…and…

Sure, none of us has used it yet, but the same was true when Apple first demo’d the iPhone. But based on what we’re seeing here, Microsoft has gone way past everybody else, including Apple, to dream up and deliver something truly new and wonderful.

And if the above isn’t enough, there’s a longer hands-on video from MSDN’s Channel 9 here: (UPDATE: Which wasn’t working, so here’s the link)

• Norton Antivirus 2010, Free
• Nero 9 Reloaded, Free
• Global Protection 2010, Free
• System Mechanic, Free
• Trend Micro Internet Security Pro, Free
• NTI Shadow 4, Free
• McAfee Internet Security 2010, Free
• NTI Media Maker 8 Suite, Free
• Fireman 3.0, Free
• Bitdefender 2010, Free
• AVG Antivirus & Antispyware, Free
• PC Tune-Up 2.0, Free
• Spysweeper 2010, Free
• Stuffit Deluxe 2009, Free
• Corel Family Pack 2009, Free

I dunno about you, but this selection would mostly cause me to buy Windows 7 someplace else. Read more after the clicky thingie…

Why on earth would they give people FIVE anti-virus programs?! You can’t run more than one anyway, so four of those are automatically useless. Plus, the only one of those I would trust on a PC is AVG…which you can get for free anyway. But why bother? Just run Microsoft Security Essentials which is, you guessed it, free.

Nero 9 is probably enticing to some people. I had to look up the Corel Family Pack 2009…it’s like Microsoft Works, but hopefully with less suckage. Thing is, though, Microsoft will be offering free, reduced-functionality versions of its core Office apps to people with Office 2010, but that’s not til next year obviously.

Some of that other stuff…System Mechanic, NTI Shadow, NTI Media Maker, Fireman, Bitdefender, PC Tune-Up, Spysweeper…I wouldn’t install ANY of that stuff on a PC.

Finally we get to Stuffit Deluxe, which is like the Mac-based, retarded cousin of WinZip. Let’s not forget that Windows has compressed files built in…you can open Zip files and even create them without installing anything extra. If you want extra functionality, get WinZip. I have never needed to use Stuffit except to open Stuffit files from a Mac user. How often does that come up? I haven’t used it in like 2 years.

Keep in mind that these pieces of software are free after rebate…which means you have to send stuff in…and you probably have to register them. Even the four anti-virus software packages you’re definitely not going to be using. Which also means that now all those companies will have your contact info. Does that sound like something you want?

Do yourself a favor…do NOT install crapware on your new PC, especially if you’re installing Windows 7 on it. Leave it running well the way it should.

I know, I know. You’re thinking that you’ve always wanted a Whopper with 7 patties on it. Well, if you’re Japanese, you’re in luck. Because now you can go get this Windows 7 promotional Whopper at Burger King in Japan that actually has 7 patties on it.

It’s about 5″ tall and costs $8.50. I have no idea how you’d eat it, but if you’re a woman and you can get that in your mouth, I’ll be your best friend.

Electronista

So today’s the big day. Windows 7 is available to anybody who wants it. That includes me. I like a lot of the stuff they’ve redone since Vista (but I’ll reiterate that I like Vista and think that the bad rap it’s gotten has been mostly because of perception and very little because of reality).

Don’t forget that you can get a Family Pack version of Windows 7. It’s an upgrade, so you have to currently own a copy of Windows for each machine you’re putting it on. But it’s only $150 which, for three computers, is a pretty good deal.

Over at Ars, there’s a whole article about what a big deal it is that Microsoft will be shipping Windows 7 to EU members without IE8 installed, instead giving users a “voting screen” in which they can choose from up to 10 different browsers. On top of that, Microsoft will roll out the voting screen to Vista and XP as updates as well.

But I’m not sure that it’s as big of a deal as Ars’ Emil Protalinski thinks it is.

You can read all about the mechanics of how the voting screen will work, as well as its limitations in the article I linked to above, but my thinking on it is this: Any browser that’ll be part of the voting screen is freely available online anyway, which means that people who want Firefox, for instance, can just download and install it. So the voting screen is really targeting those consumers who, perhaps, are unaware that there ARE other browsers available or who, like my parents, don’t really know what the word browser means.

Think about that for a second…do you think people who are either a) unaware of the fact that they have a choice in browser or b) don’t know that the ‘browser’ is what lets them surf the web are going to choose a browser they’ve never heard of, when the ‘blue e with the thingie around it’ is familiar to them and staring them right in the face?

The only part of this whole situation that does seem, at least in theory, like a big deal is the fact that PC manufacturers selling in the EU can choose to include browsers other than IE8…and choose to NOT include IE8…on new machines. That has the potential to be significant, but again, are they going to risk giving less tech-savvy users an unfamiliar experience? The netbook craze has shown us that, even with the prospect of saving $50 off of an already inexpensive computer, users would still rather have XP than Linux because they already know it and are familiar with it.

