Been spending the week gearing up for SXSW and then realized that you forgot to book tickets to Austin? Worry not, Download Squad will be bringing you blow by blow coverage from SXSW Interactive over the next few days. In the meantime, sit back, relax, and check out some of the top stories from the week that was.Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 beta
Microsoft released the first beta version of IE8 this week, and while it's explicitly for developers and not early adopters, we rushed out to test it, and were severely disappointed with its performance. Sure, it renders the Acid2 test properly -- sometimes, but it does a pretty poor job with many other sites, including Download Squad. And many of you told us you were having even bigger problems. Check out the IE8 reviews and comments left by Download Squad readers.
Microsoft launches Office Live Workspace beta
IE8 wasn't the only Microsoft beta to launch this week. The company also pushed the first public version of Office Live Workspace out the door. And while the service does provide users with a way to store and share Office documents online, we can't help but wonder whether people who have gotten used to actually being able to create and edit documents online with services like Zoho and Google Docs are going to care.Can the Internet Predict the Democratic Nominee for president?
Google Trends, memes, future prediction sites, and farce sites. We've checked them all. And like the rest of the country, we're still not sure who the heck is going to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Over the past decade, the internet has begun to play a huge role in the electoral process. More and more political discourse is taking place online, so can you predict the results of an election by scouring the interwebs?
Sync your iPod with iTunes using Linux and WINE
Windows compatibility software for Linux just keeps getting better and better. So while there are plenty of open source alternatives to Windows and Mac software that will run natively on Linux, it's great to know that every now and again when you find a Windows app that you really love, there's a good chance you can get it to work in Linux using WINE. Just this morning we figured out how to install Adobe AIR using WINE, and earlier this week we discovered that you can use iTunes to sync your iPod.
Some more top stories from the past week:
