Windows 7 - Vista’s Successor
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Windows Vista just came out not too long ago, but already we see its successor, Windows 7, on the horizon. At The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital conference a couple weeks ago, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer talked about this new operating system to be released in late 2009.
From what I’ve seen, the interface looks extremely similar to the Microsoft Surface with touch screen capabilities (based on Microsoft’s multi-touch software). It will have a “Touchable Paint” program that allows you to paint with your fingers, a multi-touch photo gallery with two-finger zoom, multi-touch piano application, a mapping application that pulls data from Microsoft’s Live Maps/Microsoft Virtual Earth and a similar dock look to what we see in Apple’s OS X.
“We are at an interesting juncture where almost all of the interaction is with the computer and mouse today and over the years to come,” Gates said. “The role of speech, vision, ink - all of those will become huge.”
He’s referring to gadgets that give you the ability to control it with voice commands or electronic ink (touch) - we’ll be up-to-date with Star Trek soon! Taking into consideration what we’ve seen with Apple’s iPhone revolution, Windows 7 could be the next big step in the PC development realm.
In addition, soon we’ll probably see companies come out with multi-touch screens ready for Windows 7. In fact, Albatron is ready with its 22-inch LCD (1680x1050). It has a sensor on each side of the display, and scalable to 24 inches (and more with an extra sensor). Rumors say this
screen will only cost 20 percent more than an average LCD monitor. That’s not bad for what it can do.
Right now there aren’t many details out there for what else it has in store, but stay tuned ...
Text Messages For Earthquake/Cyclone Relief Last week Verizon Wireless announced its support for the recent earthquake and cyclone relief efforts by enabling Verizon Wireless customers to donate money to Save the Children. This is done by sending text messages to “4SAVE.” I think this is a great, creative idea to give to this cause. Too bad it’s only for Verizon Wireless customers.
“Our customers across the country send more than 10 billion text messages per month, and we’re glad we’ve put this technology to use for such an important cause,” said Mark Yamauchi, director of sales for Hawaii. “On behalf of everyone at Verizon Wireless here in Hawaii, we’re happy to be able to facilitate the giving to help people in both countries.”
If you’re a Verizon Wireless customer with a phone capable of texting, send a message to 4SAVE (47283) with the word “quake” to contribute to earthquake relief or “cyclone” to contribute to cyclone relief. You’ll receive a reply message asking you to confirm a $5 donation to Save the Children for your designated program by pushing “Y” on your keypad. If you wish to donate more, you can send up to four additional messages for $25 to each effort.
“Because Save the Children has been working in Myanmar and China for more than a decade, we were positioned to respond to the immediate needs of hundreds of thousands of families when the disasters struck,” said Charles MacCormack, president and chief executive officer of Save the Children. “Our staff has been working tirelessly to provide food, water and health-care supplies to the people affected by these emergencies, but there are still many more who need help. We thank Verizon Wireless for their support of our efforts and for giving their customers a way to help these communities recover and rebuild.”
All donations will appear on your next monthly bill and are tax-deductible. This program ends July 31, 2008. Visit www.savethechildren.org for more information.
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