the idea of paying to replace your monitor every time Apple make your old product obsolete sounds a little absurd to me - I'm not interested in the iMacs.
I also dislike Apple's lack of choice in the mid-range (all-in-ones only), but the new 27-inch iMac lessens one major drawback a bit by adding a Mini DisplayPort input port. So that nice 27-inch display, which can have a longer useful life than the rest of the computer, can be re-used by another computer that can output a DisplayPort signal (DisplayPort outputs will probably be commonplace by then).
Note that converting from HDMI/DVI output to DisplayPort input requires a complicated adapter (unlike DisplayPort outputs).
For those who updated the Windows version of Adobe Reader (version 9.2 arrived last week), note that the update enables (or re-enables) AdobeARM.exe and Reader_sl.exe (Speed Launcher) as Windows startup programs without asking or giving you the option of not installing/enabling.
I can confirm that they can be disabled in Windows 2000 and XP using CCleaner. For those who don't have or want that great utility, I'm sure they can also be disabled in msconfig (Run...) and Windows Defender.
And yes, I know about Foxit Reader and other alternatives.
I fail to see how it would be beneficial to do an upgrade rather than a flat out re-format followed by re-install. The problem is the only reasonably priced versions of Windows 7 are upgrade versions that require me to have Vista on that machine. Thanks but I think I'll stick with XP on my home desktop for the time being.
You qualify for Windows 7's reduced upgrade pricing if you have Windows XP, too. From the Microsoft Store's pre-order page:
"You qualify for Windows 7 upgrade versions if you're running genuine Windows Vista or Windows XP on your PC."
Windows Vista is only required if you want to do the undesirable "in place" upgrade over your old OS installation. To install the upgrade version of Windows 7 on a Windows XP PC, you are required to do a "clean" installation (back up, erase old OS, install new OS, re-install apps). However, Windows XP users do qualify for "upgrade pricing."
I agree that it's always better (but more time-consuming) to do a clean install anyway, even if an "in place" upgrade is possible. Windows Easy Transfer (it's on the Windows 7 DVD) makes it somewhat easy by backing up user accounts and settings in addition to files.
Don't forget virtualization. With AMD, you don't have to pay a premium if you plan to run virtual machines.
You no longer have to pay a premium with Intel either. I've noticed that Intel recently began adding their "Virtualization Technology" to all new CPU models, even their entry-level Celeron and Pentium Dual-Core lines. Example: this $53 Celeron E3200 at Newegg.
I think Intel did this in response to Microsoft's announcement of Windows 7's "Windows XP Mode" and its requirement of on-CPU virtualization technology. AMD also recently started adding their "AMD-V" to their previously-excluded Sempron line of CPUs. Newegg has one for just $40.
For a long time (since the Pentium D days), Intel had a confusing market segmentation strategy where some models had it and some didn't, even within the same CPU family (Pentium D, Core 2 Duo). In contrast, after AMD-V was introduced, AMD added it to all of their newly released Athlon 64 and x2 CPUs (but not Sempron). And after the Core 2 Duo was introduced and kicked major butt, AMD dramatically dropped their prices, resulting in cheap AMD virtualization platforms.
Anyhoo, AMD isn't the only option anymore for cheap virtualization.
What surprises me is that MS hasn't done much in the area(unless you are willing to go all the way to Windows Home Server). Architecturally, Volume Shadow Copy is abundantly powerful and has been available since before Time Machine even hit the scene; but you certainly wouldn't know about it from looking at any of the advertising, documentation, or spec sheets for non-server Microsoft OSes.
When accessed from the shell in client versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, Shadow Copy is often called "Previous Versions." Back when Vista was released, I remember seeing it mentioned in reviews and on Microsoft's product info pages.
Maybe it wasn't a "front page" feature because it was only available in Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise (and not Home Premium). Thankfully, MS has corrected this mistake by including this feature (and all other backup features) in Windows 7 Home Premium as well.
Add in an anti virus software that does the same X number of processes in the background plus Ad-Aware thats way more bogged down software than ever. Ad-Aware used to be simple, clean and sleek, now it's just bloated shovelware (how quickly did they move from Version X to SE, to Version X.1?)
