Today is launch day for the latest operating system from Microsoft (not to mention the grand opening for the company’s dedicated stores). The reviews are generally good and excitement levels appear to be pretty high.

Let’s not forget, though, that the initial reviews for Vista were also good and the excitement level was high then, too.

With that in mind, how are you feeling about the release of Windows 7? Are you eager to install it onto your system? Are you going to wait a while until the early adopter guinea pigs flush out the bugs? Or are you still smarting to learn that there’s no smooth upgrade from Windows XP and planning to just keep using that now-two-generations-old OS?

Sound off in the comments below. 

Microsoft was hoping to put to make a fresh start in the cell phone world last week. It introduced a new operating system and held lavish launch events in Europe and New York to help promote Windows Mobile 6.5.

But, out of nowhere, the past and future collided to give the company a one-two PR punch.

Mobile 6.5, it turns out, was given a resounding raspberry by the critics, who said it still lags well behind the systems from Google and Apple. Now, the headache that comes from the company’s ties with the existing Sidekick model is quickly turning into a migraine.

To catch up those who haven’t heard, a massive hardware failure last week resulted in some customers permanently losing their email, contacts and other data. Users and the tech media have been vilifying the phone and now T-Mobile is getting in on the act, suspending sales of all Sidekick models.

Microsoft owns the company that makes Sidekicks – ironically named Danger. It bought it last year as it attempted to expand the Windows operating system’s presence in the mobile market. 

Microsoft swung by the east coast today to show off its wares for the upcoming holiday season – and to help promote the Zune HD, Windows Mobile 6.5 and the Xbox 360, it brought out the big guns.

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment & devices division, addressed attendees and hosted a roundtable for journalists and analysts, talking about everything from gaming to consumer tech.

Here are a few notable comments on Microsoft’s plans for the consumer technology space: 

• While Windows Mobile 6.5 is getting savaged by reviewers, Bach was unconcerned. He promised more frequent updates to the operating system and noted the company was taking a long view: “The issue with Windows Mobile is where we’re going to be in two or three years,” he said. That’s a long wait, though – and gives competitors a lot of time to innovate.
• Asked point blank is Microsoft was planning to jump into the rapidly growing eReader field, Bach dodged, saying: “That’s a ‘time will tell’ question.”

Microsoft is not a company of fools. It knew the Zune was going to get pummeled by the iPod – and it knows that the Zune HD will never knock the iPod Touch or iPhone off of their throne. But it also knows there are a lot of people more interested in a good personal media player than an all-in-one device – and for them, Microsoft has hit the sweet spot.

While the Zune HD isn’t quite a home run for the company, it’s a solid triple – and has quickly become the strongest competitor on the market to Apple’s PMP empire. Priced fairly at $220 for the 16GB model and $290 for the 32GB one, the device is stylish, ultra-light and ultra-powerful. It boasts a solid battery life. And, come mid-December, it could be a tough item to find on store shelves.

One of the Zune HD’s major attractions is its 3.3-inch OLED screen, which offers a sharper picture than anything you’ll find on the iPhone. Like many competitive devices, the screen is touch sensitive and offers a 16:9 (widescreen) ratio. Ironically, videos shown on the Zune HD itself do not appear in high definition.

Most people won’t realize it, though. Video on the player is crisp and clear. As with  a high-end TV, though, it’s best watched in a darkened room. The Zune HD’s highly reflective screen makes outdoor viewing (and some indoor viewing) a bit challenging – and sometimes impossible.

To get true HD from the Zune HD, you’ll need a $90 dock (sold separately). With this, users can output 720p video from the device to their HDTV. The functionality is a big selling point for the Zune device – and it’s a feature that really shines. Videos look spectacular – and the interface works surprisingly well on the big screen, despite its shortcomings on the player itself.

The player’s interface is one of the Zune HD’s more notable stumbles. It’s minimalist, but perhaps a bit too much so. Figuring out how to navigate among choices isn’t as intuitive as some competitors, including Apple.

While the tech world has been busy speculating about Apple’s forthcoming tablet, Microsoft has apparently been busy creating one of its own.

Gizmodo breaks word of the device that is reportedly in the “late prototype” stage. The system, code named Courier, is said to have dual 7-inch screens with a hinge between them. Both are touch-sensitive and designed for writing (via stylus) and manipulation by hand. On the back cover is a camera.

Leading the charge on this is Entertainment & Devices tech chief J Allard – best known as the person who spearheaded the Xbox project at Microsoft. It has been a hush hush project at the company until very recently, with only a few people aware of its existence.

Gizmodo reports that Microsoft is currently developing the user experience for the system and has recently started showing design concepts to outside agencies.

