Items tagged with Windows 7
Samsung has been on a roll lately. After announcing the new Series 7 laptops and a few new mobile devices, the company is also introducing the Series 7 Slate. This is a lightweight slate computer that promises full PC capabilities. In order to accomplish this, the Series 7 Slate runs a full version of Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional. On the hardware side, the Series 7 Slate features an Intel Core i5 processor and up to 128 GB solid state hard drive. The Series 7 Slate weighs less than two pounds and measures a half an inch thick. Samsung Introduces the Series 7 Slate PC Offering Full Functionality in a Slim, Lightweight, Highly Compact Form Factor New Slate Provides Maximum Mobility...
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Microsoft's initial declaration that Windows 8 would run on ARM CPUs and early product demonstrations earned the nascent OS a great deal of attention. Since then, however, the company has remained largely silent on the features and capabilities of the new operating system, even as questions regarding the OS's support for legacy software, its UI, and Microsoft's preferred development frameworks all began to mount. The company has launched a new blog that's meant to provide additional details, but its still holding its cards close. Windows 8, according to Steven Sinofsky, "reimagines Windows." The author assures readers that Microsoft is fully committed to supporting the software and experience...
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Microsoft's own second quarter was a good one; the company reported total sales of nearly $70 billion ($69.94B). Operating and net income stood at $27.16B and $23.15B, up 13 percent and 23 percent over the same period in 2010. Interestingly enough, the company's major growth areas were in the combined Entertainment / Mobile division where strong Kinect uptake and a successful Windows Phone 7 launch pushed revenue to $1.49B, up 30 percent over 2010. The company is often portrayed as an Office + Windows behemoth whose other projects lose money. While it's true that those two areas generate the vast majority of company revenue, the 'Other' column isn't a unilateral loss. The one area where Microsoft...
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Lenovo won't be sticking to just a single OS on their new line of tablets. The IdeaPad P1, which looks a lot like the K1, was also introduced this evening, but unlike that one, this slate uses Windows 7 instead of Android 3.1. Windows 7 hasn't had the easiest go on the tablet market -- it was never really engineered to work well with stylus/finger input, and with Windows 8 en route, there are doubts about what kind of traction a piece like this will get. The tablet may be more suited to business pros who just need a full-on copy of Win7 by their side. Thankfully, the device packs plenty of power underneath to take advantage of it. The IdeaPad comes with a 1.5GHz Intel processor, a 10.1"...
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At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference this week, Tami Reller, the company's CFO and Corporate VP of Windows / Windows Live, spilled the beans about Windows 7's adoption rates and some of what the industry should expect from Windows 8. Windows 7, according to Reller, has sold at three times the rate of Windows XP with the result that "27 percent of the Internet runs on Windows 7." We actually have no idea what that means. The Internet runs on servers, but while Windows Server 2008 R2 shares the Windows 7 kernel, that's quite a stretch for a marketing blurb. The OS is estimated to currently hold between 28-34 percent of the Windows market, but "The Internet" isn't the same as "The PC industry."...
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There was a fantastic little device, launched years ago, that HTC called the "Advantage." It was a unique, slide-out handheld computer, with a design that made tons of sense, but we haven't really seen sense. Fujitsu's TH40/D was on pace to become the "next" Advantage, but all of that has apparently come to an end. The company revealed that they are postponing the release of the tablet/laptop, but there's no clear indication of when it'll ship. In other words, it probably won't ship. The unit was scheduled to launch with Windows 7 in June, but based on unspecified "development delays," it looks like things are being placed on hold. It's a real shame. Frequently, we hear that all tablets are the...
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MSI introduced the WindPad 110W, a tablet computer that features Windows 7 and AMD's latest dual core Brazos platform processor. This tablet offers a 10-inch 1280x800 multipoint touch screen with a wide viewing angle IPS design and SRS wrap around sound. The APU processors come with x86 architecture cores and the AMD Radeon HD 6250 Discrete-Class display chip. The tablet supports DirectX 11. Other key specs include 4GB DDR3 of memory, 802.11 b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth, a G-Sensor, an ambient light sensor, an SSD hard drive up to 64GB, and a total weight of 850 grams (about 1.87 pounds). According to MSI, you should get more than six hours of battery life from the tablet. The WindPad 110W...
