Microsoft week-in review, May 30 to June 6

For the longest time we've had requests for a week-in review of the hottest news rolling out of the various sectors we report on here at Neowin. Today we're glad to announce that starting this week we will be rolling out a Microsoft week-in review for all of you folks that are just too busy to keep up with the news throughout the week.

While this week has been a huge week for Microsoft due to the E3 conference that was held a few days ago, there have been quite a few announcements made regarding Windows 7. Microsoft finally announced Windows 7 Starter edition details, and you won't be limited to running three applications at a time. However, there are other limitations such as not being able to watch recorded TV via Windows Media Center. Another big piece of news announced this week is the general availability of Windows 7 will be October 22. Now all we need to know is how Microsoft plans to price point Windows 7, anyone?

Just in-case you missed it, Microsoft also launched its new search decision engine dubbed Bing (Which we've referred to it as "Kumo" over the last few months). Whether you like it or not, Bing has its good and bad points. One of the best features that Bing has that other search engines don't is a live preview of video results. Of course there was one problem with that, was easy for kids to access free porn. The Bing team has already implemented a fix that will warn that "The search [porn] may return explicit adult content. To view these videos, turn off safe search."

Now for the good stuff, Microsoft's E3 announcements which we blogged live. Because of the many announcements coming out of Microsoft and the Xbox division as a whole, we've compiled a list of the biggest announcements below:

Rock Band: The Beatles
Modern Warfare 2
Final Fantasy XIII
Shadow Complex
Left 4 Dead 2
Crackdown 2
Joy Ride
Forza Motorsport 3
Splinter Cell Conviction
Halo 3 ODST
Alan Wake
Metal Gear Rising
Facebook, Last.fm, and Twitter coming to the Xbox
Instant Play, Netflix, and Sky TV coming to the Xbox
Project Natal
Tony Hawk Ride
Halo: Reach

Of course with all of these announcements you're probably wondering what details have been released about the games, devices, and updates mentioned above. We have published a complete list of major announcements and commentary from our Neowin Gaming Staff.

There have been other minor announcements and news-to-know from Microsoft this week: