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Supersite 12/1/2010 4:20 PM After 12 years of manually updating my site like a 1990's throwback, we've finally moved the SuperSite for Windows to a modern content management system (CMS). I'm excited by this for obvious reasons, but the real work is still ahead. Here's what's available now. ... View the full article

Supersite 12/1/2010 3:03 PM Western Digital finally gets it right with the WD TV Live Hub, a combination media hub and media streamer with excellent format compatibility, good services functionality, and a great new UI. ... View the full article

Supersite 12/1/2010 9:36 AM Good morning. Already December. Sigh. Speaking of which, the SuperSite switchover to a new content management system is happening late today. Pray for me. No, seriously. -- People continue to misunderstand my stance on Apple's iPad, which I feel is deeply flawed in its current form. (The device, not my stance. Ahem.) But it's worth discussing, which is why I keep bringing it up. I mean, Apple is on to something here, right? And I've been preaching simplicity and the need for a from-scratch platform for years. So the iPad is, to me, tantalizingly close. And worth criticizing. Anyway, given my recent article, How Apple Can Fix the iPad in 2011, I was interested to see some discussion around whether the iPad 2 would get a "retina display," as used on the current-gen iPhone and iPod touch. Such a display, however, would require a resolution of 2560 x 1920, which is typically only found on 30-inch PC/Mac displays. So that ain't gonna happen. Still, it's reasonable to expect more pixels. And there's no reason why the retina display brand couldn't be used on any high DPI display; it doesn't have to be exactly 300 DPI. -- Firefox will ship a Beta 8 version of Firefox 4 next week, leading me to wonder whether this company will ever ship the thing. Good thing they basically only make one product. I can't imagine how long they'd take if they had a few more. -- Pingdom examines mobile OS usage across the world. -- I almost forgot to mention: I received a WD TV Live Hub, which seeks to right the wrongs of the ill-conceived WD TV Live Plus, which I reviewed recently. I'll review this new box soon as well, but my initial reaction is mostly positive: The UI is more polished, and the media hub and streaming capabilities appear solid. It's still lacking wireless, which is crazy, and there are no cables of any kind in the box, which is cheap. Also, the services selection is somewhat better than before but nothing like with Boxee or even Roku. It's close. Very close. ... View the full article

Supersite 12/1/2010 9:25 AM I wrote in WinInfo this morning that HP has dropped its Windows Home Server product line, which is like kicking someone when they're down, given the recent bad news about Drive Extender. Ed Bott has weighed in on the situation as well, and like me, he calls out Microsoft for publicly masking the reasons for discontinuing Drive Extender. (Which is odd, because Microsoft told me, point blank, the real reasons over a month ago and made no attempts to cover it up.) But Ed also offers some advice about fixing Home Server: First, optimize the basic Windows Home Server product as a single-drive product, with 1 to 3TB of storage intended for backups and light file sharing in a home setting. Next, bring back the first-generation Drive Extender code and whip it into shape as an optional add-on for enthusiasts who want to build multi-disk boxes. Make it available only for Vail and block its installation on the small-business servers. Give every Home Server installation a dedicated 50 or 100 GB of SkyDrive storage and use it as a free cloud-based backup service to help overcome the loss of data duplication in Drive Extender. I asked Microsoft in October why it simply didn't make Drive Extender a Vail-only option. But I think it's a matter of resources. It only made sense to spend a lot of time and money on something like that if it was going to be broadly deployed. And what happens if/when this technology causes some customer data loss? Could Microsoft seriously tell them it was their fault because, after all, they're the ones that demanded it be put back? So assuming DE isn't coming back--because it isn't--we still need a solution that mirrors the central function of Drive Extender: Local, cross-disk data redundancy. And the only thing I've seen that comes close is Drobo's product line. These products would work well with Vail, of course. Imagine a Drobo device (or series of products) based on WHS. That would make us all forget HP pretty quickly, especially if it was priced right. And that could happen: A very low-end four-bay Drobo can be had on Amazon right now for about $350. Just a thought. ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro 12/1/2010 8:05 AM HP this week revealed that it will discontinue its well-regarded MediaSmart Server line, which runs Windows Home Server (WHS). The news comes on the heels of a Microsoft announcement about the removal of a key data storage feature from the next WHS version ... View the full article

