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HP Mini 311 with Windows 7 and ION now in Canada

Although available for some time beyond Canadian borders, the HP Mini 311 line of netbooks have finally appeared in Canada. Although still using the single core Atom N270 processor, the Windows 7 Home Premium Mini 311-1033 sports 2GB of RAM and Nvidia’s ION graphics processor along with an 11.6 inch LED backlit display for $499. The 1033’s little brother, the 311-1000 at $429 has the lower powered ION LE GPU, which has less addressable memory, and is wearing last years fashions in the OS department, with XP Home.  Both, luckily,…

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Trio of Acer convertible tablets announced

Netbooks have been with us for a couple of years now, and although the market has been one of the largest growing consumer tech sectors, there’s been little innovation beyond increasing screen size and the blurring of lines between netbook and laptop. Sitting squarely between the netbook and laptop markets are ultra thin devices that range from reasonably priced products like the Acer Timeline to the ultra expensive and stylish Dell Adamo and Sony Vaio X. I had a chance to play with the Acer 1410, and found it to…

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Apple’s Anti-Windows 7 Commercial Up The Irony Factor

The day after Windows 7 launches, Apple has fired off the latest salvo of spots starring John Hodgman and Justin Long.  Although one could argue that they wore out their welcome a long time ago, these just plain old stink.  The focus this time round is “hey everyone’s switching to the Mac”, even though according to their own numbers, this is far from true, but then again, the PC/Mac spots were never known for their accuracy.  Then again, very little advertising IS accurate (it’s rare, but it happens). The most…

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Windows 7 Second Demos and Burgers

To coincide with the worldwide launch of their new operating system, Microsoft has unveiled a slew of new ads. You know what? They’re actually pretty good. The above video is one in the “7 Second Demos” series, which demonstrates some of the new ‘speedy’ features of the OS. Other marketing ideas, maybe aren’t so good, like this Burger King Japan/Windows 7 ad… Now that the Whopper is out of the way, want to see the rest of the 7 Second Demos… just…

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Windows 7 Launches Today

Well, it’s not exactly a secret. Microsoft’s well-received OS is now official. Those of you still playing with the free release candidate can keep using the free version until March, but going forward, new PCs will be shipping with Redmonds latest and greatest. When I say greatest, I think it very well may be. After using just about every version of Microsoft’s OS, I have to say that Windows 7 is probably the best they’ve ever done. A few months ago, I might have said that honour would have went…

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Alternate Universes: Windows 7 Edition

Many things in this crazy world are unpredictable, but there are SOME things we CAN count on, at least for the brief time we’re each allotted on this big blue marble in space.  The sun will come up in the morning, it will set at night, and the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg will always be an Apple fanboy. That is, until now… In recent years, I, like many other reviewers, have argued that Apple’s Mac OS X operating system is much better than Windows. That’s no longer true. [from…

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