With one of the most radical changes in Microsoft’s history, the company launched a new tablet as well as a new version of Windows this week.

The software behemoth from Redmond, Washington is drastically altering the Windows operating system in hopes that you will use it on your PC, your tablet, wherever you are.  They’re also launching retail stores that look very similar to Apple stores to try and compete for the hearts and minds of consumers.

Initial reviews of Windows 8 have been positive, but I’m not yet convinced that having one operating system to rule them all is the best move.  I like my Windows desktop and wouldn’t enjoy a tile based interface.  (Little known fact: you can change everything to look like Windows 7 with the Start bar and everything.)

Plus the Slate tablets are competing in an arena that Apple practically invented and there are two versions of Windows 8: Windows 8 RT (for low power devices with huge battery life) and normal Windows 8 for tablets.

I think this is going to lead to a lot of confusion in the mind of consumers.

Thankfully you and I don’t have to worry about launching any historic products this week. Let’s focus on getting our personal finances straight:

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There are rumors floating around in the international news community that the United States has agreed to one-on-one talks with Iran about its nuclear programs.

The White House has denied this rumor for now.  This is potentially huge news and could have a positive or negative sway on the election based on how voters perceive this as a foreign policy move.  With a stronger debate performance by Obama in the latest debate, will talking with Iran boost him further or give Romney more talking points?

Following the election closely is fine as long as you are following your finances more closely.  Here are some articles to help you do that:

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I thought about making another mention of politics and debates and all that, but you’re probably getting your fill from all of the local TV and radio ads.

Instead, let’s talk about something positive: baseball and the playoffs.

We’re just getting through the first real round of the playoffs and there have already been several amazing comebacks.  Games that were completely lost (like the Cardinals at the Nationals Friday night) are rescued from the fire to eliminate the other team.  Home runs robbed by leaping outfielders.  Multi-million dollar contract players benched for essential nobodies in the biggest media market there is.

It’s been a fun run and you can bet the commissioner’s office is applauding all of the enhanced interest in their sport.

I won’t be robbing anyone of a homerun this week, but I will be reading these:

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President Barack Obama and Republican Nominee Mitt Romney sparred with words this week for the first official debate.

Both debaters shared their campaign’s views on heavy hitting topics, undoubtedly telling some white lies in order to sway voters.  Both parties promise to fix all of your problems all while not increasing taxes or cutting funding to programs.  Both are not telling the truth.

Stop worrying about the election and start worrying about your finances.  Here’s some tips to get started:

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Facebook has a revenue problem that it may have solved a portion of recently.

The company announced a new function today called Facebook Gift where you will get a friendly reminder that you have a friend with a birthday, and you should send them a gift.  When you buy a gift through Facebook the company gets a cut of the revenue.

This is a much preferred model of earning revenue compared to banner ads like Facebook has now.  A vast majority of those ads are meaningless to users, and a majority of clicks on those ads are alleged to be by bots that are designed to milk advertisers.

I prefer to buy gifts for my friends because I know them not because a social media site says to, but that doesn’t mean Facebook’s stock price won’t go up.

Make sure you don’t spend too much money on those gifts. Track how much you spend with some of these great articles:

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Apple launched the iPhone 5 this week with the 6th version of its operating system, iOS.

As part of this new operating system Apple decided to eliminate Google Maps on the phone and replace it with their own mapping program. That’s all well and good, Apple is within their rights to limit their competitor’s access on their phones.

But the mapping application they included is full of errors including turning a farm in Ireland into an airport. We’re not talking about small errors, these are massive. Apple’s decision to remove one of the most popular mapping programs (and likely the most accurate since Google has been working on it forever) without giving their users a choice to go back to Google is a poor one to say the least.

(Don’t fret for Apple, though. They’ll still sell a bajillion iPhones and have further record profits.)

While you’re trying to figure out how to go from Point A to Point B (you can try MapQuest’s app), don’t forget to map out your finances.

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The Federal Reserve announced what is being called QE3 – which means the third round of quantitative easing – in hopes of improving the American economy.

Quantitative easing is where the Fed wants to lower the cost of borrowing debt in some manner in order to push interest rates even lower than they are.

QE1 and QE2 helped push and keep mortgage rates at historic lows.  Now QE3 is going to kick in to the tune of $40 billion per month in purchased mortgage-backed securities.

There is a real risk of inflation and you are essentially increasing the money supply by that amount each month.

It will be interesting to see if the plan works — the stock market has liked it thus far, but will it work long term?

As the government and Federal Reserve try to amp up the economy, here are some articles to help you amp up your financial life:

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The 2nd annual personal finance bloggers conference, FinCon, is going on in Denver, Colorado.

All your favorite bloggers [GC edit: most, I couldn't make FINCON this year] are rubbing elbows, listening to panels, and learning more about how to make their blogs even more impactful for their readers.

I was able to attend FinCon last year and helped record some of the sessions.  I wasn’t able to attend this year, but was still inspired to learn that FinCon participants helped plant trees in a local park in Denver.

When’s the last time you went to a professional conference and did a service project?

Even though they’re all in Denver, here are some great articles from the personal finance community this week:

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The Republican National Convention went off without a hitch in Tampa this week despite tropical storm/hurricane Isaac.

Romney formally accepted the nomination, Clint Eastwood gave a controversial speech, and pundits everywhere found fodder for articles for weeks to come.

An interesting election is headed our way: two styles of government, two different types of (likely to be broken) political promises, and lots of negative ads.  There’s really one winner every four years — the television and radio markets that get all of that political spending thrown their way.

How would you deal with a surge of income every 4 years that had to cover the remaining 3 years of expenses? Here are some articles to help you manage your finances:

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The jury in the Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit came out with a stunning verdict this week that awards Apple over $1 billion in damages from Samsung.

This will be boasted about for the weeks to come as a crushing blow to both Samsung and the Android platform in general.

While it is true that it is a bad day for Samsung, it isn’t quite a crushing blow for several reasons.  First, Samsung will appeal.  There are many more court cases to go likely spanning over many, many years.  (Tech legal blogs have something to write about for the next decade, hooray!)  Second, both sides won’t be happy with the result and the Judge’s conduct throughout the case will likely mean they will press to start over.  (Yes, Apple is probably unhappy with $1 billion since they asked for well over $2 billion.)

Thankfully, none of us have done anything that warrants paying someone $1 billion. Here are some articles to help you manage the money you do have:

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