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Windows XP has a date with destiny scheduled for June 30, but it looks like the plucky OS just isn’t ready to go: Ultraportable OEMs will be able to preload XP until “one year after the general availability of Windows 7,” whenever that is, and now we’re hearing reports that Dell’s telling customers it’ll sell XP on professional systems until 2012. The Dell thing is just a rumor for now, but what’s Steve Ballmer doing telling reporters that although XP is EOL, “if customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter” and extend XP sales? Um, Steve? Customers have been feeding back like crazy and Microsoft has kind of ignored them, remember? Maybe it’s time for a quick nap.

Read - CNET article quoting Ballmer
Read - Dell rumors

Don’t act like you didn’t have April 24th circled in your day planner — heck, you probably stayed up all night hoping Hardy Heron 8.04 would be launched as the 24th dawned in Australia. Regardless of your level of fanaticism towards the OS, the latest flavor of Ubuntu is finally ready for mass consumption. You know what’s waiting for your torrent manager right down there, so why on Earth are you still reading rather than downloading? Get!

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Last year Microsoft really carried on about fulfilling its commitment to all the power users that anted up to get untold future Vista Ultimate Extras — yet none really materialized besides the disappointing early stuff like DreamScene and Texas Hold ‘Em. Well, get ready to feel a whole new wave of Ultimate justification wash over you, because today Microsoft is releasing a trifecta of new Extras: sound schemes, DreamScape animations, and OS language packs. Oh yeah, there’s definitely some Vista “Wow” in here — but it’s mostly from being kind of appalled at these sorry post-apologetic excuses for “ultimate”-grade software additions. Someone wake us when Microsoft decides it cares about making good on its many unfulfilled promises to Vista users.

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Hey, it’s still not the most svelte of all-in-one PCs, but given its predecessors we’ll really take whatever we can get. The Fujitsu F-A50 rocks a 16:9 16-inch display running at 1366 x 768, with a base that allows for adjustable height and angles for the PC. Unfortunately, 16:9 is about as wild as things get around here, with Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, Intel GM965 integrated graphics and so forth. WiFi is built-in, which is always nice to see on a desktop PC, and there’s even a PC card slot for expansion. The whole shebang weighs in at 12 pounds, and goes on sale in Japan on May 17th for around $1,300.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

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The Apple iMac G5 is the third installment in the iMac series of personal computers. Its initial difference from the previous iMac versions in the series lies in its physical structure. Whereas the previous versions may have followed a brick like design, the iMac G5 takes a new sleeker form with added curves on its edges. This makes the new version look even better.

The iMac G5 is equipped with two firewire ports and three USB ports on its back panel. Two other USB ports are located in the keyboard for additional attachments. It is powered by Apple’s PowerPC G5 processor with 512 MB of RAM and 160 GB hard drive. It is equipped with an nVidia GeForce FX 5200 graphic card and a DVD-R SuperDrive. It has an LCD widescreen that is available in 17-inch or 20-inch screen monitor.

Another notable feature of the iMac G5 is its built-in camera known as iSight. Located above the monitor, the camera can be used for videoconferencing and even to snap some pictures or record video clips. The iSight also functions as a webcam. Its wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse also do away with cables and wires to make its simple set up quite interesting and appealing to look at.

The Gateway 820GM Media Center PC is quite a good deal for a computer with its capabilities. Its notable feature is its quiet and virtually soundless operation that would be an added bonus if you relish a bit more peace and quiet. The Gateway 820GM Media Center PC also comes with a wonderful array of functions and features that one would look for in a Media PC.

It 820GM comes equipped with a 3 GHz Pentium 4 530 processor with 1GB of RAM. Its media features make it an attractive PC to have for its price range. The 820GM can also be bought with a dual-format DVD Burner along with its primary DVD ROM drive. The 820 GM also comes with a 250 GB hard drive and a 128 MB ATI Radeon X300SE graphics card.

One of the drawback 820GM Media Center PC is its bulky tower case. The Mini-tower design of the PC, which also houses the super silent cooling fans of the CPU, may not suit well for people who look to save some bit of space. But for those people who might not consider style and size for choosing a media PC, then the 820GM would do just fine and more.