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/

Windows 7 to be cheaper than Vista

Echoing a companywide theme of affordability, Microsoft said Thursday that Windows 7 will be cheaper than the last version of its trademark operating system.

Retail prices for Windows 7 when it rolls out Oct. 22 will range from $119.99 to $319.99. The price points are 10 percent lower than Windows Vista, the version of Windows that 7 will replace.

From today through July 11, Microsoft is running a half-off special, with Windows XP and Vista users able to pre-order the new operating system for as little as $49.99.

"For first time we will have some aggressive offers that customers can take advantage of," said Tami Reller, chief financial officer of the Windows group in a conference call Thursday.

Anyone buying a new computer that comes installed with Windows Vista starting today will qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7. "There's sort of this continuing trend with Windows 7 of removing any potential barriers to getting people to upgrade," said Michael Cherry, an analyst at independent firm Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland. "The pricing just seems to follow that pattern."

As the economy remains stalled, Microsoft has capitalized on the penny-pinching zeitgeist with several campaigns. Earlier this year, the company released a barrage of television commercials featuring shoppers hunting for a laptop that cost less than $1,000, chiding Apple computers of being expensive.

In addition, a recent online-video ad campaign for Microsoft's portable music player Zune says it would cost $30,000 to fill a rival Apple iPod with music.

Even Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has been pitching Microsoft's technology internationally as an investment to help companies squeeze more juice out of limited resources.

The Windows 7 pricing released Thursday applies only to boxed copies. Most copies of Windows are sold installed on new computers, and the computer makers pay Microsoft per copy. Microsoft does not disclose how much it charges computer makers.

The company also plans sell a simpler, less expensive version of operating system called Windows 7 Starter to computer makers that build netbooks, small laptops that cost about $300. Another less-expensive version of the operating system, Windows 7 Home Basic, will be sold only in developing markets.

Executives have been calling Windows 7 everything Vista was supposed to be. Vista, which began selling in 2007, had numerous technical problems when it first hit the market and quickly became the target of derision in Apple's "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" television ads.

Early reviews say Windows 7 is smoother-running and easier to use. Several features are aimed at making it easier to manage having several windows and applications open at once, including pop-up preview screens. The operating system allows a user to clear everything off the screen by jiggling a mouse.

Windows 7 reduces the number of steps needed to share music, photos and other files across a home network. It also includes more touch-screen features.

From http://www.nwsource.com/

Details: Microsoft's Windows 7 price cuts, upgrade promotions

Microsoft, trying to revive its flagship product in the middle of a recession, is pricing the primary edition of Windows 7 for home users 17 percent below the retail price of its predecessor.

The unusual move is one of a series of Windows 7 pricing announcements being made by the company today as it gears up for a scheduled Oct. 22 launch. Under the plan, Windows 7 Home Premium will be available for $199.99 in stores, $40 less than Windows Vista Home Premium. Even before adjusting for inflation, that matches the original price of Windows XP Home, released in 2001.

Microsoft also will offer current Windows XP and Windows Vista users an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium for $119.99, or $10 less than the comparable Windows Vista upgrade price.

In addition, the company is rolling out a promotion designed to spur early Windows 7 sales, saying it will offer Windows 7 Home Premium upgrades for $49.99 and Windows 7 Professional upgrades for $99.99 to people who place pre-orders during the next two weeks in the U.S. and Canada, with different offers and time frames in several other countries around the world.
The maneuvers reflect the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the Windows 7 release. In addition to the turmoil affecting companies around the world, Microsoft is trying to overcome the troubled tenure of Windows Vista -- which never regained its luster after hardware and software compatibility problems plagued its 2007 release.

Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, who took over after Windows Vista's development, is looking to make the Windows 7 release more smooth. Among other things, the company is being more deliberate in its communications with PC makers and other key industry players, making sure that Microsoft is confident in its timing and plans before going public.

