Once you get past the slightly differently-colored Aero theme in Windows 7, you’ll realize that it looks, UI-wise, nearly the same as Vista. That is, until you look down at the Taskbar. Now that’s new.

First, you’ll notice that the Quick Launch Bar (the tiny tray on the left in XP and Vista where you can click to launch apps) has been combined with the Taskbar (the place where open apps used to sit so you can access them). Now, it’s just one bar of icons that opens up “in place”, much like OS X’s dock. You then can right click on these and pin them to to the Taskbar (again, like the Dock) so you can launch these apps when not in use.

If you’ve apps grouped, you can CTRL + click to cycle between windows, or SHIFT + click to launch a absolutely new “instance” of the program. Having two instances of Firefox open means that if one window crashes, it won’t affect the pages open in another window. (Chrome already has this built in to its tab scheme, in case you were curious.)

Then there’s Jumplists, which are like shortcuts for each app. By default (if you have the option of having Windows “store and display recently opened items in the Star menu and the task bar”) a right click will display a list of recently opened files and websites for each app. For IE, it’ll be your history, for Word, it’ll be the last few docs. You can also pin your own stuff into the Jumplist. For example, if you access the same folders in Windows Explorer over and over, you can right-click drag a folder onto the Win Explorer icon and it’ll be “pinned” there for simple right-click access.

Microsoft also added a fantastic timesaver by allowing you to launch the first five apps in your Taskbar by hitting the Windows Button + 1~5, corresponding to each respective program. Once they’re launched, you can switch between them with the same Win + # keystroke, making jumping between your favorite apps super easy.

Even features that were present in Vista—mousing over an app to see a thumbnail preview—have been improved. Now, when you have three Firefox windows open grouped under the same icon, Aero Peek will pop them all up and you can cycle through all three, previewing each quickly. For “supported” apps like IE, it’ll even break out the different tabs for you to preview. See it in action below.

The one last visual improvement is a huge deal to people who use widescreen monitors, or otherwise like docking their Taskbar on the sides. Microsoft has finally smoothed out all the gradient and graphical weirdness, so that things actually look decent when you do side docking. It works great when combined with the “icon” view, so those of you with wide monitors should give it a shot.

View our other Windows 7 tips and our continuing coverage here.

Via [gizmodo]

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Palm Pre May Be a Ideal Purchase Exclusive, At Least For a Few Months [Rumor]

WebOS Arena (jeez, that didn’t take long) is reporting that the Palm Pre will be exclusive to Ideal Buy Mobile (and Sprint stores, obviously) for its first two months, citing a “credible source”.

This wouldn’t be absolutely surprising, as Sprint has previously given Best Buy such privileges, most notably in the case of the Samsung Instinct. For a short time, Best Buy was also the only place outside of an Apple Store where a customer could purchase an iPhone—news that seemed to point to Ideal Purchase as the de facto king of meatspace mobile shopping. In other words, “credible” source or not, this course of events is a good bet. Note: WebOS Arena, though brand new, is a subsidiary of the long-established PhoneArena. [Source, image at WebOS Arena]

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Casio’s 25 years of G-Shock celebration continues with a new set of characters designed by Shiro Nakano. Normally we don’t pander to marketing gimmicks, but these toys might be cooler than the watches themselves.

Apparently, the Japanese think so too because they have caused quite a stir amongst local connoisseurs of rugged watches. Unfortunately, the robot characters themselves are not available for sale, which I think is a major oversight on Casio’s part. These things would make for excellent bedside clocks. [IT Media via DVICE]

Via [gizmodo]

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Rumor: Apple Launching Giant iPod Touch Next Fall [Rumor]

Citing “three independent sources close to Apple,” one who has “actually held the device,” TechCrunch says Apple is planning to release a giant iPod touch device with a seven- or nine-inch screen next fall.

In other words, it’s a tablet running the scaled down version of OS X that’s on the iPod touch and iPhone—not the MacBook touch tablet fanboys have been dreaming of since multitouch became a part of their fantasy lexicon, but very much like the Son-of-Newton PDA with an embedded version of OS X we’d heard about a year ago. What makes this giganto iPod touch worthwhile, according to Arrington—over a full-fledged MacBook tablet—is the App Store. (Of course, we’d heard rumors of touch tablet running both the App Store and real Mac apps, though the inherent philosophical dissonance of an App Store + real Mac apps approach never quite neatly resolved itself in our minds.)

