theONbutton

What might the Apple Mac Mini HDMI rumors mean for the HTPC market?

theONbutton — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:40:00 +0000

There was an interesting rumor surfing the interwebs last week that Apple might add HDMI to the Mac Mini. Apple, which has so far spurned HDMI in its computers in favor of the newer Display Port and Mini Display Port connectors, has not had an HTPC contender in its line-up apart from the non-live-TV-capable Apple TV. So what? Well if the Mac Mini HDMI rumors are true, I think this could mean more for Apple and the living room HTPC market than may initially be apparent, and the reason comes back to the iPad.

Apple offers several options for viewing video content. Firstly there is Front Row on their computers which is for non-live-TV media. Then there is iTunes on the iPod Touch and iPhone which has limited pay-per-view non-live TV and movie content alongside its huge music catalog. Finally Apple TV offers similar iTunes content, again providing a pay-per-view model for limited non-live content. This is acceptable for the iPod Touch and iPhone which are too small to be a primary screen and more disappointing for Apple TV, which is part of the reason for its lack of popularity. Meanwhile Front Row is limited compared to Windows Media Center due to its lack of TV integration. Cue theONbutton’s iPad + Mac Mini two pronged approach.

The Mac Mini is not a strong enough product to shake up the HTPC market on its own, and I suspect the iPad will also be physically too small to be a primary TV screen. Remember that although the iPad screen measures almost 10 inches diagonally, its 1024 x 768 resolution means thick black bars for most movie and TV content. But what if Apple is busy doing a TV deal to bring TV over WiFi to the iPad, which would also be available on Apple TV and Apple computers as well as of course the iPod Touch and iPhone? I’m thinking of something with a Front Row / Windows Media Center style big-button interface which would be operated by a remote control.

This could finally be the right time to see this from Apple, given that the iPad is likely to have enough energy to be the critical driver for adoption. The model would offer TV anywhere in the home over WiFi on the iPad supported by either Apple TV or more likely an HDMI capable Mac Mini in the living room. The reason for preferring the Mac Mini over Apple TV is that it would bring full computing functionality to the TV, competing directly with Microsoft’s well-established Windows Media Center, so consumers would have the full Internet experience in the living room unlike with Apple TV. The reason for preferring HDMI over Mini Display Port in the living room is that HDMI carries audio and can talk to TVs easily at 720p and 1080p without the need for fiddly adaptors and settings.

So there you have it, theONbutton’s wild extrapolation of a wild rumor into a wild model for Apple to revolutionize home TV. Of course I’m not sure how excited the cable companies would be about a plan which would require such huge data streaming, but I’m pretty confident they would find some way of covering that cost.

Neil Berman

iPad 3G firmware unlock by design would benefit both AT&T and Apple

theONbutton — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:30:38 +0000

While other cellphone carriers have been encouraging customers towards smartphones with data intensive use-cases, such as ski-lift surfing, AT&T has been under fire over its data network. The carrier, which recently caused waves by saying it would focus on educating some customers to reduce their data usage, has now said it does not expect widespread 3G adoption of Apple’s forthcoming iPad. Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, said he expects the iPad to be a mainly “WiFi driven product”. Personally I agree with him, as I don’t believe many people have a compelling use-case for mobile data service on a smartphone as well as an iPad, although maybe we would if we get addicted to the iPad. I actually think that the main hindrance to iPad 3G adoption will be Apple’s pricing and 3G implementation strategy rather than anything to do with AT&T.

What I mean is that buyers must decide at purchase whether they will ever use the iPad over 3G, as Apple has not announced any ability to enable 3G on the WiFi only version. Unlike some device families where lesser models carry disabled hardware components, the 3G iPad is actually fifty grams heavier than the WiFi only model so it’s unlikely that the lesser model has dormant hardware. So once consumers choose the WiFi version, they are out of AT&T’s catchment group forever. If they choose the 3G version, AT&T has them depending on whether they ever choose to subscribe (it’s a non-contract plan).

I do think it would have made more sense to package the 3G radio in all iPads and recoup the cost by, say, charging a firmware upgrade fee upon first use of AT&T’s network which the carrier could have passed back to Apple. This would have been win-win for both AT&T and Apple, enabling users to upgrade to 3G when ready and probably leading to more 3G users over the device life than the current model. You might think Apple doesn’t care if you use 3G or not once you’ve bought the device because the data plan revenue goes to AT&T, not to Apple. While this argument holds water superficially, Apple is in fact benefitting from 3G usage in a big way. Every iPad shipped with 3G means more potential for users to wrap themselves up in Apple’s ecosystem. When I use an iPad over 3G it means I will be using Apple’s ecosystem instead of a 3G Windows tablet. I’m consequently more likely to buy more songs on iTunes, use iWork for document downloads instead of MS Word and spend more money in the App Store. Even if I’m not ready for a data plan from day one, a 3G enabled iPad means I can go for it when the time is right for me to graduate into that model.

We can buy most Windows netbooks or tablets and decide to put them onto 3G immediately, when we’re ready, or never. I think the Apple ecosystem would have benefitted from giving iPad owners the same choice.

Neil Berman

ThinkFlood RedEye Mini might be the coolest universal remote control ever

theONbutton — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:53:51 +0000

If you’ve been toying with the idea of universal remote control to replace the growing mass of blasters on your coffee table, your days of procrastinating may be coming to an end. ThinkFlood has announced its RedEye Mini, which is a scaled down affordable version of its RedEye WiFi remote control for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Instead of relying on WiFi like its more expensive older brother, the RedEye Mini opts for a traditional infrared connected directly to the iPod/iPhone, making it more portable and easier to instantly setup.

We think the RedEye Mini might just do to high-end universal remote controllers what free navigation on Android 2.0 did to the GPS market, i.e. set them on a path towards extinction. After all, if you’re in the market for a $150 universal remote, I’d say there’s a decent chance you have an iPod Touch or iPhone. So at less than $50, the RedEye Mini is an exciting proposition. Heck it might even be worth buying a dedicated iPod Touch for this, just so you can tell your pals all about your new remote control which just happens to surf the web, store your music collection and get you email. The RedEye Mini will be available later in the Spring.

Now just imagine the delicious irony of using this on an iPod Touch to control Windows Media Center…

Neil Berman

Today is Windows 7 RC shutdown day

theONbutton — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:09:10 +0000

If you’re one of those smart people running Windows 7 RC then take note; today is the day your PC will start shutting down every two hours. On June 1 that install will become completely unusable, so do what you need to do now to get your all-important files off that computer and buy a upgrade full version/new PC/new Mac/whatevs. Perhaps you’ve been so impressed by Windows 7 RC that it’s reignited your love for the PC, perhaps you got a free flight to Tokyo because Windows 7 was your idea (link is to my personal fave), or maybe you were just in it for the free ride and you’re now reading this on your new MacBook. Hey we don’t care what you choose, we’re not platform snobs, we just love good technology. Whatever you do though, do it soon; the clock is a’tickin, your files are a’fearin and the economy is a’beggin for your hard-earned money…

Correction: there is no upgrade path from RC to retail, it’s a full version clean install or nothing.

Neil Berman

Plantronics BackBeat 903 Review

theONbutton — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:28:52 +0000

What’s under review: Plantronics BackBeat 903 Stereo Bluetooth Headset, MSRP $99.95, current street price approx $60-90

What we like: Excellent sound quality; lightweight and comfortable to wear for extended periods even with glasses; easy to learn controls

What we’d like to change: Can be fiddly to put on intially; we would prefer separate track skip and volume controls

Our verdict: An excellent contender; the BackBeat 903 should be high up on the shortlist of anyone looking for an in-ear stereo Bluetooth headset

Our full review follows the video summary:

Plantronics has plenty of history in the Bluetooth market, including several stereo headsets in its Pulsar 260/590 ranges and the recent Voyager 855 hybrid design. Plantronics upped the ante in when it paired up (Bluetooth pun intended) with its subsidiary Altec Lansing to release the BackBeat 903 and 906 models. The BackBeat 903 was subsequently named as a CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards Honoree in November. While we had only listened to the BackBeat in noisy environments previously, Plantronics was kind enough to send us a BackBeat 903 so we could spend some quality time getting more acquainted.

First impressions of the Plantronics BackBeat 903

Let’s start by clarifying the difference between the BackBeat 903 and 906. These are essentially the same headset capable of hands-free call management, audio streaming using A2DP and remote control using AVRCP. The difference between the BackBeat 903 and 906 is that the latter ships with a headphone plug Bluetooth transmitter, so that it can be used with non-Bluetooth devices. So our review of the BackBeat 903 will cover the 906 as well, just not the headphone plug transmitter. There will be occasional comparisons along the way to the Motorola S9-HD, which is a similar lightweight in-ear headset design.

Taking the BackBeat 903 out of its box, it’s immediately apparent how light the headset really is. Since it has a built-in battery like most headsets, what you feel is what you get from the first moment. The BackBeat 903 is two solid units, one at each ear, connected by a flexible but substantial cable so there’s minimal weight apart from the earpieces. There is also a certain mount of flex in the earpieces along with a clever telescoping design which allows the wearer to make them fit snugly. The exterior end of the earpieces house the controls while the business end has a rubber fitting which directs sound into the ear.

The right earpiece hosts music playback controls; play, pause, track skip and volume. Play/pause is controlled a button, which also activates a bass boost when held in. The track skip and volume control is a rocker switch, with a quick flick engaging a volume change and a longer hold activating a track skip. While this arrangement works, it makes track selection a little slower than ideal as you need to hold the rocker in place for a couple of seconds for the BackBeat 903 to register a track skip instead of a volume change. We prefer the setup on the Motorola S9-HD which has separate controls on the left and right earpieces for volume and track selection.

There’s less going on at the left side where the call button and microphone live, which could explain the reason why there is no rocker on that side as it would interfere with the microphone placement.

On the back of the left unit is the BackBeat’s power button with a red/blue status light, along with the charging port. The BackBeat 903 gets it juice through a micro USB connection, high praise to Plantronics for choosing USB over a proprietary connector. This is great for owners when away from home as the headset can be charged from a standard USB cable or a micro USB phone charger.

Setting up the Plantronics BackBeat 903

Pairing the BackBeat 903 is a simple process, initiated by holding the power button until the headset is in pairing mode and then searching for it on a Bluetooth enabled device. During the pairing process the BackBeat 903 advertises it hands-free, audio streaming (A2DP) and remote control (AVRCP) services to the device and most modern Bluetooth enabled phones should be able to make use of all three. During testing I successfully paired the BlackBerry Bold and T-Mobile Dash with the BackBeat 903.

Something to bear in mind for iPhone owners is that although A2DP support was recently added to the iPhone, the AVRCP implementation is incomplete and the iPhone does not support track skip over Bluetooth AVRCP. I have had correspondence from many iPhone owners who have bought a stereo headset and believe its track skip function is faulty, whereas in fact the headset is working correctly and the issue is the incomplete implementation of AVRCP on the iPhone. Hopefully Apple will rectify this. So iPhone owners can use the BackBeat 903, but the track skip function will not respond. This is correct and is not an issue with the BackBeat 903.

Wearing the Plantronics BackBeat 903

We tend to wear stereo Bluetooth headsets for longer durations than mono designs, as we use them to listen to music over a sustained period of time rather than for brief calls. Consequently comfort is important; nobody wants to spend big bucks on a headset which ends up hurting their ears after extended use or being unwearable with glasses.

Motorola S9-HD on the left, Plantronics BackBeat 903 on the right

As with many headsets since you can’t actually see yourself, the BackBeat 903 was initially fiddly to put on but the action quickly became second nature. This was similar with the Motorola S9-HD, although that headset is easier to get accustomed to as it has a more rigid design. The BackBeat 903 feels both light and secure when worn, and also surprised me by accommodating my sunglasses with ease. The S9-HD by comparison only allows for glasses to be worn resting above the headset’s earpieces.

I found the BackBeat 903 to be comfortable for extended listening periods, causing no uncomfortable stress on my ears.

Making calls with the Plantronics BackBeat 903

Once the BackBeat 903 is paired to a phone, making a call is simply a case of dialling a number and letting the phone engage the headset. The BackBeat 903 can also initiate a redial of the last number and also supports voice dialling. If a call comes in during music playback then pressing the call button on the left earpiece will accept the call and pause music playback.

Call quality was very good within controlled indoor environments, with voices coming clearly through the headset. Call recipients could also hear me well. As expected there was degradation in noisy outdoor environments, where the microphone had more difficulty picking out my voice, but the BackBeat 903 still managed to do its job.

Listening to music with the Plantronics BackBeat 903

Music playback is more likely to be a primary driver for buying the BackBeat 903 and this headset really sings. Listening indoors with the bass boost off, the BackBeat 903 delivers an open, driving and energetic sound which encourages extended and sometimes enthusiastic listening (read “dance fans will love this headset”). Uniting Nations’ Ai No Corrida bounced through the BackBeat 903 with firmly resolved bass and clear treble, with none of the muddy low end which can plague some headphones. Sugarland’s Everyday America sounded clean and open, while even at low volume Jorge Ben Jor’s Mas Que Nada was engaging.

Turning the bass boost on certainly gave the bass a boost, but indoors it was not necessary and led to some muddiness of the low end. However outside where the ambient noise of New York streets masked some of the bass frequencies, the bass boost actually helped to provide a more balanced sound.

Comparing directly to the Motorola S9-HD, which incidentally sound great in isolation, the BackBeat 903 has a more open sound and allows the listener to hear more of the music. After listening to the BackBeat 903, the S9-HD sounded a little muddier at the low end and not quite as clear in the treble range. That’s not to say the S9-HD is a poor headset, it’s actually very good, but the BackBeat 903 was the headset I kept reaching back for. The bass boost on the BackBeat 903 was also less heavy handed that the SRS WOW enhancement of the S9-HD.

The playback, track skip and volume controls worked well and correctly paused and resumed music when a call came in. I would have preferred a separate track skip control to avoid having it combined with the volume control, similar to how the S9-HD which puts the separate controls on the left and right earpieces. This might have made track selection quicker, as the rocker needs to be held in place for a while before the BackBeat 903 engages track selection. I hope that perhaps I could skip multiple tracks by holding the rocker in place but this only skipped two tracks at a time, so skipping a track or two works fine but browsing a whole playlist can take longer than it might on other headsets.

Walking around with the Plantronics BackBeat 903

Stereo Bluetooth headsets can be more picky about device placement than mono headsets because they need to receive a constant data stream to deliver uninterrupted music. Every stereo headset I’ve used responds slightly differently to this challenge. The Sony DR-BT50 for example doesn’t like crossing wide roads, while the Motorola S9-HD prefers you to walk close to other objects. Some headsets have more capacious buffers than other to compensate for occasional transmission dropouts.

Like its competitors the BackBeat 903 works best when you learn its placement preferences. I found that with my phone in my top pocket I had a great experience walking outdoors listening to music on the BackBeat 903. However as I move my phone to my trouser pocket it struggled to deliver a consistent transmission to the headset, which is the same experience as with the Motorola S9-HD.

Indoors within the same room as the phone, the BackBeat 903 held a strong signal. As I introduced walls between my phone and the headset, there were occasional dropouts as would be expected. Subtle pitch changing was also noticeable as, like many other headsets, the BackBeat 903 attempted to compensate for a weak transmission by time stretching the music stored in its buffer.

Is the Plantronics BackBeat 903 a music legend?

As a lightweight stereo Bluetooth headset the BackBeat 903 is an excellent choice, delivering superb sound quality and good comfort over long listening periods.

Neil Berman

Flash 10.1 Beta 3 brings GPU acceleration to GMA500 netbooks

theONbutton — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:22:15 +0000

The MSI X320 will benefit from the GMA500 support

There’s a funny dynamic going on in the world of Flash which, let’s remember is used by almost the whole world. On the one hand the likes of Apple are trying to encourage the world away from Flash because it is a processor hog and towards HTML5 instead. While on the other hand Adobe is demonstrably working to make Flash HD video run better on lesser hardware by enabling GPU acceleration in version 10.1.

The initial Flash 10.1 announcement covered plenty of popular graphics cards and onboard chipsets, including Intel’s now ubiquitous GMA4500MHD. However it didn’t show any netbook love…until now. Adobe has now announced that Flash 10.1 Beta 3 will support GPU acceleration on netbooks running Intel’s GMA500 graphics chipset and Broadcom’s Crystal HD accelerator. So just thinking aloud, once the world is ready to move online media streaming and animations from Flash to HTML5 will the world actually care, since Flash will be GPU accelerated on so much hardware?

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that we should look to persist with using standardized software at the expense of developing more efficient solutions. I’m simply suggesting that it is in the interest of end users for participants in the Flash war (Flashpoint?) to make peace. As an industry let’s continue to invest in new alternatives such as HTML5, Silverlight and Next-Gen-Flash, let’s support them all thereby allowing the consumer to choose. For that reason I commend the introduction of Flash on Android. The end-user does have a powerful voice and it’s the reason we’re getting Flash GPU acceleration isn’t it? It feels to me like Adobe has heard the consumer loud and clear.

If you’re going to try out the Flash 10.1 Beta, remember it is a Beta which means it’s not production-ready and could mess up your system. I’m in!

Neil Berman

PMA 2010 News

theONbutton — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:43:09 +0000

PMA means new cameras

In our ongoing quest for perfection in photography we look towards PMA 2010 this week, which is the annual industry show for photo and video professionals. This is traditionally the time of year for news, product announcements and new releases in the phot and video market. Our PMA picks so far are Sony’s presentation of its new waterproof DSC-TX5 in a block of ice, the new Samsung TL500 with its f/1.8 lens and the first hands-on look at the Fujifilm HS10 which sports a 30x optical zoom with manual focus.

PMA means making a wish list

On our PMA wish list is a compact digital camera with DSLR photo quality, 1080p video and an external microphone input. Something like the Fuji F200EXR meeting the Kodak Zi8 with an added helping of the Panasonic LX3 for maximum tweakability. Perhaps an impossible device a few years ago but hopefully a real one either this year or next.

PMA mean bargains on outgoing cameras

It’s also a good time for consumers to seek out good deals on outgoing models such as our favorite compact superzoom, the Panasonic ZS3. We recently spotted the ZS3 for as low as $220, which is way down from Panasonic’s MSRP of $399. So go out there and find a bargain, the economy still needs your help!

Neil Berman

Tekinca episode 5: The state of the smartphone union

theONbutton — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:13:48 +0000

In this week’s Teknica we provide analysis on the smartphone market, as it exits one of the most significant Mobile World Congress show’s of recent times.

Neil Berman

theonbutton.com

Nokia store New York

theONbutton — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:45:40 +0000

If you live in the USA, a Nokia cellphone can be hard to find. That’s because Nokia phones and American cellphone carriers don’t go together as naturally as, say, Nokia phones and European carriers. So if you’re a Nokia fanboy in America you’ll definitely want to head over to the company’s flagship store off Fifth Avenue in New York City. But hey, this ol’ country is vast and it sure is cold in New York these days. So to save you travelling all the way here, or perhaps from just leaving your warm shoe-box of an NYC apartment, here’s a walkthrough of the store in glorious HD.

Neil Berman

theonbutton.com

BlueAnt Q1 review

theONbutton — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:11:26 +0000

The bluetooth headset market is crowded these days with top brands putting out some great designs. BlueAnt thinks it has something special to offer with the Q1, which won a CES 2010 Innovations Award and boasts voice control. We put it through its paces to see if it could talk us into setting it above the pack.

What’s in the BlueAnt Q1 box?

The Q1 comes in a smart display case, which BlueAnt ecologically mention can be re-purposed into a vase or other container. Nice touch. Inside the box is the headset, a brief guide, earhook, USB cable and charger.

The Q1 feels smart and solid with a brushed black metallic finish. It may not have the design exuberance of Aliph’s Jawbone, but it still looks sleek and expensive.

Setup and voice control of the BlueAnt Q1

Of course the unique aspect of the Q1 is its voice control, which applies not only to you voice-controlling the Q1, but to the Q1 instructing you as well. When you turn on the Q1 for the first time it beeps a little, like all headsets but then settles into its spoken voice. Setup and pairing was straightforward as the Q1 asked me to put my phone into pairing mode and then made the connection. When connected, the Q1 told me so, instead of flashing or beeping at me.

The Q1 has preset voice commands for call functions such as redial or activating phone speed dial numbers and it usefully has one for checking the battery level too. To engage the voice controls, you simply push the multi-function button and say the command when prompted. The multi-function button controls call pickup, rejection and hang-up as well, but you can also say “answer” or “ignore” to pick-up or reject an incoming call.

It might seem like a simple idea but after a period of using the Q1 it feels natural that all headsets should work this way. It’s far more natural than trying to remember that three beeps and a blue flash means you’re paired, while three beeps and a red flash means the battery is low!

Using the BlueAnt Q1

When wearing the Q1 I found that it sat in my ear comfortably without needing the earhook attachment. This is definitely a matter of taste; I used to wear Samsung’s excellent but tiny WEP200 in the same way but some people find the earhook to be a necessity.

Call quality was extremely good with no breakups until at the limit of the Q1’s range. Callers were able to hear me clearly and likewise I heard them well too. The Q1’s sound quality was definitely better than the earpiece of my BlackBerry Bold, which can be a little muffled and bass heavy at times. The Q1’s ear speaker seems either designed to roll off bass frequencies or accentuate the frequencies which deliver vocal clarity, i.e. those around 800-2,000Hz. Whichever is taking place, the Q1 delivered a clear vocal to my ear.

That situation did deteriorate outdoors where callers reported some instances of not being able to hear me clearly as I walked the noisy streets of New York. The Q1 continued to be usable outdoors however, although it did struggle to hear my voice controls amidst a busy sidewalk with nearby honking taxis.

There is also a firmware upgrade available for the Q1 on BlueAnt’s site. Amongst other enhancements the upgrade enables A2DP audio streaming so you can use the Q1 to listen to podcasts, which is a nice touch.

Rhythm & blues, or just a case of the blues?

Overall the BlueAnt Q1 is an extremely impressive headset and worthy of its CES 2010 Innovations Award. At a street price of around $90 it is more expensive than typical bluetooth headsets, but for heavy callers looking for a quality design or gadget lovers in search of something unique, the Q1 is a great buy. Now if only it really did sing Rhythm & Blues instead of just talking…

Neil Berman

Android gets Flash

theONbutton — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:11:08 +0000

The Apple Flash issue came to the fore recently when Steve Jobs announced the iPad and today Google dropped a flash bomb on Cupertino by adding Flash to Android.

As we and much of the world noted recently, the iPhone and subsequent Apple devices running its OS such as the iPod Touch and iPad do not support Flash. This means that they need special apps to access certain internet media content like YouTube videos and many websites just don’t work on those devices. Windows Phone 7, announced on Monday, will also initially ship without Flash support. Today however Google announced that Flash 10.1 will be available for Android, setting up the platform to offer a unique feature set in the smartphone market.

We know that Flash can be a resource hog on full power computers, sometimes causing Macs to crash, so I was curious to see how fluid the experience would be. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this demo of a Motorola Droid running Flash videos on YouTube in a browser perfectly, and even managing to switch from portrait to landscape without missing a beat. Can iPhone and Windows Phone 7 really afford to sit this one out?

Neil Berman

Windows Phone 7 Series analysis vs iPhone, Android & BlackBerry (update: now with video!)

theONbutton — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:30:11 +0000

Windows Phone has been struggling in recent years. In the face of an onslaught Apple, Google and RIM, many would say that the OS formerly known as Windows Mobile has not even been competing in the current marketplace. Rumors have been flying around about Microsoft starting from scratch with Windows Phone 7 Series and that’s exactly what they’ve done. And they’ve done it well.

Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 Series today at Mobile World Congress to an audience hoping for Redmond to finally bring it in the mobile market. Ballmer’s troops didn’t disappoint, incorporating the Zune HD’s spectacular modernist interface, Xbox Live gaming and of course Office functionality into one platform. The reaction has been hugely positive so far, which is great for consumer choice, but what does the launch mean for the major players in the firing line such as iPhone, Android and BlackBerry?

New interface or same old Windows?

The Windows Phone 7 Series (WP7 from now on) interface we’ve seen today looks fresh and modern but I’ve been watching it develop in my living for the last few years. It’s actually called Metro and we’ve seen its ancestry first in Windows Media Center, followed more recently by the more widely covered Zune HD. I’m glad that Microsoft chose to follow-up these releases with Metro’s integration into WP7 as it’s a beautiful user experience and as Steve Jobs and the iPhone have taught us, the experience is critical.

So how does the interface shape up to its competitors? Frankly it crushes all of them. As we saw with the Zune HD which looked good compared to the iPod’s interface, WP7 raises the bar in the smartphone space. This is not a failing of Apple, as the iPhone OS was designed a few years ago and was groundbreaking itself in 2007. However, I expect Apple might now revisit the iPhone to bring a smarter look & feel as almost three years have passed since its release.

If WP7 trumps the iPhone’s interface then it kind of goes without saying that Android and in particular BlackBerry are made to look further behind the pinnacle than they perhaps were yesterday. Android of course is still emerging and has a good energetic foundation upon which to bring its game to a peak. I feel RIM however is most at risk, specifically because it has gained so much corporate market share from Windows Phone which might now return back to Microsoft.

Full disclosure: I use a BlackBerry Bold every day and it’s great, I also write for BerryReporter. However RIM’s OS is a swish home screen covering solid but antiquated looking internal text driven menus, with a sub-standard internet browser. RIM needs to do work urgently to improve its user experience to thwart an loss of the market share it has been winning from Windows Phone.

Social networking

Facebook and Windows Live are integrated directly into WP7, unlike its competitors which tend to use separate apps to present this information. The benefit of direct integration is that status updates are pushed straight into WP7’s Peoplehub, so when you look up a contact you see their latest photos and news…without actually having to do anything. That’s super-cool convergence, after all why should a contacts screen be limited to displaying static information about your contacts?

On the downside, if you’re a MySpace, Bebo, Friendster etc user then we’ll have to wait and see if those get integrated in the same way. This is where the app model of the other players comes in handy. That’s not to say WP7 won’t have similar functionality available through apps, after all Windows Phone has historically had a colossal app selection. I guess the point is that once you’ve seen the Facebook and Windows Live WP7 integration into People, having social networking in a ringfenced app seems limiting. Microsoft has completely changed the game here.

Zune

We were all hoping for Zune integration in WP7 and it came in a big way. WP7 basically has the Zune HD’s operating system inside and syncs music, videos and photos via Zune’s desktop application. Integration of the Zune Marketplace was also shown, so it looks like there will be a way to buy media directly from the phone.

The main challenge here is of course the iPhone and iTunes. As iTunes approaches it’s ten billionth song download it is clearly a formidable market leader. Many argue that the Zune experience is superior but iTunes owns the all-important consumer mindshare in this market.

Xbox Live on your phone

Apple showed the world that mobile gaming is not just the preserve of Sony and Nintendo and there have been some impressive releases for the iPhone. Gaming exists on Android and BlackBerry as well, but no other platform can compete with Xbox Live.

Xbox Live will be integrated directly into WP7; trust me, this is a huge development for mobile platforms. That means your Xbox Live avatar, history and potentially offshoots of popular games such as Halo will be on WP7. That is massively compelling for Xbox owners, especially since games could be designed to interact with titles you already play on Xbox Live to unlock new content for example. All WP7 phones will have buttons too, so gaming is likely to be a better experience than the iPhone which relies solely upon touch and accelerometer interactions.

Email and corporate

RIM has gained market share from Windows Phone to become the premier corporate messaging device for good reason; BlackBerry is a secure and generally reliable platform. We’ll have to see if much of the critical BlackBerry functionality such as encryption and remote wiping has been implemented in WP7. If it has been then I’d have to say it spells bad news for RIM. While corporate investment in a smartphone platform is often a medium to long-term investment decision, WP7 is likely to answer the work-life smartphone questions which iPhone and BlackBerry have failed to answer so far. Android does provide a good balanced solution for companies which use Gmail however.

Enterprises tend to be wary of the iPhone because of security and concerns around a lack of a transparent roadmap for the platform. Meanwhile consumers so far have not been convinced by the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm or Storm 2, which brought a tweaked BlackBerry OS instead of a fresh iPhone-challenging interface. WP7 could be the answer to the work-life phone question, with Exchange/Outlook integration, Zune, Xbox, social networking and of course Office.

Since WP7 has been a fresh start, all applications have to be written from scratch. So there are new Word, Excel and Powerpoint apps. More important is the Cloud integration with Sharepoint. I haven’t seen demos of these yet and I’m sure right now Microsoft wants to present the platform as a great example of convergence, as Windows Phone had previously been associated with corporate productivity. We’ll have to wait to see how Office for WP7 shapes up against the likes of Documents To Go and other mobile suites.

A Tablet in the 7 Series range?

Here’s a parting thought…We’ve now seen this interface in small devices and large touch screen PCs on Media Center. What’s the betting a tablet is next? In military speak I believe the phrase is “confidence is high, I repeat, confidence is high”.

You can view the full hands-on demo in the video above here.

Neil Berman

Teknica episode 4: Windows 8 is going to be mind blowing

theONbutton — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:42:33 +0000

In this week’s Teknica we catch up on Mobile World Congress, get a glimpse into the energy around Windows 8 and find out how to check up on your internet speed with YouTube Speed Dashboard. Plus, we reveal the ultimate Apple fanboy accessory.

Neil Berman

YouTube Speed Dashboard tells you if you’re getting what you’re paying for

theONbutton — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:59:16 +0000

Google has been aiming to get us going full speed on the Internet and its latest initiative on YouTube is another part of that effort. YouTube Speed Dashboard analyzes your download speed over time and shows comparatives to other users of your ISP as well as cohabitants of your city, state, country and planet. It’s certainly interesting to see how download speed can fluctuate between different days, although we don’t know too much about how the analysis is being constructed. For example what happens if you don’t watch any YouTube videos on a given day; is that day recorded as zero MB/s or hopefully just discounted from the analysis? Judging by the chart above we clearly have no such worries as it looks like we watch plenty of content! So do our readers in fact, who just hit 40,000 views of our videos.

In any case it’s really cool to see how you’re doing, and gives you some firepower to use in a phone call to your ISP if you believe you’re being shortchanged. Check out your own results at YouTube Speed Dashboard.

Neil Berman

Skullcandy creates one-offs for NBA All-Stars

theONbutton — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:15:14 +0000

Skullcandy has come out with some tricked out cans in commemoration of Sunday’s NBA All Star game. The personalized headgear, which feature one-touch muting, left or right side cabling and a closed back design was handed to each player. So if you’re reading this wondering where to get a pair, you’re probably not in the game line-up. No word yet on whether these will go on general sale, but it sure would be cool to see them on the shelves of my local electronics emporium.

Neil Berman

Building a Windows Media Center HTPC

theONbutton — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:40:52 +0000

In January 2009 I started running the Windows 7 Beta followed later in the year by the Release Candidate on my trusty old Pentium 4 living room PC. In October to coincide with the Windows 7 launch I brought that computer into the modern age but decided to wait a few months to collect my thoughts before sharing the experience.

The purpose of this computer is to serve as a single solution TV, media and internet video player using Windows Media Center and a browser. This requires a quiet computer with decent graphics and sound capabilities. The processor is less important as long as it can run quietly and is reasonably powerful. Remember a Pentium 4 used to serve up this media prior to this upgrade.

Selecting components

The 'Black Edition' Phenom IIs can be over/underclocked with ease

I chose AMD’s low energy triple core 2.8GHz Phenom II 720 Black Edition, which can be overclocked, or hopefully in my case, underclocked. Why would I underclock? Well I want my living room PC to be as quiet as possible and I figured that I didn’t need those three cores to be operating at any more than 2GHz each. So by underclocking the processor it would theoretically run cooler and require less energy, which means lower power consumption and less noise.

I paired the Phenom with an AMD 785 chipset motherboard, which has an onboard triple output Radeon 4200 graphics chip. I need multiple outputs because I my living room PC feeds a flat screen and a projector. I already had a triple output 512MB Radeon 4350 card, which would handle the MPEG encoding/decoding fine, but I hoped I could save some noise and energy by using the onboard chip.

The motherboard also has Realtek’s brand new ALC889A sound chip with optical (and optional coaxial) 7.1 surround outputs. I was using a coaxial connection to my aging but superb Teac surround receiver, as my Xbox and Macbook were using its two optical inputs, so I ordered the coaxial motherboard upgrade. I was unable to find the coaxial

Optional SPDIF bracket adds coaxial and optical inputs/outputs

upgrade for the motherboard at any US retailers, so it ended up coming from Australia via eBay. This new Realtek chipset really pushes into semi -pro-audio territory with a crazily impressive signal to noise ratio of 106dB. This means that it had the potential to sound ultra-clean.

I was also looking forward to running my SSD at full speed on this SATA 3.0 motherboard, as on my previous board was slower. Finally there was also 4GB of new OCZ Obsidian RAM going into this recipe, which would all be usable as I run 64-bit Windows. Remember to go for 64-bit if you want to use more than 3GB of RAM, as 32-bit Windows 7 is unable to address more that 3GB of memory.

Performing the upgrade

I decided to do the upgrade in two stages: hardware first, then software. That meant replacing my existing motherboard, processor and memory with the new gear and verifying that everything worked by booting into my existing Windows 7 RC build. I would then install of the retail Windows 7 release, overwriting the RC version.

If you are embarking on a similar journey then make sure that all power is off and that you have discharged any static by touching the metal side of the computer’s case. This article is not intended as a detailed guide to be followed.

The gleaming underside of the Phenom II

I unboxed the new motherboard and the Phenom. It’s difficult to handle a brand new processor, with its gleaming golden pins, without a sense of marvel. To think that there are around 750 million transistors in this tiny square is simply awe-inspiring. I dropped the processor into the motherboard slot, secured it and locked the giant fan in place over the top. I also slotted in the new OCZ memory in a dual channel configuration.

Next I removed all the cabling from the exterior of my old PC and anything connecting to the motherboard. I then unscrewed the screws holding the existing motherboard in place. A long thin screwdriver helped me here, although some magnetism would also have been useful to reduce the risk of the screws falling under the board. The motherboard lifted out together with plenty of dust; I them put the new one in its place and secured it with the screws I had just removed. I moved the Radeon 4350 from the old motherboard to the new, just in case I wanted to use it over the onboard 4200. The interior and exterior cabling was done next, remembering to connect the exterior power cable last of all.

The computer booted correctly, taking a little longer than normal as Windows 7 was internally configuring drivers for the new hardware and everything seemed to be working great. I was using the onboard Radeon 4200 to drive my 42″ TV and projector, and I had a temporary optical connection to my receiver as the coax upgrade was still en route from Australia.

When I started testing in Windows Media Center, I noticed some occasional blockiness when recording two HD channels and playing back a third as a recorded program. I used to do this fairly often on my Pentium 4 + Radeon 4350 setup. So I switched over from the new motherboard’s onboard 4200 to the 4350 card and the occasional blockiness disappeared. I attributed this to the fact that the 4350 has 512MB of dedicated onboard memory, whereas the motherboard’s 4200 shares system memory.

Even when recording two HD programs the system sounded exceptionally quiet, which meant I might not need to

The three cores were running at a cool 45 degrees celcius

throttle back the Phenom to slow down its fan. Firing up AMD’s Overdrive utility confirmed this, showing the processor temperature at just 45 celcius with all three cores operating at 2.8GHz. Noise concern mitigated.

Speaking of noise, the sound quality of the motherboard’s Realtek ALC889A is simply phenomenal. I normally use a M-Audio Transit with my Macbook and over optical connections I really could not tell the difference between either. That’s an amazing complement to the motherboard, as the Transit is a fantastic portable sound output. Of course the ALC889A also offers 7.1 surround, whereas the Transit is stereo only. The coaxial upgrade for the motherboard arrived, so I could restore my Xbox, Macbook and PC digital connections. I fitted it, attached my coax cable and started the computer. I heard the Windows 7 startup sound, which told me that Windows had found the new output, detected the receiver at the other end of the coax and locked the SPDIF digital clock. To put it in Mac-speak, it just worked.

Finally I performed a fresh install using my retail release of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. The install went as smoothly as my previous Beta and RC installations. All that was left to do after that was to re-install my applications and I was done.

Overall I’ve been extremely pleased with this upgrade. Speed, silence and great sound. Who can ask for more in a home theater PC?

Summary of components:

Processor AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Edition

Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX

Memory OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Windows 7 and applications OCZ Apex Series OCZSSD2-1APX60G 2.5″ 60GB SATA II MLC Solid State Drive

TV recording and media 24/7 Eenterprise Class Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3500320NS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Hard Drive

Graphics card GIGABYTE GV-R435OC-512I Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 DVI/HDMI/VGA

Sound card Realtek ALC889A HD 7.1 Surround

HD TV Tuners Silicondust HDHomeRun (hosts two HD tuners)

Displays Hitachi PJ-TX100 HD Home Theater Pprojector, Vizio SV420XVT 42″ LCD

Neil Berman

Superbowl XLIV: One great game, many great gadget commercials

theONbutton — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:26:12 +0000

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints, who played their hearts out in the second half tonight. Well done to the Colts as well, who helped to make this Superbowl one of the greats and not only from a sporting point of view…

Superbowls are famous for their commercials, which this year cost up to $3,000,000 (count those zeros) for 30 seconds (just one short zero there). Apart from various Budweiser spots and a funny Simpsons/Coca-Cola short, this year was notable for concentration of gadget commercials. As always some were better than others:

Flo TV

This was the first tech commercial and it was a biggie. It came as a bit of a shock in fact, similar to the effect of the Hulu spot last year. It was a solid production and clearly conveyed a message of how mobile TV could become embedded in everyday life.

Following that we saw, in no particular order…

Megan Fox playing with the Motorola Devour in a bathtub

A genius of a commercial. Android, Megan Fox in a bathtub and a comedy plot. 11/10.

Vizio internet enabled TV

I was on the receiving end of a demo of Vizio’s internet enabled TVs at CES in January. Vizio, like most other TV manufacturers, is serious about TV internet apps and this spot certainly got that message across, along with telling us about their 240Hz capability. Vizio is currently the number one player in the US market by a wide margin and their commercial was as slick as their recent TV designs. They’ve come a long way baby.

Prince of Persia movie

If you remember 1980s gaming, you probably remember the game. The movie trailer was pretty good and I know I’ll inevitably the movie out of nostalgia for the game…just like they planned.

Dante’s Inferno

A forthcoming console game, whose commercial looked pretty exciting.

Google search

I admit I saw this a day early, but hoped it would be more exciting live during a break in the game action. The spot showed screenshots of Google’s search engine being used very very quickly to find lots of information about places and people. There was cute a New York-Paris plot which ended in marriage and a baby. I like these practical demo commercials, which have been popularized by the iPhone. Hopefully we’ll see more from Google with demonstrations of less commonly used features.

Intel Core i-series processors

An short story about friendship and robotic betrayal. I really want to go to the Intel cafeteria now to see if those robots are wheeling around the floor.

GoDaddy.com

Certainly suggestive; I’m sure they got plenty of hits on their site as a result.

That’s all folks. Oh and by the way, I wasn’t joking about Megan Fox in the bathtub…

Neil Berman

New fragility vs used solidity: Part 2 – Dell Latitude E4300 review

theONbutton — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:08:26 +0000

This is the second part of this two piece article, looking at two laptops which make a lot of sense as used buys. In this final part we’ll look at Dell’s sleek Latitude E4300.

What’s awesome: Super-fast Intel 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo; magnesium alloy chassis feels very solid; exceptional keyboard action and optional backlit keyboard; optional Latitude ON instant boot.

What blows: Screen is bright but washes out quickly at vertical angles; refurbs with an integrated webcam are rare; six-cell battery provides four hours of varied use but sticks out.

Current retail price: Starting at approx $1,650 on Dell’s website and easily equipped at over $2,000, depending upon configuration.

eBay good or refurb condition: Approx $600-700

The second laptop I ever purchased was a used Dell Latitude. That was back in 1997 and it lasted for years; it would probably even turn on now if I knew where it was. Latitudes are typically manufactured to higher tolerances than Dell’s Inspiron and Vostro ranges and like their name, Latitudes are meant to withstand traversing the latitudes and longitudes of the globe.

What’s it got?

The E4300 keeps this tradition alive with a beautifully solid magnesium alloy chassis housing a superb keyboard and trackpad as well as a pointing stick. The E4300 comes with a couple of processor options. I’m looking at a unit here with Intel’s SP9400, which is a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo with a whopping 6MB of L2 cache. The E4300 is also available with a 2.26GHz processor if you need less power. Other specs on my unit include a 13 inch screen, 7200RPM hard drive with 160GB capacity, 3GB RAM and Intel’s current generation GMA4500MHD graphics chipset with hardware Mpeg-2 decoding. There’s also a DVD rewriter which slots into the side, Firewire, an SD card slot, USB 2.0 ports and crucially for multi-environment users, an anti-glare matte screen. Unbelievably the E4300 weighs only 3.8lbs including the six-cell battery in a pretty thin chassis. So now high retail price starts to make sense.

In use

Without a doubt the E4300 has the best keyboard I’ve used on any laptop, with key presses that have perfect feedback in my opinion. It’s even better than my ThinkPad T61. The pointing stick can execute a single click, the trackpad supports scroll and zoom, and there is a third mouse button. These are all nice touches in a world of disappearing buttons. Some E4300s have a backlit keyboard which is perfect for using in a dark room or on a night flight. There’s also an ambient light sensor which dims the screen, saving you from tired eyes and prolonging battery life.

The 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, makes the E4300 extremely snappy in Windows 7 64-bit. From menial tasks to audio editing the E4300 feels like a full power desktop replacement in an ultralight package. I produced podcasts on it and yet it is light enough to hold in one hand as a netbook replacement. High definition video played without a hitch, remember this has Intel’s onboard graphics chipset with the hardware HD decoder so the processor is able to laze around which watching most videos. But even when watching high definition Flash content on YouTube there was no stuttering.

Dell has added some thoughtful power saving features to the E4300. It can be set to switch off a variety of peripherals when running on battery, such as the DVD drive and network ports. With the six-cell battery fitted this beast was good for around four to five hours of use with WiFi, when web surfing and performing general tasks. There’s also a five point gauge on the exterior of the battery so you can see roughly how much charge is remaining, Bear in mind that used laptops tend to have used batteries, so ensure you have enough spare cash for a new battery just in case the current one is in bad shape.

Choices choices

As an option, the E4300 can be configured from new to be Latitude ON ready. Latitude ON is a fast loading linux based operating environment. There are two levels of functionality; ON Reader gives basic access to email on the laptop but no internet access. The full ON implementation is a system-on-a-chip offering internet access and days of battery life according to Dell. Some units are simply ON ready, which means they neither have ON Reader nor ON, but can be upgraded later. I haven’t tried an E4300 with the full ON implementation, and the feature only recently debuted on the Latitude Z.

On the downside the integrated webcam and backlit keyboard are options rather than standard fittings, so be careful if you’re buying a used machine. The screen, while very bright, fades out quickly at vertical angles. Also, the six-cell battery protrudes from the rear of the laptop, similar to designs from other manufacturers, which spoils an otherwise sleek look.

Is it a worthwhile contender for your cash?

On balance the E4300 is an unbelievable deal at current eBay prices. It feels solid and yet it’s extremely light and has a faster processor than the base model. It also crushes the Acer Timeline series in performance and build quality. Of course there’s more risk with buying a used laptop than a new one, so do your research and test before you buy if you can. If you can live with that risk and if you get lucky , the E4300 is an amazing bargain.

Neil Berman

Traveling without a laptop is Citrix’s Nirvana

theONbutton — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:22:05 +0000

Laptops are a great invention, but aren’t we just always looking for something a bit more handy? Like perhaps freeing up a hand by carrying a computer in your pocket instead of in a laptop bag? Well Citrix and OK Labs have been making some noise about their Nirvana project recently which aims to do exactly that.

In a world where desktops are done and smartphones are encroaching upon laptops, Nirvana turns the smartphone paradigm into a go-anywhere conduit for a Xen virtual desktop. What does this mean?

Citrix’s Xen Desktop allows a client to run a virtual desktop with full Windows functionality, which actually resides on a remote server. The client is normally a thin client, laptop or desktop but with Nirvana the client is a pocket smartphone. When you want to work, just sit at a screen and plug in. How cool is that!

A Nirvana smartphone would need VGA connectivity for a monitor and bluetooth & USB 2.0 host connectivity for a keyboard connection. A 528MHz processor and 192MB of RAM are also in the guidelines, so all of this is possible today in modern smartphones.

I’m envisioning a scenario where offices have no need for local computers, because you will just pop your smartphone down on your desk and connect to your virtual session. Many enterprises already have mass deployments of virtual desktops, but they currently have to support an army of local clients along with smartphones for their staff.

Take out the local clients and you’re just left with one device to support, the smartphone, providing thin client connectivity. Of course the user continues to benefit from the smartphone’s traditional voice, email and internet services when away from a desk.

If you think this is all a bit crazy, here’s video demo to bring it all to life…

Neil Berman

New fragility vs used solidity: Part 1 – Lenovo U110 review

theONbutton — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:01:58 +0000

Oh the netbook craze! I’ve been through a few of them and they’ve all been great. It goes without saying that they have their limitations though and are challenged by anything requiring decent horsepower, like playing HD video. The new Intel ULV powered ultra-portables in the $500-700 range are a step up, but even they aren’t powerhouses if you create media as much as you consume it. They’re also sometimes a little fragile compared to some premium offerings.

So I’m going show you two full power premium ultraportables at ULV prices when purchased used. It goes without saying that if you do choose a used laptop then ensure it is in good working order before you hand over your hard earned cash.

This will be a two part article; in this first part we’ll look at the award winning Lenovo Ideapad U110.

What’s awesome: Fast Intel 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo flies along; stunning design won Best of CES Computers & Hardware award in 2008; feels as solid as a Lenovo ThinkPad.

What blows: It shipped with a slow 4200rpm hard drive which can be replaced with reasonably priced solid state drive; integrated X3100 graphics are the same as the first-gen MacBook Air – there’s a reason the second-gen Air got the Nvidia 9400.

Original retail price: $1,899 (now discontinued)

eBay refurb or good condition: Approx. $600-700

This beautiful ultralight wowed onlookers at its CES 2008 launch with it’s elegant lid design and powerful features. Lenovo achieved a major coup by getting a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo (a la MacBook Air) into a tiny chassis weighing half a pound less than its Apple competitor when fitted with its four cell battery.

Speaking of accessories the U110 actually shipped with two batteries, a featherweight four cell giving the overall package a weight of just 2.4lbs and a larger seven cell which gave around four hours of usage in my tests of balanced usage with WiFi on. The U110 also shipped with an external DVD rewriter drive, which is rare for a modern ultralight.

Of course Lenovo knows a thing or two about making laptops having taken over IBM’s ThinkPad division a few years ago. The resulting U110 is a quality mashup of design, power and solidity in a small frame. The 11.1 inch screen is fine for traveling and lap use and it handles Flash video well. The confidence-inspiring feel of the U110 also gives the impression that a well looked after used unit would still have a healthy life ahead of it.

The U110 also does an amazing job of heat dissipation given its shallow depth. The base of the computer remained remarkably cool during my usage with hot air being vented out the side, even at 80% CPU load.

On the downside, like so many modern laptops it has a glossy screen, which causes distractions as lights bounce annoyingly off its surface.

Similar to the first-gen MacBook Air the Lenovo has a slow 4200rpm hard drive and Intel’s previous generation X3100 integrated graphics. Neither of these are showstoppers as the processor is so quick, but they’re worth bearing in mind in case your primary purpose is to edit HD video (in which case you might want to consider something with a bigger screen anyway).

Overall the U110 smacks of solidity, quality and design prowess, which it should do given its original $1,899 price tag. There are also still some new units out there as the U110 was only recently discontinued. At current eBay prices it’s a unique, individual choice if its fits your requirements.

Neil Berman

iPad, Flash and HTML5: What’s it all about?

theONbutton — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:01:11 +0000

Since the iPad announcement last week, much discussion has focused upon the iPad’s lack of Flash support. So what is Flash and why are people getting so upset?

What is Flash?

Flash is a hugely popular a software technology which many websites use for animations, video and other multimedia services like music streaming. According to its producer, Adobe, Flash is used by almost 99% of all internet users and if you don’t recall loading it directly, that’s because it tends to sit in the background minding its own business until you load a site which makes it spring into action. If you’ve ever watched a video on YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo or BBC’s iPlayer, visited CNN or the New York Times or listened to music on Pandora or Lala then chances are you’ve used Flash. It’s central to the internet multimedia experience.

Recapping the iPad story

During Steve Jobs’ iPad demo on Wednesday, he navigated to the New York Times and there was a gaping hole in the page where the Flash graphic would have been on a netbook, laptop or most other internet devices. That’s because the iPad, along with the iPhone and iPod Touch don’t support Flash. This is forgivable on a small screened cellphone but will probably spoil the internet experience on the large 9.7″ screen of the iPad. You get the gist of why this has upset some people.

Why is this happening?

The story goes something like this: We all want Flash on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, and it would appear that Adobe wants to give it to us. Cue venomous spat between Apple and Adobe in which Adobe claims that Apple is inhibiting innovation by not allowing Flash to be installed on iPhone OS devices. Meanwhile Steve Jobs allegedly claimed in a company town hall that whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. (Wow. Mac and crashes…Two words I’m surprised to hear Steve Jobs mentioning in connection with each other.)

So there’s quite the war a’brewin and Apple seems to be hoping that something is going to replace Flash.

Are there alternatives?

Competing technologies have recently emerged such as Silverlight, which NBC used to live-stream the 2008 Olympics. Netflix also streams its content using Silverlight and its a great player. Silverlight can be run effectively on less powerful computers compared to Flash.

The other competitor gaining column inches recently is HTML5, which is an emerging technology being piloted by YouTube and Vimeo alongside their Flash players. However HTML5 is only supported by some web browsers and notably Internet Explorer is not one of them. Since the majority of web users use Internet Explorer and almost 99% use Flash, I would say it may be at least a couple of years before we see any meaningful figures of significant HTML5 penetration across web users worldwide.

What’s wrong with Flash?

Some enthusiasts want this change to happen sooner because Flash can be very demanding of computer resources. It typically runs slower than HTML5 and Silverlight on low power machines like netbooks. The reason for this is that Flash only engages the main processor when it does its magic rather than engaging the computer’s graphics processor as well. This results in computers slowing to a crawl because the main processor becomes so occupied and is the cause of YouTube videos sometimes looking jerky when played on slow computers.

Adobe is aware of this problem and announced a few months ago that it will release a new version of Flash this year which will use graphics hardware acceleration to decode HD Flash videos. Not all devices will see a benefit, just those with a modern graphics chipset such as Intel’s GMA4500 which is now commonly found in many mainstream laptops. The net effect should be more smoother playback and happier CPUs.

Is Flash going anywhere soon?

I expect this hardware acceleration will strengthen Flash’s position at the expense of both HTML5 and Silverlight. Some people might say “Okay, but what about mobile devices which don’t have hardware HD decoders?”. I say, in 2009 the standard smartphone had a 500-600MHz processor, in 2010 that benchmark increases to 1GHz. High end smartphones like the Nokia N900 are Flash capable and I expect forthcoming generations to even be Flash HD capable.

While there are certainly more efficient solutions available, Flash is too deeply embedded in the daily workings of the internet and its users for its dominance to be meaningfully challenged anytime soon. That means in my view it will be a long time before the iPad becomes a compelling internet device, if Apple pins its hoped upon HTML5 supplanting Flash anytime soon. When you produce for the masses, you need to give the masses what they want.

Neil Berman

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e Hands-on Review

theONbutton — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:53:45 +0000

There are people out there who swear by affordable enterprise class hardware. I’m one of them. I use lots of gadgets in my everyday life but when it comes to the school of hard knocks I would sooner depend upon the likes of a Lenovo ThinkPad X100e than a consumer laptop.

Problem is, business laptops are normally way more expensive than comparably priced retail consumer equivalents because they’re typically built to a higher standard. A well specified Lenovo ThinkPad X301 or Dell Latitude E4300 can easily push beyond $2,000, (although I’ll tell you how to get your hands on one for less in an upcoming post). So I was intrigued when Lenovo recently announced its affordable X100e ultraportable would be part of the ThinkPad range. While Lenovo has enjoyed success with its S series netbooks, I felt they were built to meet a price benchmark rather than a quality one.

Looking around the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e

Outwardly the X100e resembles a scaled down ThinkPad. It packs an 11.6 inch anti-glare (yay!) screen and the ThinkPad family’s flat edged black chassis. There’s a single core AMD Neo processor under the hood and an integrated ATI Radeon HD3200 graphics chipset to help out with HD video playback. So although its not a powerhouse, it is more capable than a netbook. The most surprising X100e spec is its price; it starts at only $449. I played with the 2GB RAM, 250GB hard drive version which sells for $549 with a 6-cell battery.

Lenovo X100e & ThinkPad traditions

Around the sides are the usual array of USB, VGA, ethernet and memory card ports, while the screen has an integrated webcam. ThinkPad fans will be happy to see Lenovo’s TrackPoint navigation system which means there is both a pointing stick and trackpad each with its own set of buttons. The trackpad supports multitouch gestures.

Speaking of ThinkPad fans, they’re often fiercely attached to the laptop family’s awesome keyboards and this is where the X100e breaks with tradition. While ThinkPads typically sport deep keys with lots of travel, the X100e adopts more of a chicklet style most likely due to its shallow chassis. I regularly use a T61 and feared this would be the X100e’s weak spot but my concerns were allayed after just a few sentences.

Using the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e

While key travel is indeed minimal, there’s great solidity and feedback when typing; I am impressed by how well Lenovo’s engineers dealt with a design challenge inherent to all shallow laptops. It doesn’t beat my T61 but I would happily use it as a daily driver.

The Thinkpad X100e felt perfectly snappy around Windows 7 Professional. As expected it responded quicker than a netbook, and while it’s no crazy number cruncher there’s definitely enough power for everyday media/internet/productivity tasks. Lenovo claims up to five hours of battery life from the 6-cell battery but you should expect three to four in general use, which is sub-par for this category of laptop.

Is the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e a worthy bearer of the family crest?

Does the X100e respect its ThinkPad family traditions? Definitely yes, although the cost of its quality place its pricing slightly above the competition, such as Acer’s 1810t which is quicker and has more storage for about the same price. However I feel the quality of the ThinkPad X100e easily justifies its higher price, especially since the differential is nowhere near as large as with some of the higher end ThinkPad models. I expect Lenovo is going to sell bucketloads of these.

Neil Berman

Thanko charger is for the ultimate gadget lover

theONbutton — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:41:57 +0000

Is this 1) a curious Lego Technic accessory, 2) a post-modernist fridge magnet or 3) the answer to the uncharged masses of cellphones in your desk drawer?

To all who answered 1 or 2, you could easily have been right; we’ve never seen anything quite like this before. For people who have more charging needs than 99% of the population, Thanko has announced this eighty port USB charger.

So if you rent out smartphones by the day or just can’t control your wallet each time HTC releases its latest creation, this may well be the charging solution of your dreams.

Neil Berman

Teknica episode 3: A closer looks at the Apple iPad

theONbutton — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:43:28 +0000

In this week’s Teknica I take a closer look at Apple’s new iPad, talk about Windows 7 sales and there’s some news about Dell’s upcoming Mini 5 Andoid tablet phone.

Neil Berman

Apple iPad: A well-priced compromise, but should you buy one?

theONbutton — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:14:51 +0000

Today I found myself following a now familiar pattern for Apple press events. Full of anticipation at the start, perhaps even fear of how I might feel if the event ends up being a letdown. Anticipation building further during the introduction and megadownloadfiguresfinancialshyperbole etc. Product announcement YAY! Features look great, I’m pretty sure I want one. Price way better than expected, definitely want one NOW. Presentation ends. The dust settles and reality starts to kick in; my 100% enthusiasm starts to get tempered. Seriously if the iPad had been live in the online store immediately after the announcement I would now be waiting for UPS. After a few hours of thinking it over here’s how I feel about the iPad…

Most importantly the price feels right, given that this is a limited functionality computer. The iPad is not a fully-featured tablet computer, we are going to see devices from PC manufacturers this year which can do more. What kind of more? Multitasking for one thing (pun intended). Desktop-class application choice for another (no Photoshop right now on the iPad or any other native OSX apps) and better connectivity options (no SD card slot or webcam on the iPad). Given these limitations the entry price of $499 seems fair.

Although it has a thick screen surround, it looks great and is as super thin as we would expect. The promised battery life of ten hours is extremely encouraging and suggests an efficient processor design, I wonder how that will be affected by full-on 3G usage…The downside of the energy efficiency is that the graphics did not look particularly impressive, but we need to give developers time over the coming months to learn and exploit the new hardware.

iBooks was nice but I can’t get too excited about ebook software. While it will definitely grow in popularity it’s not going to take the world by storm in the same way as digital music. We don’t hear about industry problems of people trying to illegally download books unlike the environment which preceded mass digital music adoption. With digital music there was a mass market ready and waiting to be tapped by a legal download service, which is what iTunes did so effectively. With ebooks the mass market needs to be educated and developed further for it to become a cash cow. Also the iPad’s glossy backlit screen may not be so comfortable to focus upon for extended periods compared to the Kindle’s e-ink screen, especially outdoors. I expect however that most people will overlook this limitation, if they are even aware of it, and be drawn to the wider appeal of the iPad.

The old fashioned 4:3 screen aspect is a peculiar choice given that one of today’s demos was a movie which is best viewed in 16:9 or 16:10 widescreen. While a clear use-case of the iPad is as a media device, watching modern releases will almost always result in black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

The lack of Flash support is simply stunning. While Apple describes the iPad as the best way to experience the web, I’m not convinced. The lack of Flash support on small screens is forgiveable, but on a media-centric large screen device it just seems like a glaring omission. This means no Hulu on the iPad and many popular sites will have elements which will not work.

Wide on-screen keyboards are pretty difficult to type on because the middle keys are a stretch, so the keyboard dock with screen support makes sense. I think I was the only person out there who CALLED THIS ONE! I like the idea of iWork on the iPad, but only with an external keyboard. I do feel that once you get a hardware keyboard going you want a mouse as well so you don’t have to raise your arm every two seconds to manipulate the screen. Unfortunately the iPad does not support mice, so get ready for some arm exercise if you’re sitting with the iPad mounted on a stand in front of you.

Bottom line, will the iPad be a popular device? Probably yes, because I expect people in the market for a high end $300-400 ebook reader like a Kindle DX could be tempted to stretch to $499 for something offering useful internet, media and email functionality. The price point will also win over some netbook shoppers. However I think that Apple’s description of the iPad as being “magical and revolutionary” over-compensates hype in place of some of the device’s deficiencies. Evolutionary sure, insofar as this device is upscaled from the existing iPhone software and hardware paradigm. At a lower price point netbooks are able to do basic tasks that the iPad can’t; like making video calls, accepting memory cards and handling Flash. Fortunately for the sales figures most people probably believe the hype and will be happy with a $499 device which can only run one application at once. It’s in a way ironic that the media criticized PC manufacturers and Microsoft for shipping Windows 7 Starter on some low end netbooks, which is limited to only run three applications simultaneously, yet I’ve seen minimal comment on the iPad’s limitation of only being able to run one app.

The wider question is whether Main Street needs a secondary or tertiary internet device, when many people have already invested in a netbook or iPhone to supplement their everyday computer. And while I said earlier I believe the entry price of $499 is fair, it’s certainly not an impulse buy. The range extends to $829 for a 64GB model with 3G capability; AT&T unlimited data connectivity adds another $30 per month on top of that. This takes the first year cost of an $829 iPad with unlimited data to around $1,189. Fundamentally though, if you already have an iPhone, how likely are you really to buy an iPad? I’d say it would be a tough sell because the iPhone already has the core away-from-home functionality in a more convenient size and weight. Perhaps the basic $499 version might make sense to use at home if you love the iPhone OS, since you can bring your iPhone apps onto the iPad.

Am I going to buy one? I’ve gone from 100% yes to 60% yes 50% over the course of the five nine hours since the announcement and I’m stabilizing, so I think it’s probable possible. I wouldn’t need a lot of storage in a device like this so personally I’d go for the 16GB model with 3G and just pray for AT&T to improve its network. Still three months to go until the 3G model is available though and I have a feeling a lot of tablets will be announced between now and then…

Neil Berman

McGraw-Hill CEO outs Apple Tablet one day early

theONbutton — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:15:39 +0000

Earlier today, McGraw-Hill’s CEO talked about Apple’s tablet in a CNBC interview. He mentioned that his company’s text books would be available on the tablet and said of Apple “they’ll make their announcement tomorrow“. He went on to say that his company has “worked with Apple for quite a while” and “the tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system“. The interviewer ended the conversation saying, “I’m glad I went to school when I did, I like to smell my textbooks.” If the public at large feels the same way, Apple could have a bumpy ride with this one depending on how they price it.

Neil Berman

Teknica Episode 2: Apple Hysteria. Tablets, Nokia GPS and Ballmer autographs a MacBook Pro

theONbutton — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:52:06 +0000

This week’s Teknica is here for your enjoyment. In this episode I discuss Apple’s January 27th event, Nokia’s navigation announcement as well as Steve Ballmer’s presumably unplanned signing of a MacBook Pro.

Neil Berman

Predictions for Apple’s January 27th event

theONbutton — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:22:27 +0000

Several people have asked me what Apple is planning to announce on Wednesday. Excitement about this event has reached fever pitch to the extent that it even made the sixty second headlines of my local radio station. While there are a gazillion rumors cruising around the information superhighway, we will as ever only know the truth when Steve delivers the goods on the 27th. But there’s no harm in making a prediction, so here’s mine:

I expect we will see a new iPhone OS, call it 4.0. I think it will support multi-tasking and that will segway into a much rumored tablet announcement. The tablet will use the iPhone 4.0 OS to deliver the iPhone experience on a 9 to 11 inch screen with phone, 3G data and WiFi capability and multitasking computer-like functionality. I expect the primary interaction with the tablet will be through touch but there will also be a dock accessory providing a keyboard and screen support so that it can be used like a small laptop, much like the Lenovo U1 which we saw at CES. However unlike the U1 all the computing power of the Apple tablet will be in the tablet itself.

I think this will come together with a finger friendly update to iLife to make the tablet a family-friendly do-all device. Finally I expect a tie-in with either Verizon or AT&T to provide constant online connectivity for a subsidized purchase price plus a monthly fee. I also think we will be able to buy the tablet as a one-time purchase without the carrier subscription for use solely as a WiFi device.

We’ll find out later this week whether any of this comes true…

Neil Berman

TEKNICA: Episode 1

theONbutton — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:08:46 +0000

Welcome to our new video podcast, TEKNICA (Tech News I Care About). We’re planning for TEKNICA to be a weekly super-concise roundup of tech news and we want to make it great for you. Tell us what you think…

Neil Berman

CES 2010 BlackBerry coverage

theONbutton — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:22:17 +0000

As you can see from my recent posts I had a busy week at CES. In addition to all the news I covered below I was also on the BlackBerry beat for BerryReporter. You can see all my BerryReporter CES posts including videos here.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: Asus adds new Republic of Gamers gear

theONbutton — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:36:38 +0000

Asus is getting serious about gaming. Really serious. To save you reading about just how serious they are, watch this video where Asus’s Product Manager for Republic of Gamers talks me through what’s new for CES 2010.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: Samsung’s incredible booth show

theONbutton — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:15:50 +0000

Samsung and LG have incredible setups at CES this year, but Samsung really steals the limelight with its amazing booth entry show. Check out the video for a front row seat, which also includes some ridiculously thin TVs and of course lots of other juicy tech stuff. Video above, gallery below.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: MSI introduces new X-Slim and Netbook models

theONbutton — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:33:01 +0000

MSI has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and while its initial X-Slim range was judged to be a little flaky the company is hoping to change that with its updated 2010 models. MSI has also been showing new netbooks here at CES and you can catch their latest X-series and netbook models in the video above, including the new X350, X420 and X6xx laptops.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: LG booth walkthrough

theONbutton — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:04:56 +0000

LG and Samsung both have colossal booths at CES this year, each of which feels like being in a mini-village of technology. Here’s a walkthrough of LG’s floor space.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: SonyEricsson Xperia X10 hands-on

theONbutton — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:36:41 +0000

Hmmm…SonyEricsson smartphones. Products with so much promise which just sometimes don’t quite hit the bullseye. The company has been trying to make its mark once more in the smartphone market with the Xperia X1 and now with its latest release, the X10. In moving from the X1 to the X10 SonyEricsson has also switched from Windows Phone to Android. I spent some hands-on time with the X10 this week and it certainly looks and feels great. The spec sheet is also good, with an 8.1 megapixel camera, screen resolution of 854×480 and geo-tagging. There’s only 1GB of onboard memory but the X10 does support Micro SD cards so you can get another 32GB in there. Will this be the one to reignite SonyEricsson’s market share? Video above and gallery below…

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: enTourage eDGe eBook & internet dual screen tablet

theONbutton — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:34:33 +0000

Of the many, many eBook readers at CES the enTourage eDGe is a genuinely innovative design. Employing a two screen design like several OEM concepts, the eDGe is a production device powered by a Marvel CPU running Android. The left screen is an e-ink eBook reader and the right screen is an internet browser and Android application interface. There’s USB connectivity, onboard sound and memory card support. The current version of the eDGe does not support flash video, which would surely make it a killer media platform, however this is in the works for future releases. Enjoy the hands-on video demo above and gallery below.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: The CES 2010 gallery part 2

theONbutton — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:33:28 +0000

Here are some more of our best shots from Vegas to feast your eyes upon…

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: Viliv N5 ultra-mini mobile PC

theONbutton — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:41:17 +0000

It seems that Viliv thought the existing UMPC acronym wasn’t descriptive enough for the N5, so they’ve added the word ‘mini’ to make, I guess, UMMPC. Curious names aside, the Viliv N5 is an amazing looking device and packs a fully featured PC into a clamshell design weighing under one pound. The Viliv N5 features an Atom Z520 processor, Windows 7 and a 4.8″ screen. It’s headed our way this year and I want one!

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: Intel shows off Core i7 3D gaming

theONbutton — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:31:38 +0000

3D is everywhere at CES and Intel was busy showing off a Core i7 3D gaming rig earlier today. They think this is going to be big, and frankly if there’s a good use-case for 3D in the home then gaming may well be it. I caught up with Intel to find out how it all works, check out the video above for the discussion and demo…

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: The CES 2010 gallery part 1

theONbutton — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:29:45 +0000

Start salivating now, here are the the shots from the show floor so far…

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: Ceton Quad Tuner discussion with Microsoft

theONbutton — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:08:47 +0000

The new Ceton quad HD CableCARD tuner for your HTPC is here, and to prove how real it really is I spent time with Microsoft talking about it today. As a reminder this PCI Express beast offers four CableCARD HD tuners for simultaneous quad channel recording in an HTPC using Windows 7 Media Center. All the gory details are in the video below, and yes, this thing really is as great as it sounds. HTPC enthusiasts rejoice! So check out the video and then order the largest, fastest hard drive you can find.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: Archos 9 tablet is smooooooth

theONbutton — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:53:43 +0000

I got some hands-on time with the Archos 9 tablet today and it is a seriously cool device. Running Windows 7, the Archos 9 feels great in the hand, looks amazing and is sure to win many fans. On the downside it was a little heavier than I would ideally have liked and would probably be tiring to hold after some time. Additionally the 9″ touch screen, while responsive, cries out for a large finger-friendly interface rather than the standard Windows 7 front end. Although it does have a usefully large on-screen keyboard.

Video above, gallery below…

Neil Berman

Microsoft crashes, then reboots to deliver pre-CES keynote

theONbutton — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:25:31 +0000

Things didn’t quite go according to plan for Steve Ballmer and Microsoft at tonight’s pre-CES keynote. Power failed at startup but after a thirty minute reboot we were fully operational.

Steve was on form with some great Windows 7 stats, revealing that there were an incredible eight million beta testers during 2009, including yours truly. Steve didn’t mention me by name; perhaps next time ;-)

Some important announcements followed, including the news that Project Natal would be born to the 2010 Holiday Season. This groundbreaking gaming controller has the potential to be a game changer, using TV mounted cameras to turn your body into a game controller. Pricing is still to be confirmed; let’s pray for good content to get the best out of this promising technology.

On the wireless front there was no mention of Windows Phone 7, but the HTC HD2 is coming to T-Mobile in the US. This 1GHz Snapdragon-powered phone is as good as it gets right now on the Windows Phone platform, so it’s great to see this device coming to a major US carrier.

Ceton’s quad HD CableCard tuner was also demo’d, which allows recording of four simultaneous CableCard-encrypted channels within Windows 7 Media Center. Could this finally propel WMC into mainstream living rooms? I’d say probably not, because this functionality has existed for unencrypted channels for some time now. However it’s a great step forward for WMC enthusiasts and takes this excellent home media platform even further ahead of the competition.

There was also a great looking HP slate on display (main picture) along with a couple of others. Microsoft is clearly taking this emerging sector seriously as everyone awaits Apple’s potential entry. No details were available on the HP slate, except that it is coming our way soon.

On the Xbox 360 gaming front, Halo Reach looks solid and Microsoft believes it has created a new psychological thriller game genre in Alan Wake. This new game is said to play like a real life movie, I’ll live in hope but will hold judgement for now. Microsoft also announced Game Room which is a retro gaming platform for the Xbox 360, giving access to over a thousand arcade games over the coming three years. Game Room looks great, but I was left wondering whether this is really a viable offering, given that most of these games are already available through compilation releases.

Enjoy the shots in the gallery…

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: MSI X420

theONbutton — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:28:06 +0000

MSI’s thin and light line continues to grow with the X420. This Intel SU7300 powered notebook feels far more sturdy than last year’s X-Slim releases and features a cute chicklet keyboard alond with an ATI Radeon 5430 discrete GPU. Looks like a sweet (data) ride, but you can judge for yourself in the gallery below.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: Lenovo U1 multitouch slate-notebook separates itself from the pack

theONbutton — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:25:13 +0000

Day One of CES produced an amazing product in the Lenovo U1 at CES Unveiled. I was blown away by this device, which initially looked like a small notebook until the Lenovo rep pulled the screen out to reveal its dual function as a slate. There’s a video below, and the details known at this stage are that the slate is powered by a Snapdragon CPU with its own storage while the main notebook body has an Intel CULV doing the driving. When docked to the main body the whole shebang runs Windows 7. The Snapdragon-powered slate when on its own runs a multitouch non-Windows OS.

Enjoy the video and the gallery photos, I sure enjoyed taking them :-)

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES: CES begins today!

theONbutton — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:02:38 +0000

It’s CES week again and we’ll be bringing you the best of the show from sunny Las Vegas.

Stay tuned for updates from CES Unveiled at The Venetian later today, followed by keynotes from Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO), Paul Otellini (Intel CEO) later this week. The show floor opens on Thursday.

In the meantime hit the CES category link to see what previous years brought, and amuse yourself predicting what this year’s show will bring. No prizes for guessing that 3D will be everywhere!

Neil Berman

Better off (keeping away from the Dalek) Ted

theONbutton — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:59:14 +0000

If you were watching ABC tonight you might have noticed a gold color Dalek sleeping off its New Year’s hangover on set. Said Dalek was minding its own business in Phil and Lem’s lab in Better Off Ted, most likely observing humanity as it plotted its takeover Veridian Dynamics. Or perhaps the company itself controls the beast…that sure would explain why everyone is so scared of Veronica.

Neil Berman

RIM, Apple winners in 2009; Windows Phone suffers

theONbutton — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:04:30 +0000

The recently published ComScore stats give RIM good reason to celebrate the holidays, and tell an interesting story about the US smartphone market overall. These stats show two clear winners this year in the form of RIM and Apple, while the company losing out was Microsoft which experienced a stagnation of Windows Phone users.

RIM’s user population seems to have skyrocketed this year, increasing from just under 10 million in February to almost 15 million by October. Apple also saw a big gain from 5 million to just under 9 million during the same period. Meanwhile Windows Phone tread water throughout the year around the 7 million mark, as it waits long and hard for Windows Mobile 7. It’s also worth noting the Google number, which represents Android. While the numerical increase from around 400,000 to just over 1 million may not seem significant, this platform increased its user community by over 100%, which is a phenomenal growth figure.

What I find most interesting about the RIM figures is that corporate purchasing was probably pretty low this year. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if corporate subscription growth was negative in the first half of 2009 due to companies terminating the BlackBerry accounts of fired employees. So this increase in RIM’s numbers this year tells me that it must be growing its retail consumer population successfully. If my analysis is correct then this is great news for the BlackBerry platform, which has traditionally been perceived as a corporate device. Perhaps the Love What You Do campaign has been more successful than I gave it credit for in a recent podcast!

Neil Berman

Laptop buying guide part one: Confused memories of a computer shopper – L2 Cache, RAM and Hard Drive

theONbutton — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:15:00 +0000

What does all this mean??? Read on to find out...

Computer shopping has always been about specs and stats. That’s unlikely to change anytime soon and it’s important to understand the key vital statistics. Memory choices are critical to the performance and longevity of your purchase, so here in the first of this two part laptop buying guide is the memory geek-speak translation.

Memory tech words which tend to pop up on sales listings are RAM, L2 Cache and Hard Drive (also called Hard Disk). In order to understand them we are going to imagine ourselves in a library.

What is L2 Cache?

In our library there are bookshelves, desks and chairs. We walk in, find twelve books from the bookshelves and put them on the floor next to a desk. We sit at the desk but it’s only big enough for a few books with enough space left for us to work. So we pick the three books we need right now from the floor pile and put them on the desk.

The desk is our most convenient and fastest retrieval location for referencing our books. It’s also the smallest. This our Level 2 Cache, or L2 Cache.

The L2 Cache is a temporary storage space used by computers for ultra-fast access to frequently used data. When we take a book from the desk and start reading it with our brain and eyes, this like a computer retrieving data from its L2 Cache and reading it with its main processor chip. The L2 Cache is actually located within the main processor itself, so it is a physically small storage area of around 0.5-12MB.

How much L2 Cache do you need? I would recommend 1MB upwards for Mac OSX, Windows 7 or Vista. Netbooks running Windows XP are fine with 0.5MB.

Expert question: Why is it called Level 2 Cache? There is actually a tiny cache even closer to the main brain in the processing chip called Level 1. However this is so small that it is really only used for very temporary storage and rarely quoted in store listings.

What is RAM?

What if we need to read a book which is not on the library desk? We look in our pile on the floor. This is a bit slower than using a book already on the desk, but we can put more books on the floor than we can fit on the desk. Looking in the floor pile is like a computer using its Random Access Memory (RAM).

Accessing data in RAM is fast, but slower than the L2 Cache as it sits outside the main chip and connects via fast data lines like our floor pile of books. Since RAM is not constrained by the physical real estate limitations of the main chip, it can store far more data. RAM sticks with capacity of around 0.5 to 1 gigabyte are common these days. Computers typically accommodate two such ’sticks’.

How much RAM do you need? For Windows 7, Vista and Mac OSX 2GB is typically fine, but it’s worth going to 3GB if you are planning to use a lot of multimedia applications like video or photo editing. This will give the computer some breathing room.

What is the Hard Disk?

If the library book you need is not in the floor pile then you have to get up, walk over to the bookshelves, find the right book and bring it back. This takes way longer than picking it up from the floor pile, but the bookshelves can store far more than your floor pile. The bookshelves are like a Hard Drive. They can store vast amounts of information and Hard Drive data remains intact when the computer shuts down, unlike your desk and floor piles which you will clean up when you leave.

Hard Disk data is stored on a set of spinning platters which are read by a needle. The occasional ticking noise you hear in a computer is the Hard Disk being physically read.

How much Hard Disk space do you need? External Hard Disks can be easily bought and plugged into a USB port, so it is not critical if you under-purchase. However with laptops it becomes inconvenient if you run out of space, as although you can add an external drive you are unlikely to want to carry it along with your laptop. So for laptops my advice is to buy a machine with as much Hard Disk space as you can afford; look for a laptop with upwards of 160GB capacity. Video, photo and music files are typically large so if you plan to store lots of these then max-out on your Hard Drive at purchase all the way to 320GB or more.

It’s worth knowing that you cannot control what gets stored in RAM or in the L2 Cache. The computer decides what to put in there, such as open files the in process of being modified. When you turn the power off anything in the L2 Cache or RAM gets wiped, whereas data in the Hard Disk remains intact when the power is off. Similarly you clear the desk when you leave the library and return any books to the bookshelves. This is why it is important to save any open files before shutting down a computer.

What laptop upgrade options exist?

For the L2 Cache, the only expansion route is to replace the main processor, which is typically only feasible for a desktop computer.

Laptop RAM can normally be upgraded as long as the computer’s motherboard is able to handle the extra capacity. For example my older MacBook is unable to accommodate more than 2GB of RAM. If your laptop can accept an upgrade from your current RAM level then it is normally a case of removing the existing RAM sticks and fitting correct spec higher capacity ones.

Laptop Hard Disks can generally be upgraded, but it is a delicate process which involves cloning the data from the current drive onto the higher capacity drive in a precise way. The alternative we discussed earlier is to purchase an external Hard Drive, which are readily available these days at reasonable prices.

When laptops go bad: Holding back the tears

Finally, when a laptop gets sick (read “dropped”) or feverish (read “struck by a virus”), its Hard Disk can be vulnerable to permanent amnesia. So, be nice to yourself and buy an external Hard Drive to back up your photos, music and all those other precious memories.

So that’s the translation of memory geek-speak. Here’s hoping for clear thinking for your next purchase and an end to confused memories!

I originally wrote this article in 2007 and have updated it to reflect the 2009/2010 laptop market.

Neil Berman

Click here to read part two: How to choose a laptop processor (2007).

YouTube and Flash HD video to become smoother for some

theONbutton — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:13:27 +0000

This one has been a long time coming, but praise be: Adobe Flash with graphics hardware acceleration is in Beta release. There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel for exhausted computers.

What this means is that if you have a supported video card then Flash will soon be able to use it to decode video streams coming from Flash based sites like Youtube and Hulu. These video streams, especially the HD content, often bring computers to their knees because the processor has to do all the decoding work at present.

It’s not all roses and romance though, because the new version of Flash will not love all video cards. Most importantly it does support acceleration on Intel’s 4 series chipset, such as the GMA4500MHD, which is found in many mainstream laptops. Other supported cards include ATI’s 4xxx series, some 3xxx series ones and most of Nvidia’s 8xxx, 9xxx, GT1xx and GT2xx ranges.

Notably the older Intel GMA950 and X3100 chipsets, commonly found in netbooks and previous generation laptops, are not supported so continue to expect some less than ideal viewing experiences on these platforms. If you can find a site which streams using Silverlight you might have better luck; for example my netbook happily runs Netflix which uses Silverlight.

Neil Berman

Inside the new NYC Apple store at Broadway & 67th

theONbutton — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:12:56 +0000

Apple’s latest store opened today to rapturous cheering from fans, some of whom had camped overnight to among be first inside.

Here’s a video of what went down when the doors opened, plus a walking tour of the actual store and a gallery of photos from inside.

Neil Berman

Apple store opening this morning in New York City

theONbutton — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:01:54 +0000

It’s a busy morning at Broadway and 67th on the Upper West Side in New York City.

Apple is opening its latest store here in just a few minutes, here’s what the busy scene looks like…

Neil Berman

Update: And the doors are open!

Pre-orders seem like a good idea but…

theONbutton — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:51:02 +0000

…only one of mine this year has arrived on time. Halo ODST: Yay bonus code, arrived a week late. Modern Warfare 2: Yay free $20 gift card, but late and getting later. Windows 7: Yay only $49 AND on-time, thanks NewEgg :)

The salt in the wound right now is that clearly Modern Warfare 2 has been a huge seller and widely declared to be awesome. In fact the Halo 3 online community has shrunk by about 150,000 this week and I’m stuck being one of those left behind. There can only be one reason for that. At least I know my copy has shipped, I just don’t know if it’s coming by airplane or horseback. Maybe it’ll arrive by stealth bomber like the Droid, although that would leave a nasty hole in the sidewalk.

Neil Berman

Sennheiser MM450 Stereo Bluetooth Headset Hands-on

theONbutton — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:20:39 +0000

At yesterday’s CES 2010 preview in New York, I got some hands-on time with Sennheiser’s premium MM450 headset. This pair of ultra-light foldable cans support music streaming, remote control over playback and call management, as long as your device supports A2DP and AVRCP (so iPhone users beware). My initial impressions were positive, with solidly resolved basslines and clear highs. The MM450 also offers active noise cancelling although there is a lesser model, the MM400, which skips this feature and drops the price. Speaking of the damage to your wallet, you’re looking at $299 for the MM400 and $499 for the MM450. That puts the MM450 in a price bracket beyond the noise-cancelling Nokia BH-905 and the MM400 beyond the Sony DR-BT50 (reviewed here recently), but Sennheiser thinks they’re worth it.

Neil Berman

CES 2010 New York Preview

theONbutton — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:55:03 +0000

Gary Shapiro, President and CEO or the Consumer Electronics Association

Gary Shapiro and his team presented some interesting info at yesterday’s CES 2010 preview in New York. Here are some choice inclusions:

2010 holiday spending will likely be down 3% compared to 2009. By comparison 2008 holiday spending was down 15% on 2007.

Overall gift spending is likely to be up 4% but consumer electronics (CE) gift spending is likely to rise by 8%. Average CE gift spending per person is likely to be $222 this year compared to $206 in 2008.

Holiday spend on computers is projected to rise by 17.3% projected for Q4 2009 compared to Q4 2008

80% of consumers are hoping for a CE gift this year.

Netbooks have appeared for the first time in the top ten gifts desired by teenagers.

We are more likely to see retailers pushing value-oriented bundles of multiple devices and higher margin feature-rich offerings than a flood of basic cheap devices.

The explosion of affordable devices in the 7-13 inch spectrum is likely to continue. These are likely to be comprised of mainly netbooks or e-book readers. I also expect the new class of Intel’s Ultra Low Voltage CPU powered ultraportables to eat into netbook sales in this class of screen size and weight.

14% of tech enthusiasts and 8% of other consumers own a netbook.

6% of tech enthusiasts and 4% of other consumers have e-readers such as a Kindle or competing devices.

…and there was a funky stat from Gary that more than 1,200 hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube every hour!

Frank Davis, Ford’s Executive Director of North American Product Development was also on hand to talk about the technology present in the current Taurus, which was announced as the official car of CES 2010.

Monster Cable announced that John Legend will perform at the CES 2010 Retail Awards ceremony.

Happy holiday shopping, keep the economy going y’all :)

Neil Berman

Sony DR-BT50 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones Review

theONbutton — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:35:59 +0000

The availability of stereo Bluetooth headsets has been steadily increasing this year, helping to bring prices down. In particular at the top end last month’s arrival of Nokia’s noise-cancelling flagship set, the BH-905, has led to significant drops in other premium closed-back designs. Motorola’s high end S805 has been selling for a steal recently on some sites but today I’m going to focus on the Sony DR-BT50, which for some represented the pinnacle of stereo Bluetooth headsets until Nokia recently crashed Sony’s party. I’ll make comparisons to the S805 along the way.

