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...
Microsoft's secret Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) has leaked online, available for all. COFEE is a forensics tool,
approximately 15MB in size that fits on a USB drive for law enforcement officials to use in PC forensics. According to Microsoft: With COFEE, law
enforcement agencies without on-the-scene computer forensics capabilities can now more easily, reliably, and cost-effectively collect volatile live
evidence. An officer with even minimal computer experience can be tutored—in less than 10 minutes—to use a pre-configured COFEE device.
This enables the officer to take advantage of the same common digital forensics tools used by experts to gather important volatile evidence, while
doing little more than simply inserting a USB device into the computer.
To write a simple message, whether by Email or text, has for a long time been a method to announce one's happiness, anger and even one's
tardiness. It's arguable that these virtual delivery services are somewhat impersonal; there are only the words on a computer screen — this
is devoid of all other sensations. However, the word can be a powerful weapon to wield. One misses the little details, though. A smile, a happy
feeling cannot be described in words as much as it can be simply shown. Just weeks ago Google opened up the much anticipated Google Wave service.
Its premise is one of ingenuity, to say the least.
We've all been playing with Windows 7 for quite some time now, and now that general availability has passed we recently asked the community what
their favorite feature of Windows 7 was. We've tallied the results, and just in case you haven't explored these features yet here's an in
depth overview of our community's favorite features: #5 Libraries Since the days of Windows XP, Microsoft has continued to simplify the way
users can store their data on a PC. Windows 7 has introduced users to a new way of file organization by adding a new structure called libraries. What
exactly is a library? By default Windows 7 has four separate libraries: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos.
Today Apple opened its second store on mainland Europe at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, France. They don't stop there, however; another store
in Montpellier, France opens next week on November 14th and one near the Opera Ganier to debut in the summer of 2010. France's first Apple store
opens today at 10AM CET. This is a prestigious location to be sure, right across the famous inverted pyramid inside the Louvre museum. Just for that
it would be worthwhile to visit this store, which spans two floors. 150 employees work in the store to offer the same services, which have made the
Apple Store experience a success all over the world.
With the recent squabbling over the Motorola Droid's status as the next potential "iPhone killer, one could assume Apple has become the
competitor to beat in the smartphone marketplace. But while countless reviewers try to measure the relative "cool" factor of these high profile
gadgets, Nokia has been managing quite well on its own worldwide, continuing its lead in the sector with 37.9 percent of the market share in the third
quarter of this year, according to research firm IDC. The next closest competitors are Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry, with 19 percent
market share and Apple with 17.1 percent based on shipment volume worldwide.
Scant hours after the SDV tuning, DRM-relaxing firmware update for Vista and Windows 7 Digital Cable Tuner users became available, Missing
Remote let us know Microsoft has come through on the other half of its CEDIA promise by pushing the Digital Cable
Advisor to Media Center Extras galleries everywhere...
If Cisco wasn't making enough enemies with its string of bold acquisitions and a brazen push into the server market last spring, it's now picking a
software fight with several more tech heavyweights: Microsoft, Google and IBM...
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 hits retailers around the world today but that hasn't stopped Burger King getting in on the marketing fun. We wish we were joking but an
image speaks a thousands words: Thanks to Neowin member Shayla for the news tip
Linus Torvalds, the father of the Linux Kernel gave Windows 7 the thumbs up in Japan yesterday. Torvalds was in town for the Japan Linux Symposium
exhibition and Microsoft reportedly setup a big promotion booth across the street from the conference center. During a conference break an attendee
dragged Torvalds across the street to "make fun of Microsoft". The result? A somewhat sarcastic thumbs up from Linus Torvalds, it's a picture
that will certainly go down in history though. Thanks to Steven Bink (bink.nu) for spotting this:
With the official launch of Windows 7 currently underway around the globe, Microsoft has released four new advertisements to market Windows 7. This
round of advertisements is very simplistic and dubbed "7 Second Demos". Check them out below and let us know what you think. Kudos to
Omen1393 for the tip!
