October 26th, 2009

Planning to install Windows 7 on your netbook, here's a couple tips

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 9:10 am

Categories: Microsoft, Netbook, On the road, Ultra portable PC

Tags: Microsoft Windows XP, Netbook, Microsoft Windows 7, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Microsoft Windows, Hardware, Operating Systems, Software, Matthew Miller

The computers in my office run Windows XP and there are no current plans to upgrade to Windows 7 anytime soon since XP provides a stable platform for us to run our engineering programs. I have a MacBook Pro I use as my primary writing and photo/video management computer and have been thinking about upgrading to the latest version of Parallels to run Windows 7 since the dual boot solution supporting Windows 7 is not yet available from Apple. I also have a MSI Wind netbook that I use primarily for my Zune and Nokia syncing needs. I previously tried a very early beta of Windows 7 on the netbook and understand the final release version of 7 runs quite nicely on these Intel Atom powered computers. I plan to install Windows 7 on this netbook soon, but there are a few steps to take before doing so that are made a bit more difficult for these computers without an optical drive.

Since Windows 7 offers no real upgrade path from XP and you have to wipe out everything, the first thing I need to do is backup all the Zune music I purchased using my monthly 10 free song credits. I plan to use my external Maxtor 750 GB drive to transfer the music from the Wind to this drive and then back again after installing Windows 7. I do not use the Wind for photo editing or storage so there is really not much else I care about wiping out on the device. I also want to caution you that many services have a limited number of PCs you can use to manage devices and wiping out XP and installing Windows 7 will in most cases count as two separate computers. I have seen this with the Sony Reader desktop software, iTunes, and Zune Marketplace so make sure you go through and deauthorize your existing computer with all of these services before you wipe it clean.

I then plan to use a USB flash drive to install Windows 7 following Kevin’s guidance on how to install Windows 7 on a netbook with no optical drive. I recommend you check out Sascha Segan’s recent article on Five Key Tips for Installing Windows 7 on Netbooks, since he also mentions installing from a USB stick and troubles he had with this method and with using an external DVD drive.

If you buy a new netbook, you are most likely to find it loaded with Windows 7 Starter Edition and as pointed out on the Windows Team Blog there are a few limitations with this version compared to Home, Professional, and Ultimate. These include no support for Aero Glass, limited personalization of the desktop, no multi-monitor support, no DVD playback support out of the box, no XP mode, and no remote media streaming. For netbook users these may not be limitations at all and honestly I could probably live with them all as well. I do have a copy of Ultimate though so plan to try that out on the MSI Wind.

Have any readers installed Windows 7 on their netbook and if so, are you finding it is worth the upgrade from XP on these small notebooks?

UPDATE: I backed up all my files and then installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my MSI Wind via my USB DVD drive and it was a flawless and simple installation experience. I now have my Zune software up and running and am finishing up the Office 2007 install. So far it looks great on my MSI Wind U100 with 2GB of RAM.

October 23rd, 2009

MobileTechRoundup show #187, Windows 7, B&N Nook, Nokia N900

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 7:39 am

Categories: Gadgets, Kindle, Linux, Microsoft, MoTR podcast, Mobile software, Netbook, Nokia, Ultra portable PC, ebooks

Tags: MobileTechRoundup, Nokia Corp., News, Microsoft Windows 7, E-books, Microsoft Windows, Personal Technology, Operating Systems, Software, Matthew Miller

Listen here (MP3, 30.4 MB, 33:05 minutes)

Subscribe to the show with this link (RSS)

Windows 7 was the big news of the week and James, Kevin, and I started off MobileTechRoundup show #186 talking about this latest Microsoft operating system. Hopefully James doesn’t really go try to eat a Burger King Whopper 7 today. I talked a bit more about the Nokia N900 now that I have had this mobile Linux computer for almost 2 weeks. The other big news of the week was the Barnes & Noble Nook and James sounds like he is as excited as me, although I am the only one who placed a pre-order so far. Amazon didn’t want to be left out of the ebook news and also announced Kindle for PC this week.

October 14th, 2009

Dual boot Android/XP Acer netbook available for pre-order

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 8:00 am

Categories: Gadgets, Linux, Microsoft, Netbook, Open Handset Alliance, Ultra portable PC

Tags: Dual Boot, Netbook, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware, Matthew Miller

I’ve been pretty pleased with my MSI Wind netbook and use it to manage my Zune content and sync up devices that do not work natively with my Mac. I am also a fan of the Android operating system so I was intrigued to read over on Android Central that the dual boot Acer Aspire One D250 is now available for Amazon pre-order for $349.99. This 10.1 inch netbook can be booted into either Windows XP or the Google Android operating system and has a reported 9 hour battery life (with wireless and in “normal” working mode you will probably see 5 hours or so).

