.::REALITYRECALL::.

NBC’s “Chuck” will return Sunday, Jan. 10, before moving to Mondays at 8 p.m. starting the next night.

Full story at The Live Feed

Until today, Google’s Chrome OS has been little more than a wordy concept. Now, finally, we truly know what it is, what it looks like, and how it works. Here’s the breakdown:

Google went to great pains to emphasize that today's event wasn't a launch—that'll come a year from now, apparently, with a public beta still well over the horizon. This is all about a seeing the OS for the first time; understanding in real terms how it's different from what's out there; figuring out why you might actually want to use it; etc. So! Here's what we knew going in:

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks” and “most of the user experience takes place on the web.” That is, it’s “Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel” with the web as the platform. It runs on x86 processors (like your standard Core 2 Duo) and ARM processors (like inside every mobile smartphone). Underneath lies security architecture that’s completely redesigned to be virus-resistant and easy to update.

Like I said, there were plenty of questions. Onwards:

What It Is

• It’s basically just a browser: meaning that it'll be based around preexisting web services like Gmail, Google Docs, and so on. There are going to be no conventional applications, just web applications—nothing gets installed, updated, or whatever. Seriously.

• It only runs web apps: It’s going to integrate web apps into the operating system deeper than we’ve ever seen before, meaning that a) they’ll seem more like native apps than web apps and b) they’ll be able to tap into local resources more than a typical web app in Firefox, for example. They’re web apps in name, but they’ll have native powers.

• How, exactly?: With HTML 5. This is the next version of HTML, which gives the browser more access to local resources like location info, offline storage—the kinds of things you'd normally associate with native apps. More on that here.

• Chrome is Chrome: The user’s experience with Chrome OS will basically be synonymous with their experience on Chrome Browser. Technically speaking, Chrome OS is a Linux-based OS, but you won’t be installing Linux binaries like you might on Ubuntu or some other Linux distribution. Any “apps” you have will be used within the browser. Chrome OS is effectively a new version of Chrome, that you can’t leave. There are a few reasons Google’s pushing this, which we’ll get to in a bit.

• And as you’ve probably guessed, it’s super-light. It starts up in a matter of seconds, and boot straight into the browser. Likewise, the Chrome browser is apparently very, very optimized for Chrome OS, so it should be faster than we’ve ever seen it.

• It won’t support hard drives, just solid state storage. I mean, hard drives are dying, sure, but this is pretty bold. Hardware support sounds like it’ll be pretty slim, because:

• You’ll have to buy a Chrome OS device: You might be able to hack this thing onto your current machine, but you won’t just be able to install it to replace Windows, or opt for it on your next laptop, for example. You’ll have to buy hardware that Google approved, either component by component, or in a whole package. They’re already working on reference designs.

• For now, it’s for netbooks. It’s not intended for desktops, to the point that Google is saying that the first generation of Chrome hardware will be secondary machines.

How It Looks

• It looks like Chrome browser—specifically, like the leaked shots we saw before. As in a browser, you have tabs—these have to serve as a taskbar as well. To the left of the tabs, you have a sort of start menu, which opens up a panel full of shortcuts. These are your favorites. These are your apps. (Get used to this weird feeling, btw. That Google whole point here.

• You can peg smaller windows, like chat windows or music players, to sit above your tabs at all times. This feature looks a lot like the Gchat feature in Gmail, which is to say, it’s a box in the corner.

• Along with tabs, it’s got its own version of virtual desktops. This means you can have multiple “windows” of Chrome OS to switch between, each of which is a different set of tabs. Think one desktop for work, one for play, on for porn, etc etc etc. It’s a bit like using Spaces on Mac, except only with the browser.

When, and How, It’s Coming

Google's staying specifics on the exact release date—it'll be sometime next year—but the source code for the project is published now. That doesn't mean it's ready, really, but rather that they're just planning on developing it in the open from here on out. Expect builds to start showing up online, which'll probably work wonderfully in a virtual machine app like VirtualBox.

