Another Overly Priced NetBook: Samsung

Once again we see the more solid technology companies begin to think that they can attach a name to a product and sell it at a significant price. This time it is Samsung.

The 12" NC-20 has some decent specs for a NetBook, but it is fairly pricey for a NoteBook.

Here are some of the specs: "A big-sized sequel to the 10-inch NC10, purported specs include an unnamed VIA U225 processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 1.3MP webcam and a weight of 3.3lbs. Slated for February (in Italy at least), the system is said to retail at $650. " [Gizmodo]

Again, $650? That's like armed robbery when I get can a modest, yet weaker model, for half that price?

Could Apple Survive Without Steve Jobs? [Apple]

Several sites and blogs are talking and speculating about the after math of Steve Jobs not attending the next MacWorld. The main point of emphasis is: Is he leaving Apple?

While speculation is likely to continue until Mr. Jobs actually confronts the issue, maybe Apple fans should focus on another, closely related topic:

What would happen to Apple should Jobs leave?

While it would be hard to compare a post-Jobs Apple to a post-Gates Microsoft, the results may be similar. The jury is still out on the post-Gates Microsoft result, but changes have been made and will continue to be made throughout the company.

Should Jobs leave Apple, would anything really change? I personally doubt it, at least for the next few years. Apple is doing very well in several markets, including music sales, the i-Line, and there various PC competitors. Apple has gained a respectable share of the computer market, "Mac’s share is now 10% worldwide and an impressive 21% in the U.S." [Apple Blog] Why mess with success? 

That level of change would only spur more interest and development in where Apple sees their strong suits. Major changes could prove counter productive to users, and could be seen as an abandonment of the Jobs legacy.

People like familiarity, and might bounce at the first site of a new "regime" making major over hauls to the product line. The only change I would recommend would be to at least attempt to compete in the lower cost PC market (not necessarily the Netbook market though).

Although Jobs is the face and major visionary behind Apple's success, whoever takes the reigns after he leaves, if he leaves, would be a fool to alter the formula to much.

How To Un-Install Inernet Explorer 8 Beta 2

If you have already fallen into the deep, dark abyss of Internet Explorer 8, here is how to get out of it.

The link to un-install IE 8.

Internet Explorer 8: Beta

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is available for your use and abuse.

Here is the link.

MacTini: The Future Of Apple [Humor]

With all of the grief that Microsoft gets, it's refreshing to see someone take a jab at Apple every once in awhile. 

The following link, goes to a video portraying "someone" giving the rundown on the new Mac-Tini.

Be sure to watch the video.

Chrome Updating Secretly, Quietly?

Has anyone noticed that you may have different copies of chrome on your PC? After reading a post on Gizmodo, about the latest "release" of Chrome not being in Beta anymore, I decided to re-download it.

After a weird sequence of events, or non-events concerning Chrome download, I navigated to the file folder where the executable is stored.

This is where I found application versions. 

It seems that the first of these versions was made on 0.4.154.29, on 12/5/08. The second, 1.0.154.36, was on 12/12/08. The Chrome executable is from 12/9/08. 

If one browses these folders (the ones with the version numbers) one will find separate setup executable and what I assume to be a version of Chrome packaged (Chrome.7z).

So if it is true, that Google is pushing more current versions of Chrome to users without them even knowing it, is that a bad thing to you? There can be a difference of opinion on this.

I tend to be of the mindset, for Chrome only right now, that this is a good thing. The user need not worry about finding another version, or upgrading whenever Google sends out their "we fixed it" e-mail. Google can push a new version to the masses without the slightest hint of anyone knowing. Though it would be nice if they told us, formally, that they had changes for Chrome coming.

My only concern would be that an application is re-building another application on your computer without your knowledge. Now while Google isn't a bad group of pirates, there are those who are. If an OS doesn't know that a new application is being built quietly and silently, without user request, to me that could leave some doors unlocked security wise.

Again, for Google to do this is to me, not an issue. It is the possibility of some malicious persons doing it as well. 

So knowing now, what you know, do you feel any different about Chrome or Google?

Web Browser Based On Race? [Race and the Internet]

When you think you have seen it all, there comes a racially specific web browser...BlackBird.

Blackbird is geared towards the African-American community and was designed for:

"Because we know the 20 million African Americans online need tools to build and foster community now more than ever.

Because we know that 85% of African Americans prefer online news and information from the Black perspective.*

Because we know that you are twice as likely to be among the first to discover new trends and use advanced technology compared to the general population.*" [BlackbirdHome.com]

I am impressed with the look and feel of the site, and the browser does look slick (in images seen.) Has anyone used this browser yet?

Alpha 400: Netbook or Netjunk?

There are a lot of articles out there bashing this very low end addition to the Netbook family.  While this new comer to the race doesn't seem to offer much, it may not be as bad as it seems.

The specs aren't that much too look at, especially considering that most of the hardware was outdated 5 years ago. But there is some promise that may get over looked by some critical reviewers: Upgradable.

Technical Details

• Alpha 400 MIPS 400 MHz Ultralite 7-inch Mini Notebook General Features: Ultralite notebook
• Linux 2.4 Operating System MIPS XBurst 400 MHz 32-bit CPU 128 MB RAM 1 GB NAND Flash Storage
• 10/100 MB Ethernet interface Supports External Hard Drive up to 160 GB
• Supports SD Card up to 32 GB Xiptech application software packages (Xip office, Flash player)
• 7-inch digital panel 800 x 480 true-color - 802.11b WI-FI

When looking at the specs above, one may notice the ability to use SD cards. You can also use an external HDD via Ethernet. Although this is not a huge deal to some, it may be a big deal to others. If one is simply looking for simple word processing and or business related tasks, this tool might not be too bad.

Microsoft Clothing: MS-DOS-ome!

Several sites and blogs have been showing a few (at least one) article of the new Microsoft clothing line. 

Although some may see this as tacky or cliche, this blogger feels that this is a very good idea! I mean, how many old school DOS peoples wouldn't want this shirt above, declaring their competency in the ancient art of command line processing?

I have only seen this one MS-DOS shirt so far, but I am sure a Windows 95 throw back shirt should be next! Besides, you haven't had OS issues, till you've used Windows 95!

HP Mini Gets Decent Price Break

According to Gizmodo, the HP Mini 1000 is getting a pretty decent price cut: $40.

That's nothing to sneeze at considering it is approximately 1/4th of the Netbooks current price. Hopefully this is a new trend that may even see this poor blogger getting a new Netbook for Christmas.

Click here for the Gizmodo article.

Amazon.com Netbook Deals

A brief browsing at the Amazon.com website, searching for Netbooks turned up some decent deals.

ASUS Eee PC 2G Surf (7-Inch Display, Intel Mobile Processor, 512 MB RAM, 2 GB Hard Drive, Linux Preloaded) Galaxy Black is only $259.72. An 8GB black Eee with Linux is only $270.

That's not bad prices for older models. The prices range from mid $200 - $400's, depending on what you are looking for.

The prices aren't bad, and you can probably get some free shipping thrown in there too!

Windows 7 Beta 1 In January?

According to an article on Gizmodo, Windows 7 Beta 1 may be available to MSDN developers and the like around January 13th.

While this is not necessarily a release candidate, it definitely shows progress towards a final ship date, hopefully in Q4 of 2009.

Does anyone plan on tempting fate with the new Beta release of Windows 7?

Google Pack

One of the somewhat obscure Google products is the Google Pack. Essentially what Google Pack is, is a collection of specific software to make your computer experience better, more productive and more Google enhanced.

Some of the Pack's features are well know, such as Firefox, Adobe Reader. Some are not as well known, such as Spyware Doctor and Picasa.

Google desktop is a Windows Vista favorite, but I am not sure how well it runs on XP (theme wise.) I would say the Pack is not all that bad, but maybe a bit un-warranted given the standard collection most PC's run these days.

For the Pack and more Google products, click here.

The Next Good OS: Cloud

From the makers of the gOS comes Cloud. According to the website, "Cloud is a browser operating system that combines beautiful design with sophisticated technologies to make the PC faster, safer, and easier."[Cloud]

While the idea of running an OS via a web browser is new, it is definitely intriguing. Since the OS is not available right now, the footprint isn't know. It would be assumed that it will be small and compact compared to current OS's.

