Irunabiz: Technology » Hardware

My Obligitory iPad Review

Jeff Spiller — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:17:00 +0000

I’ve been using an iPad for that last 5 days. The model I’m using has 16gb with WI-FI only (no 3g wireless). During my time with the iPad, I’ve mostly used it to connect to my corporate network via WI-FI and VPN. After the first hour of Apple induced euphoria, I came back down to earth and started to use it. Here’s what I concluded:

Pluses:

Size–its a lot smaller and lighter than my MacBook Air.
Battery Life– It can go nearly 2 days with normal use in WI-FI mode.(I didn’t have the 3g model and I didn’t use bluetooth so those battery hogs could effect battery life if used). Its a lot longer then any laptop or even my iPhone, for that matter.
Screen. Crisp and Bright.
Applications. Lots of them, specifically for the iPad. You have the force of Apple behind it and, with that, tons of iPad specific apps.
App Store. The App Store is easy to navigate, and does a great job of differentiating iPhone apps from iPad Apps.
Email. If you like the iPhone email you’ll love the iPad Email

Neutral

Web Browser. The iPad size browser is great. Its easy to read, and pages display properly on it (with the exception of Flash*). On the other hand some advanced web features don’t work on the iPad, for instance, Regular Google Docs won’t work properly on the iPad, so you have to use the less powerful the mobile version.
Keyboard. It’s a lot better than the small touch screen keyboards, but you still wouldn’t want to type more than a paragraph on it.
iPhone Apps, Yes, they load and work, but they are the same size as the iPhone. If you want to make them bigger, all you do is zoom in. (Yes, they are bigger after you zoom, but they look hokey.)

Bad

No Camera (Supposedly coming later in the year). I would be nice to use Skype for with video.
No External Memory. You get what you get when you buy it, and its not easy to move data.
No Removable Battery. Someday you will need a new battery, but when you do you’ll have to send the whole unit away.
iTunes. You still have to manage the unit with iTunes. iTunes never made sense to me before, and still doesn’t now.

I think that the iPad is great tool if you understand its limitations. It’s great for entertainment, light web browsing, and checking email. If you travel frequently, but don’t need a full laptop, the iPad is very convenient. Make sure, however, you test any sites you need to use before get one so you are not unpleasantly surprised.

* Flash refers to Adobe Flash, a tool often used to add interactivity and video to websites. Apple does not support, or currently plan to support Flash on the iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad

Should you upgrade your Home Business PC to Windows 7

Jeff Spiller — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:01:14 +0000

Windows 7 is scheduled to be released at the end of October. There has been a lot of hype about this version, and how its better than Windows Vista. But should you upgrade? Here is my advice:

If you are buying a new computer, get Windows 7, its better than Vista and it will be worth it. ‘Downgrades to XP will be phased out (if they haven’t already) so you don’t have much if a choice anyway. Based on on the reviews, you won’t be disappointed with Windows 7
If you have Windows XP do NOT upgrade to Windows 7, the hardware requirements may be more than you have; many of your programs won’t work without an add on (that’s not available on the lowest priced version of Windows 7); some hardware won’t work; and you can’t actually upgrade–you have backup your data, erase you hard drive and install Windows 7, download and install the XP add-on, reinstall your drivers, install your programs, and restore your backup. Since Microsoft will continue to support XP for the next couple of years, my advice is to just buy a new computer when you are ready for Windows 7
If you already have Vista its a bit murky. You can upgrade from like version of Vista to like version of Windows 7 without erasing your hard-drive and all of your data and programs. In addition, most of your hardware will be compatible. So in this case, the upgrade isn’t a big hairy deal. On the other hand, if Vista works for you why bother with the effort and expense. If you do need to upgrade, stick with like versions. Here is a list of the upgrade paths:

32-bit Vista Home Basic/Premium upgrades to 32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium

64-bit Vista Home Basic/Premium upgrades to 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium

32-bit Vista Business upgrades to 32-Bit Windows 7 Professional

64-bit Vista Business upgrades to 64-Bit Windows 7 Professional

32-bit Vista Ultimate upgrades to 32-Bit Windows 7 Ultimate

64-bit Vista Ultimate upgrades to 64-Bit Windows 7 Ultimate

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Also before you upgrade, download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to confirm that you won’t have any problems.