The code is available as part of the Chromium OS (the Chromium/Chrome distinction should be familiar to anyone who’s wrestled with the open source Mac version of Chrome) project, posted here.

Why It Matters

With Chrome OS, Google is taking (or in a way, forcing) the operating system to go totally online. As Google’s freshly designated evangelists are eager to tell you, the browser is already the center of most people’s computing experience. The idea here is to make the browser powerful enough to render the rest of the operating system, and its native apps, moot.

It’s more pure than a lot of people expected: When Google said that Chrome OS would be centered around the web, I think most people just assumed it would be a lightweight Linux distribution with deep integration for Google web services. It’s not that. It’s a browser.

But it’s a browser that runs different processes for each tab, that will have access to local OS resources, will to some extent work offline. In other words, it’s not really a browser in the sense that we use the word, and the web apps that we’ll be using won’t be like the ones we’re used to now, either. The idea, here, it seems, is to replicate most, if not all, of the functionality in a native OS, while keeping the lightweight, ultra-secure framework of a thin client. In other words, Google’s not asking much of its users in terms of changing how they do stuff; they’re trying to change the way the operating system lets you do those things, transparently.

Think of it this way: now, the buttons in your taskbar or dock are now tabs; your email client now runs within your browser, but stores stuff offline just like Mail or Outlook; your documents will still open with a few clicks, but they’ll be stored remotely (and locally only if you choose). It’s all the same stuff, given to you in a different way.
Update: you can download it here. [Chrome on Giz]

Google had a low-key event today to preview Chrome OS, its new operating system based on Linux and the Chrome browser. Things are still pretty early — it’s not even in beta yet, let alone on shipping products — but that’s the first official screen shot right there, and the big features are all roughed out. The entire system is web-based and runs in the Chrome browser — right down to USB drive contents, which show up in a browser tab, and the notepad, which actually creates a Google Docs document. Web apps are launched from a persistent apps panel, which includes Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and Hulu, among others, and background apps like Google Talk can be minimized to “panels” that dock to the bottom of the screen. Local storage is just used to speed up the system — everything actually lives in the cloud, so all it takes to swap or borrow machines is a login, and you’re good to go. Google also said it’s “very committed” to Flash, and that it’s looking to hardware accelerate whatever code it can — although Google didn’t have a solid answer to give when asked about Silverlight. Overall, Google was upfront in saying that Chrome OS is focused on very clear use cases for people who primarily use the web, and that it’s not trying to do everything: “If you’re a lawyer, editing contracts back and forth, this will not be the right machine for you.”

As far as going to market, Google’s not talking details until the targeted launch at the end of next year, but Chrome OS won’t run on just anything — there’ll be specific reference hardware. For example, Chrome OS won’t work with standard hard drives, just SSDs, but Google is supporting both x86 and ARM CPUs. That also means you won’t be able to just download Chrome OS and go, you’ll have to buy a Chrome OS device approved by Google. Interesting move, for sure — but since the entire OS is totally open-source as of today, we’re sure it’ll be hacked onto all kinds of hardware soon enough. (And for the record, the demo was run on an off-the-shelf Eee PC.) Check Google’s intro videos after the break!

Continue reading Google’s Chrome OS revealed — with video!

Google’s Chrome OS revealed — with video! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Lenovo’s new X100E ultrathin laptop just leaked out, and it’s looking pretty sweet: 11.6-inch screen, redesigned chiclet keyboard, a supposed starting price of less than $500, and colors. Colors, you guys. On a ThinkPad.

The X100E looks to be a substantial physical redesign from Lenovo, who typically falls so thoroughly on the function side of the form vs. function debate that they may not even be aware there is another side. The new chiclet (or “island”) keyboard looks great, much less busy than previous ThinkPad layouts, and the overall design seems to have calmed down significantly. Hell, it’ll even be available in colors. Colors! From Lenovo! (Looks like red, white and black are the extent of the palette, but still).