I have not yet seen the Android OS running on a netbook device and am interested in seeing how it will be presented and used on such a form factor. I know on my T-Mobile G1 and the HTC Hero it is highly focused on the connected data of the phone and am not sure how that will play out on a notebook. The Aspire One D250 has great specs for a netbook and is priced quite reasonably. Some of the specs include:

* 10.1-inch LED-backlit CrystalBrite screen (1024 x 600 resolution)
* Unique dual-boot operating system lets you choose between Windows XP (SP3) or Google Android
* 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N280 processor
* Up to 9 hours of battery life with included 6-cell battery
* Multi-gesture Touchpad for circular-motion scrolling, pinch-action zoom, and page flip
* 160 GB hard drive (5400 RPM)
* 1 GB DDR2 RAM (533 MHz; 2 GB maximum capacity)
* Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 video processor
* Crystal Eye webcam supports Acer PrimaLite technology
* 84-key keyboard, 89 percent of standard-size with 12 function keys, WLAN switch
* 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
* Bluetooth 2.1 radio
* 3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals–from digital cameras to MP3 players
* Analog video output: 1 VGA
* Multi-in-1 memory card reader compatible with MultiMediaCard, Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO or xD-Picture Card
* 1 headphone jack, 1 microphone jack
* Stereo speakers and optimized Dolby Headphone technology for 5.1-channel audio
* Dimensions: 10.17 x 8.04 x 1 inches (WxDxH)
* Weight: 2.79 pounds

The multi-gesture touchpad looks interesting and I look forward to reading reviews to see if that is supported in both Windows XP and the Android OS. At this price I am seriously thinking of moving from my MSI Wind to this dual boot setup, but first want to see if there is any benefit to having the Android OS on a notebook device.

August 24th, 2009

Is Nokia losing focus by now expanding into the PC market with the Booklet 3G?

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 7:35 am

Categories: Gadgets, Microsoft, Netbook, Nokia, Ultra portable PC

Tags: Nokia Corp., PC, Netbook, Nokia World 2009, Nokia Booklet 3G, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, 3G, Cellular Phones, Wireless And Mobility, Hardware

Nokia World 2009 is being held in Germany next week and to whet your appetite Nokia just announced the upcoming Nokia Booklet 3G, a Windows netbook competitor. We have seen rumors about Nokia coming out with some kind of notebook device with speculation that it could be running Android or even Maemo. The Nokia Booklet 3G is a Windows netbook powered by an Intel Atom processor.

Other known specifications include:

• 12 hours of battery life
• Integrated 3G/HSPA and WiFi connectivity
• HDMI video out port
• Front facing webcam
• Bluetooth radio
• SD card reader
• 10-inch display
• Integrated A-GPS receiver
• Ovi integration

More specifications, availability, and pricing will be announced next week so we will keep an eye out on this news.

This mini-notebook appears to have specs similar to most other leading netbooks and I will be very curious to see where pricing comes in and if it is too high I can’t imagine it doing very well, even if it is built with outstanding Nokia quality. I would rather see Nokia devote resources to making capacitive touch screen smartphones with a user interface to compete with the iPhone, Android, and WebOS devices since the netbook market is already flooded with competitors at very low prices. Nokia’s worldwide smartphone market share has been falling every quarter for quite some time and it would be nice to see them focus on their core market. What do you think about this device?

August 3rd, 2009

Always Innovating Touch Book hybrid device now shipping

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 9:49 am

Categories: Gadgets, Netbook, Ultra portable PC

Tags: Touch Book, Tablets, Keyboards, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Peripherals, Matthew Miller

I have jumped between slate Tablet PCs, convertible Tablet PCs, and netbooks in the past and it really came down to the familiar form factor and easy text input of a physical keyboard that won me over with my MSI Wind. If you are one of those that sees the benefits of both form factors and can’t decide then you may want to pick up the Always Innovating Touch Book device that is now shipping to buyers. The Touch Book is a hybrid device that appears to be a netbook, but transforms into a slate tablet when the display is lifted up and off of the cradle.

