In a very surprising move, Microsoft has started selling computers and even third-party software via its online store.
This is a small part of a much broader push for Microsoft as they think that stores like Apple’s might bring in much higher margins for them and their products. Microsoft had said it would sell PCs at its brick-and-mortar stores, but it plans to open just two of those this year, including a Scottsdale, Ariz., location that opens later Thursday.
Early on Thursday, though, Microsoft revamped its online store, which had been an outlet only for Microsoft products. The remake of the online store comes just as Microsoft is launching Windows 7.
Clicking on laptops brings up a list of 10 models, organized by price, including two models below $750. The site also offers three Netbooks and a single desktop model, Lenovo’s $999 A600 all-in-one.
On the software front, Microsoft is selling Norton 360 and Adobe Photoshop, along with Windows, Office, and other Microsoft products. Accessories include a lot of Microsoft keyboards, mice, and Webcams, along with flash drives and blank DVDs from other companies.
There has been a huge amount of hype around Microsoft and their new Windows 7 operating system, and today is the big launch day! The reactions so far from users and reviewers have been mostly positive and to me it looks like Windows 7 is a great improvement from XP and the huge issue of Vista.
If you’re interested in making the switch, the price is $319 for Windows 7 Ultimate, and $299 for the Professional version ($219 and $199 for the upgrade, respectively). Windows 7 Home Premium will set you back $199, and an upgrade from either Vista or XP will cost you $119.
Audience Science, an online advertising firm formerly known as Revenue Science, announced on Tuesday that it has closed $20 million in new venture capital funding.
Investors included Mohr, Davidow Ventures; Mayfield Fund; Meritech Capital Partners; and Integral Capital Partners.
Founded in 2003, New York-based Audience Science offers both an audience technology platform and a targeting marketplace.
The company says it has powered over 50,000 campaigns worldwide, and is the eleventh-largest online ad network in the U.S.
Clients include the Financial Times, Gannett, Reuters.com and New York Times Digital.
The company will use the new funds expand its audience targeting marketplace, and bolster its offering to brand advertisers, premium website publishers and online ad networks.
As im sure most people are aware, Apple released new products yesterday and here at Crenk I wanted to just quickly run through them. RAck. r
Magic Mouse
Here it is: the new Magic Mouse, a single button mouse (with a software-controlled right click option) and a touch sensitive top surface that allows you to touch the mouse to pinch, scroll, and drag, just like a trackpad. The mouse uses two AA batteries and lasts 4 months on one change.
It costs $69 and is available at the end of October.
iMac
Fastest iMac yet. Big LEDC-backlit displays in 21,5 and 27 Inch 16:9 aspect ration. Wireless keyboard and mouse standard (check that mouse!). Fastest iMac yet. No surprise there.
The New Macbook
The new MacBook has a durable unibody enclosure (aluminum or plastic?), 1,08 inch thin, light at just 4.7 pounds, 7 hour battery. 13 inch LED backlit display and glass multi-touch display.
The New Mac Mini
up to 2,66Ghz with up to 4GB memory. Faster than ever. NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor for graphics and Wi-Fi built in. Optional 500GB hardisk.
This was posted the other day over at The Next Web, I thought I would let all our readers know just in case they havent seen it.
For a long time now Gmail (like nearly every other Google product) has had Google Adsense ads in the sidebar. Have you ever wanted to get rid of these ads from your Gmail? Well now you can by simply adding in two fail-proof sentences into the signature of your emails.
All you need to add is:
I enjoy the massacre of ads. This sentence will slaughter ads without a messy bloodbath.
Then your Gmail should look like this:
For a long time now I have been really wanting Mint.com and their personal finance application to get setup within the UK. Unfortunately Mint was acquired last month by Intuit and it doesnt look like I will be getting Mint in the UK any time soon.
There are a couple sites who are looking to become the Mint of the UK, Kublax and Money Dashboard. Money Dashboard is the newest startup which is in Alpha testing and today they have announced they have secured £1 million in funding. These are from the public and private sector and include Par Syndicate, Money Dashboard’s management team and a number of other individuals.
Money Dashboard’s board is quite heavyweight, made up of some of Scotland’s successful businessmen, including chairman Stuart Sinclair, former CEO of Tesco Personal Finance and GE Capital in the UK and China and David Robinson, founder and former CEO of Bright Grey.
It is good to see that Money Dashboard has entered the market and that they have solid backing behind them. However, I was hoping to see a lot more information on their site, plus their site doesnt seem to portray top level security for some reason. Im really looking forward to seeing how they develop in the future.
A lot of people are really looking forward to getting their hands on Windows 7 when it comes out. In the mean time there are a lot of people wanting to replicate Windows 7 in other operating system (not really sure why!). Here is a new Windows 7 transformation pack for Ubuntu.
Download Win7 Transformation Pack for Ubuntu from here
Ever fancy creating your own Star Wars party? Well GoAnimate is a free, easy-to-use online animator that lets you do that. You can use their online animator to recreate some cool cartoons and shows such as my Star Wars rave below.
There are tones of themes for you to select from and within those themes there are dozens of scenes so you can thoroughly alternate your cartoon and make it really special in comparison to some of the crappy 2D animators out there.
To the left of the scene creation screen there is the library which contains hundreds of people, objects, effects, sound effects, speech bubbles and loads of other cool items ready to be inserted into your scene.
When you click on a person or object you can customize them by changing their size(this allows you to add depth to your scene by making far away objects small etc…) or making them do something as you can see in the screenshot above.
For the most part, this service is free. However, you can buy an online currency called GOBucks to buy extra characters and features which frankly I though were unnecessary and didn’t make my experience any better. So in short, stick with the freebies!
I have to say, GoAnimate is by far the best animation tool online at the minute. It’s free, addicting and it creates good quality cartoons that aren’t obviously the product of some rubbish online animator.
It has been announced that the Black Nintendo Wii tat is currently only available in Japan will be heading to Europe on November 6th.
The unit will feature the black console and matching WiiMote, Nunchuk and MotioPlus peripherals. Nintendo is also throwing in Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, some nice additions, although we still don’t have a price for the whole bundle.
Nintendo also plans to eventually offer the black colored Classic Controller Pro, although that peripheral won’t be available as part of the package.
While the bundle will go on sale starting November 6th the “general release” date won’t begin until November 20th.
Unfortunately Nintendo is still sitting behind their plans to only sell the white version of their system in the U.S
Back in the day a simple notch on the bedpost was enough to track how often you got down and dirty. Well now there is a web app called BedPost that lets you track your sex life.
It’s still in its Beta stages but you can sign up for an invitation. Using the online calendar you enter when you had sex, with who, how good it was and how long it lasted. The idea is that after a few months of tracking you can look back and analyse your results such as what days you most commonly got lucky for and at what time of the day it was.
This is a unique app that’s worth a look by the more ‘active’ of our readers. Check it out here at www.bedposted.com .
In a very surprising move, Microsoft has started selling computers and even third-party software via its online store.
