Inc.

Today Microsoft and IDG hosted a webcast discussion where participants touched on a range of topics: from the flexible workstyles of today’s workforce to useful information on Windows 7 deployment. I found the conversation insightful so wanted to share a few key takeaways.

One more reason I can’t wait for 2012: Nokia’s first U.S. Windows Phone—the Lumia 710—lands at T-Mobile on January 11, the companies announced today.

Perfect for smartphone first-timers and anyone looking for a stylish, wallet-friendly Windows Phone, the Lumia 710 will be available at T-Mobile stores, on its website, and from select dealers and national retailers. Expected price: $49.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate (two-year contract and qualifying voice and data plan required).

Toshiba’s recently announced Portégé Z830 Series Ultrabooks are now available starting $799.99 at Best Buy and on ToshibaDirect.com, starting at $829.99.

It’s Black Friday and everyone is out kick-starting their holiday shopping. I thought I would take a break from my own shopping to highlight some pretty slick Black Friday deals from Microsoft. We’ve got some pretty awesome deals going on for Windows Phones, Xboxes, Windows PCs and more – just check out this slideshow on Microsoft News Center for all the details.

Microsoft is proud to be the host sponsor of the W3C’s first ever developer conference being held tomorrow (Tuesday November 15). W3Conf: Practical Standards for Web Professionals (follow along at #w3conf and @w3cConf) is chock full of industry speakers talking to developers and designers about HTML5 and related technologies for the open web platform.

If you read the blog often, you’ve likely noticed that I’ve got a lot of family and they are a long ways away and you’d think I might feel disconnected. As the second youngest of six siblings, I’ve been able to experience “family” to the fullest with brothers, sisters, cousins, enough to fill a house, a yard and then some. So, is it a great time to connect with family? And how can we help? You might have noticed the new commercials launched by Microsoft recently. They feature families from around the globe using technology to interact, play, watch and connect with each other.

UK based custom pc and laptop manufacturer PC Specialist Ltd, have taken the first steps towards entering the Windows Home Server Hardware market.

Using their intelligent configurator, you can quickly scan through the vast range of cases and components to design your perfect Home Server. PC Specialist will then build, test and deliver your custom built Home Server within just two weeks!

In today’s video Ryan and I dig into AMD’s new “APU” (short for Accelerated Processing Unit) technology.  The short version of this is that AMD basically mashed together a high performance CPU and a high performance GPU into one tiny, fast, energy sipping chip.  That means great performance AND great battery life!

Today, Ceton has unveiled their external USB CableCARD quad-tuner product: the InfiniTV 4 USB. The InfiniTV 4 USB will hit at around $299. It with first be available for purchase from Cannon PC and Fluid Digital on August 19^th with pre-orders expected to start shipping on September 19^th.

This morning ASUS gave me the heads up on the launch of the new G74SX power gaming laptop. Part of the venerable and well-respected Republic of Gamers lineup, the PC features the latest and greatest in gaming technology, like an HD 3D display, new SandyBridge i7 CPU and NVIDIA’s new GTX 560M GPU that has a whopping 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM. It’s upgradable to 16GB of memory and two hard drives, too.