Microsoft’s Chief Executive, Steve Ballmer, told attendees at Microsoft’s annual partner conference that Microsoft was serious about a Windows 7 tablet coming out soon. At the conference in Seattle, Washington, on Monday, Ballmer tried motivating attendees by telling them that the tablet is being constructed by about twenty manufacturers right now.

Reuters says Ballmer said:

“New Windows-powered tablet or slate devices — small, hand-held, wireless computers — are in the pipeline from Acer Inc, Dell Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Toshiba Corp, Sony Corp and a dozen other PC makers,”

Ballmer also claims that the Windows 7 tablet will be the most important product they come out with recently. The slate or tablet is probably their most important product because the iPad might seriously affect Microsoft’s PC desktop or laptop sales. In just about three months Apple has already sold 3 million iPads. However, Ballmer wants to take Microsoft in a different direction by playing up its board room compliance as well as fun multimedia features. CrunchGear reports that Bill Gates said the iPad was :not quite there yet.”

Microsoft didn’t say anything about the number one PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co., or their plans to build a tablet-like device running a Palm operating system. Nor did they acknowledge any of their own recent problems with projects like the Kin cell phone.

You probably saw a commercial or two for Microsoft’s Kin cell phone recently. Well, not too recently since Microsoft discontinued the phone after only 48 days on the market because of such low sales.

The Kin was geared toward young adults and teens who love social networking. The phone plays up easy social network access like Twitter, Facebook, even MySpace. It also featured a loop of friends that you are directly connected to, i.e. follow their tweets, status updates, etc.

I found it curious that I would see tons of commercials at home that made the Kin look decent (something appealing to social-media-crazy-teens) and yet never saw any articles or reviews on any of the big name tech sites. The phone regretfully did not catch the eye of enough teens or young adults either. All the advertising for the phone came from Microsoft’s large ad budget for the Kin. And that obviously wasn’t enough.

It probably wasn’t the best idea to release the smartphone right around the set release dates of the iPhone 4 and the Droid Incredible. While the Kin does have a unique look, it cannot compare to the iPhone craze and its huge apps store resource.

Even though discontinuing the phone may have been the best option for Microsoft, it is completely out of their character. Like the Windows Vista or Internet Explorer, Microsoft tends to hold on to projects (however awful they may seem) and improve them over time. But this time the product was cut off after only 48 days!

Maybe Microsoft was so okay with shutting down the new phone because the next Windows phone is in the works and could potentially come out by this fall. Microsoft said that all Kin employees would be reassigned under the Windows Phone 7 development.

Like anyone else, I cannot help but read into this decision – maybe a little too much. Apple is siding with Microsoft? Really? Does Apple’s choice mean Google has become a bigger rival to Apple than Microsoft? Aren’t Apple and Microsoft the Batman and Joker pairing of the computer/internet world? Computer tech blogs and magazines sure have made it seem that way. I can’t really talk since I have egged on the rivalry just as much.

Back in 1997, Bill Gates invested $150 million in Apple and made Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and some other development tools available to Macs (a huge shock at the time and a huge game changing move on Microsoft’s end). Gates could have sat back and let Apple be stifled out, but after the investment we saw some of the biggest “races” in the technology world. Laptops, gaming systems, smart phones, and the tablet are representative of just a few instances where Microsoft and Apple were neck and neck, racing to the top. Their competition is what has kept the Internet and technology field changing and evolving.

Were Apple and Microsoft ever at war? It’s hard to say no with “I’m a Mac,” “I’m a PC” commercials all over the place. And yet, it’s hard to say yes when Apple is promoting one of Microsoft’s larger products (Bing). I’d have to say they have something similar to a sibling rivalry. They compete for the top spot but they each know what the other’s strength is. They push each other in their rivalry but know when they need to be on the same team.

If you are still convinced that Apple and Microsoft are and will always be big enemies, then think of the iPhone with Bing as Apple letting only one little Microsoft product into their world. Out of the many products Microsoft has out there, Bing is one of the few not competing with an Apple product. I think that choosing Bing is smart on Apple’s part. They’re paying back Microsoft for that investment way back when, in a smart and strategic way. But using Google for your iPhone is still an option if Bing really bugs you that much.

One thing about operating systems that needs to be understood is that there are lots of different ones that take different approaches. Windows is more math-based and is definitely the most widely used OS. Because it is the most used, hackers have become better at, well, hacking into it. That’s why Google blames the Chinese hacking on the use of Windows OS.

Google is allowing its employees to choose any other operating system, including Mac OS and Linux. With Google’s own competing operating system, Chrome OS, you might think they would make Chrome the default OS and allow nothing else in the office. However, because Google handles such large data sets and algorithms, the math-driven search engine prefers a math-based operating system. CNET reports that some employees will still be able to use Windows OS but only with special permission. For everyone else, Windows will be disabled on any of the Google network’s desktops.  Eventually, Google will start suggesting its employees use Chrome OS in the office, which they believe to be very secure because it takes an entirely different approach to the operating system being Internet based.

Telling their workers to not use a competitor’s product at work seems reasonable to me and maybe should have been done sooner. You wouldn’t use an iPhone if you worked at Verizon, at least not in the office, I hope.

When I think of the Internet, my mind automatically pictures a PC. But now I should really change my mental image to be both a PC and a Macbook. According to the stock exchange, Microsoft and Apple are pretty much tied in market cap at about $227 billion. And according to CNet, Cupertino has surpassed Redmond in total value! Isn’t this a little crazy? I wonder what Bill Gates is thinking… Even though he is no longer the CEO of Microsoft, he was the one who decided to help Apple out back in 1997 with a $150 million investment. Since his investment Apple has given us the iPod, iPhone, an operating system, and now the iPad. Apple is no longer confined to the computer market.

