Microsoft not only spotted his complaint on Twitter, one of the developers of Live Writer reached out quickly with a fix to his problem. This is great customer service for a number of reasons: Live Writer is free, not paid; the way David set up his blog caused the problem; they gave David three options to try to fix his problem. That is simply outstanding, and a big pat on the back for all involved.

David’s problem had to do with using the Thesis theme on his WordPress blog, so anyone unable to get Windows Live Writer working on your similarly themed blog should check out David’s blog post detailing the fix. His feelings say it all:

Have to say I haven’t had a rapid response like that from Apple over anything for stuff I’ve paid for. And certainly wouldn’t expect it for something I got for free.

From the sounds of it, I wouldn’t expect to see much change on either site although there could be cross-posting opportunities. Both will continue to provide reviews and news of notebook, netbook and Tablet PCs while also offering great purchase deals on those devices as well. Congrats!

Late last month, news hit that Forrester Research had purchased Jupiter Research. My immediate thought was to reach out to Michael Gartenberg to see how this affected him, and at the time, he wasn’t sure. It didn’t take long to find out where he’d land, however. Soon after he announced that he wouldn’t be moving on to Forrester, he ended up as the Editor of MobileDevicesToday, another addition to my RSS feeds.

Michael brings his talented analyst skills to the MDT blog, not to mention the many mobile tech industry contacts he’s amassed over the years. With that combination, I don’t see MDT as "yet another mobile tech blog" because Michael adds solid analysis, opinion and commentary to what’s going on within the industry. Take a swing by MobileDevicesToday and see if you agree. Best of luck in the new gig, Michael!

(via Digital Inspiration)

• Unlocked BlackBerry Pearl 8100
• Two year TypePad Pro account ($300 value)

After much deliberation we are happy to announce that Vivek Gowri penned the winning post about the UMPC scene:

Significant Changes Coming for the Subnotebook Market
By Vivek Gowri

When the Asus EEE 701 debuted as the "$200 notebook" at Computex 07 last June, it sent a shock through not only the techblog community, but also mainstream media publications as well. In the intervening 5 months to its release, the EEE’s price steadily increased, finally going on sale at a $399 price point. (The $299 2G Surf would go on sale later on without some of the niceties, such as upgradable RAM and a webcam.) Now, the price has gone upwards once more, with the 9" 901 model going on sale last week at a price of $549.99 in either Linux or Windows XP flavors, and a Atom based 901 is expected to debut at Computex 08 next month at a price of around $650. To put that in perspective, that’s an increase of almost 250% from the original EEE concept. While the extra features are nice, the overall trend is somewhat disturbing, in light of the much increased competition from HP (MiniNote), Via (CloudBook), Intel (Classmate PC and Netbook) and, most recently, MSI.

Just this week, MSI released details and pictures of its new 10" Wind, which looks remarkably similar to the Apple MacBook. At $399, it packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor that is substantially faster than the 900MHz Celeron M in the EEE, a 10" 1024×600 screen with a larger display featuring the same resolution as the 901, a 2.5" 80GB SATA hard drive, 512MB of RAM, 2.5 hour 3 cell battery, a webcam, and Linux. A version with XP, Bluetooth, and a 6 cell battery with 6 hours of runtime will go for $549. Due to the hard drive, the Wind weighs slightly more than the EEE (2.35 pounds as opposed to 2.18 for the 901), but given the extra prowess, it is easily forgiven.