Granted in that example, there’s also the issue that a netbook running Linux instead of XP won’t run any Windows software out of the box, but I still think that the vast majority of average PC consumers are going to choose IE8 on that voting screen anyway.

NOTE: To subscribe to the pause.com Entertainment Podcast on iTunes Click here to open iTunes to our podcast, then click the SUBSCRIBE button.

In this (rather short) episode:

In Video Games, Lou talks more about Fallout 3‘s latest DLC, Point Lookout and its crashiness. Tony talks about Rock Band II. Some miscellaneous video game news follows.

In TV (~18:25) the guys talk about Warehouse 13 and Top Chef Masters. Tony talks about Science of the Movies, and then random TV news after that.

In Movies (~52:35), Tony talks about Burn After Reading and Lou’s got…nothin. Random movie news after that, including this week’s edition of Re-make/boot/imagining Hell.

In the Mash-Up (~1:23:35), the guys go over all sorts of fun and exciting gadget, technology and car news.

As always, the end of the episode is when Tony & Lou reveal their votes for this week’s Best & Worst entertainment moments.

The pause.com Entertainment Podcast is hosted by long-time friends Tony Incopero and Lou Zucaro. Join them as they discuss all sorts of fun things in the world of entertainment, gaming, gadgets, cars and more with a healthy dose of their sense of humor.

iTunes subscribers! If you’re not seeing this episode on our iTunes page (linked at the top of this post) never fear! Just make sure you’re subscribed and your iTunes software on your computer will retrieve the latest episode. Just hit the refresh button in your library’s Podcasts page if you don’t see it!

But late yesterday, Google officially announced that they’re developing a product called Google Chrome OS, a full-on operating system for PCs that is designed specifically to run on netbooks, but which Google claims could power full-size PCs as well. Hit the clicky thingie to read more…

It sorta makes sense if you think about it…Google’s apps are all web-based, and netbooks are designed to access just the web anyway. And Google just pulled a bunch of their apps out of Beta status. And, really, all they need to do is have a small & lightweight enough of an OS to simply open the Chrome browser.

Not that this is an easy task, mind you. Think about how well Vista or Windows 7, for example, do at installing without making you do much work in terms of collecting and setting up drivers…this is one of Microsoft’s major accomplishments in the PC landscape. Even the formerly-Intel Moblin OS for netbooks, which has since been turned over to the Linux Foundation, has been in development for two years and still isn’t quite ready for primetime. It was designed specifically for netbooks and MIDs running Intel Atom processors…and, again, created initially by the processor’s creator…and there still plenty of issues with it that would keep the average user from being able to just “install it and run it”.

So Google definitely has its work cut out for it in developing the Chrome OS. Evidently, it’s a fair ways along, though, as they also announced that it’d be available later this year, and that netbooks with Chrome OS pre-installed will go on sale in the second half of next year. As such, they must feel that it’s, say, nine months away from being “done”.

In any event, you can be sure that there are some high blood pressure readings happening in Redmond right now, as Microsoft’s operating systems, whether the forthcoming Windows 7 (which, in its Starter edition guise should be a good offering for netbooks) or Windows Mobile, are likely viewed as either being too much or not enough of an OS for the netbook and MID platform.

With the 6.5 refresh and version 7 of Windows Mobile looming in the future, Microsoft has an opportunity to catch up with what others are doing in the space, most notably the iPhone OS, Android, WebOS and, now, Chrome OS, but the question remains as to where they’ll place their target and whether or not they can hit it.

New York Times

That’s right. Head over to Microsoft’s web site, where you can score a pre-order of Windows 7 Home for just $50 or Windows 7 Professional for $100. You have to be using a previous version of Windows to qualify for the upgrade, but the upgrade versions are complete and can be used to do a clean install (not just an “install over”) or even a dual-boot.

No word yet on whether there’ll be an equally sweet deal on Windows 7 Ultimate (currently, there isn’t), but we’re hoping to get an answer on that soon.

Also, today’s the official day on which you should be able to buy a new PC with a certificate for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it’s released in October. Now, when this happened with Vista, it took a few weeks after the official “on sale date” for Vista to actually get your free upgrade, so it may be the same kinda thing with the Win 7 upgrade certs.

So far I haven’t seen any “buy now, get a free upgrade” notices on any of the major manufacturer’s websites, but Best Buy is all over it.

UPDATE: Dell‘s got it on their site now, although you have to look for it. HP sort of has it going on, but the links to the various regions seem to be broken.

