Stephen Chapman of UX Evangelist delivers yet again. In response to all the chatter and speculation surrounding the new Windows 7 logo, Stephen has published some interesting graphic resources he’s found in the master slides of the “Windows 7 Core Presentation Deck” which reveals more details of how Microsoft plans to market Windows 7 to the masses.

Besides larger resolution versions of the new Star Trek (flare)-inspired “7” logo in four vibrant colors, there are also some basic guides on how Windows 7 PowerPoint presentations should be designed.

The venn diagram example (right) I thought was particularly interesting and is probably a good representation of the simplified and humanistic approach Microsoft will use to pitch Windows 7. FYI, Windows 7 is at the intersection between “this is cool”, “easy” and “it’s what I want” encapsulated by “it works”.

If there wasn’t enough goodies in one PowerPoint deck already, there is also a small resolution mockup of a Windows 7 display in a retail environment which appears to feature the retail boxart not too different to the leaked version.

Needless to say, anything plastered with “Microsoft Confidential” is definitely worth a look.

It appears the Windows Mobile team, who has had a history for sharing good insights into the future development of Windows Mobile through innocent job advertisements, is not wasting any time sharing new information about Windows Mobile 7. A recent job advertisement for a Software Development Engineer on the “Communications Foundations” team writes,

The Mobile Devices division is Microsoft’s fastest growing, most cutting edge, and most competitive business. Windows Mobile 7 is a huge, important bet for the company and the team has benefitted from a recent influx of senior talent from around the company. Our users buy Windows Mobile devices to manage all parts of their work and personal lives through the use of phone, email, IM, SMS, calendar, contacts, photo sharing, and access to social networks. “Communications” is the Windows Mobile 7 team that owns that experience end to end from phone to connectivity to Windows Live and Exchange services. Millions of Windows Mobile customers all around the world use what we build in this team every day.

The Communications Foundations team is the engine room that powers these social experiences – the team builds the connectors and Unified Storage models that power all the social & communications experiences for WM7. The team is at the center of the rich change in how communications is happening, driven by the rapid shifts in social networking – Live wave 4, Facebook, Twitter etc. The team is looking for an experienced developer to drive how we enable exciting, new market-changing scenarios based on top of the Unified Store. You will help architect, design and build capabilities to enable these new end-to-end scenarios, and drive a clear model/view separation in our architecture.

As far as I’m aware, the “connectors” and “Unified Storage” referred to here is a new concept for WM7. Unfortunately the job description doesn’t go into any details, but in the context of communications, I’m predicting it’s a new framework designed to handle all the communication storage needs on a phone in a single, structured and open-access system.

If my prediction is correction, as opposed to the current method where each application has its own proprietary storage model (ex. Outlook Mobile, Facebook application, Twitter applications), this new framework would allow applications to store and retrieve any communications data on the phone in a consistent and managed manner, allowing for far richer integration.

Like icing on the cake, the job ad also confirms what has been hinted at for a very long time, integration with the Zune service.

Responsibilities
Deliver core platform technology to internal and external partners. Effectively design, schedule, build and deliver on a v1 product and existing products. Collaborate with partners such as Outlook Mobile, Database, Zune, Shell, and OS. Deliver detailed specifications for the technical architecture of the system. Help mentor other members on the Dev team.

It looks like Microsoft China is really putting in an effort to make sure absolutely everyone knows about the new Windows 7 logo before it is, and if ever, officially confirmed by the Redmond mothership. Besides plastering a slightly different variation of this new logo all over its Windows 7 RC launch event, the flare-abounding logo is now featured front and center on the homepage of Microsoft China. I guess it’ll only be a matter of time before they put up the boxart too.

Speaking of the logo, some people are going to great lengths to find a “meaning” behind the logo. Whilst I don’t dispute some people’s suggestions the negative space resembles the top-right corner of the Windows logo, I believe it was designed to be just a “7”.

Windows SideShow‘s reception in the marketplace since the launch of Windows Vista has been lukewarm at best, but they haven’t given up. Now Microsoft is trying to breathe new life into Windows SideShow by illustrating some interesting applications of the platform to PC gamers.

A research study conducted by Microsoft earlier this year shows gamers are keen on a small Windows SideShow-powered touch-enabled and rotatable widescreen display to the tune of about 6.4-inches attached to the side of a monitor. If that wasn’t enough, it’s also suggested the display be connected via WiFi or Bluetooth so you could place it wherever. Since, Microsoft has ran with the idea showing how such a screen can benefit gamers.

One and perhaps the most obvious implementation of SideShow for a game, illustrated above, is to move the menus and on-screen controls of the game to the SideShow display, freeing up the primary display to show more of the game. This I’m sure captures the interest of RPG and strategy players who might find a third of the screen today dedicated to controls.

In another scenario, the auxiliary display could also be used to provide a more immersive gaming experience. In this example, the auxiliary display acts like wing-mirror of a racing game, but is suggested could act as an instrument panel for a flight simulator game. Of course prior art is due as Sony first demoed the same concept between a Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable for a racing game, however has since failed to realize.

