Overview

In order to download and install the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta you must currently have a Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 already installed.

To learn more about piloting, deploying and managing Windows 7, visit the Springboard Series on TechNet.

To learn more about SP1 Beta and Windows Server 2008 R2, visit the SP1 Details Page.

*Windows 7 Minimum System Requirements:

• 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
• DVD-compatible drive
• Internet access (fees may apply)

Note: Some product features of Windows 7, such as the ability to watch and record live TV, BitLocker, or navigation through the use of “touch,” may require advanced or additional hardware. Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM and 15 GB of available disk space.

Each version is available in these languages: English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.

For More Details

Download SP1 Beta Software

The Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta is a joint release for both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.  SP1 Beta for Windows Server 2008 R2 includes previously released updates and delivers a number of powerful new features for virtualization and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX.

By registering for the Service Pack 1 Beta, you will receive updates on new builds and beta expiration dates. You are encouraged to register but if you wish, you can opt out of registration and proceed directly to the download. If you choose to opt-out of registration, you will not be contacted further. To opt-out, please proceed to the download.

Opera 10.60 is now available for download.

Opera 10.60 for Windows changelog

Release date: July 1, 2010

Opera 10.60 is a recommended upgrade offering new and improved features, plus security and stability enhancements. For your reference, please see the previous Opera 10.60 beta 1 for Windows changelog on the Opera changelogs website.

New features

Opera Presto 2.6 rendering engine

• Opera 10.60 final contains the Opera Presto 2.6 rendering engine, which improves stability and adds support for the following new Opera features.

Geolocation services

• User-enabled geolocation services are provided through Google Location Services (GLS).
• IP address and WiFi recognition are implemented.
  • IP address recognition works with GLS by recognizing your IP address and telling you the cordinates based on it.
  • WiFi recognition works with GLS by gathering and then sending a list of all nearby wireless networks including MAC (Media
    Access Control) address, SSID (Service set identifier) name, and signal strength, which returns your coordinates.
• An address bar map pin icon indicates a Web page is accessing the Geolocation API.
• Opera geolocation services support the W3C Geolocation
  API Specification (http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-geolocation-API-20081222/).
  • A user decides to share or not share their device location with a Web site based on trust; see
    section 4.2 (http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html#privacy_for_recipients) of the W3C Geolocation specification.
  • Further information is available at the Opera Desktop Team blog: “The
    return of Geolocation” (http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2010/02/05/skin-fixes-unite-and-then-some).
• See this Opera demo (http://html5demos.com/geo).

Offline Web Applications

• Support is added for Offline Web Applications (http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/offline.html#offline)
  implementing the user interface for caching.
• This allows documents to communicate with each other regardless of their source domain, and is designed in a way which
  does not enable cross-site scripting attacks.
• See this Opera demo (http://html5demos.com/offlineapp).

Web Workers

• Web Workers (http://www.w3.org/TR/workers/) is an API for running scripts
  in the background independently of any user interface scripts. This allows for long-running scripts that are not interrupted
  by scripts that respond to clicks or other user interactions, and allows long tasks to be executed without yielding to keep
  the page responsive.
• See this Opera demo (http://html5demos.com/worker).

WebM

• The WebM format consists of the VP8 video and Vorbis audio
  codecs wrapped inside a .webm container. It is based on the Matroska media container format, and offers high-quality
  video with fast seeking.
• WebM works together with the HTML5 <video> element supported in the Opera Presto rendering engine.
• See these Opera articles:
  • Welcome, WebM <video>! (http://labs.opera.com/news/2010/05/19/)
  • Opera supports the WebM video format (http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/opera-supports-webm-video/)

New in Opera 10.53

• Enjoy unprecedented speed with our new Carakan JavaScript engine, Vega graphics library, and Opera Presto 2.5 browser engine.
• Opera includes industry leading support for Web standards such as HTML 5, SVG and JavaScript.
• Enhanced platform integration on Windows and Mac means that Opera looks and works better than ever on your operating system.
• A beautiful, new design looks great on Windows, maximizing your view of the Web and fully utilizing Aero transparency on Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
• Our improved dialogs will not get in your way or interrupt you. You can now switch between different pages without having to clear prompts first.
• Searching is easier than ever, with Web search integrated right in the address field. You can also find pages from your history and bookmarks, as you type.
• Displaying pages in the size you want is smoother than ever, with a new zoom slider in the status bar.
• Rest assured that browsing stays personal with private browsing. Once you close a private tab or window, the data from that session is removed from the browser without a trace.

Opera lets you surf the Internet in a safer, faster, and easier way. One of the most full-featured Internet power tools on the market, it includes pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, and advanced functions like Opera’s groundbreaking E-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat. You can customize the look and content of your browser with a few clicks of the mouse.

Opera is known as the fastest and smallest full-featured browser, a first choice for people using older PCs and Windows 95 and a brilliant alternative to the default IE from Microsoft. Opera, first of all, is client World Wide Web, that is the program for extraction of the information from WWW as the documents created with help HyperText Markup Language (language of a marking of hypertext HTML).

Low requirements to resources of system. Opera will work even on 386 computer about 6 MB of operative memory. MDI the interface. You can open without special expenses of memory any quantity of windows inside one working window, having chosen thus a tabulared or cascade mode.

Opera started out as a research project in Norway’s largest telecom company, Telenor, in 1994, and branched out into an independent development company named Opera Software ASA in 1995. Opera Software develops the Opera Web browser, a high-quality, multi-platform product for a wide range of platforms, operating systems and embedded Internet products.