Microsoft

I was reading an article on ZDNet a little while ago and noticed this ad from Microsoft for Windows 7, in which they try to convince you that moving your development to Windows 7 is a good idea by showing you what is, presumably, a big company who’s doing just that. Unfortunately, it would seem the ad creative team that developed this ad has some, shall we say, less-than-seasoned individuals on it. Individuals who seem to not know that FPO means “for placement only” and that the red square in the ad was supposed to be replaced with an actual developer’s logo.

Oops.

NOTE: To subscribe to the pause.com Entertainment Podcast on iTunes Click here to open iTunes to our podcast, then click the SUBSCRIBE button.

In this episode:

In Video Games, Tony talks about Infamous on for the PS3 as well as the forthcoming Uncharted 2. Lou talks about, um. Uh. Oh, a bunch of news from E3, including all of the Microsoft announcements from day 1.

In TV (~27:00) the guys talk briefly about I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here, Conan’s first night, Britain’s Biggest Spenders and Lou even talks about Kipper…yes, the little cartoon for little kids…before going over bunches of miscellaneous TV news.

In Movies (~47:00), Tony talks about Up! and Lou talks about Taken on DVD. Miscellaneous movie news follows.

In the Mash-Up (~1:07:10), Lou talks a bit about New GM, then the guys talk about more new iPhone rumors and other random tech, gadget and car stuff.

As always, the end of the episode is when Tony & Lou reveal their votes for this week’s Best & Worst entertainment moments (which Lou really has trouble with this week).

The pause.com Entertainment Podcast is hosted by long-time friends Tony Incopero and Lou Zucaro. Join them as they discuss all sorts of fun things in the world of entertainment, gaming, gadgets, cars and more with a healthy dose of their sense of humor.

iTunes subscribers! If you’re not seeing this episode on our iTunes page (linked at the top of this post) never fear! Just make sure you’re subscribed and your iTunes software on your computer will retrieve the latest episode. Just hit the refresh button in your library’s Podcasts page if you don’t see it!

Microsoft’s foldy Arc Mouse has been a hit ever since it first surfaced last year. I’ve gotten three of these for various laptops for myself, family and friends. It works well, the transmitter is small and easy to store on the backside of the mouse’s tail before folding it up and slipping it into its pouch, and it has the thumb button on the side that I like to use so I don’t have to mouse up to the ‘back’ button every two seconds.

And soon you’ll be able to get it in even more colors: Frost White, Eggplant Purple, Deep Olive Green and Marine Blue. I’m diggin’ the green one. And I still think that if these had babies with SkyNet, we’d see the birth of the Droideka.

Microsoft showed this video at the Wharton Business School…a teaser of the possibilities of where technology and computing are going in the next 10 years.

What you’ll see are lots of really, really cool surface computing concepts, wall-sized screens, synchronization between handheld and stationary platforms, viewpoint capture and recognition and oodles of flowy, flippy, groovy interface design with some great colors.

MSN Video via Gizmodo

Microsoft put out a press release yesterday indicating that they’re going to be opening some retail stores. Heading up the group is former Dreamworks Animation and Wal-mart exec David Porter. Of course many people will see this as Microsoft competing with Apple more directly in the retail space, but I think that Apple is pretty far down the list of reasons why they’re doing this. For Microsoft, this is a chance to completely alter the public’s perception of the company.

Hit the clicky thingie to read more…

Microsoft is in a fairly unique position in that it is so ubiquitous in our lives, thanks mostly to Windows and IE and, for a smaller number of people, Office and Windows Mobile. Yet it seems at times like there are more people who hate Microsoft and their products than like them. You don’t really see this too often in an industry. Odds are you’re not gonna hear people bashing Budweiser, Kleenex or Levi’s with the same negative passion that’s so common about something like Windows. And what’s funny about it is that, for the most part, the hatred for Windows and All Things Microsoft is largely uninformed. I’m not suggesting that Microsoft or Windows are without their problems, but the vast majority of people I hear complaining about Vista, for instance, have either never used it or can’t tell you anything specific about why they hate  it.

“Oh, man, I HATE Vista!”
“Really? Why?”
“Oh, come on! It sucks! I mean…it just…it’s terrible.”
“What don’t you like about it?”
“Well, I’ve never used it…I’m still on XP THANK GOD…but my buddy told me all about it. It’s a disaster!”

Nobody would be surprised by this conversation, and many of you have probably heard something similar. The fact is that hating Microsoft has almost become a national pasttime. Just like there are people who love to go to baseball games because of the experience more than the game, there seems to be no end to the number of people who express strong, negative opinions on Microsoft and Windows, just because to do so is to be part of some strange societal party.

Microsoft could do a lot to break up that party by being smart about their retail stores, what’s in them and what kind of experience they create for the people who visit them.