One benefit seen on this is the seemingly virtual way the OS will be run. You have to have an OS booted to run a browser, right? So if you have an OS loaded, and then you run Cloud, you are effectively running a virtual machine OS.

Here is the features list:

Feature List

• Web browser with Icon Dock Inside
• Network Manager
• Power Button
• Boot to Window XP/Vista or Linux OS
• Battery Life Indicator
• Volume Controls
• My Files & Viewers

Specifications & Requirements

• Standard x86 Processor
• 128 MB Ram
• 35 MB Storage (Can be smaller or larger)
• Preloaded in HDD/SSD of PC
• Preloaded in on board flash storage of MB
• Preloaded in CD as Windows Installer
• Cloud does not require additional hardware and is compatible with any operating system.

Black Friday: What's Your Take?

With all of the rampant pre-black Friday sales materials floating around, the real questions is simple: "What, if anything, does it mean to you?"

I have seen some seriously deep discounts on Blu-Ray players and HD TV's. But what if what you are wanting to buy is not on sale, for example the Wii. What then? Do you just buy some soon to be outdated technology because it's on sale? 

Some, if not most, of the items really reduced in price will be outdated and not made again. That is why they are getting such cheap cuts. But the good stuff, the stuff that is new and oh so very pretty, well, the deals won't be that good.

A good rule of thumb for "Black Friday" ads is this: If you planned on buying that "type" of technology, check it out, otherwise, buy what it was you were going to buy in the first place. Don't just buy something because it is on sale!

Google Chrome Goes Non- Beta in 2009

I never thought I'd live to see that day (and still might not) that Google actually released something from beta into a full fledged release! 

Hopefully this "release" will include some decent, Firfox like, plug-ins or add-ons.  Something along the lines of FireBug or FireFTP would be very useful, and handy. I have seen several blogs and forums begging Google for these features. 

Chrome has a lot of potential, but so far their have been no updates or patches or any news of fixes for it's ailments. If I need testing or work related Internet, I use IE 7. 

The other side of the coin, aside from functionality and what is released, is what kind of role will Chrome take in the future of the browser wars? Chrome is thought to be very popular. It is great for quick browsing and such. Is Microsoft worried about losing stock? Even with IE 8 in Beta right now? And let's not forget about the mighty Firefox.

The browser wars are heating up more and more and it seems that Chrome is destined to take it's place on the medal podium, somewhere...but where?

Do You Twitter?

Although it has been around for some time now, it seems that the idea of "Tweeting" is just catching on to some groups.

I personally just recently started taking a look at Twitter. I have spent some time with Facebook and MySpace over the years, but "tweeting" was new to me.

The social networking phenomenon has exploded with the likes of Facebook and MySapce in recent times.  To some, this idea is as foreign as Kimchi. The idea of blurting out "what your doing" to a vast audience of people around the world whom one does not know, can be a little intimidating.

To some though, this can be an invaluable tool for venting or simply keeping connected to friends and co-workers via a simple Internet interface. 

The service is free, and can be used with a variety of plug ins (Digsby, TwitterFox) and can even used to send the "tweets" to your cell phone.

Twitter isn't like your typical Instant Messaging, where you relay text in real time to others you are connected to. With Twitter, you simply post a message, of no more than around 160 characters, and anyone and everyone can read it. Anyone viewing you message can reply to it directly or in general. 

There are some private replies and "Direct" messages as well with Twitter. These can be for more of a one on one conversation.

All in all Twitter is not a bad form of social networking, nor is it a Instant Messenger killer. In the end it begs me to ask the simple question: Who needs to be that connected?

Target + Netbooks

Recently it seems, that Target has started selling and pushing Asus Netbooks. The models in stores tend to be older, more out dated ones, but decently priced (for Netbooks.)

According to their website, rraget now sells several brands and configurations of Netbooks. This is a delighfully surprising find. 

Some of the manufacturers listed were Asus, HP and MSI. Their Prices are competitive, but not a major under cut of current market rates.

As far as can be seen, most of the new Netbook models and styles can only be found via the online store.

It tends to make one wonder if this is a play at the market share of Amazon. Amazon has long since sold countless varieties of Netbooks, even before they were popular.

Molecule: Mega Computer

This new super computer called "Molecule", is impressive to say the least. With an astounding possible 10,000 Intel Atom processors, it's a whole lot of computer love.

