Windows 7 to arrive next year, says Bill Gates

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

You know, we should have paid a little closer attention to Microsoft’s decision yesterday to extend Windows XP sales to “June 2010 or one year after the general availability of Windows 7″ — if the company was really planning on shipping Windows 7 in 2010, that first date doesn’t make a lot of sense unless the plan is to ship Windows 7 much, much earlier. And hey — what’s Bill Gates doing telling investors this afternoon that Windows 7 will come “in the next year” and that he’s “super-enthused” about it? As far as we know, the official Windows 7 timeline hasn’t changed, so Bill might just talking about beta versions, but something’s clearly up Windows-wise in Redmond — perhaps Vista’s wow is not long for this now.

[Thanks, Jon]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

1985 Playboy Proclaims Steve Jobs was Zillionaire at 29 Years Old [Retromodo]

The chaps at Macenstein were looking through their old-school Playboy collection when they found the February 1985 issue. Inside was a feature on a 29-year-old computer nerd, billed on the magazine’s cover as, “Interview: 29-year-old zillionaire Steve Jobs of Apple Computers.” Zillionaire! Holy crap—he’s richer than we thought. Check out the slightly NSFW pic after the jump.

Considering Apple is only worth a few billion dollars today, it seems the then Steve-o was way more the entrepreneur than we first thought. A zillion dollars is a fictitiously massive sum of money so great in its vastness that our small brains cannot even contemplate it. Sure, we always thought Apple stuff was a little pricey, but that accumulation of cash is just ridiculous. A zillion dollars. Wow. [Macenstein]

Share This

Asus R50 to Be Reincarnated With Keyboard Later This Year [Asus R50]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The Asus R50 UMPC is already being updated—even though Mark 1 has yet to be released. Digitimes reports that the handheld with GPS and 3.5G connectivity, due out in June, will be sporting a keyboard come November of this year. As well as running Linux and Vista, the R50 has a webcam and TV tuner and is expected to sell for $500-plus. [DigiTimes via JKK Mobile]

Share This

April fool: AbleComm forgets what day it is, retracts Panasonic plasma cellphone release

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets

Alright everyone, let’s review: If you’re going to put out a joke press release for April Fool’s Day, it’s important to make sure it’s actually April 1st. That’s a little lesson the folks at AbleComm apparently didn’t get, because the company’s April Fools press release about Panasonic putting partially-Ablecomm-sourced plasma screens in cell phones went out yesterday, April 3rd — and got subsequently picked up by a variety of news outlets, including us. Yep, we got punked, we’ll admit it. Unlike us, however, AbleComm hasn’t yet had the stones to issue its own retraction, instead ordering PR Newswire to completely pull the release and put out a new, PRNewswire-written three-line retraction elsewhere. Yikes. We’ll probably live without plasmas in our cellphones, but c’mon, people, at least admit it when the joke goes bad. Check out the retraction and the original fake press release after the break.

[Thanks, David]

Continue reading April fool: AbleComm forgets what day it is, retracts Panasonic plasma cellphone release

Share This

Windows 7 to arrive next year, says Bill Gates

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

You know, we should have paid a little closer attention to Microsoft’s decision yesterday to extend Windows XP sales to “June 2010 or one year after the general availability of Windows 7″ — if the company was really planning on shipping Windows 7 in 2010, that first date doesn’t make a lot of sense unless the plan is to ship Windows 7 much, much earlier. And hey — what’s Bill Gates doing telling investors this afternoon that Windows 7 will come “in the next year” and that he’s “super-enthused” about it? As far as we know, the official Windows 7 timeline hasn’t changed, so Bill might just talking about beta versions, but something’s clearly up Windows-wise in Redmond — perhaps Vista’s wow is not long for this now.

[Thanks, Jon]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Man Sells Pizza.com Domain Name for Serious Dough [Pizza]

A 43-year-old man from Maryland has sold the domain name pizza.com for almost 10,000 times the price he paid for it. Chris Clark registered the name pizza.com in 1994 for just $20, and continued to pay the annual registration fee until January of this year, when he heard the domain name vodka.com had gone for a massive $3 million, and decided he wanted a slice of the pie.

“It’s crazy. It’s just crazy,” was all Clark, who used to run a consultancy, could say after the online auction finished. Originally bought in the hope of attracting a pizza parlor to his consulting firm, pizza.com opened the bidding at $100, before reaching its final price a week later.

