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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Reports: Window 7 Beta Expected In January

Houltmac/Flickr

Credit: Houltmac/Flickr


An early version of Windows 7, Microsoft’s follow-up to its ho-hum Vista operating software, may appear at a developers conference in mid-January.

Developers attending the 11-city one-day MSDN Developer Conferences will either be mailed or will receive the new software Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touts as “Windows Vista, a lot better.”

Microsoft has said it would unveil Windows 7 in 2009.

In a note to its developer network, Microsoft said Windows Beta 1 will be mailed to those attending the first three conferences in Houston (Dec. 9), Orlando, Fla. (Dec. 11) and Atlanda, Ga. (Dec.16).

“All attendees will receive a Windows 7 Beta 1 DVD” for conferences Jan. 13 in Chicago and Minneapolis, according to Computerworld.

In October, Microsoft distributed alpha versions of Windows 7 at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.

Apple in November let slip it plans to release Mac OS X 10.6, codenamed “Snow Leopard” during the first quarter of 2009.

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

5 comments

    Isn’t it enough the world’s entering a recession that we get even MORE crap thrown at us. Microsoft…why don’t you just take your garbage and vanish.

    …like it’s going to really change the way we all look at Microsoft…

    ehh that looks soooo ugly. Im still keeping my mac and old pc with XP

    Is vista a “ho-hum operating software”? I always thought it was more of a love-it-or-hate-it thing.

    well i would be interested in trying out this beta on one of my mothers pc’s

    how do you get to the beta? besides going to these conferences?

    interesting…im never going to go full time back to PC but it would be nice to have a good and stable operating system for my mother who hates windows wont use vista but is not interested in learning Mac due to her age…no matter what i say to her…lol

    let me know if there is a way to get to be a beta tester

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