11/20, 5:40pm
Next Windows again on 3-year schedule
Microsoft should once again release its next mainstream version of Windows about three years after the last, a roadmap obtained this week reveals. The schedule has the major revision, tentatively titled "Windows 8," launching in 2012 or about three years after Windows 7. It will purportedly keep in step with a rhythm developed by Microsoft that has Microsoft launching major releases four years apart, as Windows Server 2008 is considered a major release where its R2 upgrade and even Windows 7 are both treated as "release updates."
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11/20, 4:10pm
MS refutes talk of NSA-made security hole
Microsoft in a response late Thursday rejected assertions that it has put in a security "backdoor" at the request of the National Security Agency. The denial comes after the NSA's information assurance lead, Richard Schaeffer, told a US Senate terrorism subcommittee that the agency had worked with Microsoft to improve Windows 7's "security guide" and sparked fears that the government had deliberately left a secret window the NSA could use to spy on users.
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11/19, 5:25pm
Dell hurt by Acer, corporate fears
Dell today posted disappointing results for its latest quarter ended in October. The company saw its year-over-year revenue drop 15 percent to about $12.9 billion and its net income drop even further, falling 54 percent to $337 million. Both decreases were blamed on poor results both in the public sector and in its staple home PC business, where its shipments were up about 17 percent compared to a year earlier but its revenue was down 10 percent, an indication that many buyers were opting for less expensive PCs.
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11/19, 4:45pm
MS shareholder meeting shows share worries
Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer today warned at a yearly shareholders' meeting that the company needed to improve the standing of Windows in the future. The executive was emphatic that Microsoft was still in a comfortable position with "96 out of 100" choosing Windows worldwide but acknowledged that Apple had cut into Microsoft's share in the past year. He downplayed the amount, labeling it a "a couple of tenths of a percent" but added that even the claimed amount was significant and worth fighting for.
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11/19, 4:35pm
Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 coming soon
Microsoft announced on Thursday it will soon release Power Pack 3 for Windows Home Server. The update is meant to improve the integration of Windows Home Server with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by allowing backup and restore of Windows 7 comptuers, Windows 7 Libraries integration, new features in Media Center and added support for netbooks. Windows Home Server is meant for network-attached storage devices.
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11/19, 3:00pm
Dell Studio 17 Touch appears
Dell today quietly slipped the Studio 17 Touch into its lineup as its first touchscreen notebook. The 17-inch system adds multi-touch input and carries Dell's own suite of touch apps, such as its photo browser. Most of the design remains the same and is treated as a desktop replacement and media center hybrid with a 2.1-channel JBL speaker system and HDMI output.
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11/19, 1:30pm
HP Mini 110 netbook due at AT&T on Nov. 22nd
AT&T on Thursday announced it will soon add the HP Mini 110 netbook to its range of 3G mobile broadband equipped netbooks. The Windows 7-equipped netbook sports a 10.1-inch LED display, an Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM. There is otherwise a 160GB hard drive, along with a webcam and built-in microphone.
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11/19, 1:00pm
Arcos 9 tablet is delayed until early in 2010
Despite an official promise of launching its 9-inch mobile tablet PC at the end of October, Archos has not delivered and is now saying the device will not see store shelves until early in 2010. The device will ship early in December, but retailers such as Amazon and Walmart will not get the device until the new year. Its specs are expected to carry over, including the inclusion of Windows 7 Starter Edition and the $500 price tag.
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11/19, 11:30am
Lenovo's AMD-based ThinkPads in spec leaks
Two of Lenovo's first notebooks to use AMD processors have been given hard specs in a German leak. True to form, the ThinkPad X100e is now known to be Lenovo's first portable in between netbooks and notebooks and should use a 1.6GHz Athlon Neo, an 11.6-inch 1366x768 display and a multi-touch trackpad. Configurations will vary but should hold up to 4GB of RAM, a 3- or 6-cell battery, and between 160GB and 500GB of hard drive space.
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11/19, 10:40am
iBuyPower Chimera 2 gaming PC now out
iBuyPower on Wednesday introduced its latest gaming PC, the Chimera 2. The various hardware components are housed in a new Chimera Inferno II Chassis with a wraparound flame color scheme. Users can spec a 2.66GHz Intel Core i5 or i7 but can also switch over to AMD’s 2.8GHz or 3.2GHz Phenom II processors.
