Slate PC's and Playing God

More research of Windows 7 today... Lots of filtering through forums about Windows 7. Here's some interesting stuff I found.

Slate PC

The coolest thing I came across was the touchscreen (or slate) PC's that several companies are making in collaboration with MS. The shining star out of these three futuristic looking machines is HP's device. I don't think its even named yet, but a short video, and some pictures were released online:




As far as aesthetics go, HP's got it down. 




Archos also has a Windows 7 slate in stores, the Archos 9:





With an 8.7" keyboard and a sleek look, I can really see this catching on if the software delivers. Pegatron is also creating a Windows 7 machine, but no pictures were available online.

From a software perspective, Windows 7 supports multi-touch and is supposed to be very intuitive, but I cant confirm that myself. With Apple's tablet circulating around the blogosphere for the last couple of months, 2010 could become the year that the tablet PC finds a place in the market. Apple's product is apparently to be called iSlate, but I think that's just a rumour (I hope it is!). When that's released, we will really see what's in store for the tablet/slate market this year.

GodMode

The next most talked about thing I came across was the GodMode feature. Honestly, I don't know who gave it that name but its completely over-rated. Basically, its another alternative to the Control Panel.

Instead of listing all the different Control Panel tools, GodMode creates a folder that lists all of the tasks that can be performed through the Control Panel. Definitely give it a go, takes only a couple of seconds to set up and you can bin it if its not to your liking. Here's how to do it:

-Create a new folder on your desktop;
-Name that folder  " GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}  " (without the quotes).
-The folder should now have the Control Panel icon...

Your done! You don't have to name it GodMode, I just did for the sake of simplicity. There are apparently many other GodMode-like features, but the ones that I tried were all sub-features of the main GodMode.

The reason why I am completely not phased by this is that it is apparently doable on all Windows OS's since XP, so its obviously not that needed... Anyway, give it a go, and you can judge it for yourself. That's it for me, more research ahead...

Windows 7 in 2010

As you may know (or not), I work as a IT researcher. Anyways, today I was given the task of researching Windows 7.

First of all, I just want to say that I absolutely love the operating system. I just got it about a week ago on my computer for 30GBP , using the UK student discount (THANKS MS!). From the research I have done, it appears that the online community seems to share my opinion. There really hasnt been much criticism. So for those of you Vista users out there who have yet to make the migration over, YOU MUST DO IT!

The only negative attitude that I have sensed is that some people think that the upgrade/clean install process is too complicated. I did a clean install of Win7 (which is supposed to be the more complicated of the two methods) and I seriously didnt have any problems, and was quite impressed by the 30 minute install time. Windows 7 found and installed all the drivers for me, except the BD Rom driver which I got through Vaio Update easily enough.

Think about it like this, Vista and Windows 7 are two sisters, Windows 7 being the prettier, smarter one, which one would you choose??? Its basically a step up. MS have gotten rid of all the stupid quirks it gave us with Vista and added some awesome features (Superbar, Jumplists, Libraries and I havent had time to look at other stuff). Hope this convinces you, you wont regret it!!

PS> Im not one of those MS fanboys, I am genuinely impressed by Windows 7.