Posted by: admin in Windows 7, Microsoft on
Mar 16, 2009
From TechReviewSource.com's insider Microsoft source:
Windows 7
The most recent build compiled is build 7061 on March 11, 2009
Internal RC-escrow builds of Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 will be delivered to select testers on the fourth week of April 2009
Release candidate for Windows 7 & for Windows Server 2008 R2 will be released to the public during the last week of May 2009
Office 14
First beta of Office 14 will be released in early July and will not be available for public testing
Second beta version of Office 14 will be released in early November
Final RTM release of Office 14 is scheduled in early March 2010
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
The RTM release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is planned for early October 2009
Posted by: admin in Windows 7, Microsoft on
Mar 12, 2009
Posted by: admin in Windows 7, Microsoft on
Feb 26, 2009
As many media outlets are reporting, Microsoft will be shipping the RTM to computer manufacturers in September 2009. My Microsoft insider source has confirmed this release schedule.
My source has also told me that Microsoft is planning Ocotober 27, 2009 as the day that Windows 7 will be available via retail outlets as a standalone package. The date is pretty solid according to my source and Microsoft is hoping to get this thing out the door and on store shelves in retail boxes and installed on computers before the start of the holiday shopping season.
Also, in the RTM, expect to see several new features added to Windows 7 that were not in previous builds.
Posted by: admin in Windows 7, Microsoft on
Feb 20, 2009
From TechReviewSource.com's Microsoft Insider:
Next week, Windows 7 beta users will get a variety of updates, only they aren't really updates.
Instead, Microsoft said it will be sending the patches to test the operating system's updating mechanism. These updates won't actually add new features or update anything.
Starting February 24, Microsoft will be releasing up to 5 test updates to PCs running the Windows 7 Beta (Build 7000) via Windows Update. These updates allow us to test and verify our ability to deliver and manage the updating of Windows 7 as Microsoft typically verifies servicing scenarios during a beta.
Posted by: admin in Windows 7, Microsoft on
Feb 1, 2009
Microsoft has confirmed that there will not be a second beta of their upcoming Windows 7 operating system. The next test version will be the release candidate (RC), which will be near-final and almost fully-featured as the final release version.
The Windows engineering head Steven Sinofsky announced that Microsoft is planning on sticking to their original plans for just having one beta, which was released earlier this January. "The next milestone for the development of Windows 7 is the Release Candidate or 'RC,'" Sinofsky wrote. "Historically the Release Candidate has signaled 'we're pretty close and we want people to start testing the release, especially because all the features are done."
Users have until February 10th to download the latest beta of Windows 7, which is pretty much fully-featured and as stable as the final version of Windows 7 will be when Microsoft releases it. Microsoft hasn't announced when the RC, or the final release, will be available. However, it is speculated that Microsoft is aiming to release the final version of Windows 7 by the 2009 holiday shopping season.
Read our full review of the Windows 7 beta right here at TechReviewSource.com.
Posted by: admin in Microsoft on
Jan 26, 2009
Microsoft has made the release candidate of Internet Explorer 8, which is the next version of its widely used Web browser, available for download during the day on Monday, Jan 27th. The RC (release candidate) is the last step before the final release of the browser and only has a few changes from the beta version released earlier.
You can download the IE8 RC1 from Microsoft's Web site and is available for users of Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista. Any other version of the Windows operating system isn't supported by IE8. We should also note that this RC1 version of IE8 will not run on any beta version of Windows 7, even the recently made public beta version. However, when Windows 7 is made final, Internet Explorer 8 will be the default browser.
Microsoft has said that this release of the RC1 is pretty much what the final release of IE8 will both look and work like. The general manager for the Internet Explorer team also said that the new stuff in RC1 is "mostly polish at this point" and the biggest change is in the favorites bar, where an icon-only view has been added to allow more favorites to fit on the bar.
Some of the new overall features that have been present in the past IE8 betas and now the RC1 is improved RSS handling, better search in the location bar, and easier to understand security features.
Posted by: admin in RIAA, P2P, MPAA on
Jan 19, 2009
With all the fuss over file-sharing on P2P (peer-to-peer) networks and the fight that the RIAA and MPAA are putting up to try to get ISP's (Internet Service Providers) to disconnect users who file-share, a new survey tells all. The study from The Leading Question and Music Ally says that 64 percent of users will stop file-sharing when given a warning from their ISP.
