Czech the laptops please, Tosh

'Confessions of a Windows 7 User' once again finds itself on foreign soil, this time in the Czech capital of Prague. A (very) brief visit to this old city to get some hands on time with Toshiba's latest range of notebooks, the event nonetheless is an opportunity to explore what one of the PC manufacturers think of the upcoming operating system.

What's interesting about the event is that Windows 7 isn't running on any of the new notebooks, surely an oversight on the part of the Japanese tech giant's EMEA team?

As it turns out, the answer is no.

Despite Windows 7's release now just four months away, Toshiba's focus is on the implementation of greener products. Their strategy, part of a longer term initiative that lasts through to 2050, includes the development of notebooks with extended longevity over their rivals; made from less harmful metals and chemicals; and feature reduced levels of power consumption. Stay tuned for coverage on all of that on ITzone over at BusinessZone's sister site, AccountingWEB.co.uk.

Furthermore, the development of notebooks featuring touchscreens to take advantage of Win7's native support for the increasingly mainstream functionality, is also off the table. For Toshiba, touchscreen is something that can only be utilised in tablet PCs or smaller electronic devices – not notebooks or mini-notebooks. Prague is the place where the Corporation chose to unveil its latest Satellite range, with the high-end model (the A500) featuring multi-touch touchpads; an interesting implementation of technology for the iPhone generation. Like Toshiba's green IT strategy, more on the Satellite range will be heading to ITzone in the near future.

The company may not be implementing multi-touch screen functionality into its range of notebooks, but Windows 7's roll out did throw up one interesting point. Microsoft's confirmation recently that it would remove the 3 concurrent application cap in its mini-notebook/UMPC/netbook-targeted 'Starter Edition' may have brought some level of rapturous writing amongst the online community – but Toshiba's Alan Thompson did reveal to 'Confessions' that the move would have a negative facet too.

Namely that the UMPCs may see a drop in performance if many more apps are run concurrently, something that could have been avoided if the Redmond Corporation had stuck to its guns. Stay tuned for more from Toshiba in the coming week.

So has Microsoft made a mistake in removing the Starter Edition 'app cap'? Don't forget to cast your vote in the Windows 7 procurement poll either!

Until next time,

Jon