As much as I love Asus, I am forced to admit at this point that the Wind is truly far superior to anything in the EEE range. The Atom processor in the Wind will eat the EEE’s Celeron M353 for lunch, and not even pause to spit out the bones, and with an 80GB hard drive, the Wind is far less stifling in terms of storage space, though it is not a solid state disk as in the Asus machines. While this is not optimal, it enabled MSI to keep the price lower and allows for easy upgrading to drives of much higher capacity (up to 250GB and 320GB hard drives, numbers unthinkable in an EEE). Though the mechanical hard drives are heavier, use more energy, and are more prone to failure, none of these are factors enough to change the fact that as of right now, solid state flash technology is simply not economically viable in a $400 device. Consider the fact that the Wind is a whopping 40% cheaper than the EEE 901, while having a much faster processor, four times the hard drive space, a larger screen, and better styling, and it is evident that MSI has a winning candidate on its hands. Even after the EEE gets the Atom processor later this year, it will be far too expensive to compete successfully with the Wind. The EEE 701 cannot be mentioned in the same sentence as the Wind, even though they share the same $400 price point. The MSI is so much more advanced in every way compared to the 701 that it’s comical to the point of tragedy. 150% higher clockspeed (the EEE 701 is underclocked to 630MHz), 20 times the hard drive space (!), 60% more screen real estate, you name it
.
So how should Asus combat the growth of its latest competitor? It should start by dropping prices drastically. Make the 701 4G as the lowest end model, at $250-300. Make a version of the 901 with 12GB flash and Linux and put it at $450, keep the 20GB Linux one at $550, and put XP on the Atom based 901 at $650. As flash prices continue to drop, keep lowering prices, and as Atom becomes more readily available, put it into the lesser models in the EEE range. Use the SSD factor to combat the fact that the Wind has much more storage space. This is only a short term fix, however. As the EEE continues its climb into the upper price echelons, it needs to become a more upmarket device in the manner of the HP MiniNote. However, at the same time, it needs to continue to dominate the lower price points, where people can impulsively throw out $400 for a notebook and not think twice about it. How can they accomplish this? Split the EEE into two lines. Make a polished model with good styling and some metal in its build for the higher end markets, and have a full plastic model like the current 901 at $400. I wish Asus luck in keeping its slice of this surging market. May the best subnotebook win.

Join me in congratulating Vivek on a very thoughtful blog post!  Vivek, please email either Kevin or I (click on our cartoon head in the right sidebar) with your shipping address so we can make sure your prize package gets on its way to you.  We’ll also make sure you have all the information you need to activate your two year TypePad account.  Let the blogging begin!

Wow, it seems they visited Gear Diary too!

Touching people is a fuzzy phrase that can mean a lot of different things.  It can be simple advice to improve someone’s ability to do their work or it can be something that truly affects someone’s life in a big way.  I am fortunate to have a big audience with the blogging that I do.  My blogging is read by millions of people over the course of a year which blows me away when I think of that.  That readership is bigger than the circulation of all but a handful of newspapers in the US I’ll bet.  Think about that for a moment, blogging has given me the potential to touch millions of lives over time.  The trick is to make the best of that legacy.

I hear from people all the time who describe how something I blogged has affected them.  Sometimes in a good way but sometimes not so good.  Either one is OK, it shows that something I blogged has touched them in such a way that made them think about it.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  I’ve heard from folks from all over the world who told me that something I blogged touched them deeply.  It doesn’t matter what was blogged if it touches someone that way.  There are very few things in this life better than the feeling I get when someone tells me they have been touched in a good way.  How many opportunities in life do we have to do that?  Blogging opens up this in a tremendous way and it’s a great thing for me. 

I heard from someone this past weekend who has a disability who shared that advice I blogged enabled him to put something together that has made a big impact in his ability to do things in life.  How much better can it get than that?  Knowing that something blogged has made such a big impact on someone who needs all the help they can get is priceless to me.  Blogging provides a platform to do good things and these deeds aren’t always obvious as such.  Those are the best kind, the simple blogging that makes someone’s life better.  It makes this all worthwhile so those of you who blog think about that.  You are appreciated.

I don’t particularly worry about whether I should be considered a journalist or not.  I have been referred to as a journalist by main-stream media (MSM) for what that’s worth but I don’t really care.  You see the way I view it it doesn’t matter if the blogger thinks he/she is a journalist or not.  It also doesn’t matter if MSM thinks the blogger is a journalist or not either.  The only group that matters at all is the readers.  Yes, these bloggers should only worry what their readers think of them, not each other.  With a public forum comes a big responsibility in what bloggers say and do.  A few simple rules that I follow would go a long way to alleviating the concern in the minds of the A-listers.

