Ultra Light Delight

July 9th, 2008

Would you? Could you? Will you buy?

MobileComputer has posted a review of the MSI wind against its other Atom powered competitor in the Acer Aspire One and the Asus Eee PC 901.

Will the contest be between these three Atom-powered ultraportable? Or will it be something else.

You know its nearly halfway through the year and we have wannabes and would be killers - from One to Jisus. Yet there still seems to be no clear cut winner among the ultraportables.

Which one would you choose? Or is this Atom a hype? Meaning would you prefer another ultraportable?

Would you? Could you? Will you? Buy any ultraportable now?

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July 9th, 2008

Aspire One wishes to be One

I just like the way the names of ultraportables come out. The One and now the Aspire One. Acers answer to the Asus Eee 901. In fact, It has been called the Asus Eee 901’s evil clone.

Evil is relative. The Aspire One does look like a relative of the Asus Eee 901. We posted about this earlier.

Decisions decisions cannot seem to reach one. Then again there is still the MSI Wind.

All things being equal I would probably go for the cheaper one and that seems to be the Aspire One is the One?

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July 7th, 2008

An E-Book Reader

Researchers at the US-based Maryland Aand Berkeley Universities have developed an E-Book reader that simulate the turning of pages, It uses dual screens. [Source]

Initial reactions to the device were positive. The only criticism against it was that it was too heavy. It is like a book except it runs on batteries and is heavier - except for the unabridged dictionaries.

You can read the study here preserved in pdf format.

It looks more like a a book than Kindle. And this probably goes to the one of least used function of the ultraportable. Do you use it as an E-book reader?

I have had the Asus Eee 701 for more than half a year and never have I used it do extensive e-book reading. How about you?

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July 7th, 2008

Are ultraportables energy efficient

Came across this post at the Intel Blog. The post has en embedded video that shows or rather tries to explain:

1. Energy efficiency

2. Hoe to measure energy efficiency

3. And what is Intel doing to improve energy efficiency.

An interesting question would be in terms of notebooks and ultraportables does how will Intel make it more energy efficient.

Will the Atom do the trick?

Are ultraportables energy efficient?

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July 6th, 2008

Nintendo DS as an educational tool

I saw this bit of news in the Associated Press. Anyway in Japan, They have been using the Nintendo DS as a teaching tool. This will come as no surprise to the average garden variety DS punter because on gets familiar with the different games on the console. A lot of the games played in Nintendo DS can be good educational tools.

What is amazing is that certain museums in Japan have used this game console as a tour guide. And in certain homes it is used as an electronic and interactive cook book. Shades of Cooking Mama comes to mind.

By this time you might have figured that I am DS Nintendo Fan. And one thing I would like to see is when the Nintendo DS can become an ultraportable.

One can always dream and I have seen very positive developments in this endeavor.

What do you think?

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July 6th, 2008

Will Shrike strike in 2009?

AMD will be releasing a notebook platform in 2009 empowered by an Accelerated Processing Unit(APU) called the Shrike. This combines the general-use CPU Cores and the specialized accelarator cores all on a single silicon chip or die.

See more details here at AMD Shrike Laptop Platform Coming in 2009, Features APU and here at AMD Shrike chipset could power your 2009 ultraportable.
.

It is either Strike or Strike-out.

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July 5th, 2008

The $500 SSD question

Juan talks about the slash in the $500 cut in the price of the Solid State Drive (SSD) version of the MacBookAir (MBA) and asks the five hundred dollars question - Is it worth it?

Good question.

And it seems to be surrounded by several other questions like:

How does it affect the cost of the MBA ?

Not much

I think that the MBA never did needed an SSD. There is the gnawing thought in my mind is that Apple simply placed it there to keep up with Ees er the Joneses. This is the similar feeling I feel when viewing other ultraportables that come out with SSD and hard drive options.

And Juan is right that with the price drop of the SSD there will be mushrooming of SSDs in the very near future. Perhaps in the realm of ultraportables.

However …

Quo Vadis Hard Drive?

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July 5th, 2008

Which one the Asus Eee or Aspire One?

If you were to buy any of these two Intel Atom powered ultraportables which one would you choose?

