Strange New World: Tech Picks of the Week

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 9, 2009— -- We are out in Vegas this week at the tech Wonderland that is Consumer Electronics Show. There are hundreds of tech announcements coming out of this place every hour but we managed to sift out a few cool ones for you guys this week. Microsoft is giving people a sneak peek at its new OS, Portland is getting WiMAX and it looks like the CD club at BMG Music is done. Here now are our picks of the week.

At CES this week, Microsoft announced the release of a Beta version of the Windows 7 operating system. The rumor is that the full version will be available in January 2010, but if you want to get your hands on it right now, you can.

The company promises that there will be a free download available today. We've had a quick look at the new OS and think it will actually be a big hit. It is a lot less cumbersome than Vista was, first of all, and won't clog up and slow down your system as much.

They have also paid a lot of attention to the problems that everybody had with Vista and fixed a lot of the big issues. Check it out and get used to it because it will be everywhere soon.

The WiMAX wireless broadband service that was originally dubbed "Xhom" -- since renamed "Clear" -- has found a new home. Three months ago, Clearwire debuted its 4G wireless solution in Baltimore. This gave wireless Internet access to massive swaths of the city, for a small price. It actually worked pretty well and we had been waiting to see where it would go next.

Well, this week, the company announced that it would be rolling out the service in Portland, Ore. The first mobile wireless network will cover about 700 square miles of municipal Portland and will expand in the coming months.

Service plans start at $20 per month for home service and $30 per month for mobile use. To use the service, you will need a WiMAX-enabled device or modem. Manufactures like Motorola are selling the cards and the service worked well for us the last time we were in Baltimore.