When Microsoft revealed the next version of Office, one of the most talked about upgrades was the "ribbon" menu system. I personally liked the ribbon interface, but Microsoft was hit with many complaints about it. In the next technical refresh of Office 2007 the ribbon menus will be set to automatically minimize when not in use. This is very similar to auto-hiding your taskbar in Windows. There will also be other menu improvements in the next beta scheduled to be released to testers soon...

A man in Florida was sentenced to six-years in prison after being convicted of several conspiracy and copyright infringement charges. The man made millions off his website selling software titles such as Adobe and Macromedia. The FBI is currently investigating where he obtained the serial numbers which he sold with the software. Prosecutors say the man cost the industry more than 20 million dollars, but some say it could be more.

On Oct. 10 Microsoft will drop support for SP1 on Windows XP. After that date no more security updates or hotfixes will be available for SP1. Users will need to upgrade to SP2 if they want to use incident support as well. Oct. 10 is "patch Tuesday", and that will be the last day any fixes for SP1 will ship.

Microsoft has released Windows Vista RC1 on Microsoft Connect today. It appears this build is not yet public, but it should be released to testers of Beta 2 within a short period of time. If you have access to Vista through Microsoft Connect you should be able to download it without problems. As soon as Vista RC1 is released to the public we will update you as soon as possible. "To the TechBeta community: It’s official — Windows Vista RC1 is done! We could not have achieved thi...

Nintendo announced last night that the highly anticipated Wii will be released in the U.S. on November 19th at a launch price of $250. The Wii will be released just days after Sony plans to release the PS3. While Sony has said they will have a limited number of PS3's available for the holiday season, Nintendo assures they will have "far more available than their competitor". The Wii will reportedly include the Wii Sports title, a controller, and the "nunchuck" style attachment. Users will ...

Microsoft unveiled it's new media player which will arrive just in time for this holiday season. The Zune will be available in three colors, feature Wi-fi, and will be able to share songs with other Zunes which are nearby. It will feature a 30GB hard drive, and a 3-inch screen. While no pricing information was released, it has been rumored that Microsoft was hoping for a $299 price point.

President of Sony, Ken Kutaragi, was quoted by reporters saying, " If you

AT&T will apparantly bring back 2,000 jobs to the U.S. that were previously done by outside call centers. The Communications Workers of America union seemed to have a part in this by negotiating wages, benefits, etc. We often hear about companies outsourcing jobs to foreign call centers, so I am glad to see AT&T at least making some effort to return jobs back to the U.S.

Microsoft released today beta 2 of Windows Media Player 11. The most notable changes seems to be fixes from the first beta of WMP. Go download and let us know what you think of this new release.

At this years Tokyo Game Show , Sony President Ken Kutaragi announced the price cut of the PS3 in Japan by 20%. The 20GB model will sell for $429 (U.S. dollars), down from the original $515. It was also announced both models will feature the high-definition HDMI connector, which was originally only slated for the higher end model. This price cut is currently for the Japanese market only, but there was wide speculation on whether this will translate into a price cut for the U.S. also. So...

Microsoft released Vista RC1 (build 5600) to users who participated in the Customer Preview Program today. If you participated in the Beta 2 release, you should have received an e-mail with information on the RC1 release. You will need to use the key given to you in Vista Beta 2 for this new release If you were not part of the Customer Preview Program before don't worry. Microsoft will be taking new participants soon, so check the CPP website for information on signing up. Vista Custom...

An EU review panel is investigating whether to bring antitrust charges for "unfair competing" against AMD. The Commission has been considering charges for months, but has been delayed because of doubts about the case. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission has shown little interest in pursuing this case. AMD has also sued Intel in the United States, and is also pursuing cases in other countries.

Since Vista will obviously not be released for this upcoming holiday season, they have come up with a coupon plan to ease the minds of new computer buyers. Microsoft reportedly plans to offer coupons with new PC purchases valid for either a free upgrade to Vista, or a discounted upgrade. The upgrade program will begin on October 26, and will run until March 15. Only PC's cabable of running Vista will be eligible for the upgrade coupons. So if you plan on buying a new PC for the upcomin...

Halloween Skins Halloweenisapproaching and I wanted to put a list together of some great Halloweeninspired skins.  Please feel free add any you think are"scary"enough.   Bootskins HalloweenHades Halloween CursorXP HalloweenPumpkins MyHalloween HalloweenCursors Creepers DesktopX CreepersDesktop HalloweenLights AeroHalloween 2004 ...

Google plans to build a solar-powered electricity system at it's Silicon Valley headquarters. When finished it will be the largest U.S. corporate complex powered by solar energy. The rooftop system will reportedly supply 1.6 megawatts of electricity to nearly a third of it's 1 million square foot complex. Read more at the article below.