In case you’re still rocking Windows Vista dispite Win7 being a freebie, SP2 is now available for you to download right from Microsoft. Vista’s second service pack updates both the 32- and 64-bit versions. It’s probably best to ditch the crappy OS and update to 7 altogether, but it’s your call.
Microsoft has been putting together the Windows 7 Technical Guarantee Program and it appears that it’ll likely go into effect starting July 1st of this year. It’s that program that lets you purchase a machine with Microsoft’s current operating system and then upgrade it to the newest one when it launches, similar to what the company did when getting ready for Vista.
Here’s a tip: next time your company creates a snazzy marketing slogan make sure it isn’t misleading. Microsoft may be liable to the tune of $8.5 billion as a result of so many people buying “Vista Capable” PCs in the run up to Vista’s release in January, 2007. The problem is that, to the average person, “Vista Capable” means, “Hey, I can run Vista.” And you can, but only the most basic “this is Vista?” version.
This is the Phoenix. See how it resembles the mythical creature?
As if being green were some passing fad, HP announced two new desktops and a display today. The HP Pavillion Verde Special Edition a6645f (really?) and Pavillion Phoenix SE a6655f have energy-efficient AMD procs and they’re Energy Star qualified. The SE desktops can handle up to 5GB of RAM, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition, 15-in-1 card reader placed up front, and a SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe. The Phoenix boasts an AMD Phenom X4 9150e Quad Core proc and 640GB HDD. The Verde has an AMD Athlon X2 4850e Dual Core proc and 500GB HDD. Riveting, we know.
The former will start at $659 and will be sold exclusively through Best Buy starting November 9. The Verde will be available starting November 9 exclusively at Circuit City starting $579.
The aforementioned display is a massive 25.5-inch widescreen with a built-in 15-in-1 card reader, 2-megapixel webcam, built-in speakers, “multiple” USB ports, HDMI inputs and a high contrast ratio. The HP w2558hc is also Energy Star qualified. It’s available now for $599.
Wait. This is what qualifies as being “green?” An energy-efficient proc, various power settings and a 100 percent recyclable packaging constitutes being green and leaving less of a carbon footprint? Wow.
This enormous and allegedly unsolicited blog entry by an “ordinary Joe developer” (is he related to the plumber?) details some of the under-the-hood stuff that’s going on with Windows 7 development. Although Ballmer has described 7 as being “Windows Vista with clean-up in user interface [and] improvements in performance,” this guy seems to think it’s a little more than that. I nursed my hope that 7 would be a completely different experience for a while, but now it seems less and less likely by the day.
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You can now run Windows Vista on the PS3. More accurately, you can emulate Windows Vista on the PS3; “now” is also somewhat inaccurate, as the emulation is so slow it takes some 25 minutes for the operating system to boot up.
It works by running Qemu on Linux on the PS3, then running Vista in Qemu. The whole process takes about a day to get up and running.
Reminds me of kids trying to get Windows to run on Xbox1 using Bochs.
via PS3 Scene
What sounds like a headline from The Onion is from the real story of an area man who did get Windows Vista to work with his printer, but not without the help of Microsoft software engineers.
PI reporter Todd Bishop first brought word of the man’s trouble not long ago on the PI blog and local geeks wanted to help, as Seattle-area geeks tend to do. One helper was a Microsoft test engineer from the Windows printing group, who went out of his way to visit the man and fix the problem.
To be fair, it wasn’t really a Vista problem, as the man was installing the original XP drivers on the Vista system, which didn’t work. After removing the old drivers and installing new Vista drivers, they were able to make it work.
However the point remains that of all the work put into Vista, shouldn’t there be something that tells you when you’re doing it wrong?
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that consumers should be happy that they have the choice to downgrade from Vista to XP. (Remember, XP retail sales are set to end on June 30.) “I don’t know how you can do better than getting both,” says Ballmer, no doubt pained by all the reports that Vista isn’t so hot (to put it lightly), and that companies like Dell let consumers pick XP instead of Vista at checkout.
Even worse? Some companies are planning to skip Vista altogether, and will migrate to Windows 7 when it comes out next year.
The wow starts when?
Looks like Microsoft is serious about this Windows 7 thing. Starting Monday, hardware makers will have to make their drivers compatible with Windows 7 as well as Vista to get that coveted “Certified for Windows Vista” badge on their gear. Seems kind of unnecessary right now, since 7 won’t be out for another couple years, but I guess they don’t want a repeat of the XP/Vista driver debacle.
I’m more surprised that they have a build of 7 that the hardware testers can use to certify their stuff. We all saw the Windows 7 video last week, but is the OS really complete enough at this point that display drivers can be written for it?
Luckily, that’s not really my problem.
Parallels, the virtualization software that lets you run Windows apps on an Intel Mac, now supports Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. The latest version, which was released earlier today, costs $80, the same as VMware’s competing application Fusion.