Download Opera 10.53

Mozilla has released Weave 1.2.3, the Firefox extension and service that provides Firefox user data synchronization among computing devices like laptops, desktops, and starting tomorrow, with Firefox for Maemo release, mobile devices. It is also great for users who dual-boot, and what don’t want to bother remembering where they did what.

So far, synchronization includes bookmarks, history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, and even your last 25 opened tabs. All the information is transported and stored in encrypted form at all times making it pretty safe to use.

Weave, in development for more than two years now, includes a client (the Weave Sync extension), and a server component (Weave Server) so companies could deploy their own synchronization servers.

A feature that is not present but was tried at some point in Weave development is automatic sign-on, but it could come back at some point.

Also, preferences finally ended in its own tab in the Options or Preferences dialog, after trying a page approach Mozilla is considering for the whole preferences user interface or add-on management at least (more on this in the next post).

Check out the release notes for more details. Download Weave Sync from Mozilla Add-ons.

Recent changes

• • Sync data faster by detecting when you’ve added additional devices and downloading all data in one pass
  • Easier access to remote tabs from the right-end of the tab bar or going to about:weave-tabs
  • Less disruptive “start over” by showing the sync direction options and skipping the username entry
  • Prevent potential data corruption by favoring most recent changes and being less strict about version requirements
  • (1.2.3) Add support for Firefox on Android (Fennec pre-alpha)
  • (1.2.2) Fix compatibility with trunk nightly builds of Minefield
  • (1.2.1) Sync a capped number of form history items to avoid slowing Firefox

Firefox 3.6.3 fixes a critical security issue that could potentially allow remote code execution (see bug 555109).

What’s New in Firefox 3.6.3

Mozilla has released Weave 1.2.1, the Firefox extension and service that provides Firefox user data synchronization among computing devices like laptops, desktops, and starting tomorrow, with Firefox for Maemo release, mobile devices. It is also great for users who dual-boot, and what don’t want to bother remembering where they did what.

So far, synchronization includes bookmarks, history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, and even your last 25 opened tabs. All the information is transported and stored in encrypted form at all times making it pretty safe to use.

Weave, in development for more than two years now, includes a client (the Weave Sync extension), and a server component (Weave Server) so companies could deploy their own synchronization servers.

A feature that is not present but was tried at some point in Weave development is automatic sign-on, but it could come back at some point.

Also, preferences finally ended in its own tab in the Options or Preferences dialog, after trying a page approach Mozilla is considering for the whole preferences user interface or add-on management at least (more on this in the next post).

Check out the release notes for more details. Download Weave Sync from Mozilla Add-ons.

Recent changes

• Fix issues with uploading stale data when upgrading
• Remember bookmark locations when moving out of unsorted
• Prevent certain tabs from syncing: restore session, wyciwyg:

More Information

• For more information on Weave Sync 1.0, please see the release notes
• For information about previous versions as well as the latest development snapshots, check out the changelog

Weave Sync Changelog

Here you can read about Weave add-on releases. For the full hg changelog, go here

Weave v1.1 (February 26, 2010)

• Fix issues with uploading stale data when upgrading
• Remember bookmark locations when moving out of unsorted
• Prevent certain tabs from syncing: restore session, wyciwyg:

Weave v1.0.1 (February 12, 2010)

• When syncing saved passwords we no longer allow Weave credentials in the set of data that is encrypted and synchronized with the server

Weave v1.0 (January 28, 2010)

• Fix threshold sync values so clients don’t sync too aggressively
• Updated web links and icons

For a limited time you can download this free E-Book First Look: Microsoft Office 2010 without stepping through any registration.

First Look: Microsoft Office 2010, by Katherine Murray, offers 14 chapters of early content, organized like so:

Part I, “Envision the Possibilities,” introduces you to the changes in Office 2010 and shows you how you can make the most of the new features to fit the way you work today. Chapter 1, “Welcome to Office 2010,” gives you a play-by-play introduction to new features; Chapter 2, “Express Yourself Effectively and Efficiently,” details the great feature enhancements and visual effects throughout the applications; and Chapter 3, “Work Anywhere with Office 2010,” explores the flexibility factor by presenting a set of scenarios that enable users to complete their work no matter where their path takes them.

Part II, “Hit the Ground Running,” focuses on each of the Office 2010 applications in turn, spotlighting the key new features and showing how they relate to the whole. These chapters provide a how-to guide for many of the top features you’re likely to use right off the bat, and they offer inspiring ideas on how to get the most from your favorite applications.

Part III, “Next Steps with Office 2010,” zooms up to the big picture and provides examples to help you think through interoperability. How often do you use the various Office applications together? Customer research shows that people often don’t realize how well the applications work together as a complete system—which means they might be laboring over items they could easily incorporate from somewhere else. This part of the book provides examples for integrating the applications and explores Office 2010 security and training opportunities, as well.

You can First Look: Microsoft Office 2010 Download here.

Watch video

Google Chrome Dev Channel has been updated to 5.0.342.3 for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms

This release improves stability and fixes some known crashers (such as Issues: 37035, 37674, 37567)

• All: Form auto-fill is not enabled by default (Issue 37466) – Fixed on Trunk
• Windows: Browser crashes on quiting with Authentication dialog opened (Issue: 37698) – Fixed on Trunk
• Linux: Chromium Bookmark Sync Not Working (Issue: 36460)

Direct Download Link:

It’s official! In a blog post today, Arpan Shah officially announced that May 12th, 2010, is the launch date for SharePoint 2010.