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At its financial analyst meeting earlier this week, Intel unveiled a series of strategic changes to its roadmap and gave investors a peek at the company's general strategy for the next few years. We've already touched on the company's decision to ramp more powerful Atom processors and its new, 15W mainstream notebook TDP target, but the company is playing a deeper game. If Medfield lives up to expectations, it'll be the first Intel SoC truly capable of challenging ARM. Later this year, Intel will introduce Medfield, its 32nm Atom SoC. The current solution, Moorestown, did reduce Atom's platform-level power consumption, but not enough to make the chip attractive to smartphone designers. Medfield...
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Today, Microsoft released its detailed security report covering the latter half of 2010. Industry tends in general are positive—vulnerability disclosures in 2010 fell 16.5 percent from their 2009 levels and approximately 35 percent from 2006. Microsoft's own share of the vulnerability pie rose from 4.5 percent in 2009 to 7.2 percent in 2010; the company claims this is largely because industry disclosures fell so sharply in just one year. The general decline in disclosures hides sharp changes in the nature of the exploits roaming the Internet. From the report: Malware written in Java has existed for many years, but attackers had not focused significant attention on Java vulnerabilities until...
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Intel is on record as talking about MIDs, netbooks, and the device ecosystem it envisioned in between long before much of the current tablet craze, but the company has been oddly quiescent in recent months. Talk of dual-core ARM-based products, from Tegra to the iPad 2, has dominated the industry, with scarcely a peep from Intel. As of now, that's changed. Intel has unveiled its first Atom explicitly aimed at the tablet market. It's the Atom Z670, and it's Intel's chosen SoC for reclaiming lost mindshare that's been snapped up by other solutions. That's netbooks on the left, tablets on the right Intel continues to foresee strong growth in tablets with moderate continued gain for netbooks. Note...
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It appears that Microsoft has officially atoned for the debacle that was known as Vista. Don't get us wrong, Vista actually became a serviceable OS once the kinks were ironed out with its first Service Pack, but up until then, driver issues, poor file transfer performance, and networking headaches left XP users feeling vindicated in sticking with their tried-and-true OS. With the warm reception following the release of Windows 7, however, XP users had to think long and hard about whether to stick with their legacy OS or forgive Microsoft for Vista and make the jump to its latest and greatest. Many have chosen the latter. According to analytics firm StatCounter, Windows XP is no longer the most...
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The world's getting more and more crowded when it comes to tablets, but one sector that's still lacking is that containing Windows 7 tablets. Microsoft's desktop OS just hasn't integrated well into the tablet side, and many non-Apple companies are siding with Android, particularly Honeycomb, which scales to tablets in a far superior way. But that doesn't mean it's a dead market. Netbook Navigator has just produced their newest device, and sure enough, it's a Win7-based slate PC. The NAV7 Slate PC is powered by Windows 7, and ships with a 1.6GHz Intel CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 1.8" SSD (up to 64GB), two USB ports, a front-side webcam, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an optional embedded 3G broadband module and a chassis...
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Getting tired of running the same benchmarks and staring at the same screens every time you upgrade a component or build a new system? Futuremark feels your pain and just moments ago announced PCMark 7, the latest version of its PC performance analysis software. PCMark 7 is intended for Windows 7 platforms equipped with at least a DirectX 9 graphics card. According to Futuremark's PCMark 7 fact sheet, the updated benchmark will include 20 individual workloads and 7 separate suites to give users a multi-pronged analysis of system performance. Some of the highlights include: The PCMark Suite measures overall system performance and returns and official PCMark score. The Lightweight Suite measures...
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Note: This is not a full review of IE9 in all its puissant glory but a quick tour of the new browser, its additional features and UI changes, and a quick check of its performance vis-à-vis the other major browser options. Internet Explorer 9 debuted this week into a flourishing browser market; Microsoft's new browser will have to shine in order to win back any users who've since transitioned to Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or even Opera. Internet Explorer 8 Internet Explorer 9 The first thing you'll notice about IE9 is that it's essentially been Chrome'd. Most of the various toolbars IE8 presented by default can be redisplayed in IE9. Tabs, once kept below the address bar, have moved...
