The news of Windows 7 making a launch in this year have caught many by surprise, as Microsoft scrambles to remedy the poor performance and consumer reception to Vista by launching another version of Windows.

Joking aside, the newest iteration of Windows does have some appeal, especially some new usability enhancements that promises to make it “friendlier to use”. However, what you might not know is that a lot of the enhancements are available right now for Vista and XP, with the right applications and tweaks. Here are some of the best features of Windows 7 you can have on your desktop today:

Item Pinning on Taskbar

The effect is basically being able to pin shortcuts or items to your taskbar. You can do pretty much the same thing by enabling the Quick Launch toolbar and resizing it to your liking. Do this by right clicking on the task bar and selecting Toolbars then Quick Launch. Unlock your taskbar (if it’s locked) then drag it to a bigger size. Using Large Icons will give a better effect.

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In August, ATI, now a division of AMD finally pulled its socks together and put out what was possibly their best product yet with the launch of the Radeon 4xxx series of graphics card. Not only did they outperform their similarly classed Geforce 9xxx serious counterparts, they also smashed the performance crown with the 4879×2. Subsequently, NVIDIA responded with their GTX 2xx series of products, which were big, hot, expensive, very complicated, but only marginally better than ATI’s offerings.

With the GTX 295 set to launch in January, NVIDIA is releasing their flagship product, which will be the most powerful card yet in their arsenal, and the preliminary results show a marginal improvement over the leading 4870×2 from ATI.

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Don’t worry folks, this is not another launch of their ubiquitous budget laptops, but a new version of their desktop, which is now available in touchscreen mode.

The first EeeTop I came across was a minimalist, simple machine that is light and surprisingly portable. No clunky, complicated wires and a small CPU that’s both stylish yet subdued at the same time. The price, coupled with its WOW factor, really made it look better and more expensive than it really was.

With this new EeeTop, ASUS has outdone themselves yet again. As you can see, the style borrows heavily from Apple and HP’s recent laptops. The monitor and CPU is integrated into one compact unit that’s only 4cm thick, with no bulky protrusions from the back and curves on all orders to make it look neat and nice to hold. The mouse and keyboard look like Apple’s, which is to say they look awesome. Some people might not like this type of keyboard, but I for one find it quite useful because it attracts less dust and is easy to shift around and fit on all but the smallest and most cluttered desks. It also has a side-mounted USB port for you to connect your mouse, reducing the wire clutter as you don’t have to run another long cable all the way to the CPU.

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With Christmas just over, there are few surprises left in store. Here is a list of some of the best new software that have launched this year:

Firefox 3

This is without a doubt the best browser out there right now in terms of features and extensibility, although Opera comes a close second. There are a slew of new features and improvements, and the AwesomeBar is just amazing. Now you no longer have to recall the exact URL of a website, and can simply type in part of the website’s title name and Firefox will automatically search and find the best match for you. This is absolutely the best feature of all and you’ll never go back to plain old Internet Explorer once you get used to it.

The vast availability of extensions or add-ons also mean Firefox can be tricked out with lots of enhancements and tweaks to improve and streamline your browsing experience. It looks like Mozilla has finally lived the dream that they always wanted, especially now that IE is fast losing market share.

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We will be seeing a slew of new Google phones next year, that’s for sure, and Samsung seems to be throwing in the gauntlet and expects to have their own Google Phone out in the second quarter of 2009.

The first Google Phone by HTC called the HTC G1 only had average performance in the market, but to no fault of the Android operating system powering it. Most of the criticisms were leveled at the design of the phone, which had a less than satisfying keyboard and screen. To that end, Samsung Electronics have assembled together a team of 80 comprising of Linux and Java experts together with other engineers to design a phone that could extend the capabilities of Android beyond HTC’s G1.

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