Windows Vista is an obvious flop. With all the praises that most people gave it when it first hit the market, Microsoft now finds itself trying to win back its customers no thanks to the defects and problems that this erring operating system has caused. And the savior’s name? Windows 7.

Expected to be shown at CES this coming January, rumor has it that Windows 7 will come out in three versions, namely:

• Windows Vista Home Premium Edition => Windows 7 Home Premium Edition
• Windows Vista Business Edition => Windows 7 Professional Edition
• Windows Vista Ultimate Edition => Windows 7 Ultimate Edition

Why you may ask? For one, operating systems cater to all levels. But one thing noticeably missing is the very basic version of the OS. We saw that in Windows Vista but it seems that it only caused a lot of problems rather than results. In fact, don’t be surprised if you see an upgrade version which allows current Windows XP users to upgrade straight to Windows 7 to avoid the issues with Vista.

But that remains to be seen. Microsoft has a lot of work to do to cover up the mess that Windows Vista caused. Many users reverted to Windows XP but do bear in mind that Windows XP is no longer available in the market.

Windows 7 has been programmed to use lesser resources. This should be welcome news to all Windows OS users. This was one of the issues with Windows Vista and apparently Microsoft has learned its lesson. Will Windows 7 click? Expect reviews and feedbacks once it hits the market in 2009.

Source

Now that CES 2008 has officially ended, I wanted to take a moment to do a round-up and wrap up post on CES coverage both here and from others.

Featured Community members did some coverage on their sites of CES this year. Josh Phillips from Windows Connected has Day 1 and Day 2 write-ups of his experience online. The folks from Neowin shot some excellent videos of Microsoft Surface. And Jason Dunn has a post up on his experience riding the Media Center Express CES Bus from San Francisco to Las Vegas as well as CES in general. It was also great meeting up with John Obeto, Michael Reyes from HardwareGeeks, Ash Nallwalla and Brad Wardell from Stardock. And special thanks to Robert McLaws from Windows-Now for spending a great deal of time on the Media Center Express CES Bus setting up a fantastic Windows Media Center experience.

Speaking of the Media Center Express CES Bus, blogger Robert Scoble shot a piece for Donny Duetsch’s show on CNBC on the bus with a group of other bloggers. Here is a video of some of the bloggers on the bus introducing themselves (including me!). Scoble questioned Bug Labs CEO Peter Semmelhack. You can read about Scoble’s experience shooting the segment here. Bug Labs won CNET’s “Best of CES” Award this year for Emerging Technologies. Check out the list of “Best of CES” awards for specific categories. You’ll also take notice that one of the “Fashion PCs” being showcased by Microsoft at CES this year - the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 - won CNET’s “Best of CES” award for Computers and Hardware. The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 is a pretty slick laptop.

For information on the announcements made from Microsoft at CES this year head on over to Microsoft’s CES Virtual Pressroom.

Channel 10 did extensive video coverage this year of CES. You can check out all their CES coverage here.  Channel 10’s Nic Fillingham shot a tour of the Microsoft Product Pavilion. JP Wollersheim, Senior Product Manager for Windows Live, demoed some digital photo features in Windows Live. Awesome stuff.

I’ve uploaded the final photos from CES I shot to Flickr using Windows Live Photo Gallery. You can check out my photo set here. I’ve got some great shots up from the Microsoft Product Pavilion. Here are a few of my favorites:

Lots more pictures here!

I posted about the Fashion PCs being showcased at CES earlier last week asking which of these PCs you would like to hear more about. I don’t know about you but I really like that HP Blackbird ;-)

While the CES excitement is over… we’ve got some pretty exciting things coming up post-CES I think you will enjoy. Stay tuned!

Being able to create panoramtic stitches in Windows Live Photo Gallery is one of my favorite features ever. I deciced while at CES, I really wanted to use the feature to show off a few locations of both CES and Las Vegas. While at CES this week, I essentially lived in Windows Live Photo Gallery uploading photos to Flickr to share with you here. But here are a few panoramic shots I created.

The above is a shot of me standing at the Microsoft Product Pavilion Tent and facing the Las Vegas Convention Center. This gives you an idea of how busy CES can get (both with people, buses, taxis, etc).

My next shot is from the Microsoft Auto Showroom. They had several cars there demostrating awesome Microsoft Auto technology - such as Ford Sync.

And the last shot I have is actually the first panoramic shot I created while at CES. Its the view from my hotel room looking out toward the strip. Not really an impressive view but certainly a neat panoramic shot (at least in my opinion) non-the-less.