It should be packing a low-power AMD Athon “Neo” processor, 4GB of memory, up to 500GB of hard drive storage, and boast a 5.1-hour battery life while weighing less than 3 pounds. But the most enticing part has to be the price: Previous ThinkPads have been extremely pricey, often even more than equivalent Macs, yet the X100E is rumored to come in at $500 to start. No info quite yet on a release date, but we’ll keep you updated. [Ubergizmo]

The Archos 9 has had the #1 spot in the Portal for some time now, it’s pretty clear that people are excited for it, despite the fact that it may be a slate.

Unfortunately for everyone out there looking forward to the Archos 9, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer. We had been expecting the Archos 9 to be released on October 22nd as we had heard at IDF 09, but we’ve watched that date come and go and been scratching our heads since.

I’ve recently contacted Archos about availability of the Archos 9, and was told that pre-orders made through www.archos.com should be shipping in “early December”. Retail store availability (Amazon, Walmart, etc.) is expected in Q1. That’s all we’ve got to go on for now; sorry for the folks that have been holding out, but hopefully you’ll get your hand on this device before something else comes along and catches your eye!

Related posts:

1. Archos 9 UMPC gets some hands-on time Update: Archos 9 is now in the database with all…
2. Archos 9 Demonstrated on Video Charbax has posted a very good video of a working…
3. Archos 9 dissected Jkk has spotted that the Archos 9 has been…

Theo Fleury says he wants to pursue charges against Graham James, the junior hockey coach he alleges sexually assaulted him as a teenager, but it might not be entirely up to the former NHL forward.

Windows: Wanna give Office 2010’s online document syncing, Windows 7 taskbar integration, and killer quick steps a go? Microsoft has thrown open the doors on a free beta of Office 2010 Professional—for those who can wait out the download.

As with the Windows 7 beta and most Microsoft offerings, this one requires grabbing a license key, registering or signing in with a Windows Live/Passport account, and fighting it out with the many others trying to grab the download from the servers. The download is 684 MB, and Microsoft is suggesting users uninstall previous versions of Office before downloading—as well as asking that you "don't test Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta on your primary home or business PC."

Okay, sure thing, Redmond. Let us know if you’ve grabbed the beta, or found any helpful mirror links, in the comments. Office 2010 Professional beta is a free download for Windows XP SP3 and later systems.

[Yet another useless fact] Women should wear clothes that bare 40 per cent of their flesh to maximize their chances of attracting men, new scientific research indicates.

Ford, Subaru and Volkswagen lead the U.S. insurance industry’s annual list of the safest new vehicles while Toyota and BMW were shut out.

Last week we asked you to share your favorite online backup tools and then we rounded up the five most popular options for a vote. With nearly half the vote at 42%, Dropbox takes home the trophy for favorite online backup tool. It doesn’t offer the volume of storage or computer-wide backup that Mozy (21%) and Carbonite (11%) offer but the ease-of-use factor is high and readers loved the simple file syncing.

For more information on the winner and runners up, check out the full Hive Five.

The possibility of having Jarome Iginla, Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr and Jay Bouwmeester on the Canadian Olympic team, and goalie Miikka Kiprusoff and Olli Jokinen representing Finland has helped the Calgary Flames.

One of my favourite TV shows is returning to air a little early now that the better part of the NBC lineup has all been canceled. I was reading a story about Zachary Levi which talked about Chuck’s early return and extended season (which makes me very happy) and his role in the Alvin and the Chipmunks Squeakquel.

But what caught my eye was that Levi was originally cast as one of the Warriors Three in Branagh’s Thor?

USA Weekend reports:

NBC originally asked for a 13-episode third season, and then ordered six more. That turned out to be a positive for Chuck but a negative for director Kenneth Branagh’s movie Thor, which starts filming in January. Levi was cast as Fandral, one of Thor’s Warriors Three in the comic book adaptation, and the actor had even been working out especially for the role, but had to walk away when they got the extra pickup. (Levi admits that producers had asked him to audition for the role of the usually beefy God of Thunder, but told them no. “I’m tall and in pretty good shape, but I’m not big and girthy like that,” he says.)