Here are some more stats on the beast:

• High concurrency with 20,000 threads of execution — 40 times more than a single rack x86 cluster system
• High throughput with 15TB/sec of memory bandwidth per rack — over 20 times faster than a single rack x86 cluster system
• Greater balance with up to three times the memory bandwidth/OPS compared to current x86 CPUs
• High performance with approximately 3.5 times the computational performance per rack
• Greener with low-watt consumer CPUs and low-power memory that deliver 7 times better memory bandwidth/watt
• Innovative Silicon Graphics Kelvin cooling technology, which enables denser packaging by stabilizing thermal operations in densely configured solutions
• Operating environment flexibility, capable of running industry-standard Linux(R) implementations, with Microsoft(R) Windows(R) variants on some configurations

[Gizmodo]

Vista Capable Debacle

There are some people who were brave enough to trust the above sticker and upgrade their machines to Vista, and watch the failure commence.

Now there are lawsuits and trials waiting to be had to figure out why these stickers were placed on machines that either could barely run Vista, or not handle its' massiveness at all.

I had a 4 year old laptop that could run it; slowly, without my NIC working, etc., but it worked! It seems that everyone feels the right to sue everyone over every little thing, so why not sue Microsoft over false labeling.

According to this article, posted on Gizmodo, Microsoft "lowered the hardware standards to appease Intel." That would be an interesting change of events. 

But at the end of the day, Microsoft still pushed the sticker to be on sub par machines. That's' a fact that's not going to change, regardless of who they point their fingers at.

Will Apple Design Their Own Search Engine?

According to an article on TechCrunch, it seems that Apple may be creating their own search engine.

While this may come as surprise to many (including my self) it is not that new of an idea for a computer mogul to "get in the search game." Microsoft has been doing it for years.

While Apple is tethered to Google's browser for Safari, making a break might not be a bad idea.

Proof That Macs Can Crash Too

This image, from Gizmodo, shows the very simple fact that yes, Macs can lock up, crash, s#%t-the-bed, etc.

According to the Gix post, this is an iPhone display at an AT&T store. The system is a Mac computer running whatever Mac OS. The displays used to run XP.

The gray box in the center of the display is called a "panic" message. Something about the system halting. Interesting...

Windows 7 Microsoft Pages

Upon some snooping around today, I came upon the official Microsoft Windows 7 page(s). The pages are not that much, except they offer some low level information about the upcoming OS. 

The site also gives links to specific information for developers, enterprises and the "press." I also found the "Windows 7 Team Blog." This blog has some interesting tid bits about Windows 7 including differences between it and Vista / XP, new features and product development phase updates.

The blog does talk about the unveiling of Windows 7 at this years PDC in LA. Some quotes from people who were given pre-Beta loaded machines for demos are available there as well, if you wanna get some inside opinions on it as it is so far.

Windows 7 Taskbar Improvements

Gizmodo has a video of the new Windows 7 Task bar in action. It looks to be impressive and neat. 

I am still a a little confused as to how this is really different from XP or Vista's task bar. I mean, the icons are larger, but you still can drag and drop to it. It doesn't seem to be that different to me.

Maybe I am missing something here. I must say that I love the wallpaper on the PC. It gives one the underwater feeling.

Uber Cheap Netbooks? There Will Be a Catch!

Ever since the birth of the Netbook, or rather the classification of sub notebooks as Netbooks, many including myself have asked the question: Why are they still so damn expensive?!?

As far as overall pricing some Netbooks range from $300, for the older model Asus Eee, to $600 for a HP Netbook that is the same as a Celeron laptop.

While there is speculation that these costs will be coming down with newer and cheaper chip sets and the falling price of RAM, to believe that any of these Netbooks will ever really be below $200, to me is folly. 

LCD's simply can't come down that low and there is still a lot of electronics in the machines. So when I hear, or see someone offering or talking about an $99 Netbook, I am skeptical at best.

It seems that to get the cost low enough that the average person would look twice at a Netbook, they have to come with a "data plan." This is like your typical cell phone cellular minutes and data plan where you sign up for 1 - 2 years and get deep discounts on the hardware. I can't imagine who, aside from the heavy traveler, would ever need this kind of deal.

