In woodcarver Li Bing-Gui's workshop, a magnificent gilded dragon altarpiece sat waiting to be transported to the village of Kaoshong.

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To do so, Microsoft would have to produce a personal computer that broke with today's GUI conventions and Windows application compatibility.

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Other products being put out to pasture include the company's Building Maker, Cloud Connect, Apps Script's GUI builder and five UiApp widgets, Search API for shopping and the CalDAV API (for developers who aren't whitelisted, that is).

ENGADGET

The AVR-890 and AVR-990 both feature Denon's newly designed GUI with overlay via the HDMI connection, and the AVR-590 and AVR-790 both feature Denon's new enhanced icon-based OSD.

ENGADGET: Denon outs 2009 line of Blu-ray players, AV receivers and headphones

The unit's "pretty GUI" was up and running right out of the box thanks to the US maps coming pre-loaded on the 4GB internal hard drive.

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The on screen GUI also provides access to your phone's contact list and allows you to place calls directly from the unit.

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Whether connected to a current Denon receiver or other product, audio and video signals are sent via analog audio output and S-Video to the respective inputs on a connected device in order to view the GUI and hear the audio.

ENGADGET: Denon outs 2009 line of Blu-ray players, AV receivers and headphones