Blog of a Long Distance Worker Tech

The blog about mobile tech

Monthly Archives: September 2010

Today’s Echo September 20, 2010

  • iPad vs. netbook: direct cannibalization and collateral damage
    Last week, pundits seized on a comment that Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn made to the Wall Street Journal, where he suggested that the iPad had significantly cannibalized the sales of laptops and netbooks by as much as 50 percent. Dunn isn't the first person this year to blame the netbook's decline on Apple. A Morgan Stanley analyst made the same case back in May, citing NPD numbers to argue that the mere announcement of the iPad had immediately gutted netbook sales.
  • iOS 4.2 for iPad walkthrough | TiPb
    iOS 4.2 is the grand unification update, the software that brings iPhone, iPod touch, and for the first time, iPad all onto the same version number and at the same time. Yes, it’s the one firmware to rule them all.
  • Join.me: Free Web Conferencing: Business Collaboration News «
    It seems that LogMeIn’s super-simple web conferencing product LogMeIn Express, which I first wrote about back in November last year, has been rebranded as Join.me.
  • Notebook Growth is Negative, Time to Blame Everything
    Blaming the iPad for the greater computer industry’s woes is the new trend, and it just got hotter with a report from Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty on the slowing growth of notebooks.
  • 10 reasons to love the Galaxy Tab | PDA-247
    Samsung has started its Galaxy Tab marketing push in the US with a long press release (here) detailing every single aspect of the device. Verizon has also chipped in with 10 reasons why you should own the Tab.
  • Acer Aspire One Happy – Netbook Reviews
    Netbook model names normally aren’t exactly easy to remember and I’m sure many people are also confused by the sometimes very similar model names.
  • MSI Wind U160 to get a dual core Atom N550 chip
    MSI launched the Wind U160 netbook along with a few other 10 inch models earlier this year. At the time they were shipping with the same boring 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processors found in most other netbooks of the day, but Netbook News reports that MSI will soon introduce a new version of the U160 with a shiny new Intel Atom N550 dual core chip.
  • Acer Aspire One AOD256 netbook with HD video support
    Acer is reportedly working on a minor update to the Aspire One AOD255 netbook. According to Macles, the main difference between the AOD255 and the upcoming Acer Aspire One AOD256 will be the inclusion of a Quartics QV1271 media co-processor in the latter model.

Today’s Echo September 18, 2010

  • Scripting News: Why the netbook category is fading
    I don't know about everyone else, but if they came out with some new features, or reduced the size, or even made one that looked sexier, I'd buy another netbook. Fact is, they haven't done any of that. I already have a netbook that works. Permanent link to this item in the archive.
  • Best Buy CEO: iPad Cannibalizing Up To 50 Percent Of Laptop Sales | paidContent
    One line buried in a Wall Street Journal story is making the rounds as the latest evidence of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad power: Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn “said internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50 percent.” By the time I first saw the news nugget being tweeted, that had morphed into “by 50 percent”—and conclusion jumping was in Olympic form.

Today’s Echo September 17, 2010

Today’s Echo September 16, 2010

  • Algiz XRW rugged netbook stretches the definition of the word
    Netbooks tend to be small, cheap, low power laptop computers. The Algiz XRW from Swedish PC maker Handheld is certainly small(ish) and low power. It has a 10.1 inch display and a 2GHz Intel Atom Z550 processor. But it also has a ruggedized case, a 64GB shock-proof solid state drive and it ships with Windows 7 Ultimate.
  • The Freelancer’s Guide to Professional Development
    With back-to-school season in full swing, now’s the time for freelancers to bone up on their skills or perhaps learn new ones. But you don’t have to shell out for pricey college courses to get the benefit of professional development. In fact, a lot of great information is available for free or very inexpensively if you’re willing to invest the time and do a little digging. Read on to discover several affordable avenues for professional development.
  • iOS 4.1 Battery Test | PDA-247
    Some of you have been posting your battery usage under iOS 4.1 on 247 and Twitter and so I decided to check my iPhone 4 throughout a typical day
  • Picking a Job Title on Business Cards
    In the freelance world, you have the freedom to put whatever you want on your business card. The job position you choose will show your audience a glimpse of what they can expect from you and your company.
  • The Galaxy Tab’s fatal flaw: it makes the iPad look cheap | News | TechRadar UK
    Some bad ideas are so amazingly, excruciatingly bad that they're painful to think about.
  • Intel goes Atom crazy – but where are the phones? | News | TechRadar UK
    The second day at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco has been all about Atom, the littlest of PC processors but a very big deal for Intel. Atom is the key to getting Intel into new lucrative markets.

