Nice article on Win7 from Gizmodo...

Quoted: Like Elvis in '68, Microsoft is itching for a "comeback," and Windows 7 is the perfect excuse. In fact, this week in LA at the Professional Developers Conference, Windows 7 officially shoved Vista aside. Having suffered through the often deserved criticisms of that ill-fated OS installment, Microsoft's people are thrilled to tears to be able to talk about something (anything!) else. On Sunday, they took journalists through a lively 7-hour orientation on Win 7, then handed off a Dell XPS M1330 loaded with pre-beta Build 6801.

Quoted: Thankfully for the overworked, underappreciated developers at Redmond, it's surprisingly stable, and its look and feel already puts Vista to shame.

Some of my favorites comments...

Quoted: Looking good, probably will upgrade.
Quoted: so they finished vista, it took them long enough
Quoted: ALL of this should be in Vista SP2. Now another $300 upgrade
Quoted: Vista!!!! Clever you changing your identity, still trying to get into my pants?
Quoted: Looks like a slightly upgraded Microsoft BOB OS.microsoft Windows Walkthrough Boot Video and

All you can say is, wow. They actually tried and achived the worst web site design ever...

Quoted: News Haven, Information Reference Sources, Facts

Pretty cool. I've been expecting... hoping, something like this would come out of MS Research.

Quoted: It’s not often that I see software that really changes my world... Yesterday was one of those days. Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay, researchers at Microsoft, fired up their machines and showed me something that I can’t tell you about until February 27th. I’m sure you’ll read about his work in the New York Times or TechCrunch, among other places. It’s too inspiring to stay a secret for long.

Quoted: While watching the demo I realized the way I look at the world was about to change. While listening to Wong I noticed a tear running down my face. It’s been a long while since Microsoft did something that had an emotional impact on me like that.

I guess the fact that I initiated and PM'ed these doesn't warrant my name being mentioned.

Quoted: Correct me if I’m wrong but I think it’s been at least two Windows releases since any new or updated Windows Media Player visualizations. Sure, what comes in the box are still visualizations by definition, but I couldn’t consider any of them eye-candy.

Quoted: Recently, a new visualization pack made by two Microsoft employees in their spare time is worth checking out.

Ah, boo hoo....

Quoted: NBC Universal and Apple were unable to come to an agreement on pricing, leading to the a withdrawal that highlights escalating tensions between Apple and media companies.

A yes, MSFT likes to buy its users. Well, at least that's one way to do it.

Quoted: MSN and Microsoft Live's U.S. search query volume showed a 67% increase from May to June, according to a new report.

Quoted: A good portion of the additional Live searches are coming from the Live Search Club, where you can apparently play games for points which you can redeem for fine Microsoft products," said Steve Willis, a Compete analyst, in a blog post Monday. "All of the games involve using Live's search engine -- to get the points; you have to search with Live.

Good luck guy...

Quoted: French television presenter Philippe Gildas has sued Microsoft Corp. for "violation of intellectual property; accusing the software publisher of illegally using the trademark Vista.

Quoted: Gildas has indeed registered the trademark in categories 35, 38 and 41, which covers the entertainment and media categories he cited. However, he did not register it in categories 9 and 42, covering software and the design and development of computers and software, the areas relevant to Microsoft's operating system. Given that the trademarks registered by Gildas and Microsoft are in different categories, it may be difficult for him to argue his case.

Are you an Elitist?

Quoted: The Xbox 360 has gone Elite, as Microsoft launched yesterday the high-end version of its video game console. With a larger storage capacity, a sleek matte-black look and a high-definition video port, the Xbox 360 Elite will retail for $479.

In general, (Gartenberg) said he found the Elite to be "a nice evolution for the console. It adds HDMI and a larger hard drive," which supports the console's growing profile as a hub for entertainment beyond games. "If you look at the whole Xbox line," he said, "it's laid out pretty well, from low to high."