Windows Mobile 7 delayed till 2011? Umm NO
On Sunday a seemingly unknown site, named Bright Side Of News, came out stating that Windows Mobile 7 was "definitely delayed to 2011".
If the original headline made you jump then join the club. It's sad that we're even covering this but when big named sites like PC World begin reporting this belief as "news" and Twitter spreads it as news then it's time to put some facts straight. BSN doesn't name any sources or why it believes Windows Mobile 7 is "definitely delayed to 2011". Instead it claims "We spoke with representatives from Microsoft, Lenovo, Qualcomm, TI, Nokia, nVidia, HTC and many more". The main two out of that bunch that would know if Windows Mobile 7 was delayed would be Microsoft and HTC and both aren't speaking about Windows Mobile 7.
At the consumer electronics show last week Neowin spoke to representatives from LG who confirmed they would be shipping devices with Windows Mobile 7 "this year". Does that sound like 2011 to you? In December 2009 Microsoft UK head of mobility Phil Moore confirmed that we won't be seeing Windows Mobile 7 phones on the market until late 2010.
Microsoft officials refuse to comment on Windows Mobile 7 in most cases but Robbie Bach, Entertainment and Devices Division, held an analysts call at CES last week and confirmed that the company will share details of Windows Mobile 7 next month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. "I've seen it and played with it," Bach said. He also believes that Windows Mobile 7 will "set the bar forward not in (just) an evolutionary way." From what we are hearing from insiders the company is ready to show off Windows Mobile 7 and will do so at Mobile World Congress. Microsoft's annual conference, Mix 2010 in March, will be the time for company officials to unveil developer features. We questioned Toshiba, Samsung and LG about their Windows Mobile 6.5.3 and 7 plans but all refused to answer the future of Windows Mobile in depth, presumably due to non-disclosure agreements with Microsoft. All of this evidence does not point to devices showing up until after February 2011.
50% Discount on Windows and Office upgrades
According to ZDNet, Microsoft really wants to push medium and small businesses to move away from Windows XP and older versions of Office. The "Up-to-Date Discount," as they call it, is available for the first year of the OVS (Open Value Subscription) licensing program and applies to customers using the Professional versions of Microsoft's software. OVS is a way for small and medium businesses to pay for their software licenses over time, instead of having to foot it all up front.
The new promotion available for the Up-To-Date Discount is called N-2 and allows users that are still using Windows and Office XP (which are two releases ago) to participate as well (assuming they sign up for an OVS plan). Previously, the program was only for N-1, meaning only the previous release of Windows and Office were part of the promotion. Businesses will be able to upgrade to Windows 7, as well as Office 2007, or may choose to get Office 2010, assuming they're willing to wait for its release.
Here are the details, straight from the Microsoft SMB Community Blog. Note that the 50% off is calculated based on estimated retail prices. The deal is available from January 1st through June 30th.
So who qualifies for this offer?
For Microsoft Office Professional Plus:
- Before the Office 2010 launch: Companies with OEM, Retail, or Volume licenses for Microsoft Office 2007 Professional, Office 2003 Professional, or Office XP Professional
- After the Office 2010 launch: Companies with OEM, Retail, or Volume licenses for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 or Office 2003 Professional
For Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade: - Companies with OEM, Retail, or Volume licenses for Windows 7 Professional, Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional
What you get: - 50% off your 1st year OVS payment for Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade or Microsoft Office Professional for every qualifying N-1 or N-2 license you have.
- As an example, in the U.S., this means you would be paying $35.00 for a Windows 7 Professional Upgrade and/or $91.00 for Office 2007 Professional Plus in year 1, plus receiving all of the Software Assurance benefits (such as an automatic upgrade to Office 2010 when it launches, Office Home Use Rights, and much more) for that price!
Make a Universal Windows 7 Ease Disc
The most annoying thing about being a "geek" is the need to be prepared for anything that can go wrong with a computer. With Windows, this becomes even more complicated, as you need to have a disc for each and every edition of the OS. With Vista, Microsoft introduced a universal disc, but for some reason, with Windows 7, Microsoft felt it better to return to their old ways and make each disc edition specific.
Technibble made a post about this very issue a few weeks ago. It's not that the Windows 7 discs don't contain all editions of the OS, but rather a small 51 byte file is present, restricting the disc to a specific one. To change this, a user would have to manually mess with the disc image. He'd have to create a new ISO from his DVD, remove the ei.cfg file, and write the new ISO back to the DVD.
To make this simpler, a coder has released a small utility that will take care of this, allowing anyone to alter the ISO without the worry of messing something up. It's called the ei.cfg Removal Utility, and will take your ISO and tell it to ignore the ei.cfg file. You can then burn the image back to a DVD, and use it with any legitimate license key for any edition of Windows 7. You will be able to select whichever edition you want when you first start the installer. The disc will also make it easier to service any edition that's already installed on a machine. Of course, you need a separate ISO for each version (both 32 and 64-bit). But still, 2 discs are better than 8 (sorry, this won't work for Enterprise). This tool will surely make techies lives easier.
Download: ei.cfg Removal Utility