You’re invited to virtually join us on May 12th at 11am EST to listen to Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announce the launch.

You can register for the launch event at: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/proof/pages/2010-launch-events.aspx.

Watch Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announce the launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 on May 12, 2010 at 11 a.m. EST. The live keynote focuses on the next wave of productivity that delivers:

• End user productivity across the PC, phone and browser
• IT choice and flexibility
• A platform for developers to build innovative solutions

Join the virtual launch event with Microsoft executives, product developers, partners and customers to:

• Find out how peers and partners are already seeing benefits to their business by leveraging the next wave of productivity.
• Submit your questions through live Q&A.
• Participate via blogs, tweets, social media networks, commenting, and more.

View on-demand breakout sessions showing how Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 meet the unique challenges people and businesses are faced with today, and provide the solutions they need for tomorrow.

Mozilla has released Weave 1.1, the Firefox extension and service that provides Firefox user data synchronization among computing devices like laptops, desktops, and starting tomorrow, with Firefox for Maemo release, mobile devices. It is also great for users who dual-boot, and what don’t want to bother remembering where they did what.

So far, synchronization includes bookmarks, history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, and even your last 25 opened tabs. All the information is transported and stored in encrypted form at all times making it pretty safe to use.

Weave, in development for more than two years now, includes a client (the Weave Sync extension), and a server component (Weave Server) so companies could deploy their own synchronization servers.

A feature that is not present but was tried at some point in Weave development is automatic sign-on, but it could come back at some point.

Also, preferences finally ended in its own tab in the Options or Preferences dialog, after trying a page approach Mozilla is considering for the whole preferences user interface or add-on management at least (more on this in the next post).

Check out the release notes for more details. Download Weave Sync from Mozilla Add-ons.

Recent changes

• Fix issues with uploading stale data when upgrading
• Remember bookmark locations when moving out of unsorted
• Prevent certain tabs from syncing: restore session, wyciwyg:

More Information

• For more information on Weave Sync 1.0, please see the release notes
• For information about previous versions as well as the latest development snapshots, check out the changelog

Weave Sync Changelog

Here you can read about Weave add-on releases. For the full hg changelog, go here

Weave v1.1 (February 26, 2010)

• Fix issues with uploading stale data when upgrading
• Remember bookmark locations when moving out of unsorted
• Prevent certain tabs from syncing: restore session, wyciwyg:

Weave v1.0.1 (February 12, 2010)

• When syncing saved passwords we no longer allow Weave credentials in the set of data that is encrypted and synchronized with the server

Weave v1.0 (January 28, 2010)

• Fix threshold sync values so clients don’t sync too aggressively
• Updated web links and icons

Mozilla has released Weave 1.0, the Firefox extension and service that provides Firefox user data synchronization among computing devices like laptops, desktops, and starting tomorrow, with Firefox for Maemo release, mobile devices. It is also great for users who dual-boot, and what don’t want to bother remembering where they did what.

So far, synchronization includes bookmarks, history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, and even your last 25 opened tabs. All the information is transported and stored in encrypted form at all times making it pretty safe to use.

Weave, in development for more than two years now, includes a client (the Weave Sync extension), and a server component (Weave Server) so companies could deploy their own synchronization servers.

A feature that is not present but was tried at some point in Weave development is automatic sign-on, but it could come back at some point.

Also, preferences finally ended in its own tab in the Options or Preferences dialog, after trying a page approach Mozilla is considering for the whole preferences user interface or add-on management at least (more on this in the next post).

With Weave 1.0 and Firefox 3.6 released, and Firefox for Maemo 1.0 debuting tomorrow, Mozilla is rounding a great 2010 start.

Check out the release notes for more details. Download Weave Sync from Mozilla Add-ons.

Here is the list of Changes since Beta 3:

• Fix threshold sync values so clients don’t sync too aggressively
• Updated web links and icons
• Preserve multiple bookmarks to the same page to avoid reordering issues
• Show that email addresses aren’t usernames
• Fix issues that potentially led to reordered bookmarks
• Avoid triggering master password prompt on launching Firefox
• Better integration with Fennec UX
• Smarter detection of tabs to sync
• Faster startup times for Firefox and Fennec
• Make tabs available immediately when setting up another computer
• Automatically use the synced lightweight theme (Firefox 3.6+)
• A few more bug fixes related to changing passwords, mobile bookmarks, etc

What’s New in Firefox 3.6

Mozilla Labs Weave 1.0 RC2 is now released.

What’s changed since Beta 3?

• Faster startup times for Firefox and Fennec
• Make tabs available immediately when setting up another computer
• Automatically use the synced lightweight theme (Firefox 3.6+)
• A few more bug fixes related to changing passwords, mobile bookmarks, etc.

Release Notes

1. Upgrade all your clients to the latest version
   If you are using Weave Sync on multiple computers, you will need to update all of them to the latest version. Weave Sync requires that you use the same version of the addon on all your computers that you want to synchronize data to/from.
2. Hosting Your Own
   If you are hosting your own Weave server, you’ll need to add an apache alias line for the 1.0 URL – your old server will still handle the same API.

More Information
For information about previous versions as well as the latest development snapshots, check out the changelog

Beta, Download, Firefox, Mozilla, Nokia

What’s New in Firefox 3.5.7

Firefox 3.5.7 fixes the following issues:
- Fixed a common stability issue.
- Fixed a problem with how updates were being presented to users.

