Microsoft’s newest mouse flattens to be the ultimate portable device.

From a Microsoft Presspass:

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 1, 2010 — Some say the mouse’s days are numbered, but today Microsoft Corp. proves the gadget is alive and well by unveiling the Arc Touch Mouse, the first mouse designed to flatten for portability and pop up for comfort. The new mouse features Microsoft’s first touch scroll strip for easy navigation — just move a finger slowly for controlled scrolling or flick for hyperfast scrolling. Windows-based PC users will love packing up their laptop bags without the added bump of a mouse, as the Arc Touch Mouse flattens with just the touch of a finger.

As the computing landscape evolves to offer new ways of interacting, such as touch screens and touch pads, the mouse is also evolving but holds true to its core purpose: providing comfort and precision to users when navigating the PC.

“This is not the first time that the mouse has been threatened — look at 10 years ago when people started buying laptops that had integrated pointers and touch pads. Still, the mouse category continued to grow and grow,” said Brett Ostrum, general manager for the Hardware Group at Microsoft. “The reasons people need external mice will not change: comfort and precision. The Arc Touch Mouse just demonstrates again how committed Microsoft is to continuing to bring great new mice to consumers.”

Read the rest of the press release here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/sep10/09-1ArcTouchPR.mspx

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Starting October 3 in the U.S., Windows 7 Family Pack will be available for purchase at participating retailers and online at the Microsoft Store. Purchasing the Windows 7 Family Pack gives you three upgrade licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium for the low price of $149.99. To take advantage of Family Pack, you’ll need a PC running a genuine copy of either Windows Vista or Windows XP that is capable of running Windows 7. The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor can tell you which features and editions of Windows 7 will run on your computer(s).

For those of you who don’t live in the U.S., Family Pack may be coming your way too. It goes on sale in Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia and many other markets on or after Oct. 22 (Windows 7’s 1 year anniversary!)

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Many, many years ago, long before I was a Microsoft MVP, I was a beta tester for Windows Me which was codenamed ‘Millennium” or ‘Milly’ as we beta testers referred to the project.

Now, I will be the first to admit that Windows Me was not the greatest version of Windows, and one was better off to stick with Windows 98 than to upgrade to Me. Windows Me was released (or escaped as some have opined) in September 2000.

Being a beta tester in those days was a lot of fun. We were a select group that had access to various builds as well as bug-finding contests (two of the prizes are seen on the left) and a private newsgroup for interacting with other testers. Not like today where Microsoft releases betas publicly for one and all to try, but don’t get me started…

Anyway, I was cleaning out some old CDs and came across some interesting stuff from those days….

For instance, here are my PC specs from those days:

Intel Celeron 466a PPGA, 66Mhz bus
64 MB SDRAM
3.4 Samsung HD
AGP 8 Meg on Motherboard
56K Micromodem
24X CD-ROM

Laughable by today’s standards. No high-speed Internet connection then, either. Today, the cheapest notebook at Wal-Mart has more computing power than that desktop did!

I also had some Windows Me backgrounds on that CD, some of which were designed by fellow testers:

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By Ron Hopkins
Windows 7 has sold over 150 million copies since it was first brought out into the market in October 2009 at a staggering rate of 7 copies every second. This is a historical figure in terms of the speed at which copies of the Windows operating system has been sold. The rate at which Windows 7 copies are getting sold is not only phenomenal because of it getting sold a lot faster than any previous versions of Windows including XP but is also incredible as the last Windows version i.e. Vista was a huge disaster. Many critics had mentioned that Microsoft might find it difficult to bring back the trust of computer users after their reputation was hampered through Vista. But Microsoft has proved all critics wrong and reiterated the fact that Windows are there to remain and going to get better every time.

Here are a few points on how Windows 7 is better than Widows Vista:

1. Enhanced Speed and Performance: Before Windows 7 every new Windows operating system released by Microsoft needed more hardware requirement in order to run smoothly and faster than the previous versions. But it has certainly changed with Windows 7 as it provides far better speed and performance than Vista with the same hardware configurations. From my personal experience, I would say that it often performs even better than Windows XP especially in terms of Windows start time and a few applications.
2. A cleaner and graphically improved interface: Windows 7 is a lot less cluttered compared to Vista especially in the task bar and system tray icons and the ability to use themes. You can download and install any Windows 7 Theme with just the click of the mouse in a few second to make your computer screen look a lot better.
3. Less bundled programs: Microsoft has also listened to feedback of Windows users and critics and removed many of the bundled items such as Messenger, Movie Maker, Live Writer etc. Many people hardly use them and so there is no use of bundling them with the Operating system as was the case with Windows Vista. But now Microsoft has put them separately for download in their own website instead of bundling them so that users who need it can download them free from the Microsoft website. You an also download Microsoft security software named Microsoft Security Essentials and many Windows 7 Themes free of cost from the Microsoft website.
4. Stability: Windows 7 is a lot more stable operating system and there have been hardly many bugs reported till now. Vista on the other hand was known to crash a lot of computers at the start and many had even downgraded to XP due to the same reason. Even Windows XP was not stable at the start and it was only liked by most people after Service Pack 2 came out. Similarly, Vista only started to get liked a bit by people when Service Pack 1 came out. But Windows 7 has been extremely stable with hardly any problems reported without any service packs. It might also have been due to the extensive beta testing by Microsoft of Windows 7 OS but it is a lot better than Vista in terms of stability too.

In my opinion Windows 7 is the best operating system ever brought out by Microsoft. It is undoubtedly better than Vista in nearly all aspects and I would even say it is even better than Windows XP though many might deny. Windows XP might be a bit faster than Windows 7 but then there are a lot more features in Windows 7 compared to XP. My final words – Go for it if you are not using it already.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ron_Hopkins
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-is-Windows-7-Better-Than-Windows-Vista?&id=4568021

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A fellow Windows MVP in India, Vasu Jain, has just completed a Microsoft Office eBook that I think you will really enjoy and competes well with any print copy available on the market.

The author states:

“Microsoft Office 2010 the book is a compilation of one of the finest Tips n Tricks for Microsoft Office 2010. You can use them to enrich & enhance the Microsoft Office 2010 experience of yours. It contains over 60 Tips n Tricks for Microsoft Office 2010 Applications.
This book is for the users of Office 2010 who wish to learn and seek new opportunities via this version of Office. This book includes a list of Tutorials, Basics, Tips and tricks applicable to Office 2010 Suite in a very simple and easy to understand language so that a novice can also understand.”

The eBook is bookmarks-ready, in PDF format, with a fully linked content index. Spread over 250 pages containing over 60 articles this eBook is a sure treat for Office 2010 users.

If you would like to qualify for a free copy, simply tweet a message with the following text (copy and paste):

Only those that tweet the exact message as above will qualify to win.

There are five copies to be given away and the contest will run until August 31st. Winners will be chosen by Randomizer.org

You can download a sample of the Office 2010 eBook here.

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