24-inch LCD ready to do battle

A Canadian company that goes by the apt name of Stealth Computer is determined to bring military-grade specs to consumer gear. A few months back it came out with its TuffTouch monitor, a 17-inch touchscreen LCD encased in aluminum alloy for harsh conditions, and now it has a big brother.

The latest model in Stealth's SV-2400 "Industrial Grade" line is a full 24 inches of ruggedized goodness, fortified in steel casing. The steroidal screen has a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels and 160-degree viewing angles.

Most important to the survivalist set, it can withstand "water, dust and dirt intrusion and performs well beyond ordinary commercially available monitors", according to the company, and is ideal for "human machine interface" applications. Which could be a good thing when your robot is having a bad day and taking it out on the equipment.

Via CNET Crave

Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5.3

Apple has released the latest version of Mac OS X Leopard, just weeks before its annual developers' conference.

Mac OS X 10.5.3 is now available for downloading from Apple's site or through the Software Update process. Dozens of bugs are fixed with the new release for products like iCal, Mail, Time Machine, and others.

Apple is getting set to host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco the week of June 9, where we might learn more about the yet-unnamed Mac OS X 10.6, assuming Apple isn't skipping ahead to Mac OS XI, or Mac OS 11, or whatever naming convention gets chosen.

Via Crave CNET

What we just learned about Windows 7

So what exactly did Steven Sinofsky reveal about Windows 7? I'd boil it down to three things:

1. Timing
Despite what Bill Gates said in Miami, Windows 7 is timed to come out by the end of January 2010, not "in the next year or so". Here's what Sinofsky, Windows engineering head, had to say on the matter.

"The timing of it depends a lot on what we wanted to achieve, and you've certainly heard us, and we've been very clear, and will continue to say that the next release of Windows, Windows 7, is about three years after the general availability of Windows Vista, and we're committed to that, and we've signed up publicly to do that," he said in our interview.

2. Kernel
Windows 7 is an evolutionary improvement to the kernel in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, not a wholly new MinWin kernel that has been under development.

"We're very clear that drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7; in fact, they'll work the same," Sinofsky said. "We're going to not introduce additional compatibilities, particularly in the driver model. Windows Vista was about improving those things. We are going to build on the success and the strength of the Windows Server 2008 kernel, and that has all of this work that you've been talking about. The key there is that the kernel in Windows Server '08 is an evolution of the kernel in Windows Vista, and then Windows 7 will be a further evolution of that kernel as well."
Read more »

Windows chief talks "7"

REDMOND, Wash.--Since taking over the Windows development reins from Jim Allchin, Steven Sinofsky has chosen to fall almost completely off the public radar.

It's not that he hasn't been busy getting Vista Service Pack 1 out the door and starting work on Windows 7. It's just that Sinofsky doesn't want to talk about products until they are well along in their development. Last year, Sinofsky penned a blog to his Windows unit co-workers, explaining his public silence and urging them to follow his lead.

"I know many folks think that this type of corporate 'clamp down' on disclosure is 'old school' and that in the age of corporate transparency we should be open all the time," Sinofsky wrote. "Corporations are not really transparent. Corporations are translucent. All organizations have things that are visible and things that are not."

Well, Sinofsky is breaking his public silence, slightly, to offer a few important details about 7 (he reiterated that it is coming by January 2010) and to explain why he is saying so little publicly.
Read more »

Gates and Ballmer at D6: The movie

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer reminisced about 28 years of working together and addressed a number of topics, including Vista, Yahoo, Google, Windows 7, and search, in an interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at D6.

Following are the videos from the Gates-Ballmer interview.

Part I

Read more »

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