Weekend Update for 2/19 through 2/21, 2010

 

Hey all,
This weekend was so-so in tech news comparatively to last weekend since the closing of the Mobile World Congress.

Some (somewhat) exciting news: the Motorola Devour is all set to take it's place among the Droid and Droid Eris on Verizon later this week. The device is the first on Verizon to feature Motorola's MOTOBLUR skin over the top of Android that previously was only available on the Motorola Cliq. The skin is a widget based, social networking heavy UI that is hit or miss among consumers.

My personal take, and those at Engadget agree, is to just bump up and buy the Droid. Both devices will be $99 with a two year contract at Best Buy with no rebate, while Verizon is sticking with the $150 price and a rebate of $100. The Droid features a higher resolution and larger screen, a faster processor, and a newer version of Android (soon to be 2.1 instead of 1.6). I personally prefer the stylish curve and silver casing of the Devour to my Droid's somewhat clunky and rigid black casing, however, the Devour is a tad thicker and heavier than the already hefty Droid. The Devour supposedly improves on the Droid's physical keyboard, which thanks to it's flat and largely non-separated keys took a lot of flak from those who need something to press. I find the virtual keyboard on Android to be superb, but there may be problems with using it due to the Devour's smaller screen size, affording less room to the typing space.

Also in Green tech news, a private company Bloom Energy has announced a product called the BloomBox that is capable of turning oxygen and small amounts of fuel into usable electricity via a fuel cell wirelessly. Little details are known about the implementation for home use, but several businesses including Google (which has used the product for the last 18 months to power a data center) and eBay have already jumped on the bandwagon. I recommend following the link and watching the video from 60 Minutes last night, and keeping an eye and an ear out for more news this coming week.

In an interesting move, Apple has decided to make the entire App Store PG-13, featuring no nudity or partial nudity of any type. I know quite a few iPhone owners that will not be happy with this decision, but I would like to know your personal thoughts. I can understand that the users of these devices has reached into early childhood and even into older generations, but isn't there an easier way to distribute lewd content to those that want it? Say, a censoring capability for the parents of those children?

My Case for the Netbook: A New User's Story

Okay, so netbooks have taken a lot of flak from a variety of users, including myself. "What use are they?", I said. "A single core processor? What good is that?". I have completely changed my mind. After purchasing a netbook of my own, I have found so many uses for it that were very impractical for my desktop replacement PC. As a preface, I own a 16.4" Sony Vaio FW Series from 2009. It weighs about 8.5 lbs and while very powerful, is not very comfortable to bring to class and lug around on a daily basis, especially when my computing needs in those contexts are much less than when I'm gaming at home or watching HD videos from it's Blu-ray player or online.

So after observation of several of my friend's netbooks, I landed on the Asus brand. I bought a 10.1" Asus Eee PC 1005PE from this year featuring the new Intel Pinetrail Atom processors. I walked out of the door with the computer and a snazzy new slip case for it for under $380, not too shabby for all the functionality it has offered me. So here's my arguments and the uses I have found for my new netbook, and reasons why I think everyone should at least give them a chance:

1. Their portability is unmatched. At just under 3 lbs, this thing weighs less than most of my class textbooks. I don't like to carry a backpack around campus, so it is a perfect size for me to carry in place of my standard spiral notebooks I used to lug around everyday. Even if you do carry a backpack, your back will thank you for carrying around 5 (or more since it replaces those spirals) less pounds.

It fits perfectly on the desktop space in every class and thus takes up no room for others so you don't elbow bump with them in lecture classes with cramped seats.

I also travel to friend's and my girlfriend's apartments very often, so if I need to do work or occupy some of my time, I just grab my netbook and go.

2. The battery life is unmatched. My current netbook on a full charge will run for close to 11 hours under normal usage, including web browsing and word processing. For those with a long day, it is the perfect solution to the problem of lugging around a charger and having to sit next to a plug in every class. I can make it from my 9:30 AM class all the way to the end of my classes at 3:30 PM and still have more than half the charge.