Just look at what happened recently with the Beta of Windows 7 and Microsoft’s willingness to not only listen to people, but to actually change a major aspect of Windows 7 security right before our very eyes in order to placate the public, even if what the public was asking for wasn’t entirely necessary.

Suddenly, Microsoft was a bit different. It was a little bit less an evil empire in the eyes of a lot of people, and a little bit more a bunch of people trying their best to make a great product that their customers will like.

The same opportunity exists in retail for Microsoft, but they need to give extremely careful consideration to what they’re going to showcase, product-wise, and how they’re going to make the experience for visitors to those retail spaces informative, fun and satisfying.

And it won’t be easy. Unlike Apple, Microsoft doesn’t make computers and can’t control, beyond certification of compatibility, what goes into the computers that their retail customers will be using. Think about Microsoft trying to do something akin to Apple’s Genius Bar and you can imagine how difficult of a proposition that is with an infinite number of system specs and pre-installed software. Sure, they could limit such services to just dealing with Microsoft software, but Granny who’s been waiting for 45 minutes may not emotionally be able to separate her frustration from the fact that Microsoft, indeed, is not responsible for the trouble caused when she downloaded 3,000 free smileys and started having trouble browsing the interwebz afterward.

I do think having a help desk at Microsoft stores, just for Microsoft consumer produccts, would be a great idea. But I think it might be in Microsoft’s best interest to also hold free classes from time to time on the basics of using a computer. Cover the things that SO many non-tech-savvy users have trouble with or don’t know about. Many of these things might seem ridiculous to experienced users, but many people don’t know about right-clicking, mousewheel scrolling, what the difference is between the IE address field and the Google search field (ugh) and the biggie that plagues more people than you can imagine: How to choose where you save files and how to find them again – unbelievably, the most basic concepts about the file system hierarchy are completely lost on more users than you can imagine.

It might be nice to see a home theater setup at a Microsoft store, to show people how cool Windows Media Center is and how it can be integrated with a home entertainment system, either through a PC or remotely through an Xbox 360.

Computers should be set up to showcase specific components of Windows and Office that not only allow people to learn about them in the first place, but that get people excited about using them.

I think it’d also be really cool to see exclusive previews of upcoming game titles both for the PC and the Xbox 360, and this is one way that MS could really engage people and bring in bodies: Have mini in-store events where new titles will be unveiled or shown off even before demos are released publicly, before they’re covered in the gaming press.

And how about running videos or showcasing other creative endeavors that were created with Windows software like MovieMaker? Things like this will go a long way toward building community and educating people as to how many things can be done in Windows that they might not know about.

And all of it helps to turn the tide in Microsoft’s favor at a time when they could really use it.

What about you? What would you want to see at a Microsoft store?

Ever since MS released the limited public Beta of Windows 7, the blogosphere has been abuzz with feature lists, mini reviews and, surprisingly, praise. Of course we wanted to see for ourselves what all the hubbub was over, but who would sacrifice their machine for the Beta? It turns out the answer was “Nobody”. Not because no one was brave enough, but because we had another idea. Since one of the complaints about Windows Vista (one of the only legitimate complaints, as it turns out) is that it doesn’t run well on, ahem, less than state-of-the-art boxes, we thought we’d put Win 7 to the test in exactly that arena. So we decided to build a machine from scratch, spending less than $500 for the parts, and in fact trying to buy basically the cheapest components we could that would a) yield a complete system and b) be in stock at the store down the street so that we didn’t have to commit treason against the urges of instant gratification we were feeling. Hit the clicky thingie to find out what we built and how Win 7 did (or didn’t do) on it…

Fortunately for the purposes of this test, there’s a TigerDirect Outlet about two miles from our offices. So we looked online and put together a wishlist of inexpensive components. Of course when I got there, only one item was in stock, which was the motherboard we’d picked out. Great. So, into the circular file with the list, then, and off hunting I went.

Ultimately we ended up with the following:

• PowerUp! Spider Series ATX Mid-Tower Case with 450W power supply – $39.99
• ASUS P5GC-MX/1333 Motherboard – $54.99
• Intel Core2 Duo Processor E7300 – $119.99
• Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz memory – $34.99
• EVGA Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT – $59.99
• Lite-On DVD-RW SATA – $34.99
• Seagate 250GB SATA 150 HDD – $44.99
• Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 – $14.99
• Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse – $12.99

Total purchase: $459.70
Minus rebates: $33
Total system cost: $426.70

So, you know, not too bad for a complete system. But also not the fastest system in the world (in fact, without getting ahead of ourselves here too much, Windows 7′s Performance rating for this machine came out to a 3 – three! - thanks, or not, to the hard drive, which was the weakest component in the system).

