While Microsoft Vista is struggling to get the public’s perception, Bill Gates said that 140 million copies of Microsoft Vista have been sold. However, Bill Gates did not clarify whether those were licenses or retail copies. Microsoft first made such an announcement when they crossed the 100 million mark of Vista sold at the end of last year.

Popularity: 5% [?]

HP introduced the HP Mini-Note 2133, a full-function, mini-notebook designed for the education market.

The HP Mini-Note 2133 is available with a variety of 2.5″ form-factor storage options unlike the ASUS Eee PC. The HP Mini-Note 2133 $499 model will get you a 1.0GHz VIA C7-M processor, 512MB of RAM and a 4GB SSD running Novell Suse Linux. The $549 will get you a 1.2GHz VIA processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 5400 RPM 120GB Hard Disk Drive. For Windows Vista lovers, all you need is to add an an extra $50 for the Home Basic edition. All machines are equipped with two USB 2.0 ports, SDHC slot, an ExpressCard/54 slot, VGA port and GbE. HP also makes 7200 RPM 120GB and 160GB HDDs available as an option.
The HP Mini-Note 2133 has an 8.9″, 1280×768 screen resolution display. The 2133 Mini-Note weighs 2.63 lbs with its base configuration and a 3-cell battery.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Microsoft announced that they will update their Windows Mobile platform called Windows Mobile 6.1. The update will include e-mail, web access with the new “zoom capability” to view an entire page or a portion of a web page, instant messaging, traffic updates, photo capabilities, music and the ability to edit documents.

The update also features a new “Getting Started Center” that will help you simplify the configuration of e-mail, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices. The update also features Adobe Flash support, H.264, and Silverlight support allowing you to play YouTube videos using your mobile. Microsoft Live search engine has been added in the update.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Microsoft Response Point is an advanced phone system from Microsoft designed to be used in PABX systems targeting small businesses with less than 50 employees. Response Point is VoIP-based, and uses the SIP protocol, it also supports voicemail and multi-party calling, in addition to regular VoIP calls.

Microsoft announced the Response Point Service Pack 1 (SP1) which adds SIP trunking support for the Response Point phone system. The Response Point SP1 will be released this summer and can be downloaded for free.

“Small businesses rely heavily on the phone to communicate with customers and want a solution that allows them to reliably reach as many customers as possible at a low cost,” said Xuedong Huang, general manager for Response Point at Microsoft. “Response Point SP1 will make it easy to transition from traditional analog service to the promise of digital voice services.”

Response Point SP1 will enable small businesses to easily add VoIP services to their existing phone service without needing telephony expertise. Response Point SP1 also supports Direct Inward Dialing (DID) numbers. A small business can configure Response Point to route known inbound callers directly to a particular extension or pool of extensions to ensure that someone is available to receive calls from important customers.

Response Point hardware vendors Aastra Technologies Ltd., D-Link Corp. and Quanta Computer Inc. will ship Response Point phone systems pre-loaded with SP1 this summer.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Microsoft has officially released Windows Vista Service Pack 1, an update that addresses most of the feedback received by Microsoft about Windows Vista.

Vista SP1 contains changes focused on addressing specific reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. Windows Vista SP1 also addresses some management, deployment, and support challenges.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Microsoft and Sony are reported to be discussing a potential future marriage for Blu-ray and the XBOX 360.

If you will remember, Microsoft is competing with Sony’s PlayStation 3 and it has backed Toshiba’s HD-DVD format and offered an HD-DVD drive that can be plugged into their 360. Microsoft has even said no toXBOX 360 Blu Ray support.

Whether the result of this discussion is an integrated component for 360 console or just an external drive which can be bought off the shelf, it would make 360 users out there more happy if Blu Ray becomes available to XBOX 360.

Popularity: 3% [?]