Family Pack Available For Windows 7 Home Premium

Browsing through the software license that accompanies Windows 7 Home Premium, you will come across a clause that details the terms of use for a Family Pack. This clause is only found in this version, and likely isn't mistakenly there. The Family Pack would allow the operating system to be installed on 3 computers found in the household. Speculation currently puts the Family Pack at a $190 price point, making it quite a good deal based on the current price of Windows Vista or even XP. Coupled with the recent deals available for those consumers who pre-order Windows 7, Microsoft appears to be making a push to get Windows 7 into as many households as possible.

Windows 7 Beta bi-hourly shutdowns begin today

Users still running Windows 7 Beta will see their systems spontaneously shutting down starting today. If you wish to continue your Windows 7 experience, you'll need to install the free release candidate otherwise you are encouraged to downgrade to Vista/XP. Microsoft is also recommending that users moving from Windows 7 Beta to the RC preform a clean install.

Windows 7 RC will be available for download through July, and will begin a similar bi-hourly shutdown process starting March 1, 2010. The OS is scheduled for general availability release on October 22, 2009.

Windows 7 Pricing

The prices for Microsoft's upcoming operating system, Windows 7, have been announced. One of the biggest announcements is that there will be a price cut of 10% on the most popular version of the OS, Home Premium. The prices are as follows (prices in brackets are the current prices of the equivalent Vista, all prices are retail prices in USD): Home Premium for $199.99 ($239.99), Professional for $299.99 ($299.99) and Ultimate for $319.99 ($399.99). Don't be alarmed by these prices, as most people buy the software OEM, and retail sales only account for less than 5% of Windows total sales figures. To end on a positive note, you can preorder Windows 7 for a lot less. The prices and dates are as follows: in the US: Windows 7 Home Premium ($49.99) and Windows 7 Professional ($99.99) starting June 26, in Canada: Windows 7 Home Premium ($64.99) and Windows 7 Professional ($124.99) starting June 26, in Japan: Windows 7 Home Premium (¥7,407) and Windows 7 Professional (¥14,073) starting June 26, in the UK: Windows 7 Home Premium (£49.99) and Windows 7 Professional (£99.99) starting July 15, and in France and Germany: Windows 7 Home Premium (€49.99) and Windows 7 Professional (€109.99) starting July 15.

Apple releases iPhone 3.0 OS; AT&T loosens upgrade restrictions

Apple has officially released the much anticipated iPhone 3.0 OS update. To update, just connect your iPhone to a Mac or PC running iTunes 8.2+ and hit the check for updates button. The 3.0 update brings a ton of new features to the iPhone; Copy and Paste, MMS, landscape keyboard in Mail and other apps, Spotlight search, tethering, and enhancements to many other apps. iPhone users in the U.S. will have to wait a bit longer for MMS and tethering support due to limitations of AT&T’s network.

Additionally, early adopters of the iPhone 3G get a bit of good news from AT&T today. Those customers that will be eligible for upgrades in July, August, or September will be allowed to upgrade to the iPhone 3G S at the subsidized prices of $199 (16G) and $299 (32G) starting Thursday, June 18. Customers that have already preordered the iPhone 3G S will see the price adjusted at pickup or will be issued a credit.

The Apple iPhone 3G S will be available on Friday, June 19.

Microsoft Not Doing Enough to Appease European Regulators

As a result of the latest confrontation with European regulators, Microsoft has decided to sell copies of the upcoming Windows 7 Operating System in Europe without Internet Explorer. It will be the responsibility of the PC maker or end user to choose which browser they wish to use. One reason for the rejection may have been the due to what happened when Microsoft was ordered to sell a version of Windows without Windows Media Player. Microsoft sold the new version at the same price of the full version, which the European commission didn't like. When the ruling was handed down, the commission was thinking more along the lines of installing competing browsers on the Operating System, and give the users the option from there.

