Isn’t Power Nap an awesome new feature of OS X In case you missed it earlier today, Power Nap allows your MacBook to keep up to date while in sleep mode. So emails are updated, things get synced to iCloud, system updates are pushed through and even TimeMachine backups are performed in a silent and power efficient manner. Sounds pretty great, right? It is if you’re a Mac user but to Windows users… → Read More
Five years ago, I was working for a Belgian company that published the only weekly IT magazine in the country, Data News. I was not a reporter, but in charge of its online media products. When it was announced that Microsoft founder Bill Gates would be coming to Brussels to, for the first time, pitch Windows Vista to enterprise customers and partners at the MS Business Innovation Event, I jumped… → Read More
Windows, Microsoft’s ubiquitous operating system, sits firmly in place.
One year after launch, licenses for the successor of Windows Vista, Windows 7, have gone over the counter no less than 240 million times.
As Microsoft points out, that makes it the fastest selling operating system in history, which is not super surprising when you consider how many were clamoring to upgrade from Vista, and… → Read More
“It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I’m okay with that.”
That was Microsoft COO Kevin Turner during his keynote speech at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington today. I’m going to go out on a (not very big) limb and predict that this comment is going to come back to bite Microsoft in the ass.
Microsoft has a long, illustrious history of putting its foot… → Read More
Don’t look now, but Windows 7 is taking over. And while Vista is still in the number 2 spot overall, Windows 7 has reached that critical 10% milestone almost a year earlier then Vista. Having used both version of the OS, it’s pretty obvious why. → Read More
In case you’re still rocking Windows Vista dispite Win7 being a freebie, SP2 is now available for you to download right from Microsoft. Vista’s second service pack updates both the 32- and 64-bit versions. It’s probably best to ditch the crappy OS and update to 7 altogether, but it’s your call. → Read More
Microsoft has been putting together the Windows 7 Technical Guarantee Program and it appears that it’ll likely go into effect starting July 1st of this year. It’s that program that lets you purchase a machine with Microsoft’s current operating system and then upgrade it to the newest one when it launches, similar to what the company did when getting ready for Vista. → Read More
Here’s a tip: next time your company creates a snazzy marketing slogan make sure it isn’t misleading. Microsoft may be liable to the tune of $8.5 billion as a result of so many people buying “Vista Capable” PCs in the run up to Vista’s release in January, 2007. The problem is that, to the average person, “Vista Capable” means, “Hey, I can run Vista.” And you can, but only the most… → Read More
This is the Phoenix. See how it resembles the mythical creature? As if being green were some passing fad, HP announced two new desktops and a display today. The HP Pavillion Verde Special Edition a6645f (really?) and Pavillion Phoenix SE a6655f have energy-efficient AMD procs and they’re Energy Star qualified. The SE desktops can handle up to 5GB of RAM, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit… → Read More
This enormous and allegedly unsolicited blog entry by an “ordinary Joe developer” (is he related to the plumber?) details some of the under-the-hood stuff that’s going on with Windows 7 development. Although Ballmer has described 7 as being “Windows Vista with clean-up in user interface [and] improvements in performance,” this guy seems to think it’s a little… → Read More
You can now run Windows Vista on the PS3. More accurately, you can emulate Windows Vista on the PS3; “now” is also somewhat inaccurate, as the emulation is so slow it takes some 25 minutes for the operating system to boot up. It works by running Qemu on Linux on the PS3, then running Vista in Qemu. The whole process takes about a day to get up and running. Reminds me of kids trying to get… → Read More
What sounds like a headline from The Onion is from the real story of an area man who did get Windows Vista to work with his printer, but not without the help of Microsoft software engineers. PI reporter Todd Bishop first brought word of the man’s trouble not long ago on the PI blog and local geeks wanted to help, as Seattle-area geeks tend to do. One helper was a Microsoft test engineer from… → Read More
Flickr’d Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that consumers should be happy that they have the choice to downgrade from Vista to XP. (Remember, XP retail sales are set to end on June 30.) “I don’t know how you can do better than getting both,” says Ballmer, no doubt pained by all the reports that Vista isn’t so hot (to put it lightly), and that companies like Dell let… → Read More
Looks like Microsoft is serious about this Windows 7 thing. Starting Monday, hardware makers will have to make their drivers compatible with Windows 7 as well as Vista to get that coveted “Certified for Windows Vista” badge on their gear. Seems kind of unnecessary right now, since 7 won’t be out for another couple years, but I guess they don’t want a repeat of the XP/Vista… → Read More