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Fujitsu getting into the tablet game? It's true! With the world waiting patiently for Microsoft's big push into this market, the Stylistic Q550 will be one of the first Windows 7-based tablets to come from a major name in the industry. A few options popped up last year, but all of them seemed underpowered and short-lived. But this particular tablet, which should be fully revealed at CeBIT in Germany next month, will be one of the first to ship with Intel's Oak Trail platform. That should provide more power and less battery drain, and it may be the magic bullet that finally makes Win7 a legitimate tablet OS. We still have our doubts about using a desktop OS on a tablet, but Fujitsu's marketing...
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Way back at Computex last year, Microsoft let the world know that they were serious when it came to tablets. Apple had the iPad, and there were already a bunch of Android tablets heading to market. The question was simple: "Does Microsoft plan to compete in this space?" The answer was "yes" but no one really knew how Windows 7 would react on a tablet form factor. And even today, only a couple of Win7-based tablets have found it to market, and none of them have put a dent in the sales of the iPad, Galaxy Tab and the other high-brow tablets that have been released. AHX Global certainly isn't a major name in the industry, but given just how few Windows 7-based tablets that there are, it's good to...
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Most of today's tablets, like it or not, aim for the same market. The Galaxy Tab, iPad and every other mainstream tablet on the market appeals to the generic consumer, but there are a few companies out there who are really pursuing the fringe markets. DRS Technologies is one of those companies. Just as Panasonic has done with their ToughBook notebook line, DRS is hoping to appeal to the rough and rugged crowd with their newest tablet, the ARMOR X7. It's a small, compact unit, and specially-designed for use on mission-critical applications that demand connectivity, mobility and durability. The X7 is engineered to handle all-weather conditions, so there's no issue with rain, humidity, sleet or...
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Microsoft's demonstration of Windows 8 running on ARM processors may have been one of the major events of CES, but the OS's 2012/2013 release date has been criticized as a day late and a dollar short. One of the tidbits that slipped out of CES is that IT analysts aren't the only ones frustrated with Redmond's timetable. Intel Senior VP and general manager of the sales and marketing group, Tom Kilroy, revealed at CES for a long time. Us, and others like Dell...We’re very bullish on the tablets segment. It’s very good for the industry as a whole." It was Microsoft, ironically, that put a major push behind tablets back in 2001, but the resultant market flop and the need to focus on other...
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Lenovo really is on a roll here at this year's CES. First came a bunch of new notebooks, and now this: the official introduction of the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid with LePad Slate. Now, we have heard about and seen these devices before. Even as far back as CES 2010, this units were making the rounds as prototype devices. It's been a long ride for them. There was even rumblings last year that the U1 would be scraped altogether. But now, the company is clearing the air. This particular product isn't exactly like the ones we saw before. Instead, it's a 2-in-1 device that combines the mobility of a slate with access to Android applications, along with a keyboard base that makes you feel more comfortable within...
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Tablets and mobile devices are central to Microsoft's plans for CES 2011. In addition to its demo of an early Windows 8 build running on ARM CPUs, the software giant will be demonstrating a number of tablets running Windows 7. If this sounds familiar it's because Microsoft did much the same thing last year—but very little came of the company's push a year ago. Analysts expect the slate/tablet market to explode over the next few years and Redmond wants a piece of the action. It's less than-clear, however, if the tablet version of Windows 7 is capable of standing up to the competition. Spend a few hours with Windows 7's current multitouch mode and you'll soon be wondering why the company...
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The 2011 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show is coming soon, and starting next week, a whole bunch of new gear will be introduced to the world. Some of it will make you upset about your holiday purchases, most likely, but some will get you very excited for what's to come. Asus is definitely going to be on-hand at the event, and as they usually do, they'll be introducing at least one major new product. This time, it will be the EP121. So far, Asus has only released a teaser video of the product, but it really makes no bones about what's to come. With a 12" touch screen, this unit will definitely be one of the larger tablets available. Most stop at around 10", but having a 12" tablet makes...
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Is it really coming to an end this time? Microsoft's Windows 7 Family Pack has been a rather hot seller, if not a very popular talking topic, ever since it was introduced. $150 nabs three licenses for Windows 7 Home Premium, and considering that many homes now have numerous PCs laying around, the value proposition is quite high. But Microsoft never said that this deal would last forever, and they also never said when exactly it would end. But the writing seems to be on the wall. If you have been considering updating the PCs in your home from Vista to Windows 7, now would be a good time to jump. According to Amazon, the Windows 7 Family Pack (Home Premium 3-pack) is a limited edition product....
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