The move towards a proprietary tablet is a big step for Microsoft, which has traditionally stayed very much on the software side of the PC business. While it has not been shy about creating entertainment-focused hardware, this would be the first device from the company that competes with its PC manufacturer partners – even if that competition is indirect.

There’s no known timeline for Courier at this point – and it could be some time before the company officially acknowledges its existence.

Then again… with the Apple tablet reportedly nearly ready for prime time, we may hear more about this sooner than we expect.

(Image credit: Gizmodo)

The Zune HD, Microsoft’s redesign of its portable music player, has finally hit store shelves, right on the heels of Apple’s new line of iPods.

The features are pretty well known by this point:

• Built-in HD Radio receiver
• HD video output capabilities (720p)
• OLED touch screen, allowing you to flip through music, movies and other content
• Wi-fi
• Internet browser optimized for multi-touch

There’s also the addition of an advisor AI called Smart DJ, which will make suggestions for others songs or artists you might enjoy. Imagine if Pandora and Apple’s “Genius” had a love child.

Simply enter an artist’s name and it will build a playlist around that artist – pulling suggestions not only from your own music, but from the 6 million tracks in the Zune marketplace. (If you’re not a Zune Pass subscriber, you can still see the songs it suggests, in case you’d like to buy them a la carte.)

Microsoft has been offering the free release candidate of Windows 7 for some time now, but if you’ve been putting off on grabbing a copy, it’s time to move.

The free offer expires tomorrow (8/20). Obviously, you won’t be able to use this version forever. (It will begin turning itself off every two hours starting March 1, 2010.) However, it’s an excellent chance to try before you buy – and the operating system is a whole lot faster and more stable than Vista.

A U.S, District Court judge has ordered Microsoft to stop selling its popular Word program in 60 days, due to patent infringement violations.

Judge Leonard Davis, based in the Eastern District of Texas, issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the company from “selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML,” according to a statement released by attorneys for plantiff, i4i. (That would be Microsoft Word 2003 and Word 2007.)

The company was also ordered to pay $200 million in damages and another $40 million for “willful infringement” of the patent.

Microsoft says it plans to appeal the decision.

The case, which never really pinged anyone in the media’s radar before today, stretches back to March 2007, when i4i accused Microsoft of violating its patent for a system saving users from having to embed command codes in their documents to control the formatting of text. 

Despite the order, don’t look for Word (and, presumably, Microsoft Office) to disappear from store shelves. MSOffice is a $20 billion business for Microsoft and a key driver of profits.

The company announced plans last month to offer a free version of Word (and other Office tools) online beginning in the first half of next year.

Microsoft has been pretty quiet about the Zune HD since the official announcement, but as a rumored ship date gets closer, leaks are beginning to emerge.

A spy sent Gizmodo a look at Best Buy’s inventory system, with two versions of the media player priced. The 16GB model will reportedly go for $220, and the 32GB model will be $290.

And the expected September 8 launch date looks more and more accurate, as the Best Buy system lists it as well.

[Update: Actually, it now looks like the launch date is Sept. 15. Gizmodo now has shots of an in-store display showing that date - and Buy.com briefly had a Zune HD countdown that ended on that date. (The countdown has since been removed.)]

That puts the Zune well below the iPod Touch retail price, but that alone may not be enough to entice customers. Apple has plenty of time to adjust prices if it wants – and is likely comfortable enough in its leadership spot to leave things as they are.

After all, the Palm Pre had plenty of online buzz when it launched – and was often heralded as a potential iPhone killer – but so far has failed to put any sort of dent in the iPhone’s marketshare.

Looks like Microsoft is taking its fight with Apple to the next level.

The company today began accepting app submissions from developers for its Windows Mobile Marketplace. Certification, it says, will take roughly 10 business days initially – and should an app be rejected, developers will get a detailed report explaining exactly why it was passed over.

Apple, of course, is the leader in user-generated apps, with over 71,000 different offerings.  Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do, but it does have a huge user base already installed in phones like the Samsung Blackjack and others.

“Our strategy for all of this is pretty straightforward; we want to create a global marketplace for Windows Phones where developers and users meet to sell and buy high quality and high value applications that make work easier and life more fulfilling,” said Microsoft on a company blog. “We’re creating a clear process and new opportunity for developers and ISVs to make money from their investment in innovation.”

Juniper Research predicts mobile application downloads will hit 20 billion by 2014, so Microsoft’s growing interest in the market is hardly a mystery. The interesting thing to watch will be how Windows Mobile apps will differ from those on the iPhone. Apart from the expected slew of games and productivity apps (like tip calculators or GPS offerings), will they veer more to the professional arena or the flatulence simulators that run amok at Apple?

More importantly, will Hollywood techies come up with apps that directly serve the film community?