Please see the complete list of changes in this version. You may also be interested in the Firefox 3.5.6 release notes for a list of changes in the previous version.

• Get Firefox 3.5.7

  3.5.7, English (US), Windows (7.7MB)

  Download Now – Free

• Get Firefox 3.5.7

  3.5.7, English (US), Linux (9.4MB)

  Download Now – Free

• Get Firefox 3.5.7

  3.5.7, English (US), Mac OS X (17.6MB)

  Download Now – Free

Release Notes – Other Systems and Languages

Firefox 3.7 is said to start up 25% faster on Windows and will incorporate Jetpack which is an improved interface for plug-ins that makes them easier to write, install, and upgrade.

Firefox 3.7 is also expected to incorporate the first phase of work on Electrolysis. Electrolysis is designed to improve the stability of the browser by isolating processes into separate components. Plug-ins will also be moved to a process separate from the main browser. By separating components in this way, a problem with a process or plug-in won’t crash the entire browser.

Another key improvement with Firefox 3.7 is called Weave. This plug-in will synchronize bookmarks, passwords, plug-ins, and open tabs across different Firefox windows.?

Mozilla Labs Weave 1.0 RC is now released.

What’s changed since Beta 3?

• Faster startup times for Firefox and Fennec
• Make tabs available immediately when setting up another computer
• Automatically use the synced lightweight theme (Firefox 3.6+)
• A few more bug fixes related to changing passwords, mobile bookmarks, etc.

Release Notes

1. Upgrade all your clients to the latest version
   If you are using Weave Sync on multiple computers, you will need to update all of them to the latest version. Weave Sync requires that you use the same version of the addon on all your computers that you want to synchronize data to/from.
2. Hosting Your Own
   If you are hosting your own Weave server, you’ll need to add an apache alias line for the 1.0 URL – your old server will still handle the same API.

More Information
For information about previous versions as well as the latest development snapshots, check out the changelog

Opera 10.5 pre-alpha is now available for downloading & testing.

What’s new

Inside

• Carakan

  Carakan is our new JavaScript engine. It’s fast, more than 7x faster in SunSpider than Opera 10.10 with Futhark on Windows (Mac optimization is not as far along). You can read more gritty details regarding register-based bytecode, automatic object classification and native code generation in the Opera Core blog.

  SunSpider Javascript Benchmark (runs per minute)

  

• Presto 2.5

  We are now using Presto 2.5, which contains a huge numbers of improvements. It also includes support for CSS3 transitions and transforms, and more HTML5 features like persistent storage.

• Vega

  Vega is our new graphics library. It’s currently software based and displays everything you see on-screen. Vega can be hardware accelerated, but as you can see from the complex graphics benchmark in Peacekeeper, we don’t seem to need it yet. (Note that Futuremarks Peacekeeper test does no include the results of their complex graphics tests in the overall score. We believe this is wrong in 2009 and will simply be silly if not changed in 2010.)

  Peacekeeper Complex Graphic Benchmarks

Outside

• Platform integration

  • On Windows 7/Vista, you will notice a lot of visual changes and use of APIs which allow the UI to display the Aero Glass effect. For Windows 7, we also added Aero Peek and Jump List support to easily access your Speed Dials, Tabs, etc. from the Taskbar.
  • For Mac, a complete rewrite in Cocoa brings an Unified Toolbar, native buttons and scrollbars, multi-touch gestures (try 3-Finger Swipe Left/Right or Pinch to zoom) and a bunch of other small details. We also added Growl notification support.

• “Private tab” and “Private window”

  You can open a new Private tab or Private window that forgets everything that happened on it once closed.

• Non-modal dialogs

  Dialog boxes (JavaScript alerts, HTTP authentication, etc.) are now non-modal and are displayed as a page overlay. This allows you to switch tabs or windows while the dialog is still displayed. Similarly, the Password Manager dialog is now anchored at the top of the page won’t block any content as it loads a new page.

• Address field and Search field improvements

  Both fields have been upgraded in looks and functionality. They can now remember searches, support removing items from history and show results in a better layout.

Download

To try it out, you can download the latest Labs build here:

• Windows
• Mac OS X (Intel)

Mozilla community released Firefox 3.6 Beta 5, making it available for free download and issuing an automatic update to all Firefox 3.6 beta users. This update contains over 100 fixes from the last Firefox 3.6 beta, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users.

Over 70% of the thousands of Firefox Add-ons have now been upgraded by their authors to be compatible with Firefox 3.6 Beta. If your favorite Add-on isn’t yet compatible, you can also download and install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter – your favorite Add-on author will appreciate it!

The Beta of Firefox 3.6 / Gecko 1.9.2 introduces several new features for users to evaluate:

• Support for the HTML5 File API
• A change to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
• The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Web developers and Add-on developers should read more detail about the many new features in Firefox 3.6 for developers on the Mozilla Developer Center. For the full list of changes since the alpha release of Firefox 3.6 see this list (it’s big).

If you already have Firefox 3.6 Beta, you should be automatically updated to the latest version. You can also choose to manually “Check for Updates” from the Help menu.

If you’d like to download Firefox 3.6 Beta, please use the following links or visit the Beta Download Page:

• Windows: Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 Setup.exe
• Mac OS X: Firefox 3.6 Beta 5.dmg
• Linux: firefox-3.6b5.tar.bz2

Connectify Releases Connectify 1.0 for Windows 7

Connectify 1.0 (http://www.connectify.me) is now available.
For downloading Connectify, click here to start the download.

