Got three computers at home? There is reason to believe that Microsoft will let you license Windows 7 on all of them for a very competitive price.

In recent leaked RTM branch builds of WIndows 7 Home Premium, there's been an interesting language chance in the license agreement under "Installation Use and Rights":

b. Family Pack. If you are a "Qualified Family Pack User", you may install one copy of the software marked as "Family Pack" on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there. Those computers are the "licensed computers" and are subject to these license terms. If you do not know whether you are a Qualified Family Pack User, visit go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=141399 or contact the Microsoft affiliate serving your country.

No, the link doesn't work yet, but this seems to indicate that Microsoft is going to offer a multi-license pack of Windows 7 Home Premium. Other builds (Ultimate, Pro, etc.) don't contain the Family Pack wording.

It makes sense for several reasons. First, Microsoft offered a similar deal for Vista upgrades when it was released - a two pack for $49.99. Second, they use this strategy to push Office 2007 with the Home and Student edition. Third, Apple does it with Leopard and at one hell of a price: $199 for up to five Macs under the same roof.

CNet's Ed Bott predicts Microsoft will undercut Apple slightly and we'll see the Family Pack priced at $189.99, though it will likely cover three machines as the Office license does.

Family Pack license for Windows 7 could cover 3 machines on the cheap

The world's largest telecom satellite will help fill in cell phone dead zones

An Ariane 5 rocket carried the world's largest commercial telecommunications satellite into orbit from the European Space Agency (ESA)'s French Guinea launch center.

The TerreStar Networks' TerreStar-1 satellite, which weighs 6.9 tons and has a 60-ft. antenna, will be used to offer high-speed internet and wireless voice services.  The satellite will float in orbit 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface and cost $300 million to build and launch.

TerreStar hopes emergency responders, the U.S. military, and rural customers with currently spotty service will have more reliable telecom services.  Satellite internet service is too slow and unreliable to receive large amounts of government funding, but the TerreStar satellite will help change that -- satellite coverage will be able to cover a larger area and will fix any cell phone "dead zones" that are still found across the United States.

Customers will be able to use a small device about the same size as a Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry Curve that is a full-mode terrestrial/satellite handset.  The device operates on the AT&T terrestrial network while in range, and switches to satellite when service begins to drop off.

When trying to connect to the satellite, the handset must have a clear line of sight with the southern sky.  It should be interesting to see what kind of handsets will be used, as current satellite phones are bulky and thick, but the satellite will help shrink the size and design of future satellite phones.

In the future,

Just a few weeks after launching VirtualBox 3.0 beta, Sun has removed the beta label from the next version of the open source, cross-platform virtualization application. VirtualBox 3.0 includes a number of updates, including:

• Support for OpenGL 2.0 for Windows, Linux, and Solaris guests
• Ability to use Direct3D 8/9 applications on Windows guests
• Support for Linux kernel 2.6.31
• Up to 32 virtual CPUs

VirtualBox 3.0 also includes a number of bug fixes and improvements, and overall improved 3D graphics support. You can find more details in the changelog. Virtualbox is available as a download for Windows, OS X, Linux, or Solaris hosts.

VirtualBox 3.0 goes Gold

The developers at Skype must be working overtime this week. Yesterday saw the launch of Skype 3.0 for Windows Phones. Today Skype pushed out version 4.1 for Windows and Skype 1.1 for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Skype 4.1 for Windows includes support for screen sharing, birthday reminders, and improved audio and video quality. The latest version also fixes a few bugs found in Skype 4.1 beta, so if you're running the beta you'll probably want to update.

Skype 1.1 for the iPhone and iPod Touch now lets you listen to your voicemail on your mobile phone and send SMS. The update also adds support for additional languages.

Skype 4.1 for Windows, 1.1 for iPhone released

Windows/Mac/Linux: The final version of the Firefox is starting to show up on Mozilla's web site, and some readers are reporting update notices. Here are few links and how-tos you should check out before downloading that browser.

• Add-on Compatibility Center - See whether the popular extensions that make up 95% of add-on downloads are compatible with Firefox 3.5 before you download. It's looking pretty green and good at the moment, with the notable exception of Tab Mix Plus.
• Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features - Breaking down the Private Browsing Mode, TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, little interface features, and bigger changes to the increasingly popular open-source web browser.
• Disable location-aware browsing and tab tearing - If those features sound more like privacy invasion and mouse-clenching hassle, respectively, they're pretty easy to turn off.
• Make your extensions work with (Firefox 3.5) - Originally written for the big (bigger?) Firefox 3.0 upgrade, but this little about:config tweak should keep those extensions not yet upgraded working with 3.5 as well, assuming you don't mind potential bugs.
• Weave synchronization tool - Mozilla's experimental synchronization project only works with Firefox 3.5—but, wait, that's out now! It's worth

According to a report by webmonkey, the final version of Firefox 3.5 will be released on June 30.

Firefox 3.5 is the first major revision since 3.0 was released about a year ago. The new version sports a faster rendering engine, stability enhancements and a new javascript engine. It will also include support for the most widely-used elements of HTML 5 that allows for offline data access, enhanced web graphics and multimedia playback without plug-ins. The Firefox logo has also had a small revision as well.

Mozilla has been showing different 3.5 features within a 35 day period, and has also shown the new tools developers can take advantage of in the new version.

The new version was originally going to be 3.1, but was renamed to 3.5 later to reflect a greater scope of changes than what has originally been planned.

Firefox 3.5 to be released June 30

GM hopes of an electric future move forward

GM's Chevy Volt is a survivor.  It has survived the critics who argued that the market wasn't ready for mass production electric vehicles.  It survived an economic downturn and the bankruptcy of its producer.  And it survived the peril of being put up on the pedestal as the darling of the green tech news community.

It survived all that and recently entered pre-production in preparation for a modest full scale 2011 deployment in the tens of thousands of units.  Now at last the first of 75 pre-production integration prototypes has been completed and is out cruising the streets looking for some hot plugs.

The almost-finished vehicles are being tested at GM's Pre-Production operations center at the Warren, MI tech center.  The car is virtually identical to the planned production model, only lacking the sculpting on the instrument clusters as some other minor interior aesthetics.

The only major change to be noted in the pre-production