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.