We’ve already seen Evoluce toy around with using a Kinect to control Windows, but it’s now taken things one step further with its new “Win & I” software, which promises to let anyone do the same with minimal effort. That comes in both a home edition that offers gesture controls for Windows 7 itself, plus Media Center and other applications (which could be particularly handy for a home theater), as well as a business edition that apparently adds some extra controls specifically tailored to Microsoft Office, and PowerPoint in particular. Head on past the break for a quick video demonstration, and hit up the link below to snag the software if you’re interested — the home edition runs €20, or just under $30 (Kinect not included, obviously).
Update: Well, it looks like Evoluce already has a bit of competition. Upstart company So Touch has now also released its Air Presenter software that will let you liven up your next presentation with more gesturing and hand-waving than usual.
Don’t tell us you’ve forgotten about Lenovo’s pair of new Edge machines! Sure, they’ve taken a while to get to market, perhaps having been inconvenienced by a little hiccup with Intel’s Core 2011 chipsets, but the first of them is now well and truly on sale and the other is looking eager and ready to go too. The 14-inch E420s is up on Lenovo’s web store, starting at $699 with a 2.1GHz Core i3-2310M CPU, while its 12.5-inch sibling, the E220s, is expected on the 8th of April, judging by the roadmap doc we’ve uncovered below. The E420s touts what Lenovo calls an Infinity Glass display, meaning simply edge-to-edge glass, alongside a fingerprint reader, a fetching new matte black lid, a HD webcam, 4GB of RAM and 250GB of HDD storage at a minimum, and a 48.8Wh battery. A 1366 x 768 resolution is your only option, unfortunately, though you can spruce up performance by quite a bit if you opt for the i5-2410M, which does 2.3GHz at default speeds or 2.9GHz when only one of its two cores is pushed to the limit … or should that be to the Edge?
First they leaked, then they became official, and now they’re at HP’s online store waiting for your name, address and credit card information. The new Pavilion dv6 and dv7 laptops borrow liberally from the higher-end Envy line’s aesthetics — not that we’re complaining — and offer quad-core Core i7 CPUs that max out at 3.4GHz on the i7-2820QM when cranked up using Turbo Boost. The default running speed for that model is 2.3GHz and it has a pair of slightly slower brethren, ticking along at 2.2GHz (i7-2720QM) and 2GHz flat (i7-2630QM), all of which you can own on the dv6t or dv7t. Both machines come with AMD’s 1GB Mobility Radeon HD 6570 graphics chip, while the larger dv7t also brings a two-year warranty as standard. Its 1600 x 900 resolution on a 17.3-inch screen might disappoint those looking for mad pixel density, though few would be able to complain about its price. The dv6t and dv7t start off at $1,000 and $1,100, respectively, and are subject to a $150 instant rebate and free memory (6GB) and hard drive (750GB) upgrades that should make them very appealing value propositions.
Microsoft told us to clear our pipes for a hefty download on the 22nd of February, and sure enough, the software giant is delivering. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 is now available for public consumption, with the company also confirming that 7601.17514.101119-1850 is the final RTM. We’d bother telling you more, but we know you’ve already dug into the source link in order to get your download a-hoppin’. Just make sure you uninstall any pre-releases of SP1 before doing the deed with this one, and if you’re updating just a single PC, you’re probably better off waiting for everything to flow through Windows Update. Your call, though.
At CES 2011, Microsoft has unveiled a new Touch Mouse for Windows 7 that supports scrolling, panning, forward and back paging, docking, maximizing, minimizing, zooming, navigating, showing desktop and much more.
Microsoft Touch Mouse price is $79.95, and it is available at Amazon for pre-order, whereas it will reach to users in May 2011.
Let’s say you have one internet connection at home that you want to share across all your desktop and laptop computers, your Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, media players (like the iPod Touch), video game consoles (like the Xbox), digital photo frames and any other wireless devices that you may have at home.
How do you do this?
