Hosts: Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, Jim Louderback, David Spark, and Baratunde Thurston

Twitter lists, Google ramps up, tech journalism ethics, Windows 7, TSA vs. mommy blogger, and more.

Show Notes

MacBreak Weekly 163: Stroke The Mouse

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, and Andy Ihnatko

The team covers Apple’s release of new iMacs, Mac Minis, a new mouse, and more.

Show Notes

Security Now 219: Browser Scripting

Hosts: Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte

Why patches are impossible, the Total (In)security virus, and why writing software shouldn’t be too easy.

Show Notes

Windows Weekly 127: Hasta La Vista Baby

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo LaporteWindows 7 is here and its party time at the TWiT cottage.

Windows 7 is here and its party time at the TWiT cottage.

Show Notes

This Week In Google 13: This Is The Droid You’re Looking For

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani, Jeff Jarvis, and Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land joins us to talk about Google’s social search, Jeff Jarvis invents Howard Stern 3.0, and Gina Trapani sorts by magic.

Show Notes

iron wil

1. ‘Available networks’ tool on taskbar — already present in OS X, works great! It was called Internet Connect, but now is just part of the Network pane in System Preferences.
2. Fewer annoying pop-ups — true we get a bouncing dock icon if you want it; but pop-ups aren’t standard.
3. HomeGroup — oh yeah, I think we call that Bonjour.
4. Device Stage — sounds like more work, OS X launches the program and gets ready to work.
5. BitLocker support for removable storage — Now, for businesses, this has promise.  Home users get nothing from what I understand.  There is FileVault; however if you want whole drive encryption, you can get tools like TrueCrypt.
6. Speedier boot-up — yeah, that is working . . . my MacBook was still faster booting OS X than it was booting Windows 7.
7. Libraries — copycat?  Yeah, *Nix systems have been using this model for some time now.
8. User Account Control is less in-your-face — about time!!!
9. Multi-touch — okay, this is only available on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and ModBooks; we are still waiting for Apple to release a NetBook or Tablet PC that will blow our socks off.
10. It’s not Windows Vista — yeah, we never thought we would see something more busted up than Windows ME; but that has come & now they are ‘getting it right’.

Commentary added.

iron wil

Hosts: Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, and Dan Bricklin

Armstrong tweet controversy, Vista memory, TV still king, OQO end, and more.

Show Notes

MacBreak Weekly 142: Oops, I Bought It

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Scott Bourne

A Verizon iPhone, Apple’s NC server farm, Psystar bankrupt, CES, and more.

Show Notes

Security Now 198: Listener Feedback 67

Hosts: Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte

This mailbag episode includes FASM, scripts, sockets, SSL/TLS, HTTPS, Windows 7′s XP mode, and more.

Show Notes

Windows Weekly 109: Ah I See You Have A Machine That Goes Bing

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte

Microsoft’s next-gen search, Zune HD, Windows Touch, and more Windows 7 leaks.

Show Notes

iron wil

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Jason Calacanis, Brian Brushwood, Dr. Kiki, and Catherine Hall

Swine flu, Microsoft revenue drops, Apple poo-poos netbooks, The Pirate Bay, and more.

Show Notes

MacBreak Weekly 138: All Things Conditioned

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Alex Lindsay

NAB, iPhone hardware add-ons, hackintoshes, Amazon/Stanza, a billion apps, and more.

Show Notes

Security Now 194: Listener Feedback 65

Hosts: Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte

This mailbag episode covers Conficker, Windows process control, NeXT, Ironkey, and more.

Show Notes

Windows Weekly 105: Paul’s Itties

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte

Windows 7 Release Candidate, Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC, Windows Vista and Server 2008 Service Packs, Zune Rumors, and more.

Show Notes

iron wil

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte

New economics, Gmail goes offline, IE8 RC1, Windows 7 UAC, iTunes Plus, and more.

Do More with Less: How to Survive in Today’s Economic Reality

• A Microsoft marketing mantra becomes a life mantra for all of us
• Stretching PC/technology lifetimes
• Saying no to new gadgets … Every time we peddle something people don’t need, we lose a slice of our soul
• Reassessing what it is you really need to get work done
• Paul’s “28 Days Later” concept: Revisiting things Paul’s reviewed or recommended: Do they stand the test of time?
• Next “Everything Must Go” event: Late February
• Not just about spending less – decrease tech life’s overhead as well
• v. small ex: Paul doesn’t install/configure any Firefox add-ons – 7 less things to do on reinstall

Related: Gmail goes offline: Long expected, but this is a game-changer

Internet Explorer 8 RC1 release

• Near-final, “platform-complete” version of Microsoft’s next browser
• For XP, Vista, 2003/2008 not Windows 7
• A few new functional changes but mostly about performance and fit and finish

Is Windows 7 UAC dangerous … or just useless?