Here is their press release about this release:

Connectify is proud to announce Connectify 1.0 (http://www.connectify.me), a free software application for Windows 7 that turns any Wi-Fi enabled computer into a real wireless access point. With Connectify, users can share any Internet connection: a cable modem, a cellular card, or even another Wi-Fi network with any device that supports Wi-Fi. Connectify has hit a market need: since its beta release on October 27th, Connectify has had over 97,000 downloads, and 26% of Connectify users state they upgraded to Windows 7 specifically to be able to use Connectify.

Consumers can use the software to connect their computers, smart phones, music players, game systems and other devices onto personal Wi-Fi networks, or to extend the range of their home Wi-Fi networks. Because the Connectify software is free to download and use, users can save money on multiple Wi-Fi connections while on the road and still get all their devices online simultaneously. “Everywhere you go, users congregate in groups and have multiple devices including notebook PCs, Wi-Fi enabled handsets and mobile internet devices,” said Alex Gizis, CEO of Connectify. “We simply noticed a tremendous problem: There was no easy way for all of the user’s mobile devices to get and stay online. Connectify is our solution.”

For teams of mobile professionals, Connectify plus file sharing is a mobile office to go. Only the machine sharing the Internet connection needs to be running Connectify. Other Wi-Fi enabled devices can see and join the hotspot just like any other Wi-Fi access point and do not even need to be running Windows.

“MiFi has been a raging success providing a standalone device to enable Wi-Fi access for up to five nearby Wi-Fi enabled systems,” said J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D., Chief Analyst for Mobile & Wireless at Frost & Sullivan and Managing Director, Yosemite Ventures. “Now, any new notebook PC can be turned into a Wi-Fi hotspot using free software from Connectify.”

Connectify is available at no charge. The company plans to offer Connectify on a wide range of mobile devices and provide a number of value added services within the software that will be made available for a small fee.

To download Connectify for free now, go to http://www.connectify.me .

ABOUT CONNECTIFY

Connectify is a Philadelphia based company that has developed innovative wireless solutions for the military and (now) the consumer market. The Connectify team is dedicated to bringing real wireless sharing to everyone, saving people money, and improving the cross platform wireless experience.

WordPress 2.9 “Carmen” is named in honor of magical jazz vocalist Carmen McRae.

Here is a short video summarizing some of the cool things about the new WordPress 2.9 version:

The coolest new stuff from a user point of view is:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

WordPress 2.9 provides the smoothest ride yet because of a number of improvements under the hood and more subtle improvements you’ll begin to appreciate once you’ve been around the block a few times. Here’s just a sampling:

• We now have rel=canonical support for better SEO.
• There is automatic database optimization support, which you can enable in your wp-config.php file by adding define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true);.
• Themes can register “post thumbnails” which allow them to attach an image to the post, especially useful for magazine-style themes.
• A new commentmeta table that allows arbitrary key/value pairs to be attached to comments, just like posts, so you can now expand greatly what you can do in the comment framework.
• Custom post types have been upgraded with better API support so you can juggle more types than just post, page, and attachment. (More of this planned for 3.0.)
• You can set custom theme directories, so a plugin can register a theme to be bundled with it or you can have multiple shared theme directories on your server.
• We’ve upgraded TinyMCE WYSIWYG editing and Simplepie.
• Sidebars can now have descriptions so it’s more obvious what and where they do what they do.
• Specify category templates not just by ID, like before, but by slug, which will make it easier for theme developers to do custom things with categories — like post types!
• Registration and profiles are now extensible to allow you to collect things more easily, like a user’s Twitter account or any other fields you can imagine.
• The XML-RPC API has been extended to allow changing the user registration option. We fixed some Atom API attachment issues.
• Create custom galleries with the new include and exclude attributes that allow you to pull attachments from any post, not just the current one.
• When you’re editing files in the theme and plugin editors it remembers your location and takes you back to that line after you save. (Thank goodness!!!)
• The Press This bookmarklet has been improved and is faster than ever; give it a try for on-the-fly blogging from wherever you are on the internet.
• Custom taxonomies are now included in the WXR export file and imported correctly.
• Better hooks and filters for excerpts, smilies, HTTP requests, user profiles, author links, taxonomies, SSL support, tag clouds, query_posts and WP_Query

Upgrade to WordPress 2.9 now.

Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 is the next generation of mobile browsing which runs on almost every phone.

Top new features

Tabbed browsing

Browse several Web sites at the same time, while easily jumping from one to another.

Speed Dial

Get to your favorite Web page with just one click, with a set of visual bookmarks when you open a new tab.

Opera Link

Synchronize your bookmarks and Speed Dial between your mobile phone and desktop computer.

Download manager

Manage downloads right from the browser. Pause and resume downloads to suit your needs.

Feature details

Innovative and easy-to-use

1Living up to our vision of providing the best Internet experience on any device, Opera Mini 5 boasts a powerful new user interface. Merging the best from our desktop browser together with new innovations for mobile phones, Opera Mini is advanced, yet highly intuitive to use.

Faster

Time is precious. Opera Mini compresses pages by up to 90% before being sent to your phone, meaning faster page-load times than in other mobile Web browsers.

Full Web in your palm

2When visiting a Web page, Opera Mini displays the overview of the page and suggests where to begin your reading before you zoom in. Opera Mini also detects when you are on a Web page designed for a mobile phone and displays it optimally.

