Gadgets and Tech in the Philippines

The latest from the pioneering Eee line is a 12" netbook. Packed with features, this netbook comes with an Intel Dual Core Processor otherwise known as the Atom 330. Video has also been improved with the new Ion Graphics processor from Nvidia. When it comes out before the end of 2009, the cost would be close to $500 (P24,000), not bad for a top of the line netbook.

The Aspire Timeline looks like it's Acer's answer to the Macbook Air. Less than 1" thick. 8 hour battery life. All looks good except that the processor is only a single core. The Aspire Timeline is available at Villman.com for P36,900.

Rumours have been coming out that Apple's planned tablet device will be named the Apple Slate. No news yet about when the device will be released. For now just hang on and hopefully these rumours turn out to be true.

Google's Chrome browser has now moved into the Beta version. This is the latest update since the 4.0 preview version was released last August. Not too much has changed since the last release but this version looks like it has been tested better and the bookmark sync feature has improved.

You can now install Windows 7 from a USB stick.  Microsoft has released a very helpful tool that lets you format a USB stick to make it bootable and copy the setup files from the Windows 7 disk image.  The tool is called "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool" and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store at http://images2.store.microsoft.com/prod/clustera/framework/w7udt/1.0/en-us/Windows7-USB-DVD-tool.exe .  Download and installation of the tool was pretty easy.  Once your USB stick is ready, you will need to change your CMOS settings to allow your PC/Laptop to boot from your USB drive.

Windows 7 has been released in the United States last October 22.  I have checked around and found some online stores already selling this latest Windows version.  There are 3 versions available online, Starter, Home Basic and Professional.  Range of prices is from P2,500 for the Starter and P8,299 for the Professional.