Wiredglitz

“Wii Fit” is the only game I can think of that’s ever made my muscles burn, yet a research study finds that the popular game and its wireless balance board yield “underwhelming results” when it comes to burning calories.Gamasutra (via Kotaku) reports that researchers with the American Council on Exercise and the University of Wisconsin took a group of men and women aged 20-24 and put them through their paces with Wii Fit’s “most aerobically challenging activities,” including Free Run, Island Run, Free Step, Advanced Step, Super Hula Hoop, and Rhythm Boxing.

The results? According to the study, anyway, the test subjects got the best results while sweating through Free Run and Island Run, burning through about 165 calories in half an hour. After that came Rhythm Boxing, with players burning about 114 calories in 30 minutes, followed by Super Hula Hoop (111 calories), Advanced Step (108 calories), and Free Step (99).

That’s pretty good compared to a “sedentary video game,” the researchers say in the Gamasutra article. That said, you’ll burn “significantly higher” calories by getting up and going to the gym than you will taking a crack at Wii Fit’s “virtual approximation” of the various exercise, according to the study—a conclusion that’ll likely provoke either a “no duh!” or “say what?” reaction, depending on your expectations for the game (which Nintendo markets as “a fun way for you and your family to stay active together”).

The study even goes a step further, calling the tennis, boxing, golf, and bowling minigames in Wii Sports a “better option” than Wii Fit for “helping consumer meet minimum intensity guidelines for exercise.”

Should it come as a big surprise that a 30-minute spin class with a “take-no-prisoners” trainer makes for a tougher workout than taking a whirl with Wii Fit’s virtual hula hoop? Not really, although I am a bit surprised that the American Council on Exercise researchers think you’ll burn more calories playing Wii Sports than you will with Wii Fit, especially given the pain I experienced during my (brief) workout with Wii Fit’s yoga program.

So I ask you, Wii Fit gamers: Happy with the results you’re getting from Wii Fit? Did you buy the game thinking that it would replace or merely supplement “regular” exercise, such as running around the park or kickboxing at the gym? How would you compare your Wii Fit workout to a round of Wii Sports? And would you call the results of this study a case of “no duh!” or “say what”?

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Sprint is now offering the Palm Pixi, a low-cost webOS-powered smartphone that is the successor to Palm’s Centro line. Like those earlier models, it has an easily pocketable design with a touchscreen, keyboard, and an afforable price.The Pixi is available now in Sprint stores and Sprint.com, where it is selling for $100 with a two-year service contract and $100 mail-in rebate.

It’s also available from other retailers, some of whom are offering lower prices. For example, new Sprint customers can get this model from Amazon.com or LetsTalk.com for $50.

An Overview of the Palm Pixi

The Pixi can be thought of as the successor to Palm’s popular Centro series. Like those earlier consumer-friendly models, it has an easily pocketable design with a touchscreen, keyboard, and an affordable price.

This device has a tablet shape, with a 2.6-inch, 320-by-400-pixel, capacitive touchscreen. This display is smaller and has a lower resolution screen than its predecessor, the Palm Pre, but the Pixi itself is smaller and lighter, and sells for a lower price.

As mentioned earlier, this smartphone runs Palm’s webOS, a multi-tasking operating system able to wirelessly synchronize a wide variety of data with online services like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and Microsoft Exchange.

It comes with a highly-capable web browser, email software, and multimedia player. Additional third-party applications are also available.

Sprint’s version of the Pixi includes the 3G mobile broadband standard EV-DO. It also has a GPS receiver and Bluetooth, but not Wi-Fi.

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Dell is launching its Android-based Mini 3 smartphone in China and Brazil. The global strategy seems questionable at face value, but contains a flash of genius as well. Tony Bradley

Dell unveiled the Android-based Mini 3 smartphone today and announced that it will be available soon in China and Brazil. Venturing away from the familiar server and desktop foundation that Dell is built on may seem risky, but there is a method to Dell’s madness that may just pay off.

