Inside CNET Labs Podcast

Like previous versions of Windows, Windows 7 supports legacy software written for previous Windows releases, including Windows 95.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

I remember the first time I ran into Windows in 1995. It was in one of the few small computer shops in Hanoi, Vietnam, where you had to pay money to use the machines. Being a high school student with absolutely no money, I made friends with the owner and helped him clean up the place just so I could use the computers after-hours. And I spent many hours using them.

Compared with what I had known, namely MS DOS, Windows 95 was truly revolutionary. I loved the support for long file names and marveled at the Start menu, the Taskbar, and the Control Panel. Everything made so much sense then, as it still does to this day.

Now, after having used Windows 7 exclusively for about four months on my PCs and even on my Mac, I realized that the impression Windows 95 made on me was far stronger than that of Windows 7 (or any other Windows).

Don't get me wrong. This is not a Windows 7-bashing article. Windows 7 is undoubtedly the most advanced and probably the best Windows ever. However, after 14 years, I think it's time Windows offered something more original than just improving and thriving on the success of Windows 95.

This is why when I saw the "I am a PC and Windows 7 was my idea" ads, I just wanted to jump into panel to ask the presumptuous-looking guy, "What is your idea, dude, really? What's really new?" (And speaking of original, come on Microsoft! You can do better than imitating Apple's painfully old and goofy, "I am a Mac, I am a PC" ads!)

So, strictly from a user's point of view, here are my ideas for how Windows could be better.

You've probably heard of or even owned a computer that automatically turns off its hard drive when it senses shock or heavy vibrations. That is an example of sensitive human-machine intimacy. Another example I like is tilting the iPhone to use it as the driving bar for my racing games. Well, that nifty human-to-computer interaction is about to go to whole new level.

HP announced Thursday a new inertial-sensing technology that enables the development of digital micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers that are up to 1,000 times more sensitive than those in high-volume products currently available.

A MEMS accelerometer is a sensor that can be used to measure vibration, shock, or change in velocity. When implemented, this allows the device to "feel" the environment it is in.

According to HP, the new sensing technology--the result of HP's 25 years of nano-sensing research--includes multiple detectors as part of a complete sensor network and therefore is capable of real-time data collection, management evaluation, and analysis. This information enables users to make better, faster decisions, and take subsequent action to improve safety, security, and sustainability.

Your mobile devices' wireless LAN is about to get significantly better.

Atheros, a mobile Wireless LAN (WLAN) chip maker, announced Monday the lauch of its newest and possibly the industry's highest performance mobile WLAN chip, the the ROCm single-chip 11n AR6003 family.

The new AR6003 mobile WLAN chip is the smallest WLAN currently on the market.

(Credit: Atheros)

According to Atheros, this tiny new chip, currently the smallest WLAN chip on the market, measuring just a 5mm by 5mm, combines both the energy efficiency of Atheros' ROCm technology and the faster 802.11n WLAN performance. As a result, it offers up to 85Mbps of actual throughput speed in the 5GHz band and 48Mbps in the 2.4Ghz band.

While this speed is slower than the 150Mbps ceiling speed of the single-stream 802.11n standard (which is just half the speed of regular dual-stream, 802.11n standard used in desktop and laptop computers), it's a very good fit and offers a major performance improvement for smartphones, mobile gaming devices, and other portable consumer electronics products.

The most impressive feature of the new chip, however, is its energy efficiency. According to Atheros, the AR6003 require about 20 percent less energy than the previous model, the AR6002, which prior to the launch of the AR6003, had always been the most energy efficient WLAN chip on the market.

In addition, the new AR6003 chip supports Atheros Universal Wireless Cooperation, which is a suite of advanced mobile wireless coexistence techniques. This helps significantly enhance the simultaneous operation of WLAN and Bluetooth in mobile devices. The new chip also support mobile device with host wakeup, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup, a feature that allows for quickly connecting a client to a wireless network without having to amnaully enter the encryption key.

The AR6003 mobile WLAN chip is available in single-band and dual-band (2.4/5Ghz) configurations. You won't be able to buy one on your own, but very soon you'll find one in your mobile wireless device.

"Good" is always what you want to see when it comes to the state of your system, isn't it?

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

You get a new computer and it runs great. However, after a while, things start to get more and more sluggish. This is true for all operating systems, including those running the all new and shiny Windows 7.

That is because, other than user errors (such as misuse, viruses, spyware, accidental file deletion, harmful changes to the Registry and system settings, and so on), the OS doesn't take good care of itself. It collects and store junks from the Internet. It doesn't completely remove remnants of unwanted applications. Its Registry keeps getting more and more bloated with residual settings, and so on and so forth. All of these result in system clutter that over time slows down the machine.

This is when a cleanup software, like System Mechanic from Iolo, comes in handy.

I tried version 9.0.3 of the software recently, as it's the first I found that works with Windows 7 64-bit (the software itself is 32-bit, however) and it seemed to work well, though not perfectly.

Hardly any laptop computers come without built-in wireless nowadays. However, if yours lacks Wi-Fi, or if you want to quickly upgrade to Wireless-N without something sticking out of the USB port, Trendnet has something to offer you.

The TEW-648UB Wireless-N USB adapter from Trendnet.

(Credit: Trendnet)

The networking vendor announced on Tuesday what it calls the "world's smallest Mini Wireless N USB Adapter," the TEW-648UB. This ultracompact adapter is just slightly larger than a quarter in size, measuring merely 1.3 inches in length.