One piece of evidence pointing to something like Arrington describes (besides those earlier Son-of-Newton tablet whispers) however, was the mysterious tidbit in October about an Apple product with “a display somewhere between an iPhone and a MacBook” spotted surfing the internets. An iPod touch HD with 800 or 720

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The 50 Greatest Special Effects Shots In Cinema [Movies]

Not only did the Den of Geek assemble a respectable (if not a little controversial) list of the top 50 special effects shots of cinema, the site also explained the tricks behind the illusions.

Of course the well-deserving staples show up in the list (Star Wars, Tron and Jurassic Park), but there was one in particular that I didn’t know about, and it may be the most convincing moment on the list.

In Total Recall, there’s a brief moment when a secretary changes the colors of her nails with the tap of a wand. How did they do it? The illusion was created through rotoscoping, a layered matte animation in use since 1915.

Since you’re not doing anything at work today, hit the link and enjoy the whole list. And no, there was no mention of that other effect from Total Recall in the top 50. [Den of Geek via OhGizmo!]

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Deal of the Day: 50% off of Blu-ray ‘Short Circuit’
Amazon.com is selling a large number of Blu-ray movies at 50% off in an extended deal that lasts until January 4th. The internet retailer is clearly hoping to entice the growing number of people who’ve bought players in the new…

Amazon.com is selling a large number of Blu-ray movies at 50% off in an extended deal that lasts until January 4th. The internet retailer is clearly hoping to entice the growing number of people who’ve bought players in the new format.

According to figures released by the Blu-ray association, Blu-ray players are seeing a big purchasing growth in the U.S. during the holiday season.

But the ideal value among the available titles is the one that stars the little champion of truth, ingenuity, and true American humor. I’m speaking about the Nova Robotics Robot Johnny Five, in his original starring automobile Short Circuit, of course.

If you scoff at the notion that this movie is one of the great new classics of the cinema, well, Sir or Madam, I’ll state without reservation that you have no heart. You probably share the sentiments of a former co-worker, who fastidiously dismissed the movie as the ‘ultimate in painted 1980s cheese.’ But stated man is a duplicitous snob raised on the dry, colorless Scandinavian cinema of Ingmar Berg-man and is obviously cursed with ice-cold blood and tiny feeling.

But I’m talking about robots here.

Johnny Five is not just a robot with a penchant for reading novels every two seconds, or one easily duped by moronic henchman preying on the sweetness of his disposition. Yes, he’s a sensitive soul that can barely crush a grass hopper. But he’s also one who, along with R2, T2, and various other animatronic creatures, set a standard for amusing usefulness that will always have a place in the cultural history of robot-human relations and has inspired many a boy or girl to get into robotics in the real world.

In case you were wondering, I’ve no personal financial incentive from the selling of this motion picture, even if Steve Guttenberg and I share the closed chin cleavage that sadly attracts little specks of dirt.

So forget about the nasty cackling of the film cognoscenti and check it out. The Blu-ray version is supposed to come with extra features showing the full process behind the robot, as designer Syd Mead and his team of puppeteers and robot operators put the soul into Johnny.

And if you’re disappointed by the motion picture, well, you know where you stand with me.

Source: Amazon.com 50% Off Sale

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LG to Show World’s Skinniest Television at CES
Like Mr. Skinny (Mr. Men, 1978, pictured), LG’s upcoming LH95 TV will be almost invisible when viewed side-on (although unlike Mr. Skinny, it doesn’t have a little sticking-out belly). The LH95 is an LCD model with an LED backlight and…

Like Mr. Skinny (Mr. Men, 1978, pictured), LG’s upcoming LH95 TV will be almost invisible when viewed side-on (although unlike Mr. Skinny, it doesn’t have a tiny sticking-out belly).

The LH95 is an LCD model with an LED backlight and a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. What’s important, though, is the thickness: 24.8mm (0.98″). That’s it: a giant Television, with an almost non-existent profile. LG will be showing it off at CES, so we’ll be taking a look at it there.

LG unveils the world’s slimmest LED LCD Television [Aving]
Mr.Skinny [Wikipedia]

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