Aug 25

Windows 7 upgrade options will be available in Europe after all

Posted in: Microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, Today's Chili, upgrade, windows 7, Windows7

This seems as good a time as any to try and summarize the impact of Windows 7 E getting EUthanized. Without the Europe-specific browserless version clouding things up, Microsoft was freed to offer in-place upgrades to current Vista users, and it has sagely done exactly that. The October 22 release date will see both full and upgrade versions available on European shelves, and the UK Home Premium upgrade has been priced at £79.99 (MSRP), which is set to jump to £99.99 on January 1. If you’re quick, you can currently pre-order the full version for the lower price from the MS online store. The Family Pack option also makes a welcome appearance, costing £149.99 to upgrade three machines, but it too will be a limited time offer.

[Via TG Daily]

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Windows 7 upgrade options will be available in Europe after all originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 24

Snow Leopard shipping August 28th for $29, order now

Posted in: Apple, breaking news, BreakingNews, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, os x, OsX, Today's Chili

Well, it’s not September, but we’re not going to hold an early launch of its performance-focused Snow Leopard OS against Apple. The Apple store has come back online bearing an order page for OS X version 10.6 in Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Pro… oh wait, it’s just $29 as an upgrade from 10.5. August 28th, that’s when, now go ‘n get it.

While you wait for that order to ship, Apple wants you to know that Snow Leopard’s Finder is more responsive, Mail loads messages twice as fast, Time Machine will complete initial backups 80 percent faster, and a 64-bit version of Safari 4 is 50 percent faster than its predecessors. There’s even QuickTime X with a redesigned player that lets users view, record, trim and share video. Of course, this release also includes Grand Central Dispatch, a new way for devs to take advantage of multi-core processors as well as OpenCL support to accelerate apps with the help of that idling graphics processor. Oh, and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange too. All in all, a worthy update, especially for the price.

P.S. Requires Intel-based Mac.

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Snow Leopard shipping August 28th for $29, order now originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 20

Get your Windows 7 Release Candidate while you can (that means today)

Posted in: Microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7, Windows7
Been meaning to try out Windows 7 for free before taking the plunge on a final retail copy? Then you might want to get your act together, as today is the last day that you’ll be able to download the Windows 7 Release Candidate direct from Microsoft itself. If you can spare a few minutes, however, we might suggest first checking out our Windows 7 install guide to get a taste of what you’re in for, and, of course, our full Windows 7 review, which is quite possibly the next best thing to actually using it.

Update: We’re already seeing a few issues with the download page, so anyone that’s lucky enough to get a download link should probably jump on it while they can.

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Get your Windows 7 Release Candidate while you can (that means today) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 19

Windows 7 will cost half as much in the UK as in the US, crikey!

Posted in: Microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, price, pricing, Today's Chili, uk, Windows, windows 7, Windows7

Happy news for our British readers today — Microsoft is selling Windows 7 Home Premium in the UK at the bargain price of £65 for the full (non-upgrade) version. Converted to $107, that’s less than Americans have to shell out just for an upgrade ($120) and about half the price of the full thing ($200). The Professional and Ultimate varieties are also cheaper by about $40 each. With Windows 7 E now out of the picture (though seemingly still available for pre-order from the MS online store), it looks like Microsoft has chosen to match its lower price (listed with an £80 MSRP) with the new SKUs that will actually see retail shelves — a price online retailers are now undercutting. Jolly good. CNET was first to the story and was told by an Amazon UK rep that the current pricing is expected to be indefinite, but previous intel on the matter has indicated that Microsoft will be hiking UK prices from January 1, 2010. So if you wanna be safe, better get that brand spanking new OS before Christmas rolls around.

[Via Pocket lint]

Read – CNET article
Read – Microsoft UK online store
Read – Windows 7 Home Premium at Amazon UK for £65

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Windows 7 will cost half as much in the UK as in the US, crikey! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 13

ROS: a common OS to streamline robotic engineering

Posted in: mit, operating system, OperatingSystem, robot, robotics, Robots, Today's Chili, video

The biannual International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence has this year shed light on a new effort to standardize robot instructions around a common platform, so that designers won’t have to “reinvent the wheel over and over” with every project. Presently, robot design is undertaken in an ad hoc fashion, with both hardware and software being built from scratch, but teams at Stanford, MIT and the Technical University of Munich are hoping to change that with the Robot Operating System, or ROS. This new OS would have to compete with Microsoft’s robotics offering, but the general enthusiasm for it at the conference suggests a bright future, with some brave souls even envisioning a robot app store somewhere down the line. Video after the break.

Continue reading ROS: a common OS to streamline robotic engineering

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ROS: a common OS to streamline robotic engineering originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 12

Windows 7 review

Posted in: Features, Microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, review, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7, Windows7

Oh, Windows. You inform and entertain us. You are inescapable, and your Start menu is full of items relevant to our productivity. You move us. Sort of. To be honest, we’re not sure what sort of state this fair planet of ours would be in without the ruggedly functional operating systems the folks at Redmond have handed to us over the years, and while Windows Vista might have proved that Microsoft wasn’t invincible, it did nothing to demonstrate that Windows as an idea — and for most, a necessity — was at all in jeopardy.

