Finally, after months of promises, Microsoft and Yahoo! , together owning over 50% of the IM market have built instant messaging clients that allow users from both networks to communicate effortlessly with one another.  What was once accomplished through third party tools such as Trillian, from Cerulean Studios , is now being rolled into the official programs.  The new clients are now in public beta, and you can grab a test copy of either client by following either of the follow...

Yesterday, early mockups of the new UI for the 2.0 release of the popular web browser, Mozilla Firefox , were posted to the Mozilla wiki .  Three vendors ( Radiant Core , Meta and Raiz Labs ) submitted proposals for the new theme, with Radiant Core winning out with their design.  The requirements for the new theme were simple: respect OS native look and feel appear modern and contemporary with current web and client apps appear consistent across platforms have...

This week we burn through some tech news, including (but not limited to) the EU slaps Microsoft with a ton of fines, the house votes to crack down on internet gambling and it turns out a majority of podcast listeners are Star Trek fans (is that true gang?). Also Microsoft makes an "iPod killer" called the Zune to which we (or at least Kristin) responds with a resounding "meh". In gaming news we discuss a Sony "anti-used game" patent, inform you that Oblivion h...

Today, according to a BetaNews report , Microsoft released Windows Vista Build 5472 to technical beta testers, TAP customers and MSDN subscribers.  The focus of this latest build is quality/performance enhancements along with some minor changes to user account security.  Microsoft has acknowledged the shortcomings in performance in the current Beta 2 builds.  Mike Sievert, corporate VP of Windows client marketing was quoted as saying "Vista in its beta form is pretty taxin...

Well, 819 of you have voted, and the results are pretty clear; most are pretty jazzed about the upcoming release of Windows Vista with 658 of you either saying you were excited about the release, or saying you intended to upgrade when you upgrade your computer. Here are the complete results: Q: What is your current impression of Windows Vista?    Will upgrade to it when I get a new PC probably.   366  (44.69%)  &nb...

As reported on C-Net News yesterday, Microsoft is getting ready to fight Google on the enterprise search products front.  In Boston, Kevin Turner, Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer, addressed the 2006 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference , saying "Enterprise search is our business, it's our house and Google is not going to take that business." This comes in response to the growing popularity and availability of Google's search appliances, though the company has not yet...

Microsoft today announced the beta launch of the new Windows Live Gallery site.  Windows Live Gallery will be the central site for users to find gadgets, MSN messenger utilities and extensions to personalize the various Windows Live services that are to launch along side of Windows Vista early next year. To see a video preview, go here .

Are you a gadget junkie and love building little utilities to sit on your desktop?  Do you have an unabashed love for all things Google ?  Do you want $5,000?  Well, if you said yes to any of those questions then man does Google have the contest for you! Late last month, the Google Desktop team released the Google Desktop SDK for people interested in building applications that hook into their desktop search utility, and part of that kit was a Gadget Designer.  In honor ...

After a week of rumors, AMD today announced that it has plans to purchase graphics card maker ATI and merge the two companies.  The value of the transaction is reported to be in the neighborhood of $5.4 billion (USD).  This marks a significant departure for AMD from its past business practices of focusing exclusively on building processors.  In addition to the merger deal, AMD announced that it would be cutting prices on its current processor line by nearly 50% in reaction t...

Today, AOL will be launching its new AIM Pro service, targeting the corporate market with features such as enhanced security and online meeting services. The new service will be available for free and offer WebEx and Microsoft Outlook integration to further entice corporate users away from more traditional offerings such as Lotus Sametime from IBM .  In the future, AOL will also offer premium packages for a fee that include management consoles, logging and other regulatory complianc...

CNet News is reporting today that Microsoft announced the acquisition of Winternals Software , makers of the popular Sysinternals system utility tool.  Microsoft hopes to add the Winternals staff to further strengthen its operating system development team. While no information on price has been discussed, part of the deal that was revealed is that Winternals co-founder Mark Russinovich has been named a technical fellow.   Despite Microsoft acquiring the Sysinternals tool...

Stardock Corporation Launches New Web Site Stardock Corporation, a Microsoft Gold Partner and the world's leading provider of desktop customization software for Windows, re-launched itself into the marketplace today with a new web site aimed at driving traffic, increasing sales of its popular Windows software applications and further promoting its new interactive entertainment publishing division. The new web site can be found at www.stardock.com. "This new web design is an integra...

TechWeb columnist Alexander Wolfe has done a run-down of his top ten hits and misses with Windows Vista Beta 2.  While certain of his "Hits" like how seemingly overwhelmed he was by the coolness of Aero Glass are chuckle-worthy for anyone who's used to skinning their entire desktop, he does have a few good points tucked away. My favorites are his critiques on the install process and overall system performance for code that is so close to release. What would you consider t...

Jensen Harris, a Microsoft UI developer, announced on his blog today that the third and final theme for Office 2007 has been finalized.  So now, in addition to the black and blue themes seen so far in the public beta builds, they've added silver.  On top of the new color scheme, several minor changes have been made to the "Northwest" corner of the UI, with further improvements promised before release early next year. ...

For those of you who didn't know, we do in fact have an IRC channel for WinCustomize on the official Stardock IRC server.  If you haven't stopped by in the past, give it a look.  I'd like to make it the main point for skinners looking for some real-time chat to gather. If you're unsure what IRC is, or how to join in on the fun, I've posted an article that should help you out. See you in chat!