Today’s Echo September 15, 2010

Extending the Internet on the move

When I travel I generally make use of whatever hotel WiFi I can get, preferably of the free variety but I have been known to use paid services. I also try and find any other sources of WiFi as I go, taking precautions when that WiFi is open (use HTTPS with my Google hosted email and VPN for privacy if needed).

hotel

Hotel WiFi can get expensive, particularly if you have more than one device (Laptop+iPhone)and for that I have started making use of Windows 7’s key hidden feature, the WiFi Hosted Network. This allows the extension of a WiFi or wired network to second devices, without the extra device cost that paid WiFi can have or for those places where WiFi has not been provided. Connectify is the one that comes up most often if you search around, providing a simple UI that allows you to easily setup but I have found it to be clumsy, unstable and buggy – particularly in that it causes my laptop to crash on suspend/hibernate. I have found an alternative that is a lot more stable and still free (although they appreciate donations)– Virtual Router. This simple open tool, provides a slightly more bare set of features but it works very effectively, without the problems with suspending and hibernating. I can recommend it. The only thing you have to remember is that the UI requires you to select the connection you wish to share and then activate it, when then switches and shows which network you are sharing over – a slightly confusing switch that is not explained. The alternative is that you can configure the command line for the feature as described by Paul Thurrott – I find the Virtual Router UI better Smile.

vrscreen

However sharing WiFi or Wired networks does not always fit what I need, and for that I need to make use of 3G. This is primarily when I am between locations. 3G roaming is an expensive business and I heartily discourage it but sometimes it is necessary. What you can do to make it much more workable is to figure out the various pre-paid mobile data services in each country that you travel to and buy a local SIM card. For this to work you do need an unlocked data device, and mine is an Huawei E5830 MiFi. Rates and systems do vary per country, but there is normally ways around problems like everything being in a local language you do not know, through to countries not allowing you to buy service online with credit cards. Best thing to do is talk to the people you are visiting for info before arrival for advice.

You will find that you will need to make use of all of these approaches as you travel to ensure that you are never knowingly under-connected.

Today’s Echo September 13, 2010

Today’s Echo September 12, 2010

  • Help Me, LAPTOP: I Need A Fleet of Affordable Laptops For My Small Business
    If you think finding the best budget notebook for yourself is hard enough, try buying a slew of them. That’s what reader Manaf, the owner of a small business is charged with doing: he has to buy seven laptops for his staff, as well as a higher-end one for himself.
  • iPhone being tested at JP Morgan, other enterprises | TiPb
    iPhone is being tested at JP Morgan and other large enterprises as an alternative to RIM’s BlackBerry, Bloomberg reports.
  • iOS 4.1 killing batteries? | PDA-247
    Since installing iOS 4.1 on my iPhone 4 I have witnessed a dramatic drain on battery life, to the point that I am reaching 40% by lunchtime. With no new apps installed and Game Center turned off it still happens.
  • ooVoo vs. Skype in the SMB Space
    I recently had a video interview with Phillipe Schwartz, CEO of ooVoo, to discuss how they stack up against Skype, ooVoo's technical architecture, their target market, and more. One difference off the bat is that ooVoo started with a SMB-focus, while Skype started with a consumer-focus and then Skype recently started targeting small to medium businesses,i.e. Skype for SIP now called Skype Connect. Phillipe claims ooVoo has an impressive 14 million users and 2-2.5 million downloads per month. He said they're running about 2 million video conversations per month at the end of 2009 and now they're running close to 15 million video conversations per month – an impressive jump.
  • Asus Eee PC UL20FT-A1 reviewed
    I’ve been using the Asus UL20A-A1 as my primary on-the-go laptop for almost a year. This 12.1 inch laptop strikes just the right balance for my needs. It’s a bit larger than a typical 10 inch netbook, but doesn’t weigh much more. It has a high resolution display that doesn’t feel cramped. And its ULV processor and Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics offer several times the performance you would expect from an Atom powered netbook while still running for over 5 hours on a battery charge.
  • 15 inch laptops being chosen over portable mini PCs | Eee PC – Blog
    Reports from a recent study indicate that consumers are choosing 14 and 15 inch notebooks over ultraportable devices. The most affected however, seems to be 13 inch notebooks. MSI are no longer offering their X360, which features a 13 inch display, while Lenovo will stop making the ThinkPad X300, another notebook that sports a 13 inch display.
  • How to Improve Your Productivity Using Agile Techniques | FreelanceFolder
    Improved productivity is the goal of every freelancer.

    Ever since I started my one-man business, I have looked for ways to improve my productivity and get things done faster. There were a couple of methods that seemed to lead to small improvements, but overall none of them proved efficient.

  • DropPub Sends Any File to Dropbox’s Public Folder and Copies the Link to Your Clipboard
    Windows only: If you use Dropbox to share files with your friends, free app DropPub makes it even easier by adding an item to the context menu, from which you can make any file public and add its link to your clipboard.