Specifications of the Always Innovating Touch Book include:

• Custom Linux-based operating system
• Texas Instruments OMAP3530 with Micron 256MB (RAM) + 256MB (NAND) Memory
• 8.9 inches 1024×600 pressure sensitive touchscreen display
• Main storage: 8GB SD card — we decided to change from Micro SD to standard SD, so that you can easily upgrade it
• Internal USB wifi 802.11 b/g/n powered by a Ralink 3070 chipset
• Internal USB bluetooth class 2.1
• US Qwerty 24cm-large keyboard — around 95% of the size of a standard keyboard
• Cirque Touchpad
• Two Owolff high-quality internal stereo speakers
• 3D accelerometer
• Two internal batteries 6000 and 12000 mAh — it can be replaced with a screw driver
• 7 USB ports: three external, four internal, three of them may be reserved for wifi, bluetooth and keyboard
• Bi-color silver/black case with a dark-red back cover
• Secured attachment system of tablet into keyboard
• Independent magnet system for the tablet

As you can see on their site there is a large backlog so those who first pre-ordered the device will get it while others may have to wait longer.

The device sells for $299 (for tablet only) and $399 (with the keyboard).

July 30th, 2009

Evernote announces PDF search capability

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 4:00 am

Categories: Mobile software, On the road, Tablet PC, Ultra portable PC, mobile services

Tags: Adobe PDF, Search Technology, Evernote, Matthew Miller

Regular readers here know that I am a big fan of the Evernote application that I use on my PC, Mac, and mobile phones. Evernote just announced an amazing new feature for premium subscribers (I have been a premium subscriber since day 1) that I am sure will be great news for many of you. Evernote now supports PDF Search capabilities so the PDF documents you upload to your account go through their search recognition technology engine servers and are fully searchable within minutes. Evernote will begin processing all of your existing non-searchable PDF documents within the next week so they will be searchable soon while new documents will be searchable right away.

Searching PDFs with the Adobe software is sometimes a useless endeavor since some PDF documents are not searchable. With Evernote and the desktop client you can run a PDF document through your premium account and then right click (on the desktop version) to export this searchable PDF. Even better, you can search right within Evernote to find the word(s) you are looking for in any document you have in your account.

Remember, this new searchable PDF support is a premium account holder benefit so check out their subscription model and seriously consider this option. I think it is well worth the $45/year and am happy to pay every year for my premium account.

July 13th, 2009

Can Apple launch a tablet device and do what it did with the iPhone?

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 12:21 pm

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, Rumors, Tablet PC, UMPC, Ultra portable PC

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Matthew Miller

Both Andrew and Jason posted the news about the latest Apple tablet computer rumor that has the 9.7 inch device slated for an October release for $800. As a guy who tried a few Windows Tablet PC devices in the past, but rarely even used the touch screen functionality of the Tablets I at first just kind of shrugged off this latest rumor. Then I paused and thought a bit more about what Apple did with the smartphone market after launching the iPhone and now I think there are some real possibilities here for Apple to again demonstrate how something like a large screen tablet can be done right.

We have had Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Palm smartphones around for years when the Apple iPhone was launched. Those of us in the mobile industry and those in corporate environments were fairly familiar with wireless data access, but it seems that very few consumers fully understood what a phone could do for them. Apple changed the game with the iPhone launch and their huge marketing campaign that made people aware of what these devices could do. I actually think that Apple and the iPhone probably helped out every mobile operating system as it brought a level of understanding to the entire mobile phone community and then people started realizing there were more choices available.

The Tablet PC and UMPC market never really took off for Microsoft and was a pretty niche market with a few selected areas of industry (primarily healthcare and field workers) that embraced the technology and devices. Netbooks swooped in at low prices and in form factors that people are used to working with and I think essentially killed off any possibility of Tablet PCs ever taking off. Tablet PCs and UMPCs were priced too high for consumers at $1,000 to $2,500+ with little real advantage over a much cheaper notebook.

If Apple can launch a tablet form factor device for $800, people may find a way to afford it. Apple is going to have to “tell the story” (something my buddy Michael Gartenberg likes to say) of why and how this tablet device can improve your life and be an enjoyable product. Apple will probably sell at least a million right off the bat to Apple fans, but they also need to go beyond that base to have a successful product. Given what Apple has done with the iPhone and the App Store I am actually excited to see what that looks like in a device of this form factor.

