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Windows 10 is coming to Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile chips
Microsoft's first attempt at bringing Windows to ARM-powered machines was, shall we say, not a good idea. But perhaps the second time's the charm. Microsoft and Qualcomm just announced that Windows 10 is coming to the next generation of Snapdragon mobile processors. And to be clear, they're referring to the full version of the OS, with support for legacy Win32 software and universal Windows apps. It won't be a stripped-down affair like Windows RT.
Microsoft mistakenly reveals 2009 launch target for Windows 7, again
If you haven't figured it out by now, Microsoft has two release dates for Windows 7: early 2010 according to its corporate PR stooges and sometime around mid 2009 according to everyone else. The reason for the padding is a fairly transparent attempt to avoid the public opinion fiasco resulting from Vista's chronic delays. Now Ina Fried over at CNET has it from Microsoft Director, Doug Howe, that Windows 7 should be ready for general consumption by the 2009 holidays. According to Fried, Howe's WinHEC presentation covering Microsoft's Velocity program to improve PC quality seemed to imply a mid-year Win7 launch. Apparently, a slide said that the Vista Velocity program would run through next spring and then continue on with Windows 7. Afterward, in an apparent direct response to the launch date question, Howe told Fried, "Definitely the holiday focus is going to be on 7." Using the Vista launch as a guide, that would put the new OS in the hands of OEMs and big business IT staff by mid-year, about 3-months before consumers if Vista's timeline holds true. This also aligns nicely with Microsoft's stated plan to launch the public beta early next year followed by a hinted, single release candidate prior to release for manufacturing. So go ahead, just make it official already Microsoft. You had us at pre-Beta.
USB 3.0 specification to be formally unveiled this month
We've already got the controller specs, now we just need the full-on protocol specs. Speaking at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Los Angeles, USB-IF president Jeff Ravencraft reportedly stated that he expects the "final specifications to be made public on November 17," and given that said day will mark the opening of the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference in San Jose, we'd say it all jibes pretty well. Now, how many months will we have to wait before manufacturers can actually get the hasty new ports into machines?
Video: Windows 7 Device Stage on Eee PC S101 running dual-core Atom
At WinHEC yesterday, Microsoft also announced early industry support of its Device Stage, advanced peripheral management scheme. So far, the list includes Brother, Epson, HP, Motorola, Nikon, Sansa, Canon, Sony and Nokia. This is more than just plug-and-pray kids, Device Stage is meant to provide users with customized device information and access to things like ring tones, direct management of ink cartridges and photo printing, or links to live customer service chat sessions -- just to name a few of the end user benefits. Microsoft demonstrated the new Windows 7 feature by attaching a Canon SD990 camera to an Eee PC S101 running a 1.6GHz "Atom dual-core chip" (the Atom 330, we presume) to upload a photo over Sierra Wireless' 3G data modem to Flickr, not Windows Live Photo Gallery... oops. See the full video after the break.Update: Microsoft's PR folks just got in touch to let us know that the device demoed was not a dual-core Atom, but actually a single-core chip. Apparently the speaker misspoke when mentioning what kind of processor was being used.
Video: Windows 7 promises faster boots and up to 15% better battery life
Now that Windows 7 has launched into pre-Beta, Microsoft has joined the world in Vista-bashing as they look to differentiate their newest OS from the incumbent. Speaking to its hardware partners at WinHEC, Microsoft is promising faster shutdown and startup times and less power consumption than its beleaguered predecessor despite the two sharing the same code base. In addition to an overall reduction in the number of services launched at startup, faster booting is achieved by loading device drivers in parallel instead of sequentially. Windows 7 also manages wireless radios better allowing them to drop below 100% power draw while managing the connection. And by tweaking the OS kernel, the CPU can sometimes run at a lower frequency and stay idle longer. This results are a minimum of 11% better battery life for Windows 7 compared to Vista -- and we're still only talking about pre-Beta Windows 7 software, mind you. Nice. Windows 7 also promises better memory management. So instead of managing all the background windows, Win7 offloads this to the GPU, for example -- system memory is then free for your applications and data. Check the trio of videos demonstrating these improvements after the break.
Windows 7 to be officially named... Windows 7
Microsoft is expected to be handing out pre-betas of Windows 7 to devs at WinHEC and PDC soon, and it looks like it's settled on an official name for its next-gen OS -- ahem, Windows 7. Yep, the code name is the real name, which is a first for Windows. According to Mike Nash on the Vista blog, the company went with Windows 7 because it "just makes sense" as the seventh release of Windows, and MS doesn't want to come up with a new "aspirational" name like Vista -- it "doesn't do justice" to the goal of staying "firmly rooted" in the ideas of Vista. Which probably explains why it looks so much the same. Sure, call it whatever you like, just get it out the door on time, okay?
Microsoft to hand out Windows 7 "pre-betas" at PDC, WinHEC
We've already seen a few apparent Windows 7 screenshots and videos turn up, and it looks like there could soon be plenty more where those came from, as Microsoft has now officially announced that it'll be handing out "pre-beta" builds of the OS at both the Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in late October and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in early November. As we had heard previously, you can also expect to hear plenty of technical details about the OS straight from Microsoft at PDC and, who knows, we may even get word of an actual release date.