The easiest way to setup a wireless network, as we all know, is with the help of a router — just attach a wireless router to your modem and any Wi-Fi enabled gear, that’s located inside the signal range of your router, will be able to connect to the web using that lone Internet connection.
Setup Wireless Network without a Wireless Router
Now consider a slightly different scenario — you have all these Wi-Fi enabled devices at home but there’s no router. Well, there’s no reason to buy one because you can still easily setup a wireless network as long as your computers have a wireless network adapter*.
[*] Most new desktops and laptop computers are already equipped with internal network adapters so you are ready to go without a router.
If your computer doesn’t have built-in wireless capabilities, you can either buy a USB network adapter that plugs into the USB port of your desktop or go for a wireless adapter that directly plugs into your notebook’s PC Card slot. Desktop users can also opt for an internal wireless PCI card but you’ll have to open the computer case in order to install this network adapter.
Create a Wi-Fi Network without a Router:
Now that you have everything in place to create a Wi-Fi network, let’s actually build one.
For Windows XP and Vista users
If your main computer, that is already connected to the internet, is running Windows XP, Vista or even Mac OS X, you can set up an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network and the other wireless devices can then connect to the web via this ad-hoc network (also called a computer-to-computer network).
You can read the steps below or watch this excellent video that demonstrates how to turn your Windows Vista, Windows XP, or your Mac OS X laptops into a wireless hot spot via ad hoc networking.
Wired Connection In, Wireless Connection Out
It’s an easy process. To set up an ad-hoc network in Windows Vista, go to Network and Sharing Center from the control panel, select “Set up a connection or network” and choose “Set up a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network”.
Make sure you select “Save this network” option else the ad hoc network will be removed if no other computers / devices are connecting to the network.
Turn on Internet Sharing in the next screen and now your other home computers can connect to the ad hoc network just like they would connect to any regular wireless network. Setting up an ad hoc network in XP takes a couple of extra steps but also make sure the host computer is running at least XP SP2 or SP3.
For Windows 7 users
If you are on Windows 7, you can instantly turn your desktop or laptop computer into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot without having to configure anything. All you need is a free software called Virtual Router and the computer connected to the internet must be running Windows 7*.
[*] Virtual Router works will all editions of Windows 7 except the Starter edition because Microsoft has disabled the Virtual Wifi feature in that particular edition.
Using the virtual router is simple — just run the program on any Windows 7 computer, assign a password and that’s it. In the above example, I used the Virtual Router to connect an iPod, an Ubuntu Linux laptop and a Windows desktop to the Internet via a Windows 7 notebook where that virtual router software was running.
As new devices join the Wireless network, their assigned IP and MAC addresses instantly appear in the Virtual Router window. And you can click the “Stop Router” button anytime to deactivate the hotspot and disable Internet sharing.
Virtual Wi-Fi vs Ad Hoc Wireless Networking
To set up Ad Hoc networking, your main computer needs to have an Ethernet based Internet connection as well as a Wireless (WLAN) network adapter. In the case of Virtual Wi-Fi, the Ethernet card is optional so you can turn a laptop into a hotspot even if your laptop itself is connected to a Wireless network and not to an Ethernet cable.
Computers and other wireless devices in ad hoc networks must be within 30 feet of each other but there’s no such restriction in the case of Virtual Wireless networks.
Ad-Hoc wireless networking is available on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 while Virtual WiFi, which is much easier to setup, is only* available for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008.
[*] Intel’s Centrino 2 processors include a new technology called My Wifi that can also turn your wirelessly connected laptop into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot but the interesting part is that this supports Windows Vista as well in addition to Windows 7. See video:
Microsoft told us to clear our pipes for a hefty download on the 22nd of February, and sure enough, the software giant is delivering. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 is now available for public consumption, with the company also confirming that 7601.17514.101119-1850 is the final RTM. We’d bother telling you more, but we know you’ve already dug into the source link in order to get your download a-hoppin’. Just make sure you uninstall any pre-releases of SP1 before doing the deed with this one, and if you’re updating just a single PC, you’re probably better off waiting for everything to flow through Windows Update. Your call, though.
