By now you've probably watched the Bill Gates / Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft ad a dozen or so times (if not, get to it). If you're like us, you've got a healthy conversation happening about what the new campaign means, and whether or not you actually like the thing. According to a leaked internal email from Redmond's senior vice president Bill Veghte, this first installment in what will be a series of commercials is meant to function as an "Icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to viewers in a consumer context." It seems that the company is following the path they've stamped out with their previous media burst, the Mojave Experiment, which appears to be less concerned with changing the product (Windows), and more concerned with changing consumers' perception of the product. In Veghte's words, "Telling our story means making significant investments to improve the way consumers experience Windows." So here's our question to you: is Microsoft on the right track here? Let us know in the poll below! (You can also read the full text of the email after the break)

Ready to inhale some serious Intel technobabble? Here goes. As it stands, MIDs and UMPCs that utilize Windows operating systems are pretty much restricted to using Vista due to their incongruence with the "low-cost" requirement for still using XP. On top of that, Intel's chipset used in these critters (you know, with those Silverthorne Atom CPUs) only supports 1GB of RAM. We don't need to explain how underwhelming performance can be when mixing Vista with just 1GB of RAM. Now, however, a new PDF from Intel details updated System Controller Hub (SCH) specifications that include support for up to 2GB of RAM. What isn't clear is whether current systems can be updated via a BIOS update, but we'll be keeping an ear to the ground in hopes of hearing "yes."

[Thanks, Itto]

Hold your horses, vaquero. Let's not blow this all out of proportion here. While it's no secret that a certain amount of Vista purchasers are utilizing that "downgrade to XP" option to its fullest extent, a small (and let us emphasize "small") collection of data suggests that some 35% of "mainly enterprise-class users" have opted for XP over Vista on their newly-purchased rig. By scouring data from the 3,000 or so members feeding information to the InfoWorld Windows Sentinel tool, the site found that just over 1 in 3 users had defected to Microsoft's previous OS. Granted, the tool cannot take into account Linux users or even the "Hackintosh crowd," though as Randall Kennedy puts it, 35% is "still a huge percentage, and way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista."

We're not going to get back into the Xbox 360 + Blu-ray debate, but Sony's HD format is clearly on Microsoft's collective mind, as it's begun prepping a new Windows add-on dubbed Feature Pack for Storage. The kit's set to contain modules for portable drive recognition and restriction, ICCD and CCID Smartcard drivers, but most notably an image mastering API for Blu-ray that enables "master style optical burning on Blu-Ray [sic] media." Expect it soon on Windows Vista, XP SP2+, Server 2008, and Server 2003 SP1+ -- or really soon if you get in on the beta.

[Via ZDnet]

Windows 7, in large part, has remained fairly elusive thus far. Granted, we wouldn't expect anything different given that it's still years out from being formally titled and pushed to market, but it's still great to hear that we'll be hearing more shortly. The new Engineering Windows 7 (E7 for short) blog, which is penned by engineering managers Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky, points to two upcoming conferences in which "in-depth technical information about Windows 7" will be revealed. The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on October 27 will the first of the two, and the aforementioned duo has promised to keep a steady stream of details flowing on their blog during the run-up. Are you on the edge of that seat yet?

[Via CNET]

The next-generation Q1 Ultra may be due next year, but Sammy's trying to squeeze every bit of life it can out of the current iteration with two new flavors. Announced today, the Q1U-CMXP boasts an integrated HSDPA 3G cellular modem, while the Q1UP-V is a Q1 Ultra Premium featuring Vista Business. As for the former, it includes just about every connectivity option you could wish for: 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, Ethernet and a WWAN modem that connects to the AT&T Broadband Connect network; outside of the one new feature, however, the specifications are the same as the standard Q1 Ultra XP model that was launched in May of 2007. Both newcomers (if you can call 'em that) are available as we speak for $1,499 and $1,449 in order of mention.

If you've experienced some shockingly slow results from your Windows Home Server-based unit, we've one question for you: do you have Power Pack 1 and the HP add-ons installed? If so, you may not be alone in your frustrations. Apparently a number of users have seen dramatic slowdowns that have rendered their WHS devices nearly unusable. It seems that all the "bloatware" really takes a toll, as the hard drives are constantly pounded and console menus take ages (minutes, to be more precise) to appear. According to Within Windows, the only real solutions are to install more RAM and / or tweak your pagefile configurations afterwards. Anyone else raging mad about the performance issues? What are you going to do about it?