The Dell Mini 3 may not impress on paper, but if it can capture the China market Dell will emerge victorious.Ever since rumors began to circulate earlier this year that Dell was planning a move into smartphones there have been naysayers. The market is crowded. Competition is rough. Dell is already losing ground in its core business. If your device isn’t from Apple and doesn’t say ‘iPhone’ it can’t succeed in the smartphone market.

Dell has tried to expand its portfolio of hardware over the years, distributing printers, cameras, PDA’s, televisions, and other Dell-branded peripherals. Those efforts have been met with mixed success, and even the best of them has been received moderately at best. The message to Dell for the most part has been ‘don’t quit your day job.’

The move by Dell into smartphones is not a desperate hail-mary, though, but a calculated strategy. A mobile phone is no longer just a mobile phone, it is a mobile computing device. The Mini 3 is not so much a branch into a new direction as it is a natural evolution of Dell’s core market.

The flip side this evolution is Nokia. Nokia has built its reputation as a provider of mobile devices. However, it too sees the writing on the wall in terms of the future of mobile computing which is why it has developed the Booklet 3G netbook. Dell and Nokia are coming at the problem from two different sides and meeting somewhere in the middle.

Why China then? If Dell wants to get into the smartphone market, why not launch the Mini 3 in the United States? With devices like the Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris, and Samsung Behold II the Android platform is taking the industry by storm and Dell could ride that wave of Android popularity.

Perhaps the better question to ask though is “why not China?” In the United States the total mobile phone market is around 270 million and Dell would have to engage in an exclusive distribution arrangement that would limit the market to less than 90 million.

Verizon and AT&T may dominate the mobile provider market in the United States, but from a global perspective they are the big fish in a small pond. China Mobile alone has a subscriber base nearly double the entire United States market. América Móvil, the parent of the provider Dell will be distributed through in Brazil, has more subscribers than Verizon and AT&T combined.

Some, like my PC World peer Jared Newman, have suggested that perhaps Dell is avoiding the United States market because the Mini 3 is underwhelming and Dell knows it would flop. The Mini 3 may not compare well on paper with other whiz bang smartphones in the United States, like the iPhone or the Droid, but Asia uses its mobile devices differently. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the iPhone hasn’t exactly been flying off the shelves since it launched in China.

As much as we like our gadgets, users in Europe and Asia are actually more demanding when it comes to mobile devices. Users in China expect to be able to order food from vending machines and pay for parking from their mobile phones.

It does seem risky for Dell, a brand established on servers and desktops, to dive into a highly competitive market like smartphones. At face value it may seem questionable to avoid launching in the United States. But, if Dell can carve a niche for the Mini 3 in a market like China it doesn’t need to try to be the next iPhone killer in the United States.

Dell’s Mini 3 strategy seems a little crazy. But, if it works Dell will be crazy like a fox and laughing all the way to the bank.

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Google has launched Go, a new systems programming language born with concurrency, simplicity, and performance in mind.

Go is open source and its syntax is similar to C, C++ and Python. It uses an expressive language with pointer but no pointer arithmetic. It is type safe and memory safe. However, one of its main goals is to offer the speed and safety of a static language but with the advantages offered by modern dynamic languages. Go also offers methods for any type, closures and run-time reflection. The syntax is pretty clean and it is garbage collected. It is intended to compete with C and C++ as a systems programming language.

What about multicore programming with Go? It promotes lightweight concurrency allowing developers to create sets of lightweight communicating processes. Go calls them goroutines. This way, you can run many concurrent goroutines and you don’t need to worry about stack overflows. Go promotes sharing memory by communicating. Goroutines aren’t threads, they are functions running in parallel with other goroutines in the same address space. It is very easy to launch parallel functions using the goroutines. This is one of the most interesting features offered by the language. It really simplifies concurrency for systems programming.

Go’s key features related to concurrency are:

• Channels.
• Channels of channels.
• Goroutines.
• Leaky buffers.
• Share by communicating approach.

