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Microsoft has teamed up with hardware manufacturer Acer to deliver a Windows 7 laptop created to its specifications.

“I want to talk about the making of a laptop,” said Microsoft’s president of Windows and Windows Live, Steven Sinofsky, at the day-two keynote at the software giant’s annual Professional Developers Conference, being held in Los Angeles. “What we wanted to learn in building Windows 7 was what it’s like to make some hardware. We don’t do that a lot in the Windows Group.”

Sinofsky was promoting the new features available in Windows 7 to hardware developers, such as multi-touchscreen maker Sony, that improve the user experience via new APIs (application protocol interface) available in the operating system. The device comes as speculation mounts over the arrival of an Apple multi-touchscreen tablet equivalent to the iPhone.

Though our US readers will be able to get their hands on Dell’s latest premium laptop only from December 22, Asian consumers can will be the first to hold the super slim Adamo XPS as it starts shipping today to the region.

For S$3,299 (US$2,376.63), you get a unit decked out with a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo SU9400 chip, 4GB RAM and a 128GB SSD running on Windows 7 Home Premium, not to mention that cool heat-sensing strip. Unlike its cheaper siblings, there are no configurable options for this machine except for warranty upgrades.

The 1.44kg Dell Adamo XPS is available in Singapore, Malaysia, India and Australia and can be ordered via Dell’s online store.

For the second year running, solutions provider First Technology received the award for the Most Certified HP Person in South Africa. Riaan Swart, Technical Consultant, was honoured to receive this accolade at the recent HP Annual Partner Award’s evening.

Maintaining and achieving these HP certifications is a lifelong commitment, when one considers the continuous and fast moving changes in the IT industry.

According to Chris Bladergroen, First Technology’s COO: “Our focus on HP includes ensuring that our certification levels across the complete portfolio of HP products are maintained. We are thereby able to ensure that First Technology is able to provide our customers with the HP skills and knowledge they require to run their businesses efficiently and to get the best ROI possible.”

First Technology would like to congratulate Riaan for achieving this award. Not only has he managed to balance his training and studies, but he has also managed to successfully meet his customer commitments.

The rumor mill was abuzz with talk of insider trading after 3Com Corp. (NASDAQ:COMS) call trading jumped to a 26-month high four hours before Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ) announced it would acquire the Ethernet switching provider for $2.7 billion. Now, according to Bloomberg, the Securities and Exchange Commission is getting involved.

The regulator is reportedly examining whether advance knowledge of HP’s offer was used by traders to profit from the takeover. More than 8,000 3Com calls changed hands Wednesday, 17 times the four-week average.

As Baz Hiralal in Corporate Dealmaker pointed out, this isn’t the first time 3Com has been in the middle of possible insider trading around its M&A dealings. Federal prosecutors once alleged that a group of traders associated with hedge funds Galleon Group and Schottenfeld Group obtained insider information about Bain Capital LLC’s $2.5 billion acquisition offer for 3Com in September 2007. However, that deal eventually fell through.

Another similar case involves the investment adviser to one-time presidential candidate Ross Perot. The SEC in September filed a suit against Reza Saleh for buying options in Perot Systems Corp. (NYSE:PER) three weeks before Dell Inc.’s (NASDAQ:DELL) $3.9 billion bid.

In that scenario, the SEC was hot on Saleh’s trail, filing a complaint a mere two days after the announcement of the deal. But given the scope of this situation, as well as the difficulty in proving insider trading, an investigation into 3Com could take a bit longer.

Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM said today it has secured three deals for its smart water technologies in Australia, Japan, and Texas.

In Sydney, the northern territory’s multi-utility provider Power and Water, which serves about 80,000 customers, selected IBM in a $14.5 million deal for an asset management program.

The four-year project is expected to deliver electricity, water, and sewage services to customers more efficiently. The contract announced today was signed in September.

In Fukuoka, Japan, where water is scarce in urban areas, the Fukuoka District Waterworks Agency is expected to use IBM’s software for a new system to increase the availability of usable water supply and improve water quality. Financial details were not disclosed.

And in central and south Texas, the utility Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), which serves more than 2.2 million residents, is using IBM’s software to improve its resources and offerings. Financial details were also not released.

LCRA supplies electricity to central Texas, develops water and wastewater utilities, and regulates water discharges to manage floods, among other services. The software is to allow LCRA to address issues before outages occur, predict resource needs, and generate timely reports.

“IBM is helping the Lower Colorado River Authority develop a smarter and more dynamic water and energy management system so they can respond quickly and successfully to changes as they occur,” said Sharon Nunes, vice president for Big Green Innovations at IBM, in a news release.

The Big Green Innovations initiative is focused on water management, alternative energy, and carbon management.

Acer and Apple have gained the most market share in PC sales in Europe, especially in the UK, while most other vendors are facing a difficult time, Gartner said in a research note on Wednesday.

PC shipments in Western Europe totaled 16.7 million units in the third quarter of 2009, a slight decrease of 0.3 percent compared with the same period in 2008, Gartner said.

Despite the overall downturn, Acer reinforced its lead in the summer to 28.3 percent of the Western European market, or 4.73 million PCs, based primarily on its netbooks and full-size budget PCs. Apple, too, was a winner, gaining significant share along with Samsung, despite that neither is on the top five in the region.

Moreover, Apple made particular strides in the UK, where it hit the top five list as it jumped from 3.8 percent of the market share to 5 percent. On the contrary, the other major Windows PC builders, including Dell, HP and Toshiba, lost 10 percent or more in shipments in the UK.

According to Gartner, Acer and Apple win the battle primarily because of their extreme price spectrum.

At one end, Acer continued to provide price-conscious products through multiple channels to attract a wider buying audience.

At the other end, Apple leveraged the “halo” effect of the Apple brand created by the iPods and iPhones into the PC arena, dominating the mid to higher price brackets.