Hardware

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09/06/2009 | Hardware

Most people know microprocessors that drive concumer products like Intel, AMD and Nvidia computer chips, most of these processor use transitors that work from an electrical power source.

As written in this article, scientists at the University of Michigan have created a microprocessor that runs on air, litterally.
11/18/2008 | Hardware
This is an unbiased review for the Apple iphone. As arguably one of the best cell phones of 2008 the iphone has many features, reviews, and support. what makes the iphone so poplar is the customers who have purchased the device. This review is to highlight a few features and flaws that many customers many encounter with the iphone. The iphone should be considered a luxury item with specific uses and users in mind. This is because like all things from Apple they carry signature branding of their modern minimal style and their signature high price tag when compared to their competition. Every Day Flaws:
As a cell phone, the iphone falls short in a few ways.
1. The iphone occationally drops calls: Whether or not it's ATTs 3G network or the phone itself, the price of the phone, wireless plan and the amount of customers with iphones this should not be happening nearly as much as it does. 2. The iphone doesn't mnot support mutimedia (pictures) messages : If you like to take pictures with ou cell phone and send them to other cell phones as MMS multimedia messages, the iphone will nnot be you first choice. The phone has an application for SMS TEXT messenger which works great, but any pictures sent from another phones come as text which directs you to a ATT wireless website with a username and password that ou have to insert to see the picture. This defeats the purpose of viewing MMS pictures on your phone especially since the website link is not always viewable from the iphone itself. If you recieve images in emails, .jpgs included in emails that the iphone recieve display great.
3. The iphone Task lists: Fresh out of the box, the iphone has no task list and if you have a windows machine it'll sync with microsoft outlook's email and calendar but not tasks.
4. The keyboard is good but not the greatest: Compared to other phones it has great responsethe the keys are very tiny, close, and lack a texture to them so it's easy to miss keys while typing.
5. Even when away from Home you are vunerable to your home network: For example an att wireless outage (11/20/08) that effected 100% of hawaii iphone customers (in this news article) within the state also affected Hawaii customers who were traveling away from Hawaii and still in state with att wireless networks/coverage.
Every Day Achievements:

I won't go too much into detail with achievements because they are arleady documented in depth from Apple and ATT wireless.
1. The iphone is first and foremost an ipod: A 16gb iphone can now be a entry level pod replacement, although 16gb is nothing compared t the 120gb ipod classic it is can be the sole portable music player for many. 16gb (about 14-15gb usable) can't hold the largest music collections it can hold thousands of songs that could easily be enough for for a work week, long trip or even till the next models with 32gb, 64gb, storage become available. The quality and features of music player iphone are the same as the itouch and ipod. This the iphone accels at, storage aside, it is an uncompromising ipod at it's core. Apple did a good job of this and not sticking the ipod into a phone.
2. The iphone has many additional applications: aside from being an ipod with a digital camera gps, the iphone has many software applications of which are free or inexpesive.
Things to improve:
If the Ihone could improve on the flaw mentioned above especially the MMS, outlook task list support, adobe flash player, and the ability to download another web browser such as Opera mobile, it would be very hard to beat as a phone.
Compared with the Competition:
The iphone really doesn't offer anything more than it's competitors except the Apple branding, and a great app store. For this reason the value of it is questionable and will be challenged with such phones as the blackberry storm. black berry has larger corporate and government support. Google's phone is also a serious competitor to the iphone for ll the right reasons, it has the foundation of a solid software framework. Those who love everything google search, google mail, igoogle, google calendar, google docs, google chrome own web browser. Syncing should be an issue because all of the google software apps are web based and avilable from any computer with a web browser and internet connection.
09/10/2008 | Hardware

Mini laptops or note books are the starting to gain popularity.
These are all mini notebooks screens 8.9” about 1-2gb max ram and with mobile processors like the intel atom. What this means is that these aren’t the most powerful mobiles computers but a good mix of power and portability from packages that offer the same basic capabilities as desktop computers.
These are marketed toward students, travelers, business people, those with a desktop computer who want more mobility, and also to first time computer buyers. After researching this emerging category for mobile computers, I’ve found the Dell Mini 9, HP2133, and Acer Aspire One.

Take for example the Acer Aspire One these currently are hard to find and selling out, why, because they are planning to sell in the 350-400 price range for models with 120 gb AOA150-1570 and 160 gb hard drives. Out of the three listed above this model would be my pick are here’s why.
Cost this is the least expensive and you still get an 8.9” screen mini laptop, Windows XP home, an intel Atom processor, and most importantly you get 120gb of hard disk.

The solid state memory are known to have better battery time and may be faster but only come in 16gb max at competitive pricing, 16gb vs 120 gb is no match, considering this is the capacity that will store the operating system, programs and any personal files. One recommendation no matter what the laptop is get the largest hard drive that you can afford.
Considering the specs and the price as well as the fact that the it still they all are about the same size and style the Acer Aspire One with 120gb or 160gb is your best bet.

One thing to consider about operating systems is that Windows XP home, or vista will have a lot of software and support. If you purchase the windows model you could even uninstall windows and install ubuntu linux free (downloaded from the internet) while having the original windows disc to reinstall. If you get the ubuntu linux version you’ll have to pay for a windows disc if you wanted to install windows (which would most likely occurs for software compatibility.

So why choose Ubuntu linux and what is it? Ubuntu Linux an open source based operating system which means it’s a free version of software that does much of the same functions of windows. If you will use the mini laptop mainly as a mobile solution, use a lot of web apps such as free web based email and google docs or prefer the free openoffice.org over Microsoft office, then a mini laptop with Ubuntu Linux is available cutting the cost of the mini laptops even more.
The lowest priced mini laptops usually start with Linux so be sure to look over the specs to get exactly what you want.

That’s why we are starting to see more web browsers because if there’s ubuntu linuxs (free) and openoffice.org (free), email (gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail, etc.) (also free) then why pay for Microsoft Windows, or Microsoft Office, which is ofcourse the subject of a separate blog and only relevant to mini laptops because of cost.
These laptops are popular because they sacrifice performance of more expensive laptops but offer great value in being what they are support to be, mobile computers. They are affordable because they offer computing at 350-400 a price range competitive with video game consoles like xbox 360 and PS3 and even the iphone and itouch yet they are fully functional mobile computers.

They contain as much mobile power for 350 as was available about 3 years ago for 3500, 10 times as much. This trend along with one laptop per child, open source software, free web based software, openoffice, etc, will allow more people to have technology as their resource.

Hardware