Microsoft made it clear that the beta will be available for a “limited time,” and said it will cap the beta after the first 2.5 million downloads.

IT professionals and developers who subscribe to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) or TechNet services, however, get a jump on the public at large; they can grab the beta right away.

The beta, which Microsoft called “feature complete,” requires a PC with a 1GHz processor, 1GB of memory, 16GB of available hard disk space and support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory, according to Microsoft, which also warned that the recommendations could change for the final version. The beta only supports an upgrade from Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Microsoft declined to get specific about upgrade paths for the final version of Windows 7, or to spell out how many editions it would produce and what it would charge for each. The beta is “roughly equivalent” to the Ultimate version of Vista , it added.

Both 32- and 64-bit versions of the beta will be available for downloading, but only English, German, Japanese, Arabic and Hindi editions will be posted Friday. Other language versions are expected at the product’s launch.

To install the beta, users must have a DVD drive able to burn disk images to a blank disc. The beta, said Microsoft in a follow-up blog it published Wednesday, will be available as an .iso file. It did not spell out the size of the download.

The beta expires on Aug. 1, 2009.

The Windows 7 download will be posted to Microsoft’s site on Friday, Jan. 9.

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The inauguration synth makes for an interesting view. The multiple vantage points do give the viewer a better sense of what the event must have been like live. Navigational arrows appear on screen, making it easy to move between photos, which Photosynth melds together, albeit not always seamlessly. You can rotate images as well. The effect is jarring at times, particularly if you’re prone to motion sickness, but the overall effect is pretty cool.

The real-time aspect of the inauguration synth is a lot of fun. A couple hours after the swearing-in, for instance, the 3D portrait had just a handful of long-range shots of the event. Within minutes, however, more photos were added, including several close-ups of Obama taking the oath of office. The CNN-Microsoft is an intriguing experiment in citizen journalism that may have a bright future.

Yesterday, Windows Update, Microsoft’s primary update service, began delivering the first patch to Windows 7 since the company struggled to launch the public beta last Friday. The update fixes a flaw that shaves several seconds of audio from any MP3 file that’s edited, including files modified automatically as users connect to the Internet.

“Without action on your part, all MP3 files that have large headers in your Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center libraries are likely to lose some audio,” Microsoft said in the support document it published Saturday, several days after it first posted the fix to its MSND and TechNet subscription services.

Before today, users who wanted to apply the fix had to find it, download it manually and install it themselves.

Microsoft also recommended that users back up all MP3 files before doing an upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows Vista, and that they set all of them to “read-only” status by right-clicking each file in Windows Explorer and then clicking the General tab and selecting the “Read-only” box. Failing that, users should disable metadata automatic updates in Windows Media Player, Microsoft said.

“Due to very heavy traffic we’re seeing as a result of interest in the Windows 7 Beta, we are adding some additional infrastructure support to the Microsoft.com properties before we post the public beta,”.

The alpha version of Chrome 2.0 shows that Google continues to play catch-up with its elder siblings, Internet Explorer and Firefox. Updates to the Chrome browser include the addition of form autocomplete (one of the features most obviously missing from the initial release), full-page zoom, spell checking improvements, and auto-scrolling–among other features.

One of the most interesting new features in the pre-beta 2.0 of Chrome is called Profiles. This lets users separate Chrome’s settings, including bookmarks, history and cookies, in different categories for different types of use. For example, you can have personal and work profiles, both with different home pages, bookmarks and history, together with separate desktop shortcuts.

The 2.0 Chrome pre-beta also uses a new version of the WebKit rendering engine, basically the same as the one in Apple’s Safari 3.1, which enables some CSS coding features such as gradients, canvas drawing, reflections, and masks. Also, Google implemented experimental support for Greasemonkey scripts.

For those with security in mind, along the SafeBrowsing implementation, Chrome 2.0 introduces a new HTTPS-only browsing mode that will only load HTTPS sites. The downside of this feature is that sites with SSL certificate errors will not load.

