Technical News
Windows 7 might be up and running in time for Christmas
Windows 7 will be rolling out a new Windows genertion with touch sensitive screens this Autum which will end
use of the legendary mouse.
Microsoft announced it will roll out Windows 7, which will take the place of the unpopular Windows Vista,
from October 22.
The launch is months ahead of schedule and the operating system will be ready for Christmas buyers.
Nine out of ten of the world’s computers run on Windows software.
Last year the software giant made about a third of its £60bn income from selling the operating system.
Windows Vista has been attacked for being too complicated and Microsoft bosses hope the new system will
restore public confidence in the product.
Office takes to the Web
Microsoft has hit back in style at Google by lauching its brand new Outlook online!
Office 2010 will include lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote when it ships next year.
Last week Google took aim at Windows with news of a free operating system while in June Microsoft introduced a new search engine called Bing.
Analysts have mostly given the thumbs up to Microsoft for moving some of its applications to the web, even if it might cost them dearly.
Excel spreadsheets can now run in the browser
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The Wall Street Journal has estimated that offering free online software could “put at risk as much at $4bn
(£2.46bn) in revenue”.
Microsoft’s announcement is being seen as the latest move in a tit-for-tat rivalry between two tech giants as it and Google increasingly make efforts to encroach on one another’s turf.
Windows XP is not done yet
Windows XP is still going, the 30th of June was supposed to be the day XP died.
A YEAR AGO Microsoft announced that Windows XP was deader than Elvis Presley and yet for some reason
the operating system appears to still be going strong.
Based upon user complaints, the Vole kept XP going and even found it a new market in the netbook world.
Microsoft will have to convince those XP users that Windows 7 is worth the money. Otherwise some of them
might decide to jump to some of the more friendly XP-ish flavours of Linux instead.
Digital Britian!
A report out today lays out the future for the UK’s digital technology.
Every person in the UK with a fixed-line phone will pay a “small levy” of 50p per month to pay for faster net access.
The national fund created by the levy will be used to ensure most Britons get access to future net technologies.
The Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw has outlined the report today.
The report also includes a pledge to curb unlawful file sharing by giving regulator Ofcom given new powers to
identify persistent pirates.
To encourage take-up of broadband services the government has appointed online entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox as the digital champion.
Mr Bradshaw told the Commons that the government intended to upgrade all national radio stations from
analogue to digital by 2015.
The main points of the future for Britons are:-
• a three-year plan to boost digital participation
• universal access to broadband by 2012
• fund to invest in next generation broadband
• digital radio upgrade by 2015
• liberalisation of 3G spectrum
• legal and regulatory attack on digital piracy
• support for public service content partnerships
• changed role for Channel 4
• consultation on how to fund local, national and regional news
One of the biggest surprises in the report was the promise to introduce a levy on fixed telephone lines in order
to pay for broadband rollout.
It will amount to a 50p a month tax for every household in the country with a fixed phone line.
Free Music Downloads with Virgin
Virgin and Universal have signed a deal to let Virgins customers download unlimited music for a small charge on
their broadband services. They say the charge will be around the price of two CD’s per month says bosses at Virgin.
They have not put an exact figure on this yet. As part of the deal, Virgin has pledged to aggressively police usage
to stop the MP3 tracks turning up on file-sharing networks.
Virgin said it would also offer an “entry level” service to fans that do not want unlimited access. Virgin said it
would also offer an “entry level” service to fans that do not want unlimited access.
Once you have paid for the service you can save all your music and even if you cancel the services with Virgin you
will still be allowed to keep the music downloaded.
This fantastic service will be launch December 2009.
The Google Wave is Coming…
Industry leaders have given the thumbs up to the Google Wave.
The stunning Google Wave has been described as e-mail for the 21st Century, rivaling Twitter and Facebook and
to Microsoft’s collaboration software, Sharepoint. Google may have a poor track record when it comes to making a business out of any of its products bar the giant that is google search but Industry leaders are liking their
new products, we will have to watch this space to see how well it takes off.
Could Google Wave acutally match the hype? We will see very soon.
New PC’s will be used for Windows 7
A market research company, has come up with the prophecy that when Windows 7 is released everyone
will rush out and buy a new PC to run it on is based on the idea that there is a lot of pent-up demand for
Windows because companies refused to buy Vista. But will Windows 7 slow the migration to Macs? and
will Windows 7 will have the steepest adoption curve of any new OS release since Windows 95?
Who knows we will cetanly be watching this space.
Amazon’s Kindle DX e-reader has been launched
The new Kindle DX E-reader has been launched in America today. Bosting a larger screen the new e-reader
is brilliant for college students, newspaper readers or anyone needing a larger screen to read from.
There’s no panning, scrolling, all the information is displayed on the screen for easy reading.
The new Kindle is 250% larger than there last one and has a built in PDF Doc reader. New York Times, Washington
Post and Boston Glob have added their editorial on the devise so far.
There are already some negatives being pushed its way though with people commenting on the Kindle as
“not being very portable”, “the price is too high £340 an increase of £87 from the last model”, “the Kindle DX
has 16 different colours of grey but no other colours and no video capabilities”
What do you think will the Amazon’s Kindle DX E-reader soon pave the way to life without paper rounds and books?
Virgin trials 200 Mbps internet
Virgin have lifted the lid that they are going to roll out trials for 200 Mbps internet.
The pilot scheme is the largest of its kind truping the measly effort of just 50Mbps, which now falls short.
Virgin has gone all the way, by partnering up with Cisco for this venture of delivering the next generation of
broadband to the home in which they’re trying to market under ‘wideband’ instead of just broadband.
This could very well be the first and the fastest implementation of the DOCSIS3 standard of cable internet access
in the world. With America and Japan only managing to reach 101Mbps and 161Mbps.
Virgin are still targeting this at consumers not businesses, trial started last week in Ashford with 100 people
trying out their fantastic new service.
Windows 7 – Credit Crunching Free for a Year!
Microsoft have effectively given away Windows 7 free for a year with the launch of Release Candidate.
The Release Candidate is now available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and has gone on unlimited sale.
The software will not expire until 1 June 2010, giving testers more than a year’s free access to Windows 7.
The software includes all the features that will be available in the final version although it has been said that
the software is not the finished product yet and final tests and performance enhancements are still being made.
Windows 7 is due to go one sale in 2010 but some companies have been letting it slip that it will be out by October
2009? Microsoft have stuck to their prevous statements by saying it will not be out until 2010.