Thanks IRazor for this one.. The lucky few selected to beta test Windows XP's new Freestyle technology have a new toy to play with. Microsoft shipped to Freestyle testers a beta version of the multimedia interface designed to be used with a remote control from across the room.

"The Freestyle beta release kit will include a PC and all the necessary equipment required to setup and run Freestyle, along with support and bug reporting information," Microsoft beta coordinators wrote in an e-mail to testers. "As a reminder, you will need to provide a monitor that can support 1024 x 768 resolution."

Freestyle turns a Windows XP PC into a virtual media center, allowing a user to access music, video and photos at a distance from anywhere in the room. Freestyle sports an extra-large user interface with simple layouts and flexible menus.

While Freestyle will ship with Windows XP Service Pack 1 in late summer, the technology will only be accessible to OEMs building Freestyle-enabled PCs. Hewlett-Packard, NEC and Samsung have already signed on to build Freestyle hardware.

News source: Betanews

NonStop servers range in price from $1 million to several million dollars, depending on the configuration. Traditionally, NonStop server customers are bought by financial and telecommunications companies, HP said. HP acquired the NonStop server business through its Compaq acquisition. Compaq in turn had acquired the NonStop line when it bought Tandem Computers Inc. Tandem in turn was founded by people who had left HP.

"The NonStop business has come full circle," said Nist, adding that HP is committed to the NonStop server business. While competitors were coping with sales declines, the NonStop server business grew by 4 percent in terms of revenue over the last four quarters with over 20 percent of revenue coming from new customers, Nist said.

The NonStop software suite, which includes a Java Virtual Machine, a J2EE enterprise application server and a NonStop SQL database, was also enhanced. The database, for example, now offers publish and subscribe functionality, which allows users to monitor their data and automatically update the database, HP said.

Also on the software side, software integration vendors Tibco Software Inc. and SeeBeyond Technology Corp. are now partners in HP's Zero Latency Enterprise initiative for the NonStop servers and each will port products to work on the NonStop platform, HP said.


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