These features deserve new posts explaining them with more detail. Stay tuned because I’ll be adding new posts about Go soon.

The idea behind Go is to offer a fast compiler to produce fast code. So far, it offers two compilers:

• Gccgo (GCC is in the back).
• 8g (x86-32) and 6g (x86-64).

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No one loves a hackintosh more than me. So I was very sad to read that Mac OS 10.6.2 breaks Atom-based netbooks that have been hacked to run Mac OS X. Hackintoshes, as they’re known.

Wired has confirmed the bad news: 10.6.2 drops support for the Intel Atom processor. That’s the one found in most netbooks.

Apple essentially slammed the door shut on a loophole that allowed creative users to install OS X on small, light and cheap netbooks from Dell, EEE, HP and Lenovo. Hackers using Mac OS X on up to 20 different Atom-based netbooks will have to stop at Mac OS 10.6.1.

According to Stell’s blog installing Apple’s 10.6.2 update causes netbooks to permanently hang at the gray Apple logo at boot – essentially bricking the machine. Here’s a video of a MSI Wind U100 trying to boot 10.6.2 that is stuck in a continuous reboot.

It’s a bummer, but I can’t say that Apple didn’t didn’t give us any warning. On November 2 Apple suddenly dropped support for the Atom processor in a developer build of 10.6.2 only to restore it again in build 10C535 three days later. The release version of 10.6.2 is build 10B504.

Apple’s assault on the netbook is shaping up to be a classic game of cat-and-mouse with the hackintosh community, not unlike Cupertino’s recent fued with the Palm Pre and iPhone jailbreakers. The Hymn Project is another classic example of Apple’s Spy vs. Spy tactics

If you’re a hackintosh wielding daredevil you’ll to have to stick with 10.6.1 on your Dell Mini 9, Vostro A90 or Eee 1000H until a workaround comes along.

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After gaining a reputation for its immersive first-person Call of Duty action video games based in World War II, game developer Infinity Ward‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2′ : Creativity and controversy wanted to stretch its creative muscles with an original, contemporary game.

The result, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, won numerous awards as 2007’s best game and has sold more than 14 million units worldwide.

With the sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (out today, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, rated M for ages 17-up, prices start at $60), Infinity Ward looks to test the boundaries of what is considered acceptable in video games. Players can choose to take part in a terrorist attack against civilians, and they defend a bombed-out nation’s capital.

“The coolest thing is you don’t exactly know who is going to win,” says creative director Jason West. “It’s actually scary. (A near-future setting) allows it to be more real and, I hope, resonate with people more than the rah-rah good vs. evil stuff of the past.”

In the first Modern Warfare, players hunted down power-hungry ultranationalist Russian leader Imran Zakhaev. Five years later, a new leader named Vladimir Makarov has risen to power, and an elite international task force (the player included) must pursue him.

Think 24 with terrorists threatening the USA and Jack Bauer forced to use any means necessary. Or Tom Clancy’s 1994 book Debt of Honor, in which the U.S. Capitol is destroyed during a joint session of Congress, killing the president and other officials.

To help pull off its thriller, Infinity Ward enlisted Hollywood hands including film composer Hans Zimmer and NCIS writer/executive producer Jesse Stern, both of whom were impressed. The game, Zimmer says, “takes you to lots of exotic locales and … has an emotional darkness to it, where sometimes you go, ‘I just can’t believe they are going to do this now,’ and then they do it. It’s full of those sort of moments where it just takes things further than anyone would expect. I think it is less a geographic journey than an emotional one.”

In recent days, the game’s envelope-pushing campaign has had some hiccups. A viral video promoting the game was pulled off the Net because it used a homosexual slur (not from the game) as an acronym. And leaked video showing the player participating in the terrorist attack on civilians raised alarms.

