Tech ARP were the first to break the news on the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and the final RTM schedule of Windows XP Service Pack 3. Now, we will be the first to release the full details on Microsoft’s Windows XP Service Pack 3, which as we know will be available for manual update on April 29, 2008. That’s just a few days away!

Before we start, let’s take a look at what we have posted in the past about Service Pack 3 for Windows XP :

1. Windows XP Service Pack 3 will contain hotfixes and updates released since Windows XP SP2. It will also include an expanded set of product keys for Windows XP Professional that were originally introduced in Windows XP SP2c.

2. Microsoft clarified that there will not be any integrated SP3 release for Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows XP Tablet Edition. That means you won’t be able to buy or obtain a complete Windows XP Media Center Edition / Tablet Edition SP3 CD. In addition, users of Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows XP Tablet Edition will only be able to update to Service Pack 3 through Windows Update.

3. All languages will now be released in two waves. Earlier, Microsoft said that languages support for Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be released in three waves. What was previously identified as wave 2 and 3 have now been combined into a single wave 2.

4. Microsoft had to delay RTM for Windows XP Service Pack 3 to provide sufficient time to incorporate feedback from the beta testers.

5. Windows XP SP3 will be an optional supplement for OEMs.

6. Existing end item part numbers will continue to be used for Windows XP SP3. New end item part numbers are not being created for Windows XP SP3.

Due to the changes in language releases, here is the final release schedule.

Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish - April 21, 2008
Manual Update (Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Download Center) April 29, 2008
Arabic, Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Swedish, and Turkish - May 5, 2008
Automatic Update (Windows Update) June 10, 2008

Now, let’s take an inside look at Microsoft’s upcoming Service Pack 3 for Windows XP…

“A just-published IBM patent application for a Software Inspection Management Tool claims to improve software quality by taking a chess-clock-like approach to code walkthroughs. An inspection rate monitor with ‘a pause button, a resume button, a complete button, a total lines inspected indication, and a total lines remaining to be inspected indication’ keeps tabs on participants’ progress and changes color when management’s expectations — measured in lines per hour — are not being met.”

A Microsoft deadline for Internet service company Yahoo to accept its 44.6-billion-dollar (28.5-billion-euro) acquisition offer expired at midnight Saturday, setting the stage for a hostile takeover bid by the software giant.

Neither of the two sides made any comment as the Sunday 0700 GMT deadline came and went.

The deadlock was likely to pave the way for an ugly proxy battle — a fight by Microsoft for a vote by Yahoo shareholders to place pro-Microsoft officials on its board of directors.

In an open letter to the Yahoo board of directors on April 5, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer gave the Internet pioneer three weeks to accept the 31 dollars-a-share takeover offer or face a proxy fight.

Ballmer also warned that any further delays could result in a less attractive offer for Yahoo.

Facing a June 30 deadline to stop selling PCs with Windows XP, the world’s largest computer makers are getting creative.

Taking advantage of the “downgrade rights” offered as part of the Windows Vista license agreement, Hewlett-Packard and Dell both plan to offer machines loaded with XP well beyond June.

Technically, the computers will be Vista Business or Vista Ultimate machines that have been factory downgraded to XP at the customer’s request. In practice, they are more like XP machines that come with an already paid-for upgrade to Vista when and if the customer chooses to do so.

HP said it plans to continue selling the “pre-downgraded” desktops, notebooks, and workstations to its business customers until July 30, 2009. Dell is already pitching the same option on its Web site and promising the models will stick around long after it stops taking standard XP orders on June 18.

A Saudi blogger detained without charge for more than four months after expressing pro-reform opinions has been released, a colleague said on Saturday.

Fouad Farhan was detained in early December after running an online campaign over 10 men arrested since February 2007 on suspicion of financing militant groups, but whose supporters say they are being punished for pro-democracy activity.

“I spoke to him and he’s in good spirits. He said he was treated really well,” said Ahmed al-Omran, who published the news on his website (https://www.saudijeans.org).

“It was surprising. After blocking his website, I thought his detention would go on longer. It’s good news.”

