Microsoft are launching Windows Phone 7 a little differently than other manufacturers - it goes on sale today across the USA in AT&T and T-Mobile stores. At the time time Microsoft are showing off the results of a survey where it shows surprising ways mobile phones have become a part of the fabric of Americans' lifestyles.

This point is made by showing 55 percent of all phone owners surveyed aged between 18 and 35 have used their phone in a bathroom. To commemorate the US launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is challenging consumers to get a grip on their mobile phone habits.

Below, I have a few details from this survey - interesting results to say the least!

There are some very tiny and thin profile devices on the market today like the new MacBook Air notebooks that Apple launched a few weeks ago. The thinner portable devices get, the thinner the hardware that goes inside has to be as well. Toshiba has unveiled a new type of SSD called the Blade X-Gale series. These SSDs look more like sticks of RAM than a SSD we typically think of.

The new SSDs are aimed at use in mini-mobile and netbook computers and give more flexibility in the design of computers thanks to their small form factor. The new SSD comes in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities. All of the SSDs need 3.3V to operate and use the SATA 2.6 interface. The data speed of the drives is 220MB/s read and 180MB/s write. This is the style of drive Apple uses in the MacBook Air

The 64GB and 128GB versions measure 24mm W x 2.2mm H x 108.9mm L and the 256GB version is slightly larger at 24mm W x 3.7mm H x 108.9mm L. The smaller SSDs weigh 9.8g and the larger capacity weighs 13.2g and they all have a MTBF of 1 million times. The SSDs are 42% thinner than the typical mSATA form factor drive. The 256GB version has storage on both sides of the board.

I don't travel much these days, but the worst thing about traveling when I have to is that for several hours while in the air, I am typically without access to the web and I get bored easily. I am sure that lots of geeks are the same way. You can only read or play video games or so long before you need to get online to check email or work. Google has announced that it is offering holiday season travelers a free gift.

Google is offering travelers on all domestic flights with AirTran, Delta, and Virgin American free Gogo WiFi while in the sky. Gogo is an inflight WiFi service that allows you to surf the web, work, and check email or anything else you can think of while in the air. Having web service will make it much easier to put up with long flights. Farmville fans won't have to worry about crops withering and connected types can IM and Tweet from 35,000 feet.

Google estimates that the free service will be offered on about 700 aircraft and that about 15 million passengers will be able to access the service. The free service will run from November 20 to January 2, 2011. Google is using the free service as a promotion tool for Chrome.

You can say what you like about Microsoft and the way it runs its business and competes in the technology market, but the company knows how to market its wares. My kids are going bonkers over the Kinect technology for the Xbox 360 after seeing commercials for Kinectimals on TV. I am a bit torn on the tech; we rarely play the Xbox 360 in our house leaning more towards the PS3 and Wii. If you are on the fence about the Kinect as well, a new hack that has surfaced may help push you over the edge towards purchase.

The Kinect has been hacked to run with Windows 7 computers already. A New York-based firm called Adafruit offered up a bounty of $2000 for the group or individual who could come up with an open source driver for the Kinect that would let it work for things other than the Xbox 360. According to reports, that bounty has now been collected and a video has been posted on YouTube showing someone using Kinect with a Windows PC.

In the video, you can see the Kinect camera motion tracking the user running on a Windows 7 PC. That is pretty cool and I guess Kinect would be an interesting way to control games for PC users too. Considering PC gamers tend to be more hardcore than their console brethren and stick religiously to the mouse and keyboard I question how many people will want Kinect for gaming control on their PC. Still, that is certainly a cool development so soon after Kinect launched.

One of the great things about the Xbox 360 and other gaming consoles is that they are expanding beyond the realm of simple gaming consoles. For a long time once you got tired of gaming or didn't want to watch a DVD you were done with the console. Today we can watch TV shows we like on the consoles and watch streaming movies as well thanks to new entertainment choices. Many of the streaming options that we have in the US are not available in other countries.

If you are an Aussie Xbox 360 owner that likes to watch FOXTEL, you are in for some really good news. FOXTEL has announced that as of today the FOXTEL service is starting to rollout to Xbox 360 users. The new Xbox 360 service was announced in October, but just starting to go live today. Xbox 360 owners will be able to choose from different packages on the console starting at $19.50 monthly.