Windows IT Pro 12/1/2010 8:04 AM Microsoft this week touted Net Applications and Forrester data that shows, for the first time, that business use of the aging and insecure Internet Explorer (IE) 6 web browser is finally on a steep decline. Meanwhile, business usage of the more modern and safe IE 8 browser is on a similar upward trend ... View the full article

Email was designed as an electronic replacement for snail mail, but being replaced itself because email is too slow and too formal for the coming generation. Get ready for it: Email is dead. View the full article

I’m kicking off a three-part series on the road to Office 365. Today, I’m looking at the early history of the products and people that put the cogs in motion for Microsoft’s software-as-a-service play. View the full article

The current version of Apple's iPad is deeply flawed, but Apple can make a few hardware changes and turn this device into a mainstream computing platform for the 21st century. View the full article

Just when it looked as if Microsoft had thrown in the towel in the ongoing patent infringement case involving Toronto-based i4i, the Supreme Court has agreed to reconsider Microsoft’s appeal. View the full article

In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and I discuss the first 25 year of Microsoft Windows, Microsoft's decision to open Kinect to hacks, Google Cloud Connect, Windows Phone OS heading to tablets, and Microsoft's decision to kill Drive Extender. View the full article

Windows Phone is a game changer for the smart phone market, but I think that Microsoft is setting its sights too low: In 2011, the software giant should fix the problems, fill the functional gaps, and push Windows Phone into the mainstream. Here's how I think this can happen. View the full article

After over 12 years as a largely static web site, the SuperSite for Windows will soon transition to a new content management system back-end. I'll need your patience, your help, and your advice during this transition. View the full article

A week after rolling out its seventh developer preview of Internet Explorer (IE) 9, Microsoft has gone back and delivered an update for the beta of IE 9, the first full beta of Microsoft’s next-gen browser which the company delivered in mid-September. View the full article

In a move that has riled a number of Windows Home Server enthusiasts, Microsoft has announced it is removing its Drive Extender storage technology from the upcoming Windows Home Server ‘Vail,” Small Business Server Essentials “Aurora” and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials

Microsoft and Southwest Airlines are teaming to make free holiday photos available to travelers this holiday season. The program, unveiled on November 23, is one of several promotional events Microsoft is doing this year to highlight new and existing Windows 7 PCs and Windows Live services. View the full article

In this week's mailbag, understanding linked Windows Live IDs and Windows Phone, whether Windows 8 will be 64-bit only, transferring files between print queues, changing the Live ID associated with your Xbox LIVE account, whether Call of Duty: Black Ops is as easy as described in a You Tube video, and whether you can install 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 on different PCs using the same product key. View the full article

Microsoft is going "all-in" with cloud computing, and there's no better evidence than Office 365, which seamlessly blends hosted versions of Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010, and Lync 2010 with client and web versions of Microsoft Office, all for a reasonable cost. View the full article

Microsoft will be making changes to its Windows Server pricing in January 2011 that will affect companies that are in the commercial hosting business. View the full article

Both Google and Microsoft are intent on being Office users’ preferred way of collaborating on documents. Microsoft’s solutions are SharePoint, Office Web Apps (and its Microsoft Docs sibling). Google, as of November 22, has its own alternative: Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office. View the full article

It was just about a year and a half ago that Google started talking up plans for its Chrome OS. As I recall, a number of bloggers and reporters began tolling the death knell for Windows at that time, claiming Google’s “operating-system-less” OS would trump Windows 7, Windows 8 and maybe even Mac OS X. So where is it? View the full article

Seattle-based Attachmate Corp. is buying Novell for $2.2 billion, the companies announced on November 22. At the same time, Novell announced the “concurrent sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft Corporation, for $450 million in cash.” View the full article

In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and Paul discuss Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 7, Office 365, the Facebook Messaging update, the return of KIN, Living room technology, including Kinect, Boxee Box, and Hulu Plus, OnLive, and Call of Duty Black Ops, week two. View the full article

Electronic Arts does it again with Need for Speed Undercover, a stellar racing game that improves on the iPhone original by adding Xbox LIVE achievements and leaderboards, and even Avatar integration. View the full article

With today marking the 25th anniversary of Microsoft Windows, I'm taking a stroll down memory lane and looking back at the early years and my complicated relationship with Microsoft's now-dominant OS. View the full article