Modern Warfare 2 is “not a play-it-safe game,” says Geoff Keighley, host of Spike’s GameTrailers TV. “The pace is really well-scripted and, like 24, you never know where it is going to go next. … I think they want to push buttons with this game.”

The controversy is probably not over, says Adam Sessler, co-host of cable channel G4 TV series X-Play. He expects the terrorist scene to ignite another wave of public furor. “But at least the game will be out, and that element can be addressed in the context of the game itself.”

In designing the game, the developers spent a lot of time figuring out how to best present that scene. (Note that players can skip it if they prefer.) “We knew it was going to be upsetting,” Stern says. “Particularly where it falls in the game, it gets you pretty twisted up. I hope it makes some people a little upset.”

An argument can be made that portraying terrorism in games is less appropriate because of the medium’s interactive nature. But that’s not fair to game creators, Sessler says.

“There is a helplessness for the player in that sequence and games, somehow, are not being allowed to go into that creative territory. It’s always somehow supposed to be typified as ‘fun.’ This will elicit a reaction and create a motivation for the successive events that happen in the rest of the game,” he says. “I’m not going to go so far as to say it is right or wrong. I feel that is really in the eyes of the beholder. What I do feel is defensible is it is within Infinity Ward’s right to be creative and move into kind of a taboo area for video games.”

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Summary

The good: Strong design and Microsoft don’t always go together, but they do in Windows 7. Users might take a while to get used to the new taskbar and Aero Peek, but they’re a pleasure to use.

The bad: Performance is still hit-or-miss in Windows 7. At the ripe age of seven, Windows XP still performs better in some categories.

The bottom line: Windows 7 is more than what Vista should have been, it’s where Microsoft needed to go. How much damage Vista did and whether Windows 7 is enough for people to finally abandon Windows XP are questions that nobody has the answers to right now.

Detailed Review

Microsoft had dug itself a cool, deep, dark hole with Windows Vista. Users demanding that Redmond extend the life of Windows XP wasn’t exactly something they could be proud of, either. Bombarded by complaints and negative press even after the first service pack was released, the bar had been set high for Vista’s successor: Windows 7. This review is based on an official copy of the Windows 7 RTM that Microsoft provided to CNET on July 30, 2009.

Luckily for Microsoft, Windows 7 is more than just spin. It’s stable, smooth, and highly polished, introducing new graphical features, a new taskbar that can compete handily with the Mac OS X dock, and device management and security enhancements that make it both easier to use and safer. Importantly, it won’t require the hardware upgrades that Vista demanded, partially because the hardware has caught up, and partially because Microsoft has gone to great lengths to make Windows 7 accessible to as many people as possible.

It’s important to note that the public testing process for Windows 7 involved one limited-availability beta and one release candidate, and constituted what some have called the largest shareware trial period ever. As buggy and irritating as Vista was, Windows 7 isn’t. Instead, it’s the successor to Windows XP that Microsoft wishes Vista had been, and finally places it on competitive footing with other major operating systems like OS X and Linux.

Microsoft is offering six versions of Windows 7: Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, OEM, and Enterprise. The three versions that Redmond will be promoting most heavily are Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, although Starter will also be available to consumers.

Windows 7 will support both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. The bare minimum requirements for the 32-bit include a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB available hard-disk space, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. 64-bit systems will require at least a 1 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 20GB of free space on your hard drive, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. A touch-screen monitor is required to take advantage of the native touch features. Do note that some users have claimed to have limited success running the Windows 7 beta with less than 1GB of RAM, but that’s not recommended.

Installation
Microsoft is offering several paths to install Windows 7. People can buy a new computer with the operating system already installed, upgrade from Windows XP or Vista, or do a clean install on a computer the user already owns. The clean installation took us about 30 minutes, but that will vary depending on your computer.

The upgrade procedure is different depending on whether you’re running Windows XP or Windows Vista. Vista users merely need to back up their data before choosing the Upgrade option from the install disc. Both XP Home and XP Pro users will have to back up their data, then choose Custom from the install disc. Custom will have the same effect as a clean install, although it’ll save your old data in a folder called Windows.old. Once you choose Custom, you’ll need to select the partition of your hard drive that contains Windows XP, and then follow the instructions to enter your product key and allow the computer to reboot as needed.

