Paul: My New PC

Wed, 19 Jan 2005 23:49:08 GMT

Looks like itmay be time to spring for a new laptop!

Intel launches new Centrino platform. Intel launched a renewed version of its Centrino platform for notebook computers on Wednesday. The platform, known by its development code-name Sonoma, will provide benefits for both home and enterprise users, the company said. [InfoWorld: Top News]

Sat, 25 Dec 2004 00:51:42 GMT

What's new for the PC of 2005? Not much!. Consumers thinking about buying a new personal computer in 2005 might be better off putting off their purchase until 2006. With few major changes in PC hardware or software due over the next year, the PC of 2005 is likely to look awfully similar to the PC of today. [InfoWorld: Top News]

Wed, 08 Dec 2004 00:05:45 GMT

Intel sheds light on 2005 desktop strategy. Intel's products for the digital home and digital office in 2005 will give consumers and IT managers more capabilities than just raw performance, and the company plans to highlight those products as it did with its Centrino mobile technology, Intel executives said Tuesday. [InfoWorld: Top News]

Thu, 19 Aug 2004 22:57:47 GMT

We've Got to Start Meeting Like This. Meeting Tomorrow is a one-stop shop for meeting presentation technology and other tools. Offering projectors and flat-panel displays, the service also offers notepads, name tags,... [Fast Company Now]

Wed, 07 Jul 2004 02:03:15 GMT

Dell recalls notebook power adapter cords. The adapter on about 38,000 Dell notebooks can produce shocking results if used with the wrong power cord. [CNET News.com - Personal Technology]

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 01:21:15 GMT

Looks like the market is beging to shake out in this space. Though I have yet to see Groupwize Instant Messager show up anywhere, except on myu desktop!

AOL phases out enterprise IM product. The exodus of instant messaging service providers from the enterprise software market continued Monday, when America Online Inc. (AOL) announced plans to abandon its AIM Enterprise Gateway product and migrate users of that product to a similar one from IMlogic Inc. [InfoWorld: Top News]

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 01:14:08 GMT

PC vendors jump aboard the Grantsdale PCI Express. BOSTON - Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), IBM Corp., and Gateway Inc. all plan to incorporate Intel Corp.'s newest 915G/P and 925X Express chipsets into upcoming PCs for both consumers and corporate customers, the companies announced Monday. [InfoWorld: Top News]

Sun, 21 Dec 2003 17:19:02 GMT

Feedster and News Aggregators.

What an intersting concept. I may have to look it up now that Feeddeon trial is almost over!

From Scoble:

One more: Feedster has come out with a web based aggregator. Scott is doing some interesting stuff over there. I track what all the blogs are saying about various things (like Longhorn, or Linux) through Feedster. Why? Because I can perform a search, and Feedster will make that search into an RSS feed that I can subscribe to. You know how you felt when you first saw a killer application? (For me, it was Pagemaker). This is a killer service. The idea that a search term can then be a syndication feed is going to change the world. You watch, if Google and MSN are smart, they'll do that for all search terms.

Feedster has dramatically changed search for me. Has it for you yet?
[The Scobleizer Weblog]

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 01:05:25 GMT

Tablet PC 2004 Update Rocks My World.

(Note: this post was written in an airplane yesterday on my Tablet PC): When Dana Epp visited me recently, he got on my case because I didn't use my Tablet for weblogging. Why not? Because the handwriting recognition was not very good. Now, let me explain. First of all, this is the first blog post that I've made completely with the use of a pen. For this, I am using a pre-release version of the "Lonestar" update for the Tablet PC (which will officially be called Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2004).

First, Peter has the best report on Lonestar.

So, why haven't I used the Tablet PC for text entry before? Because my handwriting sucks and the first version of the Tablet PC has trouble with it. Now, to be fair to the Tablet PC, the fact that it recognizes anything at all is a major accomplishment. But, even if your handwriting is recognized 95% of the time, it's frustrating to use and slow. I keyboard at about 100 words per minute with nearly 100% accuracy (and without needing to look at my hands or think about the act of inputing). Using a pen on today's Tablet PC is a long way from that.

With Lonestar my inking frustrations are gone.

