Baselworld is on! This yearly event for the watchmaking elite bring out all the manufacturers to show off their latest concepts and production pieces. Tag Heuer showed off their newest Carrera Calibre 1887 which uses a new movement. However, they’ve raised some controversy about it not being entirely “Swiss”. Most people won’t care but watch nerds seem to be up in arms.

Believe it or not, there is enough room in the marketplace for two food-related channels. Announced last fall and set to start on May 31st, the owner of the Food Network is launching a second channel called Cooking Channel. It will focus on real food and real cooking, leaving all the reality shows and contests to the Food Network. Problem is, it’s going to the USA only – according to Food Network Canada’s Facebook page.

Hopefully that will change quickly, as the Food Network is a little crammed with too many travel and reality shows. At least our Canadian content is still focused on cooking, like Everyday Exotic and Chuck’s Day Off.

I’m loving Dell’s new V13 series laptop. It’s a Vostro series, which is aimed at the small business market, but it’s great price point and incredible thinness are two big draws. It’s as thin as the Macbook Air (albeit not as beveled) and can be purchased for $549 (yes, that’s in Canadian).

A lot of it’s thinness comes from using the new ultra-low voltage (ULV) processors from Intel. However even with the ULV processor the battery they sized it with is smaller than the competitors. If you’re like me and use it plugged in most of the time, it should be fine. It still lasts almost 3 hours on battery however it’s competition have larger batteries that run 4-5 hours.

Some buyers have upgraded the drives to SSD in order to get faster performance, more battery life and decrease weight. Dell should offer an SSD option.

Even though it’s very thin, it offers plenty of expansion options including an eSATA port, ExpressCard and media card slots.

Check out the full review at Engadget.

So the details are gradually coming out regarding Microsoft’s iPhone Windows Phone 7. So far it has:

• no very limited multitasking capabilities
• all installed apps must be purchased through the App Store Phone Marketplace
• cut and paste

I already have an Apple iPhone, why would I buy a Microsoft iPhone? It’s 2010, the iPhone came out 3 years ago, can’t Microsoft come up with something better instead of copying a formula that has probably reached it’s zenith? I love my iPhone, but it’s really time for the next-generation of phone and phone OS’s to start coming.

Like BlogTO earlier, Toronto Life’s website also got a redesign. Filled with more current content than a monthly magazine generally targets, I believe that both BlogTO and Toronto Life are targetting a vacuum in the market – a Toronto portal for events and lifestyle. The long, slow demise of Toronto.com has allowed these websites to target the core audience not being served well. With current, relevant articles, great writing, both should do well as the weather warms up and Toronto rediscovers the outdoors.

In January Rogers introduced the new “Quick Start” menu. Except it wasn’t quick. Nor did it start anything. Customer feedback was instant and negative. After a number of complaints, they made a change to allow customers to revert back to the old method:

1. On remote, click the guide button

2. Select “Self-Service”

3. Click “Change GUIDE Order” option

4. Select “TV Listings first.”

Overnight it seems, automakers have embraced the hybrid. Sure the Prius soldiers on but almost everyone is offering a hybrid car now – including the German heavies, Mercedes and BMW.

BMW X6

Cadillac Escalade

Chevrolet Malibu, Tahoe, Silverado

GMC Yukon, Yukon Denali, Sierra

Chrysler Aspen

Dodge Durango

Ford Escape, Fusion

Honda Civic, Insight

Lexus GS, HS, LS, RX

Mazda Tribute

Mercedes ML, S-Class

Nissan Altima

Toyota Camry, Highlander, Prius

Missing from the hybrid action are  Mazda, VW (VW also owns Audi, Porsche and Lambourghini) and the Korean manufacturers, Kia and Hyundai.

Man, I knew that sometimes we get a raw deal here in Canada, but check out the differences in the pricing for the Dell Adamo laptop. The Admire has 2GB ram and 128GB SSD, the Desire ups it to 4GB RAM and 256GB SSD and mobile broadband. The Canadian “Desire” model doesn’t even come with mobile broadband.

The Macbook Air, a close competitor, is priced only $100 more in Canada than it’s USA counterpart.

I’m ashamed to admit the last two songs to download to my iPod I discovered from commercials. However, Patrick Wilson does owe a huge debt to Tropicana. His song, Great Escape, was featured in their Artic Sun commercial.

Band of Brothers is one of my favorite television series – it was produced by Stephen Speilberg and Tom Hanks on HBO. Tonight, the same pair is airing The Pacific, a different tale about the same war but on the other side of the world. It was worth subscribing to HBO just to see this series.