The release candidate version of Microsoft Windows 7 is now available to developers through MSDN and Technet, and goes on general public release next week on the 5th May 2009.

The operating system is entering the final phases of development and is ready for partners to develop new applications, device drivers and services, and ready for IT pros to evaluate Windows 7 and examine how it will operate in their environment.

Some of the new features include:

• Windows XP Mode – enables highly secure, remote Internet access to home-based digital media libraries from another Windows 7-based PC outside the home.
• Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor – utilizing Windows Virtual PC, Windows XP Mode allows Windows 7 users to run many Windows XP productivity applications, launched right from the Windows 7 desktop.
• Refined navigation – several enhancements to the Windows taskbar, JumpLists and search make navigation and finding exactly what you want much easier.
• Internet Explorer 8 - InPrivate browsing in Internet Explorer 8 prevents browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames and passwords from being retained by the browser. With Windows 7, you can start an InPrivate session straight from the JumpList. You can also open a new tab from the JumpList.
• Windows Touch - Controlling the computer by touching a touch-enabled screen or monitor is a core Windows 7 user experience. Improvements in the RC include several Windows Touch updates, including the ability to drag, drop and select items with touch, even inside Web sites that scroll both horizontally and vertically.

Twitter is currently one of the most popular social networking tools around.  All sorts of people use it, even Barack Obama used it during the US election and in fact still does.

As of 2 weeks ago, Hitwise reported that Twitter is the number 5 social networking site in the UK (number 1 being Facebook), and just last week traffic to Twitter went up 43% as a result of Oprah Winfrey sending her first tweet live on air while being watched by Twitter boss Evan Williams.

A while back, Ann Handley from Marketing Profs wrote an interesting article “Why Do People Use Twitter?” – which is well worth reading – and in a recent BBC News article she is quoted as saying:

“Twitter has changed the way businesses market and communicate with customers.  I am a Comcast customer and if I tweet about a problem, I will now get a response via Twitter. This is unprecedented in terms of the way companies have operated in the past. But there are still a lot of companies out there that are not sure how to leverage Twitter.”

But will Twitter survive, or will it go bust when the novelty has worn off?  Twitter clearly is a useful resource for ‘getting the message out to people’, but some people are not so sure that it will survive if there is no money coming in.  Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone, in an interview with BBC News, says:

“We are looking at this this year and want to start showing progress on the revenue front. Right now we have plenty of time and plenty of money in the bank and patient investors. We are here to build a lasting company.”

But industry commentators worry that time is running out and such a laissez-faire approach threatens the company’s survival.

Technology analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle group told BBC News:

“Twitter is a traditional dotcom company. They have a lot of visibility but they are not making any money.  Until they start making money to pay the bills, their likelihood of surviving is relatively low.  Oprah can’t help you out if you are not making money. She rarely writes cheques to support non-profitable companies.”

Back in November 2008, Twitter turned down money from venture capitalists.  Evan Williams, who sold Blogger to Google back in 2003, raised $22 million to fund Twitter.  Back then he was quoted as saying:

“I want to manage things so I don’t have to raise money in 2009.”

2009 looks like the year that will make or break Twitter, it would seem…

Looking at various news articles online this morning, Microsoft have reported it’s first ever drop in revenue (YoY), citing deteriorating PC sales and increased sales of cheap netbooks.

eBay is also not having a good time lately, on Wednesday the Advertising Standards Agency told the online auction to drop one an advert which claimed that shoppers could buy items on their site 25% cheaper than in High Street shops.  They argued that the claim was truthful and fully substantiated, however the ASA have said “because the small print was of insufficient size to avoid being overlooked, and because it contradicted the main message of the headline, we considered that the ad was likely to mislead”.

This morning, an article on The Register states that Amazon have made more money than eBay in Q1 2008 and 2009 – news that is sure to cheer up the online auction house (not)…

“During the first three months of the year, Amazon sales reached $4.9bn, an 18% leap from the same quarter last year. And if you ignore the impact of inconvenient currency exchange rates, you can argue a 25% revenue climb. That translates to quarterly profits of $177m, a 24% jump from early 2008.”

Job-wise, issue 24 of e-Skills’ Bulletin (the bulletin provides a quarterly summary of all the latest IT and Telecoms data collected from Government and private sources) states that there is continued growth in the number of ICT staff in employment, with the number now at its highest level for over seven years.  Also, while advertised salaries have fallen in each of the past five quarters, actual pay awards to those in work have shown an increase over the past two.  Some other good news as well, they report that there are increases in hardware and software spending, which have put IT investment at its highest level since the same period a year ago.

Apple has recently announced a revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion for the first 3 months of 2009, in comparison to a revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion in Q1 2008.

Good news for iPhones and iPods, not so good for Macs

Apple sold 2.22 million Macs during the quarter, representing a 3% decline from Q1 2008.  They sold 11.01 million iPods during the quarter, representing a 3% growth from Q1 2008.  The best news so far comes from the sale of iPhones, they sold 3.79 million units, representing a whopping 123% growth over Q1 2008.

An article on the BBC News website says that the news sent the company’s shares 2.5% higher in after-hours trading.  Analysts praised the results, especially given the economic climate, but said it was not necessarily a sign that things were set to improve in the wider market.

Microsoft have today blogged about an interesting article from the Washington University in St. Louis website, whose computer engineers have made handheld commercial USB ultrasound probes compatible with Microsoft Windows mobile-based smartphones, thanks to a $100,000 grant Microsoft awarded to William D. Richard, Ph.D., WUSTL associate professor of computer science and engineering, and David Zar, research associate in computer science and engineering, in 2008:

“Zar said the vision of the new system is to train people in remote areas of the developing world on the basics of gathering data with the phones and sending it to a centralized unit many miles, or half a world away where specialists can analyze the image and make a diagnosis.

Zar wrote the phone software and firmware for the probes; Richard came up with the low-power probe electronics design. He began working on ultrasound system designs 25 years ago, and in that span he has shrunk the electronics from cabinet-sized to a tiny circuit board one inch by three inches. A typical, portable ultrasound device may cost as much as $30,000. Some of these USB-based probes sell for less than $2,000 with the goal of a price tag as low as $500.”