NextWindow Earns Coveted Windows 7 Logo Certification

NextWindow, the market and technology leader in optical touch screens for all-in-one PCs and large-format displays, today became the first optical touch screen manufacturer to announce Windows 7 logo certification from Microsoft. Achieving Windows 7 logo certification is a major milestone for NextWindow, whose touch screens are used in all-in-one PCs from Dell and Hewlett-Packard. The world's largest PC manufacturers can now be confident that NextWindow touch screens will achieve the high performance standards required to run within Windows 7.
Windows 7 logo certification is based on extensive analysis and input from domain experts and feedback from Microsoft's OEM, ISV and IHV partners on the challenges they and their customers face. The logo certification program aims to help customers make better purchase decisions by identifying products via the 'Compatible with Windows 7' logo that have passed Microsoft's rigorous tests for compatibility and reliability. Windows 7 is Microsoft's newest operating system which will offer multi-touch functionality.
It is expected that the launch of Windows 7 later this year will spur software publishers to develop an array of new touch screen-enabled applications for desktop computers. Likewise, all of the largest PC manufacturers are expected to introduce new desktop computers with touch screen monitors. Analyst firm DisplaySearch is forecasting that the touch screen market will grow to $9 billion by 2015, and that multi-touch functionality will be a key market driver. NextWindow is the leader in the optical touch screen market today, with hundreds of thousands of touch screens installed worldwide and key patents held for multi-touch technology applications.


"Of course we're excited to be the first optical touch screen manufacturer to announce Windows 7 logo certification," said Al Monro, CEO at NextWindow. "The accomplishment is testament to the very hard work put in by our development team over the past few months. It is also a reflection of the success we've had building touch screens for leading PC manufacturers. NextWindow is ahead of the curve when it comes to understanding the business and technological needs of these companies. We look forward to continued success built around the launch of Windows 7 and the introduction of new touch-enabled PCs."

About NextWindow
NextWindow is a leader in touch-screen technology and a major manufacturer of optical multi-touch displays for OEMs, ODMs and resellers. With highly accurate, cost-effective solutions designed for personal and business use, NextWindow provides the hardware necessary to bring touch-screen technology to life--giving software designers the freedom to create exciting and intuitive applications. Founded in 2000, NextWindow is privately held with offices in New Zealand, Taiwan, California and Singapore, with manufacturing facilities throughout Asia.

from http://www.prweb.com/

Archos 9 Tablet Netbook Unveiled, Coming This Fall With Windows 7

Archos is a company famous for their Archos 5 and 7 tablet PCs, and now they’ve announced another device called Archos 9. Although we’ve heard rumors about this mobile computing device quite a while ago, Archos unveiled it only now. You can call this tablet PC a tablet netbook, the important thing is that the Archos 9 is a tablet which will “redefine” mobile computing, but we’ve seen others who said the same thing and nothing happened.

The Archos 9 tablet netbook is very thin as it’s only .63-inch thick, and it’s very lightweight as it weighs only 22.29oz. I must say that the design is pretty impressive, but I am kinda disappointed that the tablet is based on a resistive touchscreen. I would have preferred a capacitive touchscreen, but I guess this is just me.

The Archos 9 is powered by a Intel Atom Z515 Processor, 9-inch full touchscreen, and Windows 7. The tablet netbook features WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, optical trackball, Microsoft Office, web TV and Radio, video conferencing, Access to Media, parental control, and many other applications like an antivirus, and multimedia apps.

I am crazy about the optical trackball, and I’m excited that the tablet is based on Windows 7. I cannot wait for it to be released this fall. I expect the Archos 9 to be released sometime in late-October after Windows 7 is launched for a very expensive price.

Touch Gives Desktop PCs New Life

The desktop computer seems to be sliding into oblivion. Last year laptops leaped ahead in unit sales, according to market research firm iSuppli. The only customers still shopping for traditional PCs seemed to be bargain hunters at the very low end of the market, who couldn't find decent laptops with $250 price tags—and power users at the opposite extreme who needed performance no laptop could supply for, say, the latest multiplayer game.

