Hasta La Gadget!

Well, it’s not the fifty bucks that OEMs are said to be paying for a copy of Windows on the average PC, but the pricing for individual OEM copies of Windows 7 has now finally been revealed by the folks at Newegg and, as expected, it’s still a good deal cheaper than the full retail price. Things start at just $99.99 (after a $10 discount) for a full version of Windows 7 Home Premium (compared to $199 retail), and move up to $134.99 for the OEM Professional edition, and $174.99 for the Ultimate edition (also after a pre-order discount that’s good until October 20th). Of course, there are a few limitations if you decide to go the OEM route yourself (like not being able to transfer the license between PCs, and a complete lack of an upgrade option), but we’re guessing that extra $100+ back in your pocket will more than make up for those drawbacks with plenty of folks.

[Via DailyTech]

Filed under: Software

Windows 7 OEM pricing revealed by Newegg originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on April 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

I love testing out new software, but I like to use virtual machines to see what the software is like before I go installing it on my actual system. A virtual machine is a virtual computer environment which allows you to run one operating system form within your current operating system. This gives a lot of benefits with the biggest one being that you can run multiple operating systems (both Linux and Windows) on your computer without ever having to restart it. The next big benefit that I mentioned is that you can test out software and other things before installing it on your main system.

Microsoft offers a Virtual PC program that runs only on Windows and supports the installation of many different versions of Windows. This is the best choice for most people because it is easy-to-use and is actually free.

Probably the most popular solution for using virtual machines is VMware Workstation. This supports a very long list of operating systems but costs $189…which is well out of the range for most consumers. However, VMware currently has a Beta program going on to test the next milestone release of their software, and you can obtain a valid serial number at no cost to you without any restrictions! Despite having the “Beta” label, I would say that the software is extremely stable from my experiences, and works very well with Vista as both the host (your main operating system) and guest (the operating system installed on the virtual machine).

One thing that is frustrating about the virtual machines is that the graphical capabilities are normally pretty limited because they have to be shared with your host operating system. This can definitely have an effect on anyone trying to run Vista in a virtual machine because you won’t receive any of the Aero glass effects, even if your computer completely supports it. There is, however, a workaround to get Aero to work.

Note: This does require your virtual machine to have access to your network, and the host machine has to be running Aero for this to work.

1. Install Vista on a virtual machine and run it. Make sure to enable remote connections on the virtual machine in the Remote Settings located in the Control Panel under System Properties.
   
2. Your virtual machine should be running Vista without the Aero glass. You now need to find out the IP address of the virtual machine. To do this open up the Start Menu, type “cmd” without the quotes, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run the program as an administrator.
   
3. At the prompt type ipconfig and press Enter. You are looking for the IP address in the output which should look something like this:
   
4. On your host computer start the Remote Desktop client and expand the Options. On the Experience tab, make sure all of the boxes are checked, and on the Display tab make sure the color is set to 32–bit. Then go back to the General tab and enter in the IP address that you found in the previous step.
   
5. Enter in the username/password if prompted and now you will have successfully connected to your virtual machine using remote desktop. The only difference is that the host machine is processing the graphics instead of the virtual machine so you can enable Aero on Vista!
   

I wish there was some other way to enable Aero in a virtual PC, but this is the only way that I have seen. You’re probably wondering why it would even matter whether Aero was running if I just wanted to quickly test out software? There is a lot of new software being developed that takes advantage of Aero’s capabilities, and if I want to test what it really has to offer, I need to have Aero running.

Eventually a better solution may emerge, but until then I think this is the only workaround that’s available.

Source: MSDN Blog

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This article was written on July 23, 2007 by CyberNet.

Technology is something that has greatly evolved over time, but in order to find the good stuff we had to go through the bad stuff first. Computer World put together a great article today that details what they believe are the 10 biggest technology flops of the past 40 years. So I thought I would take a look at their list and make my own comments…

1. Apple Newton – This device was created in 1993 as a $700 PDA. The handwriting recognition was awful, and often the aspect of the Newton that people made fun of. One of these bad boys will still run you a few hundred dollars (used) on eBay.
   