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11/19, 8:15am
ASUS' fastest netbook to have $500 price
ASUS' Eee PC 1201N today received more definitive release details for the US. The American version will have both the 1.6GHz dual-core Atom 330 and NVIDIA Ion chipset that should give it both faster overall performance and the option of 1080p video, including in Flash 10.1. The netbook will be one of the first to come with Windows 7 Home Premium and accordingly come with 2GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive.
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11/18, 12:50pm
Internet Explorer 9 still early
Microsoft on the second day of its Professional Developers Conference by providing an early look at Internet Explorer 9. The new browser is just three weeks into development but is already expected to significantly outperform its predecessor. The new version will take advantage of hardware acceleration from graphics chipsets that support D2D in DirectX to offload many of the visual elements of browsing, such as maps or sub-pixel rendering. Microsoft's aim is to let the hardware "shine through" in the browser, chief software architect Steven Sinofsky said.
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11/17, 5:55pm
Public Chrome OS preview soon
Google's rumored Chrome OS release should primarily center on its first public demo of the platform, a notice tonight. An event is said due on Thursday that should include a "complete overview" of the web-centric OS, including its technical underpinnings as well as demos. It's now thought by TechCrunch that a code release is possible but that a more formal release isn't coming until 2010.
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11/17, 4:20pm
Sony intros Signature VAIO W with snowflakes
Sony on Tuesday launched the first VAIO W series netbook for its Signature Collection, with the Holiday Sparkle. The 10.1-inch netbook sports a white exterior peppered with a decorative snowflake pattern that will appear different depending on the angle it's viewed from. Other specs of this special edition netbook remain the same as other W series netbooks, including the 1.66GHz Atom, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive.
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11/17, 3:15pm
MS loses lawsuit over Windows fonts
Microsoft today lost a lawsuit that could temporarly block it from selling netbooks and other PCs in China (registration required). A Beijing Intermediary People’s Court determined on Tuesday that two fonts used in Windows 98 SE, 2000, XP and Server 2003 weren't properly licensed from Zhongyi Electronic and that Microsoft must pull sales of any of those releases from the Chinese market. The two companies already had a license agreement but have disagreed over what it covered.
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11/17, 2:45pm
Origin outs gaming desktop PC, notebook
Origin PC on Tuesday introduced new customizable gaming PCs, with the Genesis desktop and 18.4-inch Eon18 notebook. The former can be had with a choice of processors, including a quad-core Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 975 that's been overclocked to 4.2GHz. As a gaming PC, the former can also be equipped with up to three 1GB GeForce GTX 285 video cards.
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11/17, 12:30pm
Adamo XPS ships Dec. 22, ready to order
Dell today at last began taking orders for the Adamo XPS teased over the past several months. The system comes in just one default configuration and color, arriving for $1,799 with a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB solid-state drive loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium. Contrary to earlier reports, the system will use just Intel's GMA 4500 graphics instead of NVIDIA hardware.
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11/16, 3:10pm
Gartner sees PCs hitting all-time high
Gartner today said the computer industry is recovering much faster than expected. Based on processor sales, the analyst group estimates PCs have turned from double-digit year-over-year declines at the start of the year to slight increases by the end. It still expects processors, flash memory and other chip technology to face an 11.4 percent decline for all of 2009 but also anticipates levels jumping back to an all-time high seen in 2008.
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11/15, 10:30pm
Samsung Go AT&T's next 3G portable
(Updated with pricing) AT&T added to its netbook range with its first Samsung model. The Go is a rebadge of the NC310 that comes with 3G for the carrier's network as well as Windows 7 Starter Edition in place of Windows XP. Samsung promises about four hours of battery life using the stock battery pack.
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11/12, 10:40am
Furthers campaign against Windows 7
Apple has deployed a new Get a Mac ad, this time directed not at TV audiences but at YouTube viewers. Mac (Justin Long) and PC (John Hodgman) stand at one side of the front page, watching security camera footage at the top showing former PC users entering Apple Stores. The people are switching instead of upgrading to Windows 7, Hodgman complains, because Apple is highest in customer satisfaction, and since they would have to migrate files anyway, they might as well switch to a Mac.
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11/12, 9:45am
Original claims deemed 'inaccurate'
The appearance of Windows 7 is not based on Mac OS X, says Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc, writing on the official Windows Blog. A Microsoft partner group manager, Simon Aldous, recently told the the press that the "look and feel" of the new OS was based deliberately on the "graphical and easy to use" nature of the Mac interface, allegedly one of its main draws. Windows 7 does feature elements strongly similar to Mac OS X, such as the Expose-like Aero Peek and a Dock-like taskbar.