3. Multitasking is still a possibility. Contrary to popular belief, multitasking isn't that bad on netbooks. I typically run the Pandora One music application and the web while doing my work, and there is very little lag, if any, when switching back and forth at a normal pace. You can stream Youtube and Hulu videos in the same fidelity and speed as you can with most PC's and while there is a noticeable difference in application load and install times, those things are (typically) done outside of the time you need to work.

4. Never miss another sentence in class again. I can't stress this enough. The ultimate driving factor for my purchase of the netbook, in addition to it's portability, was the fact that I was missing so much during the lecture taking handwritten notes. Since owning the netbook I have missed not one important tidbit, and have improved my retention of the spoken information in class exponentially. If you love to follow along on the instructor's Powerpoint presentations, you can do that as well, as it offers full OS support, which means you can load anything on a netbook you could with any other computer.

5. Again, it has FULL OS support. I have recently had questions directed toward me about whether or not Microsoft Office and other applications will work on a netbook. They will, and even run pretty well. Most new netbooks run a Starter version of Windows 7 that is optimized to run on the netbook platform, meaning that you can run whatever you want within the limitations of the hardware (no video editing, for instance).

6. It opens up new options for notes and documentation. There are several options if you wish to not load Microsoft Office onto your netbook. For some, it is easier to use Google Docs so that your notes can be accessed from any computer at any time. This is particularly helpful if you have another computer that you feel more comfortable reading notes on. Google Docs is free and compatible with most word processing applications.

If you do want to use your netbook as your main computer (as many have according to their needs) but don't want to buy or use Microsoft Office I direct you to Open Office, a fully featured FREE office suite that is compatible with MSFT Office. It is very reminiscent of old MSFT, but has a plethora of new features (like text prediction) that make it extremely user friendly. I personally use it and love it.




I hope I have done the netbook justice, as it has served me well over the past two weeks. There are a variety of options, including some dual-core netbooks (like the Asus 1201N) that can even stream and output HD videos and games at the expense of battery life (around 6 hours). It all depends on your needs.

Weekend Update for 2/12 - 2/14

Hey all,
Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day weekend. Some (potentially) exciting things in the tech world happened this weekend at the Mobile World Congress.

First and foremost, Windows announced their new series of phones literally called Windows Phone 7 Series this weekend. I have to say, they seem to show some promise. For anyone who has played with the relatively new Zune HD, it looks as though the phone has a very similar look and feel; a (very) good thing. The Zune's and new 7 series interface is very slick and intuitive, very unlike previous Windows Mobile offerings. Given the updated demands of the modern consumer, Microsoft opted for customizable "panes" on the home screen that lead to various functions, a fresh and very stylistic take on the standard icons presented in other mobile OS offerings such as Android (without the Sense UI on some HTC phones) and the iPhone OS.

Another good thing? Virtually all carriers available to consumers will feature Windows Phone 7 Series phones, and hardware partners include some of the best in the business including Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, Samsung, and Qualcomm.

Yet another interesting tidbit is that MSFT opted to set standard minimum hardware specs for every phone carrying the 7 Series label, so no laggy performance due to hardware issues. A definite plus if you have ever used older versions of Windows Mobile. Second, they have decided that the OS must be the same across all platforms and carriers as they wanted the same exceptional user experience, very unlike what we see from Google's Android, which is run on various hardware platforms and sometimes has varied user interfaces (like the aforementioned Sense UI from HTC or Blur from Motorola). This can be a very good thing as it doesn't limit the consumer's choice of carrier based on their phone offerings like AT&T and its iPhone exclusivity. However, it does limit the ability for the user to customize the phone, a very strong point of Google's Android.

I will cover more on the 7 Series phones when more info becomes available, but if you want to know more, cruise on over to Engadget where they have live coverage of the MWC and hands on impressions of the phones and the 7 Series interface and functions.

Some other exciting news for everyone but Apple users unfortunately: Adobe has announced that they are porting AIR immediately and Flash 10.1 in the first half of the year to all Android, WebOS (Palm Pre,etc.), Symbian and Blackberry phones. You know what that means? No more limitations as to what content you can view on your phone's web browser! This has been a long time coming for Adobe, as Flash has been in high demand on mobile devices for a few years as the web browsing capabilities of mobile devices has been steadily increasing.

