If you’re a road warrior like me, you’ll immediately love the Inspiron M101Z’s size. At a compact 11” x 8” x 1” and weighing in at 3.5lbs, the M101Z is outstandingly portable.  Even my super-light and thin Sony VAIO Z looked kind of big next to it.  I’ve been carrying it around in my Tom Bihn Ego messenger for a few days, and I can honestly say that I barely notice the weight.  My copy of The Girl Who Played with Fire weighs just about as much.

I’m using the baseline version (single-core AMD Athlon II Neo K125 processor, 2GB of RAM, webcam, 3 USB ports, HDMI, media card slot and a 250GB, 5,400rpm hard drive), and there is a higher-end version that has a dual-core Athlon II K325 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB 7,200rpm hard drive.  Despite the more modest specs, performance with the M101Z was surprisingly good and un-netbookish. Both have the same bright, glossy 1366 x 768 resolution screen, which makes viewing documents and web pages a breeze. The PC was responsive when multi-tasking, and handled my usual barrage of Office 2010 apps (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote) without any issue.   I didn’t try any games, as a PC with 11.6” screen isn’t really optimal for gaming – unless of course that PC is an Alienware M11X.  I did, however, connect my M101Z to my home media library using Remote Media Streaming, and I was very impressed by the sound quality.  The speakers on the M101Z definitely don’t sound like a usual set of tinny, hollow netbook speakers; I filled up my office with surprisingly rich sound.

Ergonomically, the M101Z was the perfect size for me.  The keyboard is full-size and island style so typing was very easy, and the multi-touch trackpad was responsive and smooth.  As with many Dells, the mouse buttons are soft and pleasantly clickable.  I actually typed the first draft of this post on the M101Z in Windows Live Writer Beta, and I didn’t run into the normal eye-strain or hand-fatigue that I usually get when typing on a traditional netbook. 

My only wish was that the M101Z got better battery life.  Coming off many weeks with the ASUS UL30vt, which I can sometimes stretch to run almost 12 hours, the 4 hours of uptime I got with the Dell was a bit disappointing.  That being said, for most average consumers it should be plenty of time away from the outlet.

As with all of their new PCs, Dell did a great job of making the M101Z look as nice as it performs.  You can get the M101Z in one of 5 colors (mine is bright red) and the internal polycarbonate is high-gloss, so much so that at first glance you’d think it was aluminum.  It’s a beautiful machine that looks and feels like a premium box, even though it is value priced.

If you’re looking for a netbook but are worried about the small screen size and keyboard, I highly recommend you check out an 11-12” machine like the Dell M101Z.  You’ll find it to be a great compromise between the ultra-portability of a netbook and the power of a full-sized PC.

Have a question about this or any other PC?  Post a comment, hit me on Twitter or Ask Ben Anything via email.  Your question might appear in my monthly Ask Ben Anything Q&A column.

This time we are back with the next application in the Project Hilo series. We call it the Hilo Annotator.

The Hilo Annotator provides basic image editing capabilities but more importantly it illustrates how to take advantage of the following Windows functionalities:

• Ribbon: To provide a modern, easy to use and easy to learn user interface.
• Windows Imaging Component (WIC): To display and manipulate images.

What’s more is that it even tells you more about the Windows Animation Manager and Direct2D that we have seen in the previous articles.

Feel free to download the source code for this application from the Hilo Code Gallery Page. The article introducing the Hilo Annotator app can be found here. As we did earlier, over the coming weeks we will be publishing a series of articles on the MSDN library that will walk you through building this application.

As always, you can also follow Hilo updates on Twitter @projecthilo. Stay tuned and code-on!

On the netbook front, HP introduced a new member to its venerable Mini 210 lineup (the Vivienne Tam – which I love – is part of this line) with new optional HD screens, optional GPS, and the option to power up with the Intel’s new Atom N550 processor.  It’s in a slick new chassis that’s less than an inch thick and weighs just a hair over 3lbs, and you can get one starting at $329.  HP also introduced the Mini 5103, which is HP’s first mini-notebook with a multi-touch screen.  It comes in a beautiful all-metal “espresso” colored case, and its available today starting at $399.  I’m really looking forward to getting a Mini 5103 so I can try out multi-touch.  Overall, HP does a great job with touch – just look at the wildly successful TouchSmart line – and I’m excited to see how they miniaturized the experience for the Mini 5103’s 10.1” screen.