It is of my own personal opinion that the best way to get Netbook costs down is to stop trying to make laptop spec'd Netbooks, and make less powerful devices.

Google Chat Now Comes With SMS

The all powerful and knowing what gadgets you really need / want company Google, has added the ability to send SMS messages through GTalk (Google Chat.)

This is an excellent idea, in and of itself. But I have 2 questions:

• Can you SMS someone who is offline?
• Does this work with GMal Chat?

Google Cuts Back On Perks, Still Better Than Your Job

According to an article posted on the New York Post, online edition, it seems that the company known for it's incredible employee perks, is reigning in the slack a little.

According to the article, Google had released a inter company memo stating that they were trying to "to find areas where efficiency can be improved." That means, in this case, cutting back on some freebies like lunch items and some food items in general.

This downgrade in corporate splurging may be the result of Google's stock. It has seen a free fall over the last few months, losing up to 48% [NYP]. The stock is still very valuable, closing yesterday at $358 a share. The stock has been as high as $593.08 a share in early May.

Although the employees at Google will feel the corporate pinch of greed, they will survive, and live to fight another day.

Why You Should Be Excited About Windows 7 (Unless You Use A Mac)

Gizmodo has an excellent article on some of the improvements for Windows 7 over Vista. Personally, I never had much of a problem with Vista. I know few people who did, actually. I do admit that there has to be some truth to the pummeling it has taken over the past few years, or Microsoft would have absolutely denounced them long ago. From the looks of this article, they won't have to when 7  is released.

The article goes into some of the major improvements, which I will outline generally (I didn't do the research, I can't take the credit!)

• Applications running on Vista should run on Windows 7.
• Systems running Vista will see an improvement in speed.
• Notebooks should get better battery life.
• Windows 7 will be more reliable from the gate.

Having said all that, one must take into consideration how these things will be accomplished. Some of the new features and improvements outlined in the article are:

• Windows 7 window memory manager
• Application Crash Resiliency
• Problems Step Recorder
• "Sandboxed" device drivers
• All hardware updates via Windows Update
• Better background management
• battery efficiency reporting.

It sounds like Windows 7 will be what Microsoft wanted Vista to be. Hopefully, it will be and more. My big question is...will Microsoft make the upgrade cheap to get people away from Vista?

Microsoft Office Live

We all believed it was only a matter of time before Microsoft joined the online (and free) office bandwagon. The question is how good is their version?

As the image above states, the version of Office Live is limited in scope and capability. You can only use 3 of the MS Office tools, and they will have limitations. 

The initial look and feel of the site is similar to Googles online Office. It has a bit more asthetics, but is essentially the same layout.

You can create workspaces that can be shared and viewed by others as well as upload existing files for sharing.

The "Word" portion is what I believe to be called "Note." It has version control and looks like a watered down version of MS Word. The "List" document is essesntially a smaller version of excel. It starts out with one cell and more can be added.

So far, that is all I have had the time to play with. I will post more as I get to it. So far, so good. It is a bit slower than Googles, but it has some more functionality too (Task list, calendar events, etc.)

Also, just FYI, the site doesn't work with Chrome  from Google.

New HP Netbook

While I find the insanely flooded Netbook market intriguing and possibly the future of mobile computing, it is easy to get tired by the same old, same old.

HP's new Netbook, the Mini 1000, is not the biggest jump from the typical netbook, containing "10.2-inch netbook that comes in at under 2.5 pounds and packs a 1.6 Ghz Atom processor, 16 GB SSD and up to 2 GB RAM " [Gizmodo]

What will make this netbook different in the future is the custom OS developed by HP. Currently the Mini 1000 runs a version of XP, which is common in the Netbook realm. 

The OS is said to be based on a version of Ubuntu, a Linux distro.

While this is new to the current market, it is not new all together. Hopefully this time around the new OS will be more user friendly and less of a software engineers toy.

Windows 7 on a Eee?

According to an article on Gizmodo, it seems that in the future, Asus Eee's will be running Windows 7.

That is awesome news, if Windows 7 is as good as it is being made out to be. I still think Vista Basic would be a good fit for netbooks, but that is just my humble opinion.

New Dell Mini-Inspiron

The new Dell Netbook is as beautiful as it is large. There is a great review of it at Gizmodo.