Preliminary versions of Windows 7 have been greeted favorably. Reviewers cite new features such as simpler home networking and a "snap" functionality that lets users quickly adjust open windows to half the size of the screen by dragging them against the side. Software and hardware vendors are looking to take advantage of Windows 7's touch-screen technologies and other new features.

Now, with the Home Premium price reductions, Windows 7 appears to be "off to a good start," said Richard Shim, an industry analyst with the IDC research firm. "There's a lot of doom and gloom in the market right now, but there are signs that it could pick up toward the end of the year, and I think these pricing cuts will definitely be a good influence, to help spur that along," Shim said.

However, Microsoft isn't going as low as Apple is with its OS pricing. The Mac maker has said it will offer users of its existing Mac OS X Leopard the ability to upgrade to its upcoming Snow Leopard update for $29. Users of the older Mac OS X Tiger operating system will be able to move Snow Leopard through a $169 package that includes the operating system and the latest versions of Apple's iLife and iWork suites. Snow Leopard is due out in September, Prior to Windows 7's launch, starting on Friday of this week, Microsoft will offer a "technology guarantee" program to people who buy new Windows Vista-based PCs from participating retailers or PC makers. That program, running through January, will give those PC buyers free upgrades to Windows 7 when it comes out. The offer applies to PCs wih Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate.

The majority of Microsoft's Windows sales come through copies of the operating system pre-installed on PCs, not sold separately at retail, but the company doesn't publicly disclose the prices it charges computer makers.

Many computer users stayed away from Windows Vista and will therefore be deciding whether or not to shift to Windows 7 from the older Windows XP, either by upgrading an existing machine or buying a new computer.

The large remaining user base for the 8-year-old operating system puts Microsoft in "something of an unprecedented position" as it approaches the Windows 7 launch, said industry analyst Charles King of the Hayward, Calif.-based Pund-IT research firm.

"I think Microsoft needs to be very careful in the way that it positions Windows 7 for the many many dedicated users of windows who decided to stick with Windows XP," King said. "The issues around how those customers decide to upgrade will be of paramount importance (to the company) over the next few weeks."

Overall, he said, the pricing announced today "looks pretty fair."

Upgrade pricing for Windows 7 is available to current users of Windows XP and Vista, although people on the older operating system will need to conduct a "clean install," which doesn't preserve existing data or programs as a standard upgrade process does.

Apart from the lower Windows 7 Home Premium prices, and the pre-sale promotion for it and Windows 7 Professional, the upgrade and retail prices for Windows 7 are the same as they were for Windows Vista -- continuing Microsoft's practice of essentially holding the line on Windows pricing for consumers. By comparison, the full version of Windows 95 sold for $209, and an upgrade cost $109.

Always Innovating Touch Book enters production

Always Innovating has begun manufacturing the first batch of its Touch Book computers, and the company expects it to begin shipping in July.

The Touch Book is a mini-computer with two modes. You can use it as a laptop or as a touchscreen tablet. But unlike other convertible tablets including the Gigabyte Touch Note and Asus Eee PC T91, the Touch Book doesn’t have a swivel for folding the screen down over the keyboard. Instead, it has a detachable screen which can be used as a standalone device. When you want to use the keyboard, you just slide the screen into its keyboard dock.

The Touch Book has an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a TI OMAP3530 CPU with 256MB of RAM, and two internal batteries, a 6,000mAh and a 12,000 battery. There are 7 USB ports, including three external and four internal ports, with three of those internal ports reserved for the WiFi, Bluetooth, and Keyboard. The Touch Book uses an 8GB SD card for its primary storage and includes a USB 802.11b/g/n WiFi dongle. The keyboard is described as being 95% the size of a full keyboard, which is unusual for a machine with an 8.9 inch display.

Always Innovating says the machine’s Linux-based operating system is still a work in progress and that anyone who pre-ordered a Touch Book and receives one in July should expect to be working with beta software, although support and updates will be available.

The Touch Book tablet is available for pre-order for $299, while a tablet and keyboard will set you back $399.