After about an hour, the system was built and I was ready to start the install, wondering how the installation process would be and how many, if any, of the components we’d purchased would be detected by Windows 7 and have their drivers properly loaded.

The first thing I’ll say is that Microsoft have done a fantastic job with the installation process so far. It’s not perfect, but it was by far the easiest Windows installation I’ve seen to date. It got into a GUI very quickly and asked very few questions along the way, the most important one being if this was an upgrade to an older version of Windows or a new install. The only part of the installation that I’d want to see improved is the fact that at one point, there was no “Please wait…” or cursor animation indicating that something was going on. I was afraid the install had stalled, but in fact there was just no feedback in that particlar part of it.

I selected our new, unformatted hard drive as the isntallation location, and Windows 7 didn’t even hiccup. It seems to have done a Quick Format, after which…

…Windows 7 Setup began the actual installation process…

…and a little while later, I saw the Windows 7 bootup screen for the first time. I like the fact that Microsoft chose to use an animation (some colored lights swirling in then forming the Windows 7 logo) rather than just a status bar for this. For one thing, it’s new and different and for another, it makes the bootup time seem even faster (and it’s MUCH faster than with Vista) because it’s a linear animation and not a repeating pattern, like the Vista status animation is.

Upon starting Win7 for the first time, we ran into the first and only installation issue, and that’s that the network adapter hardware on the motherboard wasn’t recognized by Windows 7. I tried to run the setup program on the CD that came with the motherboard, but it wouldn’t run, saying it wasn’t designed for this version of Windows. Hmm. Fortunately, copying the driver files to the computer from the CD and installing them manually (by going into the Device Manager) worked like a charm, and we were online in no time.

Once that was resolved, I immediately started to play around with a lot of Vista’s new features, such as the completely revamped Taskbar and its seriously fantastic functionality. For those of you who haven’t read up on Windows 7 much yet, the Taskbar is much different than in Vista and XP. By default, there isn’t really a distinction between what was the old Quick Launch and the main part of the Taskbar, other than the fact that items that you choose to pin to the Taskbar stay there, defaulting toward the left side of the Taskbar, near the Windows Start button, where they were with Quick Launch.

The default display scheme for the Taskbar shows a slight gleam around the edges of icons for programs that are open, whereas pinned items that aren’t running don’t have that effect. Mouseover effects are also enhanced for running programs. One of the coolest things, though, is that right-clicking on a Taskbar icon gives you some cool options under Windows 7, such as being able to launch a new instance of a program, or getting quick access to your history, when right-clicking on the IE icon.

Other nice additions are the ability to right-click on an empty part of the Taskbar and do very useful things like tiling or cascading open windows.

The Start menu also has some nice new functionality. Programs that create documents, like Word, Paint, etc., now will expand the menu to the right when moused over so that you automatically see a list of recent documents created with that program…very nice!

Another feature of Windows 7 that I like is the ability to have your desktop be a slideshow, not just a single image. This way, you can select whatever images you want and have them rotate at an interval that you set. It’s a nice way to keep your desktop interesting without having to wait for a screen saver to run.

In the Games folder, there are some new options as you can see in the above screenshot. You can now have games check for updates themselves. I imagine a game has to be written to take advantage of this feature, but it’s definitely a good one.

The Windows 7 Beta includes the IE8 beta, and here you can see a file download dialog that shows that the file you’re downloading was checked by the SmartScreen Filter, a component of IE8 that’s an extension and enhancement of IE7′s Phishing Filter.

There are loads more new features and improvements, sublte and not-so-subtle, in Windows 7, but to get back on point, let’s talk about how our little sub-$500 Frankenstein computer did, performance wise. I’m happy to say that Windows 7 runs extremely well and feels light and quick, even on this machine, which I would consider pretty close to entry level. Sure, you could get a $299 machine with a Celeron and 1GB RAM, but such a machine wouldn’t even run XP well once you got all your stuff installed.

On our test machine, though, Windows 7 not only feels more than acceptably fast, it’s actually fun to use. I never felt like I was waiting for things to happen, which is something that can happen on a Vista machine if it’s a bit underpowered or doesn’t have enough RAM.

Bootup time has been different most times that we’ve clocked it, but has averaged between 25 and 40 seconds, and shutdown time has been between 8 and 15 seconds. This is a huge improvement over Vista’s startup / shutdown times, even on a well-configured machine.

We even installed Tomb Raider Underworld and on this test machine it ran pretty well at 1440 x 900. There was a bit of “tearing” here and there, but it was definitely playable, and I suspect that TRU is likely about as intense a game as somebody would expect to run on a lowish-end machine anyway (although I’m sure there are those of you out there who will correct me on that).