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.
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?
Ed Bott: If Microsoft expects its customers to take license agreements seriously, it has a responsibility to communicate the terms of those agreements
to its customers clearly and unambiguously. As I noted earlier this month, Microsoft does a
generally poor job of explaining its complicated rules for how Windows licensing works. But I deliberately left one type of Windows license off that
list, because it deserves its own special place in the Corporate Communications Hall of Shame...
Microsoft tonight issued an update on the reports that the company used open source code in their Windows 7 USB/DVD tool, illegally. Neowin
originally reported earlier this week that Microsoft had pulled the tool after complains by Rafael Rivera over some of the content of the Windows 7
USB/DVD download tool. Microsoft issued the following statement regarding the reports: After looking at the code in question, we are now able to
confirm this was indeed the case, although it was not intentional on our part. While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share
responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process.
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!
Previously said to launch in the fall, rumors are circulating that Google's Chrome OS will launch within the next week. While Google is mum on the
launch of their new OS they have been known to launch projects in beta form ahead of schedule in the past. It is expected the the first release of
Google OS will not run on standard laptop and desktop computers, but will run on set of Google OS endorsed devices such as select netbooks. Google has
previously said they are working with Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba on the Chrome OS
project.
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.
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.
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
Apple's official project of porting ZFS to Mac OS X has been cancelled. In a simple message posted by MacOS Forge, Apple stated only "the ZFS
project has been discontinued. The mailing list and repository will also be removed shortly." ZFS is an advanced file system and logical volume
manager originally created by Sun Microsystems. The file system boasts features such as support for high capacity storage devices, continuous
integrity checking, automatic repair and integration of file system and volume management. Apple's interest in ZFS stemmed back to initial
discussions with Sun to use ZFS as a file system in Mac OS X.
Mike Reavey: Today we released Security Advisory
977544 to provide information, including customer guidance, on a publicly reported Denial-of-Service (DoS) vulnerability affecting Server
Messaging Block (SMB ) Protocol. This vulnerability, in SMBv1 and SMBv2, affects Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Vista, Windows Server
2008, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 are not affected.
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.
When asked about Steve Jobs in a TV special that aired this week, Bill Gates said the Apple co-founder has shown "more inspiration" than any other
leader in the tech industry.
The program "Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great" aired Thursday night on CNBC. The
"Town Hall Event" featured questions from the audience directed towards two of the world's richest men...
In the 15th century Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing process. This new technology changed the world forever. One specific task was made
incredibly easy — the spreading of written words. eBooks take us to the threshold of a possible shift in the way we read books. In this
editorial I would like to share my opinion. Earlier this week, I have already shared my impressions of the newly revealed eBook readers, direct from
the floor of the Frankfurt Book Fair. eBooks were possibly the chief subject under discussion at this year's book fair. Amazon may be the most
prominent player in the growing market of eBook readers, at least in the US.
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.
Today Microsoft Corp. announced the worldwide availability of its new Windows 7 operating system. Windows 7 delivers on a simple premise: make it
easier for people to do the things they want on a PC. The new operating system offers a streamlined user interface and significant new features that
make everyday tasks easier and allow people to get the most out of computers of all styles and sizes...
It seems the Apple Tablet rumors are circulating again, this time with CNN Money joining the mix. In a recent article CNN speculates that the Apple
Tablet is going to appear within the next few months and is said to be a magazine sized touch screen device with a screen size between 10" to 12"
using a high-end graphics card that will enable stunning resolution and is a cross between the Apple iPhone and a OS X computer. In addition to the
rumored specifications there is also speculation that the Apple Tablet may include a webcam, allowing business users to hold video-conferences on the
go.
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.
