Atari Portfolio - Terminator 2

This was a great machine. They even used it in the movie Terminator 2. Of course you can't do what that kid did in the movie but it had other great features. It was really hard not to love.

It had a great clear display that although wasn't backlit, it was incredibly readable. It was also very retro since it was a dot matrix screen with low 40x25 character resolution.

It had great apps from a simple word processor, database and spreadsheet. On today's high capacity AA batteries it could run for a good few hours. If you bought the media card you can put your mind to rest that your data won't be lost when you changed the batteries.

It was just so usable. The only thing is, it's not particiaurly practical today. It's too big to fit in a pocket and too small to type easily with the keyboard. But I would definitely keep one just to use it as an address book, perform small calcuations, all in a very sparse and clean user interface. It was refreshing that it had none of the obtrusive and colorful graphical user interface which get bogged down with menus or interfaces that look like windows 3.0. Yes, you can install a widget or a utilty on the desktop/notebook but I really don't like the whole mouse and keyboard interface.

To be honest, I still don't know why today's colorful interfaces triunmph over text interfaces. Do you really put pictures of people in your phone address book? I know accessing the internet on a pda is a great and cool idea, but then again, it's a terrible experience in my opinion.

CD and Digital Music - The End?

Music in the old days were fun. You buy the CD with great cover art / inlays / photos of your favorite artist and get a rack to store your collection, buy your favorite cool looking stereo player. It was great to save money to collect them. Now, it's all available on a click of a button from your preferred music store. You download it, play on your computer, which tends to sound not that great, even if you have great speakers, it always seems to be missing a component. Much like when vinyls disappeared and it's successor the CD emerged.

Anyway, It's also a hassle to listen to music on the computer with the long ish boot up or resumes. Yes, there are mp3 portable music players, but I want something that doesn't require me to sync or download to and from the computer, especially with those DRM or playback restrictions , or ones that require extra hardware or perpehrials just to listen to music.

I also dislike registering services, it's not the registration itself, it's the passwords that I have to make and store. I just want to put my CD and play. Yes, you can burn the music on to CD's, but then unless your really hardware savvy, most users end up burning on their average laptop or desktop and it's a slow process. Not everyone likes to have their computers on 24-7. Some just want to wake up to music and go to sleep with music.

I guess I should just be a drone and just admit that it's cheaper to buy music in digital format from an online store and that transfering it to an mp3 player is a cool way to listen to music. I'm going to miss the CD, just like the vinyl, just like the tape.

Mac > PC but Mac + Antivirus = PC

Apple products and myself have always had a love-hate non relationship. Every time I want to purchase that fabulous ipod, another comes along which is newer. I then try to convince myself that the new one is much better than the old model and then when I am about to purchase one, it's out of stock or not currently available in my preferred color. So I wait and spend time looking for alternatives while using my old mp3 player.

It's the same with their notebooks. I have wanted a macbook for a long time and every time I wanted to buy one, there is always something that stops me. Whether it's the lack of of a dvd burner on the entry model or the new revised models which price themselves out of my initial 'switch to a mac' budget.

I finally decided that I wanted a computer without those firewalls, security suites, antivirus suites, constant updates and bloated upgrade versions. That had to be a Mac. But then, if a Mac does get viruses, I have a funny feeling I will have to buy a big bloated security app with payed subscription services. Which is exactly what you get with a PC.
Even worse, they might force me to buy that applecare which probably will include the essential security suite.

Currently, I am thinking hard about the white macbook which is at the entry level point that I am comfortable with. Unfortunately, it's the new aluminium macbook which just looks so gorgeous and makes the white ones just look severely dated.

Netbooks and it's unwarranted overhype.

I enjoy hearing stories from users of netbooks, saying how cheap, small and conveninent they are. Which is one of the reasons why they are so popular. That and the fact that it runs on the grilled and drilled windows XP.

I'm not knocking Vista, in fact I quite like those fanciful eye candy and for those who are used the start button, the ability to search for programs is a blessing. I'm not talking about those people who have tons of applications and need the ability to search for it, I'm talking about using other peopele's computers with windows vista installed.

Sometimes, you want to run excel, a specialist app or just a particular browser and the last thing you want, is to see if they have installed it by looking at the desktop, program listing or even the control panel. Just typing the name of the required program in the start button so you can quickly check if they have that particular application installed is just great.

Anyway, I am digressing. What tickles my pickle is the fact that people buy a 17 inch laptop and then start comparing it to 8.9 inch netbook and then comment on how tiny the netbook is and how it's an amazing piece of technology.

For goodness sake, if you compared it to a 14 inch, 15 inch is pushing it, notebook computer and then comentated on how small the netbooks are , then fine because most would be travelling and typing on these notebooks. But to compare it to a 17 inch whopping notebook, is just ridiculous. Who on earth takes a 17 inch notebook to coffeeshop, airports etc!!

The worst culprits tend to be mac users with their pro versions. I'm not knocking apple products. I quite like to have one. It's those hooo ya mac preachers that spend an insane amount on their macs and don't know apples from oranges that give me the hilly billies.

Absolutely Tiny! - USB only.

When the USB interface and peripherals first came out, I was buying so many accessories for it. A lamp, a fan, a charger, wireless keyboards and key sticks. Now they come in different kind of shapes.. But nothing prepared me for this.