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Full Web in your palm

Page zoom

Control default text size on Web sites. Depending on your mobile phone screen size, often text can be too small or too large to be viewed easily. Control the default zoom level from 60% to 200% directly in Opera Mini 5.

Built for speed

The new Opera Mini lets you search for text within a Web page, so you can get to the information you need even more quickly than before.

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Innovative and easy-to-use

Speed Dial

Get your favorite Web page with just one click. Speed Dial is a set of visual bookmarks you see when you open a new tab, like a dashboard for your online life. To add a new page, simply click an empty dial, and Opera will make suggestions based on your browsing history and bookmarks.

Mobile view

Fit content to your mobile phone. Mobile view intelligently reformats Web pages into a single column eliminating the need for horizontal panning. Changing to Mobile view is accessible though the Settings menu.

Password Manager

4There is no more hassle with those hard-to-enter usernames and passwords. Opera Mini 5 will remember your credentials, and you can log on to your favorite Web sites with just a single click. The passwords are stored on your phone for your convenience.

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Password Manager

Tabbed browsing

Browse several Web sites at the same time. Check your e-mail in one window, Facebook in another and, Twitter in a third, all while being able to jump easily from one tab to another. With a touchscreen phone, you can enjoy even easier tab switching with visual tabs. On keypad-style phones easily mange desktop-style tabs in the Opera Mini user interface, above the address bar.

Power scrolling

Scroll at warp speed using your phone keypad or by dragging the page on a phone with a touchscreen.

Touch and keypad

3The user interface has been designed for both touchscreen- and keypad-style mobile phones. With a touchscreen, you can enjoy even easier navigation with our new zooming and kinetic scrolling.

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Touch and keypad

Adaptive zoom

On a touchscreen phone panning has become even easier with adaptive zoom. When panning quickly around a zoomed-in page the panning momentum creates a more intuitive and easier to-navigate experience.

Landscape mode

Browse in the way that is most comfortable to you. Landscape mode allows you to view Opera Mini 5 on your phone in landscape.

Download Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 to your mobile phone

To try Opera Mini 5 beta 2 visit the address m.opera.com/next, using your phone’s default Web browser, or download it to your computer. It is completely free.

Mozilla Labs releases a new experimental beta version of Ubiquity.

Ubiquity is a time-saving Firefox extension that simplifies common web activities by letting you give commands to Firefox. Ubiquity includes about 80 commands for speeding up common web activities (searching, translating, mapping, emailing, etc.), but also provides an API so you can write your own commands using Javascript. You can also share the commands you write, and subscribe to commands shared by other users.

To make it easy for users to run these commands, Ubiquity provides a unique pseudo-natural-language input method: You type what you want to do, and Ubiquity guesses what you mean and suggests the best-matching commands. For instance, you can select some foreign-language text on a web page, hit a hotkey to bring up the Ubiquity interface, and type “translate” (or just type “tr” and let Ubiquity figure out that you mean the translate command); then hit enter to have the selected text replaced, right in the page, with a translation to your language.

Download Ubiquity – Experimental beta version!

Mozilla Labs Weave 1.0 Beta 3 is now released.

What’s changed in Beta 3?

• Numerous fixes to address sync reliability and correctness
• Clarify and clean up interactions and user experience for Firefox and Fennec
• Changes to preferences sync to sync everything (except for machine-specific settings) in the Firefox preferences pane
• Fixes to support screen readers (for accessibility)

For those who are new to the project, check out the main features of Weave and see what we’ve been preparing for these beta releases. To start syncing your data, just install Weave Sync on Firefox 3.5 or newer.

We get quite a few questions about the difference between Opera Mobile 10 and Opera Mini 5. This post will attempt to clarify.

NB! Unless you have a Windows Mobile or Symbian/S60 phone, Opera Mobile is not available for you to download to your phone. Enjoy Opera Mini!

First, here is what they have in common:

• Both are based on the same core technology, the Opera Presto browser engine (just like Opera for desktop).
• Both use the same cross-platform user interface, providing similar features and browsing experience.

And the difference:

• In Opera Mini, the Opera Presto browser engine is located on a server. In Opera Mobile, it is installed on your phone.

When you enter a Web address in Opera Mobile, the Web page is fetched directly from the Web server to your phone. However, the Opera Mini client sends a request to the Opera Mini server, which downloads the page from the Internet. The server then transcodes the page before it is forwarded to the client in a lightweight mark-up language designed specifically for this purpose.

The advantage is that the Opera Mini client can be much smaller and work on more basic phones than the full Opera Mobile browser.

On the other hand, Opera Mini depends on a server while Opera Mobile does not. (Opera Turbo is an optional service for Opera Mobile that compresses Web pages and makes it cheaper to browse, but it is not required).

In practical terms, here is what that means for you:

• Opera Mobile will render Web pages just like a desktop browser. In Opera Mini, there may be slight differences, and very complex Web pages may not work optimally.
• Opera Mini will generally be faster. It downloads less content and requires less CPU to render pages.
• Opera Mini works on almost any phone. Opera Mobile is only available for Windows Mobile and Symbian/S60 phones.

Which product is best for you depends on your personal preferences and the sites you browse. Many advanced users will have both browsers installed and alternate depending on the situation. For example, they will use Opera Mobile when on Wi-Fi, Opera Mini when on a cellular network.

Another reason why Opera Software has both products in the portfolio is that many of our operator and handset manufacturer customers have very specific requirements. The differences between the products may be extremely important to them. For example, Opera Mobile is generally preferred by handset manufacturers for preinstallation on mobile phones.