Levi always has to keep his dashing good looks and physique hidden under his Nerd Herd shirt in the show, and he does a great job playing off the insecure lord of the geeks who doesn’t think he deserves the distractingly hot superagent Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski)

But he is the last person I would have thought they would hire for a Warrior Three. Sure, Hollywood stars have been known to chub out or slim down for a role, even pack on the muscle as needed, as we will see this weekend with Taylor Lautner in Twilight. That kid like doubled in size.

Would have been interesting to see Levi on Thor, but it means we get Chuck sooner, then I can deal with the sacrifice.

The first betas of Adobe Flash 10.1 and AIR 2.0—delivering full GPU acceleration of H.264 for buttery smooth HD Flash video playback and multitouch gesture support—are out. You should get them now.

This is, to be clear, just the desktop version of Flash 10.1—the full-fledged Flash for Android, webOS, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile is still a ways down the pipe. It's worth getting excited over anyway, since I've watched an HP Mini 311 with an Ion graphics chip tear through an HD YouTube clip without breaking a sweat. For now, graphics acceleration is limited to Windows, unfortunately. But still, perfect timing, really, since YouTube's launching 1080p video this week (perhaps not so coincidentally).

The new version of AIR acts more like a native app, with full support for mass storage, multitouch gesture support, communication with actual native apps, and access to USB peripherals, p2p networking, and faster WebKit rendering, among other perks for developers. Maybe I’ll stop hating it so much now.

They’re both in beta, but god knows, they can’t be any crashier or resource-whoring than anything else Adobe’s foisted upon the internet. [Adobe via TechCrunch]

BitTorrent is extremely useful for lots of downloading and file-sharing, but if a less tech-inclined friend of yours doesn’t understand BitTorrent or you can’t install a BitTorrent client, new web site httpTorrents lets you download files of popular torrents directly via HTTP.

Not every torrent out there is available to download through httpTorrents, although trying to download one that they don’t have will automatically add it to their list for future uploads. Right now the site is integrated with torrent tracker KickassTorrents, but in the future it could support other torrent sites, provided they display a torrent’s hash on listings. If you’ve got a torrent hash, using the site is simple: Go to your favorite torrent search engine, get the hash of the torrent you want, copy it, and paste it into httpTorrents’ search bar. If they have the files hosted on their server, it will start the direct download.

Windows: Microsoft’s SyncToy is a simple but effective tool for mirroring folders across hard drive locations, networks, or USB devices. With a 2.1 update, it’s been retooled to run faster, back up configurations, and handle errors much better.

We’ve previously featured SyncToy as a handy way to sync files between computers and share an iTunes library. It also ended up ranking among our readers’ five favorite syncing tools. 2.1 isn’t a huge update with new features, but it does utilize a new syncing framework, and a few annoyance fixes that will win over those who dig this “toy”:

• Better Performance: The speed of file copy operations is significantly increased across the board.
• Improved Robustness: Much more resilient to transient network and file system errors and better error reporting which pin-points which file the sync failed on in case there’s a fatal error that stops the sync.
• Folder pair configuration backup: Folder pair configuration is automatically backed up under %localappdata%\microsoft\synctoy\2.0. User can replace SyncToyDirPairs.bin with the backup copy to resolve last saved configuration.

There are also a few bug fixes—notable among them is a fix for NAS syncing failure. SyncToy 2.1 is a free download for Windows systems, including 7, only.

It’s not officially released, but a gallery-like site for extensions has made itself known into the latest development builds of Google Chrome for Windows and Linux. Take a peek at what’s coming, presumably very soon, in these development screenshots.

