The coolest box ever.

There are a few apps on my computer that get the honor of running full time – things like iTunes, Tweetie…. and Dropbox. As the name somewhat implies, Dropbox is free online storage– 2 GB, to be exact. After a brief sign up on the site, you now own your personal Dropbox which you can upload to and download from via the Web, as well as add and delete files.

But perhaps the coolest part is their desktop app. Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, it’s basically a folder as well as a mini-app which syncs all info when opened. Simple, really. And, being a folder, it acts like a folder – easy to use.

This synchronization is the highlight purpose of Dropbox. Personally, I use it to keep certain files available to me everywhere – a few of my favorite songs, a couple important school notes, some of my pictures – the stuff I want to have at my fingertips at all times. Dropbox shines in this regard – because of the whole folder system. Add an mp3 to my Dropbox on my Mac, and I can get it from my Window’s netbook on the go. Need to go over those notes on my way to school? There’s an iPhone/iTouch app, so you’re covered there too. At school, and need that important essay you wrote? Just use the website. It’s pretty awesome. Also, there’s the ability to make a file Public – so you can pass a download link to your friends if they need a file from you. And again, it’s all free.

You start with 2 GB and can upgrade that to up to 3 GB by referring people. The Desktop apps are free, iPhone app’s free – its pretty sweet, and highly recommended.

Now, those of you who DESPERATELY need more then the 2-3 GB? You can upgrade to 50 or 100 GB at $10 or $20 a month respectively – if, say, you need to have your whole computer with you everywhere.

So – interested? Check out Dropbox here. (iPhone App here [Note - iTunes Link])

So let’s begin our Windows 7 coverage with trying to simplify the many different versions of the OS. Unlike with Apple’s Snow Leopard, where it’s more of a one-size fits-all approach, with Windows 7 you got a nice selection of editions: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Happy-Go-Lucky… Ok, fine, we just made up the happy go lucky part, but as you can see, there are a whole lot of different versions, and so let’s try to simplify that into what you should looking for when getting a Windows 7 upgrade or when looking for a new PC, and what you should be looking for specs wise to make sure whatever version of 7 you get works well.

Ok, so let’s knock one of these guys off the bat right away. As  some of you may be noticing, there really is no Home Basic, which basically is like the other versions of 7 like Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, just lacks the nice looking and surprisingly useful Aero. Home Basic also isn’t sold by Microsoft in the US, Europe or other developed countries, instead being sold only in developing countries.

That still leaves Starter, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. These are the much more common versions of 7 that you’ll see when your looking in Best Buy or online for a new PC. Let’s break’em down.

Starter

The Starter version is the netbook version of 7. It’s cheaper and therefore easier for manufacturers like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus and Acer to put on their very low-cost netbooks. That doesn’t though mean that the other versions can’t run well on the low-spec’d netbooks. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: while we were at IDF, Microsoft showed a low spec’d HP Mini netbook (512 MB of RAM and standard Intel Atom processor), running Windows 7 Ultimate– with all its bells and whistles — just fine.

So what is the difference in this cheaper version of Windows 7? Microsoft is giving netbooks a real watered down version of 7 here, so watered down that you can only run 3 apps at once. Not cool in my opinion, though if it means that netbooks stay cheap and boot up and work fast (and that I can upgrade to a higher version of 7 if I want), it’s not the end of the world.

Windows 7 on an HP Mini Netbook

So, you want Windows 7, but you want a more powerful, full featured version for your laptop or desktop PC. Alright, that’s  what Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate are for.

Home Premium

Home Premium, is the successor to the Windows Vista equivalent, also named Home Premium. Here your getting a lot more than the Starter version, and this is the version we think most people will get, as your standard new laptop should have it at the least. You get pretty much all of the new 7 features– the updated Windows 7 Media Center (which works a lot better than Vista’s), the new Aero features– known as Aero Peek and Aero Shake/Snap, they’re really cool looking and productive new add ins to 7. Aero Peek lets you just drag your mouse over an icon in the new taskbar and it will hide all your other open windows to let you view just that window (say you got a new IM and you’re in iTunes, just drag your mouse over your IM in the new taskbar and it will show you the IM without you needing to click through windows). Aero Shake/Snap are really two different features, though I find that they work so well together that I put them into one. Aero Shake lets you take one of your open windows– say a Word document your working on– just take your mouse, click on it and “shake” it, and all your other windows are cleared. Aero Snap let’s you put two windows right next to each other like you got 2 screens. It automatically resizes the windows to fit the sides, and is something I personally find this very useful for things like writing papers and having your research open right next to each other.

