This week saw Neowin updating its design layout to Public Preview 5. Almost everyone appears to have welcomed the changes, we know theres a way to go yet before all the features are completed. Look out for another release soon.
Jumping right to the end of the week, yesterday also saw the re-launch of our very own podcast rebranded NeowinCast due to a dispute over an existing podcast that was already being used for the NeoCast branding. The panel (lardiop, LOC, bangbang023, and shanepitman) cover a few recent news items including: Vista BETA 2 biggest download event in history, Microsoft cuts PC to PC synching from Vista, WGA phones home and much more.
In news we reported that not only the voice of Microsoft, Robert Scoble was quitting but also Bill Gates is taking a back seat, we covered this with 2 reports, one of which includes a cast from Mr G himself.
In hardware news we reported on Apples iPod slave factories, Intels new Xeon core codenamed Woodcrest and AMD's announcement on major price drop on it's current CPU line after the July 23rd release of Intel's Core 2 Duo Conroe processors. In software news we covered Windows getting it's largest security update in over a year, thats 12 patches for Patch Tuesday. Windows Vista Beta 2 became available on an official torrent and was cited as the largest download in history. Although some would say that it was the largest download in Microsofts' history. The RIAA did not escape this weeks news either, claiming that music piracy is contained but then also banned people from dancing to music videos on YouTube.
On a lighter note, we took a look at Windows Vista Ultimate pricing, after a poll here at Neowin many members found the proposed $450 for Ultimate way too high; I concur. This week we started covering the World Cup, showing readers how you can get your World Cup fix. Microsoft released software that tracks all the scores right to your desktop, and the admin added the England flag in the top left corner of Neowin to offer support to the English team in Germany. Last but not least, Tim Brookes did a fantastic article covering a mod for Counter Strike that will no longer be free after Valve has showed official support for the mod.
These are just some of the stories we've covered, you can see a full listing of the previous week by clicking here. I hope you enjoyed this overview and I also want to relay thanks to all the Neowin members that took time to submit news to Neowin this week, the quality and dedication is outstanding we appreciate it a lot.
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