Other new features include:

- Importing bookmarks from Google Bookmarks;

- Docking dragged tabs (drag a tab to certain positions on the monitor and a docking icon will appear);

- Update of the V8 Javascript engine (to version 0.4.6.0 from 0.3.9.3);

- New network code (Google Chrome now has its own implementation of the HTTP network protocol);

- New window frames on Windows XP and Vista (supporting windows cascading and tiling).

new version of Chrome, you’ll need an earlier version of the browser installed on your computer. You’ll also need to subscribe to the Developer Preview Channel (it’s free); the new version will then download automatically.

In an attempt to gain an advantage in the gaming PC market, Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday launched what it called its “highest-performing CPUs” to date.

Two new quad-core Phenom II processors, aimed at high-end desktop PCs, were announced by AMD at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The chips succeed the Phenom processor the company launched in 2007, and come two days after AMD announced the new Athlon Neo processor for small laptops.

The quad-core Phenom II chips run at speeds up to 3GHz and include 8MB of cache. The chips are capable of even faster clock speeds under certain circumstances. For example, AMD overclocked Phenom II processors to run at up to 4GHz on air-cooled systems, and up to 5GHz on liquid-nitrogen cooling late last year.

Dell is already offering the XPS 625 desktop based on the Phenom II, though pricing information was not immediately available. PC makers HP and Alienware will also offer Phenom II-based desktops later in the year, according to AMD.

AMD’s Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition processor, which runs at 3.0GHz, is priced at US$275, while the Phenom II X4 920 processor, which runs at 2.8GHz, is sold for $235.

The Phenom II CPUs are manufactured using a 45-nanometer process, which makes the chips more power efficient than earlier chips.

The new chips are part of AMD’s new Dragon platform for desktops, which includes graphics chips, chipsets and CPUs for gaming and media-intensive desktops. The platform includes the ATI Radeon 4800 series graphics cards in addition to the Phenom II.

An interesting feature of the platform is a set of customized controls to boost performance of gaming PCs. Called OverDrive, these controls allow users to ratchet up performance by overclocking the CPUs, which can then be easily returned to a normal speed at the touch of a button.

The platform also includes the ATI Video Converter software, which can convert videos to play on portable entertainment devices, according to AMD.

The platform will initially support DDR2 memory, but faster DDR3 memory support may come in a few months. Compared to DDR2 memory, DDR3 provides a larger bandwidth for quicker data transfers between the CPU and memory in PCs. To support DDR3 memory, AMD will introduce the new AM3 socket for motherboards in the next few months.

High-end chips for gaming systems are also offered by Intel, which launched its Core i7 processor in November.

With a starting price of US$1,799, Acer’s laptop could be a bargain compared to expensive quad-core laptops from the world’s top PC vendors. Hewlett-Packard and Dell both offer quad-core laptops as either gaming laptops or mobile workstations with prices starting at over $2,000. Acer is the world’s third-largest PC vendor behind HP and Dell, according to analyst firm IDC.

The laptop includes an 18.4-inch screen that can display high-definition images and video. It also includes 4GB of RAM, Nvidia’s GeForce 9700M GT graphics card with 512MB of video memory, a 500GB hard drive, a Blu-ray Disc drive and Wi-Fi wireless networking. It comes preloaded with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Premium OS.

The laptop is now available in the U.S. through retailers, the company said. Acer could not be immediately reached for comment on worldwide availability.

A recent dig through Dell’s trademarks turned up a couple of curiosities – “Adamo” and “Adamo by Dell.”According to the documents, the trademarks cover computer hardware, including possibly desktops and laptops.

The whole “Adamo by Dell” bit sounds rather fancy for a company that lumps all of its computers under just a handful of brands. But, apparently, this computer isn’t your regular Dell computer. It has its own Web site after all, which says the product is coming soon.

Throw Adamo and Dell into a search engine, and you get nothing. Well, make that almost nothing.

A luxury goods publication appears to have some early marketing collateral from Dell for Adamo. “Rumor has it that Dell is coming out with a computer called Adamo that will rival the MacBook Air.

Seadragon Mobile is free to download from Apple’s iTunes App Store and gives users the ability to access online photo libraries either using the phone’s 3G or Wi-Fi connection.

These include images available of Microsoft’s Photosynth site, which allows users to stitch together hundred of digital photographs to create a 3D image that can then be looked at from all angles, or even viewed in close-up detail.

The apps also offers an RSS feed so users can be notified when new content is made available.