Microsoft sets Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programs

Software maker will let consumers preorder Windows 7 at a big discount, while offering permanent prices at or below the retail prices for Windows Vista.

From Friday through July 11, consumers in the U.S. will be able to buy an upgrade copy of Windows 7 Home premium for $49 or Windows 7 Professional for $99. That offer is good for both XP and Windows Vista PCs, regardless of whether someone has been trying out the pre-release version of the operating system. That matches the details in a memo from Best Buy that leaked earlier this month.

[…]

When boxed copies of Windows 7 go on sale on October 22, Microsoft plans to charge $119 for Home Premium, $199 for Professional and $219 for Ultimate. The Home Premium upgrade is down $40 from the product’s original price, although the Vista product had already gotten a price cut along the way. The Professional and Ultimate versions are priced similar to where Microsoft was with Vista. The upgrade prices apply to those moving from a previous version of Windows to Windows 7, but only those from Windows Vista will be able to upgrade without doing a clean installation of the product.

The full versions of Windows 7–the editions for those without a copy of Windows–will be priced at $199 for Home Premium, $299 for Professional and $319 for Ultimate. The Ultimate and Professional editions are again on par with their Vista counterparts, while Home Premium is down from the $239 that Microsoft had charged with Vista. Microsoft also plans to offer the operating system in an easier-to-open box.

-via CNET

Photoshop Fun: The Last Airbender’s Aang and Smallville’s Lex Luthor

Aang and Luthor

I didn’t spend a lot of time on this.  I meant to do more to match the lighting on Aang, but with limited time to land a joke, I just quickly threw this together.  The sources are the first picture of Aang from The Last Airbender, and a picture I found of Lex Luthor from Smallville.

Fast Help Finding Perfect Camcorder (Pan SD9?)

Okay, this has been an ongoing problem for me for about 3 weeks now.  I have a week left before we start shooting our videos, and need help ASAP.

I’ve been researching camcorders to fit the following specifications:

  • Less than $600 (Prefer around 500)
  • 3CCD
  • Great Picture Quality
  • Editable in Premiere CS4
  • Records to SDHC Memory Cards

This is for a series of youth group videos, and I was thinking of getting 2 when I thought I could spend about $400/ea. but research has been more than confusing, as people generally have so many various views of great cameras, and in certain budgets they compare a $600 camera to an obviously superior $1100 camera.  (Duh, the higher priced camera is going to be better… it’s nearly twice the price!)

I’m not looking for anything TERRIBLY high as all the videos will end up on YouTube and perhaps DVDs to give to the kids after the summer.  I also want something that’s slightly future-proof.

Anything from Panasonic? Canon?

I found the Panasonic HDC-SD9 that seems to fit the specifications, some reviews I’ve found have scared me a little.

Sony uses their own super expensive MemoryStick Pro cards… don’t know if that’s really within budget.

Anyone have some insight?  What would you do?

You can either comment here, or at Videomaker.com, or at Amazon.com

Cutenews to WordPress Conversion

cutenews-logo

In my search to convert the flat file format of Cutenews over to the database driven WordPress, I came across a plugin that someone was creating.  This news transfer tool is called Other-Ext-WP.

I was pretty excited to find it, as I want to move two of my websites off of Cutenews and into the more secure database driven format.  It worked okay when I tried it out to see what it would do.  It did pull in the stories as well as some of the categories and the dates.

wordpress-logoHowever, there are a number of issues with the importing, however, that have been reported by others as well.

1) The Categories don’t transfer correctly.

2) The Full Story doesn’t transfer, just the short story field.

3) You can only attribute the stories to one user.

4) It strips out all mark-up.  In both stories and comments.

I’m not too worried about moving the uploaded pictures over, as that can be fixed later.  But I would love to have a working script to run that will properly convert things.

The latest WordPress version that the creator says that it works in is 2.3.1, so I tried that to see if it worked, and that’s where the issues came in.  The person developing it appears to have given up on the plugin, so I’m asking for anyone that has some spare time to help out if you can.

Continue reading Cutenews to WordPress Conversion

New Twitter Design Layout

A few days ago, I logged in to one of my accounts on Twitter, and noticed something strange.  The design had changed.  It’s really quite an interesting change, as it lends itself to the social more than the previous design.  I really like it, even though it comes at the expense of the following images on the right hand side.  It’s a much more streamlined design with an easier flow.

