But does it come in pink?

I was perusing my RSS feeds while at work (its up on the side of my screen) and came across an article from Gizmodo.com called "Win 7 Beta Tip: Gadgets Are Integrated Directly onto the Desktop, But Are Slightly Buggy". I was curious, since I've been using Windows 7 for several days now (and so far LOVE it) and have also been following gizmodo's reports as they've been putting it through its paces. I clicked on it and quickly read through the article, realizing that the tip wasn't really news to me, but the critique was helpful (I'm still a stubborn XP user and have had all of maybe an hour hands on time with Vista).

Something to note, (you'll see the pun in a second), is Gizmodo tends to be very pro-Apple, as it rightfully should be considering their target demographic (techies and graphic designers). So it interested me when I came across the part of the article that said

[The] Notes gadget is not installed by default—I was surprised to find it missing, but instead I found a program called Sticky Notes that is apparently intended to replace it. Accessible from the Start Menu under Accessories, the Sticky Notes will actually resize to its contents unlike the Vista gadget. It’s an overall improvement, but the notes lack the ability to customize your font and the ability to change the opacity. But it does bring Windows 7 up to OS X's Stickies in desktop-level sticky note functionality. (emphasis added by me)

It was pretty funny to see that particular sentence regarding Windows 7. Here is a new product that is basically a "do or die" situation for the Windows operating system (another Vista would likely kill them), and here a respectable tech blog (Gizmodo, not this one, obviously) is debating how well it emulates "technology" from 1977.

Microsoft must be doing something right if one of the major factors in buying Mac or Windows in the future boils down to "Sticky preference"

BTW: Regarding the post title: yes, you can change the sticky note color to blue, green, pink, purple, white, or yellow.

Vista now OFFICIALLY the red-headed stepchild everyone knew it was

Steve Ballmer (whom is the CEO of Microsoft, not Bill Gates <--Retired) made some pretty exciting announcements at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES). One of the announcements was the public availabilty of the new Microsoft OS simply known as Windows 7. The beta will be publicly available tomorrow (Friday Jan 9) to the first 2.5 Million people who download it. The new operating system is promised to be more reliable and user friendly than Microsoft's current operating system, Vista. One thing to note about the beta is, you can only upgrade from Vista SP1 (i.e., you can't go from XP to 7). Currently Microsoft is working on cheap upgrade programs to make the transition a little less bitter for people who may have recently forked out cash for Vista.

This basically ends the "Vista era" and now we can all move on (unless you're Apple's marketing director).

For some more information on the new OS, some of its new features, or its intened mid-2009 release date check out some of these links:

• Microsoft's CES 2009 Press Release
• Windows' Team Blog
• Gizmodo's "Microsoft's guided tour of the windows 7 taskbar"