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11/11, 3:50pm
Continues to feature Vista-based core
The "look and feel" of the Windows 7 interface borrows from Macs, according to a Microsoft partner group manager, Simon Aldous. "One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it's very graphical and easy to use," explains Aldous in an interview. "What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 -- whether it's traditional format or in a touch format -- is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics."
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11/10, 5:55pm
Matrox intros two new graphics cards
Matrox on Tuesday prepped for a record-setting launch of the M9188 PCIe x16 Octal graphics card. The PCI Express board supports as many as eight DisplayPort or single-link DVI outputs from a single Linux or Windows computer. The single-slot card otherwise sports 2GB of memory and can handle resolutions of up to 2560x1600 in DisplayPort mode, or enough for a 30-inch display on each jack. DVI is limited to 1920x1200.
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11/10, 9:45am
Acer Aspire to reach record-low price
Best Buy this morning promised to have the least expensive full-size notebook ever in advance of Black Friday. Starting Wednesday, the retailer plans to sell an Acer Aspire notebook for $250, or below the price of many netbooks. The exact model is unnamed but should have a 2.2GHz Celeron, 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and Windows 7.
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11/09, 5:55pm
HP LE1x11 displays, Pro 3000 PCs debut
HP kicked off its week by launching a pair of business-focused LCDs as well as two desktops to match. The 17-inch LE1711 and its closely related 19-inch counterpart, the LE1911, are spun as eco-friendly displays that still use conventional backlights but use 50 percent less mercury and entirely scrap toxics like arsenic, BFRs and PVC. They also meet the requirements to earn the latest Energy Star badge.
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11/09, 4:15pm
ARM-based smartbooks won't get Windows 7 for now
Microsoft's corporate VP for the Windows Platform Strategy, Mike Nash, revealed in a Digitimes report that Windows 7 will not support ARM processors in the near future, as Microsoft will continue its close cooperation with Intel. This is significant as numerous manufacturers will be bringing out smartbook PCs powered by ARM CPUs in 2010. Nash did point out that Windows CE, which supports ARM processors, can be used to power smartbooks.
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11/09, 3:50pm
ASUS multi-touch tablet PC now at Amazon
The ASUS Eee PC T91MT convertible netbook is now avaiable at Amazon. The 8.9-inch multi-touch netbook was first mentioned in a roadmap leak for ASUS, and has a 32GB solid state drive but also includes 500GB of online storage from ASUS. It is powered by a 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor, and there is 1GB of RAM, which can be doubled by the owner.
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11/09, 3:35pm
ASUS, MSI motherboards remain troublesome
Gigabyte has released a new beta BIOS for its GA-P55-UD4P motherboard, addressing problems with iPhone sync on certain Windows 7 systems. Issues are said to remain with ASUS and MSI motherboards, for which no patched software is available. People may nevertheless be able to solve errors by upgrading to the latest available BIOS and chipset drivers, or running Windows in Vista SP2 compatibility mode.
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11/08, 1:25pm
Genius' low-cost tablet tested
Genius' EasyPen i405 tablet promises to undercut the mainstream in tablets by offering a substantial number of drawing features attached to a reasonable price tag. However, can it compare to the user experience of industry titans like Wacom, whose businesses revolve almost exclusively around pen input? We take a look in our review.
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11/06, 3:50pm
Lenovo ThinkPad X100e may reach CES
Lenovo's rumored ThinkPad netbook will launch at the start of the next year, a leak today says. It's now purportedly named the ThinkPad X100e and may ship on January 5th, just ahead of CES. System specs are only guessed at but may not necessarily cling to the Atoms found in the IdeaPads; instead, it's speculated that Lenovo may use either Intel's CULV processors or an AMD Athlon Neo.
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11/06, 8:10am
Vista PC users in no rush to replace
Windows 7 isn't having as large an impact on PC sales as initially thought, sources from manufacturers said on Friday. Although US retail sales were up 49 percent, those speaking to DigiTimes say they didn't see a major spike in late October and don't expect one for the rest of 2009. The turnout has been soft enough that some notebook producers are actually facing overstock as they ordered more portables than demand required.
