What's hot in the PC side of things (well, the Windows side of the PC side, that is)? It's what you've been waiting for, Windows gamer. At this year's D: All Things Digital, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft have demoed one of the new facets of Windows 7 in front of an audience that once witnessed the one-on-one between Gates and Jobs. And guess what? Windows 7's new features starts off with touch.

After Sony had its big ad campaign for the PlayStation 3, it's about time that Microsoft followed suit as well. The software and gaming mogul is said to be setting aside a hefty US$ 300 million in advertising most of its wares. More details in the full article.

Followers of major electronic and gaming events take heed: the activities for the upcoming 2008 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) are finally announced, and there's a lot of stuff in store for gadget aficionados and gamers alike.

The 2008 International CES will put the latest gaming technology in the spotlight, with major gaming exhibitors such as Commodore Gaming, Entropia Universe, Red Lion Interactive, Shuttle Computers and War Machine as participants.

The gaming-related CES events are as follows: CES Game Power Conference Partner Program; Sandbox Summit, where people can experience the latest gaming gear, toys, and products; CES Mobile Entertainment Partner Program, where breakthroughs in mobile gaming and technology are featured.

For general electronics consumers there's the Home and Lifestyle Entertainment Knowledge Track, where visitors are given a peek of whats to come in the future of gaming as well as the possibilities of 3D home theater.

Finally, close followers of the current format wars should be interested in the Blu-ray Disc TechZone and the HD DVD TechZone, where the features of each of the leading high definition formats are tackled.

The 2008 International CES will be held in Las Vegas on January 7-10. Bill Gates will deliver the opening keynote address for the event on January 6.

The folks from Redmond are going to hold an event on Tuesday, October 2, 2007, to announce the next iteration of the Zune. Insider sources say that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and design chief J Allard will be attending the said event to commemorate the announcement.

The new Zune would include the first flash memory-based gadget of the initial 2.4 million-unit product line, a strategy that Microsoft eyed significantly for the company. Microsoft currently holds a 10% share of the HDD player market and hopes to turn a profit from its share with the release of the flash-based Zune. 

The "Zune 2," as it's unofficially coined, is claimed to be similar in design, only thinner in profile. BetaNews reports that the new Zune will come in dimensions of 3 inches by 1.25 inches, and will look similar to the iPod nano. Video playback capability seems to be a feature confirmed for the next-generation Zune, though the claims of Wi-Fi inter-connectivity and larger in-house storage still remain unconfirmed.

While over two million units of new Zunes will be in production by the holiday season of 2007, about a third will take the form of the flash-memory based player. The first batch should be available by November, coupled with a Beta launch of a new Zune community site. There are also reports of first-party accessories for the product, though full details

Quite the big "ouch" to the Redmond giant: the Department of Transportation (DoT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has banned Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7 from its offices. They are considering switching its operation to Macs and PCs running Novell's SuSe Linux.

The rather harsh policy was sanctioned back in January, but through the enactment of a moratorium, the blocking of Vista upgrades is still in effect. 15,000 users at the DoT and 45,000 employees at the FAA have been barred from upgrading to any new software from Microsoft.

The memorandum, dated January 19, was distributed to address concerns about licensing issues, upgrade costs, and backward compatibility with their existing key software and systems. They aren't scrapping Vista altogether if issues could be resolved, although they are considering alternatives to just going Vista all the way.

Aside from educational institutions and research associations, it seems that even the U.S. government is affected by the cost and compatibility problems regarding Bill Gates' new "Wow" product that shuns many XP compatible programs on its questionable platform.

 

A few days ago we reported on the different launch parties that were going on around the world to celebrate the release of what's set to be the world's next most popular Operating System, and today we bring you coverage from the Vista launch at the British library in the UK.

Windows is everywhere: from your home, to work, to entertainment; you just can't get away from it. Windows Vista is the successor to Windows XP and is supposed to be more efficient, more secure and more reliable than it's predecessor. But according to Bill Gates himself at the London shindig, we can expect much more from Vista that will shape the future of gaming.

Mr. Gates said, "Today is a big day, and it's really the start of something different," proceeding to comment on the future of games in Vista, the Operating System which will allow us to "play games that are of a whole new level of realism and connecting up with other people around the world". He talked about the developer tools which will be available for Vista will 'empower' the software industry, giving them the ability to create high quality software at low prices. He concluded by saying "We're unleashing people's creativity and we're excited about what can happen."

