Microsoft Tuesday made the first public preview version of Windows Small Business Server 7 (SBS7) available for download. This version of Microsoft's integrated IT suite for small businesses is built upon Windows Server 2008 R2 and includes Exchange Server 2010 SP1, SharePoint Foundation 2010, and Windows Software Update services.

Along with Windows Home Server known as "Vail," which was launched in Beta in mid-August, and the Small Business Server product code named "Aurora," SBS7 is a part of the pack of soon-to-be released, low-cost, low-complexity IT solutions for small enterprises.

Continue reading →

But at what cost?

As is the case with any other kind of machine ever built throughout history, when you build it to perform better, there's a cost in terms of efficiency. The Chevy Chevette may have been the single ugliest product to emerge from Detroit (way uglier than the Edsel), but it did have that fuel economy thing going for it.

Continue reading →

Consumers are responding positively to Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, and thus their satisfaction of their PCs has also increased, the most recent edition of the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The effect is being compared to the "halo effect" of Apple's iPod music player, which was thought to have engendered positive feelings about the Mac computer.

Dell's satisfaction score was up three points over last year to a 77, while HP, Acer, and a general "all others" category was up four points also to a 77. The only manufacturer not to see gains was Compaq, which remained at a 74 out of a possible 100. Apple remained on top with a score of 86, which was two points higher than last year. The Cupertino company has led the survey every year since 2004.

Continue reading →

Last week I asked: "Can IE9 bring back Microsoft's glory days?" You answered. As I write, there are 65 comments to the post, and I received dozens of e-mail responses about Internet Explorer 9 beta. Also, as expressed in the more than 160 comments to Ed Oswald's post "IE9 will leave a significant portion of Windows users behind," many of you are miffed the browser doesn't support XP.

In this post, I share your reactions to IE9, the majority from e-mails. This morning, Matt Buono expressed his excitement about the browser, which he described as "fantastic." Dan Locker, an alliance manager with a West Coast Microsoft partner, called IE9 a "huge disappointment." He asked not to be identified because of his work with Microsoft; the name here is pseudonym. Jonah Takalua asserts: "IE9 is quick to start up and runs great so far. I liken it to the browser version of Win 7 with IE8 being Vista."

Continue reading →

Though the still-to-be-released Nokia N8 smartphone is modestly specced in the processor department, it is highly overspecced in the camera department. With a 12 Megapixel image sensor, the N8 will join the Sony Ericsson Satio and the Samsung Pixon12 at the highest end of camera phone technology.

Nokia on Tuesday announced that the N8 has been delayed "to ensure a greater user experience," but its powerful camera has yielded some impressive eye candy to whet the appetites of customers in advance of its expected October arrival.

Continue reading →

Samsung Mobile on Tuesday launched the very first LTE phone in the United States, the Samsung Craft. The device celebrates the launch of the very first commercial 4G LTE network with MetroPCS in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In addition to the LTE chips inside, the Craft also has a 1x EV-DO CDMA radio, Wi-Fi/GPS/Bluetooth, a 3.3" AMOLED touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard, a 3.2 Megapixel camera, and a 2GB microSD card with support for cards up to 32GB in size. Similar to the way the Galaxy S Vibrant was pre-loaded with Avatar, the Craft is pre-loaded with a full-length copy of Star Trek on its SD card.

Continue reading →

Though Twitter recently launched a newly redesigned site, users of the popular microblog are advised to use only third-party Twitter clients Tuesday morning to avoid a newly-exploited security hole.

The hole comes from the onMouseOver JavaScript code, which lets websites launch in your browser simply by mousing over a link in your Twitter feed. So far, the flaw has been used to redirect users to third-party sites, to pop up unwanted messages, and to have messages retweet themselves.

Continue reading →

Microsoft Monday announced that it will be launching its "Multi-screen" Zune services in new international markets this fall. The expansion will bring the free Zune software version 4.7, Zune Marketplace with non-DRM MP3 and video downloads and movie rentals, and the Zune Pass subscription service to a total of 20 countries.

Only the UK and France will be open to all of these features, and the rest will vary between countries.

Continue reading →

Google on Monday announced that it would offer a two-step security option to certain customers of its Google Apps product, aiming to offer its customers a low cost option for higher security. The new authentication system would combine the traditional password with a verification code sent to the user's mobile phone.

Initially the offering would be available to English users of its Premier, Education and Government editions, with Standard edition customers getting the feature in the coming months. Google wants to ensure they can scale the feature reliability before expanding it to the "hundreds of millions" using the free version.

Continue reading →

This weekend, TechCrunch reported that popular social networking site Facebook was secretly creating its own branded mobile phone, and that executives Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos were working on the project under the radar of most of Facebook's staff.

The report was quickly followed by a statement from Facebook denying the allegations:

Continue reading →

If Microsoft wants to build market share for its latest version of its Internet Explorer browser, that may be all but impossible. The company has decided to make IE9 incompatible with Windows XP, as it lacks the necessary technologies to power the new browser.

According to research firm NetApplications, nearly 61 percent of all computers run Windows XP as of August. Windows Vista and Windows 7, both IE9 compatible, make up about 30 percent. In other words, seven in 10 PCs are incompatible right out of the box, a major problem for Microsoft.

Continue reading →

Microsoft said this week that it would not have a version of its upcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system compatible with the CDMA standard at launch. Product manager Greg Sullivan told the Wall Street Journal that the company had decided to focus on GSM initially.

While CDMA is quite popular in the US, and is used by three of the top five carriers in the country, GSM is by far the dominant standard worldwide. Microsoft's decision would likely suppress US sales initially given the market share for GSM here is considerably lower than in other countries.

Continue reading →

Yahoo's outspoken CEO Carol Bartz told Reuters in an interview posted late Wednesday that Apple's desire to control the advertising over its iAd mobile advertising service would cause it to "fall apart."

"Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them," she said of the Cupertino company's policies. "Apple wants total control over those ads." Although it wasn't specified, her comments likely stemmed from reports that Apple was exerting some creative control over ads submitted to run on its service.

Continue reading →

Thursday, the winners of the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize were announced at a special ceremony at the Historical Society in Washington DC. The ten million dollar contest challenged 111 teams to create a clean, production-capable vehicle that could exceed 100 miles per gallon or its energy equivalent (MPGe).

The ten million dollar prize today was divided among three vehicle classes: $5 million for mainstream, and $2.5 million each for alternative side-by side, and alternative tandem.

Continue reading →

The tablet PC sector is heating up, and soon Motorola will be joining the fray. Its co-CEO Sanjay Jha told attendees of a technology conference sponsored by Deustche Bank that his company plans to sell a tablet beginning sometime in 2011. Motorola isn't in a rush to bring the product to the market: it would only do so when it can assure the device could be competitive.

Apple's iPad currently dominates the market, but manufacturers in recent months have shown an interest in developing their own tablets as it appears there is now a sustainable market for them.

Continue reading →