If you’re not sure if your current computer can run Windows 7, you can download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft.

Features: Taskbar and Aero Peek
Although the look of Windows 7 may seem to be nothing more than some polish applied liberally to the Vista Aero theme, make no mistake: This is a full replacement operating system, and more than just “Vista done right.” From driver support to multitouch groundwork for the future, from better battery management to the most easy-to-use interface Microsoft has ever had, Windows 7 is hardly half-baked.

The first thing that should stand out is the new taskbar. This is one of the best improvements Microsoft has made–third-party program dock makers are going to have to do some serious innovation when Windows 7 goes public. Besides incorporating the translucent style of Aero, the new taskbar is arguably even better than the Mac OS X dock. It features pinned programs using large, easy-to-see icons. Mouse over one and all windows associated with that program appear in preview. Mouse over one of those preview panes to reveal an X to close the window. Hover over the preview to show a full-size preview of the program, or click on the window to bring it to the front. Because of the button size, people with touch screens should find it especially easy to use.

Jump lists are another new taskbar improvement that make recently opened documents easier to get to. Right-click or left-click and drag on any program icon pinned to the taskbar to see a list of files that you’ve recently used in that program. In Internet Explorer, this will show recently visited Web sites, although it doesn’t yet seem to work in Firefox.

If you’ve noticed the missing Show Desktop icon, that’s because it’s been baked into the taskbar itself. Mouse over to the right corner. Hovering over the Show Desktop box reveals the desktop, and then hides it when you mouse away. Click on the box to minimize all your programs.

Resizing programs has been simplified and improved by the capability to drag a window’s title bar. Drag a program window to the top of your monitor to expand it to full screen. If you want to work in two windows simultaneously, drag one to the left edge and one to the right edge of your screen, and they’ll automatically resize to half the width of your monitor. Dragging a program away from the top or sides will return it to its original size. This is an entirely new feature in Windows 7, but it should prove easy to adopt because it mimics and expands on the maximize/restore button that people have been resizing windows with since Windows 95.

Theme packages also make it much faster to change the look of Windows 7. From the Control Panel, you can change the theme under Appearance and Personalization. Microsoft has created several theme packages to give people a taste for what the feature can do. Click on one to download it, and it instantly changes the color scheme and background–no need to reboot. Users can create their own themes, as well.

Windows Media Player and Device Stage
One of the biggest new features makes Windows Media Player useful again: you can now stream media files from one Windows 7 computer to another, across the Internet and out of network. Even better, the setup procedure is dead simple.

When you open Windows Media Player, there’s a new Stream option on the toolbar. Click it, and you’re presented with two choices. Both require you to associate your computer with your free Windows Live ID. When you’ve associated a second Windows 7’s WMP with that same ID, you can remotely access the media on the host computer. Windows Media Player’s mini mode looks much slicker, emphasizing the album art–sometimes at the expense of clearly seeing the controls, but it’s a definite improvement.

Microsoft reinvigorates the Windows Media Player by allowing users to stream their media files to themselves. All it takes is two Windows 7 computers, an Internet connection, and a free Windows Live ID. (This image was taken from the Windows 7 Release Candidate, but looks and functions the same in the official version of Windows 7)

The new Device Stage makes managing peripherals significantly easier, combining printers, phones, and portable media players into one window. A large photo of the peripheral summarizes important device stats and makes it easy to identify which devices you’re using. Device Stage can also be used to preset common tasks, such as synchronization. Device Stage support for older devices makes one of Windows 7’s best features applicable to peripherals and externals that don’t need to be upgraded. One annoying change is that Bluetooth driver support no longer comes baked into the operating system. If you need a Bluetooth driver, you’ll either need the installation disc on hand or you’ll have to go download it.