I’m sitting here at McCarran International Airport and wanted to share these just before jumping on my plane. Expect another post re-capping CES coverage from myself and many others in the next day or so.

This afternoon, I was able to stop by the Microsoft Booth (or more like Microsoft Quadrant) here at CES to take a look at what Microsoft was showing off. There, I was able to check out a handful of brand new and very unique new PCs that are due to hit the market in 2008 or already on the market now. I took some shots of those PCs to share with you. I am also including some interesting tidbits about each of the PCs.

Haier Notebook VM:

The Haier Notebook PC comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV U2500 processor and has a 4 layered metalic paint that helps minimize scratches. Its also only 3.5 lbs!

Lenovo u110:

The Lenovo u110 comes with a Intel Core 2 Duo LV/ULV processor and is under 2.2 lbs with a solid state drive.

Sony VAIO LT HD PC/TV:

The Sony VAIO LT is wall-mountable and comes with a Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processor. It also has a built in webcam and mic which will be great for doing video calls in Windows Live Messenger.

Ego Signature:

The Ego Signature comes with an AMD Turion 64-bit processor and has anti-reflection technology for high resolution use indoor and outdoor. It also has a bass reflex sound system.

Dell XPS One:

This frameless 20″ widescreen display is an all in one PC that comes with an Intel Core 2 processor.

Sony VAIO TZ:

The Sony VAIO TZ is only 2.7 lbs, has up to 8.5 hours of battery life, and has an solide state drive.

And over at the CES Bloghaus - HP had a few of their new PCs set up their for bloggers to check out including the HP Blackbird 002. This PC is amazing.

The HP Blackbird 002 can have up to 4 TB of storage and has two doublewide 16-lane PCI Express graphics slots. It also comes liquid cooled!

These are just a few of the new PCs coming out of CES this year. For me, its great to see so many unique new PCs. So… which one is your favorite? And which one(s) would you like to hear more about? Let me know!

Channel 10 was able to score a high-quality version of the hilarious ”Bill’s Last Day” video from yesterday’s keynote - viewable in glorious Silverlight:

Bill’s Last Day: The CES Keynote video

This is the only official version. Thought you might enjoy the video ;-)

I’m posting this from my Samsung Q1 Ultra.

To catch the Media Center Express CES Bus from the BlogHaus at the Bellagio, all you need to do is head out the front doors to the taxi area. The Bus will be in this vicinity. You will be able to catch it there. I’ve taken photos to show where folks need to go to catch the bus from the BlogHaus:

1. Head out the front doors of the Bellagio heading out to the taxi area.

2. You will see lion statues where people are lining up to catch taxis.

3. The bus will pull in where the taxis pull in and be in this general area to pick folks up.

Please DO NOT go down the escalators to the Bellagio Tour Bus area. The Media Center Express CES Bus will not be picking up folks from this area.

 (DO NOT go here)

January 7^th :
12.15PM - Departure from Bellagio to Sands Hotel (for 1PM arrival).
3:00PM - Depart Sands Expo for LVCC. Drop off only.
5:00PM - Depart Bellagio to the Wynn Hotel (ShowStoppers event)
8.30PM - Depart Wynn Hotel to the Bellagio.

As time permits, go back to Wynn Hotel for pick ups, drive back (drop off) to Bellagio Hotel

January 8^th :
2:15PM - At Planet Hollywood - TabletPC event.
5:00PM - Depart to Atomic Testing Museum (drop off).
5:45PM - Pick up at Bellagio to drive to Atomic Testing Museum.
7:30PM -  Atomic Testing Museum to Bellagio Hotel. Several runs from Atomic Testing Museum back to Bellagio.

January 9^th :
10:30AM - Bellagio to the Las Vegas Convention Center.
12:00PM -  Las Vegas Convention Center to the  Bellagio.
3:00PM - Las Vegas Convention Center back to the Bellagio.
6:00PM - Bellagio to a location TBD, parked there until 8.30PM return to Bellagio

January 10^th :
9:00AM - Bellagio Pick-up
10:30AM - Bellagio Pick-up

After each pickup the bus will proceed to the Las Vegas Convention Center

January 11^th :
10:30A Load bus and return to Palo Alto

You can follow the CES BlogHaus via Twitter for any updates to the schedule that may occur (and we’ll post follow-ups too!)

And here are addresses to the locations mentioned above:

Atomic Testing Museum
755 E Flamingo Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89119

Bellagio Las Vegas
3600 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89109

The Wynn Las Vegas
3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

The Sands Expo and Convention Center
201 Sands Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89169

Las Vegas Convention Center
305 Convention Center Dr, Las Vegas, NV

More updates soon!