Putting the Kindle DX Through Its Paces

After a fair amount of hullabaloo surrounding its announcement in May, Amazon is now shipping its large-screen Kindle DX. I got to spend some time with the Kindle recently. Here’s how it shakes out.


As with previous versions of the e-reader, the DX’s $489 price tag includes a wireless connection, and books are still about $10 a pop. You can also read e-books you’ve bought for the Kindle on your iPhone. So what do you get for the higher price? For starters, it has a 9.7-inch diagonal electronic ink display (compared with the Kindle 2’s 6-inch diagonal screen), which increases its total footprint to 10.4 inches by 7.2 inches -– almost the size of a piece of paper.
You can also rotate the DX so text can be read in landscape mode. The auto-rotate feature seems somewhat unpredictable –- sometimes it would rotate at the slightest turn and other times it wouldn’t rotate at all. Turning the device off and then back on seemed to do the trick. 

Amazon hopes its larger display will attract readers who want to read documents, newspapers, textbooks and other materials that would benefit from a larger screen. The company is working with textbook publishers and a handful of universities that will offer the Kindle DX to students. It also includes a built-in PDF reader, using Adobe’s mobile reader. For those who want — or need — to zoom in on a picture or a chart, the DX lets you do that, too. 

The larger size also means a bigger keyboard. While its feedback is slightly better than the one on the Kindle 2, the wider DX e-reader makes typing a little awkward. Of course, keyboard feel is one of those things where everybody has their own opinion. All I’m saying is this: a) I have small hands and b) I’ve gotten used to typing with my thumbs on a BlackBerry, so the DX experience was not ideal for me.

There’s a new “experimental” tab on the main menu, which offers users a simple Web browser, the ability to play MP3 music files you’ve added to your Kindle from your computer and Amazon’s text-to-speech option.

Amazon labels its browser option “Basic Web,” which is fitting. It comes with preloaded bookmarks for pared-down versions of Web sites like Google, CNN and Yelp. I tried to get around the need to subscribe to the newspaper by going to nytimes.com, but quickly discovered that the browser doesn’t support the full version of the Web that we view on our computers (and now, some smartphones). Tricky.

I also tested the text-to-speech option, which you can access by pressing the “Aa” key on the keyboard (the font size, words per line and screen rotation can also be changed when you click that key). You can still find the text-to-speech feature under the main menu, but it’s been moved to the experimental tab. At the default speed, the voice reads a tad too fast, but at the slower speed, it’s in slow motion. Also, Amazon has some work to do to get the computer-generated voice to pronounce words like real humans. 

When I reviewed the Kindle 2 in February, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to get on the e-book bandwagon. Still, I found it to be convenient and just the right size to fit in my handbag. It at least felt like a book. But after toting around the Kindle DX, it suddenly feels as if I am carrying a computer. Furthermore, its larger size means the DX is, while no heavyweight, still heavier than I think I’d want it to be. (One indication: eventual palm fatigue when holding the DX in one hand, as I would when riding the subway.)

For those of us who don’t need to read PDFs or, say, all 1,328 pages of “Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies,” the regular Kindle should suffice.

Six Editions of Windows 7: What's With All the Whining?

People love to pick on Microsoft, and often rightly so. The software giant is directly responsible for numerous security holes, endless patching, Bob, Clippy, and Windows Vista. It is so easy and fun to pick on Microsoft that people often simply parrot whatever criticisms seem to be in vogue. But one criticism I'm just plain tired of hearing is how Microsoft should pare down Windows to just one edition.

Let’s think this over for just a moment. Let’s say that Microsoft follows its critics' advice and offers just Windows 7 Ultimate. They pick a nice round number, say $125, and price it at that. Suddenly, the cheapest Windows computers have jumped over 1/3 in price from under $300 to over $400.