Respondents that currently shared files online, reported that 41% of them would stop after a warning and 63% when disconnection was threatened against them. However, 37% of current file-sharers said that they would not stop using P2P networks when threated with immediate disconnection from their ISP.
It seems as though warnings and termination notices will stop casual file sharers, but will do nothing to stop the real users of P2P networks that the RIAA/MPAA are really after. This looks like the never-ending battle between file-sharers and recording industry lawyers will continue to see another day. Perhaps we will never see an end to this, only time will tell.
Would you stop file sharing if you were served with a warning or disconnection notice? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Posted by: admin in Apple on
Jan 13, 2009
Apple may have made most of its iTunes Music Store DRM-free, but there's a few things you need to know before you rush to convert all of your old music to the DRM-free iTunes Plus version.
First off, not all music on the iTunes Music Store is DRM-free...yet. About 80% of their music is DRM-free as of right now and the rest will be in April 2009. Secondly, it will cost you $.30 for every song you want to convert to iTunes Plus, so that could get costly if you have a lot of music you want to "upgrade."
The iTunes Plus songs are still not in .MP3 format, but rather in AAC format, which is a more modern alternative to MP3 files. The iTunes songs will have the file extension of ".m4a". Many newer audio players support this format, but if not, you can create MP3 versions of the files if you need to. The upgraded songs do have twice the audio quality of the originals...now 256kbps instead of 128kbps, which is a significant upgrade.
Just to let you know, your personal information is still stored in iTunes Plus songs even though they are DRM free. According to online sources, if you open one of them with a text editor, such as Notepad, you can search the document (which will appear as random text) and find the e-mail address registered to your iTunes account embedded into the song. So before you start sharing music with friends and family, just remember it can be traced back to you.
Apple has made it very easy to upgrade your library of iTunes songs, making it available on the iTunes Music Store homepage. The whole process is essentially just a few clicks and all of your ratings you have given the old music is preserved in the new songs.
Posted by: admin in Microsoft on
Jan 5, 2009
In December 2008, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer market share has dropped to its lowest point since 1999. According to a report from Net Applications, Internet Explorer accounted for 68.15% of all Internet traffic, which is a 1.5% drop from November 2008. The users that Microsoft has lost, other browsers have gained. For example, Firefox picked up some of those lost IE users and now has a 21.34% market share. Safari reached 7.93% and Google’s new Chrome browser went above 1% for the first time to 1.04%. Over the last year, IE has lost almost 8% of its market share, which is not good news for Microsoft.
It’s apparent that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer will be hemorrhaging more users in the future and that only opens the doors for other browsers. While I’m not a Google Chrome user, I may feel compelled to try it out and maybe switch to it from Firefox in the near future. But I haven’t come across anything better than Safari on the Mac side of things. I am disappointed at Safari on Windows, but Apple has been improving it.
For curiosity sake, here are the browser stats for TechReviewSource.com for the month of December.
Firefox: 43.97%
Internet Explorer: 42.48%
Opera: 4.54%
Chrome: 4.21%
Safari: 3.80%
Posted by: admin in Apple on
Jan 4, 2009
The chatter surrounding rumors over what Apple has up its sleeve for Macworld 2009, which starts January 5th, has really picked up over the last few days. I've been reading various sources online and I'm seeing a consensus in some things and some speculation way off the radar.
It seems pretty sound that Apple will update its Mac Mini line at Macworld this year. Its been a while since the last update and Apple will want to re-launch this cheaper system to further entice Windows users to switch to Macs.
Secondly, I've read that a few people speculate that Apple will release the "iPhone Nano", which will be a miniature iPhone. However, I don't see any chance of that happening because it just doesn't make sense. There wouldn't really be any selling point for something like that. There may be a software update unveiled for the iPhone/iPod Touch that will add features (cough...cut & paste...cough). But whatever it is, it won't be big.
However, what I really hope to see is the removal of DRM from Apple's iTunes Music Store. It has been happening on other online music stores and I think we're bound to see it happen on iTunes any minute. Apple has been offering "iTunes Plus" songs that are DRM free for the same price of $.99 as other encrypted music. If Apple can get the record labels to agree to sell their music for the same price without DRM, that will make the iTunes Music Store superior to other online stores. If Apple can't get them to agree to that, maybe if they offered a DRM-free version of every song on iTunes for a little more money, such as $1.29, that would be a big step too.
Even though Steve Jobs won't be delivering the keynote address at Macworld this year, Apple will still show us something that everyone will be talking about. However, I don't think we can expect anything earth-shattering from this year's Macworld Expo...but only time will tell.
