Windows 7 Developments You Should Know About

One stone-cold fact about Windows 7 is that we need more stone-cold facts in order to understand the new operating system that is likely to arrive in early 2010.

The company has said some of those facts will come in late October and early November during two of its major conferences -- the Professional Developers Conference (Oct. 27-30) and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (Nov. 5-7).

What is known beyond the Windows 7 code name is that Microsoft is building the operating system on the Windows Vista code base in order to avoid the sort of application-compatibility problems that plagued Vista early in its release. The new interface will feature the Ribbon toolbar throughout, and the server version will add the much-anticipated live migration feature to the virtualization capabilities.

Sifting through the rest of the information, rumors and tidbits out there, here are seven things to know about Windows 7 before details start to emerge in advance of next month's conferences.

1. Betas. A beta version called Milestone 3 is in the hands of testers, according to Mary Jo Foley's "All about Microsoft" blog. The early release is out to a select group and Foley is saying Beta 1, the first public beta, will hit by the end of the year. Other handicappers, however, say it looks like the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) could be the place it is released. Others are pointing to the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) as the venue where the Windows 7 Beta 1 will be introduced. Las Vegas odds makers call that a pick 'em.

2. Final release. As far as the final release time frame, Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte sent a letter in June to enterprise and business customers saying "our plan is to deliver Windows 7 approximately three years after the January 2007 general availability launch date of Windows Vista." Such clarity from Microsoft is often lacking in these announcements, but pundits are interpreting Veghte's message to mean late 2009. In February, Bill Gates, then chief software architect, hinted at the same time frame. Some reports have said the ship date will be as early as June 2009.

3. Development. Many are asking why Microsoft has a chance of completing the operating system on such an ambitious schedule given the five years it took to get out Vista. One major reason is Steven Sinofsky, who took over Windows development in 2006 as Vista limped to its finish line. Sinofsky is best known for his workmanlike schedule for pumping out versions of Microsoft Office on a regular 18-month cycle. Windows 7 is Sinofsky's next big test and perhaps his legacy at Microsoft.

4. Features. There are a few solids here, but speculation is clearly up and churning. In May, Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer gave the first Windows 7 demonstration, showing off multi-touch screen technology. Gates also said before his retirement in July that synchronization between Microsoft's Live Services and Windows 7 would figure prominently, as would digital ink and speech features. There are hints of a more modular operating system, much like Windows Server 2008 Server Core, and performance boosts. Recent screen shots from the Milestone 3 beta show the Ribbon toolbar in Wordpad and Paint. There is also evidence of new quick-install features. The glaring omission for IT is a dive into features that might make their lives easier.

5. Server version. While the client operating system is being touted as a major release (with minor revisions to the base Vista code), the server version is a minor release. Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will actually be what was originally planned as Windows Server 2008 R2. A few weeks ago, Microsoft confirmed that R2 would bring live migration to its virtualization platform and that the server was on-target to ship in early 2010, which would align release dates once again with the client operating system.

6. Users. Ship dates will be important. For Vista users with Software Assurance maintenance contracts, Windows 7 is already paid for as along as it ships within the length of the contract. Users who are still buying XP via downgrade rights through Vista Business and Ultimate will have mainstream XP support until April 14, 2009. Mainstream support includes such options as no-charge incident support, paid incident support, support charged on an hourly basis, support for warranty claims and hot-fix support. If Windows 7 ships in mid-2009, April could offer a tidy migration point to begin getting the upgrade cycle cranked up.

7. Stay tuned. Microsoft has launched a Web site called "Engineering Windows 7" that is hosted by Sinofsky and his senior engineering management colleague Jon DeVaan. The blog has provided little in-depth information about Windows 7's features, but Sinofsky did say a major team goal is to "promise and deliver." Promises are what helped make Vista feel like a consolation prize. But so far the blog has only turned up tidbits like this: "Our goal is about building an awesome release of Windows 7."

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Apple's Notebook News: What's Myth, What's Truth

If there's one thing Apple knows how to do, it's build buzz. The company that brought us everything from the iPod to the iPhone is getting ready to reveal its latest innovation -- and, in typical fashion, it's shrouded in mystery and surrounded by speculation.

All Apple's saying so far is that it'll talk about notebook computers at the media-only event, set for next Tuesday at the company's California headquarters. "The spotlight turns to notebooks," its cryptic invitation reads.

Rumor Patrol

So what's the real deal? It seems everyone has an opinion. Rumors have been flying for days about the so-called "Brick" -- a new MacBook casing made from a single sheet of metal in an advanced manufacturing process. A fresh set of supposed photos leaked Thursday morning, following an initial image published online Wednesday night. But it doesn't stop there: Australian-based tech blog The Inquisitr quotes a "reliable" source as saying an $800 laptop is in the works (which may or may not be related to the "Brick"). If accurate, it would be Apple's most cheaply priced model to date.

A Lot on the Line

Whatever the truth is, there's no question that a lot's on the line for Apple right now. The company's stock has been falling fast, dropping 40 percent in the past month alone. And even with the iPhone's impressive success, some analysts are predicting it'll take a hit from the wave of new smartphone competitors due to hit the market in the coming months -- models such as the Android-powered G1 and the hotly anticipated BlackBerry Storm. Then there's the recent interview in which Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak suggests even the iPod's days may be numbered.

Promising Potential

It isn't all bad news, though, and there may very well be a shining light at the end of this tunnel. A survey just released Wednesday suggests 8 percent of teens own an iPhone, while another 22 percent plan to buy one and an additional 33 percent wish they had one. Some other research out this week shows the iPhone snagging the top spot of all smartphones, with 17 percent of the U.S. market.

The economy isn't making it easy for any company at the moment, and Apple's no exception -- but a little innovation and a lot of marketing could just give it the juice it needs to bulk back up.

The Safest Web Browser Firefox 3

So How Do We Do It?

What makes Firefox different? Most importantly, we’re open. That means anyone around the world (and we have thousands of experts watching our back) is able to look into our code and find any potential weak spots in our armor.

And when we hear about a problem, we roll up our sleeves and get to work fixing it right away. It’s in your best interest (and ours) to take care of the issue, even if it means admitting we’re a little less than perfect.

Simply put, your security is our top priority.

There’s a Method to Our Madness.

Nobody loves the Internet more than we do. But, scammers, spammers and trigger-happy viruses are true threats, so you need to protect yourself while using the Web.

That’s Where Firefox Comes In.

Using it is the safest way to surf the web because:

• We don’t try to tackle the problem alone. An international community of security experts is working around the clock to make your web browsing safer (thanks to our open source way of doing things). It’s like having your neighborhood watch led by a group of highly trained ninjas.
• We consider your security every step of the way. Security experts work right from the start to identify and address potential problems before a single line of code is written.
• We stay on top of the issue. We’re constantly monitoring threats and releasing new Firefox updates to stay one step ahead. Operating in an open source world means anyone can help us find and fix our weak spots.

For more details on how Firefox keeps you safe online, visit our security blog.

OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta Features

1 New Core Features 1.1 Mac OS X Support 1.2 ODF 1.2 support 1.3 Microsoft Office 2007 Import Filters 1.4 Solver 1.5 Chart Enhancements 1.6 Improved Crop Feature in Draw and Impress 1.7 Spreadsheet Collaboration Through Workbook Sharing 1.8 1024 Columns Per Calc Sheet (Instead of 256) 1.9 Display of Multiple Writer Pages While Editing 1.10 Improved Notes Feature in Writer 1.11 New, Fresh-Looking Icons 1.12 Start Center 1.13 Native Tables in Impress 1.14 Enhanced XML support and updated XSLT based filters 2 Core Features Introduced With Minor Releases Since OpenOffice.org 2.0 2.1 PDF/A Support 2.2 New Chart Component 2.3 VBA Support 2.4 Programmability Enhancements 2.5 Transformation of CSV Data Inside Cells into Columns within Calc 2.6 Language Selector in Writer Toolbar 2.7 Maximum Page Size Enlarged for Draw (300cm x 300cm) 2.8 Enhanced PDF Export 2.9 Multiple Monitor Support in Impress 2.10 Miscellaneous Features 3 Features Released as Extensions and Complimentary Tools 3.1 OpenOffice.org Extension Repository 3.2 Calendar and Email Client (Mozilla Thunderbird and Lightning) 3.3 Presentation Minimizer Extension 3.4 Report Builder Extension 3.5 Wiki Publisher Extension 3.6 PDF Import Extension 3.7 Presenter Console Extension

Release:jQuery 1.2.6

May 24th, 2008: This is primarily a bug fix release for jQuery 1.2. You can view the full list of what was fixed on the bug tracker.

This is the next release immediately following jQuery 1.2.3. Releases 1.2.4 and 1.2.5 were skipped (1.2.4 was built incorrectly, rendering it effectively identical to 1.2.3, and 1.2.5 was missing a patch).

The entire jQuery team did a fantastic job in pulling this release together - I want to take this opportunity to thank them all for their continued hard work.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to welcome Ariel Flesler to the core jQuery development team. He provided valuable help in pulling this release together - contributing bug fixes, performance improvements, features, and test cases. You can see the result of his hard work all throughout this release. Welcome Ariel and thank him for all his contributions!

