I’ve been playing with the Dell 9.99 for about a week now, and this product defines amazing. If you thought the MacBook Air was thin, this is about half the thickness of the Air. Dell pulled this off by increasing the length of the notebook, but this also raises the screen in use to a much more acceptable height for most notebooks. Because this thing is so different than the run-of-the-mill notebook product, both inside and out, words and pictures don’t really do it justice. You really need to see it in person.
Category: Talk Backs
Best Windows 7 Laptops, Desktops, and DIY Home or Business PCs
Suddenly as of late, I’ve been getting a raft of questions about which particular laptop and PC models stand out for use with Windows 7. It must be shopping time, and my guess is that a bunch of you are tired of the aging desktop and notebook products you are using and are now on the hunt for something new. Here, I’ll walk you through the products that I think stand out in this regard, from low-cost netbooks to business laptops, desktops, and the sweetest DIY options out there. And away we go…
Microsoft Copies Apple With Windows 7 Launch Surprises
I’m at the Windows 7 launch event as I write this, where Microsoft has clearly taken a page from Apple’s playbook. It has held back a number of things in the months running up to Windows 7, so the launch wouldn’t be a rehash of things we’ve seen for months. This is historically been one of the key marketing advantages Apple has: Because it doesn’t do public beta tests, it can release a product and surprise you with its new features. Granted, with Leopard and Snow Leopard, part of the “surprise” was how buggy they were.
Touchscreen Devices: Smart Upgrade or Shameless Money Grab?
Maybe I’m just the kind of guy who demands to get my money’s worth, but my iPhone hasn’t left my side ever since I shelled out the full contract price of $500 for the 16 GB 3G version. In fact, I use the darn thing so much that it has paid for itself many times over if you equate time used to money – I probably owe the gizmo $20 at this point. What’s more, the variety of functions it can perform is downright amazing, most of which are made possible by the handset’s touchscreen.
Mobile Internet Devices: Surfing the Web Without a PC
After looking around my office and wrapping up my notes from visits to Marvell and Qualcomm over the last couple of weeks, I noticed a trend. There is a ton of stuff coming, some of which has already arrived, that is focused on doing a few Web-connected activities without the need for a PC.
A lot of it hasn’t been announced yet, but the devices that have seen the light of day include printers, picture frames, portable TVs, and a variety of new Web-connected music players. We have Web-connected cars, and have seen things like Web-connected refrigerators in the past, but this is looking like a tsunami of Web devices that has, or will soon be, coming at you in a flood.
Windows Mobile 6.5 and Choosing a Smartphone
This week in New York, Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5, and I got three early mobile handset prototypes that utilize the operating system to play with for several weeks. I’m not a huge fan of the iPhone because I don’t like touchscreen models, and wouldn’t you know it, all three of the phones Microsoft sent are just that, including two from HTC and one from Toshiba. It is interesting to note that while I like the Toshiba best, I really don’t like having to do without a keyboard, and the current market trend towards touchscreen setups is starting to really piss me off. While I’m using Windows Mobile 6.5 release as the trigger, much of this is going to look at how you should choose a phone and why I think viable alternatives to the iPhone do, in fact, exist.
Will Windows 7 Kick Apple’s Butt?
I’ve been a part of every Windows launch since Windows 95. That launch still remains the historic high point of Microsoft and Windows, even though Windows 95 wasn’t exactly a perfect product. Apple, which was struggling through a series of rather clueless CEOs at the time, was less hurt by Windows 95 than its own inability to focus and execute. It’s an error that wouldn’t be corrected until Steve Jobs got back and fixed things.
The Archos 9: What Apple’s iPad Should Be
Archos makes the best multi-media players that no one knows about. I know a number of folks who own one of the predecessors to the Archos 9, and everyone loves them. But, unlike the iPod, few people outside of loyal users ever seem to hear about Archos. That being said, after looking at the Archos 9, it sets the bar for what the iPad needs to be when it comes out early next year.
Will the iPhone Kill Standalone GPS Navigators?
The iPhone comes as close as you can get to a universal, do-everything device. It’s as much a personal media player, translator, Internet tablet, notepad, alarm clock and a dozen other things as it is a cell phone. But with the introduction of the very first turn-by-turn GPS apps from companies like TomTom and Navigon, I think we’re finally seeing the miracle device stretched a little thin.
Microsoft Zune HD: Close But No Cigar
When Microsoft and Apple first started competing, Apple was differentiated by having a few products that did a comparatively few things very well. When Steve Jobs came back to Apple (which had clearly drifted from those roots in the 90s) he took the company back to having a few products that did fewer things but all of them very well and, particularly for the iPod, this made the market for them.
