This week at Mobile Tech Manor #12

Mobile_tech_manor_large_2It’s the time of week once again where I look back at things that I’ve been working on and report on them.  It’s been a fun week with big goings-on in the tech space such as the Apple notebook event and subsequent arrival of the new 13-inch MacBook here.  I am still trying to get my cloud setup working properly and have a way to go before I am home free.  I got a new EV-DO modem from Verizon that is looking nice and I am still having fun with the Lenovo netbook I have written about.  Come in and join me for a bit and we’ll talk some tech.

What’s going on in the tech world this week

T-Mobile and Google had apparently sent evaluation G1 Android phones to those who cover such things and the embargo lifted this week.  I haven’t had one in my hands yet but it was certainly funny to see news, views and reviews appearing all over the web.  Kevin has been using one for a few weeks and his review was a good one with a couple of videos of the G1 in action.  I must admit that having read many of these reviews I feel that it’s a pretty good effort for a first generation phone.  We must remember that it’s not just a 1st effort phone but it’s also the first effort to use the Android operating system from Google.  It’s definitely got a ways to go yet but all in all seems to be a decent first shot across the bow of the other players in the smartphone space.

The netbook turned one year old this week as the first EEE PC was introduced a whole year ago.  That release was game-changing as it ushered in the new genre of computing device and it seemed to catch the industry by surprise.  I couldn’t tell you how many netbooks are on the market now but it’s pretty incredible that we’ve seen so much activity in this space in just a year.  Now if OEMs could only find a way to make their netbook stand out from the crowd without adding a bundle to the price.

Apple announced their new notebook line and the announcement demonstrated how good the rumor mill has gotten.  There wasn’t anything announced that hadn’t been leaked if I recall correctly and that’s not the way it has been in the past.  Apple is proud of their unibody aluminum chassis on the new MacBooks and having played with one for less than a day I have already come to appreciate it.  The entire unit feels much sturdier than the older models while being thinner at the same time.  The dual GPU MacBook Pros is a good step forward although dual graphics solutions have been out for a while on the Windows side.  Reports are in that you must log out to switch from one GPU to the other making it more involved than some of the Windows solutions.  Sony has some models with a hardware toggle switch so you can bounce between the two GPUs at will without having to reboot or log out.  It’s good technology in any event and helps bridge the need between good battery life and performance graphics on demand.

The new MacBook trackpad is definitely a piece of work.  I was sceptical about the buttonless setup but found it so intuitive that I made the adjustment from buttons to just pushing on the trackpad very quickly.  It’s actually easier to drag things around and select text in windows for example without a button which is surprising.  I am liking the four-finger salute to fire up Expose too.

The new MacBook I got has only a slightly faster CPU than my MacBook Pro, 2.4 GHz vs. 2.33 GHz but the new integrated NVidia 9400M graphics plus the faster front-side bus is making a huge difference.  The MacBook is definitely much faster than the 17-inch MacBook Pro I have been using for a good while even though the Pro has dedicated graphics.  Apple did very well with this new MacBook, at least so far.

This week I decided to ditch the ExpressCard (v740) EV-DO modem I’ve been using with Verizon and switch to a USB model.  The thought is that with all the different devices I evaluate, especially netbooks, that a USB solution is more universal than ExpressCard.  I got the USB727 from Verizon and am impressed with how well it works so far.  It’s very small and also has a microSD card reader to add a little extra functionality.

Software

I haven’t tried any new software this week but I’ve spent some time trying to improve my Exchange/ Entourage/ GMail/ iPhone syncing needs.  I am thinking of doing away with the Exchange stuff, at least for calendar and tasks and just use the Google stuff.  This would make my moving around different machines a lot easier but I haven’t come up with a good way to get the iPhone to work with that yet.  I’m still kicking around a few things and will report back when I come up with a better solution than what I have now, which is brute force.

Ebooks of the week

This week I read one ebook and have started another.  Playing Dead by Allison Brennan is a pretty good story about a cop who escapes death row to prove his innocence and the ruckus that kicks up.  Shadowfires by Dean Koontz I’ve just started and it’s certainly typical Koontz with resurrection from the dead themes circling all round.  I’m still happily reading on the iPhone which is always in my pocket when I have some free reading time.

Wrap-up

That’s it for this week, I hope to have my hands on a Blackberry Storm pretty soon to share my thoughts on the first touchscreen Blackberry with you.  Thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you again soon.

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