ready: IT managers already supporting BlackBerry within their IT infrastructure will readily accept the Storm as simply one more BlackBerry device. There is a legion of stories building about IT managers’ refusal of employee requests for iPhone support. With its multimedia features, including syncing to iTunes, Storm presents an opportunity to have a touchscreen smartphone that easily meets both business and personal needs.

Read more @ Gigaom