Fast company has a quick update on how color and video e-paper devices are just around the corner.

Windows 7 launches today, and Lifehacker has produced a guide that will tell you everything you need to know. They write:

This guide will take you straight through from system requirements and upgrading your PC to highlighting Windows 7’s best new features to help you hit the ground running with all of the awesome tweaks Windows 7 has in store for you.

Very interesting. Very, very interesting.

This is how I’d like to see a tablet work. It should not just be a bigger iPhone. It needs to be more like a notebook. Which is what this one is.

There’s a great video there (I wasn’t able to embed it here) which will show you what I mean.

From Fast Company:

Sitting in the coffee shop with forty Firefox tabs open on your laptop, wishing you had one more monitor? Or three? Today at IDF, Intel introduced a multi-tasking concept PC that allows users to work on their main screen while providing three small auxiliary screens above the keyboard for organizing and accessing smaller, snackable chunks of info from their PCs.

The concept PC was developed with an eye toward future-gen laptops–on which you can organize more information while still reducing the size of your notebook. Without affecting the information or activity on the main screen, you can access information–say, a phone number in your address book or a reminder you’ve placed in your sticky notes–while keeping the desktop as clutter-free as possible.

I’d like to see this — or something like it — catch on. It is very needed, and a solution like “Spaces” for Mac doesn’t do the trick for me because you still have to switch screens.

I miss the days of my paper planner. The reason: It was simple.

On a single page I could see my calendar for the day and critical action items for the day. On the other side of the page was a place for notes. In the tabs at the back were my longer-term lists — projects, next actions (that weren’t due on a certain day), and so forth.

Those are the four critical components of any planning system, and they were all right in view. Now that I am electronic, those four components are split across multiple programs. I have no way to get a single, integrated, and simple sight of my calendar, critical actions for the day, and a place to jot notes. Especially when I’m on the go and have to deal with the much smaller screen of the iPhone.

So although I could never go back from the speed of keeping everything electronic, I am continually frustrated — and slowed down — by the cumbersome interface(s) that we have to deal with.

Enter the (rumored) Apple Tablet. My first question for the iTablet (or whatever they call it) is how it will relate to my laptop. And I have an answer, which stems from the above problem.

Among all the various things it will be able to do, there is one main thing I want the iTable to do: I want it to be the electronic version of the physical planner that I used to have.

To do this, first of all it will have to be an extension of my laptop rather than a truly separate device. This means that it will have to easily (and wirelessly, fully, and instantly) sync with my laptop so I don’t have to keep track of which data is where.

Then, without that concern, I want to use it in conjunction with my laptop (at least when I am at my desk) as a second screen that I can use to show an integrated view of my calendar, daily tasks, and daily note capture.

My desire is to look to the iTablet to identify “what’s best” to do next (reviewing calendar and actions), and then to my laptop (plus the attached external monitor, for screen #3) to actually do the work.

That’s the heart of the matter: You need one screen where you do the work, and a different screen where you keep track of the work you are doing / will be doing next.

On top of this, I want to be able to input into the iTablet by writing on it. Just like I could with my old physical planner.

When I leave my desk, I’ll then take just my tablet with me. In those instances, then I’ll use it both as my planner and also for any other tasks I need to do on the go. But it will need to be simple to get back to the “planner view” so I can easily determine what needs to be done next. Gone will be the days of having to both keep track of my work and do my work in the same view.

And that’s the critical principle, so I’ll say it again: there needs to be a separation between the screen where you keep track of your work and the screens where you do your work. That, in a nutshell, is what the iTablet needs to offer.

Some good ideas on this by Gregory Ferenstein at Fast Company.

From Fox News:

The newest trend in Internet fraud is “vacation hacking,” a sinister sort of tourist trap.

Cybercriminals are targeting travelers by creating phony Wi-Fi hot spots in airports, in hotels, and even aboard airliners.

Vacationers on their way to fun in the sun, or already there, think they’re using designated Wi-Fi access points. But instead, they’re signing on to fraudulent networks and hand-delivering everything on their laptops to the crooks.

Fast Company has an article explaning why they don’t see the new Chrome OS being very useful to people.

My attitude is largely a wait and see at this point. I don’t see the Chromse OS becoming very widely used early on. The most interesting question to me is: what will operating systems be like in 5 years and 10 years? They could be very different, and Chrome could be a step helping move us along. We’ll see.

Google has announced that it will be creating its own operating system based on its web browser, Chrome. Fast company summarizes:

The OS will be open source, lightweight and have “speed, simplicity and security” at its core. The lightweight and simple aspects are clear from the fact that the OS is going to be initially targeted at netbooks–it’s absolutely a separate project from Android.

….

As if that’s not enough, the way Google appears to be re-thinking an OS is completely new. Chrome OS is designed to be instant-on, with a minimal interface and most of the user experience will happen via web interactions. Chrome will run within a “new windowing system” superimposed on a Linux kernel, and the whole thing will work like it’s in a browser. Consequently “all web-based applications will automatically work” so developers will supposedly be able to write software that runs on Chrome, and in browsers on Windows, OS X and Linux machines.

If you’ve ever had the misfortune, as I have, of dropping your iPhone on concrete, here is some good news from the Infinite Loop blog:

An iPhone falls to the ground in slow motion and makes its first impact on a corner. You watch as the cracks branch out over the screen like a spiderweb. If it hasn’t happened to you, it has happened to someone you know—and now, Apple can fix it on the spot at one of its retail locations.

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop has confirmed that Apple retail stores have begun performing this in-house repair with what amounts to a big suction cup in the back. The machine separates the broken glass from the rest of your precious iPhone, letting the technician install a shiny new one.

The cost will be $199, and it is not covered under warranty or Apple Care.