News

Today we welcome Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7 to the world. I have been using the beta and release candidate since January so if you need any help please ask. The RRP prices for Australia are:

The upgrade option allows installs from Windows XP or Vista at a cheaper cost. You can even do an in-place upgrade where it keeps your files and settings and just changes the operating system however this isn't recommended. It is always best to reformat. We've got some bad news for students: the student edition will only be available to TAFE and uniervsity students. There will be a family pack however which allows for 3 installations.

I have been chosen to host a party to celebrate the release of Microsoft's newest operating system Windows 7. It was designed by Microsoft to spread the word about Windows 7. I will be receiving a party pack in the mail shortly with a free signed Ultimate edition of Windows 7. The idea of the party is to install Windows 7 and show it to people. They have even provided a lame video on what to do at the party! (so lame that they disabled comments), this video is much more entertaining. It will be held on the 22nd of October, the same date that it is to be released. It was designed to be a house party but it seems to be getting a lot bigger and I am now looking for sponsorship for a venue. I am organising the event on Facebook here. More details can be found here. My tweet about this was luckily picked up by an author from the Sydney Morning Herald. I was interviewed with a photo and it is now on The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today websites here. Joe Wilcox's article on Betanews also mentions puppet.

More than 40 different radio stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide put rivalries aside and broadcast simultaneously to a combined potential audience of more than 8.5 million people on Thursday morning in a massive outside broadcast to promote digital radio.

The event billed as “Radio United” saw the highly competitive commercial sector broadcasting side by side with their commercial counterparts and public service broadcasters from 5.30 am to 9.00 am in the central city locations; Sydney - Martin Place, Melbourne - Federation Square, Brisbane - Reddacliff Place, Adelaide – Victoria Square and Perth – Forrest Place.

I got up at 3:40am to get there at 5:30am. All the regular breakfast radio personailities were there as well as some others. I got a photo with Shelley Craft and Jody McLeod and saw Hughesy & Mich (temporarily replacing Kate), Matt & Jo, John Burgess and Dicko. Nova wanted a photo of us and put it on their website. I attempted to DJ with Jody McLeod. I love the DJ and radio world too much to throw it away to be a pilot. What should I do?

UPDATE: I won 2 digital radios! Which is a bit weird as I only entered once and the terms & conditions said you could only win once. I won the PURE Chronos iDock (RRP AU$449) and the Revo iBlik RadioStation (RRP AU$449) which I gave to my friend who got up early with me to come.

After a 4 month delay, digital radio has finally started broadcasting in Australia. To get digital radio you will need a new digital radio. Benefits include clearer sound and improved reception, extra channels, pause and rewind, slideshows, scrolling text, program guides and tuning by station name, not frequency. For more information go to digitalradioplus.com.au.

For those of you who don't know, Windows 7 is the name of Microsoft's successor to Windows Vista. The testing version has been released to the public and we've moved over to it. Everything seems to be going fine (except for a boot up blue screen of death which was quickly fixed). We are dual booting with Windows Vista. The beta expires August 1st and can be downloaded from Microsoft at microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 during January. If you want a copy on DVD and you live near me, ask me to borrow the disc.