When you look at the Libretto W105, you can’t help but think that you’re gazing at an ultraportable from the future. This limited-edition device, created to celebrate Toshiba’s 25th anniversary, pushes the envelope with two 7-inch capacitive touchscreens and no less than six virtual keyboard choices. Toshiba also packs in some touch-friendly apps, including Bulletin Board (customizable desktops) and ReelTime (for finding files using auto-generated previews). You can even use the device as a digital book.
However, this 1.8-pound wonder can only do so much to cover up Windows 7′s inadequacies. Is the Libretto W105 innovative? Yup. Would we buy one? Check out the full review here.
When it comes to usability, tablets like the Apple iPad and Android have gotten most of the hype. But lest any Windows 7 users feel like they’ve been left behind, German developer Mirabyte might be able to solve the problem.
Mirabye’s FrontFace is a custom user interface that’s designed to improve the functionality on Windows 7 tablets by making it more touch-friendly. The package includes upgrades like larger icons and docks, along with custom applications like a notification center and RSS feed reader.
Sascha Pallenberg over at Netbooknews.com got an early hands-on with Frontface’s community preview–check out the video below.
Microsoft’s finances are looking pretty enough to put a ring on it, or at least start investing. We know the company’s not pulling in 22-percent more profit than the same quarter last year for no reason. It’s the 175 million licenses for Windows 7! That means there’s a lot of upgraded Windows users out there, and if any of them are like us, they love the OS. They’ve also probably got things to do and little time to them (like buying those precious MSFT shares, cha-ching). Â So, to all those busy-body Redmond fans, these time-saver tips and apps are for you.
If there’s a piece of text you frequently type, or just a series of keys you usually hit, KeyText will let you assign it to a keyboard shortcut. We save time by assigning our signature, URL, and other frequently e-mailed phrases to keys using KeyText.
You can’t live online without accumulating dozens of usernames and passwords for everything from your e-mail to your bank account. And since they’re all different for security purposes, remembering them can be a real challenge. Install KeePass to securely store all of your usernames and passwords. The app will autofill them when you hit Ctrl + Alt + A. Best of all, with the program remembering your information, you can use really strong 20-character passwords that no one can guess.
Adobe Reader can take a long time to start, especially when you just need to open a PDF file quickly and move on. Fortunately, Foxit Reader cuts down open times dramatically, allowing you to get to your documents without lingering on the Acrobat splash screen.
If you have dual monitors and have tried to play a Flash-based movie on one while working on another, you’ve likely noticed that the video will not run at full screen. This small freeware utility allows you to hack Flash so that your show stays at full screen even as you work in another window.
Save yourself the trouble of opening up a separate window or tray icon to see your battery level, disk use, memory use, volume, and other status indicators. SuperbarMonitor allows you to turn any of these statuses into a taskbar icon that sits next to the Start button.
Well, it looks like HP might be taking a dual-pronged approach to tablets, at least if you assume that the listing for the Slate 500 on HP’s site isn’t an error. The product summary is brief, but it does reveal that the Windows 7 Premium-powererd Slate 500 will support pen input, letting users “write or draw as if on a piece of paper.” You should also expect two cameras (video and still) and the ability to adjust the screen orientation (we’re assuming/hoping this is automatic). Oh, and headphones are included. We’ve put in a request for HP for comment.
Update: An HP spokesperson says that “We’re in customer evaluations now and will make a determination soon on the next steps.” We’re not quite sure what that means, but we’re assuming customers means the likes of retailers like Best Buy and Amazon, and perhaps Fortune 500 companies as well. After all, this has potential as a business device, too.
This whole Slate saga continues to get more interesting. And I do think the spokesperson’s choice of words is pretty clever. In other words, we made this product, and if our customers tell us they don’t want it, then we’re not going to sell it. It’s an easy way to deal with any potential Microsoft backlash should HP decide to ditch Win 7 and exclusively back webOS for tablets.
In another ding against Windows 7‘s ability to play ball in the tablet arena,  the ASUS Eee Pad 101TC, an  iPad-league device slated to run a scaled down version of Windows called Embedded Compact 7, will now land on the streets with an Android operating system instead.
Not much positive light has been directed on the viability of Windows 7 tablets. The heavy-duty operating system sputtered on the low-power Atom CPU inside the Viliv S10 Blade convertible tablet, and doubts abound on whether Windows 7 could thrive on the small-but-plucky CPUs of full-touch tablets similar in size and functionality to the iPad.
ASUS seconded those worries by announcing it will release the EP101TC with the very slate-friendly Android, an OS that runs serviceably on the 5-inch Dell Streak smart phone we just reviewed as well as other tablets like the Archos 7 Home Tablet and the touchscreen side of the Entourage Edge ereader-cum-tablet.
Will the EP101TC be shipping with Android 2.2 (Froyo) or, better yet, Android 3.0 (Gingerbread)? No details yet on which tasty treat will be served on the ASUS Eee Pad platter, but Netbooknews.com does report the shipping date remains the same: the first quarter of 2011.
When we spent some quality time with the EP101TC back at Computex in May, it was slated to cost under $500. Now that it’ll run free Android software, we should see that price point drop down a bit.
Love them or hate them, more Windows 7 tablets are on the way! During a keynote today at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, CEO Steve Ballmer announced that ASUS, Dell, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba will all be releasing slates with Windows 7 on them in the near future.
