Suggestions For Future Versions of Windows

The Windows Early Feedback program was created by Microsoft as a means of rounding up suggestions and feedback that may be considered for implementation in future iterations of the Windows operating system.

The team in charge of the program has collected and released a list of (what they consider to be) the top 61 suggestions to be presented to the development team of Windows 7.

The ideas being presented to the team range from basic usability improvements, such as a download manager in Internet Explorer, to more far fetched ideas, such as the ability to back up Xbox 360 games to a PC (good luck with that one). Some of the top suggestions are even features that were promised for and then dropped from Vista, such as a completely vectorized graphical user interface.

Check out the list by clicking the link below and let us know if anything catches your eye. Think you have a better idea? Let's hear it!

source: neowin.net


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Zune 80 Secret Leaked!

Have you wondered why the Zune 80 only has 1 color to choose from? Have you wondered if Microsoft is hiding some big secret for launch day?

According to our source inside of Microsoft, this information is absolutely top secret. Well, it was until now. Here is the exact leak from our source verbatim:

"...but there is something that Microsoft is holding onto releasing information about until Tuesday. They have been keeping this info very secret, as they want to get the "bang" effect when it is announced.

There is going to be an option from the Zune website called "ZUNE ORIGINALS". People who order their zune from Zune.net, will have the added bonus of being able to customize their zune. This will include colour, up to five lines of custom text, and the choice of 25 preset logos that they can have etched into their zune prior to delivery. There will be no added cost, but it is only available through Zune.Net...

...I do believe that Microsoft will go Ape$h%t if this info gets out before V2 release on Tuesday"

Well there you have it, customized Zune 80's direct from Zune.net including colors, text, and etched logos. But please keep this a secret, the last thing we need is Microsoft going Ape$h%t on us. If you are skeptical of our source, take a look at some documents and codenames he has revealed in the past months.

source: zunescene.com


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YouTube Introduces Multi-Video Uploading

YouTube is a website for people to communicate more efficiently with video by sharing, commenting on, and viewing videos.

The site was originally started as a personal video sharing service, and has rapidly grown into the leading video entertainment destination on the Internet, helping to pave the way for social networking to evolve into the many catacombs that is has indeed become, and the newest YouTube feature is setting a higher standard in video sharing.

YouTube's Multi-Video Uploader allows members to upload videos that are up to 1 gigabyte in size, compared to the previous limit of 100 megabytes. But note, a video must still be no longer than 10 minutes. And of course the main purpose behind this feature: the ability to upload many videos at once. So why is YouTube doing this? It is speculated that Youtube is trying to compete with another social networking video site (Vimeo), which announced it will now support high definition videos.

source: youtube.com/my_videos_upload


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Is Windows Vista Living Up to the Dream?

November 8 is the official release to manufacturing date of Microsoft's latest operating system.

A year ago Jim Allchin, the former Co-President, Platform and Services Division, who divorced from Microsoft on the same day Vista hit the shelves, being replaced by Steven Sinofsky with the role of Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, as the head of the Windows project, announced the Vista RTM saying just: "It's time!" This of course is a mere prefiguration of "the Wow is now" slogan designed to push the operating system to general consumers.

At that time Windows Vista was running on in excess of 60,000 machines over in Redmond and on a few million computers worldwide thanks to the testing milestone releases. According to statistics from Net Applications, Vista has a share of just 0.11% of the operating system market. Microsoft's five year journey from Windows XP in 2001 had finally delivered Vista.

"And just what is this so-called RTM? It’s the major milestone where we can confidently say that Microsoft is done with Windows Vista and will be handing it off to our industry partners: PC makers, ISVs and IHVs. They in turn will continue to ramp-up in earnest now that the target is locked -- for example, by refining hardware drivers -- in order to complete the cycle and make Windows Vista available via retail channels on 30 January 2007. On that date Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system will be available to customers around the world", revealed at the time Nick White, Product Manager at Microsoft working on the Windows Vista launch team.

Reduced Piracy Mode
Just days after the Vista code went gold, the first pirated versions of the operating system began emerging. Microsoft has high hopes for Vista in its constant face-off with Windows pirates. The operating system featured Volume Activation 2.0, and a revamped activation infrastructure intimately connected with the Windows Genuine Advantage antipiracy mechanism. But the Redmond company's mitigations were taken down and Vista suffered the same faith as its predecessor Windows XP. One of the most notable releases that accompanied the operating system's RTM was Vista BillGates pirate edition. Still, Microsoft's official position is that the WGA mechanism in combination with the Reduced Functionality Mode triggered into pirated copies of the operating system had worked wonders. At an apex of the piracy phenomenon focused on Vista, Alex Kochis, Senior Product Manager for Windows Genuine Advantage, promised an update to tackle the 'timer crack' or '2099 crack', a workaround designed to bypass the operating system's activation mechanism, extending the grace period until 2099.