The specs look decent, but I feel they still don't fill in the price tag ($599). Intel Atom Processor, maybe 1 GB RAM, small hard drive (40 - 80GB), nothing special. The only thing truly interesting about this Netbook is the size. It very nicely runs on a 12 inch screen.

Wait for the XP or Linux model to come out.

Experimental Firefox 3.1 Build Gets Awesome Multitouch Gestures on Macs

While I am not a huge fan of multi-touch (yet) and really don't see a lot of use for it (yet), it is interesting that it will be an imminent feature of computers in the not to distant future.

According to an article on Gizmodo, Firefox 3.1 may have some secret Beta for implementing multi-touch on new Macs. While this is very cool news, I still ask the question, why?

I know the new Macbooks will have some multitouch support but there seem to be several other machines that have the same capabilities. 

Untr-Portables: Pomera Digital Memo

Another ultra-portable semi-useful device has made it's way into the spotlight recently.

The Pomera Digital Memo DM10 is not much to look at, or use, but it is well, fairly new. Currently only available in Japan, it is simply a bad ass notepad wanna be that'll run about $250 - $300. 

It has but one purpose, to take notes. This would be very useful, but not cheap enough, for college students or research scientists. Maybe one day this little note taker will have more gusto than keys, but not today.

Original article here

Touchscreen Eee PC Due Early 2009, Will Run Windows 7 Later Says Asus CEO

Since the Asus Eee has been known to run several OS's ranging from Linux distro to full blown Windows XP, it may not come as a surprise that one day they will run Windows 7.

Asus does have a good feel for the market of netbooks and disconnected devices, such as gaming and multimedia consoles, and they are the market leader with sub-notebooks.

But why Windows 7? Why not Mac OSX or Windows Vista Basic?

Windows 7 will simply be a better version of Vista, with some new features. Why start there? Isn't there some form of happy medium where an OS can be an OS? I find it hard to believe that any version of Windows post XP will be smaller than 4 GB of physical hard disk space.

So why use it? Why can't the Linux distro be tweaked and made very "Windows like?" Just one Eee fanboys opinion.

iKit Mini-Mini PC

I am a sucker for small for factors and low end specs, if the cost is low too. The Imovio iKit is 2 out of 3 in that department.

The iKit is basically a compact, yet powerful PDA. Although it does run a Linux OS, is fairly upgradable and does have some options, it is still a few clicks away from full fledged Netbook, and almost as expensive.

The specs are:

Processorr Marvell PXA270 312MHz

Operating System Linux 2.4.19

User Interface GUI : Proprietary plus Trolltech QT/E 2.3.8

Display Icons / Indicators
- Battery signal strength
- WiFi active/inactive/level
- Bluetooth® active/inactive
- Date & time

Home screen: 8 icons
- Email, launches Email application
- IM launches Instant Messaging application
- Web browser, launches browser application
- Contacts, launches A-Z listing contacts
- Multimedia, open 2nd level icon screen with
- icons for, Video player, Music Player, File manager
- Wireless, open 2nd level icon screen with icons for
- BT, WiFi
- iKIT, open 2nd level icon screen for Display settings,
- Date & Time, Sound settings
- Utilities, Open 2nd level icon screen with icons
- for PC Sync

Keypad
- QWERTY/AZERTY + numeric keys, other
- languages optional
- 2 soft keys, 5 quick access keys, multi directional 
- key, power on/off key, volume up/down key
- Backlight: White

Speaker
- 16 mm built-in, monophonic

Memory Internal
- ROM : 128 MB, RAM : 64 MB SDRAM
- User  data : 12MB, User media files : 23MB

Memory External
- Micro SD (up to 8GB)

Display
- 2.8 inch QVGA, TFT, 260 000 colors, landscape

Camera
- 0.3 MP fixed focus camera (Option)
- Viewfinder: 15 fps, 16-bit color depth
- Image format: JPEG, fine and standard 
- compression, user selectable
- Digital zoom: Up to 3X smooth digital zoom with 
- 7 steps
- Effects: Color, black & white, negative, sepia
- Capture time: less than 2 seconds to return to 
- viewfinder mode after shuttered


Vibrator
- Built-in for use as an alert

Dimensions
- 95 mm (L) x 65 mm (W) x 15.5 mm (H)

Weight
- 113 g (with battery)

Form factor
- Clamshell

Connectivity                        
- Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR, supports wireless 
- stereo headset
- (A2DP) & DUN profile
- WIFI® IEEE 802.11 b/g

Connector
- Mini-USB 1.1 used for charging, PC data exchange 
- and wired stereo headset.