It has been said that the fight between the ultraportables is a competion a race or better yet a competion a boxing match between two ultraportables. Let us look at the Asus Eee 901 and the Acer Aspire One. How do they measure up?

Tale of the Tape between the two ultraportables. (Note: what seemed to be crucial differences are in bold)

Asus Eee 901

Screen size: 8.9”
OS: Genuine Windows XP® Home / GNU Linux
Storage: SSD 12GB (Genuine Windows XP® Home) / SSD 20GB (Linux) (1)
Processor: Intel Atom
Networking/connectivity: 802.11 n / Bluetooth (2)
RAM: 1GB (DDR2) (3)
WebCam: 1.3M Pixel
Audio: Dolby Sound Room Certified / Stereo speaker / Digital Array Mic
Battery: 6 Cells, 4.2 - 7.8 hrs (4)
Weight: 1.1 kg (5)

Acer Aspire One

Screen size: 8.9” (LED-backlit 1024×600 screen)
OS: Linupus Lite OS or Windows XP
Storage: 8GB of SSD and/or 80GB HDD (1)
Processor: Intel Atom
Networking/connectivity:Ethernet 10/100 (2)
RAM: 512,mb/1GB RAM (3)
WebCam: ?
Audio: ?
Battery: 3hrs (3-cell) and 6hrs (6-cell) battery options (4)
Weight: 950 gm (5)

Comparisons and observations:

(1) The Asus Eee 901 seems to have the slight edge in terms of storage.
(2) The Aus Eee 901 seems to have an advantage here because it has Bluetooth
(3) In terms of Ram they seem to be the same. It really is a wonder why they still install 512mb of Ram.
(4) The Asus Eee 901 has a one hour advantage (Maybe this is when you get to shut down a lot of the extra operations).
(5) Acer Aspire One is lighter.

So which one would you buy? The Asus Eee at US$559 or The Aspire $379?

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June 30th, 2008

Playing Crysis, Call of Duty 4, BioShock, HalfLife2 on the Asus Eee

StreamMyGame has now made available the games: Crysis, Call of Duty 4, BioShock, HalfLife2 and others for the Asus EEe and other ultraportables.

Here is how it works:

1. The Asus Eee or any compatible ultraportable can play any of the game mentioned and more by being connected to the main computer (ie desktop) .

2. The Asus Eee or any other compatible ultraportable thus functions as a wireless game console.

The game runs on full screen resolution. Watch a video of it here.

I wonder how enjoyable this is. Asus Eee and ultraportable computers can play but will you enjoy it.

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June 30th, 2008

Panasonic’s Toughbook goes ultraportable with the Toughbook CF-U1

Meet the Toughbook CF-U1 a rugged and tough ultramobile pc from Panasonic’s toughbook line. It is worth around six Asus Eees but you will probably use up more than six Asus Eee pcs if you were working in a very harsh environment. And even if you were not it would be great to have a very hardy computer that one can rely on. One never knows what one can encounter or what might happen. When the going gets rough the tough gets going.

Here are a few features of the computer:

- Genuine Windows Vista Business with Service Pack 1 (with XP downgrade option)

- Intel Atom processor Z520 1.33GHz with 533MHz FSB, 512KB L2 cache

- 16GB solid-state removable drive (32GB optional)

- 1GB memory

- 5.6-inch WSVGA sunlight viewable touch screen (1024×600 resolution)

- Antireflective screen treatment

- LED backlighting

- Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 5100 series (802.11a/g/draft-n)

- Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR

- Interfaces: USB 2.0, SD Card, Microphone, Headphone, Expansion Bus

- Integrated options include 3G mobile broadband, integrated camera, fingerprint scanner, GPS, barcode or RFID readers

- Optional expansion modules for magnetic stripe reader and serial/Ethernet/smart card are expected in late 2008

- Approximately 9 hours of battery life

- 2.3 pounds (with strap and both batteries)

- 2.2 inches tall by 7.2 inches wide by 5.9 inches deep

[Source]

The tough book will arrive this August. If i had the money and the need for such a thing I would buy this… probably. But that is a big if - because I do not have such a big amount of money.

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