New Worm For Apple

As the Macintosh increases in popularity, so do the threats to its OS; and it seems that Mac users might be vulnerable to a new worm: Tored-Fam, which is part of the Tored malware family. This new worm is spread via an e-mail attachment, which collects e-mail addresses, and forwards the message on without permission or warning; apart from that, the only symptoms you might get is lag from sending the e-mail to all your contacts. Here is a useful tip for any programmers out there: Members of OSX/Tored-Fam are written in RealBasic and contain strings such as "Infected and boted by OSX.Raedbot". At the moment the cases reported for this worm are low; but expect it to be rising rapidly – so watch out for any suspicious e-mails.

Ubuntu Hopes to Reduce Boot Time to 10 Seconds

The developers at Canonical, the company responsible for Ubuntu, have announced intentions to boot their Operating System in 10 seconds. The deadline for this goal is the April 2010 release, which has yet to receive a codename. From the 8.10 release to the 9.04 release, boot time was reduced from just over 1 minute to 25 seconds, proving that the developers are serious. This will be accomplished by optimizing the necessary aspects of the boot process. As an avid user of Ubuntu, this is an exciting development. However, since I only reboot about once per month I don't think I would be able to fully appreciate the improvements.

Fedora 11 Released

On Tuesday this week, Red Hat announced the release of the newest version of Fedora, the Linux-based operating system, version 11. It sports a variety of new features and upgrades alongside newer versions of most included packages. Some notable new features include better support for fingerprint authentication, the new Ext4 filesystem, improved (less confusing) volume control, and Presto, a feature that cuts down on bandwidth used for package upgrades.

For more information be sure to read the full release notes, or try it out yourself!

Snow Leopard Being Unleashed in September

During the WWDC keynote address, Apple announced both the release date and pricing scheme for the new version of OS X, Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard will be priced at $29 for a single license, or $49 for a five license pack and will be shipped in September. The low pricing is attributed to the fact that Snow Leopard is considered an upgrade to Leopard, and will include improvements to several programs along with a new version of Quicktime. Snow Leopard was also written to take better advantage of 64-bit CPUs, which seem to be the standard these days. Users can also upgrade to the newest versions of iLife and iWork by taking advantage of a package deal for $169 or $229 for the five pack.

Best Buy to Offer Free Upgrades to Windows 7

A leaked Best Buy company memo reveals that the company will be offering free upgrades to Windows 7 for customers who buy computers loaded with Windows Vista. The versions that are a part of this promotion are Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. This deal will also benefit those who buy a copy of the appropriate Operating System on its own. Upgrades will also be available for Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional for $49.99 and $99.99 respectively. These upgrades would be for those consumers who already have an older version of Windows and don't want to buy a new copy. The official pricing for Windows 7 hasn't been released yet, so this could prove to be a steal.

Microsoft Facing Possible Antitrust Violations in Russia

Even with the release of Windows 7 only a few months away, some users still want to start at Windows XP. The anti-monopoly service in Russia is launching an investigation into Microsoft due to a dwindling availability of Windows XP even as demand remains high. The belief is that XP is being taken off the market in an attempt to force consumers to buy Windows Vista. Microsoft representatives in Moscow say they haven't been contacted by the authorities on this matter, and that they cooperate on all anti-monopoly issues. Microsoft has been fined over 1 billion Euros this decade in relation to antitrust violations.

Windows 7 Release Date Set

The long-awaited release of Windows Vista's successor, Windows 7, is coming soon! The Release Candidate of Windows 7 (the stage past beta testing, but before commercial retail availability) is available for download currently. This version is sure to be pretty similar to the final version of Windows 7 that will be released for consumers; however, the retail version will have some updates and fixes. Previous press releases hinted that Windows 7 would be commercially available before the 2009 holiday season. Microsoft presumably wants to ship Windows 7 in time for it to be sold with the many new computers that are sure to be sold during the 2009 holiday season. Microsoft announced today that Windows 7 will be commercially available on October 22nd.