Furthermore, the auxiliary device could display secondary information when a gamer would normally otherwise have to pause the game to display, for example a map in a flight simulator game. Anyone who’s played GTA4 probably comprehends how frustrating it was to pause the game every time you needed to review the large map.

Last but not least, the auxiliary display could also provide information outside of the game but useful to the player, for example walkthroughs, game guides or chatting applications. Of course, like a standard SideShow device, it should also allow you to control music, read emails and check the weather, and we all know how well that caught on.

As an avid PC gamer, this definitely captures my interest but of course is still nothing more than a Photoshop mockup (as seen by the Gamespot watermark). If a hardware vendor can produce such a device for under $100, I think it could sell like hotcakes.

WiFi is an incredible technology that has transformed how and where people used computers, however besides advancements in speed, range and security, very little has changed how we use wireless networks. Since 2002, Microsoft Research has been exploring a fascinating idea to virtualize the WiFi adapter, turning a single piece of hardware and radio into virtually (pun) unlimited adapters. Years after the project was seemingly abandoned, it is now uncovered Virtual WiFi technology has been baked into the Windows 7 networking foundations.

In essence, how Virtual WiFi works is very similar to how virtualization works for operating systems which most people are familiar with – the transparent sharing of limited hardware resources to many operating systems. Virtual WiFi, abbreviated to VWiFi, is a software layer that abstracts the wireless LAN card hardware into multiple virtual adapters. The software handles the connections of each adapter to ensure every adapter has an opportunity to connect to their respective networks limited by time. The result is an operating system none-the-wiser and acts as if you have multiple WLAN hardware adapters working independently.

If you like to dabble in a little hardware jargon, here’s an obligatory architecture diagram which explains how Virtual WiFi works in Windows 7 in much more detail.

If you got lost somewhere between the dotted lines, read on.

You might be wondering why anyone would ever need multiple WLAN adapters on the same PC, well to be honest, you don’t need but its sometimes good to have. In any case where you’re connected to an existing wireless access point and want to connect to another network whether that be a separate access point or even set up an ad-hoc connection, Virtual WiFi will allow you to do just that. But perhaps the scenario that is more appealing is the idea of a mesh network. In a mesh network, every client becomes a repeater, growing the network organically as more clients connect. Virtual WiFi enables this, since every client can become an access point too.

Now you might be asking, “I’ve looked at every nook and cranny of Windows 7 RC, how come I haven’t seen this feature?”. Surprisingly, the feature is in Windows 7 today and has been for quite some time apparently, but hasn’t been exposed due to a lack of driver support. WLAN hardware vendors are required to recompile their drivers with a couple new additions. The good news is that Virtual WiFi functionality is going to be a requirement for WLAN drivers under the Windows 7 certification logo so expect to see it soon.

Assuming it all goes to plan, the feature will be automatically exposed.

“On Windows 7 and later, the operating system installs a virtual device if a Hosted Network capable wireless adapter is present on the machine. This virtual device normally shows up in the “Network Connections Folder” as ‘Wireless Network Connection 2’ with a Device Name of ‘Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport adapter’ if the computer has a single wireless network adapter. This virtual device is used exclusively for performing software access point (SoftAP) connections […]. The lifetime of this virtual device is tied to the physical wireless adapter. If the physical wireless adapter is disabled, this virtual device will be removed as well.”

Unfortunately as it seems, the implementation of Virtual WiFi in Windows 7 is not as liberal as the research prototype. In Windows 7, you are limited to exactly one virtual adapter. However by looking at the impact of multiple virtual adapters on latency and performance from their original research report, this is probably for good reasons.

More technical information aimed at hardware vendors and developers is available at the WinHEC 2008 session, “Wireless LAN Enhancements In Windows 7”, PowerPoint downloadable here. You can also learn more about their original prototype and research paper here.

Obviously this feature isn’t as glamorous as the fancy new wallpapers or as practical as Aero Snap in Windows 7, but I think it represents one of the many silent revolutions in Windows that probably won’t be recognized and taken for granted for releases to come. I’d be interesting to see if Virtual WiFi catches on, and how new networking scenarios can be enabled by developers and hardware vendors.

I was wrong. The leaked images posted yesterday on CentrumXP.pl portraying to be the Windows 7 retail box art and packaging are indeed real. The undeniable evidence ironically comes from no other than Microsoft employees, on a Facebook group they’ve set up.

The group “Windows Lounge” is a private Facebook group reserved for Microsoft employees to learn and discuss Windows 7. Understandably, the group admins have uploaded a banner to formalize the group but probably did not realize that even non-group-members can too see the image. An image that gave a little too much away.

In the spirit of hitting two birds with one stone however, not only is the box art now confirmed but the official Windows 7 mark or logo is also revealed and confirmed to be an artistic-variant of the Arabic numeral “7” with a not-so-subtle lens flare effect. The internet will now judge.

Update: There is some speculation that the images may be just concepts in an ongoing design process, which I certainly hope is true. However, rumors of where these images leaked from is usually not a place where you would find unfinalized concepts.