[Thanks, Bryant]

SSDs have been quite the hot topic of late, with conflicting power usage reports and free-falling (almost) prices being the two angles most commonly yapped about. Now, however, we have a completely different reason to mention 'em in passing, as SanDisk's dutiful CEO let loose some questionable comments during its Q2 2008 earnings call. Noting that Windows Vista would present unique challenges for SSD manufacturers, he stated that "as soon as you get into Vista applications, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid state disk." Furthermore, he proclaimed that the "next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls," and finished things up by asserting that "SSD performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs." It seems all those statements were just used to deflect blame for it being behind schedule, but we're a bit curious about how it intends on defending said statements with real-world numbers. Hmm?

Feeling a little left out after yesterday's Mac-based Pwnage Tool festivities, Windows users? Fret not, because the ever-vigilant, ever-studious hacking community has managed to come up with a series of steps to get you back on your feet again with a fully pwned first-gen handset. The whole shebang isn't necessarily for the most casual jailbreakers -- let's just say it isn't quite as straightforward as the Mac procedure yet -- but it'll allegedly get you going if you're starting with an iPhone running 1.1.4 (there are additional steps if you jumped the gun on 2.0, you impatient son of a gun, you -- think of it as penance). As always, exercise extreme caution, understand that this could cause your iPhone to spontaneously combust into a useless pile of metal, plastic, and ash, and let us know how it goes in comments.

[Thanks, Z-]

Microsoft's been touting its "fastest annual revenue growth since 1999," which resulted in a princely $60.42 billion dollars in its last fiscal year, but the number that has us rapt? Vista licenses sold since launch about 18 months ago: 180m. Damn, not too shabby a clip -- especially considering that they moved 20m licenses moved in month one, 40m licenses moved after the first 100 days, and 140m licenses by last April. But at roughly 10m licenses per month, that means Vista's still a couple years out before it surpasses XP, and with a bit of luck, by then we'll have already moved on to Windows 7.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

After seeing Android all lit up on Nokia's N810 internet tablet, seeing this antiquate piece of software on there just seems... wrong. Still, we can't deny that we're a huge fan of the work, and to be frank, we'd highly recommend anyone with a fair amount of spare time give it a whirl just for nostalgia's sake. Wait, is that a tear we see forming? You softy.

[Via PDAToday, thanks Bill]

Being that it is Bill's special day and all, we figured we'd give you a shot at stepping into his shoes and shaping Microsoft into something even more dominant that the juggernaut it is. Just imagine taking a seat in the biggest corner office Redmond has to offer, getting your Outlook set up, fiddling through a mess of old floppy discs and finally conjuring up a business plan. How in the world would you tweak / overhaul / etc. Microsoft if you were suddenly dubbed the big kahuna? We know this one's wide (and we mean gaping wide) open, so feel free to write a book down there.

Hey, if Bill can give away tens of billions of dollars, the least we can do to celebrate his last day is to give away some Microsoft-powered stuff, right? Next up: a full, non-upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate.

• Leave a comment below. Tell us about your favorite Microsoft-powered product. Or your favorite Apple product, too, since Bill totally bailed those guys out back in '97.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get a brand new full, non-upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. Approximate value is $200.
  
• Entries can be submitted until Sunday, June 29th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

In the grand scheme of supercomputers, a homegrown cluster constructed by Microsoft is just a boy among men. However, said rig has set at least one record by becoming the "fastest-ever Windows HPC cluster." At the International Supercomputing conference in Dresden, Germany, it was announced that this beast ranked 23rd in the world "with a problem-solving performance of 68.5 teraflops." The National Center for Supercomputing Applications utilized a beta version of Windows HPC Server 2008 to hit the aforesaid mark, and if you're curious as to what it took to get there, try 9,472 cores of processing power. There's more where this came from for the hardcore nerds in attendance right in the read link.

[Via Slashdot]

While Bill Gates' imminent retirement from Microsoft is understandably a cause for some quiet moments of reflection for some, it's also given folks an excuse to dig up some tidbits from Gates' tenure that have somehow gone unnoticed or unheralded in the past few years, one of the juiciest of which comes in the form of a 2003 email that Todd Bishop of the Seattle Post-Intelligence has thankfully given fresh light. In it, Gates rips into "how Windows Usability has been going backwards" as he details his long, arduous attempts to download Moviemaker and buy the then new Digital Plus pack. While there's far to many gems to include here, a few of Gates' stand-out observations include how "crazy" it is that it took six minutes to install "a bunch of controls" before he was able to install Moviemaker, and his disappointment that he had to reboot his machine even though he reboots it every night. Eventually, after (apparently) getting Moviemaker installed, Gates decided to go digging in the add/remove program options to ensure that it was installed, only to find it missing, which prompted him to declare that, "someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable," adding that, "this program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up." Needless to say, we'd recommend hitting the read link below to check out the full must-read email.