Search, touch screens, and XP mode
Windows 7’s native search feature has been improved. Files added to the hard drive were indexed so fast that they were searchable less than 5 seconds later. Search result snippets now include a longer snippet, and highlight the snippet more clearly. This should appeal specifically to people who juggle large numbers of long documents, but it’s a useful feature for anybody who wants to find files faster. However, the search field is available by default only in the Start menu and in Windows Explorer, and cannot be easily added to the taskbar.

Touch-screen features worked surprisingly well. The hardware sometimes misread some of the multitouch gestures, occasionally confusing rotating an image, for example, with zooming in or out of the image. Overall, though, there were few difficulties in performing the basic series of gestures that Microsoft promotes, and this places Windows 7 in an excellent position for the future, as more and more computers are released with multitouch abilities.

Experts and people or companies who hope to use Windows 7 for business situations will appreciate the new XP Mode. It doesn’t have much of a practical application for the home consumer, but if you need to access programs designed for Windows XP that have not been upgraded to Windows Vista or 7, XP Mode creates a virtual environment within Windows 7 that should assuage any fears of upgrading without backward compatibility.

It’s not easy to set up once you’ve downloaded the XP Mode installer. You’ll need to double-check that you have the right hardware, and can get the right software. Hardware Virtualization Technology, also known as AMD-V, Vanderpool, or VT-d, must be supported for it to work. Motherboards older than two years probably won’t work, and even if you do have a newer one you might have to go into your BIOS and activate Hardware Virtualization. CPU-identification utilities are available from Microsoft that can tell you if you’re in the clear or not. However, if compatibility is the issue, this hassle will be worth it to you. Users will have full access to peripherals connected to their Windows 7 hardware, including printers, and the clipboard can be used to cut and paste between the virtual operating system and the “real” one.

Security
User Account Control, or UAC, is back in Windows 7. Microsoft has tweaked the feature so that it’s less intrusive, but it’s not clear whether that means you’re actually more or less secure than you were in Vista. UAC was one of the biggest changes in Vista. It tightened program access, but did it in such a way as to frustrate many owners of single-user computers. Windows 7 provides more options for user customization of UAC.

The default setting is to notify users only when programs try to make changes to the computer, one step below the most restrictive setting of Always Notify. Under Always Notify, anytime a program tries to access the Internet, or you try to make changes to the computer, Windows 7 will require user confirmation. The second-least restrictive option doesn’t dim the desktop when UAC is activated, and will only notify the user when programs try to make changes to the computer. When the desktop dims, Windows 7 is locking it down and preventing access. Never Notify is the most relaxed option, and is only recommended by Microsoft for programs that aren’t compatible with UAC.

UAC also displays a blue banner when confronted with a program from a known publisher versus a yellow banner and exclamation point when the program is from an unknown publisher. The number of clicks it should take to use UAC safely has been reduced, However, it’s important to note that it’s a less aggressive default posture by UAC.

A less glitzy, but no less important, change to how removable drives are handled also can affect your media. Unlike Windows XP and Windows Vista, Windows 7 will no longer AutoRun external hard drives and USB keys when they’re connected. This kills off a risky vector for malware infections that has been the bane of many security experts.

Although Microsoft is working on a revamp of its antivirus and antimalware program, now called Microsoft Security Essentials, it won’t be bundled with Windows 7. Users are still required to download a third-party antivirus and antimalware program, although the Windows Firewall remains intact. As with many features in Windows 7 that have been carried over from Windows Vista, people will notice there’s far more granular settings control than before. Features like filtering outbound traffic, which were available in Vista but not exposed, are easier to access in Windows 7.

