Microsoft Learning has developed a wide range of training and resources for IT Pros that address the benefits and key technical aspects of Windows 7.
With these resources, IT Pros can prepare for deployments and become Windows 7 experts within in their organization. These resources include...
Windows 7 can allow potentially incriminating data (such as child pornography) to be encrypted on a user's hard drive and make detection by police
"impossible", experts in Australia claim. Speaking to News.com.au, Hetty Johnson, a member of the Federal Government, called on Microsoft to act now
and make immediate changes. "If this new product gives paedophiles protection to keep harming children I would be extremely disappointed. I would
expect the company to take moves to rectify this." Australian law states that authorities can obtain warrants to use a Trojan horse to gain access
to a computer's data, but unlike British law, refusing to decrypt data when requested by the police is completely legal.
Microsoft is allowing netbook users to download Windows 7, its new operating system, onto a bootable USB or burn it onto a DVD, in yet another move by
Redmond to disseminate the operating system to as many users as possible. Although Microsoft reported yet another quarter of declining revenues,
executives remain hopeful that Windows 7, rising PC sales and a sunnier economic outlook will translate into a more profitable 2010.
TheNextWeb is reporting that Google may be set to announce Google Wave servers for federation later today. Currently Google has two Wave
infrastructures available to those outside the company, the first is the developer preview sandbox which has been available since Google I/O earlier
year and the second is the mass consumer preview which was opened up to 100,000 participants in September. Google is expected to allow companies and
end users to build and host their own Wave servers. These servers will be able to talk to other Wave servers. TheNextWeb claims that Google Wave
co-founder Lars Rasmussen has confirmed Google plans on opening up the sandbox infrastructure for federation later today. More details are expected to
follow shortly.
The Speech at Microsoft group is integrating voice technology into some of Microsofts best-known applications, revolutionizing how people interact
with their computers and mobile devices... microsoft.com/presspass - 28.10.2009
Facebook has been awarded damages of $711 million against Sanford Wallace, who spammed the social network with fake messages. Wallace was sued in
February, alongside Adam Arzoomanian, for obtaining login details for accounts and using them to send links to phishing or commercial sites that paid
spammers for referrals. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California came up with the $711 million figure by issuing $50
per violation of the CAN-SPAM Act - of which there would be approximately 1.4 million. According to the company blog, Facebook "doesn't expect
to receive the vast majority of the award" however, they are hoping that a separate criminal action will send him to jail.
A new study has found that if magnetic-based hard disk drives (HDDs) continue to progress at their current rate then by 2020 we'll see a 2.5" HDD
with a capacity of more than 14TB at a cost of about $US40. Flash memory will also become cheaper, but will reach terminal limits before 2020
keeping the ultra-fast technology from replacing HDDs. The study by Professor Mark Kryder and Chan Soo Kim of Carnegie Mellon University, published
in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, showed that in fact most technologies wouldn't be able to compete with HDDs on a cost-per-TB basis by 2020.
Apple has updated its iTunes platform making the current version 9.0.2. While it does add some new support for the newly released Apple TV 3.0
software, the biggest news is that this update breaks the ability for the Palm Pre to sync with iTunes. The cat and mouse game has been going on
since Palm announced that the Pre would have the ability to sync with iTunes, something Apple did not approve. The Pre is able to sync itself by
spoofing iTunes into thinking that an iPod is attached. The less than ethical approach has been given mixed reviews as Palm is clearly using iTunes
as a marketing push when it is not paying royalties to Apple.
Microsofts supplier diversity team is driving landmark business opportunities with government and enterprise customers, who need to stay competitive
in the global economy with robust supplier diversity programs... microsoft.com/presspass - 27.10.2009
Brandon LeBlanc: As many of you have noticed, there is a lot of information out there about Windows 7 now that it is available for everyone. You can
find information on everything from the Action Center to Windows XP Mode on various blogs and web pages all over the Internet. You might want a
concise guide of what Windows 7 has to offer and how it can help you and your business. With this in mind we created the Windows 7
Product Guide. This easy to read guide gives you a clear overview of the features in Windows 7 without a lot of technical jargon that you might
find in other content. The guide was designed to educate and inform readers about benefits you get from adopting Windows 7.
