Product Central
Dispatches from the Reviews Editor's desk
Thursday 8 February 2007, 9:32 AM
Windows Mobile 6 'unveiled'
We all know it's impossible to keep a secret on the InterWeb these days, and sure enough one of the worst-kept secrets is the imminent appearance of Windows Mobile 6, codenamed 'Crossbow'. Microsoft will do the official bit at 3GSM in Barcleona (to be dutifully covered by ZDNet UK's intrepid reporting team).
But to whet the appetite, here's a few screenshots unearthed by our CNET colleagues in the US:
There will be three editions, as before, now renamed as Classic (formerly Pocket PC Edition), Standard (formerly Smartphone Edition) and Professional (formerly Pocket PC Phone Edition). Here are the feature highlights:
* Ability to view email in original HTML format
* Enhanced Mobile Office Suite allows for viewing and editing documents
* Windows Vista synchronization
* Windows Live for Mobile: services include mail, messenger, search and contacts
* Calendar Ribbon for easily viewing your day or week's schedule
* Nine new one-click email shortcuts, including Reply-all, Moving messages to subfolder and Delete
* Call history associated with Contacts
* "One-click easy" Internet Sharing option for using a smartphone as a notebook modem
* Information Rights Management
* Easier VoIP integration (more for the device manufacturers and carriers).
Check out our 3GSM coverage next week for more details. We'll also post a full preview in Reviews as soon as possible.
Monday 5 February 2007, 12:03 PM
Big screens, cables and quad-core workstations
Much excitement in the Reviews corner of the ZDNet office on Friday, when Dell delivered an enormous box containing its quad-core Xeon-based Precision 390 workstation. Another enormous box had some days earlier supplied the 30in. Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP monitor that, we felt, was the ideal way to best display the capabilities of the Precision 390's 256MB ATI FireGL V7200 graphics card. The things we do to keep readers fully informed about the latest hardware...
We'll review this setup in due course, but for now the relevant point is that, having deboxed the kit, cabled it up and switched on, I was somewhat disconcerted to be unable to display a resolution higher than 1,280x800, despite the FireGL V7200's ability to deliver up to 3840x2400 pixels. Now my eyesight isn't what it was, but on the 3007WFP with its native 2,560x1600 resolution, things were distinctly 'in your face' — had this been a touch-screen, you could have used a cricket stump from six feet away.
The problem turned out to be the DVI-D cable: in the rush to get up and running, I'd grabbed a single-link cable, which supports a maximum resolution of 2.6 megapixels at 60Hz — whereas, of course, I needed a dual-link cable to support the 30in. monitor's 4.1 megapixel resolution.
Now fully up and running, the joys of a 30in. display are all too evident: Web sites become broadsheets where before they were tabloids; rare is the spreadsheet that requires serious scrolling; you can view document-creation and reference material comfortably at the same time; and you can keep all your comms paraphernalia (IM, Skype et al) open and visible all the time. It's going to be hard giving this lot back!
Wednesday 31 January 2007, 4:04 PM
New business ultraportable from Sony
G11 — no, it's not an economic grouping of nation states, it's the latest addition to Sony's range of VAIO notebooks.
A 1.13kg ultraportable with a 12.1in. screen and an integrated optical drive, the VAIO G11 is designed to appeal to business travellers with its robust carbon-fibre laminate contstruction for the case and lid, acceleration-sensing technology that locks down the hard drive before an impact, fingerprint sensor and claimed battery life of up to 9 hours.
All this we will test in due course. What's not in any doubt is the G11's (typically premium) price, starting at £1,699, and the fact that it looks like this:
