Couldn’t get to CES this year? No problem. Here’s a quick tour of Microsoft’s booth.

So what are some of the cool things at CES that you wouldn’t normally hear about or see unless you were here.  Well, that’s what this blog is for.

Kristen and I visited the Blackberry booth. They came up with a new Curve but it’s only on AT&T and no 3G. No Verizon yet.

LG has a watch phone that is extremely cool. I’m not sure how cool it would be to wear a phone on your hand all the time but still.  Unfortunately, it’s Europe and Asia only. 

Duracell had a bunch of very cool new technologies that are coming out later this year. They gave me a quick demo of some of them including this small solar powered recharger that supports hooking in lots of different devices.

This little USB rechargeable battery goes into the cigarette lighter of cars. It was very slick.

If I had a pool, I would want this. A floating massage chair. Mmm…

This was one of the coolest things at the show and it won’t even be out until 2010. Hitachi has a new technology that can take a SD image and makes it like an HD image.  Now, this isn’t upscaling. It has heavy duty processing in it that intelligently improves the details in the image. It was really impressive.

I also saw, but couldn’t take pictures, of a Samsung TV that could show 3D without the need for glasses. It was pretty cool but gave me a headache.

And now for the video journal of the day:

Welcome to the New Year, and the first edition of This Week in Skinning for 2009!  I wanted to change the format up a bit, and I haven’t decided on a final version yet, so the look of this feature might change over the next couple of weeks.  Let me know what you think.

Now for this weeks picks!

BootSkins / Logons

ObjectDock and CursorFX

Dreams (Animated Wallpapers)

Wallpapers

WindowBlinds

See you next week!

WOW! There is so much cool stuff here I don’t even know where to begin.

CARS are CARS…

Microsoft was demonstrating its new Sync technology that integrates with MSN Direct (www.msndirect.com). The voice navigation on it is really phenomenal and Microsoft is starting to open up pieces of this technology to third parties.

A BMW representative gets a demo from Microsoft. Maybe BMW will replace their sucky iDrive thing with this.

People who are into modding their cars would have been in nirvana. We saw some seriously cool stuff where you could turn your car into the ultimate sound beast.

Alexandra and Kristen give the modded car a spin.

KIT up close. So cool. I’m not sure what the point of this exhibit was but it got me to go up there.

The folks over at Neowin have put together a quick review of the latest Windows 7 beta.  They give a quick rundown of the installation, UI, desktop, start bar, and more.  They also have plenty of great screenshots.

Link - Windows 7 Beta: Quick Review

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, kicked off CES 2009 last night with his keynote speech in which he announced the Windows 7 beta will be available for public download, this Friday. This will be a download-only version, and will expire in August. They haven't announced yet at what time it will be available, but it will only be for a limited time to the first 2.5 million downloaded.

The Windows 7 Beta will be available in English, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Hindi, and each language will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions (except Hindi which will only be available in 32-bit). Because the Windows 7 Beta will be offered download-only, it will be provided to you as an ISO image (an .iso file) that you download. After downloading either the 32-bit or 64-bit ISO image of the Windows 7 Beta, you will be required to burn the ISO image to a DVD to install Windows 7.

So you want to be sure you have a DVD burner before spending the time downloading the ISO image. To burn the ISO image of the Windows 7 Beta to DVD, if your PC comes with Nero or Roxio products – you should be able to burn the ISO image to DVD. If you don’t already have DVD burning software on your PC, you can also check out ImgBurn which is free and can be downloaded here.

The Windows 7 Beta only supports Windows Vista SP1 to Windows 7 upgrades. So if you intend to do an upgrade – be sure it is on a PC running Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. We are not yet announcing anything regarding finalized upgrade paths for Windows 7.

Get more information on the Windows 7 beta at the Windows 7 Team Blog.

Link: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/01/07/information-on-downloading-and-installing-windows-7-beta.aspx

Social Networks are popular as ever, and I’m proud to say we have made good use of the technology to keep our users, friends, fan, and everybody else updated with what’s going on with our games, applications, and services.  I have made posts in the past on some of our specific networks, but today I wanted to create a directory where you can help us by joining our networks.

Twitter:

@islanddog – My Twitter account where you can keep updated on just about everything going on with Stardock, and tech in general.

@mittense – One of Stardock’s game developers, definitely a good follow here.

@stardock – This is our official Stardock Twitter account.  Keep updated with the latest Stardock news.

@impulsedriven – This is our official Impulse account.  Just as above, keep up with the latest Impulse releases and related news.

@wincustomize – This is our account for WinCustomize.  Aside from news, we often post featured skins and articles.

Friendfeed:

PC Gamers room – This is a Friendfeed room that has news, articles, and anything else related to PC gaming.

Facebook:

Desktop Customization group – We have a group with hundreds of members who are interested in customizing the desktop.  Anybody can join.

Sins of a Solar Empire fan page – We have a fan page on Facebook for Sins that is approaching a thousand members!  It’s another great place to associate with other Sins fans.

Elemental: War of Magic fan page – Same as the Sins page, we have this setup for fans of the upcoming game, Elemental.

Stardock fan page – Come join our fan group for Stardock!

WinCustomize fan page – Support WinCustomize at our fan page on Facebook.

Demigod fan page – Stay up to date with other fans of Demigod.

The Consumer Electronics show has become THE show to attend for techies of the industry.