Comparing Windows: XP vs. Vista vs. 7

	Windows XP	Windows Vista	Windows 7
Minimum hardware	–Processor: 300MHz –RAM: 128MB –Super VGA graphics device –HD: 4.2GB (for SP3)	–Processor: 1GHz –RAM: 1GB (32-bit), 2GB (64-bit) –Support for DirectX 9 graphics device with 128MB of memory –HD: 20GB (32-bit), 40GB (64-bit)	–Processor: 1 GHz –RAM: 1GB (32-bit), 2GB (64-bit) –Support for DirectX 9 graphics device with 128MB of memory –HD: 16GB (32-bit), 20GB (64-bit)
Interface	–Luna theme –Introduces task-based windows options –Skinning possible but difficult –Desktop Cleanup Wizard automates removing old icons	–Aero theme –Introduces transparent panes, window animations, live thumbnails of running programs –New desktop sidebar supports gadgets –Supports touch screens	–Aero theme –Supports slideshow backgrounds, RSS and theme packs –Introduces Aero Shake and Aero Snap –Desktop gadgets can be placed anywhere –Supports multitouch on touch screens
Explorer	–Replaces tree navigation by default with task pane –Improves image handling –Offers thumbnail previews and group views –Supports some metadata	–Task pane integrated into toolbar –New breadcrumb navigation –New metadata display –Improved icon resolution –Some documents can be edited from the preview pane	–Support for federated searches and libraries –Virtual folders aggregate content from local and networked drives
Start menu	–New layout –Devices and some Control Panel options appear in menu	–Added search box –All Programs folder changed to a nested format –Configurable power button –User profile picture	–Taskbar jumps appear in the Start menu and replace the right column when viewed –Documents, Pictures, Music buttons now link to their libraries –Control Panel options have been integrated into search results
Taskbar	–New look –Hideable icons in System Tray	–Refreshed look –Alt-Tab hot key now shows preview thumbnail of program	–Interactive mouse-over preview panes –Replacement of the Quick Launch bar with pinned programs –Program-specific jump lists based on pinned programs –Aero Peek for mouse-over desktop viewing –Revamped System Tray
Devices	–Introduces Universal Plug-n-Play –New driver library allows for downgrading drivers when necessary	–Debuts portable device API, designed to communicate with cell phones, PDAs, and portable media players –Introduces Sync Center for managing data synchronizations	–New Device Stage provides a centralized, unified window for managing all aspects of printers and portable devices
Misc.	–Introduces context-menu CD and DVD burning from Windows Explorer –Supports multiple versions of a single DLL to prevent programs from overwriting each other –Introduces Hibernate and Sleep modes –Remote Desktop for accessing a computer from another location –Fast user account switching	–Built-in drive partitioning –More powerful screen-capturing tool –Hybrid Sleep and better configuration options for more nuanced power management –User-based file-type associations –Previous Version automatically backs up changes to individual files	–Expands Windows Explorer disc burning to include ISOs –Introduces XP Mode –Expanded options for disabling components –Can search text in scanned TIFF –Additional power-saving features for laptops

Performance
Windows 7 feels faster than Windows XP and Vista, but it turns out that’s not always the case–sometimes, it’s the slowest out of the three operating systems. CNET Labs tested four 32-bit Windows operating systems: Windows 7 RTM build 7600, Windows 7 Release Candidate build 7100, Windows Vista with Service Pack 2, and Windows XP SP3, all on an Inspiron Desktop 530 Mini Tower running an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E4500 at 2.20 GHz, with a 128MB NVIDIA 8300 GS graphics card, 4GB of RAM, and two 320GB SATA 7,200rpm hard drives.

As you can see in the chart, we found that Windows 7 RTM was the fastest to shutdown, and was tied with XP for iTunes encoding. However, it was slower than XP and Vista for both booting up cold by a bit more than 1 second, and slower than either of its predecessors in its Microsoft Office performance. After having used Windows 7 beta, RC, and now the RTM for more than six months combined, it still feels faster for us when launching programs, opening the control panel, and dragging icons, files, and folders around than XP. That’s not to denigrate the value of the benchmarks, but keep in mind that the perception and reality might differ based on hardware and usage.