Rafael Rivera and Long Zheng have discovered that the dumbed-down UAC in Windows 7 is easy to bypass and could be used to compromise PC

Also in Windows 7 news…

• Windows 7 public beta set to end February 10
• Rumors of a Netbook SKU

iTunes Plus goes a la carte

• Previously, you had to upgrade your entire collection in order to get DRM-free 256 Kbps AAC tracks. Now you can pick and choose
• iTunes now a first-class choice for online music w/ Amazon MP3 and Zune Marketplace

News: Dell will sell a smartphone based on either Google Android or Windows Mobile. Paul’s advice: Don’t

Tip of the week: More Windows 7 theme packs … many are based on Mac wallpapers

Software of the week: Gladinet

Many readers have recommended this: It lets you access SkyDrive from Windows Explorer (and other things).

Audible picks of the week: The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches: Enjoying Life More by Spending Less and Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got From the Affluent Society to the Home Office.

Check out Paul’s blog at the SuperSite for Windows for more information.

get yours here.

iron wil

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte

Earnings, layoffs, the Inauguration, a MobileMe competitor, and more.

• Microsoft earnings and layoffs
  • $5.94 billion on revenues of $16.63 billion – Up just 2 percent year over year
  • Weird: Announced before the start of the business day today, unexpectedly
  • Windows/Office down 8 percent – Server up 15 percent – Xbox up 3 percent
  • Laying off 5,000 in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, 1400 immediately
• Apple earnings: Surprisingly healthy
  • $1.61 billion on revenues of $10.17 billion
  • 9 percent jump in its Macintosh business. Mac sales were 2.5 million units, up from 2.3 million
  • Sold 22.7 million iPods in the quarter, representing 3 percent growth (70 percent market share WW, 73 US)
  • 4.4 million iPhones, an 88 percent improvement
  • Watching netbook market
• PC market share figures are in Worldwide:
  1. HP: 14.9 Million Units, 19.1% Market Share, 3.5% growth
  2. Dell: 10.3 Million Units, 13.2% Market Share, -5.9% growth
  3. Acer: 9.6 Million Units, 12.3% Market Share, 31.1% growth = Netbook
  4. Lenovo: 95.5 Million Units, 7.1% Market Share, -4.5% growth
  5. Toshiba: 3.6 Million Units, 4.7% Market Share, 20.7% growth
  6. Apple? 2.5 million units – 3.2 % percent market share
  7. North America: Apple fell from 3rd to 4th place, 5.8 percent market share
• Microsoft tech used to showcase inauguration: Photosynth – Microsoft Live Labs
• Rumor: Microsoft plotting a MobileMe competitor
  To unveil three new mobile services at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona next month. SkyBox is a service for users to sync a phones information with the web. Microsoft will be offering automatic backup and restore services, access and management of phone data and provide easy communication and sharing with others. The service will also allow syncing of contacts, email/SMS, calendar items and pictures into the cloud, similar to Apple’s MobileMe. The difference from Apple’s offering is Microsoft could be set to offer this out to non Windows Mobile devices. SkyLine will be aimed at small businesses. Offering similar functionality to SkyBox, businesses will be able to setup their phones with Microsoft’s Exchange hosting with their own domain names. SkyMarket was originally discovered in September 2008 when Microsoft advertised several external job positions. SkyMarket is the codename for Microsoft’s mobile marketplace, a competitor to Apple’s AppStore and RIM’s Blackberry application center. This service will only be available on Windows Mobile devices and will showcase the 1000s of Windows Mobile applications available today.
• Tip of the week:
  This weeks tip is about using Windows 7 Styles and Themes. I’ve put up a Washington D.C. theme — will soon post themes for London, Paris, Ireland, and Coffee. You can use the desktop backgrounds in XP, Vista, Mac of course themepack files can be opened by ZIP programs
• Software of the week: Unlocker overcomes annoying “cannot delete file” dialogs in Vista/XP. This software is donationware. Thanks to Troy Haskin for the tip via email.

Audible pick of the week: The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, Unabridged, Narrated by Richard Brown.

Check out Paul’s blog at the SuperSite for Windows for more information.

get yours here.

iron wil

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte

Windows 7, Office 14, Zune rumors, MSDN, Software Wars, Roku, and more.