Windows 7 Home Group

Also new in 7 Home Premium is Windows Home Group, which let’s you share your music, videos, pix, documents and even printers with other Windows 7 PC’s on your home network.

Windows 7 Home Premium also supports 64-bit applications (the future of software writing, and something anyone investing in a PC should make sure to get–it’s pretty standard now on most PC’s you find in stores and online), and better multi-touch and general touchscreen support (which is also something we expect to see coming to a lot of new PC’s in the future).

These Aero, 64-bit  and multi-touch support, and Home Group features are also found in the Ultimate and Professional versions of 7.

Professional

Windows 7 Professional is like Vista Business–  nice, but not really worth the extra money for what most of us will use it for. As mentioned above, it’s got the new Aero, Windows Media Center and Home Group, and some better networking features that the business users will love. It also brings in something called XP Mode, which basically gives you a virtual XP  that runs inside of 7 (like Mac users run Windows in a Mac. The XP copy is downloadable and does not cost any additional money to use– though you will need to reinstall the software you want to use on XP in the XP mode as it is separate from 7). Otherwise, there’s not much more to see here for the non-business user.

Ultimate

Windows 7 Ultimate pretty much combines all the versions of Windows 7 and gives it to you in one package. Put together all the different features of Home Premium and Professional coupled with some extra features like more language support (yay?) and BitLocker, which provides another layer of protection for your data (both your hard drive and portable storage) if your are one of those super cautious types.

If you want everything  7 has to offer than there is no better choice than to go with Ultimate, though that choice will most likely cost at least another $100 over the Home Premium version.

So, what should I get in my next PC?

So you’re getting a new PC  or are looking into the many different versions of 7, what do we think you should look for?

Based on what most of us use our PC’s for– internet, iTunes, school work, and even the occasinal games– we feel that you should at least look for Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (definitely don’t buy a new PC now with Vista even if your told you’ll get a free copy of the equivalent version of 7– why bother with the upgrade process if you don’t have to?), with at least 4 GB of RAM, a 320-500 GB hard drive, and at least a dual core processor like an Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion X2. Get something along those specs (which you can get for well below $1,000 for either a laptop or desktop from HP, Dell, and many other PC makers both online and in stores), and we think you should be more than fine using your new 7 PC for many years to come.

So there you have it– what the difference is between the Windows 7 versions, and our thoughts on it. What are yours? You looking for a new PC? You thinking of switching to a Mac instead of sticking with Windows?

And stay tuned, we’re finishing our review of 7 as you read this, so keep an strong eye out for that.

You can check out Microsoft’s full comparison chart of Windows 7 here, and you can see Microsoft’s comparison chart of 7 and Windows Vista and XP here.

Today is October 22nd, and you know what that means: Windows 7 is out! This is the day anyone using Vista has been waiting for. Microsoft has officially made Windows 7 available for purchase. In the coming days we’ll be doing a ton of coverage of Microsoft’s awesome new OS (it is truly awesome– I’ve been using it on a couple different PC’s for a few months now, and am really loving  it. It’s just so fast and easy, and not Vista) and how it relates to you.

In the meantime however, go on and check out our first thoughts that we posted a few months back, and if anyone out there already got 7 and wants to share their thoughts on the OS, or if anyone has any questions about 7, feel free to post them in the comments and we’ll do our best to answer them in the coming days.

You can get Windows 7 now from your local Best Buy, Walmart, or other local computer store now, or order it online from Amazon and Microsoft’s own sites among many other online retailers.

Let there be Shinyness!

Whoa. Apple today decided to unleash a whole slew of new stuff. Foremost among them, an updated unibody white plastic MacBook (see above pic). Like the 13″ MacBook Pro, its now carved out of a single hunk of plastic, and is packing the new LED screen, glass multitouch trackpad, slimed down design, and updated specs, starting at 2.26 Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 2 gigs of RAM, 250 GB hard drive, at the same price of $1000. Not bad at all.

Next! New Mac Minis. The little Mac has  gotten yet another specs boost (it got one earlier this year as well. You can see our review on the early 2009 Mac Mini here), with now at $600 you get an upgraded 2.26 Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, and an 160 GB hard drive, and at $700 you get an even faster 2.53 GHZ C2D, 4 GB RAM, and 320 GB hard drive, making the Mac Mini, as it was, the cheapest way to go Mac. (kinda… provided you aren’t gonna spend money, on, you know, screens, mice and keyboards… if you need some of those, well then this next Mac is the way to go). Also announced was a Mini Server Edition, with no disk drive and instead a 1 TB (or 1000 GB) hard drive, meant for small business owners (any teenaged small business owners out there…?)