Owners not wanting a new monthly bill will be able to pay on a per film basis for movies they want to watch. FOXTEL claims that by Friday November 12 the majority of Xbox 360 owners will be able to get access to the service. The users must be in one of the areas of Australia where FOXTEL is offered and have an Xbox Live subscription.

NVIDIA fan? Yes? Want the deets on the GTX580 from Asus?

Leaked specs of the upcoming Asus branded GTX580 have given everyone something to talk about - their model number being ENGTX580/2DI/1536MB. It is described as the "Standard Edition" which leads us to believe there will be higher clocked or better editions of the card to be released eventually - with the "Standard Edition" having 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 4008MHz on a 384-bus.

The core clock speed is set at 772MHz, it features dual-DVI connections, HDMI and a VGA output - compared to the GTX480 which had a 700MHz Core frequency.

It looks like the Enterprise sector, RIM's bread and butter, may be slowly edging away from the BlackBerry platform. Several major companies are making the switch, with more possibly on the horizon.

Dell released today that their 25,000 employees are being offered the Venue Pro, a Windows Phone 7 powered device, to replace their BlackBerries. Bank of America and Citigroup, two major players in the banking industry, are seriously considering leaving BlackBerry for the iPhone. A couple of major factors in RIM losing what used to be a fairly solid grasp on the enterprise market is their lack of apps when compared to other platforms as well as the increased focus on enterprise accessibility by the competition.

"We have seen that the giants are all awakening in the mobile space and other players like Microsoft have incredible software presence in the enterprise, and no doubt they will leverage that to win," said Al Hilwa, director of applications-development software at IDC.

Geeks like computers and many of us really like small form factor and barebones rigs from Shuttle. Shuttle makes some great little machines for those looking to put a tiny HTPC in the living room or get a desktop that takes up little space in the office. Shuttle has announced a very special deal for Newegg fans that ends today that can save you up to $75.

The special deal comes by way of a coupon code that can be entered during checkout at Newegg for any Shuttle barebones machine. The discount code gives the buyer 10% off and is EMCZZYR22. All you have to do to get the special deal is enter that code during checkout.

The special deal is only while supplies last. The 10% off code isn't the only nice offer at Newegg on Shuttle hardware. Buyers can also get free shipping on some of the barebones machines in addition to the discount. Other Shuttle rigs ship for only $4.99. This might be the perfect chance to get some holiday shopping done early.

For years we could get our hands on lots of factory, overclocked video cards from NVIDIA, but ATI would not allow the card partners to overclock its cards. This was ok for many enthusiasts because they like to overclock their cards themselves. The catch is that overclocking the card could void the warranty so some enthusiasts preferred the factory overclocked cards.

Today we can get overclocked ATI cards directly from card partners to offer better performance right out of the box and keep the warranty intact. The latest factory overclocked ATI card comes from Club 3D and is called the Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 Overclocked Edition. The card is the same as the other HD 6850 cards on the market save the higher clock speeds on the GPU and memory. The card has a GPU clock of 820MHz and a memory clock of 4400MHz.

Other features of the card include 960 stream processors, support for DirectX 11, PCIe 2.1 x6 interface, a dual slot cooler, and support for 3D content. The card has an integrated HD audio controller and a 256-bit memory interface. The 1GB of RAM in the card is GDDR5 and it supports maximum resolution of 2560 x 1600 for digital screens and 2048 x 1536 for analog screens. Pricing and availability are unknown at this time.

Home theater fans often need a bunch of different adapters and accessories to get their system working exactly how they want it to work. If you want a home theater with the same image on multiple screens for a video wall, you need some sort of splitter. Gefen has announced a new splitter called the 1:4 Splitter for HDMI with FST and 3D.

The splitter comes in white or black colors and can be wall mounted. It has a single HDMI input and four HDMI outputs. It works with HDCP for protected Blu-ray content and splits the source to four different screens with no loss in resolution or video quality. The splitter supports pass-through of 3D video and lossless audio formats.

Supported audio formats include LPCM 7.1 audio, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio. The splitter can split HDMI out to DVI monitors using an adapter. The firmware on the device can be upgraded via an integrated USB port. The device measures 3" W x 9" H x 1" D and weighs about three pounds. It ships with a single male to male 6-foot long HDMI cable and the user has to add the four other cables to finish the setup. The splitter is available right now for $299.