Stick with Spybot, Malwarebytes, HijackThis and a decent backup like Nod32, Avast or AVG, imho.
If I were Microsoft I'd throw this on automatic Windows Update and push it out to everyone not already running an anti-virus.
Symantec can blow me.
Wouldn't Symantec cry to the DOJ and EU about "abusing monopoly power" or some other nonsense? I'm betting that Security Essentials will be kept off Windows Update "Recommended" section. They'll probably be cautious about putting in the "Optional" section or even providing a link in the "Security Center" in Windows.
Install both, FTW (including Media Player Classic Home Cinema, which is bundled with Quicktime Alternative). MPC-HC and VLC use different decoding frameworks, so they don't interfere with each other. Some stuff works better on MPC-HC (hardware accelerated decoding) and some stuff works better on VLC (broken/incomplete files). However, Apple's Quicktime is definitely NOT needed to play back non-DRM's video on Windows.
I'd rather not get into a K-Lite vs CCCP war, but I prefer CCCP plus QT Lite.
No, you can confirm that your own personal PS3 broke. That's it. You cannot confirm that there's some systemic problem with launch US PS3's.
Maybe not a confirmation, but after Ars Technica's Ben Kuchera mentioned that his 60GB PS3 died playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, he got responses from at least five others who also saw their PS3s die in similar fashion (Ben and Ars are based in the USA). He wrote a small article about it.
As Ben says, it's unscientific. They also had not heard of the term "Yellow Light of Death."
...you just quoted RoughlyDrafted as if it were a reputable source of information. I will just disregard that.
I'm not sure if you were teasing him, but DECSis Daniel Eran Dilger and RoughlyDrafted is his site. His ludicrously pro-Apple comments and site-pimping should be a hint.
You were saying...? This would make it even more extraordinary for Win 7 to be cheaper here, but when I look...
* Win 7 ultimate (amazon UK), £170 = $280
* ditto (amazon US), $220 -> so only $60 / 27% more and the UK price is a "discounted" one from an RRP (recommended price) of £230
Um?
Did you miss the part in the summary and article where they are talking about the full versions of Windows 7? I know, who the heck buys the full version? But you compared the UK full version price to the US upgrade price. Here's how it should look:
"being able to run a virtual machine version of your desktop OS is a very useful capability. Unfortunately, for those of us who use non-server versions of OS X, we won't be able to do this (unless we're willing to pay for OS X Server, of course). Unlike the server license, there was no change in the OS X client license with the release of 10.5. As such, neither Parallels or VMware will allow the installation of OS X client on their upcoming products, respecting the terms in Apple's license agreement."
Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.
If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, purchase the Mac Box Set (when available), which is a single, affordable package that includes Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard; iLife '09, with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD; and iWork '09,
That may or may not be the case in general, however in this particular instance, $99 to buy the App seems significantly cheaper than $9.99/month that the TeleNav app on your blackberry costs. Well they do offer a discount - $99/yr or $249 for a 4 year plan.
I can't believe those blackberry users will pay $10/month for a GPS App that I can buy on my iPhone for only $100.
It looks like Palm/Sprint have you both beat. Every Sprint plan for the Palm Pre comes with the TeleNav-provided Sprint Navigation bundled for free.
I won't accuse you of being dishonest. Just confused.
The iPhone 3G was released 11th of July 2008. Re-read your own link.
Also, Apple's fiscal 3Q 2008 ended on June 28, meaning that quarter only included sales of the "iPhone EDGE" which everyone knew was going to be replaced by 3G in a few weeks. That initial surge of iPhone 3G sales was booked in Q4.
Fiscal 3Q 2009 ended June 27. Those first eight days of iPhone 3Gs sales (long lines, good availability, more countries than iPhone EDGE) were booked in Q3.
Michael Moore isn't dishonest or confused, and neither am I.
I'm no conservative, but I pity the confused person who thinks Michael Moore is not dishonest.
There's no lies here, iPhone DID increase sales by 600% over last years quarter. Technologies that are heading for market leadership do tend to perform like that.
Maybe not technically lying, but you are being dishonest (Michael Moore style) by not mentioning that "last years quarter" included only a few days of iPhone 3G sales (released at the end of June) in fewer countries than this year. This year, the new iPhone was released in early June in more countries.
It is shitware (aka a lot of "shareware") installers, viruses, spyware, internet toolbars and other associated crap that messes them up.
For those who haven't heard, CCleaner ("Crap Cleaner") is a very good utility that removes that crap left behind.
I think reasonably careful Windows users (don't run as Administrator all the time or install mysteryware without Googling it first) should be able to keep their system snappy with CCleaner.
Gigabyte has since released an updated 10.1" model, so potential buyers should know that ASUS isn't the only curent player in this netbook sub-category.
Update, 5:00 p.m.: A Microsoft representative said late Tuesday that the company has decided to extend the period for which Windows 7 machines will be eligible to downgrade to XP. Rather than a six-month window, as originally planned, the window will extend to either 18 months from the Windows 7 launch or until the release of the first service pack of Windows 7, whichever comes first.
Even if SP1 comes first, that will be at least a year after Windows 7 is released (as you predicted). Of course, if enough big customers complain when the deadline is looming, they'll probably extend it again.
The old 9400/8400 line has become the 210/110
The old 9600/8600 line has become the 230/130
The old 9800/8800 GT/GS has become the 250/150
And The old 9800/8800 GTX/GTS has become the 280
You mean the GTX 280M is not based on the desktop GTX 280, but the previous-generation 9800/8800? Death to NVIDIA!
I'm kidding, of course, but this is a long-time pet peave of mine. The GeForce4 MX was based on GeForce2 technology. The Radeon 8000 was not a DirectX 8/OpenGL 1.4 GPU like the rest of the 8000-series. This shit continues today with these NVIDIA mobile GPUs.
Probably cuz it's tired from fighting in one-on-one combat with the GPU all the time. I recommend getting an Atom that works with its GPU.
Your link says nothing about the GPU in the Ion chipset (GeForce 9300) helping Flash video in any way (it doesn't). Yes, we all know Ion's GPU accelerates the codecs used in Blu-ray (H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2), but the Atom has to do all the work when it comes to Flash (and it sucks).
Summary: single-core Atom on Ion is insufficient for playing Hulu video at 480p in its default window (not full-screen). At full screen, even a dual-core Atom-on-Ion is insufficient for playing 480p Hulu video.
OTOH, Atom-on-Ion works surprisingly well with Blu-ray. Pretty impressive full such a low-power, fanless system. It would seem like the perfect HTPC platform if Flash playback didn't suck.
I can't believe I'm continuing this thread. Nobody should be reading this.;-)
What is new in Windows 7 - the screenshots all look the same to me as Vista... apparently it's leaner and runs faster.Oh wait, look, Snow Leopard is the same.
I can't believe a reasonable viewer would come to your conclusion. The UI changes/improvements between Vista and Windows 7 are much larger than the UI changes between Leopard and Snow Leopard. They're comparable to the UI changes between typical OS X releases like Panther and Tiger.
Windows 7 has DirectX 11 you say? But Snow Leopard has QuicktimeX. Windows 7 has DirectX Compute? But Snow Leopard has OpenCL.
DirectX 11 (which DirectX Compute is a part of) will be a free API update for Windows Vista and will be included with Windows 7. QuickTime X is a non-free part of Snow Leopard and will not be available for Leopard or Tiger. I haven't heard any details about Apple's implementation of OpenCL being available for Leopard or Tiger. I'll bet a spindle of Taiyo Yudens that the major GPU vendors (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) will make OpenCL drivers available for Vista (and maybe Leopard if Apple lets them).
Vista came out in 2007. Leopard came out in 2007. These new versions are both coming out very close to each other. Why, in your mind, is Snow Leopard comparable to a service pack whilst Windows 7 is not?