This year’s show is expected to be particularly interesting. Here are some of the things I’m going to look for:

1. The High-Def wars, phase 2.  Blu-ray has beaten HD-DVD but is that the end of the story? Is streaming the future of high-def media consumption?
2. Windows 7 is coming out. What sorts of cool new tech is Microsoft and its partners have in store for us?
3. What sorts of cool new portable devices are scheduled to come out?
4. Are cars going to get anything better from a tech point of view? BMW’s iDrive is terrible.  Microsoft’s collaboration with Ford has been pretty cool, what’s the next step?
5. What sorts of green tech are coming out this year? I’m sure I’m not the only techie interested in seeing if there are cheap and easy ways to reduce energy consumption.
6. What’s the next phase of life for PCs. Are Netbooks and smart phones the future with PCs being used for increasingly niche applications or are the PC makers going to roar back with new sources of relevance?
7. Where is printer technology going? Are we still stuck with crappy injkets or are there better solutions on the horizon?
8. How is mobile tech coming along? How close are we to Internet everywhere?

Stay tuned!

The flight is about to leave.

2008 is gone, and as we look forward to another great year in skinning for 2009, I wanted to take a look back at some of the skins that were either the most popular, most talked about, or just plain cool.  We saw some skinners quietly fade away, and we also saw some long-time skinners make new appearances along with new skins.  We also have quite a few new Master Skinners on WinCustomize, and we have more promotions coming soon.

So lets take a look back at some of the skins from 2008.

WindowBlinds

Starting off the year, one of the first WindowBlinds skins was a Master skin from SKoriginals called Powder.  This is a light colored skin with plenty of detail to go around, and certainly deserving of the title of Master skin.

Around the same time Stardock Design released its first skin of the year titled ‘Elegance’.  This is another light colored skin properly named because of it’s smooth and slick design.

One of the most popular skins on WinCustomize was StealthOS by MikeB314.  Early in the year MikeB graciously updated the skin to work with Vista and take advantage of the latest features in WindowBlinds 6 and SkinStudio 6.

A skin that generated quite a bit of buzz outside of WinCustomize was iLCD by OFFICA WoD.  This skin offers a unique design that mixes design elements from Vista and OS X.  Most of all, it was a clean and usable skin.

The next notable skin was Dragon by Stardock Design.  What makes this skin stand out is the start menu which has an incredible animation. 

If I had to award a prize to a skin with the most creative and unique design, hands-down the winner would be No Load Limit by I.R. Brainiac.  Just look at the screenshot and you will see what I mean.

Another skinner who pushes the boundaries of creativity is kittymalone, and one skin that comes to mind is Temple Oblivion.  This is a skin with a much darker tone than others, and kitty is one of the only skinners who can pull this off with a WindowBlinds skin.

Another skin that took WinCustomize by storm was Vienna 3 – Rapture by vStyler.  Every part of this skin was well though out and implemented perfectly. 

A skinner who made a return this year was APB, and she brought us a beautiful WindowBlinds skin by the name of Sirach.  This is a more minimal looking skin, which was also great for re-coloring.

Although Vista has been out for a while now, Aero-inspired skins are still very popular, and skins like Clear Black by Butch123 give users the ability to keep the Aero feel with some added changes.

The next skin that was very popular during 2008 was Thundera by Z71.  It has a very bright color, but its designed in a way where it’s still usable on a day to day basis.

One of my personal favorite skins of 2008 was gaiety by mkorashy.  This is a fantastic skin, and was only the second one he ever created.  I definitely hope to see more this year from him.

People have always asked about a 3D looking skin, and theAVMAN seemed to pull it off with 3D Metal.  It’s an awesome looking skin, and the time put into this is incredible.

Another new skinner who has been submitted some great works is jester382.  One of my favorite WB skins from him is neovision which makes great use of darker colors and minimal design.

One of the last WindowBlinds of the year, and one of the most popular in the 2008 GUI Champs, was Plastic Fantastic by vStyler.  This is a skin that is easy on the eyes, but yet has great color, and a minimal design, but still has plenty of details.

Well that is a wrap for 2008 WindowBlinds skins, and remember these are just a few of the hundreds of WindowBlinds skins that came in throughout the year.  Take a browse through the gallery to see all the other great skins.

It’s that time to start doing our own “best of 2008” lists, and today I wanted to start out with some skins that our team of moderators picked.  Picking one skin from the enter year is difficult, especially considering the amount of skins that come through moderation, but I was curious if there was a skin that just seemed to stick out in their minds.

So with that I present the WinCustomize moderator picks of 2008.

WOM chose Chiluly Glass Bridge Ceiling by OutdoorPictures

“Makes you feel like your walking down the hallway.  Really looks great on my 23in WS.”

---

Lantec picked Aero Executive by Stardock Design

“Skin of the year was an easy pick for me......it's the one I used the most and still hesitate over when "redecorating".”

---

Snowman went with Zing by JJ Ying

“What defines a skin as 'skin of the year'? For me it's a skin you can/will keep on returning to when every other skin just doesn't cut it. Zing by JJ Ying does in my opinion by far qualify as the top contender in this category!”

---

HG_Eliminator picked No Load Limit XP by I.R. Brainiac

“While the choosing just one skin was very difficult, No Load Limit By I.R. Brainiac, Stood out as epic. It really shines on a few levels. It looks absolutely fantastic and it really showcases WB's ability to go beyond functional minimalist desktops and in to the realm of wild and fun, while still maintaining functionality. With this WB there is no Limit to the Fun.”

---

Erk chose Wraith by SKoriginals

“I keep returning to this skin after trying on others for a while.
But then I'm a huge fan of dark skins, and this one IS one of Shawn's best yet.”