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11/05, 6:45pm
NPD says Win 7 units soar, cash modest
The NPD Group today revealed that initial Windows 7 sales were more than twice as strong as for Vista. Although declining to provide the number of copies estimated sold, the researchers note that boxed, retail unit sales of the new OS were 234 percent higher in the first few days than the 2007 release. The jump is credited to both to steep pre-order discounts, strong marketing and similar approaches that helped ship a large number of initial copies.
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11/05, 5:30pm
Win 7 10-day sales best ever for MS
Sales of Windows 7 have broken Microsoft's sales records for an initial operating system launch, company CEO Steve Ballmer said at a Japanese press event today. The executive said early sales have been "fantastic" and that the new OS has generated more revenue in its first 10 days than any earlier version of Windows during a similar timeframe. He declined to provide specific revenue or unit numbers.
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11/04, 6:05pm
Sony VAIO P gets US upgrade
Sony tonight upgraded its extra-small VAIO P netbook in the US to keep in sync with Windows 7. The new models now all run Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional and with this change alone should run much faster than the older models bogged down by Vista's steep requirements. They likewise have been brought into step with Japanese updates and have the option of up to a 2GHz Atom, a 256GB solid-state drive and a champagne-colored shell.
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11/04, 3:05pm
Microsoft cuts go beyond planned 5K
Microsoft today confirmed late rumors and said it has cut 800 additional jobs. The positions are spread across many of the company's divisions and are above and beyond the 5,000 cuts planned at the start of the year. No direct explanation is given other than that the company says it still has to "manage [its] businesses closely" and watch for where it can trim costs.
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11/03, 5:00pm
Walmart weekend deals on electronics leaked
Walmart will be selling Xbox 360 Arcade edition for $199 bundled with a $100 gift card this upcoming Saturday, Kotaku reported on Tuesday. If true, this would be the best deal for the popular gaming console to date. At the same time, the leaked inventory screen capture reveals a number of other items on sale, including a $148 Sony Blu-ray disc player and a 42-inch Sharp TV for $498.
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11/03, 1:15pm
Toshiba outs updated Windows 7 notebooks
Toshiba released updated Satellite Pro, Tecra and Portégé business notebooks on Tuesday to get its work PCs onboard with Windows 7. The Satellite Pro line features new screen sizes, including traditional 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch displays as well as a 13.3-inch touchscreen. Most of these business-oriented notebooks will ship with Windows XP Professional and Windows 7 Professional on separate DVDs so businesses can upgrade whenever they are ready. The new Satellite Pro U500 Touch has a multi-touch display and ships with Toshiba's touch-ready productivity software, LifeSpace.
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11/03, 10:35am
Windows 7 creates short PC sales boost
The launch of Windows 7 has triggered at least a temporary spike in PC sales, Morgan Stanley analyst Katheryn Huberty says in an investment note issued yesterday. Pointing to NPD sales data, the researcher notes that computer sales jumped about 40 percent during the week of Microsoft's OS launch compared to the same time a year earlier. The number is partly offset by buyers holding off on purchases during the previous two weeks, when sales dropped 29 percent and then 2 percent versus 2008, but is well above earlier weeks, when sales were up by at most 19 percent.
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11/02, 10:40pm
Connection failures report on P55 components
Intel is reportedly investigating a compatibility issue involving the iPhone and certain chipsets, according to CNET News. A number of users have reported that iTunes 9 for Windows is able to recognize the iPhone, however the device cannot sync with certain machines utilizing Intel's P55 chipset and motherboards from certain manufacturers.
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11/02, 6:30pm
Microsoft rushing Win 7 service pack
Despite having launched less than two weeks ago, Windows 7 is already on track to have its first service pack ready in less than a year, a timetable posted today suggests. Wzor, one of the sites that slipped out pre-release betas of Windows 7 earlier this year, says Microsoft is already aiming to release its first beta of Service Pack 1 to testers by December and to offer a public beta by January. After this and a second beta, Microsoft is scheduled have two release candidates and to release to manufacturing (RTM) as early as June or as late as August.
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11/02, 5:50pm
Acer Aspire 8940 has quad-core, GTS 250M
Acer chose a rare Monday evening launch for an update to its Aspire notebooks. Acting as the new flagship, the 8940 takes the lead from the 8935 and use the same 18.4-inch screen but with a much faster 1.6GHz Core i7 in place of the Core 2 Quad. It further brings considerably newer GeForce GTS 250M graphics to better drive the 1080p display and, as with other Acer updates, replaces Vista with Windows 7.
