Last night at the CES 2010 keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that Windows 7 has become the fastest selling operating system in history. Craig Beilinson, the Director of Marketing for the company’s Entertainment and Devices Division, also agrees. Neither Ballmer nor Beilinson shared actual unit sales numbers, but Beilinson did have evidence to back him up.
PC sales nearly jumped 50% during the week of Windows 7’s launch over the week before; Black Friday also brought the numbers as PC sales were up 63% over last year’s shopping holiday; and for 2009’s holiday season, there were more than a 50% increase in PC sales in comparison to 2008’s holiday season.
According to Fast Company , Beilinson also boasted about the diversity of the Windows 7 operating system. The operating system is available on 1,700 PCs, but also 11,000 Windows 7-compatible devices and components. Keep in mind, however, with the World using more and more technology, there are more PCs in existence than when Vista and XP hit the market.
Fellow geeks and enthusiasts might agree that Microsoft is loosing its edge, but one thing is certain: we are still seeing Microsoft technology in every aspect of our World: Netbooks and Tablets (also the recently revealed HP slate), Windows Mobile 6.5 in a variety of smartphones, with Microsoft even extending its technology into the car industry.
Over at Mozilla designer Stephen Horlander’s Blog, a new set of GUI mock-ups for Firefox 4.0 has been posted for all to see. The newest set have a new ‘App Button’ in similar vein to Office 2010 and WordPad/Paint in Windows 7. This will store all the important functions that are currently shown in the two Page and Tools buttons in Google Chrome. The colouring is there to keep some form of identity to the browser.
Another note is the Toolbar buttons, which have a new glossy appearance and have a shade of blue compared to the original grey. The site status bar is now coloured vividly to show a site’s security credentials, along with the URL. The Address bar has been properly recessed into the window amongst other updates.
View the whole set of images here.
gHacks has announced that Opera 10.5 has been released a few days ahead of its December 22, 2009 release. Which is probably the best thing that could happen to Opera which is suffering in the competition to being the World’s favorite browser. In July 2009, Opera’s market share was only 2% of English-language sites according to Hits Link. Images in this post are courtesy of Techie Buzz.
The leaked build, which are legitimate but from an older build than the actual general release, shows us a “new interface, better compatibility with Windows 7, private browsing, and a new rendering system that should provide for fast browsing on the Internet”.
Expect to see some tweaks and bug fixes when the actual 10.5 release hits the tangled tubes of the Internet. Carakan, Opera’s new ECMAScript/javascript engine, is not present in the current release. You can find the leaked Opera build if you can search in the right spots, so have fun “Googling”.
Non-profit Mozilla and its Firefox 3.5 Internet browser have managed to dethrone Microsoft and its Internet Explorer 7 browser. This comes as the first time that Firefox has beaten out Internet Explorer in browser market share as a single version.
As the chart released by StatsCounter show, Firefox 3.5 has spun past all other Internet browsers in user choice as a single version. Internet Explorer comes in first, however, with 55 percent of the market share with all versions combined.
Mozilla’s browser ended the week with 21.93 percent of the market share. IE7 came in a close second with 21.20%. The successor to IE7, Internet Explorer 8, comes in third with 20.33 percent, with IE6 coming in fourth.
Combined version’s market share still shows Internet Explorer as the king of web browsers with 55.42 percent of the market share. Firefox ended with 31.95 percent so it still has a little while to go before it surpasses Internet Explorer completely. Perhaps publicity of Firefox 4 will bring them ahead of the Microsoft-branded Internet browser?
Opera managed to lose points from it’s share decreasing it from 2 percent in June to 0.94 percent now, letting Safari 4 bring in just over 3 percent.
Microsoft has now entered the market of digitally distributing PC games by offering its popular “Games for Windows” catalog for download in a new platform called Games on Demand. With its already popular Xbox 360 Games on Demand platform, Microsoft is looking to create a little more competition against Stardock’s Impulse and Valve's Steam.
The big difference between Games on Demand and another program like Steam is the fact that PC games can be purchased using both Microsoft Points and actual cash money. Microsoft could be on to something as Impulse and Steam have already proven that the digitally distributed store model.
"With Games on Demand, we didn't just want to create a cut-and-paste version of existing digital distribution services," said Mike Ybarra, general manager of LIVE Engagement Services, in a comment to Kotaku. "We challenged ourselves to deliver an integrated platform that takes full advantage of the unique capabilities offered by the LIVE service. Our goal has always been to create a seamless online gaming experience for the Windows community, and Games on Demand is a great step toward that end."
Current PC games included in the platform’s initial launch are Resident Evil 5, Red Faction: Guerilla, DiRT 2, a free Live-enabled version of Tinker, a Windows Vista Ultimate exclusive, a Live-enabled version of World of Goo and Osmos, and Fallout 3 among others.
View: Games on Demand
We were surprised yesterday to hear that Nokia is moving ahead with both Symbian and Maemo phones, but reassured by their admission that the Symbian UI kinda blows. Well, now we have juicy screenshots of improvements they've got in mind.
Nokia's device top dog, Kai Öistämö, reiterated that they don't see the Symbian OS as the problem—just the interface. Accordingly, they're planning two big interface milestones for 2010, the first of which will arrive by mid-year. They plan to:
"Use a new optimized graphic architecture with a focus on graphics and responsiveness, showcased beautifully on a large capacitive screen. Later in the year, a completely new visual architecture re-working of the UI will drastically reduce the complexity throughout and bring fresh appeal. We will execute here." Big screens hey? That concept tablet in the slides sure looks interesting...
Beyond reduced clutter, Nokia also plans to improve input methods (including multi-touch and single tap controls). "Two taps to get to music and video instead of 8, and email access in two steps instead of four….There will also be a significantly improved browser experience."
"The interface will be over three times faster than our current high-end devices in many areas…Scrolling will move up to over 60fps compared to 15fps on our current high-end devices."
If they deliver, it may help Symbian phones (both smartphone and dumb) level off out of their nosedive into irrelevance. And interestingly, Nokia also plans to release its first Maemo 6-powered "mobile computer" late next year, too. FYI: The screens are from yesterday's webcast of Nokia's Capital Market Day for investors: [Nokia]
A woman is potentially facing three years in jail for recording three minutes of New Moon, the sequel to Twilight. Three years. In Jail. Over Twilight.
Samantha Tumpach claims that she should not face the harsh punishment intended for bootleggers, because all she was doing is recording family members singing "Happy Birthday" to her sister in the theater. Any footage of the movie screen was completely accidental, according to Tumpach.
I honestly don't care about whether she was trying to bootleg the movie or not, I just plain think she should be jailed for considering a surprise birthday party at a showing of New Moon a wise idea. [Sun Times via Digg]
