Tech Today w/ Ken May

Most anyone who’s paid attention knows Windows 8 will feature some fancy tweaks, including a revamped Windows Explorer and new copy, move and rename functions . But now Redmond’s given us a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it preview of the new Start Menu, in a video about accessing ISO and VHD files in the new OS. We’ve included a screen capture above — hit the source link if you’d like to see the full (and admittedly quite dry) video. You’ll spot the wily Start Menu about 25 seconds in. [Thanks, Chris] Filed under: Software Windows 8 Start Menu caught on camera, shows off high-contrast design originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Before today, HP had only expressed that it “will consider a broad range of options” for the future of its Personal Systems Group; and now, said company’s released a series of ads to confirm its intention to spin it off into a separate company. Amidst the lovely (and ironic) mention of HP’s long-lived success with its $40 billion PC business, the underlying message here is all about “staying focused on our customer needs” and to “better anticipate change” — much like being a start-up all over again, as suggested by Executive Vice President Todd Bradley on HP’s website . Of course, the customer in question here is likely from the enterprise sector, as we’ve all learned from CEO Leo Apotheker’s interview at D9 , the death of HP’s webOS devices, and the pending acquisition of Autonomy. Still, we’ve yet to hear more concrete plans or even figure out who the potential buyers might be (if any), but for now, you can take a gander at HP’s “sample ad” after the break. Continue reading HP promotes ‘$40 billion’ PC business spin-off with new series of ads HP promotes ‘$40 billion’ PC business spin-off with new series of ads originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

File this one under rumor, but CNBC just tweeted that Facebook is preparing to launch a new music service on September 22nd, which just happens to be the date of their annual f8 developer conference. What a coinkidink. More

Chrome: Google’s adding offline support to Gmail, Calendar, and Docs. The offline support comes via the Offline Google Mail extension, available now in the Chrome Web Store. More

And you thought Samsung was finished showing off its Series 7 line of PCs. Joining the gaming rig and its smaller laptop brethren is a brand new Series 7 Slate running Windows 7. It sports a 340 nit, 1366 x 768 11.6-inch capacitive panel, Intel’s 1.6GHz Core i5 2467M CPU with integrated graphics and 4GB of RAM. On the front there’s a 2 megapixel camera and a light sensor, and around the back sits a 3 megapixel shooter. Connectivity comes courtesy of 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, plus there’s a USB 2.0 port, micro HDMI, and a SIM slot for surfing waves of 3G (no word on which carrier will send those swells of data, though). Each slate also comes with a capacitive stylus, but will also have Swype on board plus a custom software layer to make Windows a bit more finger-friendly. It comes in four versions that differ in storage size and flavor of Windows, but all are .5 inches thin, weigh 2.03 pounds, and are swathed in brushed aluminum. There are 64GB SSD variants packing Home Premium for $1,099 or Pro for $1,199, while the 128GB models come with Home Premium, a dock and keyboard for $1349 or Pro sans the peripherals at the same price. They’re all scheduled for a late September release, so it won’t be long before you can pick one up. Looking to take the tablet plunge into Windows waters? Read on past the break for our impressions of Sammy’s new slate. Gallery: Samsung Series 7 Slate PC Continue reading Samsung’s Series 7 Slate PC hands-on Samsung’s Series 7 Slate PC hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Chrome: Google’s adding offline support to Gmail, Calendar, and Docs, starting today with Gmail. The offline support comes via the Offline Google Mail extension, available now in the Chrome Web Store. More

If you use Google’s Public DNS server or OpenDNS as your DNS server, you may notice starting today that YouTube videos load faster and other web content comes in quicker. If you’re using your ISP’s DNS server as the default, now’s a good time to try Google’s or OpenDNS. More

As goofy as Bluetooth headsets may be, there’s still people who use them on a daily basis. So what happens to those people when they want to listen to music and use a headset? They need something like Jawbone’s The Nerd. More

Sony’s HMZ-T1 is a head-mounted 3D headset, to be released later this year in Japan. Two 1280×720 OLED displays, each just 7/10 of an inch across, create a virtual 750″ screen. Perceived 20m from the viewer, it “corresponds to the sense of cinema as seen from a large central seat.” It’ll be 60,000 Yen ($785) from mid-november. Source [Impress.co.jp]