packing

Haven't yet upgraded your home PCs to Windows 7? I can understand why: a single upgrade license retails for $119.99, which I find exorbitant for an operating system--even one as solid as Windows 7.

As you may recall, about a month ago, Microsoft rereleased the Windows 7 Family Pack, a three-PC upgrade edition of Windows 7 Home Premium (32 bit or 64 bit, your choice). The price: $149.99. That's a little more like it.

If it wasn't "like it" enough for you, though, your patience just paid off: Dell Home has the Windows 7 Family Pack for $119.99 shipped. (… Read more

Chances are, if you own a Wii, you're going to need an extra controller sooner or later. Now's an excellent time to get one, since Nintendo has revamped its lineup of Wii Remotes to integrate MotionPlus inside. The new controllers, called Wii Remote Plus, look exactly like the old Wii remotes (check the box to make sure it's the new version), doing away with the annoying plastic plug-on that MotionPlus used to require.

The Wii Remote Plus comes in two retail packages: on its own in four different colors for $39.99, or packed with the game … Read more

Raise your hand if your iPhone 4 has ever flashed the 20-percent-left battery warning at a most inopportune time, with no usable or practical outlets in sight.

Yep, me, too. I've been the girl scanning cafe walls, poking at ambiguous hinged metal floor plates, and scouring airline gates in the hopes of finding a power source more times than I'd like to admit. If that's you, too, you should consider investing in a charging case that's equipped with its own battery pack.

Over the last few weeks, I slipped CNET's iPhone 4 into both the … Read more

Microsoft this week unveiled the Release Candidates for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.

The new releases are the last public test versions before the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) editions for both products hit the market early next year, according to a Microsoft blog. The Release Candidate for Windows 7 SP1 holds no new features since the product's initial beta came out in July. Microsoft has previously said that Windows 7 SP1 would offer nothing new but would simply be a collection of minor updates and fixes already released.

Still the launch of a … Read more

The Windows 7 "family pack" is available once again, Microsoft said in a blog post yesterday.

The $149 bundle of discs, which allows users to upgrade up to three PCs to the Home Premium version of the operating system, is available for the second time. It was first available when Windows 7 launched last year.

Just as before, the Windows 7 family pack includes upgrades, not full installations of the operating system, so those who buy the bundle should already have a legitimate copy of Windows XP or Windows Vista already running on their machines.

For a price … Read more

Microsoft plans to again sell a "family pack" of Windows 7 that includes three copies of the Home Premium edition of the operating system.

Microsoft offered such a bundle when Windows 7 launched, but billed it as a limited-time offer. In less than two months, supplies had largely run out. The Windows 7 Family pack will go back on sale on Oct. 3 for a suggested price of $149.99. As before, the licenses are upgrade copies, meaning each computer already needs to be properly licensed for Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Once again, Microsoft is choosing to … Read more

Spreadsheet123 specializes in Microsoft Excel add-ins; its Packing Slip Template adds the ability to easily create custom packing slips from within Excel, using its familiar interface and controls. It's designed with the small-business user in mind, but at less than $5, it's so affordable that anyone can make use of it to create customized packing slips for mailing stuff, marking storage boxes, inventories, and myriad other uses. For smaller businesses, though, it's a cost-effective way to reduce human errors and speed shipping while still saving time over traditional methods, not to mention the cost of expensive, specialized … Read more

Microsoft said Monday it expects to have a public beta by July for the first service pack update to Windows 7.

The announcement came at the start of Microsoft's TechEd conference, being held this week in New Orleans.

Although the update is relatively minor, the release of the first service pack of an operating system has historically been a symbolic indication to businesses that the software is ready for mass consumption. In recent years, though, Microsoft has issued many of the updates that are part of a service pack ahead of that release and the company has encouraged businesses … Read more

One week after it shipped the first map pack for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the PC and PlayStation 3, Activision has announced a second batch of downloadable content (DLC).

Like the original Stimulus Package, the Resurgence Pack will first arrive on the Xbox 360 before coming to Windows systems or Sony's console. The five-map add-on will debut on Xbox Live on June 3, with the other platforms receiving it at a later date.

Read more of "2nd Modern Warfare 2 DLC hits XBL June 3" on GameSpot.