Another market they have successfully conquered is the digital music market with iTunes. iTunes has definitely changed the way people think of and purchase music. CDs (or cassette tapes for the older crowd) are completely inadequate when compared to MP3s and iPods. But apparently there has been some controversy over iTunes’ relationship with the music labels. The Justice Department is currently investigating if iTunes used their position as top seller of digital music to force music labels to lower prices. They are also investigating some allegations that Apple tried to keep music labels from participating in Amazon.com’s Daily Deals specials.

An article in The New York Times makes a the point, “Though the Justice Department’s inquiry is preliminary, it represents additional evidence that Apple, once the perennial underdog in high tech, is now viewed by government regulators as a dominant company with considerable market power.”

So maybe Apple is taking the investigation as a compliment?

The Fountain of Youth may be an appealing fantasy for a woman on the verge of a mid-life crisis but not really to big time Microsoft. Well Hotmail seems to be reaching the mid-life crisis of email and Microsoft plans to boost its spirits and morale with some improvements.

Even though Hotmail is still the number one email provider worldwide with about 360 million users, sitting in second place behind Yahoo in the US keeps them searching for advancements. Also, right on their tail is Google’s Gmail (third nationally), which is the fastest growing of the top three email providers. Fifteen-year-old Hotmail may be taking steps to give itself a little face-lift.

Not only will the face of Hotmail change, but the bulk of the improvements will be made to the organization of emails and features in the inbox. An idea that seems to be popping up everywhere will be available in the Hotmail inbox shortly… Status updates to all your major networking sites will be available from the inbox in one fell swoop. The organizational aspect of the new Hotmail will automatically sort like emails into their own folders. For example, emails from one contact in one folder, emails containing pictures in another, annoying emails of Facebook notifications in a separate one, etc. Hotmail will also have the smarts to decide what contacts you have generally trashed in the past and will go ahead and move all past and future emails from such users to the trash (of course it also allows an opportunity to avoid such a permanent doom for this contact). Microsoft calls this inbox cleaning “sweeping.”

To win over the trust of some ex-users,  Microsoft says they are getting much better identifying phishing scams and will be offering an HTTPS setting for email if desired. Wired shows some pretty cool picturesof the new Hotmail layout when viewing an email full of pictures. When you open an email full of pictures, they are seen in rows across the email all ready to display a lovely slide show at the click of the play button. Any office documents will be able to be opened in an online Microsoft Office directly in the inbox, like excel sheets, word documents, power points, etc. The Wired article shows a good picture of this inside a browser.

After all these predicted changes are made, the Hotmail name might gain a little respect from competitive Gmail and Yahoo users.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been a leader in web browsers for years. Before Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer was the running force behind the largest source of information that is the Internet. With each generation becoming more and more dependant on the Internet, Microsoft tries to stay ahead of the crowd, anticipating what users will need next.

Back in November, it was suspected that Microsoft’s next Internet Explorer, IE9, would have HTML5 support, allow faster JavaScript, and provide hardware acceleration. This just means that it will be better and faster than IE7 or IE8.

Now, Internet Explorer 9 has been revealed at Microsoft’s MIX 10. The MIX 10 is a three-day conference for web experts looking for the newest and coolest website developments. With today being its last day, the MIX 10 has brought to light Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9. At the conference, Microsoft confirmed the rumors that IE9 will support HTML5, and have faster JavaScript and browsing capabilities. They also told developers that the updated browser would not be available for anyone out there who still has Windows XP.

You can try out the preview version of Internet Explorer 9 here if you are interested.

The browser world is a continuous battle for the top spot. And Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has always been the leader. However, according to StatCounter, Internet Explorer has been beat out by Firefox 3.5 for the month of December!

You can see the actual data in the picture above and if you look closely you’ll see that (yellow) Firefox 3.5 is above (blue) Internet Explorer 7.0 (click on the picture to see a larger version). The two browsers following IE7 are also Internet Explorer (IE8 and IE6), so overall Internet Explorer is still above Firefox by a land slide, but the fact that Firefox 3.5 is more popular than Microsoft’s largest browser, IE7, is definitely worth recognizing.

The rest of the standings are pretty much expected. Overall, the order is Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. But the fact that, individually speaking, Firefox 3.5 has the momentum to push IE7 out of the top standing shows how 2009 has been an excellent year for Mozilla.

October 22, 2009. Not an important holiday or Presidential birthday, but it is the release of Windows 7! I know you’re excited and have been waiting for this day since its release to manufacturing this summer.

If you need more information on how to install, upgrade, or have compatibility questions, there are some new tools available on the Windows website to help with these specific needs. If you have Windows Vista on a qualifying PC, Microsoft is offering a free upgrade to Windows 7. The qualifying PCs include Dell, Samsung, Sony, Gateway, and many others. You can find the complete list here.

So go out and celebrate! An OS much better than Vista is almost here!

The company has been given 60 days to comply with this ruling, which also carries the additional penalty of a $40 Million fine.  Ouch.

Like most surprising court rulings… this one will be appealed.  Besides, it’s not likely that Microsoft would start giving Word away for free, even if the ruling stuck.  It’s much more likely that they would simply develop a new way to code the program that doesn’t infringe on i4i’s copyright.