The new awesome iMac

But the big player, (and big is very much intended here) is the new updated iMacs, at 21.5 inch and a MONSTER 27 inch beast. Notable is the option for Intel’s new i7 chips in a quad core configuration which is awesome (basically you’ll be getting great speed and power for your Mac while not killing your electric bill. Apple uses the same Core i7 chips found in new laptops in the iMacs– helps keep the sleek design and low power usage– and you can check out our post on the HP Envy 15 and Pavilion dv8 laptops from IDF for full details on all the greatness that is Intel’s new Core i7). Also interesting, is that the screens on the new iMacs support video-in. So you can use your lovely, massive LED widescreen display on say, your new MacBook. Specs on these things are beastly – check ‘em out here.

The new “Magic Mouse”

Finally, peripherals. Apple’s got two new ones here – a new mouse, this time dubbed “The Magic Mouse”, which looks like it fell out of Star Trek, and eliminates the trackball for, you guessed it, multitouch gestures. Haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but it looks pretty cool. Also added was a new, sleek and aluminum Apple Remote, to match the current line of aluminum iMacs and MacBook Pros.

…Phew. That’s everything. Anyone out there buying new Mac stuff now? Sound off below readers!

HP’s Core i7 packing Pavilion dv8 and Envy 15

While at IDF we got to see a bunch of sick new laptops coming to the Best Buy’s and Walmart’s near you very, very soon. We’re talking about some insane new stuff, and HP and Intel really pulled out all the stops here—sleek designs, incredible amount of features, and previously unheard of power for laptops. Wanna learn more? Who we kidding, of course you do—and we got a bunch of pix and more info on both of these major bad boys after the break.

Ok, so let’s begin with some of the new tech Intel announced for laptops called the Core i7 processor, which in my opinion are really going to change laptops the way we know and use them. Everything from transferring things from iTunes to your iPod, playing games, loading pix and video onto your computer and then uploading them to your flickr or Facebook, video chatting– even doing all those and more at the same time, just got a heck of a lot easier.

These are new quad core processors (unlike the now very popular Core 2 Duo where there are 2 cores), that will give you a whole lot better performance. These processors aren’t just raw power– Intel also showed off some new tech called Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading (which actually has been around for a little while, though is really put to use here), and they really do take your laptop to the next level. Turbo Boost for example, something that I find really cool, actually makes your processor run faster when the proper space is available. Think of this as a sort of smart-overclocking: say, for example, you buy an HP with a 2 GHZ Core i7 inside– not a bad choice at all — the processor will, at times, bump itself up to a faster-running 3 GHZ if you you have enough cores available and your computer is in a condition to withstand the heat produced (so your computer doesn’t fry). Basically, your laptop will now run faster and more efficiently, without you even lifting a finger. While Core i7  has been out for regular desktops for a couple of months now, you now will get all this power in a laptop design as well, giving it to you on the go, wherever you are.

Oh and best part about this news? As you’ll see in these HP laptops and many others we’ll be writing about soon, this stuff is already ready to go and is coming out to new computers as we speak.

Now on to two new HP laptops ready to take full advantage of this new tech. First let’s start with the Pavilion dv8. While it may not be a system to take with you to school everyday (it has an 18 inch screen—so unless you got a massive desk and a huge bag, I don’t think anyone can take it to school), if your looking for a lot of power and want at least a little bit of the portability in a laptop, then listen up as this may be the system for you.

HP’s monster Pavilion dv8

Specs? Oh, wow is this loaded. 18 inch FULL HD screen (1920×1080p resolution—so yeah, your getting real HD), Blu-Ray drive (you got the HD screen so why not watch your movies on it in HD), webcam, fingerprint reader, Intel Core i7 Quad Core processor mentioned above, and a 1 GB Nvidia graphics card all standard. You can also customize this up to 8 GB of RAM, a faster Core i7 processor, up to 1 TB (1000 GB’s, or a whole lot of storage for your music movies and pix), and you can also can get TV, and Bluetooth thrown in for good measure. It even comes with surround sound Altec Lansing Speakers with a Subwoofer which should really give you incredible sound.