Microsoft have said that this is the only public Beta for Windows 7 that they plan to release. To be honest, in the hours that I spent using Windows 7, I found so few issues that it seems like Microsoft may be a lot closer to releasing Win7 than most people might thing. It already feels pretty polished in most areas. I’m sure there’s still plenty that I didn’t see, and people have definitely found some issues here and there (there are definitely a number of bugs and features that are flaky), but in all, I was very impressed not only with Windows 7′s new features, but how “done” it all felt and, in particular, how well it rand on this inexpensive box that we put together.

The Windows 7 Beta is still available for download for a couple of weeks. If you have a spare machine to play around with or if you’re comfortable dual-booting, it’s definitely worth checking out and exploring.

Get the Windows 7 Beta 32-bit ISO file here
Get the Windows 7 Beta 64-bit ISO file here

Note that you’ll need a Product Key to activate your Windows 7 Beta, and Lifehacker has posted a handy set of instructions on how to get your key, here.

The Windows 7 Beta is set to expire on July 1, 2009, so hopefully it won’t be too much later when it’s actually released, as I have a feeling that a lot of people who start using it aren’t going to want to stop.

No, we’re not talking about IE8′s InPrivate mode again, although we can see why you’d be confused, what with the ‘blue’ reference and all. Perv. While you grumble in disappointment, I’ll continue by saying that MS first teased us with an animation on their hardware site. Then, it was spread across the net that Amazon in Spain already had the item listed. If some crazy Italian website is to be believed, Blue Track combines a blue LED with a wide angle lens to provide a tracking system for the mouse that combines the accuracy of a LASER mouse with the flexibility to be used on surfaces that would in general not work well with a LASER mouse. Personally, I would like to believe that they want us to say goodbye to the LASER and hello to the Phaser, and that everything in Star Trek is actually real, put into entertainment form by an intreped time traveler who made a deal with the government to keep things secret and who’s now going back on his word because they didn’t give him the private island that was part of the price for his silence. I’m afraid that the mouse thing is probably more likely. I guess we’ll have to wait til Sept. 9th to find out for sure.

Microsoft Hardware, Engadget

It was the ‘woot’ heard round the world. The IE Blog confirmed that IE8 will include a mode called InPrivate that prevents IE from saving data about the sites you go to while in that mode. In other words, it lets porn lovers love their porn without having to remember, when the boss walks in the office or the wife comes down into the basement, to empty the browser cache and history. Yes, I know women look at porn, too, but they do it while you’re at work. And usually the pool boy is there too. Making suggestions. And making fun of you. Sorry dude.

IE Blog

Yes, you lucky students, you. Those of us who’ve already learned everything there is to know don’t have access to this sweet deal, which is Office 2007 Ultimate for just $59.99. In case you never bothered to look, the non-student version is $679.99. That is, in fact, an ultimate steal.

Microsoft

But Microsoft, of course, would rather have people talking about Zune for what’s cool about it. Unfortunately, nobody, incluing Microsoft, has figured out what that is yet. Well, they think it has something to do with Zune Social, but they’re just not sure how to make the best use of it.

But according to a piece at the Hollywood Reporter, one thing is for them to offer exclusive video content. But how would they do this? Either they’d need a Zune-only file format or some type of check to make sure that the file in question would only play on a Zune. Either way, isn’t it likely that within a week, there’d be Zunebreak programs that would let you play it on another player? Like, you know, an iPod?

Props to MS for not just giving up on Zune, but I’m not sure that Zune entertainment development Director Richard Winn admitting that he got the “idea” for exclusive content after thinking about how Halo helped establish XBox is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that’s gonna make Zune as household of a name as iPod is.

Maybe Microsoft is just missing an obvious boat here: Since they’re the underdog in the media player fight, how’s about a series of TV commercials where one guy pretends to be a Zune and another guy pretends to be an iPod, and the Zune guy just picks on the iPod guy for 30 seconds?

The Hollywood Reporter

Microsoft is coming out with some new hardware this coming holiday season, including this mouse that looks like it might be a distant cousin of the Droideka. Sure, it looks all swanky and whatnot, especially when compared with a typical mouse, but if you buy one, don’t leave it alone with kids. Or pets. Or Jedis.

The press release Microsoft included with this (the one that they sent to Maximum PC and not us) claims that this was designed for trendy, fashion-conscious types, but we’re not convinced it’s not another ploy by the Galactic Empire.

Not worried about this mouse’s evil intentions? Then you may enjoy the fact that the transciever is supposedly so small that you can just leave it attached to your laptop all the time. It’ll be $60 in either black or red (hmm, the same colors as Darth Maul…coincidence?!). No word yet on whether this will include a forcefield protecting the mouse from laser blasts while still letting you move your cursor. But that would be cool.