Microsoft confirmed to Cnet News that it is looking into a report of a vulnerability in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 that could be used by a malicious
attacker to remotely crash PCs. The software giant is looking into claims of a "possible denial-of-service vulnerability in Windows Server Message
Block (SMB)," a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed. Security researcher Laurent Graffie published proof of concept code in a blog posting proclaiming
"This bug is a real proof that SDL #FAIL".
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.
Search, mail, mobile operating systems, advertising and mapping. These are all areas in which Google plays a big part. The company is ever expanding,
however, and today they've demonstrated that: Google has just introduced an entirely new programming language, taking influences from C++ and
Python, called, quite simply, Go. The language, which has a website here, "combines the development speed of working in a dynamic language like
Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++," according to the blog post made by Google. To give you a sample of the
code, courtesy of TechCrunch, here is a simple 'Hello, World!' program. 05 package main 07 import fmt "fmt" // Package implementing
formatted I/O.
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
Yves Neyrand, the director of test for the Windows Developer Experience team, helped create multitouch functionality for Windows 7 that allows the use
of touch to perform actions normally performed with mouse and keyboard... microsoft.com/presspass - 22.10.2009
According to a report by Rafael Rivera, Microsoft's recently released Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool has used GPL code illegally. The tool,
which has been pulled by Microsoft, allows end users to upgrade to Windows 7 in an easy way. Rivera states "while poking through the UDF-related
internals of the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, I had a weird feeling there was just wayyyyyyyyy too much code in there for such a simple tool.
Today sees the launch of Windows 7 in New York City. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO will be donning the stage shortly to introduce Windows 7 to the
world. There will be a live stream available (embedded below) and proceedings will begin at 11am NY time (see other time zones). Meanwhile the people
of London have been queuing this morning to purchase Windows 7 at a PC World store. Microsoft originally downplayed the idea of queues for the launch
but it seems the popular offers in the UK are drawing people out to purchase Windows 7. PC World is offering up to £100 off a new laptop with
Windows 7 when you trade in your old laptop.
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.
We all know Windows Vista got a bit of a bum rap. Its biggest sin was that it shipped earlier than it should and its reputation has never recovered.
However, with Windows 7 now out, those of us who have to switch between PCs now find ourselves discovering completely new things about Windows Vista
that are annoying -- because they are things that Windows 7 made so much better. Here's our list... #1 "Program not responding" Windows
Vista loved to throw programs under the bus for not responding. This was especially true of Windows Explorer which regularly would fade out a window
because it was trying to access a network resource.
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.
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...
Today, Microsoft sent out an email to Click-To-Run Technical Preview participants that outlined the public beta which was announced by Microsoft last
month; next week an email will be sent out to give further details. This news follows the announcement of other closing Connect groups, such as the
fully-fledged Office 2010 Technical Preview group earlier last week. According to the email, we might be seeing the public beta as early as next week
- hopefully with some further new features and fixed bugs that were present in the early technical preview. Neowin will cover these developments as
they happen. Dear Technical Preview Participants, Thank you so much for all your feedback on the Office 2010 Click-to-Run Technical Preview.
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.
Yesterday Microsoft launched Windows 7 which is arguably the most anticipated OS launch of the last decade. To help keep you informed on all that
occurred, we have compiled a list of everything you need to know including recent news and forums topics.
The newly redesigned MSN.com just might be the best home page on the Web with easy access to Bing search, favorite social networks, more relevant
local content, and the latest news and entertainment information from trusted sources... microsoft.com/presspass - 04.11.2009
News reported on the BBC news website states that Nokia, the world's giant in the manufacturing of mobile phone technology, is suing Apple for
infringing patents on mobile phone technology used in the iPhone. Nokia added that this patent breach applies on all iPhones since its launch in 2007.
Nokia have said that this is due to a lack of compensation from Apple, who they are accusing of "trying to get a free ride on the back of
Nokia's innovation". These alleged infringements, of which there are ten- involve wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption.
View Full Article: Ed Bott's Microsoft Report..