Now in our brief hands-on with this guy we can definitely attest to a couple of things: 1. It’s really, really fast—like wow fast, 2. It’s screen is gorgeous—watching movies on this, be it on DVD, Blu-Ray, Hulu, YouTube…— should be an awesome experience. Heck, even opening things like Internet Explorer looked great. 3. It’s HUGE! Now this was intentional by HP, and when we say HUGE, we don’t mean it’s thick (it actually isn’t that bad in terms of thinness. It’s no MacBook Air but it still ain’t bad), just obviously with an 18 inch widescreen you can’t expect this to be tiny. There are plusses to it being so big, for example the ability to add a subwoofer, and hey, it even has a touch control next to all the normal play/pause, fast forward, rewind and volume controls that lets you easily control the Treble and Bass. That’s the first time I personally ever saw this on a laptop, and die hard music lovers should be really excited about this.

It’s said to ship the day Windows 7 launches—October 22^nd (two days from now)— though you can preorder and customize it to your heart’s desire (and wallet’s– it starts at $1,299– which does give you a lot like a Core i7 processor 3 GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium.Just a note– customizing a lot of things can become very expensive very quickly) at HP’s site.

Now let’s go to a much thinner but by no means less powerful system the Envy 15.

HP’s sick new Envy 15

When I was talking with the HP rep at the booth, he actually told me this was more powerful than the Pavilion dv8, something I immediately responded with a “your kidding right?” He wasn’t. This thing is loaded—and in a much more portable design which I could definitely see taking to school everyday. The design really looked to me like a MacBook Pro—aluminum casing, similar keyboard design, no buttons on the trackpad (though the whole trackpad isn’t one button like on the MacBook Pro, instead the right and left corners are your right and left click and individual buttons), and a very thin design. It even has some cooler design features than the MacBook—with an eteched in design seen on the back of the screen and along the bottom toward the right and left of the trackpad. I like this and thinks its pretty cool.

The etched design of the Envy 15

Now here we go—specs time. 15 inch FULL HD screen (again, like the Pavilion, this looked like a very good screen as I briefly checked out to PC), Intel Core i7 processor (seeing it in this design made me think it was some kind of joke. But trust me– this was definitely real!), Blu-Ray drive, Beats by Dr. Dre sound output technology—unlike the Pavilion, you don’t get the subwoofer here (way too thin for it), but HP does add something new here. They teamed with Dr. Dre to make the sound much clearer when listening on headphones or when hooked up to some speakers. Another very nice touch in my opinion. You also can  get up to 16 GB of RAM (comes with 6 GB standard), and an even faster Core i7 processor like with the Pavilion d8. It also comes standard with a 500 GB hard drive, Bluetooth, 1 GB dedicated ATI graphics card, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a 6 cell battery (which can be upped to a 9 cell– you can get an amazing 7.25 hrs of battery on this beast!).

Sadly, all this power and sickness comes at a price– the base model starts at $1799.99 (though along the lines of a 15 inch MacBook Pro), so this is not for the budget minded among us.

The Envy is ready for pre-order now, and will too be shipping on the 22^nd when Windows 7 launches.

We got more coming still from our time at IDF, so stay tuned…

RUN! IT’S A MOBLIN!

Alright, so chances are, if you’ve used a computer in the past few years, you’ve heard of the basic factions of operating systems – Mac, and Windows. Chances are you’ve used both over the years. But, there is a third major OS – Linux, which I for one, and I’m guessing that many of you as well, haven’t had a chance to use. Now, unlike the Mac or Windows, Linux comes in tons of varieties. But the one I’ll be focusing on here is Moblin, which Intel is involved in, and we had the chance to see at IDF this year.

Moblin is designed specifically built for netbooks running Intel’s Atom processor. Right now, only a handful of systems are fully supported, mine not being one of them, so not everything worked perfectly. Also, hesitant to sacrifice my computer to Moblin just yet, I only ran it off a flash drive, which may have accounted for some of my issues.

First off, I’d like to talk about the main page – the myzone. As you can see in the screenshot above, it’ll show you your calendar, social network updates (right now: twitter and last.fm), and in the middle, recently viewed files, sites, and media. It’s basically your home base.

Next is the status tab, which lets you update your statuses on twitter, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, etc. The people tab is your IM window/Contact list. From here, you can IM friends, email, video chat (which actually worked, surprisingly).

Moblin has a built in browser, but has support for other applications as well, including Firefox. Moblin has an application database of free, combatible Apps in an Application called Moblin Garage, which was just added in the 2.1 update, still in beta

I wasn’t able to try out media so well, since it refused to work on my netbook – whether due to imcombatibility or flash drive issues, I have yet to discover.

