News Bits: Vista Pricing, Intel Admits Memory Leak, Widescreens Dominate Now

Vista to launch January 30; pricing revealed

Pricing has been leaked for Microsoft's long-delayed Windows Vista operating system. The prices are as follows (full/upgrade):

• Windows Vista Home Basic $199/$99.95
• Windows Vista Home Premium $239/$159
• Windows Vista Business $299/$199
• Windows Vista Ultimate $399/$259

Amazon.com lists the shipping date as January 30th, 2007 (yes, the year needs to be designated). Bill Gates has been quoted saying that there's an 80% chance Vista would ship in January.

Microsoft needs to make sure its launch of Vista is perfect - it is investing almost $1 billion USD into the launch of Windows and Office.

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Intel admits to memory leaks in latest PROSet software

A bug in Intel's latest PROSet 10.5.0.0 connection software caused excessive memory consumption - the S24EvMon "Wireless Management Service", according to DailyTech, failed to properly release handles in the registry, causing a slow memory leak which consumed memory until the system or service is started.

An Intel spokeswoman said that an updated patch should be available by Friday on Intel's website. The updated drivers should be able to be found here when released.

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ECS + Uniwill merger approved

The vice chairmen of Uniwill Computer, David Chen, will be appointed president of a new notebook division - Elitegroup COmputer Systems (ECS). It was approved on August 28 when its board of directors approved the company's Uniwill acquisition. Chen will start leading both sides' integrated notebook team from December 1st, when the takeover will take effect.

First on the to-do list after the takeover is to settle relations with notebook-contract customers. ECS estimated they will ship one million notebooks in 2006, compared to 700,000 in 2005.

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Widescreen displays dominate notebook market

In the second quarter of this year, six out of ten notebooks feature a widescreen display - the concentration appears especially high in the U.S. Retail stores are reporting that 98% of their sales come from widescreen notebooks.

Pricing has a large impact on the trend - although widescreen displays used to command premiums over standard 4:3 displays, they are now on par with standard panels due to improved manufacturing efficiencies. The most popular sizes are the 14.x" and 15.x", with 15.4" accounting for the largest market share in Q2 (34%) on a global basis.

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Sprint launches first EV-DO Revision A-capable mobile broadband card

Sprint today introduced the Novatel S720 Mobile Broadband Connection Card, which is the first EV-DO Revision A-capable device in the nation. It is designed to operate on Sprint's Power Vision Network, and will also support advanced mobile broadband speeds when Sprint begins its EV-DO Revision A roll out later this year.

Customers signing a two-year service agreement no longer need a separate voice plan to receive the promotional Unlimited Connection Card data plan of $59.99/mo. Sprint plans to reach more than 200 million people in the U.S. with mobile broadband data services, in 220 metropolitan areas by the end of this year. Additional information on Sprint's Mobile Broadband network can be found here.

The Green Electronics Guide ranks leading mobile and PC manufacturers

The Green Electronics Guide ranks leading mobile and PC manufacturers based on their global policies, practice on eliminating harmful chemicals, and taking responsibility for their products once they are discarded.

Their two demands are that companies should "clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances", and "takeback and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete."

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Loving my 15" SXGA+, true I went from a WSXGA+ to a SXGA+, overall, it doesn't bother me, the bars at the bottom when watching Widescreen movies/episiodes/videos.

 

A bit too much for vista. I would rather get leopard when it comes out than vista. I mean, its just too expensive. Specially the full install option. Bad thing..... I dont think many ppl will upgrade soon with those prices.

 

I feel so poor looking at those prices

 

I'm not updating until SP1 (unless few bugs are found), and even then I'll wait for my university to offer it for ~$13 (We currently offer XP Pro for $13).

$99 I'd pay for Ultimate
$100+...well, XP works fine for me MS...see you next century!

Microsoft doesn't get it...lower the price...more copies sold...overall gain in profit! But no...they have to be greedy at the start so they'll lose out.

 

The higher the price...piracy blooms...Profit!

 

Lol. I don't think I'll be upgrading anytime soon. Hell. Vista beta 2 will work till July next year. I dunno about RC1 yet; I'll need to get my Clevo and install it =)

 

I just got an e-mail from Microsoft to test their pre-RC build. Looks like I won't be upgrading to Vista until I buy a new laptop. Unfortunately, the University of California doesn't offer Windows for $13 >_<

Kudos to Intel for acknowledging the memory leak in their drivers.

Just received my z96j. Widescreen looks beautiful, but I won't be able to turn it on until my parts arrive on Thursday.

 

The funny thing is Microsoft just doesn't get it about pricing - bootlegs are going to appear within a day of Vista's release over torrents, and bootlegs will appear in Malaysia within a week of that. Crackers are always going to find holes in Microsoft OS-es.

 

Intel Proset 10.5.0.1 is available on intel's website; does it include the patch?

 

I love widescreen. I think I have an addiction to screen space. I just discovered that you can set your res higher than "max" and pan around inside your screen. I set my 1680 screen to 2560 by 1600 and it's just like having two virtual desktops, one with school stuff on it, the other with IMs, widgets etc.

I have an IBM T40 14" standard, and the top of the LCD is barely half inch lower than my 15.4" widescreen Dell. Imagine if the Dell's chassis was anywhere near as thin?

