Building on the growing style of mobile broadband companies selling netbooks, AT&T declared today that for the first time it will make its 3G wireless network service available for new Windows 7 netbooks. AT&T is emphasizing the Samsung Go and Acer Aspire One netbooks. Both will be present in stores and online very soon.
The netbooks will come pre-installed with latest Windows 7 and will be the first Windows 7 machines to have integral access to AT&T’s 3G service and its Wi-Fi network, which the firm says has more than 20,000 hot spots nationwide. Both netbooks have 10-inch screens and weigh less than 3 pounds, and will run Windows 7 Starter version.
The price is the same for both netbooks: $199 after a mail-in discount through an AT&T promotion card. The $199 pricing needs the buy of a new two-year AT&T DataConnect plan, which comprises of a 200MB option for $35 per month or a 5GB plan for $60 per month. The netbooks also come with AT&T Communication Manager (ACM) 7.0 preloaded. ACM is a feature that helps users organize their usage and connections. It automatically links users to AT&T Hot Spots when available and the program is activated. The recently revamped ACM is constructed to be compatible with Windows 7.
AT&T and Verizon are recently the only telecom providers in the U.S. that are bundling netbooks with data plans. Both companies began selling netbooks at a discount this year as a way to combat the slowdown of smartphone sales during a recession. Microsoft says that the AT&T netbooks are just the beginning, and more telecom providers will soon be offering subsidized plans for Windows 7 netbooks. In a post on the Windows 7 blog, the company forecasts that more than 50 telecom providers worldwide will deploy Windows 7 netbooks by 2010.
In another development, the T2250MTS is a 22in Full HD widescreen monitor and it’s the first touchscreen display that was seen for Windows 7. It costs £242 and it has seen all-in-one PCs with touchscreens, Iiyama’s new model permits you to upgrade your current PC with touch capabilities.
Rather than being a resistive screen, which analyzes pressure, the T2250MTS has infrared transmitters and receivers around its perimeter. This means the screen is recessed by around 5mm from the front bezel, although this is barely detectable. A stylus slots into the bottom edge of the monitor, but this is designed only for fiddly operation. For most of the time, though, you’ll want to use your fingertips, just as you would on an iPhone or iPod Touch.
As you’d expect, the T2250MTS supports multitouch gestures. You can use two fingers at once to zoom in and out of web pages and photos, rotate images and even paint lines in programs like Microsoft’s Paint. However, it’s important to note that not all programs support touch control, so you’ll find that you can’t use motions in Photoshop Elements 8, for example. In programs like this, all you can do it use one finger to check the mouse cursor, both to point and click. Oscillating your fingertip just above the screen is enough to pick up the cursor and drag it, but you can tap the screen to select, and double-tap to double-click. During our testing it was found the touchscreen was accurate, although it was needed to resort to the style to tap small icons such as the buttons to minimise and maximise windows.
0 comments:
Post a Comment