Archive of thenextweb.com
All those pesky Windows 7 battery issues? Nothing to fret about says Microsoft, Windows 7 is operating as it should be.
The battery warnings that are cropping up among upgraders to Windows 7 are in fact correctly labeled, says Microsoft. The company has stated that the reason that the batteries are being flagged for replacement is that they are not performing up to specification. Simple enough.
Not performing well, and you should around to perhaps “consider replacing your battery,” as the warning in Windows 7 goes. Please note that the warnings for battery replacement are new to Windows 7.
This is why people who upgrade from an earlier flavor of Windows have been consued when the errors appeared. (more…)
Windows 7 has exploded to 10% global computing market share, growing at a faster clip than Vista did in its early months.
ArsTechnica reported in late January that OS X had some 5.11% market share, signifying that Windows 7 is now twice as large as its chief rival. Windows itself still dominates the computing scene with some 92% market share.
Windows 7 has seen a faster pace of adoption than we saw with its predecessor, the much beleaguered Windows Vista. Windows 7 hit the four percent mark in just one month. It took Vista seven months to carry out the same feat. (more…)
UPDATE: It appears there may never have been a Windows 7-sponsored Family Guy episode after all, as Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins points out on Silicon Angle. As a commenter on this post, Rob, points out these are actually short ads for Windows 7. Still, these Microsoft ads really do sully the Family Guy brand.
Finally we get to see the horror that would have been the Microsoft-sponsored episode of Family Guy.
A couple of months ago Microsoft planned to sponsor an episode of Family Guy to promote the launch of Windows 7. Any idiot could have told you this was the worst fit of brand and TV show in history. Anarchic liberal japery doesn’t really fit well with a mega-corporation flogging the latest version of its OS.
Luckily Microsoft pulled out – the episode could have killed Microsoft’s family-friendly image and Family Guy’s edge forever. We would have forgotten about it by now too if it wasn’t for… Microsoft.
For some reason they’ve decide to release clips from the video which show it to be definitely the worst episode of Family Guy ever. Here they are… (more…)
Yesterday we reported on a Microsoft employee who claimed in an interview that Windows 7 was designed to copy the “look and feel” of Apple’s OSX. Now the company has retracted that statement, saying OSX was no influence on Windows 7 at all.
Writing on the official Windows Blog, Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc says of the quote:
“Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed.”
In short that’s basically “We didn’t copy OSX, that other guy was talking BS.” (more…)
The market share tracking firm Net Applications have made it known: Windows 7 grew past 3% market share, and on a weekend day no less.
With Windows 7 moving past the three percent mark, it is quickly running towards surpassing OSX. The popular, quality, and wonderful OSX has been growing, and now sits at 5.27% total market share. Given the trend in the direction of Windows 7, it seems that in short order Windows 7 will overtake Mac entirely.
This is hardly a surprise, given how well received the operating system was, and the much larger total Windows install base. But it does attest to the fact that the hype that technorati gave to Win7 has indeed translated to actual sales of the software.
Most interesting is that the Win7 in fact first broke the 3% market share on a weekend day, which says quite a bit. Windows tends to do better on weekdays, when the working masses are at their desks using outlook. OSX tends to excel on weekends when people get home and boot up the Mac. Windows 7 broke the 3% mark on a Saturday, Halloween no less. (more…)
Oh Apple, you little guerrilla you. In a move that will surprise few, Apple is purchasing advertisements against searches on Google such as “download windows 7,” and “windows 7 download.”
Those are actually different searches, by the way. They generate about 5 million different listings than each other.
Apple must be paying exorbitant prices for the space, and probably making few sales against someone already looking to move up the Windows food chain. That aside, it is fun to see Apple talk smack with its 30 billion dollar bank account and ad-bomb Redmond.
There is nothing like raining on someone else’s parade. Image after the jump. (more…)
Who would have thought that Microsoft would be able to nail the operating system, and the delivery. It seems that the digital stars have aligned, and just that has happened.
When Windows 7 launched, with a download option being available to all, I fretted that it would suffer the standard kinks of a system attempting to deliver countless petabytes of data to endless users. I was wrong; the download process was far smoother than I expected.
Of course, there were some problems. The student download process, get Windows 7 for just $29 dollars tossed error codes at a number of perplexed students. Past that, to the best of my knowledge, there were no widespread problems with the download process.
Shockingly, the deliver-via-dvd’s method enjoyed similar success. Hats off Microsoft, you did it right. After Vista, the expectations were both very high, and very low. You outdid everyone.
We are on the hunt for data showing the distribution between purchases of Windows 7 that were via download, and by physical purchase. If you have that data, do send it to us.
There were over 1000 people at this grand opening, including some high profile Microsoft execs like the COO Kevin Turner who came out to cut the ribbon.
They say the store looks more like an Apple Store (imitating again?) so that means I have to go to an Apple Store and see with my eyes how it really looks (luckily, there are several around Phoenix area). Maybe the look of the store is because MS worked with a former Apple store designer?
The people were enthusiast about the opening but let’s see how they’ll appreciate Microsoft’s products, especially the newcomer Windows 7 (soon I will buy a machine which runs that so I am eager as well).
Enjoy the video!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz4ptRHjkZ4[/youtube]
When I wrote recently on the Windows 7 upgrade and install process, people complained that indeed I gave little shrift as to why I had gone through with the upgrade. I heard your comments, even the nice ones, and now bring you the best parts of Windows 7, from a blogger’s perspective, one day in.
To begin, I have been using Windows 7 off and on for some time. Of course, this is my first few days with the final build, but I did run the betas in virtual environments.
That aside, the keyboard shortcuts in Win7 are perfect. If you usually have more than eight windows open at any given time, window management can be quite a pain in the glutes. With the keyboard shortcuts in Win7, windowing moves from being a mouse based problem, to a keyboard lead solution.
Take a good look at this list of keyboard shortcuts for Win7, I bet that there are many there that are new to you.
Jump Lists. What I love most about Win7 is its speed. It feels like a lightweight rocket ship that just wants to save me time. JumpLists can be summoned by right clicking on any program that is pinned to the taskbar. Zune, for example has a “shuffle all music” option. The JumpList for Chrome is amazing, look at it, over on right. (more…)
Pretty damn simple, it turns out. This morning I decided to break from slinging invective and hit the big read shiny upgrade button to Windows 7. Research if you will. The upgrade is a breeze, and Windows 7 is better than Apple pie.
If you are running Vista, you can download the Windows 7 file directly from Microsoft, and install it over the top of Vista, preserving your old configuration, files, and programs. Microsoft makes it dead simple, anyone can do this. Total choices to make: about three.
Total time to upgrade: about two hours from completion of download to logging in. It literally could not have been less problematic.
You have the option of wiping your computer, and doing a fresh Windows 7 install, which I recommend if you have the time or the wherewithal. If you do data intensive work, you want a clean Windows build.
Of course, do a full backup before you contemplate either option. I use Mozy, so my most important files were already flittering about the cloud. Just make sure that everything that you hold dear is saved off-computer. As they say, if you have one copy, you have no copies.
My impressions of Windows 7 have yet to change, it is the best version of Windows in existence. It has been thought out top to bottom with the end user in mind. It will save you countless minutes on a daily basis. Shave time from the mundane to focus on what is important.
Be sure to read the Engadget and Gizmodo coverage on the product before you make the leap, but from a bloggers perspective the choice is clear: get Windows 7, right now.