Oh, wait, that isn't what you had in mind? Were you hoping it would be priced closer to $50? Netbooks would still go up in price and gain functionality that will never be used. Microsoft would then see a steep drop in profitability as it chops about $100 off the price of each business computer. Most corporations aren't altruistic organizations, and although Bill Gates has become a leading philanthropist, I wouldn't expect the rest of Microsoft to follow suit.

Apple gets away with a single version of OS X because it sells a handful of mostly high-end computers and has enough control to build profitability into every unit.

In contrast, Windows is sold by thousands of vendors on computers that range from dirt-cheap, stripped entry-level computers to high-end workstations priced $10,000 and above, and including every price point and form factor in between.

Linux also has a myriad of distributions, but nobody complains about this, probably because the most full-featured distros are just as free as the most stripped-down ones.

Let’s review our choices:

Windows 7 Starter: Great for netbooks and older systems that will never act as a DVR and don't need to join an Active Directory domain. It's a bummer that it lacks Aero and Touch, but what do you expect for something that tacks on a paltry $15 to the price of the hardware. Your netbook probably won't have a touch-screen or decent graphics chip anyway.

Windows 7 Basic: For “emerging markets” which means you'll only see it on an internet café computer somewhere in Laos.

Windows 7 Home Premium: This edition of Windows has existed for years, but used to be called Media Center Edition (MCE) in the XP days. This is what to use if you want to be able to hook your computer up to your TV to use as a DVR and media hub. Virtually all home computers and non-business laptops will run this.

Windows 7 Professional: Basically the same as Home Premium, but adds Active Directory domain membership support. This is the edition that will come with most office computers.

Windows 7 Enterprise: It doesn't matter what this has because you'll never see it unless you're given a computer from a large corporation. (It adds booting from a virtual drive and BitLocker encryption to the Business edition.)

Windows 7 Ultimate: This is for the person who also bought an “Extreme Edition” CPU and cannot stand the thought that somehow, someone out there might have something better than him. Microsoft deserves the opportunity to milk all the money they can from this kind of user.

In reality, people will almost never make a decision on which version of Windows to buy. They'll just use what came on their machine, which makes all of this clamor about the number of options available little more than unhelpful noise.

Samsung B7610 Louvre with AMOLED touchscreen emerges

A new image purporting to be of Samsung’s B7610 “Louvre” Windows Mobile smartphone has emerged, complete with the latest version of the handset’s spec-list. The Louvre is believed to have a 3.5-inch AMOLED WVGA display, 5-megapixel autofocus camera with image stabilization, and 3G 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity.



There’s also WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS, an FM radio with RDS and a microSDHC slot content with cards up to 32GB. Samsung have also apparently squeezed in an accelerometer and 1GB ROM, together with a standard mini-USB 2.0 port (a welcome change from their previous proprietary connector) despite the B7610’s overall dimensions of 112 x 58 x 16 mm.

At launch, which is expected to be roughly July on Orange Business and SFR Business Team in France, the Louvre will run Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro with Samsung’s own graphical overlay. However it will be upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.5 once that OS is released. Pricing is tipped to be between €250 and €500 ($352-704).

Archos 9 PC Tablet: first video!

The Archos 9 PC Tablet sporting touchscreen Windows 7 has only just been announced, but already the lil’ MID has been captured and caught on camera. Read on to see it in action on video!

Archos launches 9” Windows 7 Tablet UMPC

Archos has announced the Archos9, a UMPC that runs Windows 7. Its predecessors may be basic touchscreen internet media tablets, but the Archos9 can run a full OS. Some other features include a built-in webcam, 120GB of memory, full touch support, an external mic, streo speakers, and an optical trackpad as well as an on-screen keyboard.

The tablet will be available in Europe this October, just in time for Windows 7’s release. It will cost you €450 ($635).

It may not be Android, but it’s a full OS at least.

Windows 7’s touching impact on 2010 hardware sales?

CNET’s Ina Fried has recently reported on Windows 7 not being set to jolt the hardware market roaring back to life, quoting Microsoft Senior VP Bill Veghte saying: "History would tell us that generally as you ship a Windows release into the market...the bump is very modest. You will see a little bit, but it is modest."