Clark, who expects to cash in in a few days time, only has one regret—that he didn’t buy more domain names when he could. [BBC Online]

Share This

Hookah Table Not What It Sounds LIke, Thank Gawd [Happy Hookah]

Not something that you frak your lady of the night on top of, nor anything to do with William Shatner, Adrian Zmed and Heather Locklear, the Hookah Table is a customized table that you can get high on, as well as under. Costing around $600 bucks, there’s a bowl on top, which I guess you can put the salt in when your folks come round for dinner, and four hoses for you and your mates to suck on after your Mom has done the washing up and the coast is clear. You can choose from loads of different finishes (sadly, Happy is not one of them) but I’m sure if Ms Locklear makes it to yours you could ask her if she’s up for it. [Hookah Tables via BallerHouse]

Share This

First BlackBerry contract sold in Russia

Filed under: Cellphones

Well, what do you know? We heard that RIM was gearing up to ship BlackBerry handsets to Russia in 2008, and lo and behold, the addiction is indeed sliding over to the world’s largest country. British American Tobacco became the first client of BlackBerry service in the nation, and it’s being provided by the beautifully-named Vimpelcom. As expected, Vimpelcom’s customers will be handed the same 8700g model that was introduced to Chinese users when RIM broke into that territory last July. As it stands, the aforesaid operator is already in talks with some 40 more potential corporate clients, and rival Mobile TeleSystems is also getting set to unleash BB service with 30 corporate clients. Kudos, Russia — prepare for splintered relationships, 24 hour work days and a feeling of anxiety you can’t even fathom when service collapses for even a moment.

Share This

Verizon’s $9.36 Billion 700MHz Plans: High-Speed 4G LTE Network Up and Running Before AT&T [Verizon]

Not that it wasn’t obvious, but Verizon’s 700MHz plans look a lot like AT&T’s. It’ll be using the spectrum as the core of their high-speed 4G LTE network. Verizon paid $9.36 billion total, including $4.7 billion for the open access C Block (apparently, it let Google sweat a bit before actually plunking down their bid). Unlike AT&T, which said you won’t see commercial deployment of LTE ’til 2012, Verizon’s shooting for 2010. It also countered AT&T’s claims that Verizon’s spectrum sucks: “The breadth of the national C-block spectrum footprint, all in a single band and with a depth of 22 MHz, provides a speed and performance advantage.” We’ll know soon enough, you know, in like 10 bajillion years when the networks launch.

VERIZON WIRELESS SAYS SPECTRUM ADDITIONS FROM FCC’S AUCTION 73 WILL FURTHER COMPANY’S BROADBAND STRATEGY

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Verizon Wireless said today that the spectrum it gained in the FCC’s recent 700 MHz auction is a critical piece of its overall broadband strategy to take advantage of the enormous opportunity for growth in data services in the future. The spectrum will allow the company to capture the full potential of its announced plan to deploy a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network and Open Development Initiative and the resulting next wave of wireless innovation. The company’s comments were made in a conference call with the investment community this morning.

Verizon Wireless was the winning bidder for a nationwide spectrum footprint (excluding Alaska) in the FCC-termed C-Block group of licenses, plus 102 licenses for individual markets around the country.

In all, the company will pay $9.36 billion for these licenses, which equates to $1.03 per MHz Pop, compared with the auction average of $1.20.

The FCC announced the end of the auction on March 20, but the company was limited in commenting until the Commission’s anti-collusion quiet period rules ended late in the day on April 3.

The new spectrum, which will not be completely cleared for use until mid-February 2009, will increase the company’s average spectrum depth per market to 82 MHz, from 52 MHz today.

Verizon Wireless plans to launch its LTE network in the 700 MHz spectrum in the 2010 timeframe. The company said the breadth of the national C-block spectrum footprint, all in a single band and with a depth of 22 MHz, provides a speed and performance advantage that will be ideal for connecting a variety of consumer electronics, from wireless phones to medical devices to gaming consoles. In addition, the 102 individual licenses in the A and B-blocks provide additional growth capacity in key markets.

“The spectrum we purchased in this auction, combined with our existing portfolio, provides new flexibility as we execute our high-growth business model,” said Lowell McAdam, the company’s president and CEO.

“We now have sufficient spectrum to continue growing our business and data revenues well into - and possibly through - the next decade, and this is the very best spectrum with excellent propagation and in-building characteristics. We also believe that the combination of the national, contiguous, same-frequency C-block footprint and our transition to LTE will make Verizon the preferred partner for developers of a new wave of consumer electronics and applications using this next generation technology.

“In all, this spectrum positions us well to preserve our current advantage and reputation as the nation’s most reliable wireless network and the leader in data services. This is a wise investment in future data growth opportunities,” he said.

Note:

A replay of the presentation webcast can be accessed on Verizon’s Investor Relations Web site, www.verizon.com/investor.

[Verizon]

Share This

Guy Collects 5000 Cellphones, Creates Art Show [Gadgets]

If you’re in Boston and really like looking at cellphones, a guy called Rob Pettit collected 5,000 of them and created an art show. Hit the link to see where and when it is, and be thankful that Rob’s collecting them instead of poisoning little kids. [Rob Pettit]

Share This