Microsoft highlighted new multi-touch features on the range of new PCs as it launched Windows 7 in New York on Thursday.

Here’s a clip of a photo managing program, which allows you to sort through snaps and manipulate them manually, and a shot of the new Kindle application from Amazon, which lets people read a book onscreen, if that’s what they want to do.

The Windows 7 launch event was quieter than previous versions, focusing on slick new hardware and consumer-oriented features such as watching TV on the PC, creating home networks, making videos and playing music.

Early reviews of Windows 7 have been positive, but it will be a few months before it becomes clear if consumers really take to the new operating system.

In the highly demanding (and some say shrinking) world of PC gaming, only two graphics powers really count: reigning popular champ Nvidia and AMD’s ATI division. Now it looks like ATI’s Radeon may have got a bit of a lead on its arch-foe.

ATI, once considered a perennial also-ran to Nvidia’s cutting-edge graphics chips, has become the first to crack what it called the 1 Gigahertz barrier on standard air-cooling. Pounding its chest, the company trumpeted on Wednesday the milestone and talked about “amazing gaming experiences” for the likes of Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. and Electronic Arts’ Battleforge.

It would be interesting to see how Nvidia — whose logo still appears more often alongside cutting-edge games such as medieval third-person actioner Assassin’s Creed to blockbuster first-person shooter Crysis — will respond in their never-ending arms race.

Another interesting point some blogsites bring up: gamers routinely “overclock” their cards, or run their graphics processors at a faster than factory-based speed, meaning the 1Ghz barrier was probably broken some time back. AMD touts the new ATI Radeon HD 4890 as “factory-overclocked”.

AMD forgot to say how much it would actually cost, retail.

And it’s no long-term fix for choppy cut-scenes and jittery screen-scrolling either. As PC gamers well know, the GPU or graphics card is fundamental to the gaming experience. Unlike console gamers who rarely fret much about compatibility issues and hardware requirements, Windows gamers have to worry about everything from DirectX 10.1 to which card is optimized for what game. ATI’s supersonic new card merely represents a short-term solution to the ever-increasing demands that today’s games put on hardware.

(Photo: Crysis screenshot provided by Electronic Arts)

Microsoft — ruffled by constant ridicule by Apple — launched its latest counter-punch last night with an explicit jab at its cool but expensive archrival in a prime-time ad featuring one thrifty young woman’s quest to find a 17-inch laptop for under four figures.

“Lauren”, a feisty, red-haired computer-shopper, is given $1,000 to score a laptop with a 17-inch screen, and told she can keep the change.

First stop: the Apple store. Cue disappointment. The cheapest Macbook laptop, with a 13-inch screen, is $999. Lauren consoles herself that she is “not cool enough to be a Mac person” anyway.

Next stop, Best Buy, where a plethora of Windows-powered machines are excitedly examined. She walks out with a suitable model for $699.99. “I’m a PC and I got just what I wanted,” she exclaims delightedly to the camera.

Microsoft’s reasoning is sound. They can’t acquire Apple’s fashion appeal, and pushing value over coolness will strike a chord in the recession.

But the need to respond to Apple — which still controls only a tiny fraction of the overall PC market — shows just how well the Mac has set the terms of the contest.

And Microsoft’s point is still moot. What if Lauren has to take the laptop back in six months because it goes too slow and has a virus?

Economy, schmeconomy.

In the midst of the worst U.S. recession in 27 years, Apple — ever the trailblazer — unveiled a new line of its aesthetically pleasing and — quite frankly — financially-straitening Mac desktop computers, canvassing the entire market spectrum starting from Mac Minis at under $600 to an all-singing, all-dancing, 8-core space-shuttle-launch-capable Mac Pro for a cool $3,299.

At first glance, it would seem Apple’s caved in to pressure and finally lowered prices on its flagship computers: the company says its new top-of-the-line Mac Pro comes $300 cheaper than predecessors, while still boasting cutting-edge performance with two of Intel’s quad-core Xeon processors and 6 GB of memory upgradeable to 32 GB. Apple’s reluctance to sacrifice margins — because it makes it that much harder to rebound once the economy does — has been legendary.

But for perspective — that sort of money can get you Dell’s latest, next-to-most-powerful gaming engine — albeit sans display — a high-performance, fully tricked-out machine capable of running Crysis with all video options maxed out and still find time to pick up the groceries on the side. (Specifications: www.dell.com).

Why is Apple choosing to unveil new products in the depths of a recession? Perhaps because the company has been under pressure for months since investors’ and consumers’ attention shifted from the company’s innovative offerings to CEO Steve Jobs’ health problems. Lifting the lid on a bunch of new desktops might not have the same cachet as, say, introducing the iPhone, but it sends a strong signal to a consumer market used by now to fielding sales calls and discounting bonanzas.

(Photo: Reuters)

Look out nerdy-cool Apple guy, the empire is striking back. And it’s got Eva Longoria Parker, Tony Parker, Pharrell Williams and Deepak Chopra on its side.

Microsoft is launching (another) new commercial campaign Thursday night. It takes aim at Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” campaign that has portrayed personal computers running Windows as clunky and uncool.

The commercial starts with a real-life Windows engineer who looks eerily similar to John Hodgman (the comedian who plays the role of “PC” in Apple’s commercials), saying “I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” After that is a montage of celebs and normal folk, saying “I’m a PC.”   Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, along with the aforementioned celebrities, makes an appearance in the ad.

The new commercial is easier to understand than the first series of ads from Microsoft that featured comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Microsoft said the Seinfeld ads were meant to be an “ice breaker” and get people taking about the company and Windows. (Although it could be argued that there was already a conversation about Windows, just not the one the company wanted.)

Microsoft Senior Vice President Mich Matthews , who heads up the company’s marketing efforts, said  the goal of the $300 million advertising push is to “take back the PC brand” and its new commercial is meant as a “bear hug” to the PC stereotype being defined by its competitors.

The television commercials will also be joined by billboard, online and newspaper ads pushing the theme of “Windows vs. Walls” — the concept that Windows allows for a life without walls.

Update: here is the ad.

The first Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates commercial that debuted last week got a reception about as warm as the one received by the product it was supposed to be promoting: Windows Vista. For those who missed the 2007 debut of Vista, the answer is not very.

Now there are two more commercials in the series and they are two more 90-second head-scratcher. The basic plot line: Bill and Jerry live with a family to get in touch with “real people.” High jinks ensue, leading to Gates doing the robot. The sequels are sure to draw as much criticism as the original, but they may also achieve their intended goal: get people talking about Microsoft again.

The ad campaign — created by agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky — is part of Microsoft’s $300 million effort to try to improve the image of Windows and hit back at Apple, which has effectively portrayed Windows as clunky and out-of-touch with its Mac vs. PC commercials.

Here are the ads.