2. DIVX – This is different from "DivX" which many of you know to be the popular video codec. DIVX is an abbreviation for Digital Video Express, which was an attempt by Circuit City to start a new video rental system. Customers would "rent" DIVX discs which they could keep and watch for two days, or pay a continuation fee to keep it longer. After the time was up the customer would just throw the discs away, and as you can imagine this didn’t last long because customers needed "DIVX enhanced DVD players" to watch the movies. Here’s a Circuit City commercial promoting the service:
   
   
3. Dot-bombs – The dot-com bubble could only last so long. One website after another launched in the late 90’s, and as the new millennium hit many of these sites came crashing down. It almost makes me wonder if we’re entering another one of these "bubbles" with all of the Web 2.0 services popping up.
4. IBM PCjr – This was a personal computer sold between 1984 and 1985, but it had several downfalls. It costed almost $1300 without a monitor, had no hard drive (it used cartridges), and the keyboard was different from what people were used to.
   
5. Internet Currency – This was started by sites like Flooz and Beenz with hopes of creating a type of money that could be used only on the Internet (much like frequent flier miles or gift cards). Um, yeah, we can just use credit cards to buy things online.
   
6. Iridium – Motorola provided the technology and financial backing to launch 66 satellites into space to be used for voice and data communications. To make a call you would have to fork out between $3 and $14 per minute on one of the brick-sized phones. Try putting one of these in your pocket:
   
7. Microsoft Bob – This is often considered to be one of the worst products ever created, and all it was intended to do was add a familiar interface on top of Windows 3.11. The problem was that cartoonish rooms were created for users to group applications and tasks, and it essentially made you feel like you were a two-year old trying to learn how to use the computer. Microsoft Bob is still floating around the file sharing networks, and is even said to run on Windows XP, but this gallery should be enough to keep you satisfied.
   
8. Net PC – CNet covered the original announcement on these computers back in 1997, and said "Net PCs typically will have no floppy disk drive or expansion slots. Promoted by Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq, among others, the systems are supposed to reduce ownership cost for companies that currently use networked PCs. They will purportedly allow IS staff to maintain and update desktops from the center of the corporate network, instead of visiting each PC."
9. Paperless Office – The dream that everything we read, send, and share is done only in a digital format does not appear to be true quite yet. A study by MIT Press in 2002 even said that email causes a 40% increase in paper use for most organizations. Sure we keep putting more and more things in a digital format (especially books), but we’re not ditching the paper copies quite yet.
10. Virtual Reality – Being able to throw yourself into a game, or visit a place that you’ve never been to all in the comfort of your own house is an appealing idea. For some reason it hasn’t really taken off, but maybe some day it will be as good as this demo:
    

So those are the top 10 technology achievements that Computer World says are the worst from the last 40-years. It took me awhile to find interesting videos or images for each one, but it was fun writing this and taking a look back at how far we have come.

Drop us a comment below saying what you think is the worst gadget or application ever developed. It can be one that is on this list, or it can be something that just popped into your head. I can’t wait to hear what everyone comes up with!

For another interesting list read about the top 10 most important laptops

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We had originally assumed that Lenovo’s IdeaPad S12 would be the first netbook to ship with NVIDIA’s Ion platform, but since that rig was delayed until Windows 7 could make its retail debut, HP decided to swoop in and claim the honors. You heard right — the recently introduced Mini 311 has just become the first netbook in the universe with NVIDIA’s Ion to actually ship to end users, and it’s up for order right now starting at $399.99. ‘Course, you’ll be asked to pay extra for a white chassis ($20), Atom N280 ($25), Bluetooth ($25), 802.11n ($25) and integrated WWAN ($125), but at least that 1,366 x 768 resolution display comes standard.

[Thanks, Steve]

Filed under: Laptops

HP’s Ion-infused Mini 311 netbook now on sale, starts at $400 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on April 10, 2006 by CyberNet.

Microsoft has accidentally made links available to download Windows Vista build 5308. This is not the most current build that has been floating around the Internet, but this build can be directly downloaded from Microsoft. No key is provided (obviously) so you will have to do some work to find one.

This link has been up for days and amazingly Microsoft has yet to take it down. The most current build is 5342 which is currently available by a Torrent download.

Download Windows Vista 5308 Direct From Microsoft: Link 1 | Link 2
News Source: JCXP.net

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