Did You Get Your Trigger Finger Ready?
Windows Vista is synonymous with the exclusive availability of DirectX 10. Microsoft did evolve the graphics infrastructure of its latest operating system in comparison with XP, but did nothing to backport DirectX 10. Before the business launch of the platform, at the end of November, the company was introducing the first games tailored on Vista: Halo 2 and Shadowrun. Both titles were designed to take full advantage of the advances in the DirectX suite of multimedia application programming interfaces. DirectX 10 in Vista is one of the most criticized Microsoft moves with the development of its Windows client. The company has been under a barrage of fire from both the gaming industry and community for succeeding to narrow down the the main platform for games down to a niche and for forcing upgrades to its latest operating system. Criticism only grew in intensity with a variety of compatibility issues between graphics hardware and the new operating system. A year after RTM, Halo 2 and Shadowrun did not prove the start of a consistent trend, and Windows XP with DirectX 9.x is still the main gaming platform worldwide. Meanwhile Microsoft is focusing increasingly on the delivery of DirectX 10.1 together with Windows Vista Service Pack 1 next year.

The First Viruses for Vista
Characterizing Vista at one point, Jim Allchin stated that the operating system was neither foolproof nor perfect. And security company Sophos came to support this view by revealing that Vista could still fall victim to legacy malware. W32/Stratio-Zip, W32/Netsky-P and W32/MyDoom-O were enumerated among the pieces of malware capable of compromising Vista. "There has been much speculation about whether Vista would render existing malware extinct, and the news is now in - it won't," commented Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos at that time. "While Microsoft should be commended for the huge security improvements it has made in Vista, running separate security software is still essential to eliminate the risk of infection. On top of this, cyber criminals will already be looking at creating Vista-specific malware. Users need to think carefully about whether their current solution is going to offer sufficient protection against such emerging threats, given that some vendors continue to experience problems adapting their software for the Vista operating environment."

source: news.softpedia.com


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New iPhone Firmware 1.1.2 Hacked Before Release

Apple's latest effort to thwart iPhone and iPod touch hacking futile.

When Apple announced the release of the iPhone for the UK, it also announced that iPhone and iPod touch firmware version 1.1.2 would be released at the same time. Released today, firmware 1.1.2 closes the TIFF vulnerability in mobile Safari that was used to jailbreak firmware 1.1.1.

Confirmed by DailyTech, the TIFF vulnerability no longer works. However, despite Apple's effort to lockdown the iPhone and iPod touch, firmware 1.1.2 has already been jailbroken.

Credit go to the people behind AppSnap, the same utility used to jailbreak 1.1.1 devices. According to TUAW, testing of the new jailbreak began several nights ago, when the new 1.1.2 firmware was made available for download not through iTunes, but through Apple's website.

In its current stage, the new jailbreak requires several steps in order to complete, and is by no means release ready and user friendly. AppSnap and jailbreakme.com still remains open for 1.1.1 only, but the new jailbreak is being prepared for the same single tap installation.

According to TUAW's report, firmware 1.1.1 is required in order for the jailbreak to work with 1.1.2, although it is unclear at this point whether or not this will still be a requirement once AppSnap is officially updated.

Those with hacked 1.1.1 devices may wish to hold off from upgrading to 1.1.2 since it does not appear to provide any significant upgrade. The only noticeable change is the inclusion of several international language packs.

Jailbreaking may become a thing of the past if Apple keeps its promise. Apple announced in early October that come February 2008, developers will have an official iPhone SDK. The announcement was well received by the developer community. Currently, third-party applications for the iPhone are done via web applications and are mostly cumbersome to use and slow in nature.

source: dailytech.com


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Vista: One Year Later

One year ago today, Microsoft released Windows Vista to manufacturing. In the obligatory anniversary post we ask: Was it ready? Will it ever be ready?

The answer to the first question is an emphatic "no." Vista wasn't ready. Hardware manufacturers and software developers weren't ready for it. The channel and enterprises weren't ready, and consumers couldn't get it because Vista missed holiday 2006.

Microsoft promised WOW, but the reaction was, "What?" What is different from Windows XP? What is wrong with the hardware requirements? What is the difference between "Capable" and "Ready?" What is this Software Assurance requirement for Vista Enterprise? What happened to the familiarity of Windows XP? What is wrong with my Vista applications and hardware?

More recently the "W" question is "When?"--as in when will Microsoft release Vista Service Pack 1?

Ready or Not
Something about Windows Vista's two launches—on Nov. 30 and Jan. 30—felt wrong, like Microsoft was out of step somehow with the marketplace. Who launches a business operating system during the holidays when no IT organization could possibly want to begin compatibility testing or new deployments? What consumer would want to buy new Windows PCs more than a month after Christmas and days before the Super Bowl? But that's what Microsoft asked of its customers.