But desktops could be poised for at least a modest comeback, in part because designs are finally getting more appetizing. More manufacturers are following Apple's (AAPL) lead in ditching ugly, noisy "minitowers" in favor of all-in-one units inspired by the iMac. And when the Windows 7 operating system arrives later this year, it's likely to attract a fresh look at desktops because the software has touch-control features that simply work better on a big desktop monitor than on a notebook screen.

One desktop that does credit to both trends is the Dell (DELL) Studio One 19. Like the Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) TouchSmart PCs, the Studio One hides the guts of the computer behind a touchscreen monitor in a design that is clean, eliminates all cables other than a power cord, and is nearly silent. But with a starting price of just $699, $600 less than the cheapest 22-inch TouchSmart, the stylish Studio One is much more of a mainstream consumer product.

While the Studio One is impressive running Windows Vista, it really came into its own when I installed a near-final version of Windows 7, which will be available on Oct. 22. The program's built-in touch features include icons, buttons, and scroll

bars large enough for you to hit the right spot with a normal, adult-size finger. Because the touch support is baked into the operating system, programs can automatically take advantage of it without being rewritten. Regardless of whether you're reading a Microsoft Word document, an e-mail message in Outlook, or text on a Web page, the same two-finger stretching or pinching motion will expand or shrink what you're looking at—just as it will a picture in Windows Photo Gallery.
Touch Tech Goes on Camera

Touch software, however, is likely to get a lot more interesting once software developers begin using their imagination to cook up applications for users of multitouch desktop screens. If you've ever watched a TV anchor "conducting" the news in front of a Magic Wall, you get some idea of the potential. HP, for example, has been demonstrating a program that lets you paint on the screen of a TouchSmart using artist's brushes.

Microsoft (MSFT) has actually been a bit slow in realizing the potential of touch. It spent several years promoting touch for a type of notebook called the Tablet PC, which required the use of a special pen. These work fine for taking handwritten notes or filling out forms, but desktop touch works better for anything more complicated. The display on even hefty laptops tends to be too small and positioned too low and too close to make using touch comfortable. And notebooks tend to tip over backwards if you press on the screen. What's more, the technology needed in laptops to sense complex gestures and allow the use of fingers instead of a pen is very expensive, especially in larger sizes.

Instead of using the screen itself to detect touch, both the TouchSmart and Studio One PCs use an array of cameras built into the frame around the screen to detect hand movements. This optical touch-sensing technology comes from a New Zealand company called NextWindow. The same relatively inexpensive technology, which adds around $25 to the bill of materials, is being built into freestanding monitors that could be used with any PC when they hit the market later this year.
No Touch in Apple's Snow Leopard

Beyond all-in-ones, some other PCs are also getting a lot more attractive. Dell now offers the Studio Hybrid, a compact (8.8 x 8.3 x 3 in.) unit available in a range of colors and finishes, starting at $500. The HP Pavilion Slimline is less sexy—it's about twice as big and comes only in basic black—but it can be had for as little as $300.

Oddly, Apple, whose iPhone woke us up to the potential of multitouch interfaces, has shown no interest in applying the technology to its laptops or desktops and has added no touch features to the upcoming Snow Leopard version of the Mac OS X software. This creates a rare opportunity for Microsoft and Windows PC makers to lead with a cool and truly useful feature. Look for them to make the most of it.

Asus Eee PC Seashell 1005HA

Asus has no shortage of netbooks, as is evident by this small tweak to system specs with a new model number. The $389 Eee PC Seashell 1005HA is indeed nearly identical to the recently reviewed $419 Asus Eee PC Seashell 1008HA, but with a longer-lasting, removable battery, an extra USB port, and no port covers. You gain a little heft with the upgrades, but we think they’re worth it.

Under the lid, the Seashell's design looks like standard netbook fare; on the outside, though, this is a netbook that looks like it costs much more than $400. It has a gorgeous, curved-plastic shell that measures only an inch top to bottom at its thickest point. We tested the glossy black model; it looks quite sharp, but the finish shows up fingerprints so clearly you'll want to keep a polishing cloth close at hand at all times. (Asus also offers the Seashell in blue.) The unit weighs 2.9 pounds, versus 2.4 pounds for the 1008HA.