Saudi authorities blocked Farhan’s website (https://www.alfarhan.org) earlier this month.

Dr. Dobbs has an interesting interview with Paul Jansen, the managing director of TIOBE Software, about the Programming Community Index, which measures the popularity of programming languages by monitoring their web presence.

Since the TIOBE index has been published now for more than 6 years, it gives an interesting picture about trends in the usage of programming languages. Jansen says not much has affected the top ten programming languages in the last five years, with only Python entering the top 10 (replacing COBOL), but C and C are definitely losing ground.

‘Languages without automated garbage collection are getting out of fashion,’ says Jansen. ‘The chance of running into all kinds of memory problems is gradually outweighing the performance penalty you have to pay for garbage collection.’

Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.

Geneticist Spencer Wells, here meeting an African village elder, says the study tells “truly an epic drama.”

The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.

The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated that the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.

“This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species’ history,” said Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence.

“Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA.”

CNET Networks Inc, fighting dissident shareholders who want to expand the board, posted a narrower first-quarter loss on Thursday and announced a partnership with Yahoo Inc to provide content to Yahoo sites and cross-sell advertising.

The venture, set to launch in the third quarter, would bring CNET about $100 million in revenue over the next three year, CNET Chief Executive Neil Ashe said on a conference call.

CNET shares rose 3.2 percent to $7.75 in extended trade, after closing Thursday’s session down 1.8 percent at $7.51.

The three-year strategic partnership with Yahoo comes as San Francisco-based CNET, best known for its technology news and reviews, faces pressure from an investor group led by hedge fund Jana Partners to transform itself into a “Web 2.0 company.”

Yahoo Inc. plans to make its Web site a social hub by hosting applications from other online services, part of the Internet pioneer’s effort to spawn more advertising opportunities.

“We are going to rewire the entire experience at Yahoo to make it social in every dimension,” Ari Balogh, Yahoo’s chief technology officer, said Thursday at a “Web 2.0″ conference that drew a crowd of more than 1,000.

The more open platform copies a concept that already has been embraced by Internet search leader Google Inc. and a variety of online social hangouts, including Facebook Inc. and News Corp.’s MySpace.com.

Yahoo’s new look will give its roughly 500 million users greater flexibility to customize Web pages. They will be able to pick from a variety of mini-applications, known as “widgets,” and plant them just about anywhere on the site, including their personal version of the front page.

Google Inc said on Wednesday it has introduced brand-image ads for mobile phones, in a bid to extend beyond the computer-based Web market into the emerging market for advertising on phones.

In a statement on the Silicon Valley company’s Web site, the company said it had designed mobile images to look like standard graphical display ads for desktop computer Web pages, but made them smaller to fit on mobile phone screens.

The company said all mobile image ads are targeted according to the keywords users type into phones to search for information. The ads are priced on a cost-per-click basis, and must link to Web pages optimized to work on mobile phones.

Only one image ad is displayed on each mobile page, a move to that appears designed to limit clutter on small screens.

Microsoft Corp. is experimenting with selling its Office suite of programs to consumers on a subscription basis.

Instead of installing each program separately, a limited number of “beta” testers can download a bundle of Microsoft Word, Excel and other Office programs, the Windows Live OneCare antivirus program, Windows Live Mail and other free Windows Live programs.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker said the software subscription bundle will be more widely available later this year, but did not say how much it will cost.

But instead of paying up front - about $150 for Office Home and Student 2007 - subscribers will pay in regular installments for as long as they wish to use the programs. Even if PC users stop paying, their documents would still work with other programs or on other computers.

A simple flaw in the coding of Sen. Barack Obama’s Web site led to a hacking switcheroo of presidential proportions just days before the important Pennsylvania primary.

Some supporters who tried to visit the community blogs section of Obama’s site started noticing late last week they were being redirected to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s official campaign site.

Security researchers said a hacker exploited a so-called “cross-site scripting” vulnerability in Obama’s Web site to engineer the ruse.

Netcraft Ltd. said the hacker injected code into certain pages in the section - code that was then executed when subsequent visitors tried to view the community blogs section. The vulnerability has since been fixed.