I said Snow Leopard was comparable to 2 Service Packs and some free Windows API updates. For example, Vista Service Pack 2 was released two weeks ago and Service Pack 3 will also be free (perhaps I should have said 3 Service Packs). DirectX 11 (and maybe 12) will be a free update for Vista. Updates for.NET Framework will be available for Vista.
I would agree that Leopard and Tiger were bigger updates than all the free updates that XP and Vista get. However, Snow Leopard is much smaller than a typical OS X upgrade and is much closer to the cumulative free Windows upgrades than the non-free Windows 7.
I do actually agree that Apple should just get everyone on Intel systems up to Snow Leopard by having an upgrade option... oh, they do, it just includes iLife and iWork so that the other major Apple applications are also brought up to date.
Now we're straying off topic. I agree that Apple offers great upgrade bundles and family packs (subsidized by requiring a Mac) that no other software maker seems to match. However, I'd hardly call iLife and iWork "major." With the exception of GarageBand, the $79 iLife bundle is made up of applications that Windows users can pretty much duplicate for free with apps included with Windows (e.g. DVD Maker), free MS downloads (Live Essentials, Visual Web Developer Express), and/or free third party apps (e.g. Picasa). iWork is a nice $79 suite if that's what you're looking for, but so is Office for Mac Home & Student Edition for $108, or NeoOffice for free.
Slashdot Mirror
And yet again, nothing headless in the mid-range
the idea of paying to replace your monitor every time Apple make your old product obsolete sounds a little absurd to me - I'm not interested in the iMacs.
I also dislike Apple's lack of choice in the mid-range (all-in-ones only), but the new 27-inch iMac lessens one major drawback a bit by adding a Mini DisplayPort input port. So that nice 27-inch display, which can have a longer useful life than the rest of the computer, can be re-used by another computer that can output a DisplayPort signal (DisplayPort outputs will probably be commonplace by then).
Note that converting from HDMI/DVI output to DisplayPort input requires a complicated adapter (unlike DisplayPort outputs).
For those who updated the Windows version of Adobe Reader (version 9.2 arrived last week), note that the update enables (or re-enables) AdobeARM.exe and Reader_sl.exe (Speed Launcher) as Windows startup programs without asking or giving you the option of not installing/enabling.
I can confirm that they can be disabled in Windows 2000 and XP using CCleaner. For those who don't have or want that great utility, I'm sure they can also be disabled in msconfig (Run...) and Windows Defender.
And yes, I know about Foxit Reader and other alternatives.
I fail to see how it would be beneficial to do an upgrade rather than a flat out re-format followed by re-install. The problem is the only reasonably priced versions of Windows 7 are upgrade versions that require me to have Vista on that machine. Thanks but I think I'll stick with XP on my home desktop for the time being.
You qualify for Windows 7's reduced upgrade pricing if you have Windows XP, too. From the Microsoft Store's pre-order page:
Windows Vista is only required if you want to do the undesirable "in place" upgrade over your old OS installation. To install the upgrade version of Windows 7 on a Windows XP PC, you are required to do a "clean" installation (back up, erase old OS, install new OS, re-install apps). However, Windows XP users do qualify for "upgrade pricing."
I agree that it's always better (but more time-consuming) to do a clean install anyway, even if an "in place" upgrade is possible. Windows Easy Transfer (it's on the Windows 7 DVD) makes it somewhat easy by backing up user accounts and settings in addition to files.
"Intel segments the market intentionally!"
Don't forget virtualization. With AMD, you don't have to pay a premium if you plan to run virtual machines.
You no longer have to pay a premium with Intel either. I've noticed that Intel recently began adding their "Virtualization Technology" to all new CPU models, even their entry-level Celeron and Pentium Dual-Core lines. Example: this $53 Celeron E3200 at Newegg.
I think Intel did this in response to Microsoft's announcement of Windows 7's "Windows XP Mode" and its requirement of on-CPU virtualization technology. AMD also recently started adding their "AMD-V" to their previously-excluded Sempron line of CPUs. Newegg has one for just $40.
