Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

MSI has begun shipping their Wind U100 notebook computers.  A release from the company says “all” pre orders have shipped.

You can find the 10” U100 Wind at Fry’s and online New Egg, Amazon, Fry’s, ZipZoomfly, MWave.com and Buy.com.  A quick check finds buy.com sold out but Amazon seems to still have some.

You’ll recall the U100 features Windows XP and a 3 cell battery and are priced at $479.99.  A 6-cell battery is due in September as well as a Linux version.  Batteries are upgradable.

Company site: [MSImobile]

Windows XP is dead! Long live Windows XP!

That traditional cheer for beloved kings may well be on the lips of most Windows users as Microsoft goes through with its deadline for Windows XP.  Today marks the first day that PC makers are no longer allowed to sell XP-based PC’s. 

Despite widespread criticism of Windows Vista, and the “Save Windows XP” movement, Microsoft did not change its deadline for the seven-year old operating system.  Microsoft reports that it has already sold 140 million copies of Vista, which is a bit surprising since most consumers actually prefer the older OS, resulting in a ‘downgrade’ option which can be obtained with some new PC’s, and even big companies have decided not to have a Vista deployment at all.  Intel’s IT department even said that it “found no compelling case” to switch to Vista.

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While Windows XP will be leaving the store shelves pretty quickly, Microsoft has announced that they will continue to offer support through April of 2014. That means they will, by the end have offered a full 13 years of support, instead of the more typical 10 year time frame.

This support will, according to Microsoft senior VP Bill Veghte come in the form of “security patches and other critical updates.” He also mentioned, and this does add a little confusion to the whole XP going away, that;

“It’s true that we will stop selling Windows XP as a retail packaged product and stop licensing it directly to major PC manufacturers [after June 30],” wrote Veghte. “But customers who still need Windows XP will be able to get it,”

We can only assume that the customers who still need it will be those “low-cost PC” manufacturers, which from last word will be available until June 2010. It sounds like its time to finally say goodbye to XP.

Via [Information Week]

A couple of days ago we reported that Dell will stop selling computers with pre-installed Windows XP to get ahead of Microsoft’s June 30 deadline for the life-cycle of the said ten year old OS. As an option to its customers, Dell will be offering downgrade option from Vista to Windows XP provided that customers’ pay a $50 fee. However, Dell has since issued a announcement informing its customers that they are extending the sale of Dell computers with Windows XP until June 26 due to “popular demand.”

The option will be available with some of Dell’s models including the XPS 630, 720, H2C and M1730. So if you’re planning to get one of these systems, you have a couple of days more to do so. After June 26, Dell will push through with its original plan of selling its computers with Vista as the pre-loaded OS. Unless of course it’s alright for you to pay extra $50 dollars to have the downgrade to Windows XP option.

It looks like Dell is having a bit of a dilemma here and might be afraid that its sales might get affected by the termination of Windows XP support and user’s apprehension over the use of Microsoft Vista. The few days extension won’t have significant effect though, unless Dell goes against the tide and continues offering Windows XP in their machines or just promote the use of Vista instead.

Read [Dell] Via [Electronista]

There has been a lot of hype surrounding Sony Ericsson’s newest Windows Mobile QWERTY device, the XPERIA X1. From hands on experience it seems to be really worth the wait.

Combining mobile communication functionality with remarkable multimedia features, the XPERIA has practically been the most-awaited Windows Mobile device for this year. The X1 has a whopping 3-inch wide 800 x 480 touch-screen display, an optical joystick (can you say “whoa!”), 3.2 megapixel camera, A2DP Bluetooth, aGPS, WiFi, and is expandable with microSD (it has 400MB onboard). It also has that QWERTY keyboard to take prime advantage of the Windows Mobile 6 operating system.

As a phone, it’s got quad-band GSM/EDGE, and 900/1700/1900/2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (or 850/1700/1900/2100MHz in what must be a US-bound model).

The design is cool and very easy on the eyes. The keyboard touch and feel may flatter it a bit, as the response is not that great. All in all, there’s quite a bit of potential in the XPERIA, and people are going to be pleasantly surprised when it releases this second half of 2008.

Read [BoyGeniusReport]

Microsoft has announced that it will let XP live on after demand for it surged following the popularity of UMPC’s and sub-notebooks like the EeePC from ASUS. The OS will now be licensed for nettops as well. Nettops are ultra-low cost desktops mainly used for web surfing, email, and instant messaging. As interest in such devices has grown, both manufacturers and customers have shown a strong preference for Windows XP as their OS of choice.

“Customers and partners have made it clear to us that they want Windows on their netbooks and nettops,” said Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of the Original Equipment Manufacturer Division at Microsoft. “We are committed to providing Windows solutions for these devices, helping to ensure a high-quality experience for both our partners and customers.”

Microsoft is working with over 20 OEM manufacturers including Acer Inc, Dell, Lenovo, Quanta, and ASUSTek.

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A fast week already yet, June 9 can’t seem to come fast enough.  Lucky for us it just not Apple speculation feeding the pipes this week, oh no!  A quick look at the industry shows us just who is on the edge and just who is out there, really out there.  Let’s begin, shall we?

For the second game in a row, Microsoft starts us off.  Microsoft has the stones to

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Security flaws in Apple’s Safari web browser are nothing new. Apple has been very good at keeping quiet about security issues regarding Safari, but its giant rival, Microsoft, has been taking a different and more vocal approach. Last Friday, Microsoft released Security Advisory (953818) that warns users of a “blended threat” caused by the combination of a security hole in Safari and the way Windows XP and Vista handles executables located on the desktop. 

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There they are again, Bill, Steve and the rest of the Microsoft group have just wowed the audience at the opening of the All Things Digital D6 Conference with a demonstration of what could possibly be the coolest version of Microsoft’s proprietary OS - the multi-touch enabled Microsoft 7. Could we just say that if this new technology goes mainstream it could also possibly be the coolest thing to happen to our Windows powered PCs?

Borrowing the multi-touch capability of the Surface which incidentally was previewed during last year’s All Things Digital event, Microsoft’s Corporate VP Julie Larson-Green showed Mr. Gates and Mr. Balmer how the multi-touch functionality works on a machine running on Windows 7. The technology is somewhat similar to the functionality of the iPhone wherein you can zoom in and out when viewing photos, drag objects, run an application and other cool things which you can do with the power of your fingers.

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Millions of Sidekick lovers were excited with Microsoft’s announcement of the acquisition of Danger last February.  While the software giant has confirmed that Danger would live in Microsoft’s new Premium Mobile Experiences team and detailed how Microsoft plans to use Danger’s platform, the silence on plans about Sidekick have grown ominous.

“No new phone” has been confirmed at a recent pre-Mobius event.  However, the company seems to be working on synergies between the Windows Mobile and the Premium Mobile Experiences teams.  Some Windows Mobile team members are even joining the Premium Mobile Experiences team, so a saucy Danger ‘component’ shouldn’t be ruled out in Windows Mobile phones in the future.

Integrate Danger’s offerings into the Windows Mobile core would be an interesting task with substantial potential benefits. Danger’s operating system and back-end enables social networking, gaming, instant messaging, and other popular features.

Via [Geek.com]