Foxconn Netbook Integrates With Moblin

Linux is usually found on most netbooks that are made today, but another operating system by Intel, named Moblin, is also being found on some select systems. One of these computers that will be featuring Moblin is a Foxconn netbook, which will be shown off at Computex this year, as well as other items that will be featured there. The computer will come with an Atom N270, 1GB of RAM, as well as a 160GB hard drive and 3G wireless support for mobile users who seem to always be on the go. More about the netbook, as well as Moblin, should be expected once Foxconn lets consumers take a look at the actual netbook itself.

Windows 7 Starter Edition Throws Out 3 Application Limit

Windows 7 starter edition may still be a pretty cut down version of the upcoming OS, but one thing Microsoft has changed its mind about is limiting the number of applications that can run simultaneously. Apparently, feedback from OEMs asked for a richer small notebook experience with the starter edition so the decision to lift the limit was made. That means that anyone using Windows 7 starter will be able to run as many applications as they want, making it more viable option for those who want to perform basic tasks with their notebooks (or more likely netbooks). There is still no Aero, personalization features, multi-monitor support or DVD playback (among other features), so things are still very basic. Most people will likely want to opt for one of the more full featured versions, even if running a basic netbook.

United States Army Upgrades to Windows Vista

The United States Army is now announcing that it will be upgrading its desktop computers, across both classified and unclassified networks, to Windows Vista. Currently, only thirteen percent of the total desktop computers in the Army's total 744,000 systems is running the operating system, so this upgrade will take until the end of this year. Along with this plan, Office 2007 will also be used instead of the partially outdated Office 2003 suite. Right now, half of the total computers are running the new Office, so that particular upgrade itself will not cause too much confusion, other than the ribbon for new users of course. The United States Army is also providing training classes for people who need them however, and will also be handing out short tips for those looking for small assistance.

Windows 7 To Feature Virtual Wi-Fi

A little while ago now, Microsoft conducted some research into the idea of the virtualized WiFi adapter, but the results of the project never really found their way into something consumers could use. This has apparently changed with Windows 7, which will allow the creation of a virtual WiFi adapter, meaning that when one hardware device is installed, the OS will also be able to put second virtual device to use. The idea is similar to that of virtualized operating systems, where multiple instances can make use of the same underlying hardware.

What may be slightly surprising is that all of this is already included in the Windows 7 release candidate, but as yet hasn't been enabled because of the need for driver support. Once that does come along, a virtual device will pop up in the network connections folder, which should enable a few potentially useful functions. The advantages of multiple adapters include those such as being able to connect to multiple access points, to set up an ad-hoc connection with the secondary adapter, or even to turn every client connected to a network into a repeater and thereby growing the network as more clients connect. There is a diagram that describes how the virtualization process works as well as links to related MS resources over at istartedsomething. Whether it is something most users will really need is one thing, but it is nice to see that Windows 7 will be bringing some more interesting features to the table.

Seven Windows 7 Features You May Have Overlooked

With the Release Candidate now available, many of you have installed Windows 7 and are using it as your primary operating system. We've all seen extensive lists of thew new features available, but Lifehacker has put together a list of seven features that haven't garnered as much attention. From libraries to jump lists to rotating desktop wallpapers; even the ability to change the taskbar back to Vista/XP style if the Win7 one annoys you like it does me. And the User Account Control (UAC) that suffered from the most complaints? You know, the thing that most of us disabled within minutes of installing Vista? In Windows 7, Microsoft gave UAC a facelift, providing a slider bar to choose between various security levels, such as notifying you if a program tries to make changes to your computer, but not popping up a notification if you're doing the changes yourself. It seems Microsoft is certainly listening to its user base for once.