For a long time (since the Pentium D days), Intel had a confusing market segmentation strategy where some models had it and some didn't, even within the same CPU family (Pentium D, Core 2 Duo). In contrast, after AMD-V was introduced, AMD added it to all of their newly released Athlon 64 and x2 CPUs (but not Sempron). And after the Core 2 Duo was introduced and kicked major butt, AMD dramatically dropped their prices, resulting in cheap AMD virtualization platforms.
Anyhoo, AMD isn't the only option anymore for cheap virtualization.
What surprises me is that MS hasn't done much in the area(unless you are willing to go all the way to Windows Home Server). Architecturally, Volume Shadow Copy is abundantly powerful and has been available since before Time Machine even hit the scene; but you certainly wouldn't know about it from looking at any of the advertising, documentation, or spec sheets for non-server Microsoft OSes.
When accessed from the shell in client versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, Shadow Copy is often called "Previous Versions." Back when Vista was released, I remember seeing it mentioned in reviews and on Microsoft's product info pages.
Maybe it wasn't a "front page" feature because it was only available in Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise (and not Home Premium). Thankfully, MS has corrected this mistake by including this feature (and all other backup features) in Windows 7 Home Premium as well.
Add in an anti virus software that does the same X number of processes in the background plus Ad-Aware thats way more bogged down software than ever. Ad-Aware used to be simple, clean and sleek, now it's just bloated shovelware (how quickly did they move from Version X to SE, to Version X.1?)
Stick with Spybot, Malwarebytes, HijackThis and a decent backup like Nod32, Avast or AVG, imho.
Some good recommendations (I'd add Avira AntiVir Personal to your list), but I think Microsoft Security Essentials (released 2 weeks ago) is now worth considering for free, non-bloated virus/malware protection. The initial reviews seem pretty good.
If I were Microsoft I'd throw this on automatic Windows Update and push it out to everyone not already running an anti-virus.
Symantec can blow me.
Wouldn't Symantec cry to the DOJ and EU about "abusing monopoly power" or some other nonsense? I'm betting that Security Essentials will be kept off Windows Update "Recommended" section. They'll probably be cautious about putting in the "Optional" section or even providing a link in the "Security Center" in Windows.
Quicktime Alternative, FTW.. No iTunes, no iPhone, no iToilet...
Even better, VLC media player. Hardly a need to install anything! http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Install both, FTW (including Media Player Classic Home Cinema, which is bundled with Quicktime Alternative). MPC-HC and VLC use different decoding frameworks, so they don't interfere with each other. Some stuff works better on MPC-HC (hardware accelerated decoding) and some stuff works better on VLC (broken/incomplete files). However, Apple's Quicktime is definitely NOT needed to play back non-DRM's video on Windows.
I'd rather not get into a K-Lite vs CCCP war, but I prefer CCCP plus QT Lite.
No, you can confirm that your own personal PS3 broke. That's it. You cannot confirm that there's some systemic problem with launch US PS3's.
Maybe not a confirmation, but after Ars Technica's Ben Kuchera mentioned that his 60GB PS3 died playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, he got responses from at least five others who also saw their PS3s die in similar fashion (Ben and Ars are based in the USA). He wrote a small article about it.
As Ben says, it's unscientific. They also had not heard of the term "Yellow Light of Death."
...you just quoted RoughlyDrafted as if it were a reputable source of information. I will just disregard that.
I'm not sure if you were teasing him, but DECS is Daniel Eran Dilger and RoughlyDrafted is his site. His ludicrously pro-Apple comments and site-pimping should be a hint.
You were saying ...? This would make it even more extraordinary for Win 7 to be cheaper here, but when I look ...
* Win 7 ultimate (amazon UK), £170 = $280
* ditto (amazon US), $220 -> so only $60 / 27% more and the UK price is a "discounted" one from an RRP (recommended price) of £230
Um?
Did you miss the part in the summary and article where they are talking about the full versions of Windows 7? I know, who the heck buys the full version? But you compared the UK full version price to the US upgrade price. Here's how it should look:
* Win 7 ultimate (amazon UK), £170 = $280
* ditto (amazon US), $320
He never said the VM wouldn't be on an Apple machine...