The Download Squad blog was the first to notice the new new thing in Chrome—namely, a jigsaw-like page corner in Chrome's new tab page, next to a message at the bottom that reads "New! Chrome now has bookmark sync and extensions!", with both the message and the corner piece linking to http://chrome.google.com/extensions

I saw the same link appear in the chrome://extensions page on my copy of Chromium, from a nightly build Ubuntu repository. Clicking that link, however, re-directs you to Google’s home page. But as many are guessing, Chrome/Chromium wouldn’t push out a new link to leave sitting dead for too long, so we’ll keep watching that page to see when a full-fledged gallery pops up.

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler dove into Chromium’s Code Reviews section, and finds screenshots and discussions indicating that Chrome’s extensions will be able to add icons to Chrome’s top toolbar, inside the address bar, and in the bottom-right status bar, and that developers will also be allowed to customize items such as Chrome’s new tab page. Right out of the gate, developers are also indicating extensions from Google itself tied to its Maps, News, and a Gmail checker.

Exciting stuff, and even more so if many of Firefox’s developers take notice and bring over some of the same functionality that hardcore Mozilla users could never imagine leaving behind. Top and bottom photos from TechCrunch; new tab page image from Download Squad.

At last, here’s the droid we were all looking for. In this frame you can clearly see R2-D2’s cameo in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek. This time there’s absolutely no doubt about it: It’s been confirmed by ILM.

Click on the image to see the high resolution version

Can you see him floating there, on the left, right below the huge arrow that I also missed when I saw the movie? That's obviously him, a fact that has been confirmed to me by one of the movie's sequence supervisors at Industrial Light & Magic—the same guy who said this previous sighting was just the shuttle.

I don’t know about you but, right now, I feel like what I imagine my dog Jones feels every time I take his collar off to scratch his neck. Oh yesyeyeyeyes. YES. Harf. Woof. [Image capture from Science Fiction Stuff—Thanks ILM tipster]

Generally speaking, upgrading to Windows 7 is a no-brainer. “But what about my gadgets?” you might ask, eyes watering slightly, “will they be OK?” Yes, yes they will. Here’s how to make Windows 7 play nice with all your favorite toys.

Your Phone

Windows Mobile: To sync with your Windows Mobile phone in Windows 7, you're going to need Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1. Just like in Vista! Except this time around, Windows is savvy enough to autoinstall the suite, which saves a little time and potentially a lot of Googling. (Just give it a minute after you plug in your device via USB—if nothing happens, go here.

This will take care of calendar, contact and media syncing for the most part, though a lot of newer Windows Mobile phones depend on microSD storage for music and movies. For this, you simply mount the disk as a folder, and drag and drop.

iPhone: As always, this is a job for iTunes. However, Windows 7 is compatible with doubleTwist, an alternative media manager that doesn't just sync with your iPhone—it works with almost anything else, too.

Speaking of which, Android: Android generally isn’t a “syncing” kind of OS, intended instead to be kept up to date by tapping into Google’s services over the internet. That said, doubleTwist will work for music syncing with most Android phones, and HTC Sync will keep their phones, like the G1, MyTouch and Hero, in sync with your Outlook Address book, contacts and calendar.

BlackBerry: BlackBerry Desktop Manager and Media Sync still reign supreme, for contacts, apps, media and software upgrades.

Palm Pre/Pixi: doubleTwist, again, at least until Palm fully withdraws from their silly slapfight with Apple over iTunes and makes their own client.