A few days ago, Amazon and Microsoft declared to the world that a Kindle app was underway for the Windows operating system. Just earlier, the online
retailer has confirmed that an OS X version of the application is coming too, as reported by TUAW, though details are unfortunately bare currently.
The Kindle is, as you may know, a piece of hardware designed to aid with the mobile and digital reading of eBooks, and it is coupled with Amazon's
software which provides a vast range of them ready and available for download over-the-air. It's a handy service for those who use it, though
currently it's limited in the devices it's available on.
Facebook users have been targeted by a large-scale spam attack that informs them that their password has been reset, and that the attached zip archive
contains their new password. Instead of a new password, users will find a trojan downloader, dubbed "Bredlab" or "Bredolab" by anti-virus
companies. The downloader then downloads additional malware from two servers, including fake anti-virus software, and joins the Bredolab botnet. This
gives attackers full control of the PC, allowing them to steal user information or use the PC to send spam emails. One of the servers is based in the
Netherlands, with the other in Kazakhstan, according to an alert on Websense, a security research company.
Lord Mandelson has clarified plans regarding the "three-strike policy" today, created in an effort to reduce piracy, according to the BBC. Whilst
the plans were initially opposed by many, Lord Mandelson also mentioned some benefits the new plans will provide, such as relaxed copyright laws in
regards to sharing. Lord Mandelson was speaking at the government's digital creative industries conference where he talked about the plans. He
emphasised that cutting off users would be a last resort, and, addressing the fears of some, stated that users would be able to appeal any decisions
to cut off their Internet access, if for instance, the disconnected user believed someone else was using their Internet connection.
Apple's iPhone is rather popular for a few reasons, and one of those is 'jailbreaking'; that is, freeing your device from Apple's
limitations and installing any software desired. However, it's not all good news, as a hacker has recently broken into some phones and demanded a
ransom. The hacker broke into a few unwary Dutch iPhone users' phones, after they made the mistake of leaving their SSH password default, as
initially discovered in this thread (in Dutch). According to Ars Technica, the hacker then sent SMS messages from the phones in question stating,
"You iPhone's been hacked because it's really insecure! Please visit doiop.com/iHacked and secure
your iPhone right now!
Today we released an update to the Bing for mobile browser at m.bing.com. In addition to being a great resource for local searches, quick answers, and
maps, we have some new features to tell you about...
If youve read any reviews of Windows 7, youve seen references to its price list, which ranges
from $120 for a Home Premium upgrade to $320 for a fully licensed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
Well, guess what? You dont have to
pay that much. Most people have much better options available, if you know where to look. As Ive detailed here, the best deals go to PC manufacturers, which you benefit from if you buy a
new PC...
VMware has announced the latest version it's flagship virtualization software - VMware Workstation 7 which is packed full of new features which
are huge - including full 3D graphics support for virtual machines. VMware workstation is compatible with over 20 operating systems out of the box,
and can run many other operating systems unofficially. As previously mentioned, the new VMware workstation comes with full 3D graphics support for
guest operating systems - meaning that if your computer can't play a game, but has the resources to run a virtual operating system well, you can
run an earlier version of Windows (or Linux) to play it.
With Windows 7 out the door we already know Microsoft immediately starts work on the servicing of Windows 7. Engineers are now hard at work at
creating hot fixes for application compatibility and ironing out any bug reports they receive. The same process occurs for every version of Windows
once it has been classed released to manufacturing (RTM). Notorious for leaking Windows 7 builds during the beta phase, Wzor has provided some early
information on the Windows 7 SP1 beta. According to Wzor a beta of Windows 7 SP1 will be released in January 2010 and the schedule is two beta
releases and two release candidate releases.
A survey of British gamers has found that a quarter prefer to purchase and download their games online, often through their console's store,
rather than purchase a physical copy from a retail store. According to TNS, who conducted the survey, digital distribution will outstrip retail sales
within three years. The results of the UK National Gamers Survey 2009, which surveyed 13,000 people in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, the
UK and the US, were unveiled at the London Games Conference last night. The results show that more than half of gamers in the UK prefer to play video
games on a console, with 35 percent preferring to play games on their computer instead.