We already knew about the ASUS Eee Pad EP121, which was introduced at Computex, and the dual-screen Libretto W100 that Toshiba announced last month, but the idea of Dell, Samsung, and Sony releasing Windows 7 slates is new. Ballmer also failed to mention a slew of other Windows 7 tablets we saw at Computex, including the Malata PC-A1001 and PC-A1001H and MSI’s Wind Pad 100. Noticeably absent from Ballmer’s list of manufacturers is HP, whose Slate tablet has reportedly been dropped, even though Ballmer himself showed it off at CES in January.
Both experts and users are divided when it comes to the utility of Windows 7 on tablets. Even here at LAPTOP, some of us are really want the full desktop experience on a slate while others predict that Microsoft is toast, unless it introduces a more tablet-friendly OS.
By default, all Windows 7 (and Vista) notebooks come with three power plans: High Performance, Balanced, and Power Saver. Some manufacturers, such as HP, Samsung, and Toshiba, include custom power profiles, and may provide proprietary programs for controlling them. Nevertheless, administrator-level users can always tweak a power profile for better performance or more battery life.
The path to the advanced power settings is a twisty one: Control Panel > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings. Once you’ve reached the center of this labyrinth, you’re faced with a list of options that would have daunted mighty Theseus himself. Many are intuitive and easy to understand, though it’s not always clear how changing them will impact performance.
To help you out, we’ve put together this in-depth guide to Windows’ Advanced Power Options and included descriptions, tips and recommendations for all of the default options on Windows 7 and most Vista systems. The majority of these menus offer separate settings for whether you’re drawing power from the battery or while you’re plugged in. Depending on the manufacturer and your hardware (The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data. Learn Morehard drive vs. solid state drive), your notebook may include settings not listed here. Understanding the defaults will make it easier to tweak any others you come across.
Hard Disk: Turn Off Hard Disk After
Spinning the hard disk doesn’t consume a lot of juice. Plus, the power saved by turning off the drive varies depending on the manufacturer. For extreme battery savings, set the idle/turn off time to 10 or 20 minutes. Keep in mind that this time limit should be shorter than that set for putting the machine to sleep; otherwise, you’ll see no change in battery life.
Desktop Background Settings: Slide Show
Windows 7 allows users to set multiple background images that change after a user-defined interval. On battery power, set the slideshow to Paused instead of Available if you want to get the most out of your battery. The power drain might not be much, but you’ll miss that extra juice once you’re down to 10 percent.
Wireless Adapter Settings: Power Saving Mode
Here you’ll find four choices: Maximum Performance, Low Power Saving, Medium Power Saving, and Maximum Power Saving. The amount of power you’ll conserve with these settings varies by wireless card manufacturer. Performance generally goes down the higher the savings, meaning Maximum Power Saving mode could cause wireless downloads to take longer than usual. If you need a speedy Internet connection, set this to Maximum Performance or Low Power Saving, and then turn your Wi-Fi antenna off when you don’t need it.
Advanced Power Options Explained
Page 1:Hard Disk, Desktop Background Settings, and Wireless Adapter Settings
We’ve seen a lot of companies demonstrate tablet-style devices running Windows 7 over the last few months. While there are still few of these keyboardless wonders available for purchase in the US, they seem to be all the rag among no-name companies in China. But if you’ve been a bit underwhelmed by many of the slates we’ve seen to date there may be a good reason: As a general rule, they don’t follow Microsoft’s suggestions for building a successful Windows 7 Slate.
Windows For Devices have republished a white paper from Microsoft explaining how best to manufacturer a slate PC for Windows 7. Among the company’s suggestsions:
Use a solid state disk to lower power consumption and improve reliability
Battery life should exceed 4 hours and you should get 72 hours or more of standby time
Provide 2GB of RAM on devices with less powerful CPUs or graphics processors
Make sure the regions where you grip the tablet with your hands aren’t near the heat dispersion and venting points
Microsoft also points out that you’ll have a better touch experience if you have an active digitizer which makes handwriting recognition and other precise actions easier. The company recommends using a biometric scanner to make it easier to login without using an on-screen keyboard.
If you’re interested in knowing what Microsoft recommends for slate PC hardware, you should check out the complete white paper. It’s also worth taking a look if you just want a quick refresher on exactly what touch-friendly features Windows 7 includes, since there’s a handy chart in the first section.
The JooJoo tablet started as an ambitious project called the CrunchPad. The idea was to provide a tablet that was basically nothing but an interface for a web browser, allowing you to sit on the couch and surf, getting online in a matter of seconds. The finished product is pretty much just that — but it’s a bit underwhelming, unresponsive, and for about the same price as an iPad, you get a heck of a lot less… sort of.
Thing is, the JooJoo hardware is actually capable of much more. It’s just that the custom software interface doesn’t support third party native apps. But members of the JooJoo Forums have discovered that it’s not all that tough to install Windows 7 and turn the JooJoo into a much more versatile tablet.
While the accelerometer and 3G modem aren’t currently supported, hackers have gotten the touchscreen to play nicely with Windows 7, which means you can use an on-screen keyboard to enter text, use any web browser you like, and play 720p HD video using the media player of your choice.
The JooJoo has a 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, NVIDIA ION graphics, 1GB of RAM, and a 4GB solid state disk.
You can check out a video of the tablet running Windows 7 after the break. It seems a heck of a lot more versatile than the JooJoo running the default custom Linux interface.
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