Your Zune, iPod, or other PMP

Zune: Zune’s software plays nice with Windows 7, but it’s you only choice. And even moreso than Apple products, the Zune HD is locked to its client software, meaning there aren’t any alternative for the time being. Luckily, Zune 4.x is fantastic software—it's just a shame it's not optional, and that it doesn't work with other devices.

iPod: As with the iPhone, you’re more or less stuck with iTunes or an app like doubleTwist for music and movie syncing, but that’s not so bad: iTunes in Windows 7 comes with some nice enhancements, including jump list shortcuts that can quickly take you to the iTunes Store, and hoverable controls, which give you quick access to skip, play and pause functions. In some ways, iTunes is actually better on Windows 7 than it is on OS X. [via]

Other PMPs: PMPs that rely on raw mass storage never took an advanced degree to use, so it's interesting to see that they've gotten a little simpler in Windows 7. The "Devices and Printers" system in Windows 7 can claim a few advantages over its predecessors, with much better icons—you generally get an reasonable approximation of whatever you've plugged in on the devices screen—customized Device Stage interfaces, seen left, and something called Device Containers, which group components of the same device into one icon. Like, if your 3rd-party PMP has internal and expandable storage, Windows won't just act as if there are two different devices attached; it'll group them together. Just click them to expand.

And if you third-party PMP does have a syncing app, be wary. Many of them, especially for older players, won’t have been update for Windows 7. Install them in a compatibility mode for XP or Vista—whichever they're most compatible with—to avoid any potential problems. [pic via]

Your Camera: Camera support is pretty great in Windows 7 so you’ll often be able to just plug your camera in and go. As with PMPs, printers and the like, cameras with multiple storage devices will be lumped into the same icon in Device Stage, which will also (hopefully) display other device info, like remaining battery, photo import options and alternative sync apps.
Windows also puts quick shortcuts in the taskbar for supported cameras.
Unfortunately, Windows 7 doesn’t add anything in the way of RAW support, so you’re going to have to go 3rd-party for that. FastPicture’s codec pack supports most of the popular RAW formats used in DSLRs from Nikon, Canon, Sony and the like, and it’s perfectly compatible with Windows 7. And free!

Your Displays

Adding a second monitor to Windows has never been particularly complicated, but the methods have never been all that apparent, either. Along with a refreshed multi-monitor displays settings interface, Windows 7 adds a fantastic shortcut: Windows+P will bring up a monitor management widget, which lets you set your monitor to either off, display duplicate or display extend.

The shortcut also works for enabling a projector. Laptop manufacturers have been adding functionality like this with their own software for years, so it's good to see Microsoft taking their ideas onboard in 7—it's easier for everyone that way.

Windows 7 also ships with a monitor calibration tool—again, something that had to be previously furnished by third-party software or monitor manufacturers. It helps you adjust brightness, contrast, gamma and color settings with a simple wizard, accessible by navigating to the Display panel in Appearance and Personalization in the Control Panel

Your Other Computers

These are the gadgets your Windows 7 PC has to play nicely with—your other computers. Windows 7 file sharing has gain some new features, but just as many quirks.

Windows 7 PCs: Since most people just want to share some files and get networking setup over with, Windows 7 includes a feature called Homegroups, which lets you share files and media between Windows 7 PCs with almost not setup at all. Think of it as the old network setup wizard from XP and Vista, except much, much simpler. To create a Homegroup, you need to have a version of Windows 7 that’s better, or, er, more expensive than Starter or Home Basic—those two can connect to Homegroups, but they can't initiate one.

To create one, just navigate to “Network and Internet” in the Control Panel, or search “Homegroups” in the Control Panel search bar. At the “Share with other computers running Windows 7 page, select “Create a Homegroup,” and designate the types of media you’d like to share. Joining a Homegroup in Windows 7 from Windows 7 should be easy: as soon as you connect to a network with available Homegroups, Windows will prompt you to join. Just enter the passkey generated during the Homegroup creation process.

Windows XP and Vista: Homegroups are nice and new and WOW and all, and they don’t work directly, as Homegroups, with Windows XP and Vista. Thing is, under all the fresh trappings, Homegroups are the same old Windows networking protocols. Accordingly, XP and Vista can still access Windows 7 PCs, just not under the official “Homegroups” guise. So, first: Set up a user account for your client PCs to log in to:

Click the Start button, type “user accounts” in the search box, and then click User Accounts and Family Safety.
Click Add or remove user accounts, and then click Create a new account.

