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microsoft windows

apple store

Beijing's Apple Store Gets Crashed By Windows XP

We literally have no further information other than what you see in the image above, but either way, it's a very interesting photo even if it might be a fake. It makes sense that whatever huge display is running off a Windows XP machine—many giant displays do. What's also interesting in the photo are the cops (are they cops?) manning the line with fire extinguishers in case one of the Beijingnese Apple customers gets outta line. [Thanks Chris!] More »

you never forget your first

Windows 3.11 to Sing its Last (MIDI) Song On November 8th, 2008

In a short and slightly poignant posting on his MSDN blog, a Microsoft systems engineer has announced that Windows 3.11 will be officially discontinued four months after XP's unceremonious removal from the consumer market. The secret to 3.11's 15-year lifespan was the embedded space, where it has dutifully provided a platform for countless low-horsepower cash registers and train schedule displays. More »

Bill Gates Retirement Party

Ten Reasons Why Vista Isn't That Bad

Of all the ware Microsoft churns out from its sweatshop of "lightning bolt, lightning bolt" nerds, Windows is the one most inexorably tied to the public image of the company. As Bill Gates leaves the building, we look back on the last baby birthed—if not fully gestated—under his watch, the swan song operating system that he himself has issues with. Although we agree that Vista could have used a bit more time shoved back into the silicon womb for some feature buffing and bug fixing, it's not nearly as bad as most people are making it out to be. That's right, I'm actually happy with Windows Vista, which I use about one-third of the time I spend at a computer. More »

dell dock

Dell Dock Puts a Little Mac OS X Into Vista Studio Laptops

Dell's Studio Laptops will be getting a little touch of the Mac OS when they ship, thanks to the Dell Dock, a launcher that cleans up the Vista desktop in the most charming, albeit derivative, way. Below you can see "Before" and "After" images of the cleanup: More »

android

Wired: How and Why Android Came to Be

You might already know that Google bought Android for $50 million in 2005 after Danger co-founder Andy Rubin just asked them for an endorsement of it. But did you know that Google feared Windows Mobile? Yep, that one, Wired's massive top-to-bottom Android feature (with awesome art) reveals. Google thought Microsoft had beat it to mobile—it had a quickly growing platform, tied to Microsoft's ends. Google, on the other hand, was having its apps, like mobile Picasa, shot down by carriers who wanted to extort users to do the same thing Google offered for free. More »

windows home server

Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 Goes Public Beta

Microsoft's just pushed out the first public beta of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, otherwise known as their minor update. The scheme they've got in mind is to do a minor update followed by a major update followed by a minor update, repeating ad infinitum every six months. This PP1 fixes that extreme data corruption bug we saw last year, as well as improving backups, remote access, energy efficiency and adding Vista x64 edition support. More »

qik

Qik's Cellphone Video Broadcasting App Coming to Windows Mobile

Qik's been doing live video streaming (think live YouTube) from Nokia S60 cellphones for a few months now, but Mobilecrunch has the scoop that they're expanding to Windows Mobile phones shortly. The support and partnership will be officially announced next week at Tech-Ed, which will give WM users the ability to stream stuff like concerts and their wives giving birth (it's happened) direct from their handhelds. Qik's also thinking about the new iPhone, of course, but that's pending whatever features get announced next week. [Mobile Crunch via Crunchgear]

windows 7

Windows 7 UI To Debut At All Things D Tonight

Windows 7's UI is going to be unveiled by Ballmer and Gates tonight at All Things D during their interview. We'll be there, so check back periodically to see what Steve and Bill have, since pretty much all we've seen so far is Windows 7 under a Vista UI. [All Things D - Image Credit (Just a concept)] More »

nbc

Microsoft Will Totally Bork Your Media Center DVR If NBC (or Anyone) Asks It To

Last week, courtesy of NBC, people with a Windows Media Center DVR setup got a rude reminder that broadcasters can flip a switch (called a broadcast flag) to tell DVRs not to record a show. Here's the thing: Honoring the flag is actually optional for software and hardware makers, after courts smacked down the FCC proposal to make them mandatory. But Microsoft has confirmed that they do whatever the broadcaster tells them, again, even though they don't have to. NBC hasn't confirmed yet whether or not the American Gladiators flag was intentional, but their history doesn't give me a fuzzy feeling. Update: NBC says it was an accident. More »

