Friday is here, time to take a step back from the hurried happenings in Mobile Tech Manor and look back at the week. Some gear went back where it came from and other gear arrived for play evaluation. I experimented with alternative e-book readers to get a feel for what I like best before all the “real” readers hit early next year. Step into the Manor and let’s shoot the breeze.
Another Friday, another chance to share my week with you. The week has been slammed, and one of those where I find I am running behind on all the projects I have in progress. This Mobile Tech Manor column is going to be much shorter than usual as I haven’t had the time I usually do to share the events of the week. Most of the week was spent trying new software and upgrading a program I depend on a lot. The Droid phone goes on sale today, and a review unit arrived yesterday so I’ve spent a few hours with it. Come on into the Manor and stay a while.
The end of the week is drawing nigh and it is time to share the past week with you once again. No new gadgetry showed up in Mobile Tech Manor this week, so I spent most of my time writing and playing around with software. I bit the big one and “downgraded” a gadget to Windows XP, even though all the hype was for Windows 7. I got tired of the Windows 7 crud I covered last week. I also got to thinking about something that’s bothered me for a long time. Come on in and visit with me a bit this fine Friday.
“Upgrading” to Windows XP
The buzz this week was definitely Windows 7, with the official launch yesterday. It was a non-event for me personally as I’ve been running it for months. I like Windows 7, even though the creeping crud I’m seeing more and more on different installations is really bothering me.
If you’ve been lusting after either the Viliv S5 or X70 devices that James has been teasing you with, there’s yet another vendor offering the devices stateside. Laptoping eye-spied them both over at NewEgg, and my quick browsing shows quite the assortment of available models and options. All three X70EX editions are appearing: Express P, Premium P and Premium 3GP. The differing prices — $599, $729, and $879 — range with choice of CPU speed, SSD capacity and inclusion of integrated HSPA 3G radio. All have the 7-inch touchscreen, Windows XP Home (not XP Tablet Edition), 1GB of memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, card reader, 1.3-megapixel webcam, integrated microphone and stereo speakers. Oh, and a solid five hours or so of battery life. Much of what’s offered here is or was available in my old Samsung Q1U-P device, but of course, that was more expensive, thicker and heavier due to the larger battery size.
The smaller, 4.8-inch display S5 is also squatting on NewEgg’s site — the same three model names as the X70EX are there for $549, $599 and $799. Again, the base feature set is pretty standard with the options coming in for a 1.33GHz CPU over a 1.2GHz unit, hard drive or SSD and integrated 3G. NewEgg is offering some special extras on some configurations: a case, extra battery or other accessory.
It’s been over three years since the original Origami Project concept, but in my opinion, the S5 and X70EX are what we were hoping for back then. I’m curious if folks agree. Assuming you do, it makes you wonder about the original concept to begin with since these devices are generally still considered niche products. Then again, they can be found at Amazon, Buy.com and other mainstream sites these days, too. Maybe we hoped for too much three years ago? Or maybe we’re all still a little ahead of our time. I feel better thinking of it that way. 
I am having a good time running Windows 7 on a number of devices, but one of the things I miss from previous versions of Windows is how to optimize the interface for the small screen. I have been struggling in Windows 7, on touch-enabled devices in particular, due to the inability to make the scroll bars and other windows controls bigger. The min/max/close boxes on windows are just too tiny to tap with my finger on touch devices, and the scroll bars need to be wider to be useful. While surfing around the web this past weekend I stumbled across a free method to make these controls work much better with touch.
Yes, screen size matters and I am in a unique position to demonstrate that old adage. I have so many gadgets in Mobile Tech Manor that it occurred to me that I can show many different screen sizes on devices.
The devices, screen sizes and resolution as shown in the video:
It is interesting that all devices from 5 inches through 10 inches have the same resolution, so things appearing on-screen vary from tiny to quite large. All of the notebooks, netbooks and UMPCs shown in the video are running either Windows XP or Windows 7.
This week saw Mobile Tech Manor grow wings as I packed up my gear and headed for the Mobilize09 conference in San Francisco. It was a whirlwind trip that was short yet jam-packed with activities, getting ready for the conference and the event itself. I had a great secret session playing with the new Motorola CLIQ Android phone. I had a blast and while I am getting ready to head back to Houston I’d like to share the week with you. Come on in and lets talk.
It is the end of the week and that means it is time to share my past week with you. It was a week of updates and software experimentation at Mobile Tech Manor, and I did some thinking about an upcoming trip. There were e-books galore as usual, and I believe we’ll see an e-book reader that will set the sector on its ear. Come on in and share the week with me.
It’s Friday and that can only mean it’s time to share my week with you. This week at Mobile Tech Manor a fun OS update turned a UMPC into a brick. I read a lot of e-books which was appropriate given the many e-book readers that were announced this week. I spent a lot of time carrying mobile devices around with me to work remotely. Come on in and share my week at Mobile Tech Manor.
I spent a good portion of this week with my sleeves rolled up, up to my elbows in one gadget or another. I started by installing Windows 7 on two UMPCs, at least that was my intention. The first upgrade was the Viliv S5 UMPC, which was harder than it should be.
The e-book space has never been hotter with a new electronic reader seemingly announced every day. Amazon certainly has made the e-book game popular and everybody seems to be interested in it currently. I have been reading e-books since the early PDA days, and it is still common to see me sitting somewhere with a gadget in my hand, engrossed in the e-book of the day.
I read e-books on many different gadgets, from phones to UMPCs, and folks often ask me what gadget I prefer for reading. That is another one of those questions for which there is no easy answer, as there are many factors that enter into the equation. The size of the gadget is the most important, as it usually determines what particular one I am likely to have with me when an opportunity to read presents itself. The size also determines the quality of the reading experience, as screen size equates to page size in the e-book world.
© 2009 The GigaOM Network. Marketing consulting by ACS.