Funny, but I find it flabbergasting that Apple still does not allow non-server versions of OS X to run in a virtual machine, even on an Apple machine:
$29 is for an upgrade from Leopard. Apparently you cannot upgrade straight from Tiger, and it's unlikely to work standalone if that's your idea.
There's a straight upgrade from Tiger if you have intel machine
And it will cost $169 (the same price as previous Box Sets). A great deal, but it's not the $29 OS-only option that Leopard users get.
From Apple's OS X specs page:
If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, purchase the Mac Box Set (when available), which is a single, affordable package that includes Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard; iLife '09, with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD; and iWork '09,
Seriously."
Was Apple being smug? Classy? Cocky? Naive?
That may or may not be the case in general, however in this particular instance, $99 to buy the App seems significantly cheaper than $9.99/month that the TeleNav app on your blackberry costs. Well they do offer a discount - $99/yr or $249 for a 4 year plan.
I can't believe those blackberry users will pay $10 /month for a GPS App that I can buy on my iPhone for only $100.
It looks like Palm/Sprint have you both beat. Every Sprint plan for the Palm Pre comes with the TeleNav-provided Sprint Navigation bundled for free.
The iPhone 3G was released 11th June 2008.
The iPhone 3GS was released 19th of June 2009.
So actually the timing gives more benefit to the year ago quarter rather than this last quarter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone
I won't accuse you of being dishonest. Just confused.
The iPhone 3G was released 11th of July 2008. Re-read your own link.
Also, Apple's fiscal 3Q 2008 ended on June 28, meaning that quarter only included sales of the "iPhone EDGE" which everyone knew was going to be replaced by 3G in a few weeks. That initial surge of iPhone 3G sales was booked in Q4.
Fiscal 3Q 2009 ended June 27. Those first eight days of iPhone 3Gs sales (long lines, good availability, more countries than iPhone EDGE) were booked in Q3.
Michael Moore isn't dishonest or confused, and neither am I.
I'm no conservative, but I pity the confused person who thinks Michael Moore is not dishonest.
There's no lies here, iPhone DID increase sales by 600% over last years quarter. Technologies that are heading for market leadership do tend to perform like that.
Maybe not technically lying, but you are being dishonest (Michael Moore style) by not mentioning that "last years quarter" included only a few days of iPhone 3G sales (released at the end of June) in fewer countries than this year. This year, the new iPhone was released in early June in more countries.
So that's great news for all you folks running Windows 3.11 on at least a 1 GHz CPU and 1 GB RAM ;-)
Seriously, Microsoft has generous upgrade paths. Upgrade editions of Windows 7 will even work on Windows 2000.
It is shitware (aka a lot of "shareware") installers, viruses, spyware, internet toolbars and other associated crap that messes them up.
For those who haven't heard, CCleaner ("Crap Cleaner") is a very good utility that removes that crap left behind.
I think reasonably careful Windows users (don't run as Administrator all the time or install mysteryware without Googling it first) should be able to keep their system snappy with CCleaner.
>Is it relevant because they shrunk the overall thing and now its a "netbook" ?
No, it's relevant because it's $500 instead of, say, a $2000 Fujitsu Lifebook.
I don't think it's relevant enough for the front page, since Gigabyte released their first "touch-screen tablet netbook" a year ago.
Gigabyte has since released an updated 10.1" model, so potential buyers should know that ASUS isn't the only curent player in this netbook sub-category.
They are a private organization so any removal of information is "editing" not "censorship".
NO!
CENSORSHIP can be done by ANYBODY.
Exactly. I'm guessing Darinbob is confusing "freedom of speech" (which is not applicable to private organizations like Wikipedia) and "censorship."
I think I get his point, though. I can't stand it when some nimrod claims their "freedom of speech" is infringed by some non-governmental entity.
Even if SP1 comes first, that will be at least a year after Windows 7 is released (as you predicted). Of course, if enough big customers complain when the deadline is looming, they'll probably extend it again.
The old 9400/8400 line has become the 210/110
The old 9600/8600 line has become the 230/130
The old 9800/8800 GT/GS has become the 250/150
And The old 9800/8800 GTX/GTS has become the 280
You mean the GTX 280M is not based on the desktop GTX 280, but the previous-generation 9800/8800? Death to NVIDIA!
I'm kidding, of course, but this is a long-time pet peave of mine. The GeForce4 MX was based on GeForce2 technology. The Radeon 8000 was not a DirectX 8/OpenGL 1.4 GPU like the rest of the 8000-series. This shit continues today with these NVIDIA mobile GPUs.
I have a duel core atom, and it sucks for flash
Probably cuz it's tired from fighting in one-on-one combat with the GPU all the time. I recommend getting an Atom that works with its GPU.
Your link says nothing about the GPU in the Ion chipset (GeForce 9300) helping Flash video in any way (it doesn't). Yes, we all know Ion's GPU accelerates the codecs used in Blu-ray (H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2), but the Atom has to do all the work when it comes to Flash (and it sucks).
Here's a much better link that explains how the Atom (single and dual core) does with Flash on the Ion platform at different resolutions: Zotac's Ion: The Follow Up - Watching Flash Video on the Ion
Summary: single-core Atom on Ion is insufficient for playing Hulu video at 480p in its default window (not full-screen). At full screen, even a dual-core Atom-on-Ion is insufficient for playing 480p Hulu video.
OTOH, Atom-on-Ion works surprisingly well with Blu-ray. Pretty impressive full such a low-power, fanless system. It would seem like the perfect HTPC platform if Flash playback didn't suck.
What is new in Windows 7 - the screenshots all look the same to me as Vista... apparently it's leaner and runs faster.Oh wait, look, Snow Leopard is the same.
I can't believe a reasonable viewer would come to your conclusion. The UI changes/improvements between Vista and Windows 7 are much larger than the UI changes between Leopard and Snow Leopard. They're comparable to the UI changes between typical OS X releases like Panther and Tiger.
Windows 7 has DirectX 11 you say? But Snow Leopard has QuicktimeX. Windows 7 has DirectX Compute? But Snow Leopard has OpenCL.
DirectX 11 (which DirectX Compute is a part of) will be a free API update for Windows Vista and will be included with Windows 7. QuickTime X is a non-free part of Snow Leopard and will not be available for Leopard or Tiger. I haven't heard any details about Apple's implementation of OpenCL being available for Leopard or Tiger. I'll bet a spindle of Taiyo Yudens that the major GPU vendors (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) will make OpenCL drivers available for Vista (and maybe Leopard if Apple lets them).
Vista came out in 2007. Leopard came out in 2007. These new versions are both coming out very close to each other. Why, in your mind, is Snow Leopard comparable to a service pack whilst Windows 7 is not?
I said Snow Leopard was comparable to 2 Service Packs and some free Windows API updates. For example, Vista Service Pack 2 was released two weeks ago and Service Pack 3 will also be free (perhaps I should have said 3 Service Packs). DirectX 11 (and maybe 12) will be a free update for Vista. Updates for .NET Framework will be available for Vista.
I would agree that Leopard and Tiger were bigger updates than all the free updates that XP and Vista get. However, Snow Leopard is much smaller than a typical OS X upgrade and is much closer to the cumulative free Windows upgrades than the non-free Windows 7.
I do actually agree that Apple should just get everyone on Intel systems up to Snow Leopard by having an upgrade option ... oh, they do, it just includes iLife and iWork so that the other major Apple applications are also brought up to date.
Now we're straying off topic. I agree that Apple offers great upgrade bundles and family packs (subsidized by requiring a Mac) that no other software maker seems to match. However, I'd hardly call iLife and iWork "major." With the exception of GarageBand, the $79 iLife bundle is made up of applications that Windows users can pretty much duplicate for free with apps included with Windows (e.g. DVD Maker), free MS downloads (Live Essentials, Visual Web Developer Express), and/or free third party apps (e.g. Picasa). iWork is a nice $79 suite if that's what you're looking for, but so is Office for Mac Home & Student Edition for $108, or NeoOffice for free.