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Michael Wann 756 days ago
Asus The new Eee PC is E-E-Easy to master and fun to use. When you mention small, cheap laptops, the One Laptop Per Child device immediately comes to mind. Designed for third-world school children, the OLPC was supposed to cost just $100, although that price has increased to $200. That’s why this week’s announcement from Asus is so exciting. Their Eee PC also is a small, simple laptop which runs on the Linux operating system and is made to sell for just $300 to $400. Since it went on sale, last month in Taiwan, the Eee has been selling like hotcakes. Asus has just announced their feature-rich, top-of-the line model, the Eee PC 4G, which is now available for sale here in the United States. Eee stand for “easy to lean, easy to work and easy to play.” It’s a small, ultralight laptop with a 7-inch color screen, an Intel processor (the OLPC has an AMD chip) and a battery which provides up to 3 hours of use before needing recharging. Eee weighs ...Michael Wann 757 days ago
Everex The new Green ePC runs on a form of Linux called the gOS. Beginning today, Wal-Mart is selling a brand new computer for $199. Everex calls their new Green gPC an alternative personal computer which runs on Linux – a free operating system. Its name implies it’s an alternative to more expensive devices which run on Microsoft Windows or Apple’s operating system. (MSNBC.com is a Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture.) The gPC uses Ubuntu Linux, which is a free, open-source operating system. I’ve been testing Ubuntu on a number of different computers – old and new – for the past few months and I highly recommend it. Everex added a green, graphical desktop and calls the result the gOS. The screen features oversized icons and a large, horizontal navigation bar with easy-to-understand icons for Web sites and free, installed software including the Mozilla Web browser, Skype and the OpenOffice suite plus links to YouTube and Wikipedia. There ...Michael Wann 765 days ago
Cellufun In this round it's Hillary vs. Rudy There aren’t many scintillating new items being displayed on the show floor at the 2007 CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment expo in San Francisco. But one new game being displayed there did catch my eye. Fr om the “picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words” department, there’ll be a new game available soon for your cell phone called The Mobile Ring. As you can see, this game from Cellufun lets you pit any U.S. presidential candidates of your choice in a knock-down battle—in a boxing ring. The company suggests you can let candidates throw punches like never before – or just let them beat each other up. This new game is sure to be a big hit with users (pun intended). Mobile Ring will be available next week. It’s free and will work on a huge number of cellular phones. The long list is available on Cellufun’s Website. I knew that if I looked hard enough that I would find a terrific new phone ...Michael Wann 766 days ago
For the first time, a trade show for the cell phone industry is light on new phones. In the recent past there had been a slew of shiny new handset designs to admire. Not so this year. The 2007 CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment expo, here in San Francisco, is focused on everything you can do on your smartphone aside from making a phone call. Wireless data use over cell phones is exploding. According to a new CTIA survey, non-voice service revenues in the first half of 2007 rose 63 percent over the same period last year. That means more and more people are using their cell phones to send and receive IMs, e-mails, text messages, download maps, Web pages, music and video files, photos and nearly everything else you can think of - other than voice calls. The survey revealed that so far this year, text messaging set new records, with nearly 29 billion messages sent in the month of June, 2007. Overall, there are now a record 243 million wireless users in the United States. ...
Michael Wann 771 days ago
Palm The new, smaller, red Palm Centro. Palm desperately needs some good news. It was love at first sight. Not because it is compact and nicely shaped – or because it 3G wireless connection is fast - or because it handles Microsoft Exchange mail, calendar and phonebook with aplomb. I love it because it’s that and more. It’s an all-around great device. The Centro is really a smaller Treo. Palm says it’s 20 percent smaller. I didn’t spend time measuring. Let’s just say it’s slightly smaller. What they’ve done they’ve made it easier to hold. The screen is smaller than the Treo’s – but readable. The keyboard is smaller, too. When you first see it you might think it’s too small to type on, but even with my big fingers, I found the Centro’s keyboard made it easy for my typing to be quite accurate. I like it better than the iPhone to type on. There’s a 1.3 megapixel camera on the back, which seems skimpy for a modern-day smartphone. ...