Microsoft announces Next-Gen PC Design Competition winners
Taking a break from all the actual products being announced at this week's WinHEC conference, Microsoft has used the opportunity to announce the winners of its Next-Gen PC Design Competition, none of which you'll likely be able to get your hands on anytime soon. Taking home the $25,000 Chairman's Award was the MADE in China PC designed by John Leung of AARIVE Design (seen above), which was "specifically designed to bring computing closer to the world's 1.3 billion Chinese." Apparently, the surface of the device is actually a touchscreen, with the so-called "CHOPstylus" used for input. Among the Judge's Awards, the "blok" PC intended for use in kindergarten classrooms snagged first-place, incorporating building-blocks, keyboard mats, and digital markers into its design. Other winners include the BulbPC, designed to fit inside a standard grommet hole on a desk, and the Zeed+ for the Future PC, which is based on "Ikebana," the Japanese art of formal flower arrangement (upgrades are apparently done simply by replacing the "flowers"). Lastly, the People's Choice Award went to Zhu Fei's "Light up your Life" design, which consists of a "glowing cylindrical orb" that can act as a flashlight, portable multimedia player, or mobile phone. Check out the gallery below for a closer look at all the winners.[Via AARIVE]%Gallery-3165%
Gateway, LaCie and Medion join the Windows Home Server party
In addition to touting Vista sales, Mr. Gates also provided an update on their Windows Home Server (WHS) platform during his WinHEC 2007 keynote. While he didn't offer any updates to the ambiguous "later this year" release date, he did mention that Gateway, LaCie and Medion will join HP to delivery their own hardware products based on WHS. Specifically, the DLNA-compliant Medion Home Server will offer up to 2TB of storage and should ship before the year is up. Oh, and in case you're responsible for the corporate IT budget and staff allocation, you'll be interested to know that Gates and co. are on track with Windows Server 2008 -- formerly known as Windows Server "Longhorn" -- release for the second half of 2007.
Microsoft shows off "unified communications" devices
It's been almost a year since Microsoft first unveiled in "unified communications" platform, but it looks like the company now finally has some actual devices to go along with it, and it's using its big Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) this week to show 'em off. Coming from nine different manufactures -- including ASUSTek, NEC, Plantronics, and Samsung, among others -- the products include a variety of VoIP phones, headsets, monitors, and at least one laptop, which all promise to "just work" (sound familiar?). The products being shown off this week are also all geared specifically towards the workplace, with the phones in particular designed to give you constant access to email, instant messaging, and other things not normally associated with phones. While there's unfortunately not a whole lot of details on the products themselves just yet, you can get a quick look at some of them by hitting up the eWeek link below.[Photo courtesy of eWeek]
Samsung, Seagate show off ReadyDrive HDD prototypes
No surprises here: we've known since last WinHEC that Samsung was working on a so-called ReadyDrive hard drive that sports a 128MB flash buffer for enabling lower laptop power consumption, and just as we suspected, they've unveiled a working prototype of the technology at this year's conference. Also on hand with their own ReadyDrive was Seagate, who, like Samsung, plan to release their model when Vista finally starts shipping, as only the next-gen operating system will have the proper ATA driver command sets to allow for such a large buffer. PCMag was on the scene for one of Samsung's demos, and claim that a laptop running an office apps script only needed to access the hard drive every three to four minutes, which could result in ReadyDrive-equipped laptops sipping up to 40% less juice than models with those outdated, perpetually-spinning HDDs.
Microsoft demos SideShow-enabled products at WinHEC
Microsoft seems to have big plans for their SideShow auxiliary display technology -- besides the laptop and remote control implementations we've been expecting, they're also using the software for products that we didn't even know we needed, such as digital photo frames that overlay the picture with IMs and Outlook data. The frame, which is being manufactured by a company called A Living Picture, was one of three devices that Microsoft's senior project manager for Windows Client Greg Graceffo showed off at today's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), along with a modified Logitech G15 gaming keyboard and a universal remote from Exceptional Innovations. EI's remote, which will launch at the same time as Vista (whenever that is), looks particularly promising, as it allows the user to view program guides, RSS feeds, and other infoswag on the same gadget that can control both home theater equipment and home automation devices. As for the keyboard, well, keep reading if you're interested in seeing what an Outlook appointment looks like on a three-line LCD...
Hybrid hard drive due for this month?
We first heard about Samsung's and Microsoft's hybrid hard drive (HHD) over a year ago at last WinHEC 2005, and according to the Korea Times it would appear that after a year of waiting for the drive (and the operating system intended to run it -- Vista), it will be launched at this year's WinHEC. The world has yet to see what adding a 128MB buffer solid state storage area to a hard drive will offer in terms of performance and battery life when used in conjunction with Microsoft's Windows ReadyDrive (i.e. sleep / hibernation quick boot and suspend support), but we're all waiting with bated breath because anything to start moving us away from this whole spinning hard drive thing is fine by us, thanks.[The Inq]