Hasta La Gadget!

But this time, you don’t have to head over to your favorite torrent tracker to get it. Microsoft just began its Windows 7 Beta Customer Preview Program, which means you can head on over to your favorite internet, download the ISO, burn a DVD and start living the ultra-fantastic lifestyle of a Windows 7 user. The Beta expires August 1, 2009, and Microsoft is of course pilling on the caveats in case this destroys your computer with fire — and limiting this first run of downloads to 2.5 million users. We’re hearing reports of sluggish downloads at the moment, but we’re sure with a bit of patience you can be rocking this OS — or, you know… find it on the torrents.

Update: Oops. Microsoft’s Windows 7 download servers have crashed under the strain as has the Microsoft blog reporting the crash. We’ll let you know when the servers (and Windows 7 beta) return.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Windows 7 Beta goes public originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here at CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Steve Ballmer has kicked off his speech wearing Bill Gates’ old shoes. Was TechCrunch right about the speech’s contents? Update: Here’s video of the keynote:

Or, if you want the quick and dirty, here’s what unfurled in front of me, give or take a few guest presenters and some marketingspeak:

Ballmer comes out—my guess is he’s smiling. He talks about the wonderful world of consumer electronics. He mentions this company called Microsoft. He also mentions the tough economic times we’re all going to suffer through together. He will be optimistic, however.

He’s going to talk about Windows 7. First, he’ll announce the availability the Windows 7 Beta tomorrow for registered Microsoft beta peeps, January 9th for everybody else. He’ll run through a lot of stuff we’ve already seen on Win 7, like DeviceStage, Homegroup networking, “Play To…” and other coolness like the Win 7 touch interface.

On the Windows Live front, he’ll tell us that Windows Live Essentials is no longer in beta, and that you can now post photos on Facebook directly from Windows Live Photo Gallery, and save photos from Facebook directly to your Win gallery too. He’ll also say that Windows Live Search and Essentials toolbar is gonna boot Google from Dell computers in February. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless is going to implement Windows Live on VZW feature phones. IE8 is not out of beta yet, but it’s coming.

For Windows Mobile, the big news, as presumed, will be full Adobe Flash support in the browser. (Sounds good to me, if only the browser was as good as, well, others.)

Ballmer is going to call Robbie Bach to the stage to talk about connected entertainment. Bach will start with some good Xbox stats—28 million worldwide, with 17 million active Windows Live members, and over a billion dollars spent on the service since inception.

Bach will introduce a number of sweet products:
• Windows Mobile app for managing Netflix queue
• Xbox Live community game builder called Kodu (already buzzed about)
• Windows Media Extender functionality in Toshiba products (announced earlier today)
• The latest edition of Ford Sync, which you can read about here
• Go back and forth on shows you didn’t pre-record using Microsoft Media Room Anytime (I wonder what the advertiser stipulations are on that)
• Already known games Halo Wars and Halo 3: Orbital Drop Shock Trooper
• Xbox Live Primetime game 1 Vs 100 live gameshow coming in spring

What, no love for Zune? Almost everything’s going according to plan so far, but stay tuned, because anything could happen. You know, come to think of it, Robbie Bach got to talk about a lot of the fun stuff. Is this the kickoff of the Ballmer Years? Or is it really the kickoff to the Bach Years? Steve would probably win at arm wrestling, but seeing the two of them on stage, I’m starting to think Bach could maybe take the bossman in a Cool Hand Luke-style a fist fight. [Full CES 2009 Coverage]

Got an MSDN subscription? Interested in checking out Windows 7 without engaging in any shady downloading? According to some tips we’re receiving, keys are available right now through official channels — and they even work. Mr. Ballmer was widely expected to announce the release of the (so far quite well-received) OS into public beta at his keynote speech later tonight, so you might say they’ve let the cat out of the bag a little early on this one. Give it a try, if you would, and let us know what you find. Sadly our subscriptions were revoked for posting silly pictures of a certain CEO.

Update: Seems it’s gone. We’ll just have to wait for the official word. You know where you can find it.

[Thanks, Wayne S.]

Filed under: CES, Desktops, Laptops

Fresh-baked Windows 7 beta keys now available through MSDN? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You might’ve heard that crazy rumor making the rounds that Microsoft leaked the Windows 7 beta on purpose to build some positive buzz, and while there’s no real evidence (or likelihood) of that of any sort, the seemingly-magical build 7000 is certainly doing well for itself. Following up on wide praise for the fledgling OS, ZDNet‘s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes pitted the beta up against XP and Vista in some informal “real-word” tasks like boot up, shut down, file maneuvers, installations and other common tasks. On both test systems, an AMD Phenom 9700 setup and an Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2200 number (with ATI and NVIDIA graphics, respectively), the Windows 7 install soundly bested XP and Vista task by task, with few exceptions. Performance testing is never an exact science, but it’s clear that Microsoft is taking performance very seriously this time around — we can’t wait for the next conveniently-leaked beta to bolster this rep even further. Next on the benchmarking agenda? Real World: Brooklyn tasks.

