As soon as Microsoft (MSFT) releases the final bits of a new Windows release to manufacturing–and often before–many users’ thoughts turn to what’s next.

Windows 7 and its server complement, Windows Server 2008 R2, were released to manufacturing in late July. By late August, Microsoft’s Windows client unit already was turning the crank on Windows 8 client and server.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

So Apple (AAPL) announced a new iPod lineup on Wednesday.

I think they botched it, and in doing so, they showed very un-Apple-like cracks in the product lineup. Here’s why…

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Wikipedia wants to be legitimate so badly I can almost taste it. They’re even abandoning some of their long-held, crowd-sourcing ideals with review policies. And yet, here we are, starting another year of school, with countless syllabi and rubrics going out to students prohibiting the use or citation of Wikipedia.

Why????

Read the rest of this post on the original site

There…I’ve said it. I’m filled with self-loathing for saying it, but Bing’s new approach (and the speed with which they rolled it out) is a model for easy avenues to block objectionable content.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Twitter may be doomed. Time put Twitter on the cover and dished out thousands of words of fluff about it.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

It feels odd to be writing a review of Windows 7 this early. Normally, software reviews don’t make sense until the code is officially released and you have to make a buying decision: upgrade, pass, or buy a new PC with the new OS.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

At the beginning of the year, I was informed I was no longer able to expense my AT&T (T) CallVantage Voice Over IP service or my monthly broadband charges as part of my employer’s efforts to reduce costs. This was not unexpected, as virtually every large corporation nowadays with home-based employees are doing exactly the same thing.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Each of them being famous in part because of their lack of self-censorship, Courtney Love and Mark Cuban probably surprised no one when they (separately) got themselves in trouble for mouthing off via Twitter. The reported 140-character assassination engaged in by these two famous folks raises a few questions for those of us who aim to be more judicious in our online tweeting, blogging, and other postings.

Read the rest of this post on ZDNet, the original Web site

Reporters looking into the case of a serial killer in the Northeast have hit upon what they consider a cool angle–he’s the Craigslist killer.

As though the victims of the Green River killer should have just avoided water.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

AOL was the top Internet service provider when it came to customer service in 2008, according to a Forrester Research report. The rub: AOL’s top rating based on Forrester’s “customer experience index” translates into a “just OK” mark.

As a group, ISPs grade out with a “poor” rating of 59 percent based on Forrester’s customer experience index. That tally makes ISPs 10th place out of the 12 industries the research firm examined.

I sought out the Forrester report after AOL trumpeted its customer standing in a press release. I just had to see how AOL, which is trying to wind down its access business, managed to be the best house in a bad ISP neighborhood.

In fact, AOL’s 71 percent rating was the tops, AT&T (T) and MSN were the only other ISPs that had “okay” ratings. Three ISPs–Charter, Comcast (CMCSA) and Road Runner–and “very poor” ratings.

Read the rest of this post

Tokyo is currently the largest city of origin of Twitter messages in the world, more than twice that of second place San Francisco and New York in the U.S. as of this summer.

(Incidentally, while the Japanese Kanji language Twitter service, which only launched in April of this year, contains advertising, the rest of the planet’s Twitter service currently does not.)

International usage of Twitter is pretty extensive, with multiple languages and character sets available. The recent attacks in Mumbai, India, had a pretty substantial online communications element to them, with the tag #mumbai widely used to track events in multiple languages, and with the attackers using BlackBerrys and mobile phones to collaborate and to monitor the media.

Read the rest of this post

Well, everyone else is in the phone business, so why not Microsoft (MSFT)?

There are several reports suggesting that the company may soon do exactly that.

On Friday, tech news site TheInquirer.net reported that the company is developing a phone that will use an Nvidia processor called Tegra. The phone supposedly will be launched at the 3GSM conference this coming February.

Today, CNBC offered a slightly different version of the Microsoft phone rumor, asserting that the company will create a Zune-based phone code-named “Pink,” which could be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. There have been rumors about the nature of the company’s “Project Pink” going back at least a year; back in May, ZDNet reported that Pink consists of a set of consumer-focused premium mobile services, including some from its Danger acquisition.

Read the rest of this post

After my post yesterday afternoon about Twitterank, its creator Ryo Chijiiwa contacted me by email to ask if I’d like to hear his side of the story: I offered him a guest post. Over to Ryo:

I blame the Family Guy. There I was in my hotel room, where I’m staying while in NY for business, watching episodes of The Family Guy on my laptop like any other Joe the Coder on a Tuesday night. But then I ran out of episodes. None of this would’ve happened if there were enough Family Guy episodes to watch on Hulu.

Hi. My name is Ryo, and I’m the developer of Twitterank, which is not some grand scheme to steal thousands of Twitter accounts, but a casual experiment gone horribly, horribly right. Here’s my side of the story:

With no more tales of Peter and Co. to entertain me, I turned to Twitter. I was browsing through a day’s worth of tweets from my friends, when something or another got me thinking about @replies. As many of you are aware, I’m sure, @replies allow users to essentially “send” tweets to other users, which effectively turns Twitter into one giant semi-public conversation.

Read the rest of this post

It appears that micro-blogging service Twitter has removed the option to delete a “tweet” once it’s been published, making the service a haven for digital litter–the trail of information about you or things you’ve said that perhaps you shouldn’t leave lying around the Web.

Publish a status update on Twitter slamming your boss–at 2 a.m. in the morning after a night out at the pub–only to regret doing so seconds after hitting the “update” button, then you could be out of luck. As of yesterday (?) the trash can icon that used to reside next to Twitter updates has been removed.

Read the rest of this post

It hasn’t even been a month since Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told a German blog that growth, not monetization, was the priority for the social-networking site. In fact, he even went so far as to say that he didn’t see a revenue plan coming into play for three more years.

But now, as TechCrunch digs up info on Facebook’s financials, it appears that Facebook may not even make it to 2011 unless they can drum up more cash–either through an accelerated revenue model or more investment dollars before the entire global economy erodes further. In response, Facebook basically responds by telling VentureBeat that it’s doing just fine–thank you very much–while other sources say that something must be wrong with the Techcrunch calculator.

Recognizing that advertising on Facebook has offered “dismal” returns, some bloggers (Techmeme) are suggesting that maybe a subscription model–nothing too crazy, mind you–might be in order. At least one has said that the only thing holding Facebook back from imposing fees is a lack of guts.

Read the rest of this post