Glimpse of MS roadmap

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans on Friday gave a taste of the company`s product roadmap, including Yukon and Longhorn, reports eWeek.

Yukon, the next version of the SQL Server database, is scheduled for a late 2004 release, the site reports. Longhorn, the next Windows update, will be released in both the client and Longhorn Office editions in 2005, with Windows Longhorn Server due in 2006. (For details of Longhorn`s slipping release date, click here.) Another SQL Server release, code-named Arcadia, is due in 2006 and beyond.

The company will offer a free add-on next year for users of its Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition, known as BizTalk Server 2004 Partner Edition.

Meanwhile, reports CRN.com, the company received applause with the announcement that it would bundle reporting services into SQL Server 2000 before year-end.

Safety has always been a key selling point of cellphones, and the industry is counting on a public taste for the immediacy of push-to-talk technology, pioneered a decade ago by Nextel for business customers, to grow.

USA Today reports that broad acceptance is far from certain. But among Nextel, the US`s fifth largest wireless carrier with 13 million subscribers, and its larger competitors, "the war has begun", says Jane Zweig of the Shosteck Group, a telecom research firm.

Even hi-tech`s high fliers are feeling the pinch of a tight economy, reports USA Today. The 500 fastest-growing tech companies aren`t growing as fast as they have in previous years, reflecting tempered revenue and more measured long-term business plans, according to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list to be announced tomorrow.

Average revenue growth of the 500 companies from 1998 to 2002 was 5.4%, compared with 6.7% a year ago.