Posted 09/24/2009 at 06:33:40am

There’s no doubt that you’ve seen the top-notch Windows 7 launch party videos by now (and if you haven’t, do your self a favor and get on that!), and sure – while they may be pretty painful to watch as is, there is a light at the end of that tunnel of misery.

Enter Cabel Sasser, the founder of software company Panic Inc, who remixed the “Hosting Your Party” video in a way that made it far more entertaining (and believable). But, don’t let me hold you up any longer – check out his version here. And, as long as we’re on the subject, are there any other remixes out there that we missed? Let us know in the comments.

Posted 09/24/2009 at 06:06:47am

There’s been loose talk of a Zune phone for some time now, and it looks like we’ve finally found out what it might be. According to some scoop from the folks over at Gizmodo, Microsoft’s reported Pink phone is the device at large, and it’ll come in two forms.

The two models, which are known as the Turtle and the Pure, look an awful lot like a Palm Pre and a Sidekick respectively. The phones will be made by Sharp, who will share branding with Microsoft. The phones are reportedly aimed at a younger audience, which explains the perpetually round aesthetics.

It’s expected that they’ll feature Zune services (hint: Zune phone) and have their own app store, making it an obvious competitor to Apple’s iPhone. No word yet on pricing or availability.

Posted 09/23/2009 at 05:25:00am

For some time now Apple has stolen all the thunder when it comes to the idea of a tablet – but it appears that we’ve been looking in the wrong place. In a very real announcement, Microsoft has revealed their Courier tablet concept, and it looks absolutely divine.

The Courier (which can be seen in conceptual video form here), is reportedly in the late stages of development and despite its appearance, is a tablet, not a booklet. The 7-inch screens will support multitouch, writing, flicking, and drawing with a stylus or your fingers. A hinge that houses an iPhone-style home button, which you can use to bookmark pages, connects them both. The back cover will sport a three megpixel camera, and the lights that display status (wireless signal, battery life, etc.) will line up on the bottom.

No word yet on pricing or availability, but there’ll be plenty of news to come in the next few days.

Posted 09/17/2009 at 05:27:32am

Upon the release of version 3.0 for their web browser, Chrome, Google has stated that they’ve got some pretty sizeable goals for the fledgling application.

Google has reported that Chrome currently holds less than three percent of the browser market, but they expect that a year from now that number will grow to five percent. But, in two years Google is planning on that number growing twofold, and jumping up to ten percent. If it doesn’t, Google’s own Engineering Director of Chrome Linus Upson will be “exceptionally disappointed.”

Sure, the goals are a bit lofty, but between the advertisements running on both the Internet and TV and the soon to be released Mac version, Google should be able to make up some ground.

Posted 09/17/2009 at 04:48:26am

The Zune HD may only be a couple of days old, but the app store for the device is already up and running.

A “Marketplace” which offers nine free apps is already shelling out software to Zune HD users across the land. The apps, which include calculator, weather, Texas hold ‘em, Sudoku, Space Battle 3, Shell Game… Of the Future, Hexic, Goo Splat and Chess will appear in a new “Apps” menu on the main screen once they’re downloaded.  Reportedly, the apps look and act pretty solid, but feature adverts during startup that cause the boot time to exceed 30 seconds in some cases.

Either way though, they’re free – so you get what you pay for.

Posted 09/14/2009 at 05:54:57pm

After a long seven years of development and tweaking, the IEEE has finally approved the 802.11n high-throughput wireless LAN standard.

The new standard, which is reportedly capable of throughput of 300Mbps, has been changed six times since its first conception. And, according to the IEEE, all existing WiFi certified 802.11 Draft N wireless products will work with the final standard.

No word as to when the standard will make its way to market.