Soo Windows 7 has been buzzing around the Internets for a few months now and finally beta 1 has recently hit the torrent sites.  Additionally, Microsoft announced a public beta 1 release but happen to pull it due to “high demand“.  There has been some squawking about Windows 7 Beta 1 benchmarks performing faster than Windows XP and Vista, but I’m sure all this nonsense will stop once the bells and whistles are included.

I personally think it’s humorous how Windows 7 was named.  Microsoft claims that this new operating system is the 7th Windows version, at least according to their internal code versions.  The internal versions they’re going by doesn’t make any sense to me.  For example, Windows 95, 98, 98SE, NT, and ME, all counted as version 4.0.  Windows 2000 internally was NT5.0 and XP was version 6.0.  Now perhaps this shows how much of a thorn Vista is in Microsoft’s side, but taking into considerable the vast difference between 2000 to XP and XP to Vista, shouldn’t Vista be 7.0?  Instead, Microsoft made Vista as version 6.1 which completely throws a monkey wrench in the entire version sanity.  Vista has been a car wreck since day one, they even have to disguise it as another operating system in their commercials as a controlled experiment.  I mean seriously, this is almost as bad as Hyundai not putting their emblem on the front of the new Genesis.  Well okay maybe that’s a bad analogy, at least the Genesis is a decent car.  In any case, Windows Vista should be 7 and “Windows 7″ should be “Windows 8″.

Finally, I think Windows 7 is what Vista SHOULD have been.  It took Microsoft 5 years to progress(or lack thereof) from XP to Vista.  So in reality, it took Microsoft 8 years to progress from XP(October 25th, 2001) to Windows 7(Holiday season 2009).  This of course is assuming Microsoft stays on track with their release time frame.  Well I think that’s enough griping, here’s some links to first impressions:

PC World
ZDNet
Computer World
Tech Review Source
Chron

AMD officially launches the Phenom II processor.  Their first 45nm processor lagging behind Intel.  There’s good reason why AMD is so behind though.  The acquisition of ATI took a while to absorb and now they finally have the resources put together, they can focus on moving forward.  The new Phenom II’s are poised to match up between Intel’s Core 2 Quad and Core i7 processors.  PC Worldreports more details regarding the performance vs. Intel’s counterparts and states that Intel still holds the performance crown.  AMD will have to focus on a price war against Intel’s new Core i7.  Most likely the Phenom II’s will be around 15-25% cheaper than Core i7 Counterparts.  I’m sure AMD will release a faster 2nd revision of the Phenom II during Q3-Q4 of 2009.

At least according to this article on InformationWeek, Comcast has removed their “blocks” on file sharing.  But according to this article on Hothardware, they have a new network throttling system in place.  What gives?  InformationWeek says Comcast sent a letter to the FCC on Dec 31st 2008 that they no longer manage their networks the sleazy way.  Yet Hothardware explains the new system monitors traffic, regardless of where it’s coming from and hits you with a monthly 250GB quota.  Comcast has always had some sort of hidden monthly quota according to the numerous reports from customers getting letters in the mail.  You couldn’t find the maximum you were allowed to download in a 30-day period until you actually hit it.  It appears that they’re fessing up and finally throwing the quota number out there.  Either way, they’ve pissed off enough customers and made enough of us so bitter that we will never go back to them.  Comcast is overdue for new management, it’s time to get some new fresh people in there.

EDIT:  This article over at gigaom.com states that this new system is content-agnostic.  The bandwidth for heavy Comcast users is throttled down regardless of the type of information you are downloading.  I can’t believe the FCC approves of this over throttling just P2P.  How much did Comcast payoff to the FCC?

Apple has announced that iTunes will be going DRM free on all 10 million songs by the end of the first quarter on 2009.  Additionally they have announced they gave the option to record companies a 3-price tier system. $0.69, $0.99, or $1.29 per song.  The corresponding record company for the song you’re downloading will supply that to Apple for its customers.  Engadget reports.

All I have to say is, It’s about time and screw the RIAA.

After all the rumors and media picking away at the questionable health with Steve Jobs, he finally came out with a letter.  He states:

“As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.”

You can read the rest of it on Apple’s website here.

The no good dirty rat bastards at the RIAA have dropped MediaSentry, which is the company they used to help gather evidence for cases against consumers downloading illegal music.  The RIAA is a bunch of filthy rat scumbags that should die a painful, long lasting, yet self indulging death.  Their filth, slim, and utter disgusting presence has echoed throughout the world in a lavishing distaste for what the music industry has become.  Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the RIAA, I just know that their management and general business practices are morally and ethnically wrong.  Suing 70 year old grandmothers for their entire 401K and investment portfolio’s while in the same breathe hitting college kids and single moms in one quick swipe with no remorse is just utter bullshit.  Not to mention shows total lack of business management skills.  Usually when a company does not do good making profits and has to dig into such a low stance to generate money, isn’t the management accountable?

Unfortunately, the RIAA has announced they will use Copenhagen-based DtecNet Software ApS in place of MusicSentry to continue their despicable business practice.  I have a better idea for the RIAA, why don’t you stop hoarding all of this cash for your army of legal teams and outsourced tracking systems and use that extra money to figure out a way to make music more affordable to download?  Why not make it a more predictable business model and create an affordable monthly/yearly subscription, instead of charging $1-2 per song packed with DRM where customers shit themselves when they realize they don’t have the flexibility they once had before.

Samsung has plans to unveil a flat-panel LCD TV 6.5-7mm thick according to Macworld.  The unveiling will take place at this weeks International Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas.  This new gem will be sporting an LED light LCD panel which more and more TV manufacturers are slowly transitioning over to.  LED’s last longer, give off better overall brightness, and have less power consumption than the typical fluorescent back-lights.  Without a doubt, this technology will bridge the gap between LCD and the upcoming OLED technology’s.  Sony was first to release a not-so-affordable 11″ OLED flat panel TV a while back for $2,499, we are waiting for the competition to step up to the plate to initiate price wars.  Then this will be followed up by a 2nd generation release of this technology which will hopefully be more affordable for the typical consumer.

For those of you waiting for the new iPhone 3G unlock, well, Happy New Year!  The unlocker is called Yellowsn0w, yeah, what a graphic visualization of unlocking an iPhone.  Perhaps the name suggests how the author feels about Apple or the iPhone in general.  Yellowsn0w runs as a small command line application in the background.  For instructions or more information, Gizmodo reports.