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Thoughts and things I care to shareHTC Wizard vs. Asus Eee PC
This is really just a fun comparison that I wanted to do. I’ve had an HTC Wizard (My T-Mobile MDA) for the past two years and it’s been my grab-n-go mobile solution all that time. Along with the HTC Wizard, I use the ThinkOutside (iGo?) Bluetooth Keyboard and Stowaway Bluetooth Mouse to great success.
But with great software, usable keyboard, and highly useful mouse, it still isn’t a great performer, and is missing that full browser experience that is crucial to a web worker.
There really is no contest, but here goes:
vs.
| T-Mobile MDA | Asus Eee PC 4G |
| 200MHz | 900MHz |
| 64MB RAM | 512MB RAM |
| 802.11b/g WiFi | 802.11g WiFi |
| 128MB ROM | 4GB SSD |
| 240×320 | 800×480 |
| Slide-out Keyboard | Clamshell, full keyboard |
| MiniUSB for sync/charging only | 3 USB 2.0 |
| Bluetooth 1.1 | No Bluetooth |
| QuadBand GSM/GPRS/EDGE | No mobile data service |
| Windows Mobile 5 | Linux (Windows XP compatible) |
| MiniSD Slot | SD Slot (with SDHC support) |
The biggest thing about either of these devices is realizing that they are an access terminal, or “Cloud Computer” in popular terminology. If you can get away from the idea that you need to have serious storage space, keep your entire music library, or have every conceivable tool you’ll ever need with you at all times, then this type of device will work for you.
In fact this is not limited to these two devices – add in the Nokia N800 series devices, UMPCs, MacBook Air, Everex Cloudbook and other such capable systems. The idea is that you are connected to the Internet (the cloud) and the majority of your data and tools are located there – accessible from anywhere on anything.
The biggest plus for solutions like the Eee PC or Everex Cloudbook is that they run real, modern operating systems, have very useable screens & keyboards, and rely on fast connections like WiFi. Solutions like my HTC Wizard and related devices are handicapped mostly by screen & keyboard size.
Even so, for the common, basic tasks I have used that T-Mobile MDA for over two years, written many blog posts, performed hundreds of Internet activities, along with the usual meetings, notes, calls, and pictures. But I needed to carry three pieces of equipment to get a useable mobile access terminal – something that the Eee PC class of device is putting in a 2lb. clamshell that is no larger than a modern paperback. You seriously just grab it and go – there is nothing more to think about.
I’m curious on your devices and feedback though. What are your thoughts? Have you tried an Eee PC or similar devices? Have you used a Windows Mobile based device like the HTC Wizard for the same function? How successful has it been for you? What would you recommend to others?
Oh yeah, wondering what device wins in my book? The Eee PC. Cheers!
Twitters that will be at SXSW
Hello there to all my Twitter budz! As I mentioned yesterday, I’m sharing all the Twitter users that I know are going to be Tweeting from SXSW next week. So, if you’re not following them now, you can now! Also, these are all really great people with a lot of intelligent commentary – and a lot of great wit as well. 😉
In no particular order:
- Phil Campbell: http://twitter.com/philcampbell
- Becky McCray: http://twitter.com/beckymccray
- Chris Brogan: http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan
- Alex Harris: http://twitter.com/alexdesigns
- Jess Krutch: http://twitter.com/escapetochengdu
- Erica M: http://twitter.com/swirlspice
- Greg Swan: http://twitter.com/perfectporridge
- Laura Fitton: http://twitter.com/pistachio
- Liz Strauss: http://twitter.com/lizstrauss
- Jim Long: http://twitter.com/newmediajim
- C.C. Chapman: http://twitter.com/cc_chapman
- Tony Katz: http://twitter.com/tonykatz
- Ronald Lewis: http://twitter.com/ronaldlewis
- Jeffery Sas: http://twitter.com/sass
- Duane (PreppyDude): http://twitter.com/preppydude
- Jonny Goldstein: http://twitter.com/jonnygoldstein
- Scott Stead: http://twitter.com/scottstead
- Connie Reece: http://twitter.com/conniereece
- Kim Haynes: http://twitter.com/khaynes
- Sheila Scarborough: http://twitter.com/sheilas
- Shashi Bellamkonda: http://twitter.com/shashib
- Erin Kotecki Vest: http://twitter.com/queenofspain
- Garry Vaynerchuk: http://twitter.com/garyvee
- JasonFalls: http://twitter.com/JasonFalls
- Todd Earwood: http://twitter.com/earwood
- Nick Huhn: http://twitter.com/nickhuhn
- NikkiKey: http://twitter.com/NikkiKey
- sMoRTy71: http://twitter.com/sMoRTy71
- Hugh MacLeod: http://twitter.com/gapingvoid
- Josh Bancroft: http://twitter.com/jabancroft
- Clarence Smith Jr.: http://twitter.com/dykc
Like many, I’ll be following these fine folks, and others that I’m not aware of that’ll be there, for as much play-by-play that they have time to share with us. If you know of more people that’ll be there, or if you would like to be added to the list, please drop me a line on Twitter – you can find me there at http://twitter.com/rickmahn.com.
