PDC Windows Vista is better than its reputation, but its reputation is pretty bad. During the press briefing for Windows 7 at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC), corporate vice president for Windows product management Mike Nash insisted Microsoft had learned from the Vista experience.

Judging by early Windows 7 code released at PDC, the signs are that it really has.

Microsoft is making all the right noises: everything that works on Vista will also work on Windows 7, it will be faster on the same hardware, it will run longer on the same batteries, it will be more reliable.

In other words, whereas Vista was two steps forward and one step back from Windows XP, there should be no downside to Windows 7 over Windows Vista.

A day spent with a Windows 7 preview build - Milestone 3, running on a laptop loaned for the purpose (Dell XPS M1330, Core 2 Duo 2.3Ghz, with 3GB RAM) tends to confirm that view. Windows 7 feels more polished than Vista, even in the preview, and performance is good.

Sony said the recall came after 40 instances of overheating, including four cases where users had minor burns.

The recall affects around 74,000 HP laptops, 14,400 from Toshiba, and small numbers from Dell, Acer and Lenovo.

Sony said the affected batteries were caused by a production line problem between October 2004 and June 2005.

Numoto did not specify a release date for Office 14. Bloggers at some tech sites, however, have said the suite is likely due out in 2009. Office 2007 debuted in January 2007.

Numoto said that the Web-based versions of Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote would allow users to collaborate with others and across multiple devices more efficiently. "This is a great example of Office enabling dynamic collaboration across the PC, phone, and the Web," said Numoto.

The next version of Windows Embedded, a pared down cousin of Windows that's designed to run microcomputers inside everything from cable set-top boxes to automobile electronics and kitchen appliances, will be based on the forthcoming Windows 7 architecture, according to Microsoft.

Windows Embedded "Quebec", as the next version is called, will be based on Windows 7 and will work with Microsoft's latest technologies, including Silverlight 2 and Windows Presentation Foundation. It will also be compatible with Visual Studio 2010.

Dell's new netbook, the Inspiron Mini 9, will be sold with built-in mobile broadband by Vodafone, the companies announced on Thursday.

Dell's entry in the growing netbook space weighs in at just over 1 kilogram, and has an 8.9-inch LED display. Like some of its competitors it has an SSD (solid state disk) for storage, holding up to 16G bytes.

The mobile broadband connection in the Vodafone version supports HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access).

Vodafone will start selling the Mini 9 later this month, but has not yet said in which countries it will offer the netbook. For now its "in key European markets", the operator said.

As you probably heard, on Monday -- that is, on a national holiday, when business announcements are almost never made -- Google rolled out Chrome, its new Web browser.

Why the odd timing? Hard to say. Google surely knows that just about anything it does these days is going to cause a news frenzy -- and especially when it's announcing its first thrust into a huge new market.

So, perhaps it hoped to temper this coverage to a degree, and drag it out for several days. Or perhaps Google was unsure about the product itself, and didn't want to overhype it -- and then face a potential backlash. Or, maybe Google just didn't think Chrome was that important, saw a window between the two political conventions and rushed it out.

Well, now that Chrome is out and being field-tested by reviewers, I think we can rule out the second and the third scenarios. That leaves the first. But why would a company that knows it has a solid and newsworthy product on its hands intentionally dampen media coverage of it?

Apple Inc said on Monday it has sold 1 million new iPhones in its initial weekend, on par with estimates set by analysts, sending its stock rising more than 2 percent.

The original iPhone, introduced in late June 2007 in the United States only, sold about 270,000 units in its first two days. Sales topped 1 million by early September. The new device sells in 21 countries.

The service will launch in the fall and feature more than 10,000 movies and TV shows available for immediate viewing, Netflix and Microsoft said in a joint statement Monday.

"Watching movies at home will never be the same," said John Schappert, Microsoft's VP for interactive entertainment, in a statement.

Launch of the service could hurt sales of Sony (NYSE: SNE)'s PlayStation 3 console, which features a built-in DVD player that can play discs encoded in Sony's high definition Blu-ray format. Netflix and Microsoft did not specify whether their service would include HD content, but Microsoft already makes numerous HD titles available through Xbox Live.

Increasingly, Microsoft is positioning the Xbox not just as a games console, but as a platform for launching music and video content.

Nintendo opened its E3 press conference with video and pictures of young and old gamers alike playing either a Wii or a DS and smiling broadly. That was the main image Nintendo wanted us to walk away with: smiling faces, happy customers. Nintendo's strategy for keeping the customers smiling was clear: attract the casual gamer, even if it means alienating the hardcore audience. This strategy will help keep its stock prices up, but may not endear Nintendo to dedicated gamers.

Reader The other A.N. Other, among others, alerts us to the news that Apple has filed suit against Psystar, the unauthorized clonemaker. (We've been discussing Psystar from the start.) The suit alleges violation of Apple's shrink wrap license and trademarks, and also copyright infringement. News of the lawsuit, filed on July 3, first surfaced on a legal blog. There's speculation that the case has been sealed.