Pasteboard is the next tool in the userbar (for lack of a better term). It’s copy and paste on steroids basically. Remembers history for copy/paste. Finally there’s the application tab, which has the rest of the, well, applications, which include a Word Processor (which is fine for taking notes), some built in games, (yes, there is Solitaire and Minesweeper), IMing, File Browser (like Finder/Explorer on Mac/Windows), among others. Basically everything you need for a quick, light, computing experience.

Last, there’s Zone, kinda like Spaces on a Mac, which allows you to have multiple applications open while keeping them organized.

So, overall – Moblin. It’s fun, light, and interesting. Nice to use. But I’m still gonna recomend, at least for casual users, NOT to install it just yet. There are still some issues to be worked out, and while nice, consider whether you’d REALLY like to wipe out Windows just for it. And as of right now, I haven’t managed to find a way to dual boot Windows with Linux yet, but if it’s possible, then its a whole different story.

BUT – Moblin is cool and fun to use. And if you’d REALLY like to try it out, tune in later this week – I’ll be posting a how-to on using Moblin on your computer without wiping it out. Not for the meek, but for those who simply MUST try it, it’ll be there soon.

Anyone out there use Moblin already? What’re you thoughts? Sound off in the comments.

The Archos 9 Windows 7 Tablet

For what seems like forever, there’s been talk of Apple making an all touchscreen tablet for the Mac. Now see, if you’re a Windows user (even though now there is talk of Microsoft making their own tablet…. but we’ll cover that another time), you can pretty much point and laugh at every Apple “fanboy” who freaks out with each Apple event and rumor hoping for said inevitable tablet—as thanks to Archos, you got a real, and really nice looking Windows tablet that’s ready to make full use of the upcoming Windows 7’s improved touch features.

Playing Hearts with your fingers!

At IDF, we made sure to stop by Archos’s booth and check out the Archos 9 for ourselves, and we came away pretty impressed. The Archos 9 tablet looks great and is insanely thin and light that taking it around wherever you go should be a breeze.

Archos did though do a couple things interesting with the tablet—for one, it doesn’t use a capacitive, more finger friendly touchscreen like those on the iPhone and iPod touch, instead going with a surprisingly very responsive resistive touchscreen (usually with resistive screens they only work well if you use a stylus or pen like object to tap the screen– but if we hadn’t known before that this was resistive we would have definitely thought it was a capacitive screen. That’s how good it is with just using your fingers! Though that lack of a capacitive screen also means no gestures like “pinch to zoom” etc). It also has a lot of the netbook type specs like 9 inch touchscreen, 1 GB RAM, 1.2 GHZ Intel Atom processor, 1.3 megapixel webcam, Bluetooth, 60-120 GB hard drive…, but all this isn’t a terrible thing, as Archos is planning to sell this at a very solid price of $499 when it launches with Windows 7 on October 22nd.

Oh, and if your worried about using an all touchscreen device like this to write long reports or take notes in school, don’t be. Archos plans to be selling a very thin wireless Bluetooth keyboard along with the Archos, which also is pretty solid and will definitely make things a whole lot easier.

For more info on the Archos 9, see Archos’s site here.

Over our time at IDF, we had the chance to meet up with Absolute Software, the maker of the laptop recovery tool LoJack. What, you ask, is LoJack? If you’re a laptop owner probably one of the most useful pieces of software out there for laptop owners. LoJack exists because a warranty can only take you so far; what would happen if your laptop got stolen? (cue dramatic music)…

LoJack software is here to catch the thief and save the day (and more importantly, your laptop). Basically, you install the app, (most computers actually have it built in on a factory level, which allows a greater level of security – check the list here), and every so often, once you activate it by, well, buying the software, it’ll check in with LoJack on a daily basis. If you report your computer as being stolen, the program reports in more frequently, enabling LoJack, (who works with local police), to retrieve your computer. Which, as you probably realize, is pretty awesome. The more costly Premium Version has the additional feature of allowing you to remotely wipe your data on the computer, before it is returned, as a just in case feature. Also included in the premium is insurance – if they can’t get your computer back, they’ll give you up to $1000 for a new computer.

As a teenager, I think that the appeal of this is obvious – I carry my laptop everywhere, and I’d have no way of finding it if it was ever stolen. So for me, it’s pretty awesome. Thankfully, I haven’t had to try out their services, but they do note a rate of 3/4 laptops recovered.