1. Always tell the truth.  It doesn’t matter how trivial the topic or how serious.  The truth will set you free and keep you that way.
2. Opinions matter but only if they are clearly identified as such.  Don’t pass opinions off as fact and your readers will keep trusting what you say.
3. Never quote a statistic without revealing the source.  Bloggers are starting to fall into the same pit that MSM journalists often fall into by quoting some arcane statistic that is meaningless.  Let the reader decide if the source means it’s a reliable statistic or not.

These rules may seem to be simple common sense as they are but they are violated so much every single day by bloggers and even MSM journalists.  Trust is earned and must be kept and these rules will help see that it lives.  Trust is the key ingredient in the relationship between bloggers and their readers and is not guaranteed nor should it be.  Earn it with the truth and you’ll keep it a long, long time.  Until you violate one of these rules and your intentions start getting questioned.  That’s my take on it, anyway.

I spent a few minutes with the new client this morning and it looks very usable with a few minor nuances; direct image uploads aren’t possible, which makes sense since you’re really not storing images other than your own photos on the iPhone. You have to e-mail images to the TypePad server for any availability. Additionally, I didn’t see a way to select multiple categories for posts so I had to finish this post on a full web client.

All in all, I give WordPy pretty high marks. It seems to do just about everything one would wish for on an ultra-ultra mobile device and with the small issue of finding the correct URL for set up it seems to have reasonably good usability, particularly for a 0.4 release of the software.

If you haven’t heard already good friend Marc Orchant recently left ZDNet blogs for BlogNation and with Marc and Oliver onboard I didn’t waste any time getting them into my feeds.  I highly recommend you do the same.

Yep, I just had to try it since it runs a full browser. Using the on-screen keyboard certainly works, but it’s cumbersome at best. Adding Bluetooth support for an external keyboard would be nice, but without a stand for the phone it would be awkward. This exercise really shows the glaring omission of a basic cut and paste feature as well. That ought to explain why there’s no links in the post; manually typing a lenghty URL isn’t something I’d enjoy on a regular basis. Oh, and that lack of an easily accessible file system puts the kabosh on any images, at least on TypePad, which is what we use here. Luckily, I also have my UMPC so I went in and added the pic. Otherwise, the post was created entirely on the iPhone. I wouldn’t have thought to try this on a Windows Mobile or Nokia device simply because the screens aren’t big enough and it would be a challenge without a QWERTY keyboard of some type. It’s not an optimal blogging tool, but is good in a pinch!

• I owned three cars before I even had a license to drive. All three were Ford Mustang’s from the 1960’s; my father and I used two for parts and ended up with a sweet ‘66 that had a rare bench seat in the front.
• I essentially flunked out of college after two years. Personal quote: "Freshman year was the best two years of my life." I ended up taking a full-time job with the University and over the next five years, retook all of the classes I failed and was able to pull the GPA up to get right into graduate school.
• After several years of not training, I jumped into the Philadelphia Marathon with six weeks of ‘preparation’. I limped to the finish in around four and a half hours. Two years later, I finished the Chicago Marathon over 70 minutes faster. Amazing what a little training can do.
• I grew up a New York Yankees fan: favorite player was Thurman Munson and I can still remember the day he died unexpectedly.
• Keeping with the sports theme I’ve got going: I went to high school with a guy who was drafted by the Cardinals in the NFL. I’ve been a die-hard (and miserable) Cardinals fan ever since. I also did a whirlwind, under 24-hour trip to Phoenix simply to attend Pat Tillman’s memorial service at ASU. He deserved my time and respect.
• Favorite books are the "Lord of the Rings" series. I read the books one summer in the late ’70s and I’ve re-read them at least once a year since then.
• I’m not a beach person, I think it’s giant box of cat litter. Barb and I tend to vacation in the mountains….bigger cats and no litter.
• I listen to music constantly…probably about 12 hours a day, or roughly the same amount of time I’m reading.

So, who would I like to know more about? How about:

ThoughtFix

Dave Zatz

jezlyn

Sammual James – McLoughlin