Microsoft Sold 240 Million Windows 7 Licenses In 1 Year

Windows, Microsoft’s ubiquitous operating system, sits firmly in place.

One year after launch, licenses for the successor of Windows Vista, Windows 7, have gone over the counter no less than 240 million times.

As Microsoft points out, that makes it the fastest selling operating system in history, which is not super surprising when you consider how many were clamoring to upgrade from Vista, and XP for that matter.

Still, that’s nearly a quarter billion licenses, folks.

Microsoft says that, as of September 2010, Windows 7 was running on 93% of new consumer PCs, although we’re left guessing as to what constitutes a “new consumer PC” here.

In contrast, Windows 7 ‘only’ boasts 17% global OS market share (according to Net Applications), which means a lot of computers are still running XP and Vista.

On the bright side, growth seems to be accelerating. Last June, Microsoft announced that they had sold 150 million copies of Windows 7, so that translates to sales of about 90 million licenses in the past 5 months. A lot would have to go wrong for Microsoft not to hit 300 million copies sold by year’s end.

On a personal note, 99% of my online activities, work and play, are done on a Windows 7 PC.

It’s a genuine pleasure to use, period.

A Note From January Steve Jobs to October Steve Jobs


This is what you get when you mix Steve Jobs' iPad presentation with yesterday's MacBook Air presentation, barely ten months later. Of course, a PC netbook is not like an axe-blade-thin MacBook Air. And the MacBook Air isn't "cheap".

The same happened with video iPods and smartphones and tablets too. One day he trashes something... and the next day, that something is the best thing ever. That something being their thing.

Let's take a bet: Despite saying the contrary yesterday, Steve Jobs will show fully touch-enabled Air-ish notebooks powered by Mac OS X Lion in October 2011, including at 15-inch model. In fact, I'm sure Apple is working on a desktop touch solution too.

Hey, I predicted all this a few months ago, so my "touch-crystal ball" works. And with touch-crystal ball I really mean "whiskey touch-glass".

Christina Aguilera: Split Has Caused 'Tears and Sadness'

Christina Aguilera is relying on her mother, her son and her closest friends to help her through the emotional turmoil of her divorce from Jordan Bratman.

"It's not easy, and there have been a lot of tears and sadness. It's impossible to redefine yourself and your life overnight," the pop star, 29, tells Redbook in its November issue, on newsstands Nov. 16.

"Thankfully, I have my mom and a small group of close friends who are there for me 24/7 and whom I can trust and depend on. On days when it feels impossible to even get out of bed, much less function as a mother, their support and encouragement have kept me moving forward."

Also, her son Max, who will be 3 in January, remains a source of joy – and someone she can focus on. "Thankfully, I have Max to keep me on a sane path," Aguilera says. "His needs and happiness are my top priorities, and my biggest concern is to protect him and make him feel safe."

Asked about the details of her split, she adds: "Out of respect for my husband, I prefer to keep the specifics private. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out how to make it through each day."

Watch a Leaked Video of Android 3.0 Gingerbread In Action



Earlier this week, Phandroid served up some mouthwatering details about Android 3.0, AKA Gingerbread, along with one (very lousy) screenshot. Now they've got a (very lousy) video clip that supposedly shows Gingerbread's turn-the-screen-off animation, and it is pretty damn cool.

Yup, just like you're turning off one of those old tube TVs. But more exciting than that single animation is what it suggests about the level of visual polish we can expect from Android 3.0. Very tasty indeed. [Phandroid]

Nokia reports Q3 earnings, €10.3 billion in sales


This morning, mobile giant Nokia announced earnings results for their Q3 of 2010 to mixed reviews. While the company did beat analysts Q3 estimates — with €529 million in net income and 110.4 million devices sold — the Finnish company did note that it would cut more than 1,800 jobs in an attempt to “streamline operations.” Other notable facts from Nokia’s Q3 sheet: the handset maker sold just 3.2 million devices in North America, the average selling price of all 110.4 million handsets was €65, and 11.6 million devices were sold in Latin America (a 20% increase year-over-year).

In a separate statement, the company also announced that it would no longer “refer to Symbian^3 or Symbian^4,” rather all “future improvements in Symbian will be developed in Qt and will be compatible with the existing Symbian^3 platform release.” The new, ubiquitous Symbian model will focus on Qt as the development framework and include support for HTML5. The company wrote, “The decision to focus on Qt as the sole application development framework will ensure that applications will continue to be compatible with future evolutions of Symbian as well as upcoming MeeGo products.” Hit the jump for links to both press releases.

Jackie Evancho Holiday Album “O Holy Night” Available Nov. 16


Move over, SuBo: Jackie Evancho, the 10-year-old prodigy who wowed audiences on America’s Got Talent last Augut with her powerhouse operatic vocals, will release her first EP album through a newly-minted deal with Columbia Records on Nov. 16. The holiday-themed O Holy Night will feature four audio songs from the young soprano as well as a DVD that will include an interview with Jackie and her video performances of several classical crossover songs.

Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.2 update gone till November


So sad. It looks like those Galaxy S owners who are still, very patiently we might add, waiting to get Android 2.2 on their handsets will just have to wait a little longer. According to a tweet by Samsung Mobile UK, the company’s Froyo update will “be available in the UK from early November” and to all other operators “by the end of November.” While this is just the UK, it can’t be a good sign for those U.S. Galaxy S handset owners with carrier branded handsets who were expecting Android Deuce-Deuce in the near future.

Sex.com Sold for $13 Million

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Winamp comes to Android, one of our childhood dreams is realized


Here's a blast from the past: Winamp, that mainstay media player of college dorms and LAN parties since time immemorial (er, 1997 or so) has made the leap from PC to handset with the release of Winamp for Android. This bad boy is available for Android 2.1 and up, and features a playback widget for the Android desktop and Last.fm integration. But that ain't all! If you install Winamp 5.59 beta on your PC, you can sync and manage your libraries via USB or WiFI. Pretty sweet! We only have one questions, really: will it still whip the llama's ass? Check out the QR code after the break (or search the Android Market) for the mobile app. Winamp 5.59 beta is available in the Winamp forums (More Coverage link, below).

'Paranormal Activity 2': On the scene at the first ever U.S. screening

It was about 15 months that my colleague Missy Schwartz and I were invited, along with a handful of other writers, to see a screening of a new horror film, about which we knew absolutely nothing. After the first 20 minutes of footage I was half-convinced that the folks at Paramount, the company which was allegedly distributing the movie, had asked us along to watch the amazingly amateurish first attempts at filmmaking by the overly indulged offspring of a studio exec. By the time it was finished, I was entirely convinced that this obviously cheap, but utterly terrifying tale of a haunted suburban house could become an enormous hit.

The rest is scare-story. Paranormal Activity was first a sleeper success and then a bona fide box office phenomenon. A sequel was inevitable. And late yesterday evening Missy and myself reconvened to see the first ever U.S. screening of Paranormal Activity 2, at the AMC multiplex on Manhattan’s 34th street, one of a handful of venues around the country where the movie was shown for free to diehard fans 24 hours ahead of its official opening. The screening was introduced by the film’s director Tod Williams (The Door in the Floor) who, when chatting to EW beforehand, seemed bullish about the chances that his film would scare the hell out of the gathered, rowdy throng. “Normally in life you don’t want to promise big,” he said. “But I think in this case it’s okay.”

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