Microsoft Advises Companies to Skip Vista, Go Directly to Windows 7

A recent announcement from a Microsoft executive in charge of Windows should discourage you from switching to Vista if you haven't already. Bill Veghte has urged companies who haven't made the switch yet or are in the process of switching to go straight to Windows 7. The Release Candidate was released earlier this month, and should be completed in August. If it follows a similar schedule as Windows XP, an October release will be likely. With the April 2014 cutoff for Windows XP support and the amounts of positive feedback about Windows 7 up to this point, most companies would probably be better off to just skip Vista altogether. I for one can't wait to see Windows 7 pop up on the MSDNAA.

Apple Updates Leopard

Snow Leopard, which is the new Mac operating system anticipated by many Apple supporters, users, and fans, is slated to come out sometime during the second or third quarter of this year. With Leopard still being the latest version though, the electronics company has decided to go ahead and update Leopard, bringing it to version 10.5.7. Many fixes are included in this release, including various security fixes, multiple performance improvements, server tweaks, and even gadget improvements in terms of reliability. Users of Mac OS X 10.5 can download the update from the Software Update section of the operating system. Technically, if users are updating from version 10.5.6, the base update will be downloaded at a size of 442MB.

'Faux' Updates to be issued for Windows 7

Microsoft has announced that it is going to commence "faux" (or false) updates for Windows 7 Build 7100 (Release Candidate) users starting tomorrow (Tuesday May 12). This is Microsoft's method of making sure that updates will work efficiently when real ones are released. The test updates won't bring users any new updates or patches, instead users will be notified of available updates which won't install automatically. The first test update for Windows 7 was held on February 24 for the Build 7000 users, which were voluntary for Microsoft's refining of the new OS. The false updates will be labelled as "test update" in the Windows 7 Control Panel to avoid confusion. For users who prefer not to see the test update, an option to "Hide Update" will be provided.

Windows 7 for the Holidays

Microsoft had recently posted a press release to their website. The press release is filled with information about Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) is currently available, and the Windows Server 2008 R2 RC is available today. Microsoft is pushing Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 "as an ideal example of delivering business efficiencies and cost savings through technology." They claim that combining Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will allow businesses to improve efficiency and save money, two things businesses want with today's economy. However, many companies don't have the money and/or resources to upgrade to the new operating systems.

A brief note at the beginning of the press release mentions that both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be available in time for the holidays. Let's hope that Microsoft doesn't rush the release simply to have the operating systems available in time for the holidays.

New Windows 7 Packaging

As you all know, Windows 7 is the new OS that will be released by Microsoft and it has become very popular very fast. We recently have gotten a taste of what it has to offer with the release of the Release Candidate, and it is quite impressive – some people say that it’s what Vista was supposed to be. We’ve seen the new ‘Compatible with Windows 7’ logo, which is a simplistic, updated version of the Vista one. Now we have a glimpse at the new Windows 7 packaging! It is much more simplistic, but more attractive than its predecessor.  Also, Windows has gone back down to only 4 versions instead of the truckload of versions that Vista had – Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise, although Enterprise and Ultimate are more or less the same. Thanks to centrumxp.pl for these images!

Windows 7 Barely Faster Than Vista

One of Microsoft's goals with Windows 7 was to improve performance versus Vista and XP. PCWorld ran their own test running Vista and Windows 7 on three machines (two desktops and a laptop), and found that 7 was less than 5% faster than Vista (5% is considered the threshold where a normal user will notice the difference). Running WorldBench 6, which uses common applications such as Microsoft Office, Firefox, and Photoshop, to test the systems, the largest difference was just 4 points on an HP Pavillion a6710t desktop. One noticeable exception was Nero 7 Ultra Edition, which had a 12% increase in performance. The team did not test startup times to see which system was faster there.

New BSD Releases

Two days ago Ken Smith announced the release of FreeBSD 7.2, a release improving on FreeBSD 7.1 with some added features and updated software. This happened just days after OpenBSD's new release of version 4.5, their 26th release. Even DragonFlyBSD released a new minor revision that day. Of course, this was all a day after the release of NetBSD 5.0. I bet these guys agreed on a shared release date or something. All three BSD-based operating systems are open source, free to download from their respective websites.