UPDATE: Connie Reece pointed out that there is also a wiki that many Twitters that are going to SXSW have left their links on for people to follow! So head over to http://sxswtwitter.pbwiki.com and check it out.
UPDATE II: I noticed Pistachio just Twittered a link that I hadn’t seen before as well: http://www.sxswbaby.com. It’s a blog dedicated to SXSW, loaded with information specifically for the conference, it’s venues and more.
Outlook on syncing with Google: Excellent
It seems that Google itself has released a useful little utility that will sync your Microsoft Outlook Calendar with your Google Calendar. No, I don’t think hell has frozen over, but it’s gotta be colder there anyway.
You can read more on the utility over at Google’s “Calendar Help Center“. Or you can skip the reading and download the tool here.
See, now this complicates my choice to wean myself from Microsoft Outlook!
Link posts – end of the line?
I’ve been thinking about the content I publish on my blog of late. Personally, I think I’ve let it get a bit messy, and have been working on cleaning it up a bit and thinking of new layouts and such. Currently, I’ve not planned an overhaul of the entire site, but that may happen in 2008 – we’ll see.
Recently though, I’ve started to dislike my “links” post that I try to keep updated every day. It’s hard to keep up, and be selective, sharing quality links in these posts. They’re partially automated, coming directly from my del.icio.us bookmarks. However, del.icio.us is fed by ClipMarks, after careful screening through my Google Reader’s Shared Items.
For the past year, I’ve maintained a Google Reader Shared Items blog. In early autumn 2007 I created a Lifestream that aggregated all my online postings of multiple types of media into one place. Two weeks ago, I discovered FriendFeed which does the same thing, but also brings social interaction to the shared content as well.
With these aggregated or interactive shared streams, I wonder if there is any real point of posting a “links” post every day (or trying to anyway). I’d love to have your thoughts. While it does take a bit of extra effort on my part, it may be of greater value to you… I don’t know, but I’d like to find out.
Share your thoughts in the comments. Do you find value in the “links” posts that I share, or do you find more and better links in things like FriendFeed, Plaxo Pulse, Google Reader Shared Items, or a Lifestream?
Photo credit: BlakJakDavy
A Year With Twitter
So today marks a full year of Twitter use for me. I posted my first Tweet on 3/4/2007… something about reading feeds.
But that isn’t what I really want to talk about. Rather, I’ve been thinking of how integral Twitter has become as a part of my communications toolkit. It’s changed how I interact with my online friends, heck it’s provided the means to really meet most of them. It provides insight into my fellow social media explorers, and personal branding experts that I follow. It is just as critical to my daily comms as my mobile phone and email.
However, it’s not changed how I communicate with family, or old friends, or some corporate types since they don’t “get it” – or so they say. (That’s another discussion altogether.) However, it has made for interesting conversations with many of these folks. For many the constant barrage of messages, many from people one doesn’t interact with much, seems like a waste of time. They also can’t conceive of a reason that they would want to share their current activities with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people at once.
Of course those points miss the boat. As I’ve followed more and more people on Twitter, and have more people follow me, I’ve grown in my ability to absorb the data stream. I’ve become accustomed to having bits of information stream past all day. I find it interesting when someone chooses to vent frustrations. I’m invigorated by the short conversations on topics I rarely think about. I get excited to be able to answer someone’s question. I’m happy when I hear good things happen to these people who are familiar to me. I’m proud of the way the community itself pulls together and makes things happen.
