Acer c100/c110 - Cheap Netbook Tablet PC

When it was first released it was a bargain for a tablet PC. However, tablet PC's have never really taken off and so the model was discontinued and replaced with a newer version.

In order to make way for the new version, the old version could be found at bargain prices. In fact it was sold at a price similar to today's netbooks. Some of course could be found on Ebay.

What made the Acer c100 different to today's netbooks was of course the fact that you could use a pen and twist it's screen and transform it into a tablet PC. Tablet PC has many features that are usually more fun than they are productive.

It was fun to draw things with the pen and it was fun to highlight data in excel spreadsheets. It did have a feature which was amazing and that was the ability to transform handwritten cursory text into normal text.

The text were easy to read on the 10.2 inch screen but sometimes when not running on AC the screen will dim, making it difficult to read in bright areas.

Inside the Acer, there didn't seem to be a fan and so it was very quiet. However, it could also get quite hot when using demanding apps.

Being based on a Mobile Pentium, Windows XP Tablet, various touchscreen apps and video players performed minimally and the boot up and resume from hard disk was slow over time.

Old technology such as the Acer C100 seemed to look and feel like today's netbooks. due ito it's size and operating system. However, more often than not you will find that it is much heavier and less adequate compared to current netbooks.

HP Mini1000 - Black Stallion of Netbooks.

Just look at that shiny black keyboard. It just begs to be typed on. It's hard to look anywhere else. The price is good and the size is good too. The screen is good and although the glossy finish can be a nightmare outside, a matte screen is just so dull and feels like work. The battery is life is reasonable lasting just under 3 hours of constant use. But what on earth are those buttons doing on the side of the trackpad?

Amstrad PPC - Monster of a Netbook!

Users who like to use those minimalistic word processors need to look no further. Just look at this beast of a machine. This hunk of junk has enough power to boot a seriously minimalistic version of linux or dos and barely lasts a few minutes on those big C cell batteries, all 10 of them!

9 inch screen
10 cell batteries
Intel Processor
Less than 1GB of ram.
Boots in less than 30 seconds.
Runs Microsoft OS
Built in twin compact swappable backup media.
Built in internet capable communication device.( More than 2000bps! )

I'm sure someone can find a text editor and put this machine to good use. Just look at that awesome keyboard. It even comes with a handle so you can take it to the coffeeshop and take up as much space as you possibly can.

iWork.com - Something New?

This sounds good. So I can actually use those beautiful apps to compose my documents and spreadsheets without actually buying a Mac. What a great idea!

Well, it turns out much to my disappointment. That's all it is. A great idea.In fact, you still need to buy a Mac, a copy of iWorks and the only thing you can do is share documents online.

Still, I guess it does have it's uses in the 'business world'. I mean, once you've composed your beautiful presentation on Keynote, instilled into your head that your Steve Jobs and honed his presentation quirks and skills, you can just use a PC to view keynote files online without using a Mac. Or do I still need a Mac for that?

Oh dear! So animations in Keynote can't be viewed on iWork.com. I'm suddenly having trouble figuring out what on earth is the purpose of iWork? Sharing files online is... what? Something new?

The Problem with Linux today - A Modern Tragedy.

Let's face it, the computer has now become a lifestyle. Take the recent explosion of netbooks.

Netbooks are for women who like to type a blog, email or upload photos on their dainty computer and shove it into their ever increasing size handbags.

Netbooks are for men who just want to own a new toy and challenge themselves to see if they can do exactly what they can do on their normal laptops, but on tiny keyboards and underpowered chipsets.

Netbooks are for students who like to believe they need a computer to type notes on the go, but secretly they are buying one because their best friend announced they got one in pink through their twitter account. I mean, who is going to bring their old Dell laptop if everyone is using a netbook?

So where does Linux fit into all of this? It doesn't. That's the problem.

Sony Vaio Type P - Sony's New Netbook computer.

So Sony has finally released a netbook to the public. Yet time and time again, I can't help but think that Sony just loses the plot.

They lost the plot with the PS3 when they made it so expensive. When it was launched people didn't flock to it even when it was launched in better economic surroundings. Now, with the economy gloom looming over everyone, it's just not plausible to buy a PS3.

Same principle is applied to their new netbooks. Their netbook type P is equipped with a slow Atom 1.33ghz processor and although it does come with a decent 2gb of ram, they decided to just to use Vista instead of XP. It's like putting a burger into a chocolate cake. It's edible, but the burger belongs in a bun.

Netbooks are for the budget conscious! No one actually does any serious work on them! They are just for fun! I'm definitely not going to buy.....