It seems like it was just last week that Blu-ray burners were a thousand bucks and almost no one had them. Once HD DVD died off the price for Blu-ray players and drives for computers started to come down and today you can pick up a BDR for your PC pretty cheaply. Sony Optiarc has a bunch of Blu-ray drives that it offers for computer users and it has added a couple new offerings to its line.

Both of the new drives share the same features and the only difference is that one of them is packaged for retail sale and the other is an OEM drive. The drives are both half-height 5.25-inch internal optical drives that use the SATA port for connectivity. The drives can burn to single layer 6x media at 12x speed.

That fast 12x burning speed means that a full 25GB disc only takes 10 minutes to burn. The drives can also write to dual layer BD-R media at 8x speed. The OEM version of the drive is the BD-5300S. The retail boxed version of the drive is the BWU-500S. The 500S comes with a copy of CyberLink Media Suite 8 software and a single 25GB Blu-ray disc. Pricing is unannounced, but both versions of the drive will ship this month.

Most Bluetooth headsets tend to look the same with black and silver designs that are more for function than fashion. The average Bluetooth headset is fine for many of us, but there are some out there that want their headsets to work well and look really good. For these folks there are are some fashionable headsets out there such as the offerings from Jawbone that put a lot of focus on looks and functionality.

Jawbone has unveiled a new product called the Jambox that is a Bluetooth speaker and hands free system that will work with any Bluetooth device including music phones, computers, and more. The speaker has a pair of drivers and an ultra small dome that claims to make a spectrum of sound almost as wide as the human ear can hear.

The Jambox also has a passive bass radiator and features an airtight enclosure. Jawbone claims that the bass is strong enough to be felt form several feet away. The speaker can be updated with new features via firmware and apps. The speaker has a stainless steel and rubber construction. It will be offered in four designs including Blue Wave, Black Diamond, Grey Hex and Red Dot. Pre-orders are being accepted now at $199 and it will ship on November 16.

For a long time gaming on a mobile phone really sucked. The graphics were bad, the games stunk, and most of us just didn't play mobile phone games for the most part. When the iPhone landed all of that changed for many of us with a big screen and serious mobile gaming chops. Today the market is flush with all sorts of mobile devices that can play some games and one of the things really needing work now on some platforms are the controls.

A geek has taken in upon himself to improve the gaming controls for the Dell Streak, and he has done an epic job of it. The builder goes by the name 0TheRain0 and he took an old SNES controller and hacked it to work with the Android-powered Dell Streak. The hack required the use of a Streak connector taken from a real accessory and some hard work.

The mod also uses a Teensy USB microcontroller board. When all was finished the SNES controller plugs into the Streak's PDMI port and is recognized by the device as a USB keyboard. The controller can navigate the menus on the phone and claims to work with any game emulator on the market. Check out the video below to see it in action.

When it comes to interfaces on computers we all want more speed. USB 2.0 was great as an upgrade to USB 1.0 ports with more speed and better performance. Now that USB 2.0 is old, the new USB 3.0 port is what most people want on their computers. The catch is that USB 3.0 it not widely supported. The reason is that Intel doesn't have USB 3.0 on its platforms and may not until 2012.

It looks that Intel's own speedy connectivity specification Light Peak will be supported before USB 3.0. An industry insider claims that support for Light Peak is coming in early 2011. Light Peak is faster than USB 3.0 with bandwidth of 10Gbps making it a very speedy connection. The scuttlebutt says that Apple may be one of the first companies to offer Light Peak on its computers.

Intel has already shown Light Peak to some third parties and noted when Light Peak was first unveiled that "Apple is an innovating force in the industry." Intel does still expect to offer support for USB 3.0 with a spokesperson saying, "We are absolutely committed to USB 3.0 and beyond that." The apparent between the lines on that is just not until Light Peak is on the market.

The FTC brought a massive antitrust case against Intel a while back. The core allegations were that Intel used bribes and outright threats while abusing its dominant position in the market to prevent competition from the likes of AMD and others in the CPU business. Intel was found to have been offering discounts and kickbacks to computer makers like Dell to not use AMD processors in their computers.