Browser
- Web browser Opera Mini 4.1

Java                                    
- JTWI / JSR75 compliant

Email Protocols
- POP3 / IMAP / SMTP

Instant Messaging            
- Support MSN

Audio Formats
- MIDI, WAV and MP3

Image Formats
- JPG, BMP, GIF and PNG

Video Formats
- 3GP, MP4 and AVI format, Maximum size 
- QVGA
- 25 fps video playback for QVGA size video 
- clips
- Support full-screen display

Contact List
- Maximum 2 000 records

Calendar                        
- Maximum 1 000 events

PC Sync                        
- With Outlook 2000/2003 & Outlook Express v6 
- (emails, contacts, calendar)

Personal Features            
- Calculator
- Media folder
- Notepad
- World clock
- Alarm clock
- Stop Watch
- Countdown Timer


Battery                                    
- 1050 mAh, Li-ion
- Standby Time; up to 250h
- Power-up Time; up to 3h (25% data download 
- per hour)
- Gaming Time; up to 4h (java game)
- Charging time: 2.5-3.5 hr to full charge from flat 
- with device power off


Colors                                    
- Velvet Black, Satin White – other colours available 
- to order

Box Contents           
- iKIT
- Battery
- Mini USB / USB cable
- USB stereo earpiece
- Charger
- User guide and CD

Personally I love this device. The problem is the cost. If you are someone who is in the market for a modifiable PDA that has some sweet perks, then this may be a good place to start.

Otherwise, this is almost a netbook in price and specs. Why not just get a netbook? If I could find one for around $100, I would highly consider buying one.

$299 Asus Eee 4GB In The Wild (Target)

The other day I saw an amazing thing in the world of electronics: an actual Asus Eee at a Target store. It was the 4GB model and it was going for $299.

They carried two colors, black and white. The specs were pretty simple:

4GB SSD

512 MB RAM

8.9" LCD

Linux OS Pre-Loaded

802.11 b/g Wi-Fi

Sorry the specs pics got pretty blurry.

Although the $299 price tag wasn't too bad, for a model that's been around for over a year and is the current bottom feeder of the Eee line, it should have been less than $200.

Firefox Mobile (Fennec) Available For Downloading

Mozilla's Fennec, mobile browser is available for use.

It is usable on Windows, Linux and Macs, even though it is a "Mobile" browser.

Here's the Link

Windows Vista SP2 On The Way?

According to a post on Gizmodo, Vista may be getting a new service pack in the near (or distant) future. 

The Beta should be out sometime soon for specific users.

Cloud Computing: Is The World Ready?

So is the world,  or at least the mainstream business world, ready for "cloud computing?" Google has put a lot of their eggs in this technology basket, while Microsoft tends to dismiss it as a futuristic myth.

So the question is, is anyone really making these types of applications yet? I know people that use the Google apps. I have seen an Open Office online suite as well. It doesn't seem that the concept is too main stream right now.

With hardware costs coming down and storage capacity going through the roof, what is the need of cloud computing?

With cloud computing, you can get back to the good old world or dummy terminals. PC monitors, with no brains and almost no capacity. They hook into a server, and the server does all the work, for all terminals.

That is a cheaper, yet less efficient way to get the software needed (on the servers or Internet) to the employees without buying the hardware and licensing the company doesn't need.

It has an interesting present, and an even more interesting future. But I would agree that the world is not ready for full blown cloud computing.

Asus Reeeturns to Its Roots With $300 Eee PC 701SDX

According to a article on Giz, from Eeepcnews.de, Asus may be very well going to what most of us think a Netbook should be...CHEAP!

The article states the are those that believe that Asus will be selling a lower cost model of the Eee sometime in the near future...for $300.

Although this won't be a record breaking speed machine, it will probably serve a good purpose to those who need small, compact  and cheap PC's.

Hopefully the Eee PC 701SDX will be out before Christmas, 

so we can see this miracle for ourselves!