windows

Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it is planning for Windows 7 to hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs on October 22.

To reach that milestone, Microsoft plans to wrap up development of the operating system by the middle or end of next month, Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in an interview.

"The feedback from the release candidate has been good," Veghte said.

Microsoft made the near-final release candidate version available last month. Shortly after its release, Microsoft finally confirmed that it was aiming Windows 7 for a holiday 2009 release, something that was … Read more

Microsoft confirmed on Friday that, with Windows 7, it will lift the limitation that the entry-level "Starter Edition" run no more than three applications at a time.

With Windows 7, Microsoft is for the first time allowing the product to be used globally, as opposed to just in emerging markets. In particular, Microsoft is positioning it as its lowest-cost Windows 7 option for Netbooks.

Initially, Microsoft said it would maintain that restriction that users run no more than three programs at a time, however speculation has been growing that it would lift that limitation.

"We believe these … Read more

After yesterday's much-lauded episode with Jill Schlesinger, Jeff, Justin, and Wilson are back to classic 404 goodness today. We're glad that for once in the world we can offer some helpful financial advice. And yes, we're still offering 404k options, so please send your checks to the show.

On today's show, we've got a First Look at the new Hulu Desktop app. It kind of destroys Joost and Boxee's previous efforts. For those of you who don't know, it's an actual application like Front Row or Windows Media Center that plugs into Hulu content and can be controlled with a remote. Pretty cool.

Also, we're pretty excited about Sonic the Hedgehog coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms. Jeff and Justin don't like that the game will be controlled via tilt, but Wilson thinks that--considering you spend most of the game just hitting forward and jump--it's not really that big of a deal.

Finally, we spend the second half of the show picking up the pieces after Justin offends millions and millions of Dave Matthews Band fans, who call in to unleash their hatred. Hopefully, Justin learns never to mess with DMB fans again. They are rabid. After that, we spend the rest of the show going over the hundreds of 404 logo submissions. They are fantastic! Please continue to send them in. We're extending the contest until the beginning of next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

In its latest beta release last week, Skype received a much more ambitious feature than it did in its most recent major Windows update, Skype 4.0. In addition to bringing back birthday reminders, Skype 4.1 beta introduced screen sharing.

While choppy transmission and the limitations of broadcasting your screen to one contact at a time makes the feature best for casual desktop demonstrations rather than for serious collaboration or intense troubleshooting, screen sharing in Skype's free VoIP application is nevertheless one more engaging way to connect to friends and colleagues across the miles. Since the application is … Read more

Correction at 6:35 a.m. PDT: This article was initially written on the assumption that the study was new. It was actually published in 2005.

For those waiting for a grand cataclysmic battle between Gog (Linux) and Magog (Windows), with one supreme victor, don't hold your breath.

I was reading through a 2005 study by Harvard Business School professors Pankaj Ghemawat and Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, and was surprised by how little has changed in the past four years, despite Linux and Windows duking it out in ever-increasing intensity.

Since that study was released, Linux has continued to swipe at … Read more

I usually follow a simple rule when it comes to consumer electronics: I avoid buying any first-generation products. That doesn't mean I haven't ever done it, but I tend to wait for generation two or three before I plunk down my dough, particularly when it comes to heavily hyped stuff.

As I've written before, I'm a prime candidate to buy the Palm Pre. I'm a Sprint customer who has a contract conveniently expiring in June and I have a phone (the Mogul) that's on its last legs. Ideally, the Pre would cost $50 less and not have a mail-in rebate, but at least Sprint didn't price the thing at a pure $299, as I'm sure it would have preferred to do. Pricing aside, the biggest hurdle I'm facing is the fact that the Palm Pre is a first-gen phone--and platform--and I'm really not a first-gen guy.

By contrast, the iPhone will be on its third generation and its platform is already fairly mature. We'll find out exactly how the new third-generation iPhone specs out at next week's WWDC event, but it's safe to assume that many of the small, nagging kinks that were found in earlier editions of the iPhone will have been ironed out. I don't expect it to be perfect (no phone ever will be, because there's always something better around the corner), but I feel pretty good about getting a lot more iPhone for my $199 than those who purchased the original non-3G model (which was originally $599--with contract!) or even the iPhone 3G.

Sometimes, of course, a brand new product can come along that's so far ahead of the pack that even the introductory version is too tempting to avoid.… Read more

Skyfire has arrived at its first full release with a fairly fast and solid mobile browser offering. From a usability standpoint, its streaming video and social bent are Skyfire's strengths. Small, but significant navigation holes are drawbacks in what is an otherwise stable and serious effort.

The Start screen is characterized by a customizable RSS feed. You can sort by filters, and post article links to Facebook and Twitter. Separately, you can upload a new social networking status from the screen. A joint address-search bar sits along the top, leaving plenty of reading space. Video playback is decent in … Read more

A little over a year after Skyfire began making a splash, the Silicon Valley startup has officially released version 1.0 of its free third-party mobile browser for Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. During its beta tenure, the newbie browser whipped up its fair share of excitement and kudos. Indeed, Skyfire has arrived at its first full release with a fairly fast and solid mobile browser offering. From a usability standpoint, its streaming video and social bent are Skyfire's strengths. Small, but significant navigation holes are drawbacks in what is an otherwise stable and serious effort.

While beta users … Read more

Microsoft has released the second service pack for its Windows Vista and Server 2008 operating systems.

Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2, which pull together various updates to the operating systems that have already been rolled out by Microsoft in a piecemeal fashion, were uploaded to Microsoft's Download Center on Tuesday. The two service packs are combined in a standalone package that lets system administrators deploy and support both client and server updates in one operation.

Microsoft has not said precisely when the service packs will be rolled out as automatic updates, although Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc said in … Read more