Dell found itself in hot water over how it reported its earnings to investors after not reporting that some of the earnings were from the rebates from Intel. Part of the FTC settlement with Intel stipulated that Intel could not participate in anticompetitive practices in the market again. To meet that goal the FTC ordered that the chipmaker integrate the PCI Express interface into its platforms.

The FCC has now announced that it has modified the settlement to allow Intel to ship its Oak Trail platform aimed at ultrathin notebooks and tablets. The modification will allow Intel to ship Oak Trail without PCIe integrated until June 2013 because Oak Trail was in construction before the settlement was reached. All new platforms will have to feature PCIe as will Oak Trial after the June 2013 date.

Over the past couple days we have been tweaking around with our RSS feeds and are now happy to report we have made some marked improvements that we would like to share with you.

For starters, we are very happy to report that all of our RSS feeds are now completely ad-free. Now you get all of our latest content as soon as it comes out without the distraction of the necessary evil advertising that we know you all love.

Next up all of our feeds now show full content, not just a little short preview like before. Our news and press release feeds show everything, but our articles, reviews and guides and gaming feeds show the first 500 words from the first page of each new piece. Since these are typically multiple pages, we weren't able to deliver the full content in these cases. Images even display in the feeds, but we disabled videos due to compatibility issues.

Wave your hand across the screen if you'd like to see a few reviews of Micrsosoft's upcoming gesture/body based gaming revolution.

I saw a wave, so here we go, I'll list a few reviews for you to check out, with a few quotes from each site.

Gizmodo

If you are anything like me, you probably have tons more photos of your family than you want to carry with you on your smartphone. Or you may have your device so crammed with apps and books that there just isn't enough room for your photos to be stored locally. If this is the case, you can use something like the Western Digital WD Photos app to access your photos remotely when you want to see them or share them.

The app has been available for some smartphones for a while, but a version of the app for Android devices has just been announced. The new Android app is on the Android Market right now free of charge and works with the My Book Live home network drive. The app will run on all Android devices and lets you see the photos in the native resolution.

The app allows the user to sort photos by name or the date the pic was taken. You can use it to scroll through thumbnail previews and then click the thumbnail for a larger view of the photo. All pics are resized automatically for viewing on the phone and originals are left on the drive. The user can access photos they looked at before offline and use the photos to assign to a contact on the phone or to share on Facebook or Twitter.

There are some notable names in the world of hands free Bluetooth devices and the Parrot brand is right at the top of the list. The company makes all sorts of Bluetooth devices that span from the headset style worn on the ear to the style that mounts inside the car. Parrot even has a line of hands free systems that has to be installed by a dealer.

The latest offering from Parrot is the new Minikit Smart. The hands free kit can work with any smartphone on the market ranging from 56mm to 70mm wide. The device connects to the smartphone with Bluetooth and can allow the driver to talk hands free while using Bluetooth to send driving directions through the integrated speaker. That speaker has 2W of power.

The Minikit will work with the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry devices and more. In addition to the integrated speaker and holder that mounts to the windshield, the device will also charge the phone. It ships with a number of USB cabled including micro USB, mini USB, and Apple specific cords. The device can store ten different phone books allowing multiple drivers to use the device. It charges with a DC car power cord and has an internal battery good for ten hours of talk. It will ship this month for $129.99.

Any fan of computers and computer hardware will know right away the name Gigabyte. The company is a major player in the computer hardware market with mainboards and other gear and the company has notebooks and a lot more. The latest product to surface from the company is a budget computer chassis that budget shoppers might like to check out called the GZ-P5.

The case isn't flashy like some of the high-end offerings you will run across from Cooler Master and others, but it has the basic features that most people want and a price tag a fraction of the price that most high-end cases command. Gigabyte is offering the GZ-P5 for around $30. Yes, you read that right, a name brand computer chassis at $30. For the most part the specs of the case are decent given the price.

It is made from ABS and 0.5mm SECC. The case is black and has a vented side panel to let heat escape. The cooling system includes a spot for 80mm fans in the front and back and those fans are optional. The case weighs 7.7 pounds and measures 180mm W x 420mm H x 350mm D. There are four external 5.25-inch bays, one external 3.5-inch bay, and five internal 3.5-inch bays. The case is designed to support micro ATX and ATX mainboards. The one feature that left me scratching my head are the dual USB 1.0 ports on the front, you don't even get 2.0 ports for this price.