Windows 7 Beta is now available. - MICROSOFT'S EUROPEAN online store has been taken down following too much demand for a Windows 7 pre-order programme.  This follows a similar promotion in the US that ended July 11 and offered discounts on Windows 7 pre-orders.  According to CNET, it seems Windows 7 pre-orders have sold out at some Amazon sites and at spots in Germany.  The Vole's own online store apparently was overwhelmed by demand, meaning that those who turned up to buy the software were instead greeted with a multilingual error message.  The message said, "Due to the eagerly anticipated" Windows 7 pre-order offer we're experiencing a higher level of demand on our website than usual." It continued, "This means you can't access the site right now and we're sorry about that. We'll be back up and running as soon as we can so please try again soon to get your hands on a copy of Windows 7!"  The European pre-order deal, in which punters get half off the cost of Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional, runs from July 15 through August 9. The Vole has capped the number of copies that can be pre-ordered.

Kazaa is back from the dead and this time its legal! - peer-to-peer file sharing service is working again, three years after it was shut down by the music industry in a $150 million lawsuit.  However, like Pirate Bay and Napster, the service is in name only with users being forced to pay for their music instead of trading tracks illegally.  According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the service has been launched by Kevin Bermeister, who was behind much of the technology in the original Kazaa.  To debut on Tuesday, the new Kazaa will at first be available only in the United States. Its US customers will pay $20 per month and can download as many songs as they like.  There is a huge amount of competition out there for music downloads and Kazaa admits that really all it has is a name to make it a bit different. That and you can have your monthly fee paid through your phone bill.

Microsoft Profits expected to decline - people in the know think that Microsoft is going to post declines in profit and sales for its fiscal fourth quarter next week.  Wall Street analysts' estimates are that the Vole will post earnings of 36 cents per share on revenues of $14.38 billion.

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