Type a name for the new account, such as “share.”

Click Standard user, and then click Create Account.

Click the tile for the user account you just created, and then click Create a password.

Log on as the user you created (for example, share), and then log off. (This is required so that the user account is created with the correct credentials.)

Now that you've got the account set up, connecting should be easy: On Vista, just click Start, then Network, then open the computer you want to access—it should be listed by default. Enter the user name and password you've just created, and you're there. For XP, the process is similar: Just go to My Network Places, the click View Workgroup Computers, open the computer you want to access and enter your credentials.

From a Mac, the process isn’t necessarily so straightforward. If you’re lucky, your Windows 7 share will just show up in your Finder sidebar, where you can click on it and enter login info when prompted. (Windows 7 still uses basic SMB shares, which OS X is more than equipped to access.) If it doesn’t show up, the process is a little more complicated. Deferring again to MS:

In [Finder] the toolbar, click Go, and then click Connect to Server (or use keyboard shortcut Command +K).
In OS X 10.3.x and later, click Browse, select the computer running Windows 7, and then click Connect. (Or follow the common instructions below.)

If that doesn't work, click Connect to Server again, and manually enter smb://username@computername/users as the network address, where username is your newly created user account, computername is your Windows 7 machines network name, and users is literally the word users—don't change that. Alternately, you can use the smb://username@ipaddress/users syntax, where ipaddress is your Windows 7 computers local IP. (as in 10.0.0.2, or 192.168.1.102)

Your Streaming Devices and Consoles

Play to: Play To was one of the most touted features in Windows 7, and yeah, it’s pretty cool. Here’s a breakdown:

One of the most potentially groundbreaking features of Windows 7 is “Play To,” the ability to send music, video and photos to any compatible devices on the network, without running any kind of proprietary software, and without any initial setup. Sending a song to a Sonos or a video to an Xbox is-theoretically-just a right-click away.

The important thing to remember here is that "compatible devices" include—or rather, will include—anything that adheres to the DLNA 1.5 standard, from connected TVs to your Xbox 360 to other Windows 7 PCs with Windows Media Player 12. Play To devices show up automatically once they're connected to your network, it's just just a matter of enabling the functionality in Windows:

Before using Play To, you will first need to turn on Streaming. To do this, with media player open, click Stream and then click Turn on media streaming. You will then be given some options for sharing media and which devices you wish to allow.

You can right-click the item that you wish to play and move your cursor to the Play To option and select the device you want to receive that media file.

That’s it! To allows a Windows 7 PC to receive Play To streaming, just enable Play To in the receiving computers’ Media Streaming options, located in the Network and Sharing Center in the control panel.

Consoles: As I said before, Play To will stream to the Xbox 360 if it's in Media Extender mode (that is, connected to a Windows Media Center PC). Chances are, though, you're going to just want to stream media from your Windows 7 PC to your Xbox 360, controlled from your Xbox 360. Good news: the same old methods work fine here, so shared files with certain codecs, or anything in your Windows Media Center library, are all fair game, and should work straight away. Likewise, the PS3 will play a limited number of video and audio formats streamed from your PC with virtually no configuration, but the utility is limited—especially if you do a lot of downloading, or archive video in a rare codec or container. For both, the solution is the same: Get TVersity, because it's awesome. Setup isn’t super-easy, but the results are worth it: Pretty much any video you can come up with can be transcoded on the fly to stream on your console. Full instructions are here.

So that's about it! I've only scratched the surface here—this is like Windows 7 Gadget Mediation 101, or maybe 102—so add you favorite tips and trick in the comments, since your feedback is a huge benefit to our Saturday guides. And if you’re still curious about Windows 7 in general, look no further than our Complete Windows 7 Guide. Have a nice weekend!

7.08GHz. That’s the record-shattering speed an AMD Phenom II processor was overclocked to using a massive amount of liquid helium. You can watch the whole process in this documentary video set to one kickass soundtrack. [Crunchgear]