I have spent many summer nights in the back yard looking at the stars with my kids. They particularly like to look through the telescope and see the moon and other planets up close. If you don’t have a telescope or live in a city where there is too much light, Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope is a great alternative.

Microsoft and NASA have announced that the two firms will be working together to provide NASA images and data to the public under the Space Act Agreement. The firms will work together to develop the technology and infrastructure needed to offer the most interesting NASA content via Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope.

For many years, Microsoft has made a line of computer peripherals like mice, keyboards, and web cams. Microsoft has over the last few years reintroduced its line of SideWinder gaming peripherals and today the software giant announced that it was entering into a new peripheral category for notebooks.

Microsoft has introduced the Notebook Cooling Base that helps keep notebooks running cool. The device features a built-in fan and a cooling channel on a base that fits any notebook and is designed for use on the desktop or on a users lap.

Video: Kylie
In the latest $300 million “I’m A PC” ad campaign, set to air Sunday night during the Grammy awards, 4 and a half year old Kylie uses Windows Live Photo Gallery to send a picture of her fish to her parents. So, now they’re using cuteness, which is a steep departure from their previous attempts. Some of the previous ads were downright creepy.

Cute is probably the way to go. How many 4 year-olds do you know that use a mac? I bet they aren’t as cute as this kid. How Apple will retaliate is anyone’s guess, but the ball is now in their court.

In an effort to make one console appeal to gamers more than the competition, console makers like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are adding new features. With the global economy down the console makers are also adding features to make gaming systems perform tasks outside of gaming to broaden their appeal.

One such feature was the addition of Netflix streaming capability to the Xbox 360. The Netflix application was made available for Netflix and Xbox Live Gold customers in November of 2008. In the roughly three months since the Netflix application was made available Microsoft says that over a million Xbox 360 owners have installed and activated the Netflix application.

Windows Vista isn’t well liked by many computer users. The operating system has a reputation for consuming more resources than Windows XP did. The need for more resources to run Vista than many netbook computers offer led Microsoft to continue offering Windows XP alongside Vista.

Microsoft has announced today that it is extending the previous deadline for computer makers to move away from Windows XP that was set to retire on January 31, 2009. Microsoft has previously extended this deadline as well.

Windows Vista and its many flavors are looked on with disdain by many and pointed to as one of the reasons Apple is posting record growth despite the poor economy. Despite that, many people still use Vista and may be looking to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista.

For those looking to upgrade Microsoft has announced that it is now offering Windows Vista Ultimate in a (RED) version that includes some exclusive additions. The downside is that the new exclusive content doesn’t make Vista any more useful or stable.

I had thought, or hoped that the whole Apple/Microsoft war was deflating. Sadly it looks like Microsoft just fired the next salvo at Apple. It’s parking “I’m a PC” recording booths outside of Apple stores. The one pictured is in Birmingham, England. The booth is staffed with three Microsoft peeps who will no doubt preach at you about the awesomeness of all things Vista.

The whole deal has to be like wandering into a Jehovah’s Witness den. You know you should run, but you’re too stunned at the fact that you ran into THEM for once, instead of them coming to your house. (Or appearing on your TV) They’re swell guys and gals. They’ll preach the word and even invite you to make a short video explaining why you are a PC. The bottom line here is that we can now look forward to more ultra creepy videos of mankind proclaiming that they are PC’s, when really they’re just people we need to have a restraining order on.

I’m A PC — Crowdsourced from AlleyInsider on Vimeo.
Alright, so the Seinfeld-Gates ads were interesting. Then came the “I’m a PC” ads that were different, but not really all that cool. That’s when Apple’s latest ads began to get lamer as well. So now we’re on to the latest round of “I’m a PC” ads and this one is appropriately creepy for Halloween. It features a bunch of Youtube types saying “I’m a PC”. Problem is that I found them all to be pretty creepy.