Wow. Bill Gates’ last day at work. You have to wonder if the company gave him a watch or something. If not, I think I know where he can get one. Anyway…

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out if EVERYbody hates Microsoft, or if it’s just that Microsoft fans are sorta quiet. Well, I can tell you there’s at least one Microsoft fan out there, and that would be me. Ok, in reality, there are plenty of people who like Microsoft, and probably many more who would if they’d just stop to think about it for a second…

Microsoft has done amazing things for the personal computer industry, including achieving over 91% market share. And contrary to what many people think, Microsoft doesn’t even come close to having any type of monopoly in the PC industry. Aside from Mac, there are abour a zillion flavors of Unix, any of which can be installed on a PC.

But Microsoft’s biggest achievement, if you ask me, is in creating an environment in which people have so much choice of hardware and software and, for the most part, it works pretty well together. Sure, Windows has always had issues with hardware drivers, but there are literally millions of possible hardware configurations for a Windows PC and, for the most part, they work.

Does anybody remember the frustrating days of manually setting IRQs and memory ranges? When was the last time you had to think about that? When was the last time you paid attention to whether or not something was plug’n'play? These days you can go to a Best Buy, pick up a cheap USB peripheral, and often times you don’t even need to install a driver. Windows will recognize it and you can just start using it immediately.

For Windows to be able to work as such considering Microsoft doesn’t control the hardware side of the equation is brilliant.

So what are some other things about Microsoft that have been memorable over the years? Here are a few of our favorites, and least favorites.

Games

In high school, I got my first computer, which was…wait for it…an Apple IIe. Yes, I originally started out an Apple fan. And part of the reason for this was that some of the games on the computer were amazing. The graphics were mugh higher-resolution than what you’d find on an Atari 2600 for instance, even if developers didn’t always take advantage of them. But after a while, developers started to reach the limits of what they could do on an Apple II series computer, particularly since they didn’t include hard drives. And believe me when I say swapping out among a bunch of floppy disks while playing Ultima V wasn’t much fun.

In fact, I have to credit Origin Systems for my transition to the PC: The Ultima games were so much fun, so compelling and so expansive with each successive iteration, that it was Ultima VI alone that caused me to spend $3k of my extremely hard-earned cash on a PC just so that I could play it.

Over the past 18 years since then, all manner of games have invaded the PC landscape, and have increased in their breadth and visual beauty along the way.

And the experience of gaming on a PC is, in my opinion, still much more fun than playing games on a console. It’s more intimate, because of your proximity to the screen, and that allows for a much better experience, especially with certain types of games. And role-playing games don’t work as well on a console, without a keyboard.

Although credit for the majority of game-specific advances lies with each developer, Microsoft has done a tremendous amount of good for the game development community by creating a framework that virtualizes the hardware from the software. Again, looking back, it was not uncommon to have to have a sound card or video card that was specifically supported by the game that you were playing. Now, thanks to Windows and technology frameworks such as DirectX, much of that finagling has gone by the wayside.

Of course, the ubiquity of Microsoft operating systems, whether MS-DOS or the various versions of Windows, has done the most good for PC gaming, because it provided a market base big enough for game developers to make some money. And for that, we gamers are grateful.

The Two-Button Mouse

While Apple was the first company to include a mouse with a personal computer, their mouse has always had one button. Whether you’re talking about the very first Macintosh computer, or today’s highest-end Mac Pro, Apple’s mouse peripherals have always had a single button.

It was really Microsoft and, later, Windows’ context-sensitive pop-up menus that ushered in the era of the two-button (or more, these days) mouse. Thank you, Microsoft! Sure, function and control keys serve their purpose, but making it that much easier to get to common tasks has been a blessing.

I particularly loved it when MS later came out with the Intellimouse Explorer, with the side buttons (where your thumb rests) pre-programmed for Internet Explorer’s back / forward buttons. I imagine that my life will ultimately have on the order of 34 extra hours of quality time with friends and family (ok, fine, playing computer games) since I didn’t have to keep mousing up to the top-left corner to click back. The funny thing, too, is that Microsoft’s mouse (and keyboard) products have often been best-in-class.

Bob

Oh dear. I’m sure Microsoft is just thrilled that so many people remember Bob. Yes, Bob was a GUI on top of a GUI on top of a command line operating system, which should have been a red flag to Microsoft from day one. Bob was a way of trying to make Windows 3.1 (and Win95) easier for all those people who just couldn’t get the concept of multiple windows, task switching, multi-tasking, etc.

It was a GUI that aimed to be easy by being familiar. In concept it’s not a horrible idea. In practice it may have actually defined horrible. The problem was that Bob wasn’t so much familiar and easy as much as it was a hidden picture guessing game (with no score or reward) and a series of seriously sub-par productivity applications.