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11/02, 4:25pm
MSI Wind12 U230 gets Windows 7, AMD Athlon Neo X2
While there was no official announcement, MSI will soon offer a new netbook-class Windows 7 portable, according to a product page for the Wind 12 U230. The PC has AMD's new 1.6GHz Athlon Neo X2 dual-core processor, which is paired with ATI's Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics chipset. Other specs are common to the current U210 notebook, including a display that's sized at 12.1 inches and with 1366x768 resolution.
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11/02, 12:50pm
Company attempts to defuse Win 7 publicity
Apple has turned to Google advertising in order to undermine Windows 7, observers note. When entering terms such as "download windows 7" into a Google web search, one of the sponsored links shown may direct users to Apple's Get a Mac website, which attempts to persuade PC owners to switch platforms. The link is displayed under the header "Upgrading to Windows 7," clearly indicating the target audience.
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11/02, 10:55am
Subsidized Sony VAIO P at Verizon
Wireless provider Verizon will soon add the Sony VAIO P netbook to its subsidized lineup, according to a Monday Phone Arena leak. Thus far, Verizon offers the Gateway LT2016U, HP Mini 311 and Mini 110 netbooks, but the VAIO P would be the smallest and lightest of the four. The system should be the standard 8-inch netbook but will have a built-in modem with both EVDO and GSM support.
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11/02, 10:50am
Maingear SHIFT is liquid-cooled, aluminum
Maingear today tackled the very high end, designer category of gaming PCs with the SHIFT. The system is specially designed by Maingear with an aluminum chassis and a rare, vertically-aligned cooling system; besides using an Asetek system to cool the processor without fans, all other components point upwards and have their heat naturally vent upwards instead of front-to-back like in most PCs. The system is also subtler with an all-black design and a pop-up port array on the top with card readers, FireWire, USB and audio.
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11/01, 5:45pm
Windows share drops in Oct despite Win 7
The launch of Windows 7 in October did nothing to stop an increase in Mac share online, the latest data from Net Applications shows. Although the Microsoft OS was on sale for nine days last month, Windows' combined share of Internet traffic actually dropped to 92.52 percent while Mac OS X profited directly, reaching a new high of 5.27 percent. Windows 7 did gain share and represents 2.15 percent, but its gain was more than offset by a full percentage point of Windows users abandoning Windows XP, in many cases opting for the Mac or other platforms.
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10/31, 6:10pm
VMware's Win 7, Snow Leopard update tested
Virtualization on the Mac has had to move forward rapidly in the past several months: where it was once enough to run basic tasks in Windows XP, users increasingly expect an experience much like what they would have in Boot Camp. That's all the more true with the launch of Windows 7, where the visual effects are not only useful but often essential. Between this and the changes in the background brought about by Mac OS X Snow Leopard, VMware's Fusion 3 has much ground to cover. We hope to find out in our review whether it's an essential upgrade or simply nice to have.
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10/29, 6:00pm
Apps on Win 7 PCs still slow vs Apple
A series of tests have revealed that even newer Windows 7 PCs are being bogged down by unnecessary software that makes them run much more slowly than Macs. Comparing factory versions of several notebooks versus clean models, PC Pro finds that Acer and Sony systems take about two whole minutes more to boot because of the "crapware," or third-party utilities and trial apps, preloaded out of the box. They also consume roughly 1GB more extra active RAM and also rob the system of as much as 2.4GB of space in Acer's case.
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10/29, 4:50pm
MSI shows 16-inch CR610 notebook with Windows 7
MSI on Thursday announced the upcoming release of the CR610, a 16-inch notebook PC running on AMD's Tigris platform with an Athlon II processor. Also, the PC ships with Windows 7 preloaded onto its 2.5-inch hard drive, which can be had in 250, 320 and 500GB capacities. Up to 4GB of RAM can be specified, with graphics handled by an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 chipset.
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10/29, 9:40am
New ASUS USB 3.0 mainboards have record speeds
ASUS on Wednesday showed off one of the first USB 3.0 mainboards ever, the P7P55D/P7P55D-E, which also has a SATA 6Gbps interface for what's claimed to be record-fast transfer speeds: ASUS estimates that a 20GB HD movie takes less than 70 seconds to transfer at peak speed even with the new USB connection. Both use ASUS's hybrid processor, hybrid phase and hybrid OS technologies for faster overall performance with the ability to overclock chips, control active cooling and provide instant-on Internet access, respectively.
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