SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available. You can use these packages to upgrade any SQL Server 2008 edition.

The release notes can be viewed here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147331

Microsoft made a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the SQL Server 2008 SP1 available to the testers yesterday. There is not much to say about it, expect that it has been made available for general testing purposes only, so not deploy the CTP software in a production environment.

The final release of the Service Pack 1 is expected to be in early April 2009.

The final version of the Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2008 has been released on the 7th April 2009. Please read this post for more information and download links.

Microsoft Response Point 1.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) introduces new-and-improved features that expand your voice service choices, empower the administrator to better manage the system, and enhance the phone system experience for everyday users and callers.

In Service Pack 2, Response Point adds “digital service” to the list of flexible voice service options to help balance the voice and data communication demands of your growing small business. Digital service is transmitted through an enterprise-grade hard-wire connection. “T1″ (in the U.S.), “E1″ (in Europe),”PRI,” or “ISDN” service providers will run a special cable into your office building, similar to the cabling installed by a telco. Digital service lines normally have up to 24 rotating channels that can deliver voice and data packets to phone system components. Using Response Point Administrator, you can configure the digital gateway device required for this voice service. Some digital service providers may offer fractional digital service, which means you purchase only a portion of the circuit that may have only 8 available channels instead of 24.

Response Point Administrator gives you more control over how you manage the system. In this service pack, you can schedule the Automated Receptionist to handle calls after-hours, on holidays, and during business closures; enable access to a virtual private network (VPN), giving employees in remote locations secured access to the resources on the local area network (LAN); configure hybrid gateway devices that have both FXO and FXS ports, or that can be used for either analog or digital service; reduce speech misrecognition, often caused by background noise and variable service requirements, when you change the channel that detects the DTMF touch tones on your phones.

Response Point Assistant improves the overall experience for everyday users and callers. In this service pack, you can control how you receive 2-way intercom calls and 1-way pages, and play a call-forwarding announcement (or not) for people when they contact you.

Additional SP2 features include automatic parked-call return, which ensures that no callers are left waiting in park longer than 3 minutes; support for VoIP gateway devices that can help improve service quality; and customizable URLs in call notification windows.

The Service Pack 2 for Response Point 1.0 has been updated on the 25th February.

The first technology preview of Microsoft Response Point SP2 has been released to early adopters lately. Microsoft Response Point (RP) is an advanced software-based telephone system developed by Microsoft. Response Point, a PBX system targeting small businesses with less than 50 employees, was launched in March 2007, with systems available on the market in the fourth quarter of that year. Response Point is VoIP-based, and uses SIP as its’ signaling and call setup protocol. Response Point supports voicemail and multi-party calling in addition to two party VoIP calls. It features innovative voice recognition technology to manage calls and voice mail. Voicemail messages can, optionally, be sent to e-mail where they can be retrieved and archived. Response Point voice dialing can works with the Response Point phone directory which is currently limited to 1100 contacts per user. Contacts may be imported from the Windows Address Book or Microsoft Outlook. Response Point automatically detects gateways and phones connected to the network.

The Response Point homepage can be found on http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint/default.aspx.

Some of the new features are:

• After hours
• B2BUA (from 8×8)
• Conference Room phone (from ClearOne)
• FXS Gateway (from Quintum)
• In-band DTMF improvements
• Intercom
• Incoming Call Toast Customization
• T1 Gateway (from Quintum and Sangoma)
• VPN/WAN support

The RP Service Pack 2 release is expected to be in the Feb 2009 timeframe or before.

Microsoft Response Point is phone system software designed for small businesses with 1 to 50 employees. The intuitive management programs, voice-activated user interface, and rich feature set make Response Point easy to configure, manage, and use. D-Link, Syspine, and Aastra offer complete systems that are bundled in affordable starter packages.

Microsoft Response Point 1.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) introduces new-and-improved features that expand your voice service options, empower the administrator to better manage the system, and enhance the phone system experience for everyday users and callers.

In Service Pack 1, Response Point is equipped with a VoIP gateway that allows you to set up cost-saving VoIP service, offered through Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs). With VoIP service, you can configure direct-dial numbers so that your business can have multiple phone numbers, without the hassle and cost of setting up new analog phone lines. Configure VoIP service, analog service, or a combination of both voice services – in SP1, the choice is now yours.

Response Point Administrator gives you more control over how you manage the system. In this service pack, you can monitor and analyze call activity; upgrade phones and phone line adapters when the hardware manufacturer releases the latest firmware; customize answers to questions that callers frequently ask the Automated Receptionist; restrict access on phones in common areas; and play music for callers waiting in park.

Response Point Assistant improves the overall experience for everyday users and callers. In this service pack, you can click-to-call contacts with just two mouse-clicks; specify the most cost-effective voice service for your contacts; and view in-call and parked-call status, so that you can see whether other users are on or off the phone, and whether any parked calls are waiting to be retrieved.

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 delivers:

• Improved WPF designers
• SQL Server 2008 support
• ADO.NET Entity Designer
• Visual Basic and Visual C++ components and tools (including an MFC-based Office 2007 style ‘Ribbon’)
• Visual Studio Team System Team Foundation Server (TFS) addresses customer feedback on version control usability and performance, email integration with work item tracking and full support for hosting on SQL Server 2008
• Richer JavaScript support, enhanced AJAX and data tools, and Web site deployment improvements

The complete release notes can be seen here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc533447.aspx

Here are the planned features for the Service Pack 1:

• Hierarchical Keywords: Remove child node when removing parent, improve relationship between hierarchical keywords and flat list keywords, Improve parent/child drag behaviors.
• Geo-tagging/Virtual Earth: Add drag and drop capabilities within the Virtual Earth window, display keywords when dragging image onto VE window, Make the GPS annotation fields user editable, Sniff GPS locations from URL, handle more lat and long coordinate formats, add lat and long tags to HTML galleries.
• Raw Image support: The Windows version now has a preference that allows the user to choose if Windows Imaging Component (WIC) is used for raw image. You may find changing this option improves the color or speeds up the display.
• Info Panel: Template event date not being saved correctly, author details not being displayed correctly, NEF import not displaying annotated date.
• Catalog Editing: Improve user messages when unable to complete request, support long paths and long file names when resetting paths, do not revert to 8.3 filename when media is offline, do not create unexpected duplicates, allow user to configure default open location, show full path in catalog finder.
• Import: Add support for large files in HTML galleries (16000×8000 image), improve rendering performance of NEF files, display EXIF data for ARW files, increase media import limit from the Windows Explorer right-click menu, read color profiles on import, fix issues related to import from camera disk.
• Light Table: Fix multi-item drawing issue, change behavior of delete button, fix position of magnifier pointer, resolve keyboard shortcut issues, improve user experience when switching between full screen and windowed mode.
• In application help: More than 50 updates to help contents.

I hope this release is useful for you, but remember this is a pre-release version, it can damage your catalog files or cause any other issues. Do not use it in a production environment. As soon as there is a new version out, I will make it available here.