What's the catch? It's a single-stream adapter, meaning it supports speeds up to only 150Mbps (as opposed to 300Mbps of regular dual-stream Wireless-N devices). Nonetheless, this is still a big upgrade from Wireless-G, which caps at 54Mbps, and you can enjoy the other major benefit of the Wireless-N standard, which is its long range.

Despite its tiny size, according to Trendnet, the TEW-648UB supports One-touch Wi-Fi Protected Setup, which lets the adapter connect to a secure wireless network without you having to type in the encryption key manually. It also offers a Wi-Fi multimedia quality-of-service feature that prioritizes bandwidth based on the content you are using with it, such as video, audio, or gaming traffic.

The new 150Mbps Mini Wireless-N USB adapter works with Windows XP and Vista (both 32-bit and 64-bit) and is available now. Its estimated price is $25.

Less than a month ago, Hitachi announced its 2TB hard drive for desktops. The company on Tuesday brought the same speed to its newest Travelstar hard drive for laptops.

The new hard drive is called Travelstar 7K500. This is a 500GB, 2.5-inch, SATA 2 (3Gb/s) hard drive designed for high-performance notebooks and external storage solutions. The new Travelstar 7K500, according to Hitachi, delivers up to 56 percent higher capacity and 16 percent better application performance than its predecessors. It also comes with Hitachi's new technologies designed to withstand shocks and vibration, and offers better power management and security.

The new 7200 RPM TravelStar hard drive.

(Credit: Hitachi)

As with previous generations of the Travelstar hard drive, like the Travelstar 5K500.B, the Travelstar 7K500 comes optional with hardware-based bulk data encryption (BDE). However, it's one of the first that's compliant with the Trusted Computing Group's (TCG) Opal storage security specification. This is a new open standard designed to protect data in the event of system loss or theft.

(Hitachi BDE, much like the Seagate's full disk encrytion, is a hardware-based encryption provided as an option for hard drives. Once enabled, the hard drive will encrypt all data that comes from the system as it is written to the media. When read back, the drive decrypts the data so that it can be understood by the system. Since the hard drive is doing the encryption work, there is no impact on the operating system's performance. In case of loss or theft, the data can be automatically deleted, rendering the hard drive unreadable.)

Hitachi claims that the new Travelstar 7K500 has been designed for energy efficiency with power consumption as low as 0.69 watts when idle and 1.8 watts during operation. The drive also offer halogen-free design and RoHS compliance.

The new Travelstar 7K500 comes in 120GB, 160GB, 250GB, 320GB, and 500GB capacities. It's currently only available to OEMs but you can get your own sometime later this month with the 500GB version costing $160.

(Credit: Twelve South)

If you want to use your MacBook as a desktop (and I don't see why), there's now an easy and pretty way.

Mac accessory maker Twelve South released BookArc, a metal stand designed to hold any Apple MacBook, from the MacBook Air to the 17-inch MacBook Pro. The stand is designed to hold the laptop in a vertical position and therefore supposedly should free up your desk space. The BookArc has a compact footprint of just 10 inches long by 4 inches wide, which is significantly smaller than that of any MacBook.

The BookArc is equipped with a soft silicone cushion where it holds the laptop. The cushion comes in three sizes to accommodate different MacBook models and can be replaced easily. The stand also has silicone on its footpads to keep the surface of the desk from scratching.

BookArc photos

The problem with this design, of course, is that the BookArc can only hold a MacBook when it's closed. To make use of the computer, you'll need a separate monitor and a set of keyboard and mouse as well as the video cable to connect the monitor to the MacBook. These extras will put quite a few things on the desk, instead of just the laptop itself.

The upside is BookArc looks pretty, with or without a MacBook in it.

So if pretty is what you're after, the BookArc is available now at the Apple Store for $50--or you can buy six of them for $250. Personally, I am happy with my Unibody MacBook Pro just the way it is.

(Credit: Meraki)

Meraki, a known mesh network provider, released Tuesday its first Wireless Census for North America and the results, though dramatic, seem nothing of a surprise. Basically, there has been a huge increase in the number of wireless-capable devices, among which Apple's handheld devices had the biggest jump.

The Meraki Wireless Census surveyed 10,000 randomly selected Meraki access points deployed in North America for two 24-hour periods: June 2, 2008, and June 1, 2009. The study measured the number of distinct client devices that sent probe requests in each 24-hour period. The purpose of the survey was to identify macro-level traffic and end-user device trends.

In details, the number of mobile devices including laptops and handheld devices grew from some 149,000 in 2008 to more than 211,000 in 2009, a 41 percent increase.

Apple's devices played a huge role in this increase. The company's Internet-enabled devices now account for 32 percent of all devices, represented in the survey, in 2009, compared with only 14 percent in 2008. The survey also showed that the popularity of Apple laptops, iPhones and iPods increase an impressive 221 percent just in one year.

Other than Apple's products, there have been an increasing amount of Wi-Fi-enabled handheld devices from other well-known vendors. According to the Meraki's census, the number of Research In Motion (RIM) devices, best known for the BlackBerry smartphones, observed in North America grew by 419 percent from 2008 to 2009, while Nokia devices grew by 114 percent.

In 2008, RIM devices represented just two percent of all devices observed, but grew dramatically to 8 percent for 2009. In 2008 and 2009, Nokia represented one percent and two percent of all devices, respectively.

These shifts in types and numbers of wireless devices are to be expected. In the past few years, more and more highly Internet-capable smartphones have been introduced and more and more Web services are tailored for mobile users.

Personally, while I wish the survey was done in larger than 24-hour periods, the trends seem right and definitely represent the way I access the Internet. Apart from sitting at work writing on my desktop, when on the go, my almost exclusive way to access the Internet is via my iPhone.

How about you? How often do you access the Internet via your phone? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.