Windows 7 arrives on the scene three short years after Vista, shoring up its predecessor’s inadequacies and perhaps offering a little bit more to chew on. We’ve been playing with the OS ever since the beta, along through the release candidate, and now at last have the final, “release to manufacturing” (RTM) edition in our grubby paws. Does it live up to its understandable hype and the implicit expectations of a major Microsoft release? Let’s proceed on a magical journey to discover the truth for ourselves.

Continue reading Windows 7 review

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Windows 7 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 07

Eee PCs rumored to ship with Moblin in October, Chrome OS on the horizon

Posted in: ASUS, chrome os, ChromeOs, Google, intel, Linux, netbook, operating system, OperatingSystem, Today's Chili, ultraportable

How about a minor spy story to kick-start your weekend? According to our man Sascha at netbooknews.de, a “safe source” who shall remain nameless but who most certainly has ties to Stasi (or, at the very least, owns a trench coat) has divulged some choice nuggets: The first Eee PC pre-installed with the open source OS will hit the market in October, and the company is currently considering the possibility of making this an option for all its notebooks at some point in the near future. And if that weren’t enough to stoke your dreams of an Operating System Renaissance, the company is also reportedly working “closely together” with Google to deploy the Chrome OS on its machines at some point in the not-too-distant future. All rumors and innuendo, sure, but interesting — and, as we’ve seen the company play with Moblin in the past, certainly not a shocker. As always, we’ll keep our ears to the ground, and we’ll keep you posted.

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Eee PCs rumored to ship with Moblin in October, Chrome OS on the horizon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 03

Microsoft’s browserless Windows 7 E gets EUthanized

Posted in: europe, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, Software, Today's Chili, web browser, WebBrowser, Windows, windows 7, Windows7
Microsoft's browserless Windows 7 E get EUthanized

The saga of Microsoft vs. the European Commission just keeps on keepin’ on. MS was accused of harming the browser competition by including IE with Windows, and as part of its pledge to play nice proposed a Europe-only version of Windows 7 that would completely lack Internet Explorer, dubbed Windows 7 E. Last week the company came up with an alternative: a so-called ballot screen version that would allow users to pick (nearly) any browser they like upon start-up — or just stick with the already installed IE. Buoyed by generally positive feedback from the move, Microsoft has indicated it’s going to go ahead and kill off Windows 7 E — despite the lack of an official agreement from the Commission as of yet. So, the whole, wonderful world will get the same flavor of the OS, and everyone browsed happily ever after. The end…?

[Via ComputerWorld]

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Microsoft’s browserless Windows 7 E gets EUthanized originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 22

Microsoft’s Windows 7 gets released to manufacturing

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7, Windows7

Aw snap, one of the final hurdles on the way to October 22nd has been passed: Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008 R2, too) has been released to manufacturing. A post over on The Windows Blog explains that this build (7600) underwent tons of scrutiny and tweaking before being deemed sufficient for release, and considering that we know you’re anxious for details on dates, hear this:

“The RTM code will be delivered to our partners within the next few days who will then start preparing to deliver some amazing new products timed to hit at General Availability (GA) of Windows 7 on October 22nd. As always, current Windows Volume License customers, MSDN subscribers and TechNet subscribers will get first customer access, getting Windows 7 on August 6 (MSDN/TechNet) and August 7 (VL), and Windows Server 2008 R2 the second half of August.”

So, there you have it — now, are you prepared to wait until early August to get your download on? Nah, we thought not. The full announcement is posted after the break.

Update: Looks like some Microsoft employees were so excited by the RTM sign-off that they made a celebratory video. See it for yourself just after the break!

Continue reading Microsoft’s Windows 7 gets released to manufacturing

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Microsoft’s Windows 7 gets released to manufacturing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 15

Bill Gates calls Chrome OS more of the same, “surprised people are acting like there’s something new”

Posted in: Chrome, chrome os, ChromeOs, Google, Microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, Today's Chili

We’ve already heard from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Chrome OS, and it looks like Bill Gates has now had his say on the upstart operating system as well. Speaking with CNET News, Gates more or less described Chrome OS as just another Linux distribution, saying that “there’s many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways,” adding that, “in some ways I am surprised people are acting like there’s something new. I mean, you’ve got Android running on Netbooks. It’s got a browser in it.” Gates further went on to get another dig in at Google by saying that “the more vague they are, the more interesting it is,” before getting a little philosophical by asking: “What’s a browser? What’s not a browser?” His answer? “In large part, it’s more an abuse of terminology than a real change.”

[Via Digital Daily]

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Bill Gates calls Chrome OS more of the same, “surprised people are acting like there’s something new” originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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