Windows 7: One Unexpected Surprise

With all the hype of the Windows 7 RC release, it seems that the RC will ship with one unexpected surprise: shutdowns. From March 1 2010 the Windows 7 RC will have bi-hourly (every two hours) shutdowns although it actually expires on June 1. The same will occur with the beta, with shutdowns commencing on July 1 2009 and the actual software expiring on August 1 this year, according to the Microsoft Partner website. To avoid the the inconvenience of shutdowns, Microsoft is recommending that consumers install a valid version of Windows 7 before the shutdown dates. Windows 7 has been subject to a lot of excitement ever since the beta was released, but this extra chunk of information leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth: it seems that anything free comes with a catch.

Windows 7 RC Released!

That's right, the Windows 7 Release Candidate has arrived on Microsoft's site! Scheduled to appear Tuesday, it showed up earlier on Monday night. Build 7100 is available for download in 32 and 64 bit versions, fully functional until March 1, 2010, and finally expiring on June 1, 2010.
See for yourselves here!

One Percent of Desktop Users Now Run Linux

Linux is finally gaining some ground on Windows in the desktop category of users. Long used in data centers and as servers, Linux is becoming more mainstream and accessible to everyday users due to a number of factors. The decision to sell computers preloaded with Linux by Dell and other manufacturers is likely the greatest contributor to this trend. Before that, it was often only the computer savvy that found themselves running Linux, tired of dealing with Windows. The introduction of Gnome and KDE has also made Linux more appealing, giving those people afraid of the command line the option to use Linux as well. I have already made the switch, will you?

Windows 7 System Requirements Confirmed

With the public release of the Windows 7 RC looming near, Microsoft has announced the Windows 7 system requirements. To run Windows 7 your computer will need at least a 1GHz 32 bit (x86) or 64 bit (x64) CPU, 1GB (32 bit) or 2GB (64 bit) of memory, 16GB (32 bit) or 20GB (64 bit) of hard drive space and a DirectX 9 compatible graphics card with Windows Display Driver Model 1.0 or higher. If you plan to use XP Mode you'll need at least 2GB of RAM, 15GB of additional disk space and a CPU which supports chip level virtualization. These required specifications are more than needed for Vista but a relatively modern PC purchased in the last few years should be able to run Windows 7 with no problems. Microsoft have also released their "Compatible with Windows 7 Logo" but it isn't known yet what criteria are needed to attain the sticker, but I'd expect them to be pretty close if not the same to the Windows 7 minimum requirements.

Air Force Now Using Secure Windows XP

Military sections of the government have always expected quality, and even with Windows 7 coming out shortly, it seems that the Air Force is choosing to stick with Windows XP. The difference with this version is that the security has been improved on it, with a secruity patch turnaround time of just 72 hours instead of the standard 57 days, as well as around 600 settings being tied down in the operating system. The United States Air Force has saved over $100 million in costs since using this new version customized for their branch of military, seen support calls drop some forty percent, and notice that eighty-five percent of the previous exploits have been blocked.

Windows 7 Releases Oct. 23 (Maybe)

I bet Microsoft isn't too happy with Acer at the moment. While talking to ZDnet about the release of Acer's new All-in-One PC's, Acer European President Massimo D'Angelo Let a big date slip. He was asked if they would ship with Windows 7, and replied "No, when it's in store it won't have Windows 7 pre-loaded. We won't be actually selling it a day before the 23rd October". To add to the snafu, Acer UK MD Bobby Watkins then told Pocket-lint: "23rd October is the date the Windows 7 will be available. There is a 30 day upgrade time so that customers don't wait to buy a new computer, so if you buy during that 30 day period, you'll get a free upgrade to Windows 7." Microsoft has not denied the date, so it may be when we see Windows 7.