Apple's ad budget for its 2009 fiscal year surpassed $500 million for the first time, as noted
in the company's Form 10-K filing with the SEC. Spending from 2008 was closer to $486 million, while the 2007 budget was approximately $467 million.
According to Fortune, the Mac maker's marketing spending is still
modest compared to the $1.4 billion spent by Microsoft or the $811 million dished out by Dell.
Once the third most visited domain on the Internet, the now ailing GeoCities will shut down permanently on October 26. GeoCities was founded in 1994
and was one of the first services offering an easy to use interface, which allowed 'mum and dad' users to publish their own websites easily.
GeoCities was considered revolutionary for its time, being one of the first free hosting services on the internet and one of the first to sort domains
via their topic, e.g. finance, travel or fashion. Unfortunately, as the popularity of GeoCities took off the topics available for hosting became
many, and the site increased in complexity.
British ISP TalkTalk has threatened legal action over Lord Mandelson's plan for a three-strike policy against file-sharers. The second largest ISP
in the UK believes the plan constitutes an infringement of human rights as the plan is "based on the principle of guilty until proven innocent".
BT, the largest ISP in the UK said that it "remains concerned" about the plans and is "interested to hear whether or not customers will have some
form of fair legal hearing before their broadband supplier is required to take any action against them".
Windows 7 launched last week and we held a little launch party with some other Windows bloggers. At that time we gave away a total of 12 copies to
some lucky people in New York City. You can see a video of the lucky winners below. Not everyone lives in New York though so this time around we are
giving away a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate to one lucky winner no matter where you are in the world.
This is the question that Microsoft researchers Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell are attempting to answer. The talented researchers recently published a
book titled Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything. In the book the pair summarise nearly a decade of effort to record
digitally everything in Bell's life. This included what he saw, what he ate, felt, read and his entire life experience. The effort comes from a
project that both Bell and Gemmell worked on at Microsoft Research, MyLifeBits. The idea was to capture a lifetime's worth of articles, books,
cards, CDs, letters, memos, papers, photos, pictures, presentations, home movies, videotaped lectures, and voice recordings and stored them digitally.
The long rumored deal between giants Microsoft and Yahoo was due to come to its final stage yesterday. However, reports have said that putting pen to
paper to finalize the deal, has been put on hold for the time being. Microsoft and Yahoo have told the SEC in a filing that they are forced to delay
the final stage of their deal. When the deal was officially announced on July 29 this year, the promise was that Yahoo and Microsoft would finish
negotiating the search deal by October 27.
All major PC vendors will have announced plans to enter the smartphone market by the end of this year, a newly released report says. Worldwide
smartphone sales will grow by 29 per cent year-over-year to reach 180 million units in 2009, overtaking notebooks, Gartner adds.
Part of an ongoing initiative to make its products more open, Microsoft Corp. today announced at the Eclipse Summit Europe new solutions that help
developers using the Eclipse platform take advantage of the new features in Windows 7 and Window Server 2008 R2, and reinforce Java and PHP
interoperability with Windows Azure and Microsoft Silverlight. Microsoft worked with open source companies, Tasktop Technologies Inc. from Canada for
Windows 7 and Window Server 2008 R2, and Soyatec from France for Windows Azure and Silverlight, to provide greater choice and opportunities for
developers working in heterogeneous computing environments and use a mix of Microsoft and open source technologies.
It appears Mac lovers might be in for a treat in the near future, following some digging by Apple technology site Applesana.es. Having browsed
through the configuration files of the latest build of Mac OS X, the most recent operating system out of Cupertino, the site claims to have found
references to two new Macbook Pro models. It is reported that the 10.6.2 update to the operating system (build 10C531) hold the configuration files
in which Applesana made the discovery. Within the files references to Macbook Pro 6.1 and Macbook Pro 6.1b are made. The current crops of Macbook Pros
are designated numbers from 5.1 through to 5.5.