The shiny new Mini 210s

Want something bigger?  HP’s got you covered.  Today they announced the ENVY 17 3D, the first 17” laptop in the world to pump out 3D graphics on a 1080p display.  I haven’t tried it yet, but it sounds amazing!  Couple that with monster specs, like an available ATI Radeon 5850 DirectX 11 GPU, 2 terrabytes of storage, an Intel Core i7 processor, and ATI Eyefinity to support multiple external displays, and the ENVY 17 3D is shaping up to be one of the baddest boxes on the market. 

HP rounds out today’s announcement with the ENVY 14 Beats Edition. This is a special edition of the standard ENVY 14 that’s packed with Beats Audio, which HP touts as “A unique, high-performance technology developed by HP and Beats by Dr. Dre™ to provide the optimal sound experience – the way the artist intended it – when playing music or audio through headphones or external speakers.”  I just got one of these laptops into my office and I’ve been playing with Beats Audio and the Beats Audio Solo noise-cancelling headphones and I can attest to how incredible its makes music sound.  Bass is deep, mids are solid, and highs are crisp and clear.  It’s an impressive combo and something that I highly recommend to music lovers.  I’ll be reviewing the ENVY 14 in more depth in the next week or so, so keep an eye out.

It’s always nice to see a leading PC company like HP staying ahead of the game by making cutting-edge technology available in mainstream laptops.  Hopefully we’ll see more PCs with technologies like this coming soon.   Speaking of what’s next – what do you think is the next big thing in PC tech? 

Have a question about this or any other PC?  Post a comment, hit me on Twitter or Ask Ben Anything via email.  Your question might appear in my monthly Ask Ben Anything Q&A column.

You may have heard of the Double Rainbow Video. The guy who filmed this, Paul “Bear” Vasquez, lives in Yosemite and in the past month has gotten huge traffic for his ‘vivid’ reaction to that double rainbow. We hooked up with Bear to learn more about him & show him how to capture a full on double rainbow with Windows Live Photo Gallery using our panorama stitch feature. It’s so intense!

Some more background…

When I first showed the Windows Live team the famous “Double Rainbow” video back in July they thought it was hilarious. But when I said I wanted him to come and do a video with us, they looked at me as if I had been seeing rainbows all day…they thought I was kidding. I e-mailed Bear that night and sure enough, he responded, and with great enthusiasm.

I called him and gave him the lowdown on the project and asked if he would do a “Double Rainbow” redux. He was ecstatic! So we jumped right on it. He flew to Seattle and we had an absolute blast. After a 10 hour shoot we shared stories, ate delicious Vietnamese food (his favorite), and hung out with the crew.

Photo Caption: Bear and our crew. From left to right: Connor Lanman, Max Lanman, Adam Collins, Matt Garrett, Bear, Austin Chick, Michael Fishman, Andrew Sobey, & Shawn Anderson not pictured: Tommy Yacoe & Brendan Schlagel

We did a second video called “Meet Bear” where talks about his experience posting “Double Rainbow” and his love for sharing photos and videos with the world using Windows Live Essentials – video coming soon (will update post when its up). UPDATE: You can check out the second video called “Meet Bear” by clicking here!

Bear is something special. He’s entered the world of social media in hopes to share laughs, smiles, and insights. It’s not about the product, it’s about the people. It’s about the viewers, the users, it’s about you. And more importantly this project also shows how powerful sharing photos and videos can be. If tools like Photo Gallery and Movie Maker didn’t exist, Bear and I wouldn’t have met.

People can now share their lives with everyone and anyone, and can influence each other’s lives in a positive way. That’s what is so cool about Bear’s story.

Till next time,

-Connor

Windows Phone 7 is the most thoroughly tested mobile platform Microsoft has ever released.  We had nearly ten thousand devices running automated tests daily, over a half million hours of active self-hosting use, over three and a half million hours of stress test passes, and eight and a half million hours of fully automated test passes.  We’ve had thousands of independent software vendors and early adopters testing our software and giving us great feedback. We are ready.

