windows xp
Windows 7 Student Prices
AshMan says…
Students in Australia, US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Korea and Mexico will all be able to purchase the upgrades to Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional for a significantly reduced price.
Prices haven’t been confirmed for Australia yet, however in the US and UK the upgrades will be on sale for US$30 and £30 respectively. To be eligable for the discounted price you are required to have a valid student email address (an email address provided to you by your university)
You can find some more information at the Windows UK and Windows US sites.
Windows 7 Upgrade to be only US$30 for students with a valid email.
Windows 7 Family Pack Pre-Order…
AshMan says…
Microsoft has just announced The Windows 7 Family Pack.
This will allow you to install the operating system on three home PCs at a lower price. There are a number of online retailers offering the Family Pack and it is priced at approximately US$145. Originally this offer was going to be released on the 18th of October before the public release on the 22nd of October, so this is a bonus!
Windows 7 Family Pack Offer
Another change to the Family Pack is its availability; it will now be available to North America, Europe – the U.K, Ireland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden.
If you only need a single license however, you are still able to order one from online retailers including Amazon and of course, the Microsoft Store.
From Netbook to gScreen Spacebook
AshMan says…
Netbooks have been at the centre of all the hype over the past year however there is a new laptop emerging onto the market.
In the workplace and at home the benefits of having a dual monitor setup are starting to be realised in everyday computing, but those benefits are only available in the one spot at the moment. The gScreen Spacebook may change that however as it offers a portable solution.
The gScreen Spacebook will have two 39cm screens that slide away to a single screen for storage or transportation. This design provides the benefits of dual screens however still remaining at its core a portable device. This is especially handy for video editors and photographers who prefer to work on dual screens to effectively organise their work on the go.
According to Gordon Stewart, founder of gScreen, the first Spacebooks should be available on Amazon by December.
The planned specifications for the Spacebook are:
- 2 LED backlit display screens
- Windows VISTA/ WIN XP PRO (optional)
- Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26-GHz
- 4 GB of RAM (2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM x 2)
- 320GB 7200-rpm HD
- NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT with 512MB dedicated memory (or)
- NVIDIA® Quadro FX 1700M Graphics with 512MB dedicated memory
- 9-cell battery
- IEEE 1394 1 Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1, HDMI X 1 Mic-in X 1, Line-in x 1, Headphone X 1 PCI Express Card X 1 AC Power Adaptor Output: 19V DC, 90W Input: 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz universal Battery Pack Li-ion 9 cells
The price for the dual screen killer laptop is estimated to be around $3500. Potential buyers should be aware of the potential weight and battery drain which two screens would have compared to a more standard laptop.
Spacebook with an estimated price of $3500
For more information check out the gScreen website at www.gscreencorp.com
Something for all netbooks to aspire to: Acer Aspire One
AshMan says…
The Asus Eee PC when it launched introduced consumers to a new type of computer…a netbook. Its features weren’t the latest or the fastest, but were enough to perform the basic tasks of web surfing and Skype all at a very cheap price.
The Acer Aspire One takes everything which the Eee PC did and made it better; it looks better, feels better and performs better.
Acer Aspire One
The Aspire One contains an Atom 1.6Ghz processor, and though it doesn’t sound like much of a processor, it is capable of playing 720p resolution video with little or no stutter. Paired with the processor is 1GB of RAM, which is upgradable to 1.5GB. Unfortunately it is however a pain to try and access the RAM slots and when you do you can only remove one stick as the other is soldered to the motherboard.
Acer Aspire One - Number One for Netbooks
8GB SSD and 120/160GB hard drive versions are available and both versions run Windows XP SP3. Personally I own the hard drive version as I think that 8GB wouldn’t give me enough room to upgrade to Windows 7 which has been designed with netbooks in mind. The screen size is 8.9 inches with a 1024 x 600 resolution; the resolution is large enough to not need to struggle to see the text. At the top of the screen there is a 0.3MP webcam and microphone which is adequate enough to have a video chat on Skype.
Pretty in Pink: Aspire One available in a number of colours
Weighing in at 985 grams this netbook is one which is so light that I have had to double check my bag that I have it still in there. The 3 cell battery doesn’t give battery life as good as the Eee PC but it is still very respectable. In a light use test (running only a word application, and default start up programs) it achieved 3 hours 10 minutes. In the heavy use test (encoding a video file, as well as a full virus scan) it powered on for 1 hour 25 minutes.
External ports on the machine include: Multi-card reader, SD card reader, 3 USB ports, VGA, Headphone, Microphone, and Ethernet. This set of ports on a small machine beats some full laptops, especially the number of USB ports. The two card readers also are a great asset to a netbook as they can double as SD card storage or Ready boost memory if you are running Windows 7.
All the ports in the world you could need in a netbook
The usability of this small laptop isn’t a problem as the keyboard is 92% of a traditional keyboard which is quite easy to get used to. The mouse buttons are located to the left and right hand side of the track pad, allowing the keyboard to be that bit larger. The location of the left and right buttons takes a little while to get used to it, but once you’re accustomed to the layout it is very easy to use.
The Acer Aspire One is a brilliant little machine, and one of the most popular netbooks available on the market. The average price for the hard drive model is $499, which is a superb price for a machine that is loaded with ports, good battery life, great looks and the ability to run Windows 7 excellently.
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