According to a report from EETimes.com, Intel has pushed plans to support USB 3.0 in its chipsets back until 2011. Without Intel's support for the
standard, motherboard and gadget makers will be forced to hold off due to the expense of using third party controllers. Also known as SuperSpeed USB
and developed by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group - Hewlett Packard, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments - USB 3.0 promises
speeds of up to 4.8Gbit/s. At the Intel Developers Forum 2009 last month, it was unofficially revealed that Intel planned to start offering support
for USB 3.0 in early 2010, but then "shifted its plans out a year," according to the EETimes.com.
Google announced today that it will be offering a free turn-by-turn directional GPS service for its Android 2.0 mobile devices. According to Gizmodo,
Google is working closely with Apple to deliver this app in the future to the iPhone. Google's GPS navigation will take advantage of Google Maps,
hybrid and Street View images. When Android 2.0 ships in November to consumers, the Google GPS mobile application will offer a fantastic feature list
including traffic data. Traffic data will notify users of accidents and slow traffic on major highways. The cloud map network, which will be
constantly updated, will offer the latest reports on highway traffic flow, using data from department's highway cameras and from cell phones using
Google Maps.
Google has announced the next step in its ever evolving search engine, Social Search. Google is currently rolling out a test version on Google Labs.
The idea is simple, more relevant and personalised search. Imagine searching for New York and finding your friends blog on New York or searching for
Florida and finding pictures of Disney World from one of your friends. It makes searching more personal. All the content is available on the web but
what Google has done is surface that content together in one single place to make your results more relevant.
Reaching yet another milestone, Apple's App Store has broken the 100,000 approved applications mark. According to TheNextWeb, Apple has approved
101,713 applications and games. Of course, not all of these are available immediately as many have just been accepted. The App Store currently has
93,000 released applications. This is up from a reported 65,000 in August. According to iPhonesTalk, analysts have predicted the 200,000 mark will be
reached next year and by the end of 2010, there will be 250,000 applications. Some recent additions to the app store include an app from NASA which
brings countdown clocks, videos and Twitter feeds to the iPhone. Reportedly, this app will even let you know when the Space Station is passing
overhead!
Microsoft and Yahoo are insisting that the delay of their search-and-advertising partnership deal is due to details still needing to be worked out,
and not some larger structural issue that could scuttle the 10-year agreement before it begins in 2010...
Google's upcoming 'Google Wave' communication platform is an interesting one; it's currently in testing, but it's arguably one of
the most discussed online services this year. It's now been announced that it will even be getting its own app store, to help provide some more
functionality. According to The Next Web, the app store was announced at the Google Technology User Group meeting in London earlier, stating that,
"an extension store is planned where developers would be able to display and charge for apps." This app store would help provide a bit of momentum
for the service upon its public release, and it would be of benefit to developers also.
According to the BBC Technology website, visitors to the technology blog Gizmodo have been warned that they may have picked up malware. According to
the BBC, the security firm Sophos analyzed the incident and said that the website was delivering advertisements "laced with malware" last week.
Following further investigation into the matter, Gizmodo published a statement where they confessed that the website was tricked into running Suzuki
adverts which were in fact from hackers. Scareware works as an indirect form of computer infection.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin wants to take a page out of the Bill
Gates' playbook when it comes to giving away money. In a story in
the The New York Times, the 36-year-old Brin said he looks to the Microsoft co-founder as an example when it comes to philanthropy...
This autumn, Neowin has several news poster positions available. If you have a passion for writing informative and inspiring news articles, Neowin
might be the right place for you. What are our expectations? Be active: We require no less than 4 articles a week, but the more the better. We pay
our writers per original article depending on the comments/hits. This won't replace your full time job, but is an easy way to earn extra cash for
an MP3 player or copy of Windows 7. We expect all articles to be originally written, we have strict guidelines for approvals. You must be proficient
in English and grammar.
Netbooks have quite a few things going for them. They are extremely lightweight and portable, typically affordable, and more recent models come with
full size keyboards, larger displays and great battery life. But for all their advantages and evolution in recent years, they still lack in one key
category: processing power. Today we'll be taking a look at their affordable N3400 Series Ultraportable Notebook, a 13.3-inch model boasting an
Intel dual-core processor and a thin aluminum shell that shares some styling cues from Apple's MacBook Air.