I used Parallels once, sometime last year, and couldn’t couldn’t connect to the Internet within Windows. So I freaked out and installed Boot Camp. Problem solved, molehill into a mountain.
via MacUpdate
The HTC Advantage, enhanced for your pleasure
Not much new out of HTC this show. They updated the Shift to run Vista with the Origami Experience 2.0 (I saw these guys live at Red Rocks back in 1983 – great show) and an updated Advantage. They also launched the P3470 with TomTom Navigator in Europe. Nothing too earth-shattering but God do they do nice hardware.
Despite what others might say, over the weekend I broke down and upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate. I hit a couple driver-related snags, but was able to recover no problem. However, while I’ve been testing systems for months now with the OS on it and I know my way around Vista, I was dreading the upgrade. That got me thinking: What would my dad do (who’s pretty tech savvy, but a tad short on patience) or some completely normal non-tech-savvy person who’s heard about all the Vista beauty, but is afraid of the cost and possible inconvenience the upgrade might cause? You could always drag it into a CompUSA or let the chuckleheads at Best Buy do it while they steal your amateur pr0n and music. Or you can let YourTechOnline.com take over your system remotely and watch their every move.
The Canadian-based company offers all kinds of tech support options, but for $139.99 they’ll take over your PC and determine its Vista compatibility, figure out your backup requirements, start and verify the backup, format the hard drive and install Vista, verify the install, and finally get to restoring your stuff. You’ll have to supply your own copy of Vista, of course. Not a bad way to go if you’re not the DIY type.
If you don’t have anything nice to say about Windows Vista then don’t bother writing about it. That’s the general consensus on a certain post on eWeek’s Microsoft Watch. One of the writers over there recounted a story in which his sister bought a Sony Vaio laptop with Vista installed that had a Windows Experience Index score of 3.3—considering the laptop cost $1,500, shouldn’t the score be a little higher? As it turns out, the graphics card memory was responsible for the low score. His main point: buying a Vista PC shouldn’t have to be a $2,000+ affair.
And that’s when the fanboys tore him apart.
Quick heads up for the many gamers out there: The Windows Vista edition of Halo 2 ships on May 22, despite what we said earlier. It seems there’s been a slight delay to address some last minute technical issues. You’ll be able to play against Xbox owners on Live and against fellow Windows users for free. There’s also a map editor. Neat. Now bring on the third installment already.
One of the many wows of Windows Vista is SideShow, a technology that outputs information like e-mail onto screens other than a PC monitor. Using SideShow, this Ricavision Bluetooth remote control lets you navigate through your Vista PC’s media library, schedule TV recordings and read your e-mail without so much as leaving the couch (so long as you’re within 328 feet of the PC). The remote’s 2.5-inch QVGA LCD is large enough to display all of that info without straining your eyesight; who wouldn’t want to control the music without having to deal with a clunky mouse and keyboard?
Sure, such a fancy remote costs $200, but think of how jealous the neighbors will be when they see that, not only does your remote have a screen but that it can interact with your Vista PC. I imagine all they’ll be able to say is “wow.”
Product Page [Ricavision via I4U News]
Samsung’s Q1P ultra mobile PC (UMPC) is the first such device to receive Windows Vista certification. Now that it’s Vista certified, it can sit at the cool kids’ lunch table at school. UMPCs haven’t exactly lit the world on fire (just look at the price—$1,300? No thanks), but it’s good to see more and more devices support Microsoft’s version of OS X.
The Q1P’s stats are fairly plain, with a 60GB hard drive and 1GB of memory. The seven-inch touchscreen is plenty spacious, though, with which you can doodle the hours away then convert your handwritten notes into searchable text. Funny, Samsung wants the Q1P to be a hit with businesses and if there’s a group that’s more averse to using Vista than businesses IT departments, I haven’t seen it.
Press Release [Samsung via Fareastgizmos.com]
, CompUSA is more than happy to sell you the parts and service to make sure your computer is ready for the OS.</p>
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 close approximation of the final build of the software. These versions are buggy as all hell, but at less than the cost of a Whopper, that’s to be expected.</p>
<p>The Chinese government tends to look the other way when confronted with semi-piracy like this, as it has no love for Microsoft. That attitude is shaping up to be a major trade barrier between itself and the USA, though China’s argument that the average Chinese citizen can’t afford Microsoft’s prices seems to be a valid one, when at upwards of $500 for a fully-loaded version of Vista, the average American can’t, either.</p>
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 with a sassy black high-gloss piano finish to rev up there new Syncmaster LCD series. Details are skimp but we do know this much, contrast ratio is 3000:1 with 2ms response time. They’ll set you back about $400 and $475 respectively. </p>
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Samsung Vista LCD’s [AVING]