Veghte went on to explain that people would go on to buy new PCs as the economy recovered and that no-one is using PCs any less at the moment.

Apple’s US $29 OS X upgrade for existing OS X 10.5 users to 10.6 is a clear challenge to Microsoft’s pricing policy for Windows 7 upgrades, and in likely retaliation for Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunter” TV ads which saw “Lauren” proclaim she wasn’t cool enough to own a Mac.

But even if Microsoft launches Windows 7 in its two retail versions at really incredibly low pricing, which could encourage PC owners to try upgrading to postpone spending money on buying a new computer, Windows 7’s support for multi-touch technology is fantastic.

Using a Tablet PC running Windows 7 with (currently) 4 points of multi-touch enabled is really fantastic, bringing the iPhone experience to a much larger screen, with more points of multi-touch to be software enabled on HP’s TouchSmart tx2 tablet (and coming on future devices).

I’ve been able to try it on that HP tx2, with the upcoming Windows 7 Touch Pack, and unlike some earlier demos I’ve seen on the web, the experience is smooth, very iPhone-like in some programs, and brings the entire Tablet PC concept to life – especially when you retain the ability to use a proper stylus as well.

The Win 7 Touch Pack includes a Virtual Earth app as seen on the Surface PC, the “photo” corkboard also from Surface that two people can independently manipulate photos on-screen, with fingers, at the same time (up to 84 fingers simultaneously on Surface however), the Blackboard which is similar to Crayon Physics, games and more, and is but a continuing indicator of a rich touch interface future to come.

Dell’s Studio One 19 supports multi-touch, and plenty more touch and multi-touch screens, systems, notebooks, netbooks and smartphones are on the way.

Asus has its Eee PC T91 multitouch netbook tablet coming soon, and with Windows 7 the true explosion of Windows based touch products is expected to come, with Apple still yet to make its on-screen multi-touch technology a reality beyond the 3.5-inch iPhone.

But aren't touch screens too expensive? Aren't they just being called unneeded bells and whistles?

Yes, multi-touch screens are still expensive, but prices will fall as production increases, because once people try it they’ll like it, and want it – already evidenced by the iPhone phenomenon.
You can even multi-touch type on a large on-screen keyboard if you want, arguably making the Win 7 Tablet PC multi-touch interface the most advanced available.

It’s also very interesting to see that Apple has including an oil-resistant coating to the iPhone 3G S multi-touch screen. This helps you more easily remove fingerprints and any oil from your face with a soft, lint-free cloth, rather than having residue on your screen that’s not easy to clean.

Clearly more rapid developments in exploring the true touch screen interface are now arriving, with the whole concept of touch itself to be massively upgraded by Microsoft’s Xbox 360 “Project Natal” whole body interface project just unveiled at this year’s E3 Gaming Expo.

While Windows 7 might not have a massive impact on hardware sales this year, but at least it’s launching more than early enough to capture all the Christmas, end-of-year, 2010 back-to-school, holiday shopping season, and not launching a new OS at the end of January as happened with Windows Vista!

Despite the economic crisis, new computer purchases will still happen this year, and much better sales could happen than Microsoft is predicting (and clearly purposefully pre-lowering expectations).

But as new multi-touch screens, notebooks, netbooks, Tablet PCs, the expected multi-touch Apple “MacBook” netbook arrives and multi-touch versions of Linux become popular, multi-touch’s momentum will be unstoppable, and that old touch-free PC you might have upgraded won’t be the PC you’ll be using once a new multi-touch model is in your life.

Maybe 2010 is too soon, and 2011 is more realistic, but multi-touch technology has finally matured to the iPhone level for PCs, will be available at retail, and despite its sophistication is but the beginning.

Giving a PC your own personal touch won’t just be seen as changing your screensaver, desktop background or sound scheme anymore, but a great new way to interact with your computer, the Internet and all that information in a more natural and human way than ever before. About time!