Support
When you try to use a file already in use, Windows 7 goes beyond Vista and XP by telling you not just that it’s being used, but where it’s being used so you can manage the situation faster. Other than that, Windows 7 offers on-board operating system support nearly identical to Windows Vista. Screen darkening, one-click action hand-holding, and a useful question mark icon on all Explorer windows maintain Vista’s improved help features, when compared with Windows XP.

In sum
Windows 7 looks like the operating system that both Microsoft and its consumers have been waiting for. By fixing most of the perceived and real problems in Vista, Microsoft has laid the groundwork for the future of where Windows will go. Windows 7 presents a stable platform that can compete comfortably with OS X, while reassuring the world that Microsoft can still turn out a strong, useful operating system.

Courtesy: CNET

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If you’re looking for the performance of a MacBook Pro without the Pro price, then you’re going to like Apple’s newly updated MacBook.

The MacBook, unveiled with updates to the iMac and Mini lines last month, is still priced at $999 — $200 less than the 13-in. aluminum-clad MacBook Pro. But compared to the model it replaces, Apple’s latest entry-level portable delivers an updated architecture, a beefier hard drive and a higher-quality screen.

The biggest change from the old model is the redesigned plastic housing, which is created using Apple’s “unibody” manufacturing process. While still encased in the shiny white plastic that has been the hallmark of the line for years, Apple’s latest MacBook forgoes the boxy look in favor of flowing lines, swooping angles and a precision fit.

The end result is a solid laptop that feels sculpted instead of assembled and has the processing power users need.

New curves, updated hardware

Not only is it curvier, but the MacBook now weighs in at 4.7 pounds — 0.2 pounds lighter than before. It’s still just over an inch thick when closed.

The screen size is the same, 13.3 inches, with a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. But the new model features an LED backlight, improving the picture dramatically. It’s brighter and offers a better viewing angle from side to side than its predecessor, minimizing color. The contrast ratio is the same as the pricier MacBook Pro, although the Pro screens have a 60% greater color gamut and a glass display.

Speaking of glass, the redesigned MacBook now features the larger glass-coated multi-touch trackpad found in the MacBook Pro and Air models. This trackpad offers support for the two-, three- and four-finger gestures Apple has popularized in its other laptops, and they work just as well here.

Internally, the MacBook has much in common with the low-end MacBook Pro. Both feature a 64-bit 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB of on-chip shared L2 cache running at the same speed as the processor, 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, and a 1066MHz frontside bus. (You can double the RAM to 4GB for $100.)

Video is provided by the Nvidia 9400M graphics processor, which borrows 256MB from main memory for video RAM but still supports OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch. Those two technologies in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard allow the GPU to be used in concert with the main processor

For users planning video chats, the MacBook has the now-common iSight camera built into the bezel above the display. And, as in the previous model, the MacBook’s ports are all located on the left side, with the optical drive on the right.

In addition to the Magsafe power adapter (which looks more like the Air’s magnetic plug than those that come with Pro models), the MacBook offers gigabit Ethernet, a Mini DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports, a single port for audio in/out, and a slot for a hardware lock. Apple has now consolidated the audio in and out ports, and the MacBook will work with an iPhone headset that has a built-in microphone.

With this version, however, Apple dropped the FireWire port. For most people, USB 2.0 is fine for connecting external drives and digital cameras. But if you have a FireWire 800 peripheral that you absolutely have to use, you might have to step up to the MacBook Pro.

The stock hard drive holds 250GB of data and spins at 5,400 rpm. It represents a nice bump from the 160GB drive on the previous model, but if you need even more room for your files, you can upgrade to a 320GB model (for $50 more) or a 500GB drive (for an extra $150). Too bad none of those is a 7,200-rpm drive or a solid-state drive. Either would offer a speed boost, but likely conflicts with Apple’s effort to keep prices down.

Rounding out the feature list are 802.11n-based Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and the now-standard, slot-loading SuperDrive that reads and writes to both CDs and DVDs.

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