If you are a bit of a tech head, then you’ll probably know about the next version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, that’s “Windows 7” which is set to be released late 2009 to early 2010.
Microsoft released a public beta, build 7000, for the general public on 7th January 2009, they issued 2.5million product keys so that any user that was interested could install it and explore. The availability of that beta ended yesterday (10th February 2009), and I would imagine Microsoft has received a tremendous amount of feedback in which we hope they will take on board to produce their best ever operating system?
As you can imagine, just because they issued a public beta didn’t mean the development stopped! The public beta build 7000 was built on 12th December 2008 at 14:00 as you can see from the version string - 7000.winmain_win7beta.081212-1400. The latest build to surface is build 7032 which was built on 29th January 2009 at 18:12 -7032.0.winmain.090129-1812. This gives good indication that development on the operating system is moving along quite rapidly, good news!
Here are some screenshots of the latest build:
The feature here (right) is the new “Play To” feature in Windows Media Player, and this is exactly what it says on the tin, you can select media on your PC and play to… a network-connected media device, this could be an Plasma/LCD Television, an Audio System, an Xbox games console, PS3 games console etc…
This technology relies on an industry standard DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) 1.5 digital media renderer which operates over a standard wired and/or wireless network.
Clearly the possibilities of this technology is very exciting and will without doubt change the way we use our media within the home.
More Info:
Windows 7 Screenshots and information: Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows
More about DLNA: DLNA Homepage, DLNA on Wikipedia
Event in London, UK:
Vista Squad 18th February 2009: Deploying Windows 7: Changes from Vista
It’s February already! January went by like a flash which is quite scary, it means that I really ought to pull my finger out.
What it also means is that I have a new desktop wallpaper to share with everyone – exciting! Well, it kind of is exciting because London and the South East has seen the most snow in about 18 years… So this months wallpaper reflects that. This is the Grand Union Canal which runs across the country, this particular section is located in Park Royal London (NW10).
Full Size – 1280 x 800
Well if you don’t already know, most of the UK has been covered in up to 6” of snow! I live in North West London and have about 5” of snow, the most I have ever seen, maybe in my whole lifetime!
Trains, buses and London Underground trains have been fully or part suspended, so it doesn’t look like many people will be travelling into Central London to go to work this morning!
Transport for London – Live Traffic Cameras:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/realtime/road/
North West London - 7am