Also gone are the Device Updates heading that has the SMS set up linked underneath, as well as the RSS feed link.  Those may yet be added to the new layout, but the SMS link was pretty redundant and could be served in the settings area.  The RSS feed link is one that I would like to see return, but I don’t know how functional it really was, or if its’ removal was due to a lack of use.

I also love the addition of Twitter Search to the layout, as well as the Trending Topics links.  Both are great time savers.

Windows 7: A return to Windows 1.0?

I just found something really interesting that I didn’t know, and I’m not sure how many people know about this.  Apparently Windows used to have a feature at the bottom of the screen that showed you the programs that you had open.  Not only that, but it pre-dates the Apple Dock by about fifteen years!  It even pre-dates NextStep OS by about two years, which is what the Apple Dock was based on.

When?  In Windows 1.0, of course.. in 1985.  Take a look at these two screenshots to see where Windows started and where it is going:

Windows 1.01
Windows 7

Kindle 2 vs. Stanza – Poll

Kindle vs. StanzaThere are two eReaders that are available either now or soon.  I was doing some research on Amazon.com’s Kindle 2, which was announced yesterday, and found it to be a very good step up from the original, according to reviews that I have read.  It also has instant access to Amazon’s Kindle store without needing a wireless hub or internet access, which is a great plus.

But then I stumbled onto a post on Twitter about Stanza, created by LexCycle.  Someone said that Stanza is the reason that no one will ever need a Kindle.  So I looked that up, and found that it, too, is a potential option.  The only thing is that I’d need an iPod Touch.  Not only that, but the books look like they’re cheaper on Stanza.  Sure, they don’t have the same level of selection as Kindle, but they do have the books that I would want. The real downside is that you need a wireless connection to make the connection.

In fact, both devices offer all of the books that I would love to be able to have with me wherever I go.

And this morning I discovered Plastic Logic’s eReader, which seems like it won’t be available for at LEAST a year.

So I’m at a loss for what device or software would best serve my needs / wants.

[poll id=”2″]

How many versions of Windows 7 will Microsoft release?

Windows 7 Beta

According to the Windows 7 Beta, there will be more than one version of the next Windows OS.  I had been hoping that Microsoft would get a little smarter, and release a single version of their operating system, like Apple does with OS X.  I suppose we have to wait for Windows 8, or a revolt, for that.

I am sure that the variations of the OS is set up to appease the many that have purchased a certain edition in the past, but the problem with releasing so many versions of the operating system is that there no clear difference between the capabilities of each version of Windows.

Continue reading How many versions of Windows 7 will Microsoft release?

Ordered Adobe Production Premium, Dreamweaver and Fireworks CS4

Adobe CS4Yesterday, I took the plunge and ordered Adobe Creative Suite 4.  The great news is that I got free shipping AND saved $200 on the upgrade for Production Premium.  Hooray for that!

The bad news is the same problem that I had with ordering Fireworks CS4 was duplicated when I tried to order it again.  I had to create a separate order just to get it.  It shouldn’t have worked out this way, but it did.

I put the Production Premium CS4 upgrade into my cart, and followed that up with the Dreamweaver CS4 upgrade.  At that time, it asked me if I was in need of the upgrade of full version of Dreamweaver, to which I obviously answered with the upgrade.

I believe that is the root of the problem.  You see, it sets that option then, for every other individual software, or at least that’s my impression.  I suppose that if you were ordering upgrades for individual programs, it would save you a click or two, but it caused me to pull out my hair.  I would have liked to have an option to click OUT of that for other programs.  It would have made ordering the full version of Fireworks CS4 a breeze.  Instead, I put in my order for the other software (and selected the fastest shipping time available… hey, it’s free!).  Then I proceeded to the Fireworks page, and added the full version to my cart without a problem, submitting a second order.

At least the shipping is free on both.  But still, there’s an oversight that I’m going to report to Adobe at my earliest convenience.

I’m excited to check it all out, though, and to finally have Adobe software that makes use of the computing power that I have.  Now all that I need is Windows 7 64-bit (I’m skipping Vista), and instead of using only 3 GB of RAM, it’ll use all 4.  That’ll be a nice day.  Moving from 32-bit to 64-bit, and from 3 GB of RAM to 4 GB with a single install of what is reportedly Microsoft’s best operating system in years.