Lonestar is a free update to the Tablet PC. I installed it in minutes on Friday. On top of my existing Tablet PC operating system. I can even uninstall it. Why didn't I install it before? I didn't want to mess up my machine. If that's you, get over your fear. This is a HUGE upgrade for the Tablet PC. I can't repeat that enough. It made this blog post possible.

Here's my experiences: handwriting recognition is now about 99.9%, even with my bad handwriting. That alone makes writing much more enjoyable (and fast). But, when a mistake does happen, then you really see the innovations that have been made. First, the "TIP" (Tablet Input Panel), which is where you enter your text, is completely new and redesigned. The first thing I noticed is that the ink is smoother and more responsive. That makes writing more like the experience on paper.

The second thing I noticed is that my writing was being recognized on the fly. As I write little tags appear underneath my writing with the Tablet PC's best guess.

Then I noticed that there were some mistakes (hey, my handwriting is bad!) "Holy crap," I said when I discovered that I could click on the words and Lonestar gives you a bunch of choices. For instance, when I wrote "crap" it translated that to "crop." So, I click on "crap" and it gives me a bunch of best guesses to change it to. In my experience so far this works on nine out of 10 mistakes.

So what about the times where it doesn't give you a good suggestion? Well, you can either delete your try and try it again or you can choose the closest and then correct it character-by-character.

Some mistakes even get through into Word. Even here the TIP is much better. Just highlight the mistake and re-ink what you want instead. This is totally going to change the editing process. Now I can write on the couch.

There are tons of other enhancements too. For instance, the TIP can be set to float next to your cursor.

Anyway, just wanted to say this is a HUGE increase in Tablet PC functionality. It's amazing how much better they've made the experience of using a Tablet PC.

What does this mean for Microsoft? Well, I think we should change our motto to "making it possible to compute anywhere at anytime." This release dramatically puts Microsoft out front in the computing race. No other platform has the ability to recognize my handwriting as well as the Tablet PC now can.

Oh, tomorrow I'll start my ink blog. Watch for it.

[The Scobleizer Weblog]

Tue, 04 Nov 2003 01:29:25 GMT

Maybe I should just skip that new laptop I am thinking of and move right tothis.

Intel launches Pentium 4 for gaming PCs [IDG InfoWorld]

Wed, 08 Oct 2003 02:09:22 GMT

Sun Microsystems, Inc.. "The institutions will buy into the stock when everything is moving and they will pay much more for it." [The Motley Fool]

AOL to Introduce Moblogging, Too!.

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 02:22:49 GMT

AOL to Introduce Moblogging, Too!.

'AOL Journals' To Bring Blogs To Millions

"Whatever you call them, the idea is a Web page that people can update frequently with commentary and links to material they find interesting online. Blog software automates posting the commentary, images and links.

AOL will give members three ways to update their blogs -- through an online template with blank boxes for text input, through AOL's instant-messaging system or by telephone. The phone option will be available only to subscribers to the extra-cost "AOL by Phone" service, who will be able to leave voice messages that will be posted as MP3 sound files.

To publish via instant messaging, AOL members will send a text message to an IM software 'bot' -- or automated script -- that will post the message to the user's blog. The IM posting will work only with AOL's internal messaging system, not its free AOL Instant Messenger program. Robinson said this would be a quicker way to publish than navigating to a Web page to type into a form: 'You might have a fleeting thought you want to capture, and you don't want to take the extra few seconds to go and open up the publishing interface.' " [The Washington Post]

More details about AOL's upcoming integration of blogging software into the company's software. I still think this is going to be big, as will the RSS trail that follows. I didn't realize that they are going to integrate pictures, but of course they are because it makes perfect sense. Mo' moblogging down the road.

That idea has me quite intrigued because I've been following Aaron Schmidt's photoblog of pictures sent from his cell phone. It's fascinating to watch his daily life through it. I like that I can see Aaron's friends (none of whom I know), his cute puppy, and snapshots of the places he goes, so I can't imagine how much more enticing it would be to find feeds of photos and blog posts in my aggregator daily. And audio files posted by phone? You mean I could hear my niece in my aggregator? I am so there!

[The Shifted Librarian]

Fri, 27 Jun 2003 23:28:27 GMT

VoIP in My House. I just signed up with a new phone company called Vonage. The service is delivered over my Internet connection and lets me use my regular phone. When I here "internet telephony" I picture weird software, boom mikes plugged into the back of my computer and complicated set-up. This was about as far from that as you can get. [Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog]

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 00:48:36 GMT

Dell, AT&T tout wireless Net access. Dell Computer customers who purchase access to Ma Bell's cellular networks won't have to search for a hot spot. Instead, they can log on anywhere AT&T provides coverage. [CNET News.com - Personal Technology]

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 23:32:44 GMT

My next Laptop

Looks like it is time to splurge and get one of the new laptops! Intel launches mobile chip line for large laptops [IDG InfoWorld]

Fri, 30 May 2003 02:37:43 GMT

Intel notches up mobile chips. The chipmaker will, over the next few weeks, release several faster Pentium M and Pentium 4-M processors for notebooks--and mark a shift in its mobile strategy. [CNET News.com - Personal Technology]

Looks like I will be in the market for a new laptop soon! :)

Wed, 23 Apr 2003 23:49:51 GMT

Intelliphones. Russ raps it out Delineating Devices: Current Generation, Multimedia Mobiles and Intelliphones.

I was struggling to explain to my wife recently what I was working on and the devices I was targeting. In that discussion, I ended up coming up with a sort of categorization that I'll talk about here. It's really helped me understand what I'm working on and for who.

The idea was that I was trying to explain the difference between the super-powerful Nokia 3650 and Jim's new Siemens S55. They have so many things in common that it's hard to differentiate to the non-Mobile-obsessed. I was explaining to Ana that Nokia is doing something very weird in my mind by pushing the 3650, which is a phone with incredible potential and capabilities, as a competitor to phones that have much less power.

Briefly here's how I how deliniated the different phones that are out there. I just divided them into levels, though maybe this is a bad idea because of the confusion with "generations", i.e. 2.5G vs. 3G, etc.

Anyways here's my thoughts:

Level 1: "Current Generation". These are the mobile phones that most everyone has now. They all have grey LCD screens and only support vanilla GSM or CDMA. Some of the later models may have polyphonic ringtones and WAP, but for the most part these phones are used for calls and SMS messages. The advantage of these phones is their simplicity and recently their size. My last phone was an Alcatel m5510 which was sold for less than $100 and weighed only 75g - everything in comparision to that phone seems like a brick. But most of these phones are a bit older and are still pretty hefty. Example phone: Nokia 3310/3330.
Level 1.5: "Current Plus". These are phones that may have some of the features of the next generation phones, but not enough to push them up the ladder. A good example is the Siemens C55 which has GPRS, but a monochrome screen and no MMS.
Level 2: "Multimedia Mobiles". These are the next generation mobiles that are going to be pushed by just about everyone. Vodafone is basing their Vodafone Live! around these phones, which have a minimum functionality of the following:

Color Screen
Camera: Integrated or Attachment
MMS - Multimedia Messaging
J2ME - Java games (maybe BREW or Mophun)
WAP 1.2.1 (needed for MMS)
Tri-band/GPRS/Higher speed CDMA
Polyphonic Sound
These phones are generally heavier than the Current Generation, but not as heavy as Symbian phones.
Level 2.5: "Multimedia Plus". I think these are the phones that add a bit more to the package:

Bluetooth
MP3/FM Radio/Stereo Playback
WAP2/XHTML-MP
Email Client
PC Sync / SyncML / iSync
3G Connection over UMTS/CDMA2000 (i.e. phones from Hutchenson's 3 service).

Level 3: "Intelliphones". These mobile phones are more akin to small computers or powerful PDAs than anything that preceeds them. Though they MAY have many or all of the capabilities of Multimedia Phones, these devices normally have an ARM-compatible processor running in the 100s of MHz, a real OS (Symbian, Palm, Linux, M$), a real file system and usually much more memory and/or expansion slots. You can install custom software on these phones like on your PDA, and do everything from play multi-player Bluetooth 3D video games to using a real web browser or viewing streaming video. Example phones: Nokia 3650, SonyEricsson P800.
Level 3.5: "Intelliphone Plus". These don't exist yet - or at least aren't commonly available - but are Intelliphones plus the higher bandwidth of 3G or WiFi or with GPS or with megapixel cameras, etc. Samsung's coming Symbian-based 3G phone will fit this category.
Level 4: "Future Phones". These are phones you usually see mocked up in 3G promotional brochures. You can safely ignore this category for at least 5 years.