I last posted on this blog when we reached the Technical Preview milestone, and we’ve received some great feedback since then which we’ve been able to respond to and improve the smart design throughout the OS. For example, folks loved the Facebook integration in the People Hub, but they also wanted ways to filter their contacts so only the Facebook friends they really know will show up in their contact list  – we’ve added support for that.  We’ve also made it easy to “like” a post right from the People Hub, or quickly post a message to someone’s Facebook wall directly.

This has been one of the most incredible product development efforts I’ve ever been a part of. Today’s milestone is exciting not just because of what we’ll deliver to customers later this year, but how it sets us up for success over the long term in the mobile space… we’re really just getting started.

We reached today’s milestone because of the tremendous efforts of the entire team including our partners, early adopters, and independent software developers providing feedback.  I want to send a huge THANK YOU to this extended team– we couldn’t have done it without you!

Terry

As organizations deploy Windows 7, many still depend on web applications that were designed for Internet Explorer 6. Will they still work, and what can you do when they don’t? Join a panel of IT Professionals, Microsoft specialists and technical experts to discuss best practices to simplify and accelerate the migration to Internet Explorer 8. Topics will include an explanation of the causes of and solutions for application compatibility issues (including policy, code, and virtualization solutions), an introduction to tools, and a review of best practices.

Ask your questions live during the event with our online tool – or submit your questions in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.

Missed a previous Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable? Watch them on demand.

An additional piece of encouraging news was the further drop of Internet Explorer 6, particularly in developed markets.  As Net Applications is reporting that IE6 share is now at its lowest point ever, I thought it would be a good time to address how we think about the aging browser.  As we have said in the past, one of our main missions is to get people off IE6 as fast as humanly possible.  And while IE6 was a great browser for its time, we all need the web to move forward.  First, this is good for developers who we want to be able to write the same markup across their sites. It’s good for consumers who should have the protections afforded by a modern browser. Finally, it’s good for the web, particularly as we look ahead to IE9 and begin to see what’s possible. 

The news today of August market share that Internet Explorer 6 is at or below 5% in many developed markets is overall goodness.

While there is still a significant number of Internet Explorer 6 users who have not upgraded, most of these users are concentrated in developing or emerging markets as well as enterprises with substantial application dependencies that take time to migrate. Overall, August data shows a decline of Internet Explorer 6 usage of 0.87% to 16.99% worldwide, which is about half the market share Internet Explorer 8 has today. Break that down further and you see that the share of IE6 is at 5.3% in the United States and less than 5% in Europe – a good sign that many users and developers are ready to embrace a modern browser. As IE6 share drops (and IE7 too), we expect a dip in worldwide IE share.  For August, IE share worldwide decreased 0.34% to 60.40% worldwide, but in a world of customer choice we are pleased that people are continuing to choose Internet Explorer 8 three times more often than other browsers when they make that move. 

Over the past several months, you have seen us talk about some of the ways we’re helping customers get off IE6 and onto IE8 and soon IE9, coming in beta in just a few weeks.  From our work with enterprise customers, to consumer campaigns like adios IE6 and spoiled milk, to joining the fun at the IE6 Funeral – these efforts will continue.

Today, people on the web are demanding an even more beautiful web experience. The Internet Explorer 9 Platform Previews continue to generate great buzz among developers and browser enthusiasts, and we have now registered over 2.5 million downloads and 20 million page views to the IE Test Drive Site, our developer site where we show new capabilities in HTML5 and Internet Explorer 9. We are looking forward to even more great things with the release of IE9 Beta this month.

Ryan Gavin
Senior Director, Internet Explorer Business and Marketing

For those of you who don’t live in the U.S., Family Pack may be coming your way too. It goes on sale in Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia and many other markets on or after Oct. 22 (Windows 7’s 1 year anniversary!)

According to IDC’s Consumerscape 360 data, there are 2.1 PCs per household in the U.S., but, as we all know, networking isn’t easy. Windows 7 has built in features – like HomeGroup- that make it easy and quick to get all of your home PCs connected and sharing files, music, photos and printers.

So, don’t delay. The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available soon while supplies last.

If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter.