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Update: Windows Vista Prices

On CyberNet Tech News today is the article: Microsoft Officially Announces Vista Pricing. So here are the official US Prices:

• Vista Business - $299
• Vista Business Upgrade - $199
  
• Vista Enterprise - Not available to retail customers
  
• Vista Home Premium - $239
• Vista Home Premium Upgrade - $159
  
• Vista Home Basic - $199
• Vista Home Basic Upgrade - $99.95
  
• Vista Ultimate - $399
• Vista Ultimate Upgrade - $259

Update Here is information from Microsoft on the Windows Vistas Editions

Now $100 for the Home Basic Upgrade is not too bad. That is right along the lines of what I paid for my version of XP Home a few years back. However that was the full version, not an upgrade.

Using Firefox 2.0b2 As Default Browser

Been using Firefox 2.0b2 as my default browser now for the past couple days. So far, very good and I am discovering several little things.

• Those of you who use Firefox with Delphi Forums and WhiteMare's WYSIWYG Editor, will be happy to hear that the Copy, Cut and Paste commands are on the context (right-click) menu.
• The Inline Spellcheck works (sort of) within Delphi Forums and the Editor. There are a couple places where it is not 'activated', these are in the subject field when starting a new thread or poll and when editing a message. To 'activate' the Inline Spellcheck, simply right-click in the text-box and select 'Spellcheck this field'.
  Important: Right-click on misspelled words for suggestions, to ignore or add.
  
• The Session Restore feature can be setup now like that in Session Saver or Tab Mix Plus where it will 'remember' all your open tabs and windows when you close Firefox. To change this setting go to the 'Tools' Menu and select 'Options...'. From there make sure you are in 'Main' and in the section 'Startup', select from the drop-down menu 'Show my windows and tabs from last time'
• DO NOT use or force the Download Manager Tweak extension, it will break your options window.
  

CyberNet Tech News's Ryan has very good guide with several tweaks for Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 (these also apply to Beta 2 as well). All of these involve using about:config to change these settings. To make things simpler I strongly recommend you get the about:config extension.

My Way

~Something Completely Different~

I have been an avid user of Yahoo! for both e-mail as a web portal for many years now. However, Yahoo! tends to get 'bogged down' at times and there a lot of banners ads that even Firefox's AdBlock Plus can not block. These banners are usually FLASH and even manage to get past the Flash Blocker as well.

My Way is fast, free to use, free of banners, free of pop-ups and has tons more options for content then Yahoo! You can even create a My Way Page (just like the My Yahoo! Page), but with a much greater choice of themes/skins. You can also get your own FREE @myway.com e-mail address. The only downside with the My Way E-Mail is there is currently not a 'notifier' extension available as there is with Yahoo or GMail.

Thunderbird 2.0 Alpha 1

First, this isn't really new news, the Thunderbird 2.0, Alpha 1 release has been out since July 27th. However, I been so busy testing, playing and but sadly NOT crashing FF 2.0, I've put Thunderbird on hold. Since I made Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 my default browser tonight (more on this soon), I decided to go ahead and get Thunderbird 2.0, Alpha 1 setup on my system. So, what's new with Alpha 1? I wondered that myself so I took a look over at the Rumbling Edge's Notable Bug Fixes and notice there are a few items.

The most notable though is the New Mail Alert Improvements. This has been adapted from Outlook and is one feature I have found lacking in Thunderbird. When activated, a slider will appear from the bottom right corner of the screen. Yes this is similar to before but, includes the senders name, the message subject as well the first couple lines of the e-mail. This is so nice if you are working else where and a new e-mail comes through, you will be able to see who it is from and what it is about without having to toggle over to Thunderbird.

The slider will remain displayed as long as you are hovering within it. Once you move your mouse out of the slider or click the link in the slider to take you into Thunderbird it will disappear. However, if the message is in an 'unread' status, the new mail icon will still appear in the Windows task tray. Simply clicking the icon will bring the slider back up.

Mozilla Japan's New Mascot

Found this article tonight on the mozilla links blog. Mozilla Japan is presently holding a contest to name their new mascot (pictured below). While the mascot does fit well into the Mozilla as well as Japan's Anime themes, I just think they are going to have a hard time having anyone take this seriously. While you're at the site, check out the user comments and you'll understand where I am coming from...

Something Completely Different: Vista & Office 2007 Prices

Blogger's Note: This will be the first of my Something Completely Different entires. These entries are not the usual Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, related topic that I usually post in the blog. However chances are they are going to computer/Internet related or may be not.

---

~Something Completely Different~

Earlier this week information about the prices for Windows Vista and Office 2007 started leaking out. My favorite source for Technology News, CyberNet Tech News first posted this information last Sunday (August 27th) with their article: Windows Vista and Office 2007 Prices. A couple things to keep in mind...first, unlike Windows XP, there four versions of Vista (not counting upgrades) and second those prices are a rough conversion based on the Canadian Prices posted on the Microsoft site.

However, a couple days later, CyberNet via the Longhorn Blogs posted the prices for Windows Vista as they appeared on Amazon.com:

Vista Version	Regular Price	Upgrade Price
Home Basic	$199.00	$ 99.95
Home Premium	$239.95	$159.00
Business	$299.99	$199.95
Ultimate	$399.99	$259.00

Now, I have no idea what the difference is between the versions but still these prices are a bit over-inflated IMHO. Oh and by the way, you will need to have a DVD-ROM or recorder/rewritable drive in order to install Windows Vista.

Now here are the Office 2007 prices as they appear on Amazon.com:

Office Version	Regular Price	Upgrade Price
Office 2007 Home/Student	$149.00	N/A
Office 2007 Small Business	N/A	$279.00
Office 2007	$399.99	$239.00
Office 2007 Pro	$499.99	$329.00
Office 2007 Ultimate (DVD-ROM)	$679.99	$539.00

Again, not sure what the difference is between the versions. But I can make one suggestion, before you shell out $150 to almost $700 for MS Office 2007, take a look at OpenOffice.org. It is Open Source, very much similar to MS Office and best of all....it is FREE!!!

Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 Released

While mozillaZine has not made an announcement yet, CyberNet Tech News has, Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 is out! A couple interesting changes in Beta 2, the new default theme or visual refresh is in place now. Also noticed a couple minor changes with the tab bar. After opening a certain number of tabs you will get arrows on either end to scroll through your open tabs. However, I much prefer the drop-down tab list (see below) over the arrows. Also, the session restore has been setup now to automatically restore where you left off in the event of a crash as well as when Firefox needs to restart (due to installing/removing an extension or theme).

This release was only 3 weeks later than predicted and the next step will be Release Candidate 1, which is tentatively scheduled for September 19th with the final release of Firefox 2.0 in late October.

UPDATE mozillaZine announced on September 1st: Mozilla Firefox 2 Beta 2 Milestone Released

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