Downloading

jQuery 1.2.6:

• Recommended Hosted Code with Google: AJAX Libraries API
• jQuery Minified (15kb with Gzipping)
• jQuery Packed (30kb)
• jQuery Regular (100kb)

If you wish to checkout the full release from the Subversion repository, you can do so by following the instructions and checking out the source from the following location:

svn co http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/svn/tags/1.2.6

Performance Improvements

Once again the jQuery team has worked hard to bring huge performance improvements in this release. As with previous releases we've expanded to look at many areas of the jQuery framework, looking for common pain points, and providing relief.

All data and test cases for the below performance improvements can be found in the the following " jQuery 1.2.3 v. 1.2.6 Google Spreadsheet (results for Internet Explorer 6 were excluded in favor of Internet Explorer 7 due to their virtually-identical results).

Event Handling is 103% Faster

In analyzing intense application code (specifically operations such as drag-and-drop) we looked for ways in which universal changes could be made that would affect all users. A frequently-called piece of code was that of the jQuery event handler, any optimizations to it would dramatically improve the performance of all resulting frequently-called events. By focusing improvements here all frequently-called events that you have should see immediate benefits.

CSS Selectors are 13% faster

A number of optimizations have been made to internal jQuery methods, dramatically improving their performance, while providing measurable benefit to some of the most commonly used code in jQuery (such as the CSS Selector code).

For example the jQuery.map() method is now 866% faster and jQuery.extend() is 19% faster. These two changes have allowed for dramatic improvements in performance all throughout the library.

.offset() is 21% faster

Together with the improvements to jQuery's event handling code optimizations of .offset() have allowed intense mouse-based operations to become much faster. For example jQuery UI's drag-and-drop code is now over 300% faster because of these change (allowing you to achieve faster, smoother, drag-and-drop operations).

.css() is 25% faster

A method that's frequently called (both internally and externally). The optimizations to this method are easily felt in others (like .offset(), for example).

New Features and Major Changes

Dimensions Plugin is Now Part of Core

The remaining methods of the Dimensions plugin, by Brandon Aaron, have been introduced into jQuery core, along with additional bug fixes and performance improvements. This plugin has seen considerable use amongst developers and plugin authors and has become a solid part of the jQuery ecosystem. We've been, slowly, introducing the most-used methods from the Dimensions plugin over the past couple releases - but with the release of 1.2.6 all remaining methods are now part of core.

If you're upgrading your copy of jQuery to version 1.2.6 you can now opt to exclude the Dimensions plugin from your code.

The full documentation for Dimensions can be found on the jQuery documentation site (and is in the process of becoming integrated with the core jQuery documentation).

.attr() overhaul

The .attr() method has been completely overhauled (resolving about 15 outstanding bugs). Additionally, the method has been significantly simplified and optimized.

.toggle() can now accept more functions

Historically jQuery's .toggle() function has accepted two functions (to be toggled in an even/odd manner). However that has been changed so that any number of functions can be provided and toggled by a mouse click.

$("div").toggle(function(){
  $(this).removeClass("three").addClass("one");
}, function(){ 
eClass("one").addClass("two"); }, function(){
  $(this).remo
v   $(this).removeClass("two").addClass("three"); 

});

You can now unbind bound .toggle() and .one() functions

function test(){ $(this).addClass("test"); }
$("div").one("click", test); 
);  $("div").toggle(test, test)
$("div").unbind("click", tes
t; 
div").unbind("click", test);
$(
"

[edit]

.index() supports jQuery collections

jQuery's .index() function has allowed you to find the location of a DOM element in the jQuery collection - now you can also specify a jQuery collection (the first element of which will be extracted and located in the original set).

var test = $("div.test");
$("div").index( test ) == 3

jQuery.makeArray can convert ANYTHING to an array.

jQuery's internal .makeArray() method now converts any array-like object into a new array. Additionally it wraps all other objects as an array and returns the resulting set.

jQuery.makeArray( document.getElementsByTagName("div") )
// => [ div, div, div ]  jQuery.makeArray( true ) 

// => [ true ]  jQuery.makeArray() 

// => []

beforeSend can cancel Ajax calls

The beforeSend Ajax callback has allowed developers to execute a piece of code prior to a request occurring - now that code can also verify the integrity of some parameters and cancel the resulting Ajax request (useful for tasks like form validation).

$.ajax({
  beforeSend: function(){
    return $("#input").val() == "";
  },   url: "test.php" 

});

Exposed Speeds

jQuery has a number of named animation speeds (such as 'slow', 'fast', and 'default') you can now provide your own names for animation speeds, or modify the existing ones, by manipulating the jQuery.fx.speeds object.

jQuery.fx.speeds.slow = 1000;
$("#test").slideDown("slow");