LoJack is both Windows and Mac compatible, and costs $50 (1 year subscription) or $100 (3 years) in stores for the Standard Edition, [its cheaper on their site as a digital download], and $70 (1 year) or $120 (3 years) or the Premium Edition.

But, stick around –  later in the week, we’ll have three copies of the LoJack Premium Edition (3 years) to give away. So check back here soon!

Ok, file this into the “what in the world?” category, as Dell decided to show off—albeit in a glass box nobody could touch– their all new Latitude Z series 16 inch laptop. So you may be thinking right now “Alright Eli, so why should we possibly put this in the “what in the world?” category?” Well astute reader, I answer you with a couple of pictures:

Yeah, this ain’t a bad “what in the world?” but rather a good and excited one. As you can see, this is no ordinary 16 inch laptop, seriously how in the world did they possibly make it that thin! No real news is out on this guy yet (though it’s rumored to charge WIRELESSLY!!!! Kinda like the Palm Pre and it’s Touchstone dock), and we’ll make sure to pass along info on this once Dell makes it official in, as the Dell rep told me “in the coming days!”

The Intel Classmate Tablet PC and regular laptop style Classmate PC

So taking a regular laptop or netbook to school is great (I love using my HP Mini netbook everyday — so much easier to take around school), but sometimes you want something a little more durable, or maybe something that gives you the ability to use a touchscreen and “write notes” (or doodle). Intel, not usually known for designing whole computers themselves, actually has designed a small tablet like PC that lets you do just that– full keyboard to take notes, or twist the screen and just write on the touchscreen, and even a bigger more traditional netbook style Classmate if you want all the ruggedness without the touchscreen.

Here at IDF we got to spend a couple of minutes with the Classmate, and overall, were very impressed and found the Classmate to be a very cool idea. Pix and full details after the break.

The more “normal” netbook looking Classmate PC

Ok, so actually right now there are 2 Classmate PC’s — one tablet (8.9 inch screen), and one “normal” style laptop (10 inch screen). Both are designed for students (mainly those in the K-8th grade area– but hey, I wouldn’t mind a cheap, solid touchscreen PC), and since they’re designed for younger ages, they are rugged (meaning don’t worry about this dropping from your desk or hand to the floor and cracking in half), have waterproof keyboards (remember how many times you or a friend spilled something in 2nd grade), and even has a handle for carrying it around — something you don’t see everyday.

Spec’s wise this is pretty much like your normal netbook — 1 GB RAM (upgradeable to 2GB), Windows XP, 1.6 GHZ Intel Atom processor, and either a 30 GB hard drive (for the traditional laptop design) or a 60 GB hard drive (tablet design). You also get some specially designed software– such as theft deterrent software (more on this coming soon from IDF, but basically it allows you to disable your PC so the thief can’t get to your data) and depending on where you buy, a lot of dedicated education apps like a textbook reader (seen below– no more carrying around 50lb books!), a webcam, and, on the tablet — you even get an accelerometer (like in the iPhone, iPod Nano and iPod touch which means that when you flip the iPod on its side, the screen rotates) and a resistive touchscreen (meaning you need to use the included pen like stylus to really make good use of the touchscreen. You can still use your fingers to draw or write — it just doesn’t work as well as the stylus as it isn’t designed like the more finger friendly capacitive touchscreens found on the iPhone and iPod touch).

Reading a textbook on the Classmate Tablet PC

We really liked using the Classmate in the brief moments that we had them, and even though we found them to be a little bit heavy, the keyboard on the tablet a little small (though it is designed for hands much smaller than mine), and not as stylish as say a MacBook, they definitely seemed to be something we wouldn’t mind using in school everyday.

Here’s the bad part though — Intel doesn’t actually sell them to individual customers. Instead they’re designed more for schools to buy and distribute. You can buy them online though if you can find them (try checking out the link here for the tablet. ), and when you do want to buy, say, only 1 for you instead of, say 20 for a whole class — it is pretty expensive at $499.99 to start. There is said to be a new 10 inch tablet Classmate coming sometime early next year, so maybe things will change a little bit by then.

Oh, and if you really are into this design like I am, and are looking for a new netbook, try looking for the ASUS Eee T91 which we wrote about back in January — it’s also $499, but offers a bigger hard drive than the Classmate PC tablet (the standard netbook hard drive: 160 GB), has the ability to add in Bluetooth and TV (pretty sweet), and is designed for an individual to purchase.

You can learn more about the Intel Classmate PC at Intel’s site here.