I tend to use USB keys as backups and then pull them out and store them away because the I don't like the fact that it protudes out of the side of the computer / laptop. But the new Micro USB thumb drive from Buffalo is just absolutely tiny.

Look at it. It's going to be permanent on my netbook and my laptop. However, my netbook's usb slot is a bit tight. If only I can find a way to take it out without damaging it.

This is definatey on my Christmas shopping list.

Goodbye USB - Hello Floppy

USB media has now become so powerful, you can run programs, boot from them and modify them. The other day on TV, governments were considering banning USB media where sensitive media were concerned. What are they going to use? CDs? Nay! It's the floppy that should be making it's come back.

But the Floppy doesn't have the capacity to hold such information some say. It's because of this inconvenience that limits it's security risk, by not being able to perform lovely things like program execution and hidden hardware modified features.

I personally detest the 3.5 inch one. I like the double sided 3". It had a nice shiny outer casing. I especially adore the 5.25 inch floppy, it's so thin and comes with a nice sleeve, like old vinyl albums. Now, I only use the 5.25 inch as a bookmark.

Just look at these lovely floppies.

EeeTop - Imac design but with touch screen

You know what's going to happen. With all these touch this and slide that products and features from Apple, it's inevitable that Imac's will have touch screen next year. That is exciting and something to look forward to.

Until then, Asus has launched their own touchscreen desktop. It's cheap, Apple like design including the keyboard, blue glow when switched on and it's very cheap price-wise.

I like the fact that it has 6 usb slots as I'm quite fed up with USB hubs that don't indicate if it can charge or run certain USB devices. Worse still is the fact that some even have the cheek to say, you need to buy an external ac adapter.

Since, I have gone paperless, memory card readers are just a great thing. No more hooking up USB cables that have become a tangled mess or USB cradles with different designs spoiling the whole clean aesthetic effect. Just take out your card, plug it in, transfer to and fro.

The interface is always an issue with me. It uses Windows XP with large fonts so that it can be used with the fingers or you can use it's alternative interface. It does have a stylus but let's face it, I don't want to use the built in stylus unless I want to draw something. I like the touch screen response. It's quick and you can do those iphone slide features, but you can't pinch, since it can only recognize single touches.

It doesn't have built in DVD drive. At first, I was shocked. How am I going to play my DVDs, or transfer music or even backup. Then I realised that I usually purchase most new music online and back them up on medium other than CDs. I don't seem to recall ever playing a DVD on a desktop, unless to show off something. In fact, I don't think I need an optical drive.

I like tech that is both cheap, cool and fun! The Eee Top fits the bill.

Digital World - Less means more?

I've come to realize that most magazines are leaning towards digital or paperless formats to distribute their content. I find this inevitable because of reasons of economics, enviroment and trends, but I also find this a tinge disappointing. In this digital age, I still prefer magazines.

Sometimes, there is nothing better than to reach and hold a magazine and just flick through it. It's kind of relaxing and I like the look of printed materials. Sometimes, they come with vouchers/coupons/etc where I can just rip out.

The paperless format means I have to view the content on the computer / netbook / laptop / pda / smartphone, take your pick, but it's all about the interface.

On a computer, your generally looking at it either on the web or on pdf files. The former requires a boot up, using the mouse and staring at a screen, just to read a magazine. You can print it out, but then who would want to wait and most home users don't usually have laser printers yet.

On a laptop you can usually get past the boot up with the resume mode, but then, I find that laptops nowadays get uncomfortably hot. Usually because, while they are doing something passive like reading or browsing, most users like to run something in the background, disk defrag, scanners etc.

A netbook tends to have smaller screens that are okay for a quick type here and there, but for reading for long periods, it can be tiresome. I also find using the trackpad more of a means to an end, rather than a pleasurable experience.

A smartphone or a pda is the most convenient way to grab information, but the display area is too small to leisurely peruse something.

Many advantages such as search and interactive features are nice, but nothing beats the flick of a magazine.

Zaurus MI-E21 - Simply the Best.

Now here was a great PDA that came out in Japan a long time ago. It was slim enough to slip into most pockets. It had a mysterious light purple color casing. It had a large touchscreen color display and it had almost instant access to applications, especially when you need to jot down notes quickly without going through a mass of menus. It had a hidden keyboard that you can access from the lower slide panel. It also had both SD and CF card slots to easily store or exchange files. It has a lot more features than I care to mention, but what's most important was the fact that it had everything I wanted in a PDA!

It was just great to access data without using the keyboard, and when it is needed, just slide out the lower panel. I love this type of access on a PDA. There are other PDAs that are just as capable and with a similar keyboard feature, but they always seem to feels clunky and clumsy.

It's a shame they don't make them anymore. Instead they have been replaced with the linux versions. The latter is more capable but I find them clunky and laggy.

Compaq Aero 1530

This was a nice looking pda. It had a nice touchscreen display that had a useful backlight. The battery life was nice too and lasted over 10 hours when new. It had a cradle to sync seamlessly with the PC. It was very thin and the construction was solid. It was also cheap to buy.

However the interface was a bit clunky and at times seemed to lag. In fact, overall it had a very sluggish feel to it and not the instant access I had come to expect from a PDA. The apps were not particularly nice to use and it had a very windows 98 feel to it.

I couldn't use it today, but back then it was great for the price.