Microsoft hones its Vista holiday pitch

This year will mark the first time that Microsoft and its partners will have a chance to make their pitch for why Vista PCs should be on your holiday gift lists.

To kick things off, Microsoft is holding a Windows Vista holiday-preview event this week in New York, aimed primarily at the consumer press (folks like Vogue, GQ, Cosmo, etc.) Windows officials are here to show off how far Vista has come in the year since the product was released to manufacturing.

Microsoft rented out a loft overlooking the Hudson to act as a temporary showroom. Rather than trying to demonstrate the whole “connected entertainment” scenario, Microsoft’s gone the stripped-down route this time around. There are no Windows Mobile phones, no Windows Home Server systems, no Xboxes and no Zunes to be seen.

(There also was no one, thankfully, reciting the “100 Reasons Why Everyone Is So Speechless.” The holiday showcase is minimalist. It’s all about Vista — and gourmet snacks/drinks.)

For Microsoft watchers like me who cover every twist and turn in the Windows saga, there isn’t much (if anything) new. I’ve seen the new Vista laptops and notebooks from Sony, Dell, HP, Gateway and the various Windows Certified and I’ve checked out the various Games for Windows titles. And I’ve gotten demos of the latest Windows Live service add-ons for Vista, ranging from Windows Live Photo Gallery, to Windows Live Writer.

The fact that the Windows team is finally showing/talking about Windows Live is pretty amazing, though. Until now, the two product families might as well as been from different planets, instead of the same company.

Microsoft isn’t sharing any new tallies, as far as how many copies of Vista it has sold. (The official count remains at 60 million since the product launched.) The company is providing a few updated “momentum” data points, including:

* There are now 7,670 apps and devices from more than 900 partners that are either “Certified for Windows Vista” or that pass the “Works with Windows Vista” tests
* Of NPD’s list of 100 top-selling Windows apps by unit, 98 are compatible according to Download.com
* PCs (desktop and notebook) equipped with Window Vista OS options have increased in U.S. retail shelf presence from 77% in February 2007 to 92% in September 2007.
* There are over 41,000 hardware products are now supported on Window Update, up from 23,000 at launch

source: blogs.zdnet.com

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Need For Speed ProStreet Preview

Electronic Arts made the big announcement just months ago and Need For Speed ProStreet is already shaping up into one of the best, if not THE best racing game ever developed.

We've watched the game's evolution right from the first released developer's diary and ever since then, EA had promised to deliver la crème de la crème as far as the racing genre goes. Trying out the demo the giant publisher and developer has made available for the Xbox 360, we were able to fully understand what they meant by competing "at the highest level of street racing". Indeed, the latest installment in the NFS series lives up to its name and what we've seen so far, confirms it.

This time around, the company responsible for the most popular racing game franchise on the market decided to add a touch of simulation to NFS ProStreet. We're talking about what EA has revealed about the full product, just so everyone can make a better picture of why some things now are more difficult to do than in other NFS installments. Players will not only have to customize their cars for looks, but also for great performance on track. For example, using the wind-tunnel, gamers will be able to check out drag and downforce efficiency, while the slightest modification done well to the car's body will have a direct impact on its aerodynamics, which will eventually shave off seconds during a race. But let's get back to what we've been able to experience hands on so far.


EA is Giving us a Mere Taste of What's to Come
There are just two game modes available to take on with the NFS ProStreet demo, one of which is Nitrocide. Here, gamers need to do whatever it takes to reach their car's top speed while passing checkpoints and of course avoiding getting totaled. The player with the highest recorded speed at the end of the race wins. Easy, right? Wrong! And you'll soon understand why. The second game mode available within the demo is React: Team Seesions. There's some interesting racing to be done here as well, as gamers learn how to drive skillfully by attacking corners and slopes at just the right moment, running along the optimum traveling line to achieve perfection. But just as with the first game mode, we'll be discussing more aspects about React: Team Sessions later on.