This speech appears to have been made in response to the Vista compatibility questions that have sprouted up all around the internet, but if Microsoft get this right it could be the sale of the century. Developer tools in Vista are going to be one of the huge factors in the development of games in the future.

Developers are only as good as the tools they can use to create their games, and with the use of extensive information and documents Gates has promised devs, we should be seeing more huge games with amazing graphics that challenge the boundaries between reality and virtual reality. We could even see a game better than World of Warcraft.

Many enthusiasts of the PC and those who have come to be (reluctantly?) reliant on Bill Gates' money grabber are probably waiting for Vista's release this coming January 30 with a bang.

Some of you have your eyes pretty much set on the upgrade versions of the editions coming out, huh? Remember the good ol' days when you could use your trusty upgrade key to start a completely new installation? All it took was an authentic installation CD of a previous version of Windows and voila! You don't even have to have the previous version installed to start the new OS setup. Now you remember? Well that is now all GONE.

Yep. The ol' misers of Redmond thought it would be best to stick to one machine licensing even after addressing armies of customers having quibbles about the difficulty they undertook to upgrade their machines and reactivate Windows XP every step of the way (well, not really, but hey, it feels like that sometimes).

Microsoft's Knowledge Base info (KB930985) specifically states that "you cannot use an upgrade key to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista." Why? Well that's because the all-new, all-powerful Vista has revealed its first Achilles' heel: compliance checking.

That said, it would be wise for all those customers hoping for a smooth upgrade from their old Windows to the new Vista to simply order a license to allow the user to make a clean installation. Maybe it's a tactic to get everyone to shell out money for the Ultimate edition, since it does not have this limitation. The editions that the limitation does apply for are:

• Home
• Home Premium
• Starter
• Home Premium 64-bit
• Home 64-bit

Way to dampen the spirit, eh?

FiringSquad reports that the Press Preview event for this year's Consumer Electronics Show was a bit of a misnomer. They say that because many of the products displayed by the exhibitors have already been released.

It is reported that more than one exhibitor has said that they will show off and announce all of the new products when the CES actually begins this Monday.

Hotseat Chassis showed off a PC flight simulator set up that puts the player in a chair and harness while the game is played. Super Micro Computer showed off a dual PC server rack set up. AMD displayed some unique notebook and PDA like devices that ran their chips. ASUS was proud about their notebook lineup which includes a unit that has a special small screen on top of its case that allows you to check things like e-mail before you even open up the laptop. Hitachi was proud about its first 1 TB PC hard drive.

Many major companies will hold press releases including Sony and Netgear. Bill Gates is set to deliver the conferences keynote speech. As always, we'll be sure to keep you folks updated. Stay tuned.

Here are some images of the event taken by the folks from The FiringSquad:

More images after the jump!

What is this HP IQ770 that's causing all this buzz in the desktop PC universe? For a newbie in town, it sure disturbs a lot of peace, especially so when it's being tagged as the "iMac Killer".

Now, now, let's not be too hasty about our conclusions. It's better if we actually check out first what this gadget's all about before we go coining nicknames for it. Right? Fine. Let's get to know it then.

Let's see...so it's got a 320GB hard drive, 2Gb SDRAM WiFi, Bluetooth, 1.3 MP camera (integrated, of course), 5.1 digital audio out, integrated FM and HDTV tuners, wireless keyboard and mouse, a widget-like dashboard interface, and 19" touchscreen...No, there's nothing really extraordinary about it.

If you're a noob, that is! Talk about all-in-one! Well, actually, am not much of a techie-person, myself. But I ain't a noob either. But when they started mentioning those wireless keyboard and mouse, that got me sold solid.

Yeah, so what? Some people are easy to please.

But seriously, it comes out by January's end, and it will surely rock the boat of the mighty Mac. With Bill Gates tagging along. For a little under US$ 2000, at that. Let the competition begin! Keep it posted here for more updates.

Is Bill Gates taking his role as the new Mother Teresa seriously? Recently, his company unveiled FonePlus, its prototype mobile platform for developing countries. Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, said FonePlus is an MS Research project at this point and it currently consists of WebTV technology running on a cell phone.

Once completed, FonePlus would be able to access the Internet, e-mails and online video content as well as mobile productivity tools like PocketOffice. MS says the cellphone, which connects to a TV and keyboard, could be an alternative to expensive PCs for people living in poorer nations. FonePlus would also be competing with the $100 laptop which Gates criticized as impractical. Plus that laptop runs on Linux.