I don’t think they can just release a MacBook without a keyboard and a touch sensitive on-screen keyboard and have a product that everyone wants to own, which may be why it is taking so long to come out with a tablet Apple device. Will we see some new text input technology? Will we see some new way to manage and use your media content from the Apple tablet? Will social networking, Internet browsing, and sharing media with family and friends have a whole new look? There are some cool things Apple can do here with this form factor and we will just have to continue to wait and see if this rumored device ever appears.

July 7th, 2009

Google Chrome OS announced, It should just work

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 11:04 pm

Categories: Linux, Mobile software, Netbook, On the road, Ultra portable PC, mobile services

Tags: Google Inc., Operating System, Google Chrome, Netbook, Google Chrome OS, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Operating Systems, Hardware, Software, Matthew Miller

We knew it was only a matter of time before Google launched their own competing operating system and with all of the applications and services they have it was a fairly natural progression. Tonight, Google announced the upcoming Google Chrome OS is an open source operating system primarily intended to be rolled out on netbooks. Google stated that netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available the second half of 2010 so we still have about a year before we see it in action. I have a MSI Wind netbook and enjoy running Windows XP on it, but since I also thoroughly enjoy the Google Chrome browser and many of their services I am very interested in seeing Google Chrome OS running on this device.

Google stated that the OS is designed to be fast and lightweight so you can get to the Internet in seconds. It appears to be highly focused on the “cloud” which makes sense given that Google provides so many cloud services at this time.

I particularly like to hear this statement, “We are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.” Isn’t that what we all want?

Google also made sure to mention Android in their announcement and attempts to distinguish it from Google Chrome OS. Even after reading their statement (copied below) a few times I still don’t really see much of a difference between the two. It seems to me that people with Android smartphones spend most of their time on the web too.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

Competition in the mobile space is usually always good since it makes everyone who wants to compete push to turn out better products and I am excited to see what the Google Chrome Operating System brings us in 2010, are you?

July 7th, 2009

Sony announces $499 Vaio W netbook

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 6:50 am

Categories: Netbook, On the road, Ultra portable PC

Tags: Sony Corp., Sony Vaio, Netbook, Sony Vaio W, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Desktops, Hardware, Matthew Miller

Andrew wrote about the arrival of the 99 cent netbook yesterday and today we hear about the $499 netbook from Sony. The 99 cent netbook really is the much pricier model because you have to combine that with a whopping $60/month data access fee (you do get wireless data access from a carrier too). While the new Sony model is a bit expensive for a netbook today, it is actually the lowest price Sony laptop available. Sony previously launched their Vaio P ultra portable notebook, but that was priced at $899 and had a rather unique form factor.

The Sony Vaio W has the following specifications:

• 10.1 inch 1366×768 LED backlit display
• 160GB hard drive
• 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor
• 1GB RAM
• Windows XP operating system
• Bluetooth
• 802.11 b/g/n WiFi
• VGA out port
• Two USB ports
• Ethernet port
• Integrated webcam
• MemoryStick/SD card reader (of course)
• 3-cell battery good for reported three hours

The keyboard is listed as 86% full size. While Sony is known for high quality products, I am not sure the price will be competitive given that there are so many other high quality alternatives available in 2nd, 3rd, and more generation from ASUS, MSI, and others.

The Sony Vaio W should be available in August for $499 and available in pink, white, and brown. Thanks to Engadget for the press release and press image.

June 9th, 2009

Viliv X70 ultra portable PC available soon for $599

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 1:50 am

Categories: Gadgets, MoTR podcast, On the road, Ultra portable PC

Tags: Processor, PC, Apple MacBook, Apple MacBook Pro, Corporate Communications, Notebooks, Productivity, Podcasts, Marketing, Hardware

Fellow MoTR podcast host James Kendrick has been playing with the new Viliv X70EX ultra portable computer that looks quite attractive and portable. I just read on jkOnTheRun that the ViliV X70EX will be available for $599 over at Dynamism.

$599 seems to be a reasonable price for a compact Windows XP computer with a 7″ WSVGA display (1024×600), 16GB SSD drive, Intel Atom 1.2 GHz processor, 5+ hour battery life (in video playback mode), integrated GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi with an option for HSPA via a SIM, and more. The processor and drive upgrade models do not have pricing yet, but when you look at the Viliv S5 with smaller display priced at the same entry price this seems like a pretty good deal.

I personally think I may get one of those new 13″ MacBook Pro devices to replace my aging original 15″ MacBook Pro.