Another reminder: Always backup your important data before you do an upgrade.

Good luck, and leave me a comment to tell me what you decide, and how it goes.

Buying a Laptop for your Home Business

Jeff Spiller — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:57:23 +0000

Man with Laptop

If starting or running a home business you probably need a computer. I strongly recommend that you get a laptop instead of a desktop computer for the following reasons:

A laptop isn’t much more expensive then a desktop when you factor in the monitor and extras like a webcam.
Frequently at home you may not always have a permanent location for your office, or you may need to temporarily relocate your office (when your office is being vacuumed, to watch the kids. etc)
If the kids are having a birthday party (or something else disruptive is going on) and you have a critical proposal to get out, you can just take the laptop somewhere else to work.
You really should have separate computer for work since you don’t want your spouse’s ‘free’ apps on your business computer
Its nice to have your own computer to take to presentations and customer meetings.

While having a laptop is nice, trying to buy one can be very confusing, while I’m not going to make any specific recommendations, I would like to give you some guidelines.

Small, cheap and powerful– Pick any two. Laptops are compromises, so you need to understand that you cannot ‘have it all’. For must home office systems I would recommend that you sacrifice size/weight for value and power (Unless you travel a lot)
Don’t confuse a notebook or laptop with a netbook, netbooks are not desktop replacements. See my related post on Netbooks
Buy a dual-core Processor, not a single-core processor.
Get 3GB memory or, if you can afford it 4GB of memory
Get a 260 GB hard drive
If at all possible get a built in webcam.
Spring for 802.11/b/g/n card (N is new but its probably going to be the new standard, it’s much faster)
Make sure it has a DVD-RW drive.
If you are comparing systems, more USB ports are better then less.
Stick to a brand name.

You should be able to get a laptop with these specs for under $800. Make sure you shop on the Internet, at electronics, and office supply warehouses. Sometimes the in-the-store deals are better than the Internet.
Also, at this point Windows 7 will be out in about 3 weeks (around October 22) so wait for for it, before you buy if at all possible. (If not make sure the version of Vista you get has a free upgrade to Windows 7

Image Coutesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

What’s a NetBook ?

Jeff Spiller — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:58:51 +0000

Netbooks have become very popular lately, almost every pc maker has one, but what is it, and how does it differ from a notebook computer. The truth is, a netbook is just a smaller, lighter cheaper notebook computer.

The chart below shows the general differences between a netbook and a notebook:

Differences between a netbook and a notebook

As you can see a netbook is basically a smaller, lighter, less expensive notebook computer. Many applications will run slower on the a netbook, and some won’t run at all. Besides, if you follow the sales, you know that you can get a pretty decent laptop on sale for between $450 and $600. So, why get a netbook? There are two reasons:

1. You travel a lot and want a small computer to check mail, surf the web, and give presentations on. A netbook is great for this, since it’s small, it doesn’t weigh you down or take up a lot of space, and it won’t break the bank if it’s lost or stolen. You still need full sized laptop or desktop PC to use when you are not on the road.

2. You run your business on a desktop, but sometimes need a computer to take with you to clients’ offices, or to do lite work off-site.

In either case, the netbook will do better for you of you have a lot of web based apps (google, salesforce.com, etc) to use. But remember, DON’T BUY A NETBOOK TO BE YOUR PRIMARY COMPUTER–the keyboard is too small, the monitor is too small, and stuff runs too slow (or not at all) on it.

Before you buy a netbook make sure you check the following:

1. Try out the