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cristarol writes "Wal-Mart has begun selling a $298 PC (Everex IMPACT GC3502). It comes with Windows Vista Home Basic and OpenOffice.org 2.2, as well as a complete lack of crapware: 'Users accustomed to being bombarded with trialware offers and seeing their would-be pristine Windows desktops littered with shortcuts to AOL and other applications will likely be pleased at their absence from the GC3502.' The machine is targeted at the back-to-school market. The hardware is nothing to write home about: a 1.5GHz Via C7 with 1GB of RAM and integrated graphics, but as Ars points out, it should be more than capable of performing basic tasks." Dell sells a low-end PC through Wal-Mart for $200 more, and one assumes it is loaded with crapware. Anybody know for sure?

In more WindowsCE news, Microsoft has released Gryphon to OEMs. Gryphon is Microsoft's 'Pilot Killer'. The first of the new devices based on the PalmPC reference spec is the Philips Nino. It is almost exactly like the PalmPilot, only slightly larger. The screen is 320x240 and comes with 4 or 8MB of RAM, and an integrated 19.2Kbps modem. Pricing starts at US$400. Expect other manufacturers to unveil their devices during CES.

Update Everex has announced their PalmPC, the FreeStyle, available in two models, the Associate and the Executive. The Freestyle comes with either 2 or 8MB of RAM and can recieve FLEX encoded pages. It will be available around March.
I pledged never to turn to the dark side, but this thing looks pretty cool (good thing I can't afford one ;)....Is this the PalmPilot killer? Looks that way to me, but who knows