• Windows 7 Beta Fallout
  There is almost universal praise for the Windows 7 public beta which was released on January 9, 2009. After impressive demand for the new beta Microsoft has suspended its previous policy which would place a limit on the downloads to 2.5 million and will allow people to download the beta until January 24, 2009. Paul recommends re-arming rather then activiting to save your license keys. Windows 7 also runs great on netbooks, lower end notebooks designed for portability and low power usage. Paul describes a good experience on a 1.6GHz Atom system with 1 GB of RAM and 16GB of harddrive space. The only big question is: will the positive reviews of Windows 7 be enough to get XP users to upgrade?
• What about Office 14?
  With Windows 7 coming out in mid-2009 many are wondering if Office will quickly follow. Microsoft just started a limited beta test of their server offerings, but there is no news about the client. Sources say that we will have to wait until late 2009 or early 2010 for the new Office.
• Zune rumors
  Rumors abound that Microsoft may be exiting the portable media player business by discontinuing the Zune. However, Microsoft recently stated that rather then discontinue the Zune they are going to be expanding the product line. With Apple offering DRM free downloads from it’s iTunes music store, Microsoft may have their work cut out for them.Paul is going to try to get Rob Greenlee of the Zune Insider podcast on a future episode of Windows Weekly to discuss the Zune in more depth.
• Keith Curtis
  Keith Curtis is a long-time Microsoft employee and the author of “The Software Wars,” a book which states that open source software, not Apple, is the real future competition to the Windows operating system. GNU/Linux has been all but dismissed as a possibility on the desktop, but Keith disagrees and he may have a point. He will appear on a future episode of Windows Weekly where he will discuss his book and his ideas in detail.
• Roku Digital Video Player
  • This just in: Roku Digital Video Player adds hundreds of HD movies and TV shows via Netflix, plus 40,000 movies and TV shows from Amazon On Demand. The latter is coming in a few weeks
  • Netflix HD content
  • Office, 30 Rock, Heroes, Star Trek, plus movies like Elf, Ace Ventura, etc.
  • An amazing list of Windows 7 tips published by a Microsoft engineer.
  • Free Battlestar Galactica webisodes on Zune Marketplace In Season 0: A 10-part episode, Face of the Enemy, that bridges the gap between the last season and the next, plus two specials, “Recap” and “Catch the Frak Up”

A Message From Paul Thurrott”This week I’m going to be in Reston, Virginia on Friday for the ‘D.C.’ edition of the MSDN Developer Conference held at the Hyatt Regency Reston. It’s sort of a mini-PDC that’s going around the country. In DC to visit with Rafael. But drop me a line if you’ll be at the show.”

Tips of the week

• Software of the weekWindirstat: Excellent disk usage viewer for Windows – surprised I haven’t had this one in here before. Thanks to Greg Martin for the tip. See the discussion page for other similar free programs.

• Audible pick of the week: Cross Country, Unabridged, by James Patterson, narrated by Peter J. Fernandez and Dion Graham.

Check out Paul’s blog at the SuperSite for Windows for more information.

get yours here.

iron wil

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte

Macworld and iTunes tax, Ballmer at CES, Windows 7 and Windows Live, and more.

Guest: Mary-Jo Foley

Macworld 2009

• Well, at least they focused on the Mac for a change.
• iTunes goes DRM-free.
• But what about the iTunes tax? All or nothing to convert existing songs.
• Also, Microsoft raises Apple Tax issues.

CES

• Ballmer keynote
• Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 public beta
• Windows Live Essentials is finalized
• Windows Mobile? No discussion of version 7, Zune Mobile
• No discussion of Vista numbers (Why: SEC; earnings announce soon)
• No discussion of Windows 7 schedule, SKUs (Why: Still working on it)
• Schedule: WinLive Wave 3 first, then IE 8, then Windows 7
• Confirmed: Only one Beta release for Windows 7
• No discussion of Windows Home Server? Weird. I’ve had one of the new HPs for awhile … excellent
• There are new home server partners — new versions of the OS are coming this year too
• Xbox 360: 28 million sold so far

Software of the week: Windows 7 Beta available starting Friday

Tip of the week: Use Windows 7 Play To … to send content around the house.

Audible pick of the week: American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, Unabridged, By Jon Meacham, Narrated by Richard McGondale.

Check out Paul’s blog at the SuperSite for Windows for more information.

get yours here.

iron wil

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte

Windows 7, Windows Live, SP2, Hyper-V, Holiday Tech Gifts, and more.

• Windows 7 Beta in January
• Windows Live Wave 3 Services are out
• Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista, Server 2008
• Hyper-V final is being added to Server
• Games for Windows LIVE 2.0 is out

Holidays Tech Gifts:

• Photos
• Software: Photoshop Elements, iLife on the Mac
• Photo calendars, cards, prints, books

Tip of the week: Get Office Student and Teacher cheap: $90 at Newegg.com

Software of the week: Songbird

Audible pick of the week: ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World’s First Computer, Unabridged, By Scott McCartney Narrated by Adams Morgan.

Check out Paul’s blog at the SuperSite for Windows for more information.

get yours here.

iron wil

Hosts: Paul Thurrott with Leo Laporte

Windows 7, Mobile, Zune, Call of Duty, Ultimate Boot CD, and more.

• Windows 7 Feature Focus
• Windows Live Wave 3, including the Windows Live Essentials application suite
• Windows Small Business Server and Essential Business Server 2008 are available now
• Is Windows Mobile making a comeback?
• Is Microsoft porting the Zune UI to Windows Mobile?
• New Windows Mobile devices: Sony Xperia, HTC Fuze
• Xbox 360 update: Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty World at War

Tips of the week:

• Get Windows 7 functionality in Windows Vista
• Unlock all hidden features in Windows 7 M3

Software of the week:

• Ultimate Boot CD
• Ultimate Boot CD for Windows

Audible pick of the week: Death in Paradise, Unabridged, By Robert B. Parker, Narrated by Robert Forster. For a free audiobook, visit Audible.com/windows.

Check out Paul’s blog at http://www.internet-nexus.com and the SuperSite for Windows http://winsupersite.com for more information.

get yours here.

iron wil