Also, one huge thing that pisses me off. Why in the heck can you not get higher than 1280x800 on 14" widescreens other than the e1405 (correct me if I'm wrong)? I mean, I remember the Inspiron 4000 used to have a 14" 1600x1200 screen available. More makers should offer at least the 1440x900 res, which is actually less pixels than SXGA, which is widely available on standard 14"ers. Maybe mfgrs are trying to push the middle of the market to the low end to save money. Cuz they charge you out the nose for a 15" WUXGA if it's even available.

rant over

Rae

 

ECS merger? I wonder if they will still suck, I got one of there motherboards once POS. THey trully make crappy products, the funnist is their ibuddy Pc thing it looks like a radio but has a pc inside and has a knob that says instant overclocking its helliarious. ECS please go out of business

 

T.T I got an ECS LCD for my desktop three years ago and I had 3 dead pixels and bad light leakage. I cannot see how they're not out of business.

EDIT: and the ghosting, don't forget the ghosting

 

WOW, Windows Vsita sure does cost the earth!

But at leat it is finally on it's way though. I am still a little worried about security issue, it's only been a few weeks since the security flaws were discovered at Black Hat, but Microsoft do have time to work on it.

It is a shame that Bill Gates won't be around for the launch.

 

Well, I actually feel relieved... no longer have a doubt: not getting Vista, period. Pricing was the last big if for me. When these fascists get in touch with the real world, we'll see. Until then, it will be cheaper to pay a person to train me in the use of another OS. This was really the last incentive I needed to switch to either Apple/OSX or Linux in a year or so. Thanks, M$.

C.

 

Holy hell!



So much for me buying Vista ready machines...

 

Wow Lil Mayz, im surprised to see someone other than me still uses the dell 8100 (assumed by looking at your sig).

I just ordered a 14" widescreen notebook and one of the things that really disappointed me was the inability to get a resolution higher than wxga. Im currently on a 15", 1600x1200 resolution and this laptop is 5 years old!! Although I like the widescreen format, i wish vendors would give their customers more choices in terms of screen resolution.

Finally, it would be nice if someone let us know when the Intel patch actually goes up. Cheers.

 

Why is everyone so surpirsed by the price of Vista? It's cheaper than I thought it would be (besides the Ultimate Edition). Seriously, it's the same price of XP if you compare the two.

XP Home: $199/$99
Vista Home Basic: $199/$99
XP Pro: $299/$199
Vista Business: $299/$199

Sure, Vista Home Premium may be a better comparison to XP Home, but it's only like $40 more. And yeah, Ultimate does cost $399, but it has everything Vista has to offer on every edition. There's not even an XP comparison for that. And keep in mind that every verion of Vista starting with Home Premium and up will include Media Center built in. You can't even buy XP MCE by itself. Seriously guys.

XP Pro Pricing
XP Home Pricing

And let's not forget that Microsoft is also offering license-only prices so you can use one disc on multiple computers and just pay for another license, as shown here. I mean, it's not cheap, no. It's more expensive than Leopard, and Linux (obviously). But how can you attack Vista or be surprised at the price when it's pretty much the same as XP?

 

I concur on the screen res. issue. My 5 year old C640 is running 1400x1050 on a 14" screen, but my M90 is running 1440x900. My only other option was WUXGA at 1920x1200, but that's just a little too high for my tastes. Actually, I'm quite happy with my WXGA+, but a WSXGA+ would have been a great middle-ground solution. And widescreen ftw. It's sooo much better than 4:3.

 

I don't know, Vista doesn't seem exorbitant to me... $160 for Vista Premium, that's almost the same as the $130 that Apple charges for its OSes. And Apple has updates every year, each one of which is $130, while Windows has SPs that are free. And it will have been over 6 years since XP, so it's only $25 per year (vs $130). And Apple is supposed to be the one that's cheap?? What?????

Yeah, if it was $20, everyone would upgrade, just for the hell of it. But I'm sure Microsoft has thought of it. Most consumers don't pay for upgrades, they just get new computers with whatever it comes with and then keep using it until they do something stupid and don't know how to bring it back to life, at which point they get a new computer with the current OS. (Which, considering how long it takes between Windows OSes, could well be the same exact thing.)

If you don't count OEMs, I think most Windows buyers are corporations. Corporations base their upgrade decisions on way more factors than price. Like how many different configurations they feel like supporting, and how many bugs are there left to work out. Most will wait until the first SP is released because it's too much hassle handling all the bugs on hundreds of computers, and only then will think about the cost of upgrading vs their budget. Because no one wants to lose their job for deciding to upgrade the company to an unstable system and having that system fail. Follow the crowd and wait to upgrade until bugs are worked out on the guinea pigs, err, on the consumer front. In other words, no one ever got fired for buying IBM.

Malia

 

My thoughts exactly. Now, I don't wanna beat up on Mac, cause I love Macs. But seriously, they think it's huge that they release a 'new OS' every year and say that Microsoft has done nothing since XP was released except work on Vista. But they've released two service packs, numerous applications, and are working on a third service pack. Not to meniton two editions of Media Center and a 64-bit edition of XP Pro. All the service packs were free, Windows Defender (not the best, but decent) is free and Windows Live Messenger is free.

Seriously, I think people just want to complain about it just because it's Vista. People reacted the same way when XP came out. Nobody wanted to switch from 98/2000, and now most of those same people would agree that since SP2, XP is probably the best OS to come out of Microsoft.

 

Uh there are two small problems with the Apple releases a new OS every year theory. First, it is every 1 1/2-2 years. Second, MS has the SAME release schedule. Vista is just 3 years late. All OS's have an expected life cycle of about 2 years, XP is VERY old. Also, you cannot compare a Service Pack to a new version of OS X. Each version does offer a lot more features than the one it replaces. I know I sound like a fanboy, but if you look you'll see my comments are all just facts.

**EDIT** Also, remember that there is only 2 versions of OS X, the consumer version which includes everything and then a serer version. There isn't this litany(sp?) of crippled versions and then one that does everything. So for 129, 99 for student, that is a pretty good deal.