IE8 Beta 2 is available today for public download from http://www.microsoft.com/ie8 (for 32- and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. In addition to English, IE8 Beta 2 is available in Japanese, Chinese...

The Windows Mobile Team are holding an Embedded Developer PreDay to TechEd. Visit the TechEd site for more info on this and the SQL Server; SMB Day and Virtualisation.

I saw this ad today driving home which made me smile from Dell promoting the Studio Hybrid Desktop , which start from $1000 with Windows Vista Premium, which sounds ideal for a media centre PC. Anybody have one? Unboxing video here and plenty of reviews...

The presentations from the Australia Partner Conference are now available for download from https://partner.microsoft.com/Australia/40043021 . The photos are also available here .

My old boss, Steve Clayton (aka Geek in Disguise) has been voted top blogger AND! won the Company blog in the ComputerWeekly.com IT Blog Awards 2008 . Outstanding work. Steve, a huge congratulations from Down Under :)

Due to popular demand, the PDC2008 Early Bird Discount has been extended. Register by 11:59 PM Pacific Time, Monday, 8th September and save $200 off the Full Conference Registration of $2,395. It's going to be an exciting conference with some content...

I'm jealous and delighted that Amnesia took delivery of Australia’s first two Microsoft Surface tables. Hopefully they'll find their way to TechEd. Nice one guys... and by the way, where's my invite?

Michael (aka the Delicate Genius) is organising a competition at TechEd to find The Ultimate Expert , with the prize being a HP TouchSmart IQ505a . Visit his blog to see how you can get involved.

The 2008 Australia Partner Conference has come and gone and I've explored another part of the country, this time Port Douglas! Congratulations to all of the award winners , especially Dataract and Hyro for the ISV Software Solutions and Innovation Partner...