First impressions of the Sony DR-BT50

Sony debuted the DR-BT50 at a whopping $229 but the headset is now available for a around $129 or so at several e-tailers. The cans are based upon Sony’s celebrated Altus MDR-D777LP, so they carry a promise of good sound delivery. They also bring practicality, being foldable.

Physically the DR-BT50 is extremely light, feeling like about half the weight of the Motorola S805. The earpads on the DR-BT50 are also thinner and the buttons are smaller; more on this later. Like the S805, the Sony headphones sport a full set of music playback controls along with a mic and call management.

Pairing was straightforward with my BlackBerry Bold 9000 and subsequent reconnections have gone perfectly, mirroring my experience with the Motorola S805 and S9-HD headsets. The days of fiddly Bluetooth connections are hopefully now well behind us!

Putting on the Sony DR-BT50

The DR-BT50 feels great to wear and the slim earpads enclose the ears comfortably. The pads are so soft that it’s easier to wear sunglasses with the Sonys compared to the Motorola S805, which is important if you live in a sunny part of the world. Having said that, this not so much a failing of the S805 but rather a comment on how soft the DR-BT50’s earpads really are.

I mentioned earlier that the controls on the DR-BT50 are small and when I first saw them I wondered how I would find them when the cans were on my head. The power and call pickup buttons are fine but the playback and volume controls are, frankly, tiny. Worse still the playback control is a flick-touch rocker switch controlling play/pause/stop and track navigation. The S805 seems like a Tonka truck in comparison, with its large finger-friendly controls.

Listening to the Sony DR-BT50

In use the buttons on the DR-BT50 were actually easier to locate than I had feared, although the playback rocker is too easy to nudge causing a track skip when you’re trying to depress it to pause. The call pickup button is a decent size, as is the power button, so these present no issues.

In order to use the stereo music and playback functions you will need a device supporting the A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth profiles. Check your specs on your device manufacturer’s website. A2DP provides music playback support and AVRCP provides remote control of playback functions.

Once the music is playing the BT50s simply shine compared to most other stereo Bluetooth headphones, trumping the Motorola S805 for both bass and mid-range. However occasionally the top end detail seems to suffer at the expense of the solid bottom end frequencies. It’s not that reproduction is too overtly bass heavy, but rather that current consumer trends favor bass and consequently the DR-BT50 will find plenty of fans in this regard.

When a call comes in pressing the call accept button pauses music playback and answers the call. I could hear callers very clearly and they could hear me well both indoors and outside, although in both environments they did say I sometimes sounded distant.

The DR-BT50 felt both light and snug even for lengthy listening sessions and that included time wearing sunglasses. When I was finished listening I found that the folded BT50s fit perfectly into my jacket pocket.

Some room for improvement

On the downside the DR-BT50 is picky about placement and likes to have a decent line of sight to the originating device. They are less tolerant to obstacles than the Motorola S805 and this results in occasional cut-outs unless your phone is in a shirt or jacket pocket fairly high up on your body. This issue is not unique to the DR-BT50, the Motorola S9-HD suffers from a similar weakness.

The DR-BT50 must have a decent size music buffer however because it takes a while for the cut-out to occur. As a result I found I could walk around normally with almost no cut-outs with my BlackBerry Bold in my top pocket. Part of this issue could also be attributed to the Bold, which I’ve found to have a below-average strength Bluetooth transmitter compared to some other phones I’ve used.

The other niggle is that Sony fitted the DR-BT50 with a proprietary charging port rather than a mini-USB connection. This means having to remember to take the charger when you travel, rather than simply a USB cable to charge from a laptop. Accessories these days should really be rechargeable via USB.

Is the Sony DR-BT50 a music legend?

Overall I can give the Sony DR-BT50 a solid recommendation at its current street price. Most listeners are likely to be very happy with their sound quality and they felt both practical and comfortable for extended use on my ears, although as ever your mileage may vary depending on your head and ear shape so try before you buy if you can!

Note: I also published an edited version of this review of the Sony DR-BT50 on BerryReporter.

Link to Sony DR-BT50 pproduct page.

Neil Berman

Android gets its killer app

theONbutton — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:12:20 +0000

This year’s holiday shopping season is looking good for Android. Not only are we seeing the emergence of devices , such as Motorola’s Droid (Verizon), running Android 2.0, but Google has just announced navigation for Google Maps on Android.

Google says the software will be free and will run on Android 2.0, no other platform support was mentioned. Whilst the iPhone remains in a strong position, this announcement is big news for anyone who wants to combine GPS navigation with Google’s competitive advantage in the search space.

For example in the promo video one demo involves telling (and I mean actually speaking) the name of an exhibition to the Motorola Droid. The device knew from Google’s search which museum was hosting the exhibition and plotted a course. Try doing that with TomTom’s iPhone app, which is suddenly looking very expensive now that we know Google’s offering will be free.

Although competitors are probably shaking, they are shielded for now as the user population is initially small, being limited to Android 2.0 device owners. But what happens if Google extends this functionality to the iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Palm platforms?

It could spell disaster for TomTom, Garmin and carrier subscription offerings such as VZ Navigator.

During last week’s BerryReporter podcast we reviewed Google Maps 3.2 and discussed how fantastic it would be if Google brought turn-by-turn navigation to Maps. I likened the impact to what I believe high quality camera phones will soon do to the mainstream digital camera market. But although Brad and I would love to say we predicted Google’s product strategy on this one, it was more likely a bizarrely well timed conversation.

Oh what the heck, we’re oracles!

Neil Berman

In case you were sleeping, Windows 7 officially landed today and is already a record breaker

theONbutton — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:15:24 +0000

Mr Postman arrived today with two shiny copies for me, but these didn’t count towards the record set in the UK where Windows 7 became Amazon’s biggest selling pre-order product of all time there.

I have a feeling it might go on to become the best selling OS of all time too. I already posted my comments on Windows 7 way back in Jan and Feb this year based on pre-release versions and, as you probably know from the overwhelmingly positive media reviews, it rocks. So what are you waiting for? Go and get yourself a copy to try it out already!

Neil Berman

Netflix & Windows Media Center meet, and it’s instant romance

theONbutton — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:03:47 +0000

Microsoft hinted about this one way back at CES in January and after a long wait it’s finally here. Windows Media Center now has direct Netflix integration and I’m lovin’ it.

The Netflix icon appeared in my Movies section this week and clicking it led to a one minute installation followed by instant gratification. Not much more to say apart from that it integrates seamlessly into the already superb Media Center interface. Will other platforms ever try to catch-up with what is so far and away the best media library experience out there?

Here’s the gallery. A warning for those of you not in the USA, this gallery may make you extremely jealous. Sorry about that, and here’s hoping Netflix goes international!

Neil Berman

EFO iPassport review

theONbutton — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:31:55 +0000

Oh aren’t living room computers just the best idea! There’s nothing like having a huge keyboard on the coffee table hugging that hardcover copy of ‘Finest landscape photography’, and how about that wireless mouse which can double up as a paperweight for the New York Times when the windows are open.

Hmmm…someone needs to make a cute, tiny and usable media center keyboard and mouse which can be hidden away real quick when necessary.

To be fair there’s already one solid player in this market, the Logitech diNovo Mini, which at $150 is quite pricey.

Fortunately there’s now a more affordable contender in the form of the EFO iPassport. Available for around $40 plus shipping, this mashup of a smartphone-style thumboard and notebook trackpad aims to take two familiar input methods and turn them into a tiny wireless solution for controlling a computer…and it works.

Unboxing the EFO iPassport

The EFO iPassport ships in retail friendly clear plastic (which can easily be opened without needing a saw, yay!), and includes a USB dongle and separate USB charging cable. The main unit sits comfortably in the hand and is exceptionally light. Some may find it lacks a quality feel, although the plastic body seems fairly sturdy. The keys are rubber with similar travel to a typical smartphone. The keypad also has a backlight, which is a nice touch and essential for theatre-style viewing.

The trackpad buttons have a similar feel to the keypad buttons with minimal travel, but the trackpad itself defaulted to tap-to-click upon install which improves the experience in my opinion. The one feature lacking from the trackpad is a scrolling area, so you’ll need to call upon the arrow buttons on the keypad. There’s no multitouch support either, so no MacBook-style two finger scrolling which is a feature every trackpad should have.

Installing and using the EFO iPassport

I installed the iPassport into my ancient living room Pentium 4 which is running Windows 7 RC, and the OS had installed a device driver in the five seconds it took me to get back to the sofa, seriously! Everything worked just great and my previous (very nice) wireless keyboard with its built-in trackball started the process of gathering dust. The included documentation notes that recent Windows releases and Linux are supported but according to the reseller’s website the iPassport also supports Mac, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.

Now this device might not be the best choice for everyone. If you struggle with the keys on smartphones then you may also find this thumboard tricky to handle. Equally if you type a lot then you will probably get more words per minute with a larger keyboard on your lap. Personally I find myself using my living room media center for watching media and surfing the net, neither of which requires a huge amount of typing.

Some compromises have also been made regarding the selection of keys on the device, probably due to the size of the unit. For example there are neither F1-F12 keys nor a Tab key, which I missed when navigating web forms. Other keys are curiously placed, such as the Enter key which is near the middle of the keypad instead of being on the right. The arrow buttons straddle the Space bar instead of being clustered on the right and the numeric keypad is in two rows on the left instead of being grouped in threes. I would have preferred to see a layout closer to a typical BlackBerry thumboard, or one inch of extra width added to the iPassport to accommodate more keys. Text selection can also be a bit finicky as the arrow keys sometimes behave erratically.

The other caveat is around the design of the iPassport. This device is likely to live on a coffee table and get plenty of curious attention from visitors. Put simply the Logitech diNovo Mini kills it in the looks department, so if you’re a design conscious person then the iPassport might not meet your expectations. It does come in white or black, but it goes about its business in a more functional than designer way.

Is the EFO iPassport worth a try?

Overall I’ve been impressed with the iPassport. Aside from a quirky key layout, for the money it’s a fun and unique controller. The backlight and multi-platform support are the icing on the cake.

Neil Berman

Playing the waiting game

theONbutton — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:40:24 +0000

Are you hoarding cash waiting to drop some on a Windows 7 PC on October 22? So was I, until I realized it might make more sense to take a different strategy. I think buying a Vista PC right in the next month might be a great idea, and here’s why I’m not mad…

You are probably aware that if you buy a qualifying PC at the moment it might be eligible for a free Windows 7 upgrade. Most manufacturers have a pretty clear definition of which of their systems are eligible, so you can check before handing over your hard-earned savings.

A FRESH START

Sounds like a schlep, after all this means installing a whole OS, and yes, it shouldn’t be considered lightly.
However most off the shelf PCs tend to ship with a boatload of bloatware, which few people want and tends to contribute to an overall performance degradation. Installing a fresh OS wipes all of this away and you get a clean system which is likely to perform better.

Normally OS upgrades are done well into the life of a computer, once many applications are all loaded on and working habits are well established. This can be disruptive to smooth running (experiences of upgrades to Snow Leopard and Vista are recent examples of this kind of user pain). But buying an eligible Vista PC in mid-October and going straight to a fresh Windows 7 a few days later sounds like a great plan to me as I probably wouldn’t have loaded on lots of software yet. Plus if you get the physical media it’s an added bonus in case you ever need to re-install.

GET ‘EM WHILE THEY’RE CHEAP

Deals on Vista PCs should start coming thick and fast as stores look to clear inventory ahead of October 22. Some refurbs may also be eligible for a free Windows 7 upgrade, but you should be extra-vigilant when checking the eligibility of these systems. For example it does seem like some systems on Dell’s Outlet site are eligible, make sure you check before you buy though.

CURRENT PLATFORMS ON THEIR WAY OUT ARE STILL CAPABLE FOR MANY USES

The other factor creating downward pressure on current Vista PC inventory will be the increasing availability of the Intel Core i5, i7 and i7 Mobile platforms. It’s likely that HP, Dell and Acer and the wider industry will time many of these system releases with Windows 7, again pushing existing inventory prices south. Those current inventory Intel Core 2 and AMD Phenom/Turion based systems are still capable for what many people need on a day-to-day basis.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?

Ironically it seems, with Windows 7 right around the corner, there may have never been a better time to buy a Vista PC. Just make sure that what you buy is eligible for a free upgrade!

Neil Berman

Does Core i7 Mobile bring us closer to the final destination for desktops?

theONbutton — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:52:21 +0000

Intel hit up the market with an (expected) bombshell on Thursday, bringing the Core i7 platform to notebooks.

If you’re thinking this is just another development in desktop chip design shoehorned into laptops then think again. Core i7 is sick in desktops and super-sick in laptops.

Why the fuss? Like its desktop sibling the mobile version has four cores capable of running eight threads (a thread is a stream of execution instructions sent to a core). Both also ship with large amounts of level two cache, starting at 6MB, and can support mega-performance memory on the motherboard.

Kicker number one for the mobile version thought is a sort of ultra-speedstep technology called Turbo Mode which massively varies clock speed based upon processor demand. This allows the cores to function at anywhere between around 1.6GHz and around 3.2GHZ depending upon the model.

Kicker number two is that the mobile version can idle unused cores at almost zero power usage, which should mean great shakes for battery life if you’re performing simple tasks.

How much difference does Core i7 make compared to previous generations of mobile processors? It appears to be simply staggering from the benchmarks taken by various reviews published this week. The price? Not quite as heart-stopping as you might think; Dell announced it would sell a Studio 15 model fitted with a Core i7 for $999.

So are we going to be seeing Final Destination: Desktop Massacre? Core i7 Mobile should give us desktop replacement power without the weak battery life of some previous mobile powerhouses. Consequently more people might feel they no longer need a desktop.

In permanent installations however, such as corporate or home media center environments, desktops will probably continue to have a place for a while to come. But even in those scenarios the votes are increasingly going towards notebooks. After all, why choose a desktop when similar power is available at a similar price but with more flexibility?

Neil Berman

iPod Touch videocam: It’s not over yet

theONbutton — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:00:44 +0000

Adding more fuel to the rumor fire about whether the lack of cam-equipped iPod Touch is a temporary delay or a never-product, a UK dabs.com flyer was spotted advertising an iPod Touch with “Built-in video recorder & WiFi”. This was a publication error as said features are not currently available, as we know all too well, but it does lend credence to commentators who say that the device was pulled at the last moment.

Here’s hoping for the Apple Store to come mysteriously down sometime before Christmas and to come back up with enough cam-equipped iPod Touches for Santa to fit in his bag.

Neil Berman

Zune HD is a sellout, but is it better than an iPod Touch?

theONbutton — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:14:30 +0000

Early indications tell us that the Zune HD has been selling out at Amazon, BestBuy and Newegg. Is it actually a more desirable device than the iPod Touch or is this just an initial flurry of fan purchases?

I’m not going to review the two devices here, as plenty technical articles have already been written about how the Zune HD has both the design and quality playback edge over the iPod Touch. From a pure stored media reproduction perspective the Zune HD seems to be the superior PMP with slicker hardware and cooler software.

But consumers now expect more than just media playback, and this is where the iPod Touch fights back. Yes the Zune HD has a browser, but Safari on the Touch is better. The Touch also offers an email client and YouTube playback. The Touch might not have got it’s camera yet, but let’s not forget it is a gaming platform.

This flexibility, rooted in the App Store, ultimately makes the iPod Touch a stronger platform than the Zune HD. The Zune HD does have a selection of applications available, but its ad-based revenue model makes little sense in the face of ad-free 99 cent apps for the Touch.

Ironically the largest thorn in the side of the Zune HD’s third party app growth may be Windows Mobile. It makes every bit of sense for the Windows Mobile and Zune platforms to merge, just like the iPhone and iPod touch share the same OS. But right now Windows Mobile and Zune feel too far apart, which may ultimately harm third party app growth on both platforms.

As I said prior to the Zune HD’s release, the device brings technical superiority, but the iPod Touch is probably a more fun and flexible platform even without the camera we were hoping for. Ultimately the buying decision depends upon what you want to do with your device, but it’s now a harder decision than ever.

Neil Berman

Red rings, yellow lights; what no blue mouth?

theONbutton — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:05:56 +0000

We know all too well about the Xbox’s infamous red ring of death and now the PS3 seems to want a piece of the action with its yellow light of failure.

This kind of attention is not necessarily the best type of attention, but they always said that any publicity is good publicity. So what about it Nintendo, are we going to see a ‘blue mouth of MotionLess’?

Neil Berman

Wii might drop to $199

theONbutton — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:29:11 +0000

First ToysRUs and now BestBuy ads have been spotted listing the Wii at a possible future price of $199. It’s pretty amazing that the console has gone so long at its original price, with such strong sales, especially having been christened with such a peculiar name. Who would have thought it possible way back in 2006!

With the PS3 Slim now out at $299 and looking like a good value proposition with its BluRay drive compared to the Xbox 360 Elite, battle is now formally joined at the top end of the 3rd gen tree. It’s therefore not entirely surprising to see rumors appearing of a Wii price reduction as at $249 it must now be coming under significant pressure.

Nintendo must be pretty happy about the great run it’s had so far, well done to them for making this a three horse race. Back in 2006 many of us feared you might walk in the footsteps of Sega.

Neil Berman

Hey jetBlue, what’s on TV?

theONbutton — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:48:37 +0000

There are sooo many cool things about flying jetBlue, like free WiFi in their JFK terminal, loads of charging points at their JFK departure gates and 36 channels of DIRECTV onboard…but please give us a 37th with a program guide!

Neil Berman

AMD has a Vision for Main Street

theONbutton — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:10:58 +0000

Apparently there are some people who get confused by computery numbers. Not you of course but they’re out there somewhere according to AMD, and said company is on a mission to ameliorate said situation.

So instead of Athlons and Turions, look for your next AMD computer to have a Vision, or at least a Vision logo denoting the relative capability of the computer. From what we know currently there will be a graduating scale of four levels, starting with just Vision, passing through Vision Premium and Vision Ultimate all the way to Vision Black…er, because something can be better than “ultimate” these days.

So I’m assuming that means you’ll be able to get Windows 7 Ultimate on Vision Premium and Windows 7 Premium on Vision Ultimate; you can see where this is going.

To be fair, I can appreciate the value of this for some consumers and it makes it easier to train store staff as well. But if average consumers can weigh up a 300hp 4.0 liter engine against a 120hp 1.5 when buying a car, I’m sure that a little marketing wizardry can teach them about computer horsepower as well.

Hopefully this will go away in a year or so…unless AMD fades away into obscurity sooner as a result of the ground it lost to Intel in the netbook and ultra-low-voltage laptop markets.

Having said that, AMD just announced it’s new thin ‘n light processors to keep Intel on it’s toes so here’s hoping this two horse race has plenty more distance to run. Remember competition drives innovation and feature development, which is great for consumers. You only have to look at the camera-less iPod Touch for proof of that.

Neil Berman

www.thenbutton.com

Stay calm and breathe normally

theONbutton — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:12:43 +0000

Warning: I’m haven’t fully recovered from today’s stratospheric letdown. I’m still angry that my planned trip to the Apple store on 5th Ave was cancelled at lunchtime. I’m hot under the collar that I still have the cash that I totally expected to part with this evening.

So it went down like this:

Steve’s return was obviously a wonderful moment and a great achievement on his part. After that the regular stats rundown took place. iTunes 9 looks cool, liking the LPs, loving the music sharing. Not a convert yet but it’s looking like a more welcoming platform.

iPod Touch makes an entrance, games start. Getting psyched on the games, going wild for the games, Madden (nice), Nova (WOW) and with a video cam on the back this is just gonna be SICK.

Just one more thing: Video Camera. Wallet…check. Subway ticket…check. Cancel dinner with Zune HD…check.

BOOM

Nano.

Awesome, this is gonna be so swee… Wait…NANO!!! Whaaaa??? Deflation takes hold of my entire body, I’m entering shock, emergency room on standby.

Epic disappointment. Legendary letdown. Quick mental review; the obvious contender for a cam, with its big screen for editing, WiFi for instant YouTube action and a processor which can allegedly handle HD video goes cam-less whilst an offline tiny-screened music player gets a VGA video-cam.

Whaaa???

Like I said, I’m still a bit emotional about this, but I guess that’s the risk of believing the rumors so many of us thought were true.

Neil Berman

Now we can all install a CableCARD tuner into Windows 7 Media Center, not just OEMs

theONbutton — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:57:32 +0000

It’s widely accepted that Windows Media Center is da bomb when it comes to home media convergence if you want your HTPC setup to include live TV. But until now, those wanting to view encrypted cable channels have needed to buy a pre-configured HTPC from an OEM with a CableCARD tuner already built-in.

That all changed a few minutes ago when Microsoft announced at CEDIA that “Integrators and enthusiasts can now add Digital Cable Tuners with CableCARD to their PC”. For now you’re going to need Windows 7 in your HTPC for this, unless Microsoft publishes an update for previous versions.

We didn’t see that one coming Microsoft, but you just made the Media Center HTPC faithful waaaaay happy.

CES 2010 update: Check out our video discussion with Microsoft about the Ceton CableCARD quad tuner.

Neil Berman

Panasonic Lumix FZ35 goes the distance

theONbutton — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:51:50 +0000

A co-worker once told me a crazy statistic about the amount of apartment owners who a telescope, and the number seemed worryingly larger than the amount of astronomers I would expect to live on this planet. The scary-cool thing about Panasonic’s FZ35 is that it’s essentially a baby telescope which takes photos. Whilst it sports a these-days-meh 18x optical zoom, at three megapixels this Leica-lensed zoom-o-matic can crank it up to 35.2x optical and a staggering 140.8x zoom with digital enhancement. No need to worry about Google Street View snapping you on an extended cigarette break, now your whole office can get evidence from half a mile away. Oh and it does HD video with a stereo mic. I used to own a FZ18, which was the first member of this family. The FZ35 sounds like the daddy.

Neil Berman

Acer 1410 review

theONbutton — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:48:06 +0000

Here it is: Acer’s very own netbook killer. Hmmm…that doesn’t sound right, after all Acer is the number one seller of netbooks globally. Nevertheless that’s what I believe we’re seeing here and kudos to Acer for giving consumers more options, although to be fair at $449 the 1410 is pricier than a typical netbook.

What makes the 1410 (sold elsewhere as the 1810T) stand out from the netbook crowd? It’s running an Intel Core Solo Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) processor giving superb battery life and decent horsepower, just like the recently released MSI X340 the Lenovo U350 and Dell Inspiron 11z (which actually has a weaker Celeron ULV) . Like those other laptops, the 1410 packs Intel’s GMA4500MHD graphics chipset which is HD capable. This new market sector of ultraportables is not yet named but I’ll call it DNP, or Darn Near Perfect, combining decent power, portability and great battery life.

Other notable specs include 2GB RAM (4GB max), 250GB hard drive and 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N WiFi. Including its six cell battery the 1410 weighs just 3.1lb and offers unplugged runtime of up to six hours according to Acer.

Look & feel of the Acer 1410

The 1410 sports an 11.6 inch screen so the laptop is pretty small, and although not super-thin at just over one inch thick, it feels slim enough. There’s the usual assortment of ports with the handy addition of HDMI, making it a snap to hook up the 1410 to a home setup for Netflix and the like, for those without an Xbox 360 or internet-enabled TV already serving that purpose.

The chassis feels just OK, with lots of shiny plastic covering the top surfaces. Overall it looks pretty nice. As with many of the recent slew of small plastic notebooks, if you treat them well they should stand the test of time.

There are accessible compartments beneath the 1410 which bodes well for tinkerers, just be careful of those warranty conditions! I also liked the dedicated hardware buttons for turning wireless connections on/off, which is far preferable to the function-key or software implementation on some other laptops.

Playing around with the Acer 1410

The 1410 also sports Acer’s new Timeline style keyboard. The keys are big, although there’s not much travel and there is a fair amount of flex, but I found it easy to use accurately. The MSI Wind U100 still has the best keyboard feel in the small laptop sector in my opinion. The 1410’s trackpad feels good, and the dedicated left and right buttons are a welcome addition compared to the single bar adorning some modern day laptops.

Unfortunately the screen is a glossy one, which annoyingly reflects light sources making the screen difficult to see sometimes. The 1410’s screen is bright and perfectly usable though as long as the screen is positioned to avoid reflections. I understand that glossy screens look shiny on store shelves, but I’ve never met anyone who liked using them. Hopefully one day they will just go away and we’ll be back to the good ol’ days of matte screens which don’t reflect light so much.

The 1410 ships with Vista Premium, which felt perfectly snappy when moving around the OS. I detected no significant lag in general operation and Windows Media Center opened faster than my Windows 7 version at home on my (very old) living room Pentium 4 single core PC.

Multimedia comparison between the Acer 1410 and the MSI X340

The 1410 has speakers somewhere in that case…let’s just say they’re not the powerful kind. Whilst not entirely unexpected, headphones or an external connection are necessary to get the best out of the 1410. The MSI X340 has more powerful speakers from my time with that laptop.

One of the selling points of the 1410 is it’s GMA4500MHD graphics chipset which promises HD video playback. So I tried the Coral Reef Adventure clips from Microsoft’s HD content showcase. The 1410 handled a 720p clip with no problems, just like the MSI X340. It is really really difficult to see the difference between a 720p and a 1080p clip on an 11.6 inch screen, but for the record the 1410 played the 1080p clip of the same content perfectly. The X340 slowed to an unwatchably slow frame-rate on the 1080p clip.

Is the Acer 1410 a keeper?

My overall impressions of the 1410 are extremely positive. It’s netbook sized, but has the horsepower to handle HD video and the battery life to go the distance on a decent length flight. It’s the best of this new breed so far in my opinion; it bests the MSI X340 on video performance, the Dell Inspiron 11z on raw power and pretty much anything decent on price. I have a feeling this could be a big seller for Acer.

Neil Berman

It’s Official: Xbox 360 Elite Down By $100

theONbutton — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:11:32 +0000

Now’s the time to get l33t.

Can’t stop tho, I’m on a deadline to get thru

because the countdown to September 22nd is well underway…

Gotta go!!!

Neil Berman

Cheaper PS3 Still Too Expensive To Worry XBox 360

theONbutton — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:25:37 +0000

Hmmm…$299 for the lowest PS3 in the range a number of years into the current Wii/PS3/Xbox 360 cycle. Well it’s a start I guess, but let’s not expect it to turn the XBox 360/PS3 balance on its head anytime soon.

At $199 the XBox 360 arcade is still the obvious choice for the recession conscious consumer and it comes with access to a huge selection of games compared to the PS3. The Wii continues to be the broad-based family-fun choice. With many of Sony’s businesses languishing, is it really the right time for its cheapest PS3 to still be a Benjamin more expensive than the cheapest XBox 360?

Neil Berman

Zune HD vs Rumored iPod Touch with Camera

theONbutton — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:04:37 +0000

Oh how I remember the good ol’ days. In those times of listening to hacky MP3s on my laptop and then cellphone, the iPod was nary a wee twinkle in main street’s starry night dreams. Fast forward to 2009 and the iPod skipped over the original MP3 pioneers to become THE portable media platform. What iPod says goes.

Meanwhile the Zune family has been making the chase at least interesting and at best competitive. The Zune HD is raising the technical bar with its Tegra processor and 720p-capable screen. Does that mean anything? On a 40 inch screen, yes. On a 4 inch screen, no most consumers wouldn’t care for the difference in quality. Remember one of the reasons Sony’s MiniDisc format failed was that most consumers were happy with cassette tape recording quality. The iPhone’s technically poor camera is now the most popular on flickr.

Back at Cupertino, if the rumors come true then a new iPod is coming to the Christmas Tree this year and it will take video of you opening the rest of your gifts. This of course you will probably be able to upload to YouTube with a couple of gestures. Someone with the Zune HD will be pointing out how much more detailed their screen is compared to other players, and the person he’s talking to won’t be able to perceive the difference on the tiny screen.

This is one of the reasons why Apple’s iPod family consistently bests the competition on main street, and if the rumors are true then I think the camera-equipped iPod Touch would bury the Zune HD in sales figures. A Tegra powered 720p capable portable media device is a technical masterpiece and I’m full of admiration for that accomplishment. An affordable quality media player with a video camera and YouTube upload capability would simply be instant fun though. I’m thinking of trading in my video camera already…and this thing’s only a rumor!

Neil Berman

Dell’s Inspiron Z Is Another Nail In The Premium Ultraportable Coffin…Netbooks Under Pressure

theONbutton — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:05:37 +0000

The premium ultraportable sector has become even less viable recently with the announcement of Dell’s Inspiron Z range. This not-netbook-not-premium-but-some-ideal-product-in-between sports Intel’s increasingly admired CULV processor range with crayzeee battery life.

Starting from 11.6 inches the range mimics Acer’s recent and well received Timeline series. This growing new sector of cheap and HD-capable ultraportables are rapidly turning premium ultraportables into a hard sell. I recently saw MacBook Airs selling for $899 at a well known Internet retailer. I still haven’t met any Adamo owners.

Will the netbook also perish at the hands of these seemingly perfectly balanced product offerings? Whilst $400 buys a solid netbook, $450 buys an Acer 1410T with a 1.4GHz CULV Core Solo, onboard HD-capable graphics and mega battery life. So, can the netbook really continue in its current form?

We know the sector will survive due to the development of Intel’s Pineview platform, which will lead to Atom 2.0. But sheesh, the margins in Netbooks are starting to look ever thinner as the CULV-powered ultraportables force netbooks towards the $300 mark.

At long last cheap, powerful and all-day-capable ultraportables are available to the mass-market. If we lose some netbook and premium models as a result, I won’t shed too many tears. They are making space in the market for well-balanced products.

Neil Berman

Will Apple build the tablet I want?

theONbutton — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 03:43:19 +0000

As rumors of an Apple tablet build into a frenzy, it’s hard to believe the grapevine story that a 10 inch device would be at its best running iPhone OS. Yet in Apple terms it makes perfect sense.

You see from my perspective, the iPhone OS is crippled by its lack of multitasking. We can see from the sales figures that most consumers probably don’t care.

From my perspective, the lack of a physical keyboard on the iPhone limits its use. The lack of a physical keyboard on a ten inch tablet could severely cripple it. Most consumers again probably don’t care, because they might primarily use it for media, fun apps and short messaging with the likes of Twitter, Facebook and occasional email.

From my perspective having a closed system where someone else decides which applications you can or cannot use is horrific. Most consumers probably don’t care and enjoy the feeling of pseudo quality control in the ecosystem.

So is Apple going to make the tablet that I want? No, it will make the one regular consumers want…and that’s why iPhone sales are so strong.

Neil Berman

Adamo Design Moments

theONbutton — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:58:55 +0000

So yes, I was a bit disturbed by the Dell Adamo’s recent meager price cuts…but that’s only because it’s still so freakin expensive. Anywho as its affordability improves and to remind you of why it still costs soooo much in the interests of being fair, here are some up-close-and-personals:

No doubt, it is a expensive beautiful work of art.

Neil Berman

The App Store Shenanigans Continue…

theONbutton — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:24:55 +0000

Another day, another hilarious Apple App Store Story. This time it’s a censored dictionary.

I say keep ‘em coming, the most talented comedian couldn’t write this stuff.

Neil Berman

MSI X-Slim: Time for a Slimmed-Down Price?

theONbutton — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:23:53 +0000

With Acer’s well-received Timeline series already seeing decent discounting, pressure must be mounting upon MSI’s X-Slim range. Even though the X340 appears to be good value for its handsome exterior and light weight, it’s around $200 more expensive than Acer’s 3810T. Even without the 3810T standing by, it’s hard to imagine the X340 selling well at such a high price given its mediocre press reviews.

At the time of writing there are still only four mixed consumer reviews on NewEgg, whilst the 3810T has nine. Even worse for MSI, the SSD version of the 3810T costs the same as the typical $799 street price of the X340.

Let’s see a price cut MSI, or perhaps at least a 2.0 with a better keyboard?

Neil Berman

Space: The Final Frontier for the Healthcare Debate

theONbutton — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:19:06 +0000

Whilst the debate rages throughout the country, a lone voice of logic tells us how it could be. Nimoy, speaking today at the East Coast Star Trek Con: “On the Enterprise everyone gets healthcare.”

Live long Leonard, and beam me directly to sickbay.

Neil Berman

Chrome OS: Hopes & Fears

theONbutton — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:06:43 +0000

Sharing hopes and fears; we’ve been doing this since Google’s vague Chrome OS announcement came out. Why? Because there’s so little we actually know, we’ve all resorted to conjecture. So while we hope for more info soon, here is a summary of hopes and fears…

We hope it will disturb the OS market and generate innovation. We fear it will be just another variant of Linux.

We hope it will be a quick booting platform. We fear few people will care because Windows 7 and OSX wake from standby in a matter of seconds.

We hope enough useful applications will be available. We fear the emphasis will be so browser/online-focused that the application base will be severely limited.

We hope mobile broadband prices will fall to support mobile online usage of the apps. We fear that the status quo will remain and we’ll be relying on Gears.

We hope it will have a more consistent interface than Android. We fear Google’s minimalist design history will lead to a functional, minimalist but unexciting front end.

We hope device drivers will be readily available. We fear that it took so long for Mac drivers to appear for some devices that the wait for Chrome OS drivers may literally drive some people away.

We hope netbook consumers will be interested in it. We fear they won’t; MSI has seen four Linux netbook returns for each Windows return. Why should the Chrome variant be any different?

We hope other Linux distros will survive. We fear Google was aiming for Microsoft and will hit the Linux community instead.

Neil Berman

Adamo price cut, still way too expensive

theONbutton — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:06:45 +0000

One of the most bizarrely priced computers of recent times has finally had a price cut…sort of.

Dell’s bottom of the range not-as-expensive-as-the-most-expensive Adamo, which packs a meager 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo and onboard Intel graphics is now a bargain still very expensive $1,499. Yes that’s exactly the same price as a 1.86GHz MacBook Air with its Nvidia 9400 chipset.

The most expensive model of the expensive Adamo family is still the same very expensive price. In fact it’s way too expensive for me to quote seriously here.

I still haven’t seen an Adamo in outside of CES and I have a feeling I won’t for a while yet.

Neil Berman

iPhone ultimate test: Can the iPhone and Chewbacca live in harmony?

theONbutton — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:07:49 +0000

We have put iPhone through its toughest challenge yet.

Take one fierce Maine Coon with diamond sharp claws and give it the chance to scratch the living daylights out of an iPhone. Can the iPhone survive a certain mauling or will it have to call 911?

Let’s find out…

1. Chewbacca discovers iPhone on the floor and collapses in his usual heap of fur to investigate, whilst en route to somewhere else:

2. Chewbacca puts the iPhone through its paces, is it friend or foe?

3. Chewbacca makes a new friend and crashes out from exhaustion following the demanding evaluation. The mauling is averted…

4. …until we try to take it back. The possessive paw and warning glare make us think twice. Maybe next time we’ll give him a furry toy to play with instead!

Neil Berman

Dreams Of Oceania Come Scarily True: Amazon Dives Into Kindles

theONbutton — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:39:13 +0000

I had a dream. In my dream someone entered my apartment when I wasn’t there.

I wouldn’t have even known but they left a note to say they were sent by a bookshop. Apparently a book I’d bought was no longer eligible for sale. So, and this is where it gets really funky-dream-weird, the bookshop was visiting everyone who had bought the book and taking it back. They weren’t knocking, they were just going to each buyer’s address, finding a way in and taking the book back. They were even leaving checks on the table!!

In fact it was all bizarrely similar to what Amazon did when it deleted MobileReference-published Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four and Animal Farm from buyers’ Kindles and refunded their account, saying the title was no longer available for purchase. It turns out that the publisher did not have the rights to sell the titles.

However this really begs the question, “Do you own a Kindle?” I mean do you really own a Kindle? Does it have a lock and who has the keys?

Neil Berman

Space cakes? Give me donuts.

theONbutton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:49:43 +0000

I don’t know what kind of funky math Sprint used to figure out how much that cool Dunkin Donuts in Space would cost, but what a great ad!!

I mean that really makes me stop and think about how much it costs to run an iPhone. Isn’t it amazing what we could do if those three million people all got together? Mmmmm all those Boston Cremes. Having said that, they’d have a heck of a time keeping those Space Donuts fresh.

Neil Berman

Netbooks rock, but are Nettops worth it?

theONbutton — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:23:28 +0000

Whilst we are eternally grateful to Asus for the original EEE PC and the Netbook offspring it spawned, why do OEMs continue to think it’s OK to package an Intel Atom with GMA950 graphics in a home PC?

Apart from the potential electricity savings why would a sane person ever say, “I’d sure like to have an underpowered home PC which will struggle to play YouTube vids”. And given how much longer this PC would have to be powered-on to complete tasks which an Intel CULV chip could complete in a fraction of the time, are there really power savings there at all?

I actually reckon a CULV powered PC could be more power efficient than an Atom based machine for home media usage. But of course the Atom platform is cheap to build and the Nettop buzzword adds margin…and that’s the crux of this one.

Netbooks are great. Nettops? Fit them with CULV processors. I’d rather pay a little extra for a LOT extra.

Neil Berman

Neil Berman now also posting on BerryReporter

theONbutton — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:05:38 +0000

I’m now contributing to BerryReporter :-)

Neil Berman

Hot Apple Pie

theONbutton — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:32:16 +0000

What is it about Apple products that makes them such hot property? Engineering? Design? Components? I guess all of those had a part to play in the iPhone discoloration, alleged iPod burning (two links) and MacBook ‘oven’ stories.

I love a bit of hot apple pie on a summer camping trip, but this just isn’t the type of home-cooking I remember from my childhood.

Enjoying songs around the campfire is all well and good, having the campfire being the one singing the songs is not so hot.

Neil Berman

Hands-on with a pre-release Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional ROM from XDA Developers

theONbutton — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:53:24 +0000

The success of the iPhone has focused smartphone developers’ attention upon touch. The Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre, T-Mobile G1 (Googlephone) and HTC Touch HD all looked to compete with the iPhone with large screens and touch interfaces.

Under the hood of the Touch HD was Windows Mobile with HTC’s TouchFlo finger-friendly overlay. Like historical versions of the Palm and Blackberry OSes, Windows Mobile has generally been aimed at stylus+button input which has made it fast for savvy users. However in an iPhone age greater accessibility is required and Windows Mobile 6.5 aims to achieve this.

We’ll be looking at a pre-release XDA Developers build of WinMo 6.5 Professional on an HTC Touch Pro (Raphael model), so the actual features I describe may be different to the ones available in the full future release. We will also concentrate on the significant changes from WinMo 6.1, as much of 6.5 is closely related to 6.1.

Honeycomb application launcher

Many early photos of WinMo 6.5 showed the now-famous honeycomb lattice application launcher, designed to create more space between icons and make the easier to target with a finger. In the version I’m trying the lattice borders are not present but the formation is there. The icons are far easier to target than in 6.1, I haven’t missed any yet.

Swiping and scrolling

The scrolling action to reveal further pages of applications has been hugely improved. Finger swipes now scroll the screen with ease, locking at each page if the swipe is gentle or scrolling through multiple pages if stronger. The top/bottom bouncing effect has been borrowed from the iPhone and it works well.

This also extends within applications, such as Windows Live where mailbox scolling and mail selection has been made far more finger friendly. Track forward/back changes in Windows Media player are also a side-swipe away.

Pre-6.5 applications currently have variable scolling implementations however. AvantGo, for example, still scrolls as well as it did before but the new bouncing effect is not present.

Battery life

I’ve noticed a colossal improvement in battery life on the Touch Pro compared to it’s original AT&T 6.1 build. The Touch Pro will now easily last a full day with regular periods of data usage.

It’s difficult to know what has caused this uptick, possibly it’s due to more efficient CPU or memory calls or perhaps the lack of HTC’s graphics intensive TouchFlo overlay means the system is being taxed less. It’s certainly a welcome change and makes the Touch Pro a usable phone for my usage pattern. YMMV.

3G stability improvements

Whilst 6.1 is a pretty stable OS, the Touch Pro previously had sporadic 3G connection issues which required a reboot. These issues have vanished on this 6.5 version, and data seems to download significantly faster. Note that I did not change the radio firmware when I installed 6.5.

So far 6.5 has not crashed on me once, but I have rebooted twice over the last two weeks to refresh the system. Rebooting is definitely faster than with 6.1, but I put that primarily down to not having to launch TouchFlo following the OS boot.

Finger-friendly menus

All of the 6.5 menus have grown to be more finger-friendly. It’s now easy to hit the target with confidence. Even though 6.1 on the Touch Pro had some big menus in places, my hit rate in 6.5 has greatly improved and there might be better coding under the hood making this happen.

Everything else

Much of the remaining experience is similar to using 6.1. The apps I’ve tried to download, such as Google Maps and AvantGo have worked perfectly.

Is it a game changer?

Whether you like the underlying Windows Mobile platform is a matter of personal taste. Whilst this version of 6.5 has been great to use on the Touch Pro it continues to be hampered by the relatively small screen of most Windows Mobile devices compared to the iPhone. This means that making Windows Mobile, Blackberry OS or any other small screen device close-in on the iPhone in terms of finger-friendliness will always be a huge task.

The continued breadth of form factors also hampers efforts, although Microsoft is now starting to get more specific on hardware which should help to standardize the platform for developers writing for a more consistent user experience. RIM had a similarly diffcult experience taking the Blackberry OS and porting it to the Storm, which was received with mixed opinions.

So all I need now is a Touch Pro with a full length screen, same keyboard and only 3-4 oz in weight. That’s not the Touch Pro2, but perhaps it could be the Touch Pro3…

Neil Berman

Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen

theONbutton — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:38:23 +0000

In a word, “awesome”.

In my cousin’s words, “possibly the best cinematic experience of all time”.

This movie is like X-rated hardware porn.

Neil Berman

Every cloud…Bye bye AvantGo, hello Viigo!

theONbutton — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:49:04 +0000

Whilst smartphones now offer web access at decent speeds, pages can still be painful to read on the devices. Small screens, inconsistent formatting and frequent zooming/scrolling/swiping all contribute to the need for an offline forced-format reader.

That reader for many people has been AvantGo, which has been around for years on most SDK-available PDA/smartphone platforms. Recently however users have been surprised to see page notifications stating that downloadable content will cease to be provided after June 30.

Why? It seems the reason comes back to the same smartphones which can now access web pages at decent speeds. The need for downloadable offline-readable content had decreased.

That’s all well and good…unless you read content in locations where there is weak or no cell network coverage. That means commuters on trains underground or travelling through unpopulated areas. This is probably one of the larger user groups of AvantGo’s offline service, reading the news services on the way to/from work.

So what now? Cue RSS readers. RSS is nothing new but finding a decent reader which pulls large amounts of offline-readable content is tricky. I have now moved to Viigo, which crushes AvantGo both in terms of content availability and synchronization options.

Whereas I used to manually download AvantGo content daily, I have Viigo set to pull new content every 30 minutes. News junkie alert. Since most news sites have RSS feeds the amount of content you can pull is colossal and it is presented in Viigo’s consistent wrapper.

On the downside Viigo page navigation on touch devices is hampered by a lack of finger scrolling support. I miss this greatly, but hopefully it’s only a matter of time before this becomes a natural addition for Viigo. Some feeds also download in brief requiring you to go online to retrieve full articles.

So if the cessation of AvantGo offline content is yet another June raincloud, check out Viigo. It really is a silver lining.

Neil Berman

MSI X340

theONbutton — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:39:01 +0000

Hmm…the eagerly anticipated MSI X340; this one turned out to be a mixed bag. Looks great, feels just OK to hold. Keyboard is big enough, feels just OK to use. Some reviewers have said the keyboard is horrific, it’s not quite as bad as that, but it does flex downward in the center more than it should. The battery is replaceable but is outpaced by the Acer Timeline.

But for $899 it weighs under 3lbs, does HD video, has a bright 13 inch screen and a real-life-useful 1.4GHz Intel CULV processor. That’s a tempting prospect…especially as many retailers are listing it at nearer $799. If you like the form factor and can survive with less power the X320 sports an Intel Atom for $599, but also sacrifices the HD capable graphics chipset.

Crucially is the $899 X340 better than a $999 refurbished MacBook Air Rev A? For HD video, connectivity and battery life I’d say yes; for coolness and build quality probably no. Then there’s also the Acer Timeline series and the semi-light but powerful Acer AS3935-6504 with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo for $899. It’s a difficult, but consumer friendly, choice.

Neil Berman

HTC Snap / Dash II Hands-On

theONbutton — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:53:09 +0000

I used to have an HTC S620 / Dash as my daily phone and found it to be a near perfect Blackberry-form-factor Windows Mobile smartphone. It was light with a great keyboard and decent screen. The main omissions were a lack of 3G and high resolution camera.

HTC is hoping to fix that in a snap, The Snap to be precise. As a replacement for the S620 / Dash, the Snap is immediately recognizable as a member of the same family with a near identical form factor. Here’s a quick hands-on of the Snap.

Addressing my wish list above, the Snap offers 7.2MB/sec HSDPA compared to the S620’s slow-ish EDGE. WiFi b/g is carried over from the S620, but might not be enabled on all carriers; it was disabled on the Sprint example here.

The Snap also winds the onboard camera optics up to 2MP, which is no great shakes compared to the 5 or 8MP offerings of other smartphones available today. Why is HTC so reluctant to implement leading edge cameras into its cellphones?

The keyboard follows the solid functionality of the S620 with an even better feel. Keys are raised in the center and easy to press. The revised layout placing keys similarly to a computer QWERTY rather than a vertical alignment works well.

A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth profiles are also implemented, as on the S620, to give stereo bluetooth headsets control of calls and music playback.

On Sprint’s network data downloaded to Internet Explorersignificantly faster than my S620 on AT&T’s EDGE connection. The Snap’s 528MHz processor also made the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard experience feel snappy compared to the S620’s 200MHz processor, which I admittedly throttle back to 160MHz to save battery power.

So why no Windows Mobile 6.5 on the Snap…? This is certainly disappointing, especially given all the 6.5 online chatter currently. Hopefully a 6.5 upgrade option will be available for the Snap in time. My experience of an early 6.5 Pro touch-enabled build on the HTC Touch Pro has been extremely positive.

Is the Snap worth an upgrade for current S620 / Dash owners? Definitely for high data users, maybe for others. The S620 was already a gem of a device and the Snap offers even more of the same. It just does it, well, a bit snappier.

Neil Berman

iPhone 3GS: stereo bluetooth now mainstream?

theONbutton — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:16:22 +0000

Apple’s decision to enable stereo bluetooth on the iPhone 3G will bring the technology into the mainstream, but has it remained on the periphery for a reason?

Like mono bluetooth headsets, stereo ones need to be paired. Nowadays this is straightforward but some phones and headsets have better recollection than others. There so many headsets and phones out there that inevitably some have better bluetooth inplementations than others. Pairings sometimes have to be re-established; this can be due to the phone or headset not being the best at remembering its partners.

Once you’re happily connected, you’re using the A2DP profile which gives audio streaming. If your phone and headset support AVRCP then you’re also getting remote control over music playback as well as calls. This is awesome and has made wired headphones redundant for years for many cellphone owners. Now that iPhone 3G S has partially caught-up with this technology (allowing play/pause but not track skip), owners have an option to make those white wired earbuds disappear.

So how do you find a good headset? Here are a few options…

Motorola S9 HD

The S9 HD is a one-piece-behind-the-neck design similar to its predecessor, the S9. The receiver and battery are housed in the connector band with call and playback controls living on the frame outside the earbuds. The power button and mini-USB charging port are on the underside of the connector band. There are three buttons on each side aligned vertically which makes controlling the S9 HD a snap once you’ve mastered the layout. Multi-function buttons are kept to a minimum; it’s the opposite of working a current generation iPod Shuffle.

Pairing was a good expeience with an HTC Touch Pro and Samsung Epix, with both phones picking up the S9-HD’s mono and stereo bluetooth profiles as well as playback controls.

Speech quality was good indoors but outdoors call recipients complained of some wind noise. Music quality was excellent, with solid bass and clear treble with the SRS WOW enhancer left off. With the enhancer on the sound took on an overly bass heavy response with low-mid frequencies being over-emphasized.

When I was standign still outdoors, music playback was consistent but on the move this became a variable experience. In a envionment with lots of objects providing reflections the bluetooth connection was solid. However in open spaces free of people, cars or walls the playback would become choppy unless the phone was close to the headset.

As with many other stereo bluetooth headsets the S9-HD seems to employ timestretching technology to extend playback whilst allowing its music buffer to fill. This results in perceptible pitch changes from time to time; I would rather pay a few dollars more for a larger onboard buffer.

The S9-HD is comfortable for long periods of use and feels light on the head. Some pairs of glasses can sit on top of the earpieces which can be an odd feeling, I found I could wear sunglasses without difficulty after getting accustomed to the feeling. YMMV.

On balance I liked the comfort and sound quality of the S9-HD, but the choppy music playback when walking through wide-open spaces can become annoying.

Panasonic RP-BT10

Sometimes using your own headphones is a must (I’m looking at you, Etymotic lovers) and Panasonic created the RP-BT10 with this in mind. Resembling the previous generation iPod shuffle the RP-BT10 sports transport and volume controls on the main unit and a call control button on the microphone cable. This cable has a standard 3.5mm headphone socket for you favorite cans. There is a bespoke charging cable, so no USB cable charging option here.

Pairing was a smooth process. The spring-clip mechnism on the main unit allows positioning of the RP-BT10 closer to your phone if necessary for greater connection reliability. Of course if you plan on making calls you will need to ensure the mic is reasonably close to your mouth.

Sound quality is of course dependant on your choice of headphones, the bundled set are OK and need on a snug fit with the supplied ear fittings to get the best out of them. The benefit of the RP-BT10 though is that you can use any 3.5mm headset you want.

By nature of its design the RP-BT10 also allows you to create a semi-wireless connection between a phone and a stereo system. Simply use a stereo 3.5mm to stereo RCA cable to connect the RP-BT10 to most stereos’ auxiliary input, which will turn your phone into a useful makeshift jukebox.

The RP-BT10 is a good choice if you want to use your own headphones, but the downside is that it re-introduce wires into your setup…and isn’t that what the iPhone community is getting excited about being able to give up?

Motorola S805

Last up in our trio is the Motorola S805. This big DJ-style headset fully covers the ears with call controls on one side and payback on the other. The S805 employs rocker wheels on each earpiece to control volume and track selection.

Control buttons are large and easy to press

One the underside of one earpiece is the charging port, which uses a standard mini-USB connection.

As with the other two devices, pairing was straightforward. Once in use the buttons on either side pulse in blue, although fortunately this feature can be disabled by pressing the call and play buttons simultaneously for a couple of seconds.

In use callers found my speech to be crystal clear both indoors and outside. Music playback was very good with almost no droputs. Bass frequencies were slightly less pronounced than with the S9-HD, but the overall sound was easy to listen to for prolonged periods. The headset, although large, was also comfortable and did not feel heavy on the head.

The pitch-shifting effect was evident on the S805 as with the S9-HD, although significantly less so. I’m guessing the S805 has more onboard buffer memory, which would also explain its resistance to dropouts.

Overall the S805 is a great headset as long as you can live with its size. The S805 is certainly not the most discreet headset available, but its form usefully keeps ears warm and noise out on windy days.

Listen-up, here’s the bottom line…

These are three very different headsets. As a portable one piece solution the S9-HD is a good bet as long as you stay around objects or remain stationary when listening. The RP-BT10 allows use of your own headphones but makes you wire-y. Finally the S805 provides excellent connection strength and a balanced soundstage.

Each one however suffers from sporadic connection issues and even if these are forgiven by savvy owners, they may deter non-techie users from long term usage. In my opinion this has been a delaying factor to widespread adoption of stereo bluetooth technology so far.

On the other hand I am hopeful that the release of the iPhone 3G S will create renewed energy in the stereo bluetooth market with new product offerings and greater reliability. I can’t wait to see if Apple releases a headset!

Neil Berman

www.theonbutton.com

Laptop prices falling hard

theONbutton — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:48:57 +0000

Today’s MacBook price cuts were both welcome and not unique in the current laptop market. Ultraportables and desktop replacements alike have been suffering from netbooks and Intel CULV powered thin ‘n lights pulling down the whole sector.

It’s pretty cool that you can finally get a decently powered 3-4lb laptop with a 13 inch screen for well under $1,000; MSI’s X340 and Acer’s Timeline are good examples. Both are HD video capable and provide enough power for day-to-day computing.

These machines pull down the premium end of the ultraportable market like the Dell Adamo and MacBook Air, which don’t really offer much more hardware than the MSI or Acer. In fact the Dell is probably slower than both. So now we have a $1,499-$1,799 MacBook Air, which is great news for consumers and effectively sets a glass ceiling for ultraportable prices.

At the heavier end of the market 17 inch laptops are under strain from all-in-ones like the Asus EEE Top which are semi-mobile and keenly priced. I found a new Toshiba dual-core T3400 17 inch laptop on Amazon this evening for $529. This thing was fully loaded, you really wouldn’t need much more for a day-to-day desktop replacement…and of course you can install Windows 7 RC and get almost a year of usage before you need to buy a license.

Neil Berman

OCZ Apex 60GB SSD

theONbutton — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:12:11 +0000

It’s fair to say that we are still waiting for SSDs to take over the world. That’s partly due to pricing and also because most laptops shipping with them aren’t yet showing the earth-shattering benefits originally hoped for.

All the way from the lowly Asus EEE PC 2G Surf to the MacBook Air SSD, hopes of instant response performance and wild improvements in battery life have not quite materialized. Why is this?

There are several reasons which mostly boil down to ‘you get what you pay for’. In the SSD world, not every offering is ultra fast and low power. The ultra fast end of the SSD spectrum has until recently been hideously expensive to consumers and OEMs alike. This explains why not only the EEE Surf but also the original MacBook Air SSD failed to demonstrate groundbreaking performance improvements over traditional hard disk variants.

So should we still wait? Actually I say no. The way to do this is to find a computer you like and then find a great SSD to put in it. That way you can find an ultra fast SSD bargain at one of the many e-tailers striving for your business in this hammered economy. Best of all you pick the specs, not the OEM – and that’s crucial with the wide range of SSDs available at the moment. Many things which say SSD on the box sound exciting but are not actually anything spectacular.

With Windows 7 RC on the horizon I recently bought myself a 230MB/sec read OCZ Apex 60GB SSD for $149. By comparison Ars Technica benchmarked the Rev A MacBook Air SSD at just under 50MB/sec. My EEE and Acer Aspire One never even came close to 50MB/sec, let alone a wild 230MB/sec. Until recently 230MB/sec reads have been simply unattainable. After finding a free SATA port (as you can see my computer is a spaghetti of wires – do not mimic my setup) and the customarily breezy Windows 7 install, this thing simply flies. Random file and application access is really really fast, even on my ancient single core Pentium 4.

It’s a great time to look for a fast drive, prices have fallen and some great spec SSDs are going cheap. On a per GB basis they’re still very expensive, mine cost the same as having two 1TB spinning drives in a RAID setup. But if you choose wisely the performance gain is huge. I just hope the interior of your computer is a little more organized than mine!

Neil Berman

Update to ‘MSI X340: Now priced-out by the MacBook Air?’ Acer throws an $899 curve ball

theONbutton — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:39:12 +0000

Wow this bout just got a whole lot more interesting. After initially pricing the X340 at $1,099 MSI are now listing it at $899…and several mainstream e-tailers are taking orders for $799. That kind of pricing makes the whole proposition turn on its head. Even as a refurb, the MacBook Air Rev A looks too expensive in this company.

On the downside for the X340, initial reviews have been mixed. Praise for its battery life and video performance have been tempered by concerns about chassis quality and a poor keyboard.

There is another curve ball mixing up the X340’s home run plans in the form of Acer’s recently released 13″ AS3935-6504. At 1.3lbs heavier than the X340, it offers a full power P7350 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 3GB RAM, DVD-RW and the same Intel GMA4500MHD 1080-capable GPU. And the Acer looks and feels great.

At 2.9lbs and $799 the X340 would be my choice if running Windows 7 RC, but those needing more power or running the out-of-the-box Vista Home Premium I’d have to recommend the Acer for the greater horsepower. Price/performance-wise the MacBook Air needs to do more to move out third place in this contest. Especially as you could swap out the hard drives in the MSI and Acer with latest gen SSDs and still save megabucks compared to the MBAir.

Neil Berman

MSI X340: Now priced-out by the MacBook Air?

theONbutton — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:52:14 +0000

I was excited to talk to MSI in January about their upcoming X320 and X340. The ultra-light 13″ laptops closely resembled the MacBook Air with the bonus of offering a removable battery and better connectivity.

It seems the $700-1,000 price target is hopefully looking accurate for when the X340 starts shipping. The HDMI equipped X340 briefly appeared on MSI’s website recently at $1,099. The lower powered X320 is likely to be in the $700-800 range.

In January this pricing seemed sensible…until MacBook Airs started appearing for $999. This week MacMall and Apple were both listing Airs starting at $999, although these may be refurbs. Given that the Air has a way faster CPU than the X340, this looks like MSI is going to have a difficult job convincing buyers to choose their laptop over the Air.

The only sore points for the Air continue to be the weak connectivity and low capacity battery, which is outperformed by many similar weight netbooks for runtime.

On the plus side $999 now buys a super-svelte 3lb 1.6ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook Air, which a year ago cost almost twice as much and is capable of running OSX and Windows. Nice.

Neil Berman

This would be the best BOGOF ever

theONbutton — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:00:42 +0000

Summer 2009 is set to be a great season of Sci-fi movie releases with the Terminator, Star Trek and Transformers franchises all featuring. When I was at the New York Auto Show this week it occurred to me that a great way to promote Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen would be with a buy-one-get-one-free Camaro/Bumblebee offer. Come on GM & Paramount, why not?

Neil Berman

Extension of TWC usage charging is a real life streaming video disaster movie

theONbutton — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:50:02 +0000

Netflix and Hulu must be worried; TWC’s decision to extend its usage charging model to additional cities spells disaster for mainstream online video streaming.

The explosive growth in online video streaming sponsored by broadcasters may be about to get stopped in its tracks. Not due to copyright issues. Not due to a lack of advertisers and viewers. Just simply because many of us won’t be able to afford to watch the stuff.

TWC’s plan to charge $1 per GB above a max 40GB monthly cap means that after a few HD shows we’ll be paying bigtime. Gizmodo reckons this could add $5 to the cost of downloading an iTunes movie.

Just when it seemed like streaming video was becoming a regular part of life, it might instead become a barrier between the haves and the have-nots.

Neil Berman

Neil Berman published by PMI

theONbutton — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:40:45 +0000

So my recent lacks of posts can be explained by:

a) An unhealthy addiction to Halo 3, tinkering with the Windows 7 Beta and wondering whether the BSG finale would be lame or earth shattering finding – we now know

b) Feeling 24/7 ecstatic that the iPhone & iPod Touch will be getting stereo bluetooth. Praise be! Can’t wait to see the wireless cans Apple will hopefully release…where will all those soon-to-be-unwanted white wires go?

c) Writing a Project Management paper which PMI published today

The correct answer is the absent d) All of the above.

Today PMI (Project Management Institute) published my paper entitled “The Project Manager’s Three Critical Factors in Career Development” on their website at www.pmi.org. The paper can be found in the Resources section in the Library under Leadership. Hope you enjoy reading it.

With that said I have been spending an unreasonable amount of time tinkering with the Windows 7 Beta and will post soon about the mainly good and not very much bad. Darn it I can’t believe BSG is over…bring on Caprica!

Neil Berman

Fanboys line up here

theONbutton — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:55:14 +0000

The fantastic Fanboys opened this weekend in the US. With lines like “Get the hell off my land you Kirk-loving Spock-suckers” and “Darth Vader has asthma, name me one Star Trek character with a respitory disease”, Fanboys is the ultimate sci-fi comedy road trip.

Set in 1998, a crew of Star Wars fanboys set off for Skywalker Ranch to steal a viewing of Episode 1 before their dying friend passes away. Their journey takes them through Java The Hutt in Austin Texas, fights with Trekkies at Kirk’s birthplace in Iowa and a Trek-Kon in Vegas where one of the crew decides he’s “female kryptonite”.

Cameos by Carrie Fisher (played Leia), Billy Dee Williams (played Lando) and William Shatner (played Kirk) complete a hilarious motion picture. If you can’t wait for Terminator and Trek in May, Fanboys is a fab Feb film.

Neil Berman

Windows 7 Beta Review

theONbutton — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:44:42 +0000

I’ve been eager to give the Windows 7 Beta a workout following the demos I saw at CES.

My living room Media Center PC was an ideal candidate. It’s a three year old Pentium 4 which takes care of all our viewing, media and browsing needs on Windows XP Media Center 2005. Microsoft has claimed that Windows 7 is a streamlined OS capable of running on lower spec hardware than Vista, it’s time to see if that’s really true…

Test environment

For reference my PC is running a 2.93GHz P4 with 3GB DDR400 RAM, 500GB hard disk and a low end Geforce 7200GS. Not the most scintillating system by modern standards and probably equivalent to a $250 purchase these days from the refurbished inventory of e-tailers. The version of Windows 7 Beta I have is Build 7000. I’ll refer to it as W7B in this article.

Installations never go smoothly…or do they?

Installation was initially nerveracking but ultimately painless. Nerveracking because I had to split a live primary partition into two, to create a boot partition for the new OS. Painless because once Linux GParted had done its partitioning stuff, Windows 7 Beta installed in superfast time, restarting a couple of times and then it was done. I had backed up my XP partition to another drive just in case, but fortunately all went according to the masterplan and W7B automatically created a dual-boot environment for me. XP booted just like before and I so was all set for my W7B test.

Stopwatch at the ready

The first thing I noticed was a faster boot time. This could have been due to having a fresh install so I initially reserved judgement on that one. However now that three weeks has passed and I’ve installed everything I’m likely to for a while, the swift boot-up lives on. It’s not a life changing improvement but in the region of ten seconds faster than my XP boot sequence once all startup items have completed.

Sounding off

All navigation elements were very responsive: Aero, widgets and snap-to-edge all performed well with no lag. But then I noticed there was no sound. W7B had found my motherboard’s SPDIF output but did not configure it correctly. A quick internet search revealed the latest Vista drivers which duly solved the issue. In fact I now get proper Dolby transmission and far more signal reaching my amp, which means having to apply less gain within the amp therefore achieving a better signal-to-noise ratio than with my XP setup.

Taskbar implemented cum laude

Taskbar, oh glorious taskbar. So much has been written of thee already, what can I add? This really is a great addition in W7B, I can envisage how well it could work once the touch interface gets enabled on the full release. Seeing thumbnail representations of an application’s open windows is a fantastic browsing aid. Being able to jump into application functions directly from thumbnail menus takes everything a step further. Best of all, the thumbnails are dynamic representations so if you are waiting for a window to complete a certain action you can hover over its taskbar icon to view its progress in the thumbnail.

CPU and Resource Management

Having an older spec PC presented a good opportunity to see how W7B would cope with average resources. In the initial days following installation I noticed some frantic CPU and disk activity, which I traced to Windows Media Player cataloging my music and video collection. Once that was done, CPU activity became XP-like whilst memory allocation was definitely smarter.

Like Vista, W7B was able to address all 3GB of RAM whilst my 32-bit XP build was never capable of this. W7B also supports ReadyBoost so I threw in a 4GB SDHC card and dedicated the whole thing to the OS. That’s a cheap 4GB at $10, although ReadyBoost doesn’t make use of flash cards in quite the same way as conventional RAM. However the combination keeps my paging file to a minimum and I’ve not experienced memory crunches.

Windows Firewall

The versions of Windows Firewall built into XP and Vista were never taken too seriiously by the security fraternity due their inability to block outbound traffic. So whilst others had difficulty reaching your computer, your computer could reach others…which is a pretty big risk given the amount of nasty malware out there. The W7B Firewall changes all that with firewall rules configurable for incoming and outgoing traffic. This could seriously hurt the likes of ZoneAlarm and others, who have thrived to date on the weakness of Windows Firewall. I run ZoneAlarm on my XP partition, but I haven’t needed to download it for my W7B setup so far.

Internet TV & Media Center

Ever since the touchscreen demo of W7B Media Center I saw at CES, I’ve been aching to try out the integration of Internet TV in the EPG. Until now we’ve needed to open a browser, navigate to NBC’s website, find the news page, find the video page and then start streaming the news. W7B changes this by putting content from nbc.com (and many others) right into the EPG so it’s accessible from within Media Center with the remote control.

The demo of this looked awesome and it’s just as good in my living room. Content takes a little while longer to access than regular TV channels, but it’s a heck of a great feature and the integration is seamless. News, concerts, full episodes are all available and free to access with occasional advertisements for some content.

Snap-to-side

Throwing a widow to the side of the screen results in W7B automatically resizing it to fill half the screen. This makes comparing documents or images super easy. Throwing to the top maximizes the window. Again it’s easy to see how these small but useful enhancements will make life easier once the touch version gets released.

What’s needs work?

Hmmm…I haven’t found anything yet inherent in W7B which consistently fails. My sound sometimes cuts out following a video call, which could be a driver issue. My computer wakes from standby mode much more often than it did in XP, probably due to some strange service which I might not need to be running. Skype is not yet fully compatible. There’s also a registry fix out there for .msi installers which fail – I had an issue installing Office 2007 and when the installer failed W7B automatically downloaded the fix article from Microsoft’s knowledge base…finally intelligent context sensitive help has arrived. After following the instructions in the article to update the problematic registry entry the installer worked.

A game-changer for Microsoft?

Apart from that the whole experience has just worked superbly and I’m happily running W7B as my everyday environment now. The Beta version expires on August 1st, so perhaps this hints at the possible release timing of the full version. Remember that the release version will hopefully be touch-enabled, so that will be a whole new ball-game, and from what I’ve seen so far Microsoft could hit a home run with this one.

Neil Berman

Sony Vaio P hands-on

theONbutton — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:52:17 +0000

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Windows 7 Beta new features hands-on

theONbutton — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:57:45 +0000

If you tried to download the Windows 7 Beta yesterday you may have been part of the huge demand which overwhelmed Microsoft’s download servers. Fear not, theONbutton is at hand with an exclusive video of many of the new Windows 7 Beta features to help you make up your mind…

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – MSI X320 differs from Macbook Air design by providing removable battery?

theONbutton — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:52:04 +0000

This is a shot of the underside of the MSI X320, which as we already know looks very very similar to the Macbook Air. However those of you salivating in anticipation of the X320 release may be even further encouraged by what appears to be a battery release catch. Thank you MSI for keepin it real and thinking of great design, real-life practicalities and the environment.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Blackberry Curve 8900 announced and fondled

theONbutton — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:25:40 +0000

Blackberry’s Curve has been a popular smartphone to date, balancing size, weight and features to good effect. The new Curve 8900 seeks to capitalize on its predecessor’s success, adding a 3.2MP camera, a Bold style screen and revised keyboard. The new Curve 8900 is due to be released in the US in February on T-Mobile, although with EDGE data only unlike the Bold which offers 3G on AT&T.

Gallery…

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Palm Pre wins CNET Best In Show

theONbutton — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:16:48 +0000

Could this be Palm’s come-back moment? Click the images for close-ups.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Images of CES 2009

theONbutton — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:24:49 +0000

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Asus CES 2009 booth walking tour including EEE Top

theONbutton — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:55:08 +0000

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – MSI booth walking tour including X320 and U115

theONbutton — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:36:42 +0000

MSI’s X320 is about as close as you’ll ever see to a Macbook Air without an Apple logo on the back of the screen. When the lid is closed the laptop is a dead ringer for the Cupertino model, aside from MSI’s black and white color models which accompany the silver one. The X320 should be released in the US in Q2 this year for under $1,000, sporting an Intel Atom and 13″ screen.

The U115 hybrid has a SSD and a traditional hard drive as well for mass storage. The spinning hard drive can be turned off for extended battery life, MSI claims up to 12 hours of total usage.

Note that the white X320 in the video is a mock-up concept.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Nokia N97 Hands-On

theONbutton — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:26:47 +0000

The Nokia N97 is one of the most exciting smartphones to emerge for a long time. Resembling an iPhone with a slide-out keyboard, the N97 is due to be released later this year. Here’s the video tour…

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – EEE Top is a recession buster for wanna-be-cool homes

theONbutton — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:29:57 +0000

Whilst some of the initial excitement of the EEE netbook range has started to wear off, the EEE Top is way cooler than I thought it would be.

For a start the device looks great in real life. The touch sensitivity is great and the stunning keyboard has a storage home behind the screen. In fact the entire product looks and feels like an Apple product.

The EEE Top has the Intel Atom guts of many a netbook, which means it’s a low energy user and it delivered responsive touch sensitive performance through Windows XP. An instant-on facility allows access to Firefox and Skype amongst other applications. This would be an extremely cool device to have dotted around the home.

Keep ‘em coming Asus, and next time give us a sweet graphics card inside for 1080 HD.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Sony brings out the stars for its keynote…and the Vaio P

theONbutton — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:02:19 +0000

Tom Hanks, Usher, Reggie Jackson and Dr. Oz all starred in Sir Howard Stringer’s Sony keynote this morning. Oh, and the Vaio P also appeared out of Sir Howard’s suit pocket for a brief outing. Gallery below…

theONbutton@CES – MIDs & UMPCs everywhere

theONbutton — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:40:20 +0000

UMID’s M1 is the cutest ultra-tiny-light MID I’ve seen so far. The 4.8inch screen needs to be close to your face, but the device is so light that it can easily be held for prolonged periods of time. The keyboard is usable, but in fact I found the keys have slightly too much travel for fast typing. The screen looks great however and is touch sensitive.

OQO’s model 2+ is awesome. Why? Because it has an awesome OLED screen, which is sooo bright and showed an HD video sooo well that I totally want one. $1,499 of ultra-light awesomeness. The non-OLED version starts at $999.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft Pre-CES Keynote

theONbutton — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:16:10 +0000

Steve might not have come on stage last night in a blazing storm, but his Keynote was packed with content, a frankly hilarious Xbox song from Tripod but unfortunately no Zune phone. Here’s a summary from the front row…

Windows 7 Beta available now to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Due to be available to everyone on Microsoft.com on Friday this week. I’ll write about it as soon as I find a spare PC…
Halo Wars (strategy game) and Halo 3 ODST (similar to current Halo 3 but with new storyline) were announced. See Halo Wars screenshots on today’s earlier post.
Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger and Photo Gallery have been packaged into Windows Live Essentials and will be preinstalled on Dell PCs, together with Live Search
Live Search will also be installed on Verizon Windows Mobile phones
Microsoft sees continued development and take-on of seamless communication between PC, TV, phone and the internet cloud
A partnership with Facebook now pushes Facebook updates to your Windows Live profile
Windows 7 cool features demo’d: Play To allows you to stream media to play on any device in your Homegroup or stream from them. Snap to side allows easy comparison of windows side by side. Multitouch looks pretty awesome for map and photo manipulation, but is not in the Beta build.
Kodu Xbox 360 online community game creator was demo’d and looks like a lot of fun.
Netflix queue control from Windows Mobile phones is coming soon.
Internet Explorer 8 will hook-in with Hotmail to provide add-ins such as restaurant finders, whose results can be inserted directly into emails.

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Halo Wars Screenshots

theONbutton — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:37:29 +0000

Here are some first-look screenshots from Halo Wars for your deeelectation and deeelite, following Steve Ballmer’s announcement of the game in last night’s Microsoft keynote. Enjoy…

Neil Berman

theONbutton@CES – Internet TV and 3D HD in your home

theONbutton — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:00:57 +0000

Common themes from Samsung and Panasonic today were internet enabled TVs and 3D HD viewing.

Internet TV is a great idea, although possibly

Panasonic has partnered with Amazon and Picasa as well as other content providers

hampered by the different content partnerships each vendor has chosen. For example Samsung has paired up with flickr whilst Panasonic has gone with Picasa. Both offer good content but neither offers the universality of choice available on the internet as a whole. Some kind of common platform would be great to provide standardization and greater availability of content across vendors.

Samsung hosted a Q&A today

3D HD is a totally different proposition. The idea of coming home and putting on the Jaws 3D glasses is just simply not appealing. Plus for the significant percentage of people who either wear glasses already or can’t see 3D drawings, this might be more a curse than blessing due to the hassle of the whole viewing experience. Anyhoo this something which is surely coming, and Panasonic announced today that it is creating 3D Blu-ray authoring studios in Hollywood.

Neil Berman

Apple fortifies home offerings whilst competitors journey to the cloud

theONbutton — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:19:14 +0000

Apple’s keynote at Macworld 2009 this morning was surprising. After rumors suggesting a possible iPhone Nano and much needed new iMacs, we were instead given an in-depth look into feature updates on largely non-web-service software and an updated Macbook whose battery design sounds as problematic for environment as its servicing does for remotely located owners.

On a positive note it’s great to hear that iTunes is going DRM-free and that the new 17″ Macbook Pro will be offered without a glossy screen, albeit for an extra $50. The celebrity music lessons on GarageBand also sound cute.

For me there were two worrying trends in this keynote:

1. Apple continues to concentrate on non-web-service productivity software when Microsoft, Google and the IT industry as a whole continues to press on towards online web services such as Microsoft Office Web and Google Docs. Apple is missing out on extending its application reach to Windows users by doing this. iWork.com seems to be solely an online document sharing facility for local iWork users.

2. Apple continues to concentrate on extremely powerful computers in relation to the market as a whole; even its base Macbooks are far more powerful than mid-range Vista laptops (which are cheaper). This makes me concerned that when (the apparently very fast) Windows 7 gets released the value differential between Windows and Apple laptops will widen further, as Windows 7 will run well on cheap low power computers.

Enhancements like geotagging in iPhoto are nice for the small user-base they serve, but they don’t really extend Apple’s reach into Windows homes compared to say Picasa which is on offer for both Mac and Windows (as well as Linux) platforms. I can’t help feeling that Apple is moving further towards high power local computing which might not be recession-proof, whilst the market as a whole is gravitating towards a more inclusive low power cloud model which also happens to be more recession-friendly.

Neil Berman

AT&T Fuze / HTC Touch Pro P4600 review

theONbutton — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:14:28 +0000

Last year I wrote about the HTC TyTN, which was later superceded by the TyTN II (AT&T Tilt) as the daddy of all productivity smartphones. Since then HTC has moved on with its Touch range which aim to turn up the style, which was a bit lacking in the TyTN series.

Of the three new Touch models (Diamond, Pro and HD) the Pro is the closest successor to the TyTN range with its slide out keyboard. I will make comparisons along the way to the Samsung Epix, which does a similar job in a very different style.

Picking up the Fuze is an altogether different experience to the Tilt it replaced. HTC has taken everything good about the TyTN range and made it sleeker. The all glass look is smart and the back cover has the beautiful angled surface first seen on the Touch Diamond.

One backwards step compared to the Tilt is the reduced number of buttons on the front of the Fuze. Whilst instant access application buttons are present on the keyboard like the Samsung Epix, the Fuze makes you either slide out the keyboard or use screen presses like the iPhone. Whilst this is not a huge problem it does make the Epix feel like a quicker phone to navigate.

The other significant change from the Tilt is that the Fuze loses the tilting screen, which seemed like a fragile but useful feature on its predecessor.

The Fuze feels mightily more petite to hold than the Tilt, but still a tad chunky in its depth to accommodate the keyboard. Overall it looks smaller than the Blackberry Bold or the Samsung Epix but the Fuze’s 6oz weight makes the 4.4oz Epix less bulky in a pocket.

The Fuze has a more useful keyboard than the TyTN series and most other smartphones. There are now five rows of keys, which reduces combination presses to a minimum. The keys also have a positive feel, which aids typing speed.

For those who like to work outdoors, the Fuze’s screen is far brighter than the Tilt’s. I’m writing this outside in full-on New York bright winter sunshine. You don’t get much color contrast, but at least you can see what you’re doing.

The Fuze’s big screen advance is its resolution which, at 640×480, is simply spectacular. The only comparison worth making is to the Blackberry Bold, whose screen is of similar quality.

The TyTN series packed a powerful punch for its time and the Fuze hits even harder. The Fuze has a whopping 0.5GB of ROM for Windows Mobile to play around with. Pair that up with a 528MHz processor and you have a device which flies along. At one point I had 15 applications open simultaneously and the Fuze just kept going. Operating system navigation is very responsive and AT&T’s Cellular Video streams well, as long as you have good 3G coverage.

There is also a MicroSD card slot which can handle cards up to 32GB to satisfy your thirst for videos/music/photos/applications. MicroSD cards are now pretty cheap, I saw an 8GB card recently for $18. However the Fuze loses brownie points for hiding it’s card slot under the back cover, unlike the TyTN which had exposed access on the side of the phone like the Samsung Epix.

The Fuze comes with Opera Mobile as the default browser. This does a good job and offers multiple tabs and good finger control, but still plays second fiddle to Safari on the iPhone. This is partly due to the iPhone’s larger screen and also because Safari renders pages better overall in my opinion.

HTC has enhanced its TouchFlo interface to ‘3D’ status with the inclusion of some nice widgets which make navigation very finger-friendly. The email and music screens look good and scrolling through text messages and photos is great as one item is swept away to make room for the next.

Battery life on the Fuze is only average, with a charge required on a nightly basis following moderate usage. Regular video streaming eats battery time, as does constant surfing although I did find that a full day of battery life is realistic with sensible usage.

The Fuze ships with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which means you get Office Mobile, Windows Media Player and Windows Live. In addition to Messenger the phones also have IM clients for AIM and Yahoo and you can install third party applications to give access to more services. Google Maps, AvantGo and Skype were one-click installs.

Overall the Fuze is a great smartphone. In day to day usage I can’t decide if I prefer the trick TouchFlo 3D interface, sleek looks and amazing screen of the Fuze over the faster front panel key and mouse navigation of the Samsung Epix. There is a popular perception that touch is the way foward, but if reactions to the iPhone have told us anything it’s that people still want keyboards.

If you’re looking for a Windows Mobile smartphone then the Fuze does a great job, however if you prefer buttons to fingers it’s worth checking out the Samsung Epix too.

Neil Berman

Are Windows 7 pre-Beta success stories responsible for Atom notebook rumors?

theONbutton — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:58:06 +0000

Today’s rumors that HP is discussing the possibility of using Atom CPUs for notebooks as well as existing netbooks is interesting for two reasons. Firstly we have not seen the Atom in any laptops with >12″ screens, but secondly and more importantly I think this could be an indicator of confidence in early Windows 7 tests.

We have already seen Windows 7 running on an Asus EEE PC, and early impressions of the next-gen OS have been extremely positive for a stage so early in the pre-release phase.

So what does it mean if HP really is talking to Intel about supplying the Atom for notebooks?

Performance for netbook -style tasks should be fine on Windows 7, given initial performance tests against Vista and XP, which means browsing, non-HD video viewing, basic office/productivity tasks are all in scope.

Battery life should skyrocket, if the netbook crowd can be used as a benchmark. My Wind gets over five hours in real-life usage and the only significant additional power drain on a notebook is a larger screen…but they also offer more real-estate for housing a larger battery. Could full working-day battery operation from a large-screen laptop become a mainstream reality?

The concept is good news for organizations with a mobile/flexible-working workforce and a thin-client infrastructure.

Many consumers may only need low processing power as we move towards a web-based services computing model (eg. web-mail/photo/music/productivity apps). They might trade notebook HD movie editing capabilities for longer battery life in real life usage…however this would require a sea change in marketing tecniques where high power specs aim to sell a life-changing experience. It is probably a ‘Greener’ sell though, which could lead to Atom-based notebooks being more fashionable that more energy-hungry models.

Time will tell if anything comes of this, but when I put together the early Windows 7 success stories with rumors of HP talking to Intel about the Atom then it does all start to come together…in my hopeful mind!

Neil Berman

Samsung Epix SGH-i907 – Blackjack’s big brother is an Ace

theONbutton — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:30:10 +0000

Samsung’s Blackjack II recently topped Consumer Report’s January 2009 smartphone ratings, beating both the iPhone and G1. So this as unsung hero gets its due reward it’s time to check out its new big brother, the Epix.

Looking around the Samsung Epix SGH-i907

The Epix shares a family resemblance with the Blackjack and has a traditional keyboard below screen layout. The keyboard can be extensively customized to give instant access to your favorite applications, which is great for people who like instant access rather than wading through screens or menus to find applications. Soft keys sit under the large 320×320 haptic and touch sensitive screen and a volume rocker is on the left side. The Epix feels good to hold, slightly heavier than the Blackjack II at 4.4oz, but lighter than the iPhone, G1 and Fuze.

On the media front, the rear houses a decent 2MP camera which also takes videos. Unfortunately there is no flash or light. There is a proprietary charging/headphone port, but the Epix offers stereo bluetooth connectivity so having annoying wires dangling around is not really a concern. If you must stay wired in to satisfy some kind of 20th century nostalgia then there is an adaptor in the box.

The optical trackpad and other specs of the Samsung Epix SGH-i907

The real innovation of the Epix lives in the middle of the front of the phone – there’s an optical trackpad to aid one-handed use…and it’s awesome.

The trackpad is similar to the design on Samsung’s Omnia, but the superior placement on the Epix makes it an amazingly efficient way to navigate. Steer with thumb impulses, click with a press and hold down to display context sensitive menus. Sweet. Precision is so good that the stylus is unlikely to get much use. The trackpad can also be converted to a four way directional pad if desired.

The Epix is a powerhouse compared to the BlackjackII, packing a 624MHz processor, 25MB ROM and 128MB RAM. It also has expansion capability via now-cheap MicroSD cards up to 32GB to satisfy your thirst for home videos/music/photos/applications. The MicroSD slot is on the right hand side of the phone for easy access.

A big contributor to the total weight of the phone is the battery, and being a 3G device with a fast CPU the Epix needs need all the juice it can get. In my mixed tests of light surfing, background IM, stereo bluetooth in transit and a limited amount of calls, the Epix easily managed a full day and two might be possible with bluetooth off. Beyond that a charge will be required.

Using the Samsung Epix SGH-i907

The Epix ships with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which means you get Office Mobile, Windows Media Player and Windows Live. In addition to Messenger the phone also has IM clients for AIM and Yahoo and you can install third party applications to give access to more services.

Google Maps, AvantGo and Skype were one-click installs as were Opera Mobile and Skyfire to provide options for the aging Internet Explorer. The Epix is easily powerful enough to run several applications simultaneously. I had no difficulty sync’ing 1,500 AvantGo pages whilst walking down the street streaming music over bluetooth with IM and email active in the background.

The Epix can be used to access AT&T’s Cellular Video service. So if you have the right plan or are prepared to pay then you get access to news, sports and entertainment from the likes of CNN, ESPN and Comedy Central. The quality is pretty good as long as you are in an area with good 3G coverage.

The Epix has WiFi b/g is onboard, which is useful for Skype but for most other applications AT&T’s 3G network proved almost as fast. The Epix can be tethered for use as a modem if you have the appropriate data plan. There’s also GPS onboard.

What’s not so hot about the Samsung Epix SGH-i907

What didn’t I like about the Epix? Well although the screen is big it pales in comparison to the resolution of the HTC Touch Pro’s, but then so do most other cellphone screens at the moment. Squeezing VGA (and beyond) resolution into cellphone screens is definitely the way forward.

The 2MP camera takes good shots and videos were also good enough for occasional usage, but 3-5MP is quickly becoming the norm. I don’t see any need for cellphones to replicate the compact camera megapixel wars (although this is inevitable) but Samsung should roll out the higher quality cameras now present in some of its other top end phones.

Whilst we are on the wish list, although 3G cellphones need big batteries it would still be nice to get back to the Blackjack II’s weight.

Is the Samsung Epix SGH-i907 a smart phone?

In summary the Epix is a great smartphone whose powers of endearment outweigh its ordinary appearance. It’s an Ace follow-up to the Blackjack II.

Neil Berman

iMac Sales Plunge, Apple Slashes Refurb Macbook Air to $1,149

theONbutton — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:17:58 +0000

It’s been a week that Apple fans will want to forget. NPD reported that Apple sales for November were flat year on year whilst Windows PCs gained 7%, iMac sales collapsed by 38% whilst Windows desktops fell only 15% and Apple announced that the company will stop attending Macworld after the 2009 show. Apple laptop sales rose 22% compared to 15% for Windows laptops.

What does this mean for Apple? Most likely something needs to be done…and pretty fast. Apple has responded by slashing prices of its refurbished models, a move likely aimed at removing the carrying costs of old inventory. Macbook Airs are available for $1,149 on Apple’s US website at the time of writing. Deep reductions are offered across other lines as well and online stores are offering serious discounts on new models. After a while this discounting could erode the premium perception of the brand and hurt Apple retail store sales, which are typically made at full price.

Netbooks captured the the public's imagination in 2008

This may be a short term band-aid to improve working capital, but Apple needs to look deeper at its product line and offer models at prices which relate to the current economy. The company has been too late in coming to the Netbook market, which exploded with colossal growth this year following the arrival of the Asus EEE in late 2007. Apple needs a Netbook quickly, and it will need to compete with the quality of the MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One and Asus EEE range, which all sell for around $300-400.

Steve Jobs said that “We don’t know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk.” Well Apple might have to learn how. Five hundred dollars is now premium Netbook territory as prices have been falling throughout 2008.

I expect that if Apple enters the market they would choose the $600-800 range with a couple of configurations. They need this because Macbooks are no longer the coolest laptops to pull out of your bag…Netbooks are. A glance at the Amazon bestseller list shows Netbooks occupying slots which Macbooks used to live in.

The MSI Wind Netbook was one of the most hotly anticipated products of 2008. Can Apple introduce its own competitor to stop the rising Windows sales?

Whilst Macbooks used to be the laptop of choice for Manhattan coffee shop outings, Netbooks now get the curious admiring looks. In an America looking to downsize cars, energy usage and spending, Netbooks are the Prius of today’s laptop showroom.

Clearly the slowdown in the economy has affected Apple as a seller of premium products. It also seems that Apple’s negative advertising campaign throughout 2008 against PCs may have not had the positive sales effect Apple was hoping for. In fact the plunging iMac sales figures indicate that Apple might have done better through a positive campaign promoting the benefits of the iMac compared to Windows desktops. It may be that consumers simply were unable to identify a positive value of spending the extra bucks on an iMac, which is a classic outcome of a negative advertising campaign, unless the competing product is seen as truly worthless. Clearly not the case in this instance as iMac sales plunged 23% more than Windows desktop sales.

Whilst I think Apple will pull through, it needs to revitalize its line-up to be attractive in today’s economy. And hopefully that revitalization effort will give us reasons to buy Macs, instead of reasons not to buy PCs. I want to want Macs for good reasons, not because I’m told the competition is bad.

Neil Berman

Sony promises to increase prices, meanwhile Dell offers PS3 for $319.99

theONbutton — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:01:41 +0000

Now here’s a good holiday deal. If you’ve been waiting for Sony to drop the price of the PS3 you may need to wait a little longer. But…if you head on over to Dell’s US website pretty sharpish you can snag one for 20% off for a limited time. Not sure if that will help Sony catch the monthly sales of 2 MILLION Wiis shipped in November alone, but it might help prolong the PS3’s agony a little longer…especially as how it was crushed 2 to 1 by the XBox 360 and 5 to 1 by the Wii last month. NPD’s reported sales figures for Nov were Wii: 2,040k units, Xbox 360: 836k units, PS3: 378k units.

Interestingly the ratio of Xbox 360 sales to PS3 in October was 1.87 to 1, whilst in November the 360 pulled ahead to 2.21 to 1, probably due to the price cut. Microsoft clearly doesn’t need to do much to ward off the PS3 anymore, rather it seems to have it’s eyes on the Wii’s spot instead…although I can’t see it happening in this console generation. It’s sure turned out different to the way we all thought back in 2005 though, the Playstation franchise needs something big now and these days Sony is in big trouble.

Back on the home front, I’ve been nurturing an ever-growing addiction to Halo 3 on the XBox 360. I have been joining the faithful army of online Spartans and when I say army, think mass hordes…there are typically 250-300,000 Halo 3 gamers online each evening, US time.

Helping to make all this happen for me is a new Trendnet router. Replacing a Trendnet 108mbps b/g, this 300mbps b/g/n speed demon has gigabit ethernet and flies along with rock-like stability. Installation was a breeze, but pretty please Trendnet next time add a MAC address import feature; typing in all those addresses gets tiring!

I’ve also been giving the new HTC Touch Pro (at&t Fuze, the one the half gig ROM and 288mb RAM) and Samsung i907 (at&t Epix, the one with the optical mouse) a good workout recently…reviews to follow shortly. Suffice to say they’re not too shabby.

Neil Berman

Microsoft in attempt to reduce its own market share?

theONbutton — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:31:12 +0000

Announcing its new version of Internet Explorer 6 for Windows Mobile, Microsoft made a curious statement that existing users will not be able to download the browser to their phone.

The browsing experience is at the forefront of the fiercely competitive smartphone battleground. iPhone’s market sector leading Safari has been facing recent competition from RIM’s recent Storm, whilst the Windows Mobile market has Opera Mini/Mobile, Skyfire and the upcoming Firefox release.

Microsoft claims that a 500MHz processor is required for IE6 Mobile, which is worrying, but fine for many phones on the market such as the recent HTC Touch Pro and Samsung Epix. Microsoft will be shipping the new browser in new releases in China, starting with the Samsung Omnia.

So by not offering IE6 as a download their market share is likely to decline in other regions, as Opera and Skyfire are so far ahead of the current WinMo IE. To my mind this is self-destructive, giving competitors free reign to reduce Microsoft’s market share even though it has a product available to distribute.

Neil Berman

Blackberry Storm Quick Hands-on Review

theONbutton — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:47:09 +0000

Reasons to like the Storm:

SurePress screen is 100% better to type on than the iPhone’s static glass

Smaller than the Bold with a great screen size

Decent for the Internet compared to the Bold…

Reasons to wish they’d worked a bit harder:

…as long as you wait a looooong time for the page to complete loading. Storm Internet speed is crushed by iPhone and Opera on WinMo.

SurePress screen is 100% worse to type on than the Bold/Fuze/Epix/most things

Slower than any smartphone I’ve used recently…right up to the moment it crashed

Neil Berman

CES 2009 Preview: Manhattan November 11, 2008

theONbutton — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:48:24 +0000

CEA presented some interesting research at this week’s CES 2009 preview in Manhattan. Their surveys were conducted within the last month, so the results are right up to date.

Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of CEA

Unsurprisingly CEA identified that consumer sentiment is the lowest in 15 years and predicts holiday spending down 14 percent at $1,437 per person compared to $1,671 per person in 2007. Additionally CEA found that one in four consumers is adopting a wait and see approach, which will likely make it harder to determine how much people are really spending until later this year.

The good news however for the consumer electronics sector is that CEA believes the allocation of CE gift spending is growing. Additionally consumers are more willing to eliminate home decor, furniture and sporting goods expenditure than CE spending.

What’s the reason for this? CEA believes that consumer electronics are becoming so integral to our lives across a growing age range that CE expenditure is becoming less discretionary. In fact some CE items are viewed as cost saving investments as families spend on ‘cocooning’ themselves at home in surround sound instead of blowing $50+ on a family outing to the cinema.

Later in the proceedings George Kliavkoff stepped onto the podium to announce for NBC that the Today show, Power Lunch, Access Hollywood and Nightly News would all broadcast live from CES 2009. Steve Mosko announced for Sony that a 25th anniversary filming of Jeopardy will take place at CES. The announcements make it increasing likely that the January expo will marry up platform and content providers more closely than ever.

Neil Berman

Mac users finally get Netflix instant viewing, caught thanking Microsoft

theONbutton — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:50:07 +0000

Netflix is now offering instant viewing to Apple users…and the Mac version, unlike the Windows one, is powered by Microsoft Silverlight. Today’s Apple experience is defined by the strength of its multimedia offerings and its increasingly bitter negative advertising campaign towards Microsoft. So it is perhaps the ultimate irony for Mac users that to enjoy Netflix’s industry leading video player we have to rely on downloading Microsoft’s Silverlight first.

On a related note Xbox 360 owners who are Netflix subscribers are the first to get Netflix HD shows. Since current 360s all have Dolby 5.1, 1080i/p HDMI and Media Center extensibility for live TV streaming that makes the now-oh-so-cheap Arcade version a $199 bargain imho. And it plays games. If you’re quick you can get the 20gb hard drive for very very little from Microsoft too.

Neil Berman

BlackBerry Flips Out

theONbutton — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:44:06 +0000

Following on from BlackBerry’s dominance of the corporate market, RIM has recently been turning its attention to retail consumers. RIM is positioning its BlackBerry Curve and Bold as complete work/play devices and the Pearl Flip 8220 under review here goes in a different direction; it’s a BlackBerry for those who want a cellphone which doesn’t looks like a BlackBerry.

Compact for a BlackBerry

The Flip’s compact form is made possible by RIM’s two-letters-on-a-key Qwerty system, called SureType. The keyboard allows the Flip to be very compact, although the base is quite thick. The clamshell flip design means that the screen also has to be smaller than a regular BlackBerry. The familiar BlackBerry trackball is also present. Closing the phone reveals a good looking lid housing the camera and exterior screen. This is definitely the Flip’s best angle.

What’s it like in use?

In use, I really noticed the reduction in screen size. Where the Curve is good for email and the Pearl is just fine, the Flip requires a lot of scrolling to view long messages. But it does work, and if you prefer SMS or short instant messages to email, then the screen would not be a problem.

The keypad is responsive and SureType works well for me. The trackball is mounted a bit low for my liking though. There’s just not enough contact area compared to the Pearl and as a result large amounts of scrolling can turn into hard work.

The Flip’s internet browser loaded mobile sites fairly slowly and when a page is ready the trackball performs as a useful mouse pointer. The map application was even slower unfortunately, almost to the point of being unusable.

Call quality was fine and the Flip has bluetooth for headset hook-ups.

Should you get one?

The BlackBerry Flip is pretty on the outside and sometimes frustrating on the inside. It is definitely a compromise, but it looks great and if for a light data user it might be a good call.

Neil Berman

Speaking Of Glossy Screens…

theONbutton — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:15:11 +0000

Here’s one that got it right:

This, for all you daywalkers, is a MSI Wind in full-on sunlight. And here is how it compares with a glossy-screened Acer Aspire One (which is switched on, honestly):

…and with some general non-sunny window reflections:

…and compared directly to the Wind below with non-sunny reflections. It’s worth noting that the Aspire One actually has a really nice LED backlit screen, it’s just that the Wind has the best screen I’ve ever seen on a notebook.

The Wind works if you’re a daywalker – and it’s also a little cheaper than one particular newly-announced-glossy-screened laptop. Ye pays yer money…

Neil Berman

Early Report Card: New MacBook & MacBook Pro

theONbutton — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:37:06 +0000

Outperforming

Trick new trackpad looks lush. I never used the button on mine anyway…bring on the finger contortions.

Thinner MacBook looks great

New GPUs should be cracking

Price drop for white chassis is welcome

Needs Improvement

Price rise to $1599 for the top end MacBook doesn’t sit well with the sinking economy

Glossy screens are awful. At home, in the sun, on the plane unless you’re an isle seat lover.

$1299 buys less CPU power than $999…?

New MBP’s wide black screen bezel put to shame by old MBP

Need to log-off to change video modes eh…? Sony does it better with Vista. Now that’s a bag of hurt.

Pictures to follow in due course…

Neil Berman

Chevy Camaro looks awesome in NBC’s ‘My Own Worst Enemy’

theONbutton — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Tonight’s premiere of My Own Worst Enemy on NBC sent a message to the Mustangs & Challengers on the street…the Camaro is on its way and it looks fantastic.

Neil Berman

Times have changed since King Arthur’s Roundtable

theONbutton — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:41:18 +0000

Is this the answer to travel expenses which accounting departments have been waiting for?

As the economy falters and technology gets cheaper, voice and video conferencing become even more appealing.

Conference calls, the ever present enabler of virtual teams, are great. They allow coworkers from around the world to work together more easily, aid flexible working hours across timezones and, in the consumer market, help families get together through apps like Skype.

Conference calls, the ever present confuser of global communications, can also be problematic. They can result in mixed messages and confusion, often because you can’t see the other participants who, (to make matters worse) could be muted or away from the phone.

Videoconferencing systems aim to alleviate this, normally with a screen mounted camera pointing at a room of participants. Whilst this gives a picture, it can be a struggle to enjoy clear engagement with everyone in the room. More sophisticated systems such as HP’s Halo try to ‘put’ virtual participants in the same custom built room at significant cost – Halo installations start at $249,000 plus running expenses.

Cue the Microsoft Roundtable. This curious looking device aims to provide a more active videoconferencing experience at a reasonable price.

Fortunately it’s the Roundtable doing the active bit, not you. Whilst the base resembles a typical conference phone design with mics pointing in different directions, it’s at the top that things get interesting.

Cameras mounted at the base of the mirrors can be directed automatically at talking participants

Hiding under the dust cover are cameras pointing at angled mirrors. This means that from a central location the Roundtable can get a good 360 view. Better still, the cameras are motorized so they can be directed at individual participants. Killer app? The Roundtable can focus the screen image on whoever is talking. Sweet.

In practise it works really well, operating as the daddy of all webcams when paired up with Office Communicator 2007 or the 2007 version of Office Live Meeting. Speech and video over IP came through clearly on the occasions I’ve seen it in action and the directional cameras are an elegant solution to the ‘everyone face the screen’ problem.

It’s still fairly expensive at $3000 but compared to air travel for a couple of team members it represents a collaboration upgrade to business class for the whole group. So look out for this coming to a meeting room near your cubicle soon if your company can afford it. Question is for the benefits it brings to virtual teamworking, can companies afford not to?

Neil Berman

SonyEricsson Xperia X1 goes for an outing in Knight Rider

theONbutton — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:27:38 +0000

If old-skool Knight Rider was about the Hoff and Kitt against the bad guys with Bonnie, Devon and a truck providing trackside support, this week’s upcoming season premiere is slightly different.

Michael, assisted by a Mustang GT500KR embodied Kitt, rolls into action with a battalion of dudes & dudettes in bunkers (including Billy from BSG) and a gazillion gadgets. Leaving aside Kitt’s transformations into various forms, including the new Ford F150 twin cab, SonyEricsson’s forthcoming Xperia X1 makes a brief appearance. No panels this time, just the biggest font SMS ever. I’m pretty sure I also spotted Gateway’s One on someone’s desk sitting unbranded in it’s sleek and shiny black glory; I haven’t seen one of those anywhere since CES in January.

The pilot earlier this year hinted that Kitt would be able to transform into different shapes, growing a rear spoiler at the end of that airing. This week’s season premiere goes a bit further and there will probably be some mixed opinions; we’re in way out fantasy land with this series. Works for me…although jumping into the back of an F150 and ending up in the front seat of a Mustang is a big ask for any audience.

You can make up your mind on September 24th or grab it quick at NBC or Hulu.

Neil Berman

Shiny Stereo Stars: Motorola S805 Review

theONbutton — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:24:41 +0000

Ban the wires from your bod with these

I’ll try to keep this short for reasons which will become apparent. Bluetooth headphones are all the rage at the moment with big hitters like Jabra, Plantronics and Motorola selling several models in different formats. Recent sets have even included a dog tag design. There have also been some high end designs from the likes of Sony and Motorola. I’ve got my mitts on the Motorola S805 DJ headset, let’s see what its like.

Control buttons are large and easy to press

First impressions of the Motorola S805

The S805s are closed back style headphones with nice ‘n soft ear pads and a cushioned adjustable head band. The black finish looks smart rather than showy and the fit on my head is snug rather than heavy or tight.

On the left earpiece is a call button and track skip rocker, the right earpiece has a play/pause button, volume rocker and mic. There’s a charging port under the left ear alongside a wired headphone port for use with the supplied 3.5mm adaptor so you can listen to non bluetooth sources. There’s also a semi-hard travel case in the box.

So that means stereo bluetooth audio (A2DP) with playback control (AVRCP), bluetooth hands free with seamless music integration and non-bluetooth wired audio.

Pairing the Motorola S805

Wired headphone port sits next to charging port

Pairing to my HTC S620 was straightforward with the phone detecting both hands free and stereo audio profiles. As with many bluetooth headsets various things started lighting up blue at this point. Thankfully Motorola understood that S805 owners are buying into a sound rather than sci-fi experience, so the cyborg-looking lights can be easily disabled.

Using the Motorola S805

Hands free conversations come through well, with minimal background noise as with most modern bluetooth headsets and voice dialling is also supported.

Music playback just works beautifully. On my HTC s620 I called up a playlist in Windows Media Player, put the phone in my bag and controlled the rest from the S805s. Sweet. Tunes come banging out of these cans so hard you think you’re in a Detroit club. Basslines are solid, treble comes through clearly and I had no dropouts unlike the otherwise excellent Logitech Freepulse. The S805s even paired to the Freepulse’s headphone output bluetooth transmitter so I was able to watch TV without using the S805’s wired connection.

The soft earpads are comfortable for extended use

That’s not to say they’re the last word in headphones. In a wired listening test against my reference Beyer DT250s the Beyers deliver a significantly better performance in terms of frequency reproduction and sound stage. In a fairer wired test against the more consumer oriented Beyer DT231 Galactic, the S805s come out with a more open and balanced sound stage with clearer highs whilst the Galactics deliver more in the middle and lower frequencies. Both are easy to listen to without fatigue for decent amounts of time.

For those conscious to protect their hearing, the closed back design provides useful passive background isolation allowing for comfortable low volume listening…and conveniently protects your ears from the cold which is an added bonus for East Coast winters.

The bad news? They’re DJ-style big cans which is a question of personal taste and they’re bag rather than pocket friendly.

Is the Motorola S805 a stereo star?

The good news? Overall the S805s are awesome and worth the money as a high-end accessory for any music-loving owner of a stereo bluetooth cellphone. Fortunately at the time of writing the S805s were available at several retailers for less than the (deep breath) $249 MSRP. In fact I saw them on sale in short supply for a lot less than that at Amazon and Buy.com. Nuff said, get that plastic armed and ready.

Neil Berman

Apple’s Let’s Rock turns out to be Easy Listening

theONbutton — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:40:48 +0000

Excitement was high in the blogosphere ahead of today’s Let’s Rock press conference by Apple.

New MacBooks have been on the rumor mill for some time, as the current black and white 13 inchers still haven’t had a chassis refresh. The subject of an Apple netbook entry continues to inspire imaginations and the initial PR push on enterprise iPhone adoption has gone all but silent.

After a summer of problematic product launches Apple needed something to restore its image to the faithful. It chose to play it safe, avoiding significant launches in favor of evolutionary product updates.

iPod Nanos get thinner (meh) with a larger screen and cover flow (seen it already). The 8GB version is $149, which is about $120 more than a 8GB micro SDHC card if your music phone happens to accept them as legal music hosting tender.

iPhone firmware goes to 2.1, which may mean it just might work this time?

iTunes goes to 8.0 with a new genius (it’s now genius vs guru in the Apple vs Microsoft battleground) feature which intelligently suggests playlists for you (nice, but not sure I’d give away the precious genius title to a single-purpose feature). NBC comes back to play on iTunes, and in HD.

iPod Touch gets revised pricing and a new curvy chassis (meh). An accelerometer gets added, hopefully it’s more reliable than the one in the iPhone.

Has any of this rocked your world? Probably not, Apple is coming out of a difficult summer, so going back to fundamentals with some easy listening may be the best choice. After all music is our life’s foundation as the Pet Shop Boys once said.

Update one day later: Oops I did it again. What has happened to Apple’s quality control…?

Neil Berman

HTC Excalibur S620 / T-Mobile Dash Review

theONbutton — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:17:54 +0000

Brushed aluminum finish looks smart

HTC comes up with some great names for its cellphones. Diamond, Kaiser and Wizard have all figured in their recent line-up. The s620Excalibur looks a bit different from King Arthur’s mythical sword, but can it slay the competition in the same way?

What is the HTC s620?

The HTC s620 is sold in the US as the T-Mobile Dash.

Taking the HTC s620 out of the box it’s immediately obvious that this is one device which looks way better in real life than on the web. The Excalibur screams quality with a brushed aluminum and soft-feel black finish encasing a flush fitting screen. It’s light too at 130 grams. The battery cover hides the SIM and Micro SD card slots. Other specs include a 200MHz processor, WiFi b/g, EDGE (no HSPA unfortunately), Windows Mobile and of course the music loving stereo bluetooth.

Keypad has good tactile feedback

The controls of the HTC s620

The s620’s Blackberry style keyboard has tightly packed raised keys which illuminate blue when the phone’s backlight is on. The keys on these devices are always a matter of taste, personally I find the key on the s620 are okay with plenty of tactile feedback but inferior to HTC’s own TyTN and Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) with their wider and larger keys. The s620 could also do with a couple more assignable keys. There are ones for email, internet and the camera but I’d also like ones to assign to Windows Media Player, the connections manager and the task manager for easy application switching.

Which leads me to the JOGGR slidy-thing on the right side of the screen is a curious surface, which offers up/down controls as well as two assignable buttons. Some carriers choose to disable this control surface, which to be honest I can understand. It’s a great idea but too easy to brush it accidentally which can be annoying. Once I got the hang of the JOGGR it did become useful, but might be too fiddly to win fans during a five minute in-store test drive. I would have preferred a hardware wheel and buttons.

The screen on the HTC s620

Powering up the s620 illuminates the stunning 2.4 inch screen, which is a joy to use indoors and out.

2.4 inch screen is bright and sharp

Whilst not readable in direct sunlight, it is possible to use this phone outdoors on a bright day. The flush fitting screen gives a paper flat image, but is also very exposed if the cellphone in jiggling about in a pocket next to some keys. There was a protective belt holster in my box, which is a useful screen preserving accessory.

Running apps on the HTC s620

The version I’m using has Ricky Wyatt’s Windows Mobile 6 ROM with a few added extras taking it to 6.1 spec, such as the newer Windows Live client which does a great job of pushing mails to the device for certain web-based non-POP3 email clients. Another sweet tool on the ROM is an over/underclocking tool for the the 200MHz processor, which allows manually forced power saving and power enhancement. This is a great addition as most usage only needs 150MHz or so, which helps to extend battery life nicely. Running the s620 at this speed I was able to listen to music over stereo bluetooth and read the newspapers on AvantGo.

Other tasty morsels in this ROM include Opera Mini which works great on the s620 and Resco Explorer which is a good replacement for File Explorer. I also added Google Maps, which renders extremely quickly on the Excalibur compared to my TyTN and scarily pinpointed my location to within one city block.

Excalibur is size zero thin

The HTC s620 as a stereo Bluetooth media player

The sound performance of the s620 is up to HTC’s usual high standards overall. Sound quality from the earpiece and microphone both seem fine, although the speaker was a bit tinny and unlikely to break any cellphone records for bass response. The stereo bluetooth paired to Logitech’s Freepulse easily and sound quality was exceptionally clear, so you can give those wired headphones back to the twentieth century where they belong. The USB charging port doubles up as a headphone/hands-free port. Whilst there are adaptors available to let you use wired 3.5mm phones, you’ll probably prefer to stick with the stereo Bluetooth to avoid dangling wires…after all with a micro sd slot to play with, the s620 could store your entire music collection so you might as well look the business while you’re listening.

Battery life of the HTC s620

Battery life was good, and as always was influenced by the amount of wireless connectivity and data usage. Forcing the screen to dim quickly after periods of inactivity also helped. With mixed usage including some WiFi and EDGE data action, voice calls and listening to music over stereo Bluetooth I got just over one day before the Excalibur asked to be returned to the lake for some juice.

Can the Excalibur slay the competition?

The s620 is certainly a strong Windows Mobile cellphone, nay very strong when paired with some useful added software. At 130 grams with EDGE connectivity it competes directly with RIM’s Blackberry Curve, which ends in a tie for me with RIM’s solid messaging experience battling the huge Windows Mobile application development community. If you do go for the Excalibur though, it’s a worthy sword to have in the armory.

Neil Berman

Ricky Wyatt’s Excalibur ROM is available at XDA Developers. I do not recommend flashing a ROM onto your cellphone. Flashing a ROM onto your cellphone is done entirely at your own risk, can brick your phone, will most likely invalidate your warranty and might lead to a total freak-out if it goes horribly wrong!!

Thanks to Joan & Alan for this one.

MSI Wind / Advent 4211 Review

theONbutton — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:29:29 +0000

After a gust of initial promise, the MSI Wind blew into the US market in a flurry of overpricing, stock delays and battery shortages. Whilst the pricing still remains questionable, the stock situation has slowly improved. I managed to spend some time with the Advent 4211 clone in London this week to see if it was a full force tornado or just hot air.

Acer Aspire One on top of MSI Wind

Appearance of the MSI Wind

The Wind is one of the larger netbooks, not quite as ‘notebook looking’ as the Asus EEE 1000 but sizeable nonetheless. Sitting under the Acer Aspire One the MSI Wind shows a centimeter of clearance all round, which is not bad considering it boasts a full inch of extra screen space due to the Wind’s narrower bezel.

As for overall appearance, the MSI Wind looks OK. In Advent 4211 silver plastic guise it misses out on the eye catching looks of the EEE 1000 and Aspire One which are definitely a step ahead in the fashion stakes with their design details.

Keyboard and trackpad of the MSI Wind

Opening the lid reveals a good size keyboard with a smallish trackpad. The keys themselves sit up high and seem initially stodgy to press. Due to their angled sides they actually have a smaller contact area than the Acer Aspire One, which sit almost flat giving a sleeker look and for me a more reliable typing experience. The Wind’s keyboard is perfectly functional however and would be easy to adapt to. I wasn’t a fan of the right Shift key’s position and there is some empty space where MSI haven’t fully utilized all the available real estate.

The trackpad is responsive enough, but might ideally have been wider. It’s reminiscent of the first EEE PC, which had an even smaller square. The EEE 1000 definitely leads the netbooks in this regard with its lurvely multitouch pad.

Performance of the MSI Wind

The MSI Wind and Advent 4211 ship with Intel’s Atom N270, 1GB RAM, an 80GB hard drive and Windows XP Home, which took just under sixty seconds to boot and turn the egg timer into a full arrow. That’s passable, but this is a bare machine. I expect that once you install a firewall, antivirus, Skype and other apps which load at boot-up you’re probably looking at nearer ninety seconds plus another ten to lock on to a wireless router. By contrast the Linux Aspire One boots in eighteen seconds plus wireless lock-on time.

Once the MSI Wnd is up and running the Atom hustles along speedily enough for general uses with applications loading in acceptable if not lightning time. Again performance on the Aspire One Linux feels snappier with faster application load times. Music sounds reasonable through the built in speakers and the webcam puts in a good performance compared to some of the other current netbooks.

The screen is also nice enough too. I was expecting to be dazzled given early claims about its quality but it’s actually very similar to the Aspire One and EEE 1000 in terms of brightness and clarity, which is still a good thing. I was unable to test DVD playback as I did not have an external drive to hand.

The MSI Wind is well connected with three USB ports, ethernet, VGA, audio in/out and an SD card slot, although it lacks the Acer Aspire One’s second SD slot.

Did the MSI Wind blow me away?

So was I blown off my feet? Not quite. The MSI Wind is a nice netbook, it does everything well but just looks and feels a bit ordinary at $499 for the 3-cell version or a whopping $599 for the 6-cell. By contrast the Acer Aspire One XP is $349 and $449 for the 3 & 6-cell versions respectively and the longer lasting EEE 1000 is yours for $549. Last time I looked the Wind had fallen out of Amazon’s top 100 computing bestsellers, whilst the Acer Aspire One and Asus EEE 1000 were both in the top 5. Until MSI revises its pricing I have a feeling it might stay that way.

Neil Berman

www.thonbutton.com

Gallery:

Air India adds free charge

theONbutton — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:59:32 +0000

My recent trip in Air India economy turned out to be a sweet experience, not just due to the widescreen seatback screen and on-demand entertainment system. The airline had also added seatback USB power in my 777, which meant I could charge my PDA and write this on the way home. Bon voyage, literally.

Neil Berman

Safari 3 restores faith in Apple software releases

theONbutton — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:11:25 +0000

I was impressed by the Acer Aspire One’s surfing speed. It blew away other mobile devices I’d tried and it easily matched Firefox on my Macbook…Until Dan told me to try Safari 3. Yeesh does that browser fly! It feels a good 20% quicker than Firefox on the same Macbook, so Apple sure have done a good turbo retrofit. It’s good to see the company putting out a good product following in the tradition of MobileMe, iPhone 3G, OSX updates.

Neil Berman

www.theonbutton.com

Acer Aspire One Review

theONbutton — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:08:00 +0000

Following a false start worthy of the Olympics, Acer’s repair shop just delivered me a new Aspire One. My first Aspire One must have been so fried that it was not worth repairing, so take two begins…

Initial reactions to the Acer Aspire One

First impressions of the Acer Aspire One are just as before: great ultralight design, perfect keyboard, boots in under twenty seconds…but this time continue beyond five minutes as the WiFi connects swiftly and I’m off surfing in no time. I upgraded to Firefox 3 with this handy guide.

And that’s when it hit me: the Aspire One is loading pages faster than anything I own. I’m unable to pin it down to any one system element, but the combination of the Intel Atom, the SSD and Firefox running on Linpus Lite makes the internet scream on this baby. Way faster than my EEE 2G was, no comparison. Firefox’s full screen option makes the experience even better, taking advantage of all 8.9 LED backlit screen inches.

Using applications on the Acer Aspire One

I installed Skype and tried a video call. I told Skype to start video automatically and the webcam worked perfectly. My friend at the other end of the line in Tokyo could hear and see me clearly and I could hear him fine too. Again, the quality of the experience hit my old EEE for a home run…where I tended to reach for my Nokia N810 for Skype due to the 2G’s choppy chatter, the One was clear as a bell and it was handling the video well too.

The One also ships with several installed applications, such as OpenOffice, a media player and photo maanger, which together with the web browser may take care of most owners’ needs. Again, OpenOffice opened much faster than on my Asus EEE 2G and saved documents almost instantly. This Linux version running Linpus Lite ships with an 8GB SSD. If you need more storage there are two SD card slots, of which one allows an inserted card to show as a hard drive extension in the file manager. The second slot shows up as removable storage.

Typing on the Acer Aspire One

Unlike my EEE experience, I have been able to touch type naturally on the One. The keyboard is very usable with everything in the right place. I’ve also found the trackpad to be big enough, as long as you’re a tap-to-click type and not a button pusher. I would like Acer to have implemented a MacBook style double finger right-click tap, as right clicking requires moving off the trackpad to find the button. There is a dedicated button on the keyboard for opening context sensitive menus however, which makes this omission easier to forgive.

The keyboard and wrist rest also remain at a reasonable temperature during use, as does the underside of the One. This is probably due to the low power consumption of the Intel Atom processor. A small fan kicks in now and again but it is unobtrusive.

Screen quality and battery life of the Acer Aspire One

Given its size and weight I expect my Aspire One to get plenty of outdoor use. The screen is bright enough to use outside in the shade, but becomes unreadable when hit by direct sunlight. As a guide it’s a lot brighter and sharper than the Asus EEE 2G, but is outshone by an Apple MacBook. The Aspire One does ship with a slip cover, which offers useful (non-waterproof) protection in transit. Regular travelers might prefer a closed protective case, but it’s a great free addition as a basic cover. Nice One Acer.

Battery life is quoted at three hours for this three cell Linux version and I achieved close to that with sensible moderation of the screen brightness to fit my environment. On full brightness with constant WiFi usage I’d expect that to go down to around two hours. Acer quotes the Windows XP version at 2.5 hours, probably due to the SSD being replaced by a regular hard drive. After boot-up I hardly ever see my SSD light illuminated, but the XP model is likely to be busier. So taking more frequent disk accessing together with the effort required to spin the platters would definitely reduce overall battery life.

Competitors to the Acer Aspire One

On balance, the One represents the best balanced experience of any of the small (< 9 inch) netbooks I’ve tried so far. Its keyboard beats the EEE 901, its size is more practical than the seven inch models and its processor runs more efficiently than the VIA C7 powered HP Mini-Note or Everex Cloudbook. In six cell guise with XP, it would be compelling but I have also appreciated the fast boot-up time and low resource usage of Linux.

Is the Acer Aspire One a good one?

The market is about to get more crowded with the imminent arrival of Dell’s mini Inspiron and future VIA Nano based machines. The ten inch Lenovo, Asus and MSI netbooks are also worth considering if you want to move up on screen size. For now though, the Acer Aspire One is a solid contender amongst the midsize netbooks.

Update: Acer has now lowered the retail price of the 3-cell Linux version to $329. The 3-cell XP version is now down to $349 and the 6-cell XP version is set to retail at $399.

Neil Berman

Netbook market grows further, has Aspiring winners and falling Stars

theONbutton — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:54:00 +0000

A glance at Amazon’s top 25 bestsellers gives a window into today’s netbook market.

The recent $100 price drop of the Asus EEE 1000H has it selling strongly, Acer’s Aspire One Linux is sitting at number 11 and the pre-order XP version is at 14. Various other EEEs make up much of the middle groung and Micro Star International’s Wind is caught up in turbulence at 24.

Given its $399 price tag I expect the 3 cell XP Aspire One to climb that chart, although hopefully they won’t suffer from the quality control issues which sent my Linux One back for repair only days after its unboxing.

Lenovo announced its entries, the S9 and S10, a few days ago. Only the S10 will be coming to the US and will bring a ten inch screen, Atom processor and XP starting from $399 in October…and it looks great.

An unfortunate characteristic of the Wind since its missed launch date of mid-June has been rumored, and now official, price hikes. The 3 cell XP model is now at $499, which looks forgettable compared to the pricing of the One and S10. This Wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

We’re still waiting to see what Dell’s E is going to throw at us, shouldn’t be too long now. Their rumored $299 entry price will ruffle a few feathers and their marketing might will ensure a sale or two.

Then there are still more models expected to launch in Q4 with VIA’s celebrated Nano CPU, just to make buying decisions that little bit harder.

If I was a betting man I’d say that Acer’s Aspire One and Lenovo’s S10 are set to be strong sellers in XP guise. Dell won’t take any prisoners either when they launch. So within a year I expect the Wind and Mini-Note to be shaken out of the market or forced into price cutting. Perhaps the savior of the Mini-Note will be if HP can swap in the Nano for the C7.

For the Wind, price cutting alone may be too late for mainstream buyers. If broad stock fails to arrive soon then how will they break onto retail shelves which already have Acers, Dells and EEE on display? It may end up being too little too late for this great product.

Neil Berman

http://www.neilberman.com/

Opera 9.5 Beta for Windows Mobile Review

theONbutton — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:03:00 +0000

The best mobile surfing experience out there?
Back in Feb Opera demo’d their latest Windows Mobile browser to oohs & ahhs from all corners championing it over the iPhone. Sporting a slick fullscreen mode, copy & paste, downloads and image saving, WM users couldn’t wait to get their mitts on it. It’s been a long wait but the beta recently went public. So is it really that much better than the iPhone? Let’s see…

After a straightforward installation and launch Opera 9.5 was happily loading pages over both WiFi and T-Mobile’s EDGE service. The browser fitted rendered pages to fill the whole screen perfectly and from there the finger pointing begins. Swipe up, down, left or right to scroll, double tap any area to zoom and again to zoom back out. The motion as the page moves is beautifully fluid and the zoom renders quickly.

Page loading was slower than my Nokia N810, which also runs Opera, but this is a pre-production version so it’s unfair to make a performance judgement just yet. As a guide over WiFi the NY Times website was half rendered in about 8 seconds and I was able to start swiping/zooming after 25 seconds while the pictures finished loading in the background. When I went to the site a second time, I could start swiping/zooming after about 15 seconds due to caching. Times were about twice as long with EDGE.

There are various display options, including full vs mobile view and screen font size. Images can be blocked to speed up page delivery.
Multiple tabs are also available, although your device’s capabilities will determine how many you can open before running low on memory. Opera 9.5 Mobile is a 8.9MB install which needs to go into main memory for this beta release. However the cache can be put onto a storage card, I allocated 50MB which speeds things up if you visit the same sites regularly.

So from this fully rendered CNet home page, you can zoom into something like this in a second or two…

…and then jump into a story…
…turn on text selection like this…
…and copy the text you want into an email or document just like a normal computer web browser. You can send it directly to someone via SMS as well as the page link, which is even better. You can also send links and images directly via MMS or email. Images and files can be downloaded to main memory or to the storage card for easy portability. Whole pages can be downloaded for offline viewing, for example when in the subway. Hmm, this is sounding like the daddy of convergent mobile internet…
Various other config optionsare included, including the ability to set a cache size. Here’s my 50MB cache in action, if you’re a heavy user you may want to go for more. I’m unaware of any cache limit, my TyTN has a 2GB memory card in it…that kind of cache size might be overkill but you get the idea!
Security options include proper password management.

With the current beta version there are a couple of missing bits, such as ActiveX and Flash so if you want these you might prefer to wait until the full production release. Also bear in mind that this is a beta version so if you do install it on your phone there may be compatibility issues or other freaky things happening – best to backup beforehand just in case!
.
Overall there’s no smartphone browser I’m aware of which offers such a sweet all round browsing experience. The initial impressions in February were right: where the iPhone’s Safari once led the pack, it’s now in second place. Can’t wait to try the production version…

Neil Berman

Aspire One still sick

theONbutton — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:09:00 +0000

…after three recoveries and two support calls, my One is definitely screwed. Anytime I turn on the wifi it goes nuts, nukes the screen and crawls into a corner until you force it to power off.

It’s going back to Acer on Monday, my fourth laptop to have problems in the last couple of years. Here’s the honor role in ascending order of annoyance:

4. eMachines AMD Sempron WinXP: f, g, h and j keys failed unless pressed really hard, went back for a new mobo, now happy.

3. Everex Intel Core Duo Vista: Resume failed sporadiacally, got annoying and went back for a new mobo, now happy.

2. Apple Macbook Intel Core 2 Duo OSX Tiger: Fails to switch on if warm, need to wait for it to cool down (known in Mac support circles as ‘The Oven‘). Basically I can only switch it on once per day. Crashes if you plug a USB device into the ‘wrong’ USB port (discovered in a M-Audio support call after getting multiple OSX crashes). Never sent it back cos I was lazy and now out of warranty.

1. Acer Aspire One…sick and about to be medicated.

Neil Berman
www.neilberman.com

Acer Aspire One on the internet for three seconds, dies, now alive again

theONbutton — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:39:00 +0000

1. Unboxing…pretty

2. Inspection…very very pretty

3. Boot-up Linux…fast, about 15 seconds

4. Launch network center, configure wifi

5. Connects immediately, after three seconds message appears saying update is ready – click to install. Click…

6. Fade to black, computer says no

7. Hangs

8. Still hanging

9. Several lights on but no one at home

10. Forced to turn off

11. Boot-up Linux…fast…but then self-reboots

12. Boots, OS looks normal

13. Click network center, no response, no network connectivity at all through wired or wireless

14. Reboot…same story

15. Check forums, it’s an epidemic. Gazillions of posts from owners whose network connectivity has failed

16. Sent support email to Acer, told me to call…

17. Acer said there are two OS distros out there and the updates are mixed up, which has created the problem. Advised to restore from recovery disc and avoid updates for now.

18. Recovery took 20 mins

19. Boot-up…fast…network center opens properly

20. :-)

Update one day later:

21. Still sick

Update several days later:

22. Acer sent me replacement, read the full Acer Aspire One review.

Neil Berman

It was love at first sight but Eee’s not the One.

theONbutton — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:27:00 +0000

A few months with an Eee 701 have taught me one thing. It’s not the one. It was one heck of a first breed of ultralight laptop and it was fun while it lasted. But three days on since Acer’s announcement and my One is in the mail. That’s the Acer Aspire One.

It’s fair to say that it would have been the Wind if anyone was actually selling them…The Wind forums are full of people saying they’ve just ordered a different machine out of sheer frustration.

In only nine months the Netbook market has moved so far, there’s no room for supply chain slip-ups. I’m looking forward to seeing how the One performs: Atom processor, near full size keyboard, webcam, 8.9″ LED backlit screen and as light at my 701. It sure does sound promising.

Best of all it’s real and is in a UPS truck right now heading for chez moi. Full review to follow…

Neil Berman

Mini laptops = mini prices?

theONbutton — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:46:00 +0000

Don’t you just love market forces? Only a week after it’s launch at $649 and the Asus EEE PC 1000 is already down to $549 at NewEgg.

Part of the greatness of the original EEE was its price tag, and sales figures were through the roof. As everyone else caught up with models from HP, Acer, Dell and MSI all announced or launched, Asus’ pricing seemed off the pulse. So it’s good to see this correction, but more is still needed especially for the EEE 901 given Acer’s 8.9 inch Atom powered Aspire One is retailing for $379. By comparison the 901 is over $200 more expensive!

Now spare a thought for MSI’s Wind. The Wind is a great product ‘almost’ competing with the EEE 1000. I say ‘almost’ because although the Wind was due to rock the market over a month ago, the only model released was a low capacity battery version which had reviewers telling everyone to wait until September.

I expect by then the 10 inch early adopters will have bought the reduced price EEE 1000 and the Wind will be scrapping in the trenches for leftovers in a price-cutting market.

Did I mention the Dell E will be launching around then starting in the region of $299…?

Neil Berman

Thunder to rain down on the cellphone market, iPhone 3G speed could be quicker

theONbutton — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:29:00 +0000

As hordes of devotees crowd round the block for the iPhone 3G, competitors are starting to line up to steal it’s thunder. Only this time it’s the thunder which might do the stealing.

Blackberry’s Thunder to be precise. Crackberry has just released the first pics and they look promising, with a screen adorned with haptic technology to give console style force feedback on every key ‘press’. Paired with a horizontal keyboard layout, the Thunder looks ready to battle iPhone in a stormy war.

Can RIM really calm Apple’s tornado? Sounds like an unlikely weather pattern to me, but then who expected Palm’s Centro and others to take 7% of iPhone’s market share earlier this year?

Nokia is also rumored to be preparing haptic screen technology, whilst Samsung’s Instinct (fitted like iPhone with the now-old-skool-non-haptic screen) is rumored to be saving Sprint’s existence at only $129 a pop. The Instinct I tried was pretty sweet and the live TV looked great, although iPhone crushed it on web browsing.

Meanwhile we await HTC’s new Touch series with the Diamond already out in Taiwan to rave reviews of the awesomely groundbreaking 640×480 screen. No date yet on a stateside launch of the Diamond or the keyboard-wielding Pro, but the Tilt has just come down in price by $100 on AT&T’s website so we can’t be too far off now can we…?

As far as rudimentary iPhone 3G speed tests go, I measured 48 seconds to load up the BBC homepage fully, 30 secs for NewEgg and 6 secs for the mobile version of CNN. That compares to my Nokia N810 at a hotspot measuring 7 secs for the BBC, 8 secs for NewEgg and 16 secs for the full size CNN home page. Not a totally fair comparison as the WiFi connection is likely to be quicker than 3G in most cases, but an interesting exercise in mobile internet nonetheless. Will try to do an iPhone EDGE vs 3G comparison at some point.

Neil Berman

http://www.neilberman.com/

Ewok + R2D2 = WALL-E

theONbutton — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:12:00 +0000

A service robot inspired by Broadway musicals might not sound like ingredients for a top drawer voyage of self-discovery, but WALL-E is one of the great sci-fi movies of all time.

Twenty minutes into Pixar’s near photo-realistic creation I realised my jaw was hanging down as the animators succeeded so masterfully in bringing life to this cute mobile garbage truck.

Look out for cameos from Sputnik, the Apple ’sound’ and music from 2001:ASO. The latter coming not, as expected, when WALL-E traverses Saturn’s rings but rather when man enters his own 29th century final frontier: walking.

Irony, humor and animation beyond spectacular, the garbage trucks outside theaters will be chock full of ticket stubs.

Neil Berman

www.neilberman.com

Saving the Day-ta

theONbutton — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:45:00 +0000

As the summer days turned up the heat, my three year old hard drive started to feel the pressure.Hard drives typically have a long lifespan but it’s common to read about someone’s unfortunate experience with a failed drive. Whilst there are a gazillion backup solutions out available, there is also a primary storage option which used to be too pricey for consumers: Enterprise class hard drives.

Enterprise class drives are not a replacement for RAID arrays or secondary backup drives, but they are built to higher tolerances than regular consumer drives. Their typical quoted mean time before failures is around 1.2 million hours. By comparison most consumer drives are rated at around 25-50% of that figure.Many enterprise class drives are now available with the same SATA interface as consumer drives and have similar cache and spin specs. They also used to cost a huge amount more, but not any more.

The Seagate 500GB SATA enterprise drive I bought this week has a huge 32MB cache, spins at 7200 RPM and hit me for only $99. Seagate advertises this ES.2 range as being appropriate for business critical requirements and it was only $20 more than the company’s 500GB consumer drive from the same store.

This small amount of extra green pays back in bucketloads for enterprise class reliability. Although it’s no replacement for regular secondary backup, your data is more likely to survive the test of time in one of these. As anyone who’s witnessed a drive failure will tell you, that’s a small price to pay.

Neil Berman

Gigabyte vs Lenovo: The Atomic Clash of the MIDs

theONbutton — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:25:00 +0000

I got some hands on time with the upcoming Atom-powered Gigabyte and Lenovo MIDs last week and I’m sure about one thing: the OQO 02 just became very overpriced.

Both the Gigabyte and Lenovo MIDs are expected to come in around $500, albeit running Linux. They both have usable, if very different, keyboards; they’re both eminently pocketable and both have Intel’s super-efficient Atom CPU which means tons of battery life. The Lenovo unit I played with even had an Olympic paint job; cute.

Who are they for? No-one really knows yet, but they’ll definitely appeal to the people who are (not) buying the OQO 02 and Samsung Q1 Ultra these days. The 02 is still languishing around the $1,800 mark. The Q1 can now be found knocked down to $800 or so. Neither is likely to match the atomic (pun intended) battery life of the Gigabyte or Lenovo MIDs, which is critical for a pocket computer.

Gigabyte MID has more traditional design and plenty of expansion. Both units have 3.5mm headphone jack:

Will there be Windows versions of these two MIDs? That’s not known as yet, but I don’t think it’s inconceivable. The Atom is certainly capable of it so I’d expect at least to see fanboy photos of Windows booting on one of these units soon after release.

The actual models I tested had modified Linux front ends which are cost effective, but the practical and performance advantages over XP remain unclear. My EEE 2G boots Linux in 25 seconds, but the XP version is not far behind. In fact the cost advantages are only partial these days, as Microsoft recently reduced the license cost for XP Home on ultra low cost PCs.

The Linux implementations on these units was okay with some sweet touches, for example the Lenovo employs an easy swiping motion to scroll through home screen icons. It also has a Mozilla browser named Coolfox – dig the family name.Having played with a gazillion different Linux front ends now, it would be nice to see a standard emerging. Perhaps we’re still a bit early for that but hopefully it will come in a couple of years. If this doesn’t happen then ultimately the consumer will suffer from having a learning curve attached to each manufacturer’s devices…a bit like cellphones but oh so much deeper.

Lenovo’s MID has an interesting pointing device and takes full size SD cards, unlike Gigabyte’s. Front facing cam is on both units:

Did either of the two capture my imagination? I preferred the Gigabyte’s keyboard layout and overall format, whilst the Lenovo is probably a younger choice aimed at pure surfing and messaging with it’s cellphone style keyboard. The full size SD slot on the Lenovo also gives huge expansion potential, compared to the Gigabyte’s micro-SD limitation. Whether either of them can be successful will depend on persuading people away from buying an EEE-type mini laptop which all offer a bit more (but in a bigger box) for less money.

Look at it another way: Five years ago everyone had desktops and no-one could persuade consumers to buy a laptop second PC. Now everyone has laptops and the 2006-07 challenge was to get people in the mindset of wanting something even smaller. That seemed impossible until the EEE came out and busted out everyone’s perceptions. Now Acer, Dell, HP and MSI are jumping in because it’s going to be a huge market. The same will happen with MIDs once the EEE-format market matures.

So although hordes of people won’t be running out to buy one of these MIDs just yet, recent history suggests that we will in a few years time. Hang in there MID fanboys.

Neil Berman

CES Digital Downtown 2008

theONbutton — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:57:00 +0000

Digital Downtown opened today at the World Financial Center in Manhattan. This micro CES hopes to get end consumers to fondle cool tech today and their credit cards on the weekend. There were also some product previews of toys not yet available on J&R’s shelves a few blocks away.

The long awaited Gigabyte M528 came up for air on Intel’s stand along with a handful of other MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices).

This 800MHz Centrino Atom powered MID is super-light with a full slide out keyboard. The design is similar to the Nokia N810 and keeps the Linux theme alive with a customized OS loaded with OpenOffice and Skype. The keyboard feels good with a rubberized texture and the light weight (spec is 340g) means you can hold it for a long time without feeling like it’s a brick in your hands.

Whilst the M528 would be an awesomely useful device with Windows XP installed, its limited 4GB SSD means that this will be a challenge. Unlike the EEE 4G which packs XP and leaves room on the side for a 32GB SDHC, Gigabyte’s beauty only provides Micro SD expansion and current capacities are unfortunately small. On the plus side there’s a 3 megapixel camera on the back, a very low res webcam on the front and an 800×480 pixel screen which is a high enough resolution for decent web browsing. An unnamed source suggested that the M528 would ship in the US this summer for around $500.
LG showed off an LED-backlit LCD screen, due out for before the end of the year. It was noticeably more vivid than it’s sister screen and boasts a crazy contrast range of 1,000,000:1 (yes, you read all those zeros right). This gives really black shades of black and a heck of lot more of everything in the middle until you get all the way across the spectrum. (LED model on left in photo, current model on the right.) Pricing is expected to be at a fair premium to the existing model, but we’re not talking OLED megabucks. In fact although the image didn’t give me the wow I got from Sony’s OLED screen at CES, it’s a worthy contender at a fraction of the cost per screen inch. Better still it’s actually a real big screen product in 2008, whilst we’ll probably wait at least a year for large OLED screens to reach production.

Hitachi were showing off their 1.5 inch thin TVs, which we saw in January at CES. They still look great, but don’t hold a candle to Sony’s recent efforts.

With the obligatory customized Scion acting as gatekeeper, Pioneer were the party animals of the show. They brought their country-touring-dome-complete-with-DJ to bang out some tunes, with a funked-out trippy kaleidoscope ceiling.Inside was a homage to all things ICE, but as cool as Smart cars look on European streets they just don’t cut it with a sub in the back.

The show is being held across from Ground Zero, which was the site of the World Trade Center until Sept 11, 2001. For those of you who have not seen Ground Zero, it is now a scene of energetic building activity and will be the future location of the Freedom Tower. The first building to be rebuilt at Ground Zero was 7 World Trade Center, which opened its fifty-two stories in 2006. This is the top of it at 28x zoom (shot with steady hands and without a tripod, I used to be a surgeon – not).

Neil Berman
www.neilberman.com

Wii Fit auction ends at three times retail price

theONbutton — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:48:00 +0000

This Wii Fit auction on eBay today ended at $285.49. That’s over three times the retail price. Rumors are that stock is severely limited, Amazon is totally sold out at the moment.

Meanwhile eager Fitties were able to get a hands-on at today’s Central Park launch event (engadget).

Hope you’ve got yours on pre-order…

Neil Berman

Asus EEE 900 vs. HP Mini-Note 2133 mini review

theONbutton — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:18:00 +0000

It’s been just six months since the launch of the first Asus EEE PC and the sector has exploded. The original UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) name has been supplanted by Microsoft’s ULCPC (Ultra Low Cost PC), Intel’s MID (Mobile Internet Device) and various manufacturer led acronyms – MSI’s forthcoming Wind is actually an abbreviation of WiFi Network Device.

Screen sizes and storage space have increased, but in most cases so have price tags. Asus itself is a case in point, with its recently launched EEE PC 900 offering a nine inch screen and up to 20GB of onboard storage but a hefty $549 sticker price. The majority of the hardware on the inside is similar to the 701, but the increased screen real estate in a similarly sized package makes web browsing and general working more manageable.
Unfortunately the keyboard feels the same size as the original, which I struggle with after a few months of daily use. It’s fine for occasional emails etc but for more consistent work I make too many typos with it as my fingers sometimes land on two keys at once.

The screen seems a bit brighter than the 701 and fills the (slightly larger) lid nicely, with the webcam still preserved. Looks and build quality haven’t kept pace with the competition however, as we segway into the HP Mini-Note…
…which is one of the best looking laptops money can buy.

Powered by a range of VIA C7 processors up to 1.6GHz it sounds at first like it will outperform the EEE’s 900MHz Celeron, but user testimonies indicate that the Mini-Note often gets stuck in the slow lane.

When I tried it out running Vista it was actually pretty decent, loading apps quickly enough for general usage. In fact if you write a lot and have limited multimedia requirements, then the Mini-Note is a fair choice because the keyboard is absolutely awesome.

The keys are large, almost as large as a full size laptop, and I was able to type fluently from the get-go. The trackpad is responsive too and although the buttons are oddly placed on either side, this makes the pad’s area larger and is not a problem if you tap-to-click.

The looks, screen quality and overall usability beat the EEE and the whole thing seems better constructed too, if larger, whilst pricing is similar. The Mini-Note starts at $499 for a Linux build, compared to $549 for the Linux EEE 900. The top of the range Vista Mini-Note model sells for a not so appealing $749.

Unfortunately for both the EEE and Mini-Note, their respective Celeron and VIA processors have a tough time managing multimedia applications fluidly. This is forgiveably in the $299 EEE 2G, but less so in a unit costing around twice as much.

Overall the HP Mini-Note and Asus EEE 900 have strayed away from the original EEE ultra-low-cost concept and are competing with budget laptops but offering limited power. Of course these machines are all about portability but other models due out soon may offer a better balance…

Speaking of which, we will see MSI’s Intel Atom-powered Wind in June. With an 80GB hard drive, ten inch screen and rumored six hour battery life under Windows XP, I’d wait to check out the Wind before handing over the plastic on either the HP or Asus just yet.

Neil Berman

MacBook Air & iPod Touch Going Cheap

theONbutton — Sat, 17 May 2008 22:41:00 +0000

Want a MacBook Air but don’t fancy paying full whack? I just spotted it for $1,635 including shipping at Abe’s of Maine. That’s almost $200 off the sticker price. Looking at the forthcoming 6-hour-batteried, 10-inch-screened, Atom-powered MSI Wind, the MBA still looks overpriced…

Meanwhile I spotted the iPod Touch 16GB with current software going refurbished on Amazon’s Marketplace for $299. That’s $50 off Apple’s own refurbished price.

If you’ve been wanting to join the Apple faithful it seems like a good time to sign up!

Neil Berman