For all the excitement outside, inside the specs are typical for a netbook, for the most part. The Seashell sports a 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor (a nice little bump up from the N270), 1GB of RAM, Windows XP Home Edition, a 160GB hard drive, and 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth wireless networking.

On the left, you'll find the power jack, a VGA connector, a USB port, and a Kensington lock slot.

The bright, LED-backlit 10.1-inch screen has the 1,024x600-pixel native resolution typical of netbooks at this screen size. Directly above the screen are mounted a 1.3-megapixel Webcam and a digital array microphone. The Chiclet-style keyboard is comfortable to type on and is 92 percent of full width. It has an excellent layout, with full-size Shift keys and no unusual character placement. The multitouch-capable touch pad isn't recessed at all; instead, it's simply differentiated from the remainder of the wrist-rest region by a series of golf-ball-style divots. (It's an unusual design, but it works well.) The single left/right rocker button below the touch pad is very responsive, a welcome change from the too-stiff buttons on the Eee PC 1000 series.
On the right, you'll find a two-format memory card reader, audio in and out jacks, two USB ports, and the Ethernet jack.
The Seashell 1005HA’s biggest innovation over similar models, like the Eee PC 1008HA, is a large, removable battery. On our demanding battery-rundown test—we continuously stream video over a Wi-Fi connection—the Seashell lasted 6 hours and 43 minutes, more than two hours longer than the 1008HA. You can likely get the 10.5 hours that Asus promises under lighter usage. The Seashell has three USB ports (another improvement over the 1008HA, which had only two), and they’re placed on both sides (two on the left and one on the right), in addition to LAN, headphone, and microphone jacks, and an SD flash-card slot.

Even though it uses the newer (N280) version of Intel's Atom processor, the Seashell doesn't match the performance of its less-attractive Eee PC 1000HE big brother, which uses the same CPU. On most of our benchmark tests, the Seashell's results fell squarely between those of the Asus Eee PC 1000HE and slower N270-powered netbooks, such as the Samsung N120. For example, the Seashell completed our Windows Media Encoder test in 25 minutes and 50 seconds; that's just over 3 minutes slower than the Eee PC 1000HE and about 2 minutes faster than the N120. In our Cinebench 10 rendering test, the Seashell scored 862, versus 922 for the Eee PC 1000HE and 832 for the N120. As is the case with virtually all netbooks, don't plan on playing modern 3D games—the Seashell's 3DMark06 score of 126 was above the netbook average and a definite improvement over its predecessor, but it still indicates that you'll be limited to late '90s classics and casual 2D games.

You can also adjust the performance level. The Seashell includes the Asus Super Hybrid Engine software, which lets you overclock or underclock the processor, depending on whether you're shooting to maximize performance or extend the battery life. Also notable is a screen utility that lets you run the display in Compressed mode, which squeezes a 1,024x768 image onto the 1,024x600 display. Though text doesn't look pretty in this mode, it alleviates a common usability problem that plagues netbooks that have a 1,024x600 native resolution. It can make all the difference if you're trying to run an older application that doesn't support that resolution.

The Seashell is one of the sleekest, most stylish netbooks we've used so far. While the larger battery adds half a pound to the overall weight versus the 1008HA, other netbooks, such as the MSI Wind U123, which lasted a staggering 7 hours and 18 minutes, weigh more than 3 pounds. This system offers the best of both worlds: considerably longer battery life with just a little extra weight.

Lenovo slims down new ThinkPad T400s

Showing again that rugged business-oriented laptops can play the thin-and-light game, Lenovo Group Ltd. today revealed a slimmed-down ThinkPad that boasts a number of innovations for the mobile workforce.

The 14-in. widescreen ThinkPad T400s weighs 3.9 lbs., 17% less than its bigger brother T400 (4.7 lbs.), and is 0.83 in. thick, versus 1.09 in. for the T400, putting it closer on the portability scale to what was until now Lenovo's thinnest ThinkPad, the X300, a 13-in. sub-notebook model that varies between 0.73 and 0.92 in. in thickness.

With its larger screen but thin-and-light design, the T400s sits halfway in between models from Apple Inc., the hardware maker leading the thin-and-light charge with the 0.95-in. unibody aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pros, which come in 13-in. and 15-in. screens, and the 0.76-in. thick MacBook Air.