Despite all the pretty graphics (ahem) and cast of characters from which to choose to guide you through how to use your computer…every time you’d use your computer…Bob lasted only about a year, and was then thrown into the pit with the Atari 2600 E.T. cartridges.

Xbox & Xbox 360

True, I already said that I prefer PC gaming to console gaming, but one of the things that was so cool about the Xbox was that it didn’t suck. Not only did it not suck, it was actually pretty darn good. I was really looking forward to the Nintendo GameCube, having been a big Mario games fan for years, but instead of something even cooler than SuperMario 64, what we got was Luigi’s Mansion and it’s 54-button controls. Blech. Meanwhile, my girlfriend decides to go out and get me this new thingamabob called the Xbox by Microsoft.

This is one of the many reasons she’s now my wife. That and I somehow duped her into saying ‘yes’ woot!

Anyway, the Xbox had pretty terrific graphics and a cool controller made for guys with big hands (read: adults) which was pretty spiffy. Until they realized that kids weren’t too thrilled and they made those little dinky versions. No matter, the Xbox took off and launched some killer franchises, not the least of which include the Project Gotham Racing games and, of course, Halo.

The Xbox 360 followed up with a nice 1-2 punch, putting online gaming squarely at the center of the X360 experience. That, even more amazing graphics, a strong online community and a collection of solid titles has made the X360 the console to beat for older gamers (Wii takes the cake for the younger set, and the PS3 is, um, a black and curvy Blu-Ray player that we hear also plays games).

Windows Live OneCare

I’ll admit it. I never ran anti-virus software my computers at home until last year. It’s not that I think getting viruses is cool, it’s that just that, you know, I know how to not get them. And in the years since my first Windows 3.1 computer, I only had one virus…and that came from a floppy disk from the place where I worked at the time.

But last year before my wife’s old PC gave out (more on that later), she had a nasty bout of malware. Since I refuse to use Norton / Symantec products (too buggy and resource-hogging) and since McAfee erased half of the hard drive of a work PC a few years ago (too hard drive erasey), and after having mixed results with programs from CA and AVG, I decided to try Windows Live OneCare.

And I really, really like it. It set up quickly, protects against viruses, spyware / malware, incorporates firewall functionality AND even facilitates things like centralized backup on a home network and easy printer sharing between Vista and previous versions of Windows. And the better part is that all of it works and works well enough that you don’t even really notice it’s running. It doesn’t bug you with annoying pop-ups all the time, doesn’t seem to use much of the system’s resources, and…oh yeah, keeps nasty crud off your system. All for $50 for a year for up to 3 PCs.

If OneCare has any shortcoming, it’s that the user is removed from the technical aspects of what’s going on behind the scenes a little too much. I’d at least like the option to get in and find stuff if I want to, even if 99.99% of the time, I don’t want to.

Windows Vista

Ok, for our final entry here, I’ll say it again. Vista is really cool. When I first bought a new PC from Best Buy for my wife, it was because her old one (that I had built a few years back) had started to crap out on her. The HP I got her was the cheapest one available at the time, at $499 and included a free upgrade to Vista, which was being released to the general public a few weeks later.

When the upgrade CD came, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, as I hadn’t really played around with the Vista betas at all. Surprisingly, the upgrade went swimmingly. Nothing went wrong. No drivers were missing. And on top of it, Vista was really, really pretty. Sure, I was mildly annoyed with the fact that some things were in different places now, but I sorta liked where they’d been moved to.

The Aero interface is nice looking and, even on my wife’s $500 PC, pretty zippy I have to say. And Windows Media Center is very, very cool.

So far, Vista has been almost entirely trouble-free. Almost. In Feb, there were some Windows Updates that didn’t like something in my system configuration and the system would reboot itself once or twice a day. That was resolved by another Windows Update within a couple of weeks. That aside, on five computers (between home and office) in the past 16 months or so, I’ve had zero issues with Vista. And mind you, I’m not running a vanilla setup, either. I have two daisy-chained FireWire devices, including a pro digital audio interface, a webcam, a scanner, a printer and a few other things connected to this machine.

And, granted, although Vista is slower than XP with 1GB RAM, with 2GB-4GB, Vista works very nicely. And RAM is cheap these days.

Is Vista perfect? Of course not. Aside from things being moved around, there are certainly some quirky things about it, like the fact that the Sidebar can “leak through” to some games…and that you can’t tell the Sidebar Contacts widget to use Outlook’s address book rather than the Windows Contacts. But Vista’s the best consumer OS that Microsoft has made and definitely worth using.

Thanks Bill!

So on your last day of work, Mr. Gates, I salute you. True, you’ve had your share of misses over the years, but you’ve also had some hits, and most of all, you’ve created the world’s #1 PC operating system. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.