One of the claims of Windows 7 is making your everyday tasks easier.  One of the areas that Microsoft has made much simpler to use is the backup feature in the OS itself.

For anyone who has ever lost data due a hard drive or computer crash and did not have a backup system in place, I am one of these folks myself, then you know how important that backup process is. Especially if it was your significant others computer and it resulted in the loss of irreplaceable files. Again, I am raising my hand right here!

Today I use Windows Home Server to back up my home computers and it takes care of business.  However, not everyone has a Windows Home Server and may be looking for a different method of backing up those critical files on your home PC’s.

One way included in Windows 7 is the Backup Applet in the Control Panel. There are two types of backups available to you. The first is your file by file back up process which you can set to incrementally back up your system each day, week, month etc.

The second one is what I am going to cover today and that is creating a System Image of your Windows 7 installation that can be restored in case of a catastrophic failure of your hard drive which has Windows installed on it.

The process is quite simple, only has a few steps and takes about 30 minutes or so. I base that 30 minutes on my system which backed up 69GB to my extra internal hard drive. Your mileage will vary based on the size of your installation and whether you back up to hard drive or DVD (lots of DVD’s). I recommend an external or spare internal hard drive.

So to get started you need to bring up the backup/restore applet in the control panel which is located at Control Panel>System and Security>Backup and Restore. Easy way to get there is via the Start Menu search bar and just type in Backup.

Select the Create System Image link.

Select the media you want to store your back up on.

Once selected it summarizes what will be backed up. Start the back up.

System Image in the process of being created.

Once the image is created you will be prompted to create a system repair disc that will allow you to restore your system image as well as a few other things top repair your system.

Select the drive to use for creating your repair disc. Notice no hard drive options – that is on purpose.

System repair disc being created.

Final dialog showing the disc is created. Label it and store it in a safe place and hope you never have to pull it out

There ya go – just a handful of steps to have a solid system image of your computer in case of a system crash.  I think this process in combination with a daily file based back up will keep your data safe.

Few years ago a little-known feature called Virtual Wi-Fi was crafted by Microsoft‘s research group as a way to “virtualize” one wireless card as several separate adapters in Windows. The project was discontinued in 2006, but some of the code apparently made its way into Windows 7, and now at least one company is taking advantage of it with a new application that can turn any laptop into a wireless access point.

Developed by military consulting firm Nomadio, Connectify lets a laptop “tether” other wireless devices to a single internet connection by effectively turning it into a software-based wireless router. Windows 7 is required on the notebook acting as a wireless hotspot, but any wireless-equipped device, including handhelds and other notebooks running whatever operating system can jump online without any additional software. The program even encrypts traffic to and from the software hotspot using WPA2-Personal (AES) encryption.

While the Connectify beta is free to download, Nomadio expects to charge users once the complete version is released in about six weeks. A free, ad-supported version might also be released down the road.

Back in February 2009, Brandon Paddock and Alwin Vyhmeister authored the Windows 7 Federated Search Provider Implementer’s Guide and described federated search as follows:

Federated search enables users to search remote data sources from within Windows Explorer. Remote data sources make themselves searchable with a simple web front end that exposes their search capabilities.

Windows® 7 introduces support for search federation to remote data stores using OpenSearch technologies that enable users to access and interact with their remote data from within Windows Explorer.

Imagine being able to open Windows Explorer on your PC and search popular sites directly from there. Instead of opening a browser window, going to a site, finding the search box, entering your search words and getting your results you would just open Windows Explorer and search right there using the search connector for that site.

What are the benefits of this method compared to the normal search methods? We will let Brandon and Alwin answer that:

The benefit of integrating your data source with Windows Explorer is that users can get at all of their information by using the already familiar Windows Explorer user interface. Your users will be able to see files from your remote data source just as they would local files, with the right application icons and context menus. They can preview documents or web pages, see thumbnails of images, and drag and drop a file directly to the desktop or into an email.

We are not sure about you but that sounds pretty handy to us.

We did some digging online and found several search connectors that are already built – all you have to do is install them on your Windows 7 system and you will have access to them in your Searches folder in Windows Explorer.

• Flickr Search Connector
• YouTube Search Connector
• Google News Search Connector
• Google Blogs Search Connector
• Twitter Search Connector
• MSN Search
• Deviant Art Search

Nokia owners just got a load of win delivered with the release of Opera Mobile 10 beta. Opera Mobile’s facelift hits harder than office linebacker Terry Tate – Yes, the beta actually merges the best from your favorite desktop experience into a traditional sleek minimal Mobile interface!

Read more and get to know all the techy details on opera’s mobile pages. If you don’t care about that, simply download for your Nokia, Samsung or Sony Ericsson S60 device.

The Good

There’s a lot I like about Chrome OS because it sound different enough and radical enough to maybe get people thinking a little differently about what an OS is and how it relates, how to secure it, how it interacts with the hardware and how the user interacts with the it. Certainly the way that Google plans to make Chrome OS speedier and more secure shows that there’s been a lot of out of the box thinking going on.

Note: What was interesting at yesterday’s announcement was that during the Q&A session at the end how many of the tech press questions and comments seemed to want to drag the project back from being radical and make it into what we already have,

For example, take changes to the boot sequence …

… verified boot …

… and how easy it is to re-image the OS following malware or corruption …

There’s also tight integration with Google’s massive array of online apps. Now, depending on how you view Google this can either be a good thing or a very bad thing. However, it’s hard to deny that a machine where all your data and settings are synced to the cloud for both storage and security is a very interesting way to mitigate data and system loss disasters. The idea that your data isn’t tied to a particular system is interesting, and the idea that all local data is encrypted is also very interesting.