Available immediately at a starting price of $1,599, the T400s comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4-GHz processor, a backlit LED screen, a 120GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, an integrated Intel GMA 4500 graphics chip and a DVD burner. It uses the Windows Vista Business operating system.

Options such as an SSD drive or a 3G broadband wireless card will each add several hundred dollars to the price, said David Critchley, a marketing manager at Lenovo. Lenovo will offer Windows 7 on the T400s and its other ThinkPads as soon as possible after the operating system's release this fall.

Critchley emphasized that Lenovo did more than just put the T400s on a diet. The new notebook uses a carbon-fiber roll cage design that Lenovo first used in its X300.

"This is as durable as our old magnesium frames, but a lot lighter," Critchley said.

Befitting former ThinkPad maker IBM's keyboard heritage, the T400s has enlarged Delete and Escape keys to minimize typing errors, along with tighter gaps between keys in order to block out food crumbs from those who dine at their desks.

To make it easier for people to place VoIP calls or use teleconferencing systems, the ThinkPad T400s comes with a 2-megapixel webcam, and it has two digital microphones, compared with one in the T400, and offers a higher maximum speaker volume than the T400 does.

The T400s has both a VGA and a DisplayPort connector, allowing users to hook up two additional monitors without a port replicator.

One thing that is staying the same with the T400s is the conservative look. But Critchley said that won't hurt ThinkPad sales, even with sexier gear like Apple's MacBooks appealing to executives.

"I'm not sure 'executive jewelry' is the position we want to be in," Critchley said.

Rather, Critchley touted the new ThinkPad's inclusion of Intel Corp.'s management technology, vPro, as something that IT managers who buy ThinkPads demand.

"Apple doesn't support vPro. It will be interesting to see when their customers start to ask for that," Critchley said.

As for future ThinkPad trends, Lenovo may release a successor to the ThinkPad X300 using a lower-voltage CULV processor from Intel to cut heat and energy usage, said Franciso Carias, Lenovo's worldwide product marketing manager for the ThinkPad line.

Lenovo is also thinking about adding a multitouch screen to future ThinkPads, and it will consider releasing a slim model of its T500 with 15-in. OLED screen "if demand is there," Carias said.

Kohjinsha SK3 7-inch convertible touchscreen netbook

It’s ironic that what a year or two would’ve been called a UMPC (and, frankly, ignored by most people, tech writers included) is now called a touchscreen netbook and garners far more interest. Latest on the block is set to be the Kohjinsha SK3, an upgrade to the existing 7-inch SC3 UMPC. Among the changes are a new battery and upgraded cameras.
The SK3 has a convertible resistive touchscreen, a couple of inches smaller than that of the ASUS Eee PC T91, which folds flat onto the keyboard for portable slate use. Inside there’s the same 1.3GHz Menlow-platform processor – capable enough, we’ve seen, for Vista – though no word on whether there’s an SSD option this time around. WiFi has been upgraded, adding draft-n support, and there are still PCI Express, SD, VGA and ethernet connections, together with GPS.

According to UMPCPortal’s sources, the Kohjinsha SK3 will get its official announcement this week. No word on battery life from the newly-streamlined power pack, nor what sort of pricing we could expect.

Pricing for Windows 7 Announced

Microsoft today announced pricing plans for its new Windows 7 operating system, which will end up costing consumers less than its oft-vilified Vista counterpart.

Specifically, the estimated prices in the United States for a Windows 7 upgrade are:

* Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
* Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
* Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

And the estimated prices for the full Windows 7 package are:

* Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
* Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
* Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

Microsoft also says that consumers who purchase new PCs before Windows 7 goes on sale will get free upgrades once it is released in the fall. (Windows Vista Home Basic is not eligible for upgrades.) The company is also offering consumers who live in the United States and other select markets the opportunity to preorder Windows 7 starting tomorrow at a 50 percent discount, which means that in the United States, for example, you can preorder Windows 7 Home Premium for $50 or Windows 7 Professional for $100 while supplies last.

The offer ends July 11 in the United States and Canada, and July 5 in Japan. Customers in the United Kingdom, France and Germany can preorder theirs July 15 to Aug. 14. For all the fine print concerning the offer, click here or here.

From http://www.nytimes.com/