The Fast and the Legal
The atmosphere before the beginning of each race is absolutely frenetic. The music, to which the crowd cheers and the girls move their luscious bodies, almost forces you to press the A button immediately, so you can take on your opponents as fast as you can. But wait, why do that when the announcer has something very important to share with the audience? That's right: racing is now legal! But that doesn't mean that you won't be meeting with the cops in the full game. After all, there are rules to be followed even when racing in video games.

'Nitrocide' and 'React: Team Seesions'
Just two game modes, but more than enough to make an impression. Of course, not letting players change as little as the car's paint job, or even choose a different car is somewhat of a disappointment, but we're surely grateful that they rolled out the demo the way it is. So, care to know why Nitrocide is not that easy to beat?

First of all, before starting a race (whether it's Nitrocide or React: Team Seesions, it makes no difference), you can select the level of driver aids to match your playing style and of course, experience with racing games. Take them as difficulty levels if you will. First, you have the option to choose 'Casual' style, which manages your braking and assists to the best racing line. The second level is 'Racer.' Racer helps you brake in difficult corners, so if you're the type of racer that likes stepping on and coming off the brakes and gas a lot, this is you. Then there's 'King.' Now King is a different matter altogether, even though non-experienced gamers will feel little difference, as this option lets you feel the raw power of the car, not assisting you much, but instead allowing you to test your might against the track, using a more realistic control system.

Here's what the two game modes are all about: Nitrocide - (The winner will have the highest combined speed recorded at the track's checkpoints; Car is a BMW M3 @ 512 bhp): The NOS boost is somewhat sudden, but once it's activated, the feeling of speed is like no other. Truly, the game lives up to its name from this point of view alone. The camera zooms out immediately when pressing the NOS button, letting you know that the command was successful, also enabling you to see the track from farther away as you'll need to start moving the analog stick long before entering a corner at such high speeds. But there's a side effect too. By pressing B for the big boost, the car becomes a speeding rocket which can't be stopped in under 4 seconds; so when you decide to use the NOS, do it wisely and only when you have a straight line ahead.

Another minus is that it can become frustrating when your performance is perfect up to the point where you touch the dirt with one of the rear tyres. While steering hard to get back on the tarmac, if there's even the smallest bump in the road, control over the car becomes virtually impossible until it stops hopping, so there's a great chance that your car will flip upside down and get totaled. It's spectacular, we can't argue with that, but losing a good progress so easy is going to annoy a lot of gamers and especially true fans of the series who can't wait to take the racing online.

React: Team Seesions - (The first car to complete two laps wins; Car is a 2009 Nissan GT-R): You'll notice a green line appearing along the track and mostly at corners, showing you the optimum solution for each and every one of them – something that every Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo fan should be very familiar with. The respective line also lets you know when to hit the gas and brakes, by becoming either green or red (you can guess for yourself when it's time to hit the gas and when you need to apply the brakes).

source: softpedia.com

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Flocks Social Browser 1.0 Has Finally Arrived

Flock has finally released the Beta 1.0 version of its social browser, which is currently still in private beta. This is among the first browsers to be created around the act of social activity, enabling cross-network media-sharing and communication tools. This is primarily centered around its People Browser, and I happen to think the media tool is among the most important for Flock users as well.

Flocks social browser has been in the works for some time now, and after being inundated with several updates these past few months, today is somewhat of a milestone for Flock. The People Browser has been reported as not working properly for some, but I havent had any problems with it, for any integrated social networks (Facebook, YouTube, etc.)

source: Mashable!


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Microsoft to announce System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008

Well, It doesn't appear that Microsoft will be taking direct aim at the iPhone on Tuesday.

Rather, the software maker is playing to its strengths, announcing a new piece of server software to help businesses manage a company's worth of smartphones.

That doesn't mean Microsoft isn't interested in say, adding a full Web browser into Windows Mobile, according to Scott Horn, a general manager in Microsoft's mobile device unit.

"Do I see a path where we are going to have a phenomenal browsing experience," Horn said. "Yes, I do."

