Sicarius

Last week, Microsoft finally announced that there would be six editions of Windows 7, just like there were for Windows XP and Windows Vista. The company will release Windows 7 Starter (worldwide only via OEMs), Windows 7 Home Basic (only in emerging markets), Windows 7 Home Premium (retail and OEM), Windows 7 Professional (retail and OEM), Windows 7 Ultimate Edition (retail only during promotions and OEM), and Windows 7 Enterprise (volume licenses). However, as part of its initiative to simplify the lineup, the software giant will only market Home Premium and Professional to average users. Most will be getting Windows 7 with their next purchase of a desktop, notebook, or netbook. (Speaking of netbooks, Microsoft also noted last week that all editions of Windows 7 will work on netbooks and it will be up to the OEM's discretion as to what editions they want to offer on each product.)

There's a new build coming soon guys, sit tight!

Last month, the Hotmail team announced that POP3 support had been rolled out to nine countries: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The plan for worldwide support was said to be progressive and the rollout deadline was a vague "later this year." An insider told me last night that the switch has now also been flipped for US and Brazil Hotmail accounts. There hasn't been any official announcement on the various Windows Live blogs yet, but I'll update this post if more details come to light today. If you want to start using it now, there are some details you should be aware of: POP server: pop3.live.com POP SSL required? Yes User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live SMTP server: smtp.live.com Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password) TLS/SSL required? Yes. Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009...e-us-brazil.ars

Microsoft has launched a new contest over at serverquestcontest.com aimed at Silverlight game developers. The contest, which is limited to a minimum age of 16 years old and residents of the US, will run through 11:59 PM PT April 30, 2009, after which there will be a voting period between May 1 and May 14. Winners will be announced on May 25, 2009. Entrants will have to create a user profile on the site, download the free Software Development Kit, and use it to develop an online game. There is a limit of three unique entries per person and per e-mail address. The specifications of the game are quite strict. The initial file download size cannot exceed 4MB Total file size must be < 10MB Resolution limited to 800x430 There are no frame rate limitations The game cannot include any upload file aspects The game cannot require or allow any external communication (i.e.no send to a friend components, etc.) The game must be developed in Silverlight 2.0 and submitted in object/binary code format The game must clearly indicate to others that it is governed by the Creative Commons license Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009...me-win-5000.ars

Days after the leak of build 7022 (32-bit) to public torrent sites, WinFuture.de has posted a screenshot clearly showing a 64-bit Enterprise edition of build 7032. We already know of a build 7034, but this is significant because there have been no screenshots or any other tangible proof of any of the 703x builds. The screenshot shows the following build string: "'6.1.7032.0.winmain.090129-1812," meaning that the build was compiled on January 29, 2009 at 6:12PM. Since it is an interim build, it's not surprising that the screenshot shows the build expiring on July 2, 2009. Other than the new build number, the screenshot (full-size image) does not show too much. Today's date is shown in the bottom left in a European format, but all this shows is that the screenshot was taken today. There appears to be a new icon in the taskbar, but it's not clear what it's for. IE8 is still at RC1, which is not surprising. The user has Hibernate set as the default for the power button in the start menu, but this doesn't necessarily mean Microsoft has changed it from Shut Down. Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009...nshot-leaks.ars

There has been little talk of Windows 7 builds since the public release of the first beta build (7000) last month, but Microsoft has definitely been busy. What many seem to overlook is that build 7000 was compiled on the afternoon of December 12, 2008. Since then, there have been many other builds compiled, including 7003, 7004, 7012, 7015, 7016, 7022, 7025, 7028, and 7034. A few of these have leaked, but only one hit public torrent sites. This past weekend, the 32-bit version of build 7022 started to rage across piracy networks. According to the build string (7022.winmain.090115-1850), it was compiled January 15, 2009 at 6:50pm. To put things into perspective, build 7025 was compiled exactly five days later. Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009...-build-7022.ars

As expected, Microsoft debuted the next phase of its $300 million campaign at the Grammys yesterday. The ad is a very good one, not because it uses a 4-and-a-half year old little girl, but because it actually shows her using Windows and Windows Live to get a task done. Kylie takes a digital camera with which she took a picture of her pet fish "Dorothy," connects it to her laptop, and then uses Windows Live Photo Gallery to edit it and share it with her mom and dad. The ad finishes with Kylie saying "I'm a PC and I'm four and a half." In case you didn't watch the Grammys last night, here's the video: Microsoft recently folded its Windows Live team into the Windows team, so it's not a big surprise to see a Windows Live application featured in this advertisement. I hope the software giant makes a trend out of featuring Windows Live applications in its ads, or at the very least, actually using the software that the ad is promoting. Not all of the ads have to use little kids, though considering this third stage is called "Rookies," I wouldn't be surprised if it did. The young age of the commercial's star does get the message across that Microsoft's software is easy to use, and no one can argue that cuteness doesn't help. Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009...45-year-old.ars

The Ultimate Extras embarrassment has been quite an issue since the launch of Vista, and while Microsoft did apologize and things started to get better in 2008, the fact remains that the company wasn't delivering as promised. Many users went as far as saying that Ultimate was useless because Ultimate Extras weren't plentiful, but of course those who bought Ultimate didn't buy them for the extras. And Microsoft is hoping those users will make the same decision for Windows 7 Ultimate, which won't be getting the feature when it's released. Here's the quote that shows Microsoft has given up (it almost slipped through our fingers after all this Windows 7 SKU news): Our new approach to planning and building Windows doesn't have the capacity to continue to deliver features outside the regular release cycle. While our core development team is focused on building the next release, our sustained engineering team is focused on updates to existing features. As a result we don't plan to create Ultimate Extras. Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009...r-windows-7.ars

First, let me start off with a warning. This information came to me via an anonymous tip and is not from a trusted source of mine. That aside, the reason I'm putting this in the rumor box for now is that there is pricing for Windows 7 Starter, which we know will be sold worldwide, but only via OEMs. Ultimate pricing is also present, and while Microsoft says it will not be selling that edition via retail, the company did say that it will sell and give away the edition during certain promotional periods. Now, without further ado, here is the rumored pricing for Windows 7 editions (not the upgrade versions): Windows 7 Starter: $199 Windows 7 Home Premium: $259 Windows 7 Professional: $299 Windows 7 Ultimate: $319 Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009...-7-editions.ars

The Microsoft-Apple battle has been raging for ages, and when the iPhone and Microsoft Surface were announced, trolls squirmed with excitement at the prospect of yet another completely different pair of products to compare and bash. So if you're like me, you may find the video below a breath of fresh air. Stimulant, the developer of the sample application, describes it by saying: XRay is a mashup of Microsoft Surface and the iPhone. Stimulant created a Surface application that reveals photographs, but by laying an iPhone on Surface, more layers of imagery are revealed, synced in real time with the upper image layers shown on Surface. The only limit to how many iPhones can be used at once is, well, how many iPhones you have handy. Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009...face-mashup.ars