The Asus EeeTop: A Nettop in Search of a Mission

The Asus EeeTop ET1602 is an interesting computer with some potential for home and business use. However, it will surely cause considerable discussion over what users might really do with it.

The ET1602 is essentially a netbook-like computer with a 14-inch by 8-inch LCD touchscreen wrapped around it. With an overall unit measurement of 16 X 11.5 inches, it's in some ways a fully functional computer, and in others it's more reminiscent of a wireless PDA from yesteryear.


Sure, you can attach the included 12.5-by-5.5-inch keyboard (sans keypad) and mouse to it and have a nifty portable computer sporting a non-clamshell design . Or you can move it around from room to room with its built-in handle attached to the back. Leave the mouse and keyboard behind, and use your finger and a virtual on-screen keyboard for input instead -- but what else can you do with it?

Heck, my several-year-old HP (NYSE: HPQ) widescreen laptop has the same-sized LCD screen and a bigger keyboard. Plus, it has a built-in optical drive (the ET1602 does not come with an external drive) and a more spacious hard drive. So what is to gain? The new Atom N270 + 945 GSE processor in the Asus pales in performance to the aging AMD (NYSE: AMD) Turion64 mobile processor in my laptop.

Still, the Top conveniently plays audio and video selections on any tabletop or wall, and serves nicely as a digital photo presenter. The EeeTop also can be a nifty way to provide presentations at meetings. Just wherever you put it, make sure a power supply is nearby, as Asus does not consider the EeeTop to be a fully portable computer -- it lacks a built-in battery.


Failed OS Flexibility

Perhaps the EeeTop is a device that paves the way for the future of computing. This device is easy to lug around at barely 10 lbs., and it is convenient to reach over and enter notes and quick emails and perform other computing tasks just by touching the screen.

If Asus can upgrade the Windows XP operating system (OS) to run Windows Vista or even Windows 7, the EeeTop might have some staying power. Windows XP's days are numbered as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) shuts down its long-term support. Few alternatives to running an out-of-date OS on this unit may exist.

My hopes for running Linux on the Top were dashed. When I used an external DVD drive to run a Ubuntu Linux Live CD session on the EeeTop, the effort failed. The video system just would not work beyond producing a black screen and a badly disconfigured rainbow array when I tried to jump-start the configuration using Generic settings.

The Top also failed to handle Linux via booting a session of Puppy Linux from the CD and USB drives. Except for two very old and underpowered vintage laptops, I have never not been able to get Puppy Linux to run on any computer.
Netbook Alternative?

I suppose the concept behind the all-in-one EeeTop computer is to solve the shortcomings of tiny netbooks with their puny keyboards and eye-straining screens. Once I disconnected the EeeTop's keyboard and mouse and truly got into touchscreen computing, I recognized the novelty of the computer and wished the virtual keyboard and SoftStylus features came with my netbook.

Typing on the virtual keyboard and scratching letters in the SoftStylus writing window was actually fun. The letters from the SoftStylus pad instantly appeared on the document page. Fun as they were, however, the acts of typing on the virtual keyboard and trying to write legibly on the SoftStylus pad were both also awkward. It takes practice to do either productively. Obviously, any large data-entry jobs will still require the physical keyboard.

Using my finger, I often smudged the screen and pressed two adjacent keys. The letter-recognition software is much more accurate than the earlier versions of this technology that I once used on a PDA. Still, my sloppy penmanship was my nemesis here, as it always has been in writing script.

I resorted to using a stylus from an out-of-use PDA. For some reason, Asus does not include a stylus with the EeeTop. The company does, however, include a spot to store one on the back of the unit.
The Configuration

The Atom processor is augmented with 1 GB DDR2 memory (nonuppgradable) and the Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) GMA 950 graphics system. Internal storage is provided by a SATAII 5400 rpm hard drive partitioned into 40 GB for the OS and 104 GB for data storage.

Also built in is a 1.3 megapixel webcam and a microphone. Located on the center of the lower front panel, the speakers approach the quality of a high-end monitor with built-in speakers rather than the hollow sounds coming from most laptop computers and netbooks.

The back of the unit sports four USB ports, an Ethernet jack, a DCIM port and audio in/out jacks, as well as DC power input and a lock slot. Two more USB ports and the card reader on the left side. The card reader handles MMC, SD, Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro storage media, but not the XD cards my digital camera uses.

Wireless 802.11n support is built in. Volume and brightness controls are easy to reach on the lower left side under the screen. That is also where the indicator lights for wireless connection and CPU activity are located.
Using It

Much like some netbook installations, the EeeTop has an Easy Mode along with the standard Windows XP interface. Easy Mode displays four large category icons for Communication, Fun, Work and Tools in a menu bar at the top of the screen. Touching or clicking each icon opens rows of icons that fill the screen for program choices to run.

The bottom of the screen shows the typical Windows XP start menu. Touch anywhere on the screen to have the Eee Bar icon appear. Tap it to see it extend across the screen just above the Windows menu bar. Here is where you find one-touch access to the special program features that drive the EeeTop.

A house icon at the far right of the menu bar that sits at the top of the screen minimizes the menu bar to the Windows system bar at the bottom of the screen. I like this arrangement. It allows both novice and experienced computer users to switch seamlessly between both views on the same desktop.
Performance Factors

The Top is definitely not a computer to buy for high-performance or high-end gaming. The Intel GMA 950 just does not cut it enough to play many of the videos I clicked on while surfing the Web. However, this is the same fault I find with the Atom processor in other netbook products running both Windows XP and Linux operating systems.

It is whisper quiet -- I'm still not sure there a fan inside. Overall, the touch-optimized software applications work exceedingly well.

I discovered that the more I played with the Asus EeeTop, the more comfortable I became using it. No doubt this model would be a nice diversion from my other more traditional boxes, but I doubt it could ever become my first choice for consistent work tasks.

One of the EeeTop's neatest apps is the virtual notepad. Users can write messages and reminder notes with their fingers and post them right on the desktop like a traditional sticky-note.

The EeeTop's price range of US$480 to $519 makes it the same kind of tempting choice as deciding whether to buy a netbook over a more costly desktop or notebook computer.

Touchscreen ASUS Eee PC T91 hitting UK stores next month

ASUS' first touchscreen Eee PC - the Eee PC T91 - has been doing the rounds for some time and has already surfaced in certain regions, but UK availability remains nonexistent.

Fortunately for UK consumers wanting to get some of the netbook-turned-tablet action, ASUS has confirmed that the Eee PC T91 is expected to be available "early July", and that it'll be priced from £449.




The head-spinning netbook, pictured above, measures 225mm x 164mm x 28.4mm and weighs 0.96kg. It features an 8.9in resistive touchscreen panel and comes equipped with ASUS' in-house TouchSuite software - albeit lying above the touch-unfriendly Windows XP.

Powering the Eee PC T91 is Intel's 1.33GHz Atom Z520 processor, coupled with the US15W chipset. There's 1GB of DDR2 memory, and an 82GB "Hybrid Storage" system that consists of a 16GB solid state drive, a 16GB SD card, a 30GB hard drive and 20GB of cloud-based Eee storage.

With the aid of the T91's Hybrid Storage, ASUS reckons the unit can run for around five hours from a single charge.


Elsewhere, there's Wireless N, Bluetooth, and Ethernet connectivity. That's joined by a 3-in-1 card reader, VGA out, audio jacks, a pair of USB ports, a 0.3 megapixel webcam with mic, and built-in stereo speakers.

Not a bad looking system, we reckon, but despite the tablet-like functionality, a suggested retail price of £449 may scare those who've become accustomed to sub-£300 netbooks. Furthermore, the Eee PC T91's screen isn't multi-touch capable - and we're hearing that a multi-touch model will be introduced at a later date sporting Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system.