Friends and families of deceased users on Facebook will soon be given the option to turn their profiles into memorials. The new feature will be
introduced as a result of several complaints regarding status updates and suggestions from deceased users, according to The Guardian. Information
that may be sensitive to relatives or friends of the deceased user, as well as status updates and contacts will be removed by Facebook after the
person is confirmed to be dead (either through news articles, obituaries or other proof of death). The newly introduced "Suggestions" feature will
no longer remind people to help their dead friend or relative either.
FUD - Fear, uncertainty and doubt Yesterday, a senior security advisor at Sophos, who is responsible for working with the security community and
communicating information on security threats to IT professionals, posted an entry on his blog entitled "Windows 7 vulnerable to 8 out of 10
viruses". Given the bad publicity that surrounded the launch of Windows Vista, is this yet another failing on the part of Microsoft that will lead to
poor adoption of the Windows 7 platform?
Google has announced today the new Android 2.0 platform. Android 2.0 brings new developer APIs for sync, Bluetooth, and some other areas. Developers
can now write applications to enable users to sync their devices to various contact sources. With the new Bluetooth API, developers can easily add
peer-to-peer connectivity or gaming to their applications.
Apple has come out swinging, or at least Brian Croll, Vice President of Apple's Mac OS X worldwide product marketing has when it comes to the new
offerings from Microsoft. Croll states that "Windows users are really tired of all the headaches that they've been getting over the years,
starting all the way back from Windows Me to NT to Vista and now Windows 7," he said. "As a result, I think people are looking for something
different, and the Mac offers real ease of use, stability and security." In his defense, Apple did just release their quarterly earnings which do
backup some of his statements.
EBay has announced changes to the unpaid item dispute process; a move aimed at curbing the friction that can occur between buyers and sellers when
something goes wrong at the auction site. The announcements specifically relate to unpaid items, which are those that are not paid for within a
reasonable amount of time. eBay typically encourage users to contact one another to resolve potential issues in this event, but if this cannot or does
not happen the resolution process kicks in.
The FCC is currently looking at ways to open up more airwaves so that mobile providers will be able to increase the availability of wireless broadband
services. The reasoning for this is because the FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski , has warned that the US does not have enough spectrum set aside for
mobile broadband. The idea is to take back some of the spectrum currently held by television stations and auction it off to mobile providers (much
like it recently did with the analog frequencies). The plan, while not finalized, does make one extreme suggestion that some users may be forced to
switch to a paid for services if parts of the spectrum are taken back by the government.
Microsoft launched their first Microsoft Store last Thursday in Scottsdale, Arizona. With all the hoopla of the Windows 7 launch we thought we'd
let that die down before posting a few details on Microsoft's new stores. Microsoft Silverlight team member Tim Heuer posted a great overview of
his own personal experience. According to Heuer he visited the store 4 days after the initial launch which saw people queuing to enter the store and
grabbing free Zune HDs. Upon first entering the store the logo is clearly visible and colourful, similar to Apple, Microsoft have opted for the logo
and no mention of "Microsoft".
Brennan LaBrie, 10-year-old student journalist for the TIME for Kids weekly news magazine, visits Microsofts Redmond campus to explore new learning
resources... microsoft.com/presspass - 03.11.2009
Microsoft said today that it plans to open up the PST data format commonly used within Outlook. In a MSDN blog posting, Paul Lorimer, Group Manager
of Microsoft Office Interoperability, confirmed Microsoft want to improve platform-independent access to email, calendar, contacts, and other data
generated by Microsoft Outlook. The PST format is used to store data ranging from email to calendar and contacts and allows for users to export and
import that data within Microsoft Outlook. According to Lorimer: "In order to facilitate interoperability and enable customers and vendors to access
the data in .pst files on a variety of platforms, we will be releasing documentation for the .pst file format.
As you may remember, Microsoft recently announced that a Windows 7 branded episode of Family Guy would be airing in the U.S. on November 8. In a
surprise twist, Microsoft has now dropped support for the episode, meaning that it'll still be shown, but with a different sponsor. In a public
statement, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed, "we initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition
and creative humor of Family Guy, but after reviewing an early version of the variety show, it became clear that the content was not a fit with the
Windows brand.
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