Well that's it for the weekend, now onto Monday.

Sony Vaio Z Series

If anyone is in the market for a ultra portable media machine, has needs that exceed the average user involving intensive video editing, gaming, etc., and don't want a Mac, you should definitely check out the new Z series from Sony. While pricey, the combination of innovation and quality you get with this laptop is unmatched. It has cutting edge hardware, including brand new Core i5 processors and the ability to switch on and off the discrete graphics to save battery power when not in use. It is lightweight thanks to it's carbon fiber chassis (yeah, carbon fiber, the stuff they use to make expensive cars), and it obviously isn't too bad to look at either.

Sony is ranked very highly among PC makers in terms of quality and reliability. I have owned a VAIO for a little less than a year now, and have found it to be a joy to use. It is nowhere near the same caliber of computer as this device, but nonetheless it shares similar characteristics such as overall form factor, the chiclet keyboard that Engadget praises and number and types of connections (HDMI out is very handy for using the computer as a Blu-ray player). For roundabout $2000 it's quite the price for quite the package, but it's worth checking out as an alternative to a MacBook Pro or a hardcore gaming laptop.

Bill Gates hates the iPad... Surprised?

I'm not. Of course he has relinquished his post as CEO of Microsoft, his future still depends on it in stock. Regardless, Mr. Gates does have a good point. It will take a while for mainstream users to ditch their current input methods (e.g., keyboard, pens, etc.). After all, it is the way all of us are accustomed to using our devices.

 I can only imagine how the keyboard on the iPad will operate. I won't dock it until I try it of course, but think about the problems you have with your capacitive touchscreen devices (iPhone/iPod Touch, any Android phone, etc.) today. You will have to keep constantly looking at the keyboard itself, disabling the possibility of looking at what you are typing. This task is less difficult on a smaller screen size because you don't have to look outside of your field of vision, but on a larger display I feel it would be laborious to look back and forth between your content and the (virtual) keyboard you are typing on.

Regardless, I feel like the iPad is trying to tackle too many markets. It's taking a stab at E-readers, netbooks, portable multimedia devices like the iPod and Archos devices, and gaming devices like the PSP and Nintendo DSi all at once. Unfortunately, most of what I have read and my personal feelings are that it is just an over-hyped, over-sized version of the iPod Touch. Literally, the only differences in user experience are the 3G capabilities (through AT&T of course, make your own assumptions) and minute differences in the operating system and some apps.

All this and they want you to pay (in some forms) over $500? I know Apple is no stranger to luxury prices. I also know that regardless of what they produce, Apple fanboys will eat them up and proclaim that Apple has made leaps and bounds in future the future of technology (which, I will admit they did with the iPhone). But I feel as though it's a little too soon to be taking stabs at completely capacitive touch input.

With that said, I side with Bill Gates on this subject in that I would rather have a touch-enabled netbook with a physical keyboard and standard input/output than be bound to Apple connections and deal with a substandard product. Maybe someday when more manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon will I consider a device like the iPad. Your thoughts?

Welcome!

Hey all,

First, if you're reading this, I want to thank you for checking out my page. Clearly, this is my first post, but I plan to update this daily with new information about what I learn from my daily tech perusing and through classes and whatnot. I might share some of my opinions, too. ; )

I will draw from several sources including Engadget, BGR, Gizmodo, Wired, CNet, and Slashgear; I visit those several times a day.

For those who might want to know a little about my background: I am a student at the University of Texas at Austin, studying Corporate Communications with a minor in International Business with a concentration in Japanese (I've only taken 2 years, so I'm not that proficient yet). I have always had a special interest in technology, and thus I chose to pursue communications as a major because a) I believe effective and meaningful communication is the key to success and b) communication is a major focus of current and emerging technologies, and something that can be largely improved by use of technology.  

With that said, I hope I can shed a purposeful light each day's tech news and how it can be applied to daily life at home and/or at work.