While it'll be another year or two before most people can get their hands on Windows 7, Microsoft began making an early build of its next generation operating system available to a select group of developers this week. And that means a ton of information is popping up on the old telegraph internet alerting us to new and (hopefully) improved features tucked away in Windows 7. Here's a little roundup of Windows 7 news from around the interwebs:

• Windows 7 will actually be Windows 6.1
  While Microsoft has explained that the reason the next version of Windows will be 7 (in spite of the fact that there have actually been more than 20 Windows releases), is that it will be seventh build number (Windows XP was 5, Windows Vista was 6), it turns out Windows 7 will actually have a build number of 6.1.6801. The reason? So that programs designed for Windows Vista will run out of the box on Windows 7 without running into compatibility problems. But no, this isn't Vista SP3. It's a whole new OS. Mmm hmmm.
• Tablet PC features
  Like Windows Vista, Windows 7 will have built in Tablet PC functionality. This week screenshots emerged of the handwriting and on-screen keyboard features.
• Touch and multi-touch gestures
  Windows 7 will include support not just for touch-screen devices, but for multi-touch devies (think iPhone). In other words, you'll be able to manipulate images and documents by pinching, rotating, and doing other unspeakable things with your fingers.
• Next version of Windows Embedded will be based on Windows 7
  While the kids on the street had all been expecting the next version of Microsoft's embedded Windows operating system to be based on Vista, it looks like it will actually be Window 7-based, and due out sometime in 2010.
• First look at Windows Media Player 12
  The next version of Windows Media Player has a new, brighter theme. And the playlist view replaces the now playing view. You can switch to a compact now playing view if you want to actually see the file you're looking at. The media player will also support H.264, AAC, Xvidand DivX out of the box, in addition to all of the formats supported by Windows Media Player 11.

You can also read more about Windows 7 by checking out our previous coverage of the new operating system, including a preview of the new Windows 7 Media Center application.

Last night Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer talked a little bit about Windows 7. But just a little bit. Speaking at the All Things D conference, Ballmer, Gates, and Microsoft's Julie Larson-Green demonstrated some of the features that will be included, including support for Surface-like multi-touch technology.

Some other programs that utilize multi-touch include:

• A new photo management application that takes advantage of the multi-touch interface, allowing you to zoom, rotate, and organize your photos
• A mapping application that combines Windows Live Local, Virtual Earth, and multi-touch zooming features -- this application might not make it into Windows 7
• A multi-touch piano application

In other news, a couple of high profile web sites have been claiming they have some new leaked screenshots of the Windows 7 interface. But as blogger Long Zheng points out, it appears that these images were just concept drawings from someone guessing what the new OS might look like. Aside from last night's multi-touch demo, the truth is we still don't know very much about Windows 7, other than the fact that it will be released in about 18 months, and that Microsoft is keeping pretty quiet about it.

In the meantime, you can check out a video demonstrating some of the multi-touch features in Windows 7 after the jump.

Nathan Weinberg at InsideMicrosoft has either got a great big scoop on some of the features Microsoft plans to put into Windows Mobile 7, or way too much time on his hands. For the duration of this post, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he got his hands on a leaked Microsoft document from sometime this summer explaining the new features to be packed into Windows Mobile 7.

The biggest news is that Microsoft plans to react to the iPhone's multi-touch screen in a big way. Windows Mobile 7 will reportedly support multi-touch, gesture controls, and will even react to motion thanks to interaction with your Smartphone's camera. Of course, there's a good chance not every device running Windows Mobile 7 will actually have a camera or a multi-touch screen, but the goal is to eliminate the scroll bar and let users flick from screen to screen a la the iPhone. Overall, the OS will supposedly be more finger-friendly than Windows Mobile 6 and earlier devices which really depend on a stylus or hardware keypad.

Weinberg also reports Windows Mobile 7 will get a major graphics overhaul, looking a bit more like Windows Vista than the iPhone. And he's also got screenshots of an improved on-screen keyboard and media player. While all signs point to Windows Mobile 8 being way cooler than Windows Mobile 7, if Weinberg's source is accurate, then we still can't wait to get our hands on a device running the next version of Microsoft's mobile operating system.

Want a multi-touch computing platform but don't have $10,000 lying around? No problem. The Multi-Pointer X Server has just added multi-touch support to the X server windowing system used in Linux.



MPX also supports multiple input devices. So you can use a mouse and a touchscreen simultaneously. Or 8 mice and a touchscreen. It's up to you.

Unlike Microsoft's Surface platform, MPX does not include gestures. It simply allows you to use multiple inputs. In other words, you don't have universal commands like pinching your fingers together to make items larger or smaller as you can with the iPhone. But you can grab both ends of an object to change its size. Or you can draw pictures or peck at an on-screen keyboard with two hands.

[via eHomeUpgrade]