What the devil?! I'm so getting one. Look how small and thin it is! It looks so cool. I guess Sony do know what they are doing. Now I know why so many people buy Apple Macs...

Apple iWork 09 - Coming Soon.

I am very much looking forward to Apple's latest offering. I absolutely abore office work. Yet Apple iWork 08 seemed to make everything I do look good and the experience was such a good one that I nearly bought an iMac.

Well, nearly that is. For one, it just had too many flaws that I'm just not happy with. The spreadsheet while absolutely simple and beautiful but it was terrible when managing medium sized spreadsheets. What's worse is the fact that it just simply didn't open excel spreadsheets properly. Simple ones are fine, but the ones where invoices and macros are involved and it chokes and splutters.

Still, these must be issues that other users have faced and now with the new iWork 09 coming out soon, I hope these problems are addressed. I just don't want to buy an Apple Mac and have to use Microsoft Office for it. Not that I don't like it, but a PC can do that cheaply.

Mighty Mouse - Mac Users Love to Hate it.

The mighty mouse is one of the most beautiful looking mouse in the world. Mac users must be salivating all over it while admiring it's smooth contours. They might even be chuckling to themselves when they view it from the side.

Oh look, the shape actually resembles a mouse. How clever...

Secretly, they are cursing it. There are so many problems with it LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER!

LEFT - Mouse Cursor jumps to the upper left side of the screen.
RIGHT - The right click behaves like the left click.
CENTER - The little nub fails to scroll downwards.

Anyway, here are some suggestions on how to resolve these issues.

LEFT - If updating OSX doesn't work, then table lamps are the culprit.
RIGHT - Burn it! Smash it! Detonate it with TNT! I'm jesting. Buy a PC mouse or use CTRL and the Left Click button.
CENTER - Turn it upside down. Move the nub in all directions while apply firm pressure and blow. This actually works!

10.5.6 Update

Recently at work there was trouble updating the mac. It kept rebooting the machine. The culprit was the 10.5.6 update. So checking the websites revealed that there was a problem with certain macs and there was a complicated fix for it.

Considering the macs are for users with not much computing expertise, it was a nightmare to follow the instructions. What was even more surprising was the fact that the mac at work was the ever popular aluminum imac. What certain macs are they talking about? Are there so many different versions of the aluminum mac?

I was a little bit surprised and disappointed. After all I've never had problems updating the the regular microsoft updates on the PC and the pc has many different spec and components that the average user doesn't even care about. Even with the updates such as anti virus and firewall which sometimes seem to hang in midstream update, sometimes you just cross your fingers and do it again and it works.

What is going on with world! Isn't there a computer that just works!! Linux pushers, don't even think about it! I'm not going to wait for something to compile or spend futile hours hunting for drivers.

Mac - Fantasy or Reality?

So, I have finally given back the mac that I had been using and now I am using the normal desktop pc at work. How was the experience? It was absolutely brilliant and absolutely rubbish.

The absolutely brilliant things were the incredibly impressive fast boot up, the dashboard with the very very useful snippet utility, the coverflow was actually incredibly useful, the rock solid 'it's not going to crash' feeling, the different but clean look compared to the droll of windows, the ease in outputting most things to PDF without a hitch or crash. Such bliss it was.

The absolute rubbish was the fact that setting up mail accounts was infuriating as the setup procedures were all geared towards PC, so I had to guess which jargon and terms referred to what, which was a security nightmare. Not to mention the times where it seemed like it was checking the mail forever when other times it was a snap.

Then there were the printer drivers that were OSX compatible but had trivial menus in order to get to the required printer setting e.g. color and mono. Laser printers were no problem, but any other printer and you lose functions such as checking how much ink was left and other features.

Also some of the fonts didn't correspond to the PC and some of the web pages didn't look the same as on a PC and sometimes the website pages wouldn't even open because it needed iexplorer. Not to mention the nagging feeling, do I need to open it on the PC just to see if it's going to look ok?

Files that were saved wouldn't open and when they did open, they didn't look right and then there was the utter nonsense when OSX decides to write hidden junk or temp files to your USB when you transfer files.

Critical online apps refused to run on a mac even when using the recommended alternative browser, especially when filling in online data forms where some fields would simply disappear or confirmation buttons would become blank for no reason.

Open source software that had to be compiled and took hours and looked horrible, where as on the PC it was just a simple setup.exe file.

I can see myself using it at home for personal use, but for business that deals with anything financial or international, it's a non-starter.

Still, I want to buy one, and the price is not as expensive as everyone makes it out to be. However, I'm stumbling as it just feels like I'm paying extra for the brand name when currently I can get away with those cheap deals on PC's. Besides, nobody pays RRP for PC's do they?