smartphones

Rumor: MWg to Launch Windows Mobile 7 Device This Year

One fun rumor bopping around the phone sites is that MWg, the smartphone maker previously known as O2 Asia, will be rolling out a Windows Mobile 7 phone in the fourth quarter of 2008, specifically the Flame II shown above. That's about a year earlier than we last heard. Everyone sounds skeptical, but you never know, the timeline could have been Boy Genius, or to see the whole MWg presentation, have a accelerated because WM6 isn't exactly a crowd pleaser. If you want a more complete roadmap, check out Boy Genius; for the original video presentation from MWg, look at MoDaCo. Either way, take it with a grain or two of salt. [MoDaCo via BGR]

umpcs

Windows XP Eee PC Available at Best Buy in April, Pricing Stays Sweet

Our buddies at LaptopMag have just published details about the long-rumored, US bound, Windows XP Eee PC. The Windows XP version will go on sale at Best Buy for $399, and you won't have to wait too long either, as Asus expects the systems to ship on April 9th. The system that will run the Windows XP OS shall be the standard Eee PC 4G, which LaptopMag have been putting through its paces for over a month. The machine makes a solid impression overall, however, the disk space is a bit limited to run Windows XP and additional applications on top. Asus are considering dropping in a 4GB SD card to aid in the disk space shortage, but nothing has been confirmed to that end. Jump for the complete spec of the Windows XP Asus Eee PC.
More »

windows home server

Iomega Puts Windows Home Server on Hold; Is the Platform Doomed?

We just heard that Iomega was icing its plan to release HomeCenter, a Windows Home Server product like the ones currently available from HP. The company stresses that this decision has "nothing to do with the bug" that's been corrupting data saved directly to WHS systems from certain applications. Instead, Iomega felt that the high cost of the device itself, essentially a PC, was prohibitively unprofitable at the moment. Iomega naturally wants to look good, as it's in talks to be acquired by EMC. But there weren't many recognizable names in the initial WHS launch list to begin with—if nobody wants to build these home servers for a mass market, how long can the product survive? [Windows Home Server on Giz]

asus

Eee PC Getting Major Revisions: Intel Processors, Windows XP, Bigger SSDs and More

Joanna over at Laptop Mag just published an interview she held with Jerry Shen, Asus' CEO. She questioned him regarding the future of the Eee PC, and he sure did outline some interesting plans for future revisions. Jump for the lowdown on what Jerry Shen had to say. More »

software

Microsoft Cuts Vista Prices, XP Still Better

Looks like Microsoft is trying another push to get Vista Ultimate running as your OS of choice. The top-end operating system will receive a price cut from $399 to $319, whilst the upgrade version will now retail at $219, a savings of $40 on the original price. Vista Home Premium will also be dropped in price, from $159 to $129. If you were holding out, now seems like a good time as any to take the Vista plunge, or stick with XP SP3 because it kicks Vista-ass. Your call. Note: the Digg badge on this post corresponds to the original news' Digg. [News.com]



vista

Vista Capable Laptops Sucked So Intel Could Dump Crappy Graphics Chips

The judge on the class action lawsuit against Microsoft for those Vista handi-capable stickers unsealed a bunch of super-juicy internal emails exchanged between Microsoft higher-ups (including Ballmer) on Vista's suckiness. They weren't oblivious to the fact that "Vista capable" machines were horrible—but they let it slide, according to exec John Kalkman:
"To help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with 915 graphics embedded."
They even screwed HP to make Intel happy. More »

money, money

Earnings Report: Go Ahead, Call Microsoft "M$"

Apple wasn't the only one balling this quarter on the back of new computer sales. Microsoft's profits were up a huge 79 percent against last year to hit $6.48 billion (on record revenues of $16.37 billion), mostly thanks to people snapping up Vista-loaded computers (whether they want the OS or not). More »

review

Lightning Review: Zumobi Mobile Browser


The Product: The Microsoft backed Zumobi browser for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 phones consists of bite-sized web content called "tiles" (a new fangled term for "widget") that offers users a customized, shareable web browsing experience. More »

Windows Home Server Update Supports 64-Bit Vista Microsoft will release Power Pack 1 as an update to their Windows Home Server software. It will enable support for 64-Bit Vista and increase data protection. [Microsoft]