I also like the fact that Google has made the project truly open source and is allowing outside developer involvement. Actually, I think it’s been done at exactly the right time too – some of the framework has been put in place, but now the project can evolve. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

Here are some important things you need to know about the Google Chrome OS:

1. It’s not Available Yet Today Google launched only the open source development project. This means developers and third-party partners (including hardware manufacturers) can download, compile, and install the code. Most importantly, they can change and enhance it. All those changes could pour back into what will become the first shipping product late next year. The rest of us will have to wait until then.
2. Every Application in Google Chrome OS is a Web Application This means there are literally no desktop apps. Google execs reiterated this point by adding, “third party apps will work as long as they’re Web applications.” This fact could—and maybe should—scare you. All the application CDs you currently have sitting on shelves are useless with the Chrome OS. If you have a favorite drawing or scrapbooking application, you might as well throw it out if you plan on devoting your life to the Chrome OS.On the other hand, it’s likely that you’ve started using more and more cloud-based applications to get work done. One thing that’s not clear here is whether or not Google’s own Picasa photo management app will work. You download and install the client on your desktop and are not usually doing all of your work in the clouds. Your photos are stored locally, too. In the Google Chrome OS world, you store them with Google or another service like Yahoo’s Flickr.
3. Google Chrome Browser is Part of the OS Foundation If you like Google’s upstart browser, you may love the Chrome OS. They look almost exactly the same, though Chrome OS does add a number of important, operating system-like features.
4. Google Chrome OS will Offer Easy Access to Apps A Web browser lets you add shortcuts to Websites on the toolbar, but it isn’t particularly good at giving instant access to applications. Google Chrome OS tries to address this by adding a “Tabs” feature. These are persistent tabs that keep your favorite Apps a click away.
5. Panels Are Persistent Browsers aren’t persistent, but Google Chrome OS is not a browser. It’s an operating system and, as such, can handle multiple tasks at once. One way Google Chrome OS will do this is with Panels. These will allow you to play music in the background, play video, and interact with external storage media.
6. Google Chrome OS Will Always be Up-to Date Microsoft always recommends you turn on Windows Update, but not everyone does it. In the Google Chrome OS, there is no choice. If you’re currently running the Google Chrome Browser, this shouldn’t surprise you. It always polls for new versions and updates on its own, as well.
7. Google Chrome OS will Repair Itself Google said its primary goals for the Chrome OS are speed, simplicity, and security. To achieve that last part, the Chrome OS will do something never seen before in a desktop operating system: it will, if it needs to, re-image itself. If the OS detects a malware infection or even just a bad bit, it will get an updated version of the OS from the cloud and reinstall it. Thankfully, this will not blow away your data and settings, because they’re all stored in the cloud.
8. Your Data is in the Cloud Google Chrome OS will not store any of your data locally. As long as you’re online, it will constantly cache your data and settings in the cloud. All of that information is, by default, encrypted. There is a benefit here. If your computer is stolen, or even if you want to upgrade, you don’t have to backup or migrate a thing. You’ll have it all as soon as you sync up your new computer. The concern, obviously, is what happens when you don’t have online access–cross-country flight, anyone? [See item 11]
9. There is No Hard Drive Google Chrome OS will not run on spinning hard drives. Google execs said they’re working with OEMS to create the ultimate reference design for Google Chrome OS machines. Part of that is flash or solid state media. A key benefit—speed. During Google’s demonstration of early code, the company showed a machine booting to login in seven seconds and launching an app in an additional three seconds.
10. Google Chrome will not Run on Just any PC Sorry, but if you were planning on converting all your existing systems to the Google Chrome OS, you’re out of luck. As noted in point nine, Google is targeting a very specific kind of computer. In fact, even though Google expressed great love for all the world’s netbooks—those that have helped drive people toward a more light-weight operating system—they have concerns about the current crop of small, affordable laptops. Google execs said they want to see netbooks with 100 percent keyboards and larger screens. They said they also want to focus on 802.11n connectivity. Google does believe that its operating system will eventually run on more powerful desktops and laptops, but not in 2010.
11. Google Chrome OS Will Work Offline—Sort of Google is serious when it says it intends the operating system to be used in a connected environment. Still, at today’s event, they did make some vague promises about “exposing offline capabilities” and supporting some offline storage. They also talked about the ability to play offline media and games.

There’s more, like the fact that whatever you see now probably doesn’t represent what the shipping product will look like in 2010, and the fact that Google doesn’t seem to have a hardware driver plan (though they did promise that Google Chrome OS will print). But these are the early days. I expect we’ll learn a dozen or more key points when we finally download and compile the code in PC Labs. We gotta say, we’re looking forward to it.

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta along with Office Web Applications are now available for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers.

TechNet Plus and MSDN subscribers can now download and evaluate Office 2010 Beta.

Public download for Office 2010 Beta will be available on November 18th 2009.

The most significant change in this Beta Build from the Technical Preview is the new installation procedure for test versions of Office 2010 SKUs, Upload Center, modified version of Backstage view and new refreshed icons for all Office products.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Office 2010 Beta are now available for download for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers.

Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta from MSDN
Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta from TechNet Plus