But the bulk of Microsoft's announcements for Tuesday focus on the company's enterprise strengths. The company is announcing a new product, known as System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 and noting that it is providing start-up funds for Enterprise Mobile, a new Boston-based service provider that will help companies manage the process of doling out smartphones to large workforces.

source: CNET News


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Device driver updates causing Vista to deactivate

After weeks of gruelling troubleshooting, I've finally had it confirmed by Microsoft Australia and USA -- something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation.

Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little notice (three days) and your PC will go into "reduced functionality" mode, where you can't do anything but use the web browser for half an hour. You'll then need to reapply to Microsoft to get a new activation code.

Just over a month ago I swapped over the graphics card on my Vista Ultimate box. There were some new DirectX 10-based titles out and I couldn’t get the benefit on my old DirectX 9 card. The swap-over went well and I went on my merry gaming way.

Then a few days ago I got a Windows Activation prompt – I had three days to activate Windows or I’d be bumped back to RFM (Reduced Functionality Mode). What the? My copy of Vista was activated, and a graphics card change shouldn’t have triggered deactivation... surely!

I was able to reactivate easily enough, although as the product key was already in use (by me!) I couldn’t reactivate automatically, but had to speak to a Microsoft customer service representative.

I got the code easily enough, but it didn’t explain why Vista had deactivated, so I got in touch with Microsoft about the problem.

They sent me some special utilities to run which gathered the history of hardware changes on that machine since activation, and it turns out that my disk controller had changed, so the graphics card change was the final change which tripped deactivation.

The only problem? I had never changed my disk controller at any point. Apparently because I had upgraded the Intel Matrix Storage Manager application, this was reported as a major hardware change event.

On their own, neither event was enough to trigger deactivation, but cumulatively they were.

source: apcmag.com


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Remaining Vista Ultimate Language Packs released

Late yesterday Barry Goffe, Director of Windows Ultimate, today disclosed on windowsultimate.com that the remaining 19 language packs have been made available via Windows Update.

A multi-language user interface (MUI) pack allows a user to run Windows Vista Ultimate in one of 36 available languages. You can quickly switch among languages on a single installation of Windows Vista by associating a system language with your login name.

The additional supported languages are ->

* Arabic
* Bulgarian
* Croatian
* Czech
* Estonian
* Greek
* Hebrew
* Hungarian
* Latvian
* Lithuanian
* Polish
* Portuguese (Portugal)
* Romanian
* Serbian
* Slovak
* Slovenian
* Thai
* Turkish
* Ukrainian

Also, this release includes an update to the lpksetup.exe installation component, correcting issues that affected some customers at installation. We recommend you download and install this component before installing any language packs; the updated component can be found here.

Barry also mentions his team's plan to ship additional Extras soon, with details forthcoming.

source: windowsvistablog.com


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Compatibility, Reliability, and Stability of Vista Update

About 2 months ago Microsoft released a couple of hotfixes that improved the stability and reliability of Windows Vista, these were not made available on Automatic Updates.

That aside, Microsoft has released an update to the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista fix that further improves the reliability of your system.

The original fix improved annoyances such as file copy calculation & speed from within windows to other (local or network) drives.

This update improves the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista. This update includes the following improvements ->

* It extends the battery life for mobile devices.
* It improves the stability of portable computers and of desktop computers that use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS).
* It improves the reliability of Windows Vista when you open the menu of a startup application.
* It improves the stability of wireless network services.
* It shortens the startup time of Windows Vista by using a better timing structure.
* It shortens the recovery time after Windows Vista experiences a period of inactivity.
* It shortens the recovery time when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
* It improves the stability of Windows PowerShell.


This update also resolves the following issues in Windows Vista:
* A compatibility issue that affects some third-party antivirus software applications.
* A reliability issue that occurs when a Windows Vista-based computer uses certain netw

Download: Update for Windows Vista x86-based versions (KB941649) package validation required
Download: Update for Windows Vista x64-based versions (KB941649) package validation required

source: support.microsoft.com


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