Early reviews complained about nagging security popups and missing drivers—for new hardware—and broken applications. Early enthusiasm waned as more businesses tested Vista and some early adopters returned to Windows XP.

Yesterday, Michael Silver, vice president of Gartner client computing, gave me the dim view of Microsoft's flagship operating system. "Vista adoption in the enterprise has been really poor," he said. "Enterprises are about a year behind where they told us they'd be a year ago."

A year ago, Gartner forecast that early Vista deployments would begin in earnest by the fourth quarter of 2007 and reach threshold by the second quarter of 2008. Now, mainstream enterprise adoption is tracking for early 2009, about the time Microsoft is supposed to be wrapping up Vista successor Windows 7.

"App support is really the biggest issue people have had, with the lack of a compelling reason to migrate following close behind," Silver said.

"With our customers the largest barrier to Vista adoption is compatibility with existing software," said Mytech Partners solution provider Lyf Wildenber. "Most software vendors are Vista ready. However, many times our customers are not at a version level that can run a Vista OS. Bringing one Vista machine onto the network can mean the organization needs to make bigger decisions regarding their line of business applications."

Resellers are moving what customers want, and there remains strong demand for Windows XP. In the United States, "25 percent of all PCs sold in the month of September had Vista installed in the VAR channel," said Chris Swenson, NPD's director of Software Industry Analysis.

The Waiting Game
So far, the two most compelling reasons to upgrade have little to do with Vista: Market shift to portables from desktops and normal hardware refresh cycles.

Steve Rubin, president of WorkITsafe, said he has seen, slow but steady Vista adoption—at least related to refresh cycles. "Most of our clients upgrade on three-year cycles, and they're coming up on the anniversary now," he said. "If the clients are ready to move forward, they're going to move forward."

The reasons to wait are more, particularly as businesses grapple with in-house application compatibility problems and sit tight for the release of Vista Service Pack 1. The update isn't expected until at least the first quarter of 2008.

No service pack may be more necessary than the first for Windows Vista. Microsoft has downplayed the need to wait for Service Pack 1. But some analysts believe that longstanding IT organization attitudes about waiting for the first service pack, not applicable to Windows 2000 or XP, apply to Vista.

"This time it's really the one you want to wait for," said Michael Cherry, Directions on Microsoft's lead analyst for desktop and mobile. He made this declaration based on the list of changes Microsoft plans for Service Pack 1.

"SP1 really does look like its fixing things that slipped through the release," he emphasized. "A lot of people had a feeling it was a date-driven release." The fixes, such as basic file copy, are surprising. "I'm just stunned they weren't caught during beta testing," Cherry exclaimed. "The beta testing for this thing was huge."

Cherry said that one of his Vista computers has two hard drives attached to a single controller. Copying 70GB of data from one drive to another takes about 24 hours.

"In many ways, Service Pack 1 is going to address a lot of peoples' concerns and be the release they wanted last year—it will lower resistance to the product.

Silver agreed about the update's importance. "SP1 will help, but time passing helps, too, as more ISVs support their apps on Vista," he said.

"We'll almost look back to SP1 as the launch date," Cherry asserted. "It will steadily grow from here on out."

source: microsoft-watch.com


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New Beta Builds of Vista SP1 and XP SP3 in December?

Microsoft is hard at work hammering away at the two service packs designed to refresh the Windows XP and Windows Vista clients.

The first preview versions of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3 were dropped in mid July 2007, and have been joined at the hip ever since. The reason is the Microsoft strategy set up to synchronize all update releases for both the Windows client and server platforms, essentially putting Vista SP1, XP SP3 and Windows Server 2008 in the same cooking pot.

Following the first beta for Vista SP1 in late September and another preview build of XP SP3 in early October, the Redmond company has apparently set the baking timer for the next testing versions of the two service packs for December. The confirmation did not come from the Windows division, but from the team building Internet Explorer.

Microsoft will overhaul IE Automatic Component Activation with the introduction of technology licensed from Eolas and has announced two stages of the delivery of the IE ActiveX Update modifications. The updated and final version of Internet Explorer will drop via the Windows Update infrastructure as a Cumulative Update for the browser in April 2008.

But as early as December 2007, the Microsoft Download Center will start offering the Internet Explorer Automatic Component Activation Preview, nothing more than an optional preview release featuring the changes announced. "Additionally this change will be made part of the next pre-release versions of Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3," revealed Pete LePage, IE Senior Product Manager. (emphasis added)

The correlation between the December launch of Internet Explorer Automatic Component Activation Preview and the integration of the ActiveX component modifications in the next testing milestones of Vista SP1 and XP SP3 is bound not to be coincidental. In addition, Microsoft has already showed signs that it is ready to make available the first Release Candidate for Vista SP1 and the Beta for XP SP3 is close behind.

source: news.softpedia.com



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