[Via Ars Technica]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Windows 7 build 7000 already outperforming Vista and XP in “real-world” tasks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FIRST!!!

In 2008, some media outlets started publishing their “best of” lists by June. For 2009, we didn’t want to come in second. So here are our predictions for the best gadgets of 2009.

Premium Netbooks
We’ve seen the first wave of unusable netbooks with tiny screens. Then they got an upgrade to 8.9, 10 and even 12-inch screens. Now it’s time for netbooks to get WiMax and HSDPA connections as a standard. Hopefully they can still stay half-way affordable…

Wii MotionPlus
When I tested the Wii MotionPlus attachment at E3, I felt that Nintendo had fulfilled the promise of the Wii, finally offering a motion controller as accurate and responsive as we’d all hoped the Wiimote to be originally. If Nintendo can coax developers to support Wii Motion Plus, we can expect some killer Wii titles in ’09 (on top of Wii Sports Resort in spring), but it might be 2010 before we see all that many compatible games.

Windows 7
Microsoft can do better than Windows Vista. And with Windows 7—expected sometime before the year is up—they will. Whether it’s the new features or the less taxing system requirements, Windows 7 promises to be a vast improvement on Vista, and hopefully enough to coax most of us still clutching XP for dear life to finally upgrade.

$99 Blu-ray Player…That Does More Than Play Blu-ray
The $99 part is only slightly wishful thinking, but if LG’s recent announcements are any indication, we can expect more players with expanded services like Netflix, YouTube, CinemaNow…and who knows, maybe even Amazon VOD, Hulu and Rhapsody. Let’s watch as these companies compete for our digital download dollar.

A New iPhone
Whether it’s the iPhone 3G Part II or the rumored iPhone nano, it’s not hard to imagine Apple releasing another new iPhone this year, maintaining their trend of releasing an iPhone per year to stay competitive in the everchanging post-RAZR cellphone market. It’s no secret that most of Gizmodo loves the iPhone, so we’re pretty excited to see what’s next. (Juicy rumors of a new Mac mini and iPod Touch XL are going strong, too.)

4G Networks
3G is alright but we’re looking forward to even faster 4G wireless networks soon. Intel-backed WiMax launched in a few locales by carriers Sprint and ClearWire. The wide-area network currently promises peaks of 10 megabits per second but on paper it’s capable of over 70. We will likely see slow but steady expansion of the service through 2009. Meanwhile, AT&T and Verizon (and eventually T-Mobile) are gearing up LTE technology. The Nokia-driven GSM-based “Long Term Evolution” may actually whomp WiMax with download speeds of over 300Mbps—though its presence probably won’t be felt in the US before 2010.

A Decent-Sized OLED TV
The Sony XEL-1 OLED television rocked our world when it was released this year, but there was a catch. Its screen size was a measly 11 inches. And while we can’t expect 50-inch Kuro killers just yet, we do anticipate a very expensive mid-sized set—27 to 32 inches—to hit the market in some form this year. (Sony actually showed off a prototype that was 27 inches at CES 2008. Stay tuned for what we see at CES this year.)

Wireless HDMI
A multitude of companies have various wireless HDMI technologies, but there’s no set standard (two warring factions need to settle the fight before we can have interoperable products). The technology is there, now it’s just a matter of logistics and handshaking. With luck, by next Christmas, you’ll be able to add it to a sub-$2000 1080p projector for the ultimate no-mess home theater.

USB 3.0 Devices
Wireless HDMI may not be quite cooked yet, but the eSATA-crushing USB 3.0 standard is ready to roll. Look for a multitude of products announced within the next week with blazing transfer speeds of 4.8Gbps (moving a 25GB file in under a minute). They’ll also benefit from USB 3.0’s higher electrical power output. [Image]

A Great Android Phone
The T-Mobile G1 was the necessary first step, but with Google amping up their Android development staff and interest coming from other major phone makers like Motorola, we assume we’ll see a truly great Android phone soon. Motorola promises that their own offering will be better and cheaper than the G1, but it’s not hitting before next Christmas, so we assume HTC’s own follow-ups will come first.

And Your Best Guesses
These picks for 2009 are pretty sure things, but what wilder guesses do you have for best of 2009 products? A new PSP? A BlackBerry with a touchscreen that isn’t crap? Real light sabers? Ketchup and mustard in one container?? Dogs and cats living in harmony??? If you don’t offer up some kind of prognostication in the comments, you can never tell everyone, “I told you so.”