Hasta La Gadget!

Acer’s been on quite the rampage of late, pumping out more machines during this week before the Windows 7 launch than in the past few months combined. The latest rig to get the a-okay from the shipping department is the refreshed AspireRevo R3610-U9012, a machine which was originally outed back at IFA. This one ups the ante over the former with a 1.66GHz dual-core Atom 330 (as opposed to an Atom 230), Windows 7 Home Premium, NVIDIA Ion graphics, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive, six USB 2.0 sockets, an HDMI port, eSATA connector, VGA, multicard reader and gigabit Ethernet. There’s also WiFi, audio in / out and a bundled wireless keyboard and mouse, though all that oomph in such a small package will cost you $329.99 to bring home.

Filed under: Desktops

Acer’s Atom 330, Win7-packin’ AspireRevo now shipping to America originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows fans expecting Apple to let Microsoft have its moment in the sun next week when Windows 7 launches should probably know better by now — the Mac maker is actually planning a marketing counter-offensive to hit alongside 7’s debut. According to Phil Schiller, the convoluted upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7 represents a big opportunity for Apple, since users have to back everything up and reformat. “Any user that reads all those steps is probably going to freak out. If you have to go through all that, why not just buy a Mac?” Well — we’re sure most of you can think of several reasons. Of course, Microsoft has long said that most people will actually get Windows 7 when they purchase a new machine, which is one reason we’re seeing such an absolute flood of interesting and innovative new PC hardware — but Phil seems to remember that was also the company line about Vista, and homeboy isn’t backing down. “We’ve been through these transitions before, and no matter how you look at it-it’s still Windows.” Harsh burn, amigo. Any last predictions? “I expect Snow Leopard will have an amazing upgrade rate, and Windows 7 won’t.” We thought you might say something like that. Good thing we’re giving Steve Ballmer a chance to respond live on the air next week, no?

[Via AppleInsider]

Filed under: Software

Phil Schiller on Windows 7: ‘No matter how you look at it, it’s still Windows’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer (a company that we always knew as ambitious… but not too ambitious) finally launched its Aspire One D250 dual boot Windows 7 / Android netbook today, and as you can imagine the ears of the gadget world have all perked up a little bit. According to Pocket-lint, the implementation of the open source OS on a touchscreen deficient PC is not without its issues. For instance, without any designated Android keys, one can find themselves going to the trackpad and ESC key a bit too often. Also worth noting is that this machine will only boot Android — to access Windows you’ve got to select “Switch OS” from within Android itself and then wait for Microsoft to take over. According to Register Hardware, Acer VP Jim Wong explained that the company expects people to use Android for the majority of their computing while only hitting up Windows while looking to use software and tools specific to that OS. And sure, that’s a decent rationalization — but why not give us the choice? Either way, we know you’re jonesin’ to get at all the red hot hands-on action contained within the read links below. And what are you waiting for? Go on!

Read – PHOTOS: Acer Aspire One D250 with Android
Read – Hands on with Acer’s dual-OS netbook

Filed under: Laptops

Acer Aspire One D250 Android netbook gets fondled and photographed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Michael Dell has definitely provided us with a few token quotes before, but his latest spurts over at a Silicon Valley dinner sponsored by the Churchill Club are amongst the best. For starters, he didn’t hesitate to exclaim that “a fair amount of customers” have been unhappy with the small screens and weak innards found in netbooks, which is definitely a perplexing comment to make when you’re making ends meet (at least in part) by moving Minis. Of course, it sounds like the honest-to-goodness truth, but we digress. The money quote came when asked about Windows 7, as he noted that if “you get the latest processor technology and you get Windows 7 and Office 2010, you will love your PC again; we actually have not been able to say that for a long time.” We’re not trying to read too deeply between the lines, but that definitely sounds like a gentle jab at Vista, does it not? Hit the read link for the full schpeel.

Filed under: Laptops

Michael Dell curiously talks down netbooks, slyly bad-mouths Vista originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Of all Microsoft’s advertising moves, this certainly falls in more clever side of the spectrum. Redmond et al. have announced they’ll be “sponsoring” a November 8th variety special on Fox, “Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show.” The episode’ll be a mix of live-action musical performance and animated shorts with the usual celebrity cameos you’ve come to expect. This show will be commercial free, so long as you don’t count all the Windows 7 that’ll somehow be integrated — and that’s the most interesting mystery of all, how Microsoft will get its brand recognition without too many jabs from showrunner Seth McFarlane and company. If you don’t recall the last time McFarlane teamed up with a big company to enliven its image, check out video from “Burger King presents Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy,” a venture also done in tandem with one of the ad agencies responsible for this new deal, Crispin, Porter & Bogusky. It’s just after the break.

Update: As commenter Zebb reminded us, Bill Gates pulled off a cameo in Frasier “answering caller questions” about Windows XP. We couldn’t help but add it to the post just below, jump to the 2:20 mark for the relevant scene.

Continue reading Windows 7-branded ‘Family Guy’ special to air November 8th

Filed under: Software

Windows 7-branded ‘Family Guy’ special to air November 8th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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