It has me seriously thinking about a Mac. I’ll break it down for you. A few could easily be serial killers, specially the first dude who is so in love with his shirt, one chases zebras and obviously is on serious medication, an old lady who wrangles lamas looks like she has to have about a million cats and I’m sure must throw them at people, a bling lover and more. Yeah, this one is just wrong.

If you’re going to promote your own platform while dissing the other guy’s, it’s probably a good idea to not use the other guy’s to create your commercial. Turns out that phase two of the “I’m a PC” advertising against Apple was created on a Mac. Ironic. What are the chances that Apple is going to run with this and make fun of them for it? Probably pretty good. Metadata found in the images of the PC user featured on the “I’m a PC” web site tells the tale.

The data showed that the images were produced using Macs that were running Adobe Creative Suite 3. Microsoft responded by saying that “as is common in almost all campaign workflow, agencies and production houses use a wide variety of software and hardware to create, edit and distribute content, including both Macs and PCs.” After that the metadata was gone.

Here’s Phase 2 of Microsoft’s Windows ad campaign that debuted earlier tonight during The Office. Obviously it’s not the same vibe as the Gates/Seinfeld ads. This one is straight to the point. That being: Not all PC users look like John Hodgman, the fat guy from the Mac commercials. Some have beards, some are sexy, some are geeky, some are geniuses etc. Some celebrities that can be seen are Deepak Chopra, Bill Gates, Tony Parker and Eva Longoria and more. They got the message out and got straight to the point. I think it counters the Mac ads pretty effectively already. It will be interesting to see how they build on this.

Apparently, according to Gizmodo, the internet jumped the gun and those Microsoft Gates/Seinfeld ads have not been cancelled after all. Microsoft apparently did ask the agency to focus on the new “I’m a PC” spots and the agency did get a lot of WTF response in their measured statistics of the ads. But apparently no one has pulled the plug yet. In fact, Crispin Porter has another completed spot featuring the dynamic duo ready to air when they see fit.

The agency has the anti-Mac ads as a priority, but they are still going ahead with more Seinfeld/Gates ads unless Microsoft actually does pull the plug at some point. Which is awesome, because many nerds are counting on the comedy pair. They’re the new Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the new odd couple, the new Ambiguously Gay Duo. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Apparently the new series of Windows Vista ads starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates did not impress Microsoft, or many others for that matter. Microsoft has now basically admitted that the ads bombed, sucked and otherwise blew and they’ve actually fired Jerry Seinfeld. Bill Gates being Bill Gates will stick around and may be back in future ads.

The series will go on, but not with Seinfeld. Which likely means without the funny. And who knows what direction it will take. Personally after the suckage of the first ad, I thought they were beginning to hit their stride. So tomorrow you’ll hear some Microsoft spin regarding phase two of the project. That would be the phase without Seinfeld.

Odds are that most people shopping for a MP3 player are going to end up opting for an iPod of one model or another. Some folks out there will look for alternatives to Apple’s offerings though for one reason or another. Microsoft’s line of Zune players may be just the ticket for music fans looking for Apple alternatives.

Microsoft’s latest update for all Zune players is now available. The update adds some nice new features including free Wi-Fi access to the Zune Marketplace from Wayport hotspots in more than 9800 McDonald’s restaurants around the country.

I know that some of you were traumatized by the first installment of this geek comedy duo. The second chapter of the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld saga is much better. The best part? Bill Gates doing the robot. Once again, like Seinfeld’s show, it’s pretty much about nothing. There’s no MS stuff being sold here. Just good clean fun between two middle aged nerds trying to discover themselves by traveling this great land.

Remember how the Seinfeld show was a “Show about nothing”? Then at one point they even made fun of that fact on the show, by making a fake show within the show about…nothing. This first Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ad is a lot like that. It makes no damn sense. It’s about nothing.

We can only hope that future ads make more sense. The only thing I really got out of this is that Microsoft may be up to something. And it may or may not be delicious. And that’s only because Bill Gates shook his ass. Kramer and George Costanza sure could have spiced things up on this one. Steve Ballmer could have been George. Not sure what they were going for here.