Imagine, all this is captured and shared in 140 characters or less.
Updated theme elements here on the blog
Hi all!
Just a quick post to mention the updated “post footer” changes that I came up with. Since adding a few additional services here on my blog, I’ve disliked how messy and unorganized the bottom of each post had become. So today, I set out to tidy it up a bit and make it a bit more pleasant to look at.
I’ve simply defined a specific section for the “footer” of each post that draws a border, added light background shading, consistent font size, and a simple table to hold the “ShareThis” feature on the right-side of the column. I think it helps define the end of one post and lets the header text of the next post stand out a bit better. Previously it seemed like it rambled from header, to post content, to some tagging, to sharing options, to related posts, and finally to the post meta data at the end.
The base theme is Misty Look by Sadish Bala, currently in version 3.5 supporting WordPress 2.3.x. I’ve made several customizations over the past year and have found the code fairly easy to modify if you’ve got a reasonable understanding of HTML and PHP. Let me know if you have a question on what I’ve done, I’m happy to share what I’ve learned.
I hope you agree that this makes each post a bit more readable, and isolates the post meta data that can be skipped if you want. If you don’t agree… well I sure would like to hear your opinions! My goal is to have things readable, fairly organized, and hopefully, easy to read for you when you come to visit. Just leave a comment if you have an idea or feedback – I’d love to hear your thoughts!
links for 2008-03-01
- Brian Solis (co-author of “Now is gone”) gives his take on some new services like FriendFeed and what they mean for Social Media and your brand.
links for 2008-02-29
- Darren Waters of BBC News dot.life column had an interview with Andy Rubin and a demo of an Alfa version of Android on a 3G handset. Check it out.
- Dave Fleet has a great post on being more clear and approachable to the non-geeks on the topic of social media. There are many ways of communicating concepts and he’s taking the lead on making it easier to understand. Kudos Dave!
- Have you heard that there will be a 4th Jason Bourne movie? Check out Doug Haslam’s post on naming the movie! Great fun.
Bourne Again?
Twitter bud Doug Haslam has taken up the task of helping the producers name the next Jason Bourne flick. No name or plot has been released, but Matt Damon has signed on for film number 4 of the series.
Head on over and offer up your suggestion!
FriendFeed rockets to my toolbar
FriendFeed just made it on my browser’s link toolbar. Why is this important? Because, it delivers on the promise that Facebook seemed to offer to me, but was not able to deliver (like many social networks). Easy interaction with friends with the ability to simply share relevant information.
I can give you a laundry list of what’s wrong with Facebook from my point of view, but I’ll instead share the big secret of FriendFeed for me. Feeds. There’s more – it’s the way you use the feeds. It’s not another feed aggregator, it’s a tool that lets you bring feeds from your various online profiles and share them with friends. Yeah, sure, sounds like a “lifestream” right, and yes, you can do that with Plaxo Plus.
However, FriendFeed is different in that, like Twitter, you can view a combined stream of your feeds and your friend’s feeds. Within this feed, you can comment on anything – it’s fantastic as a conversation starter. You can see what other people have said about a post, a link, a picture, a news item, etc… whatever someone has happened to share in a feed.
I can’t describe it much better, like Twitter, FriendFeed rocks. Kudos to Louis Gray for really bringing attention to it. You can find my FriendFeed here.
Anyway, it’s made it’s way to my toolbar – which means it’s just one click away and not buried in a bookmark menu (like others). It’s that addicting useful.
😢
“We are not enemies but friends.”
Live your life.
Completely.
Without fear.
Live it with Love, compassion, empathy, tolerance and joy.
Treat every person with the kindness, respect and dignity they deserve by the very virtue of being a human being.
Out riding this rainy, wet spring. Got 1,000 miles on the clock with more to come this season. #IMRG #IndianMotorcycle
Watching early seasons of #GoldRush. Fun seeing @GoldrushRick in season 3! Hope his new season is off to a good start!
Oh yes I did! https://www.instagram.com/p/BsRDO9ogSO0/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=1kha5yzhjq3ot