So the problem with these classifications is that they're far from absolute. The specs for each phone range all over the place (the SonyEricsson T68i for example has everything it needs to be a Multimedia Plus phone, yet doesn't have Java or Brew). However this is meant just to be a guide and I think it's pretty obvious where the sweet spot is - the same place that Vodafone is aiming right now, at the Multimedia Mobile phone market. MMS, Java, Ringtones, WAP. It'll be interesting to see what great apps arrive for the intelliphones and to see how far they go - and to see if Nokia is able to Trojan Horse enough 3650s into the world so that the intelliphone market gets a major boost...

In general I've decided to target level 3.5 phones with my latest efforts, under the idea that you don't develop for what's available now, but for what's going to be available soon. Otherwise you end up finding work arounds and solutions for hardware that will soon be sitting in someone's drawer somewhere.

-Russ [Russell Beattie Notebook]

I now think of Russ as our 'mobile guy. He's working on something we ALL can use! Thanks Russ!

[via Marc's Voice]

Thanks for finding this Marc. This is good view of the richness and growth trajectory for mobile phones. I'd like to add two things to this. First, I just became an "Intelliphone" convert with the purchase of a Nokia 3650 with ATT Wireless service. This device is just awesome. Russ outlines the functionality above. ATT is subsidizing this with a $150 rebate, so this device is now just $150 in the US, so there really no reason not to buy. :)

The second thing is noting that, presumably, at some point we'll have a version of Flash in all of these devices. Some people noticed the announcement earlier this month about NTT DoCoMo integrating a light version of Flash into their new phones this year. We can only assume that that will find its way to all good Symbian devices, just as Flash 5 is in Nokia 9x00 series devices. I've looked at J2ME apps, and they're gritty and hard to build. WAP 2.0 and XHTML is just not a great form-factor and viewing experience. I want vector graphics on these little engines, and a richer model for integrating sound and graphics into content and applications.

[Jeremy Allaire's Radio]

Tue, 01 Apr 2003 02:00:48 GMT

Microsoft Delivers Wi-Fi Update For XP. Microsoft Delivers Wi-Fi Update For XP [InfoWorld: Top News]

just in case I ever take the plunge, I need to make sure I get the latest software!

Fri, 14 Mar 2003 00:15:05 GMT

MSN Messenger 5.0 adds camera, action.

New feature brings video to instant messages. Looks like something I need to LQQK at :)

http://companion.logitech.com/companion/index.html describes the new program more fully. [InfoWorld: Top News]

Wed, 05 Mar 2003 00:00:14 GMT

Dell to complete Inspiron refresh with high-end 8500 [InfoWorld: Top News]

Thu, 20 Feb 2003 01:02:28 GMT

For Sale: A Piece of Mac History. A rare Apple I computer -- one of the first 200 machines built in the 1970s by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs -- hits the online auction block on Friday. Organizers hope to bring in at least $16,000, even though it doesn't work. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]

Maybe I should have kept that old Amiga~

Thu, 20 Feb 2003 00:47:03 GMT

Intel shows mobile processors [InfoWorld: Top News]

Fri, 07 Feb 2003 01:24:45 GMT

Looks like I better get a laptop before I wont be able to use a floppy w/it!

Dell foments floppy's fall. The PC maker plans to drop the floppy as standard equipment on one of its Dimension desktops later this month. By John G. Spooner, Staff Writer, CNET News.com. [CNET News.com Personal Technology]

Wed, 29 Jan 2003 23:42:35 GMT

Intel to bolster its mobile convoy. Faster and cheaper notebook-oriented Pentium 4 chips are on Intel's itinerary for later this year. How fast? Some will run at speeds of up to 3.06GHz, sources say. [CNET News.com]

Tue, 14 Jan 2003 23:26:46 GMT

I might have to look at getting myself a new laptop.

Intel shaves mobile chip prices. The chipmaker cuts prices on its Pentium and Celeron notebook chips by up to 38 percent, the first discount in what looks to be an eventful year for notebooks. [CNET News.com]