Parallels, the virtualization software that lets you run Windows apps on an Intel Mac, now supports Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. The latest version, which was released earlier today, costs $80, the same as VMware’s competing application Fusion. I used Parallels once, sometime last year, and couldn’t couldn’t connect to the Internet within Windows. So I freaked out and… → Read More
The HTC Advantage, enhanced for your pleasure Not much new out of HTC this show. They updated the Shift to run Vista with the Origami Experience 2.0 (I saw these guys live at Red Rocks back in 1983 – great show) and an updated Advantage. They also launched the P3470 with TomTom Navigator in Europe. Nothing too earth-shattering but God do they do nice hardware. → Read More
Despite what others might say, over the weekend I broke down and upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate. I hit a couple driver-related snags, but was able to recover no problem. However, while I’ve been testing systems for months now with the OS on it and I know my way around Vista, I was dreading the upgrade. That got me thinking: What would my dad do (who’s pretty tech savvy, but a tad… → Read More
If you don’t have anything nice to say about Windows Vista then don’t bother writing about it. That’s the general consensus on a certain post on eWeek’s Microsoft Watch. One of the writers over there recounted a story in which his sister bought a Sony Vaio laptop with Vista installed that had a Windows Experience Index score of 3.3—considering the laptop cost $1,500… → Read More
Quick heads up for the many gamers out there: The Windows Vista edition of Halo 2 ships on May 22, despite what we said earlier. It seems there’s been a slight delay to address some last minute technical issues. You’ll be able to play against Xbox owners on Live and against fellow Windows users for free. There’s also a map editor. Neat. Now bring on the third installment already. → Read More
One of the many wows of Windows Vista is SideShow, a technology that outputs information like e-mail onto screens other than a PC monitor. Using SideShow, this Ricavision Bluetooth remote control lets you navigate through your Vista PC’s media library, schedule TV recordings and read your e-mail without so much as leaving the couch (so long as you’re within 328 feet of the PC). The… → Read More
Samsung’s Q1P ultra mobile PC (UMPC) is the first such device to receive Windows Vista certification. Now that it’s Vista certified, it can sit at the cool kids’ lunch table at school. UMPCs haven’t exactly lit the world on fire (just look at the price—$1,300? No thanks), but it’s good to see more and more devices support Microsoft’s version of OS X. The… → Read More
So you’ve done it. You’ve consulted with your spouse, your lawyer, your priest, and your therapist and you’ve decided to ditch XP for the wide open fields and OSXivity that is Windows Vista. And you’ve even chosen which flavor you want. But when upgrading one Windows OS to another, the nagging question has always been: clean install or upgrade the current install? In the… → Read More
If you’re one of the many who are interested by the idea of Windows Vista but are hesitant to take the $400+ plunge without back-up, then look to your local CompUSA for a safety net. The national computer retail chain is guaranteeing that you’ll love Windows Vista, or you get your money back. In addition, the techs will re-install your former OS free of charge if you’re not… → Read More
We all know that China cares very little for our silly copyright laws, and that is illustrated nicely with these black-market knock-offs of Windows Vista that have hit the streets of Beijing. Instead of paying $400 for a copy of the latest, resource-hungry version of Microsoft’s flagship product, you can get a “Frankenbuild” version on the street for less than $3, including… → Read More
While I’m not a fan of Windows, let’s give it up to Samsung for introducing their two new widescreen monitors with Windows Vista certification. Yes that’s right I said Windows Vista certification. These beauties come in 20 and 22 inch models (CX206BW and CX226BW) with a sassy black high-gloss piano finish to rev up there new Syncmaster LCD series. Details are skimp but we do know this… → Read More
The word around the blogosphere is that tomorrow, November 8, 2006, will be the day that the retail and OEM versions of Vista will finally start marching down the assembly lines, but ZD-Net asks a fairly poignant question: just because Vista has “gone gold”, does that mean it’s ready for prime time? The November 8 start of manufacture will ensure the ship window of “early… → Read More
Well with all the gripes circulating about Windows Vista, it’s about time we got some prices. These prices became available through a fluke in the Microsoft Canada page. So keep in mind that these prices are CDN and that there isn’t really any telling whether or not the US cost will be at all similar. Assuming they are, however, the price of this new OS are going to be as ridiculous as… → Read More
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