With Windows 7 officially outed, the screenshots, video and first-impressions have been coming thick and fast. Whether you’re a media junkie, a tableteer or just wondering what your work desktop might look like after the next upgrade cycle, we’ve been gathering up all the details you need.
ASUS’ confirmation that their touchscreen Eee PC models are imminent meant that we would have to decide whether “netbook” was a suitable name for a slate-format budget ultraportable device, but what thinking time we had has been cut short with the arrival of the BF Evergreen 7010A. Based around a 7-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen and running Windows CE, BF Evergreen themselves sidestep the arguments and merely call the tablet a “low cost laptop”; is this one of the first “nettabs” or “netslates”?
Windows 7 is everywhere right now. And it’s understandable. After all, it’s hotly anticipated. But as embargoes lift, we’re getting more and more tidbits from features to image leaks. For instance, this screenshot leaked out this morning during a developer’s conference.
We’ve been hearing about Windows 7 for quite some time now and as information leaks out, we’re getting a better idea about what this new operating system will contain. Specifically, it’s very Vista-esque. However, today we’ve learned the pre-beta release, which is set to be distributed to developers at PDC, will not be outfitted with all the Windows 7 beta has to offer.
Steve Ballmer would like you to know that, if you’d rather not bother with Windows Vista and instead just kick back until the Microsoft’s next-gen OS Windows 7, that’s okay with him. I mean, he’d prefer you to upgrade now – in fact, if he was you then he’d definitely be installing Vista, probably right this second – but Microsoft will be there waiting for you when you want Windows 7. Speaking at the final Gartner Symposium ITxpo keynote in Orlando yesterday, the Microsoft CEO defended Vista adoption rates as well as protesting claims that the company’s upcoming OS is a “minor release”.
Could Microsoft’s upcoming cloud OS be called Windows Strata? That’s the rumor circulating after sessions at the Professional Developers Conference, held at the end of October, focused on “Windows Strata” showed up on the PDC website.
Multitouch isn’t a total stranger to notebooks – Dell’s Latitude XT shipped with a capacitive touchscreen that, in July, got a firmware update to enable pinch-zooming and other gestures, while Synaptics’ latest touchpads have multitouch-style gestures - but it’s been a harder sell than in, say, Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. Windows 7 will ship with support for multitouch, but manufacturers are more cautious; according to a Fujitsu spokesperson, touch-sensitivity on a notebook “is not intuitive”.
Microsoft are poised to release a new internet-based OS, tentatively called Windows Cloud, which will be separate from the company’s next-gen desktop OS Windows 7 and offer online access to things like Office. The system, which will be announced next month, is being described as “software plus services”: the core applications in Microsoft’s catalog with the added bonus of web-based functionality.
If half the problem with MIDs and UMPCs is explaining to would-be buyers why they really ought to consider one, the other is actually finding them for sale. Aigo’s P8860 MID is a case in point; on sale since August in Hong Kong, trying to find one elsewhere will force you onto eBay. Now, finally, an official reseller has been nominated, Direct From Japan, who will happily ship you the P8860 anywhere worldwide.
Averatec have taken the wraps off of their latest netbook, the Buddy, with a 10.2-inch screen and Intel Atom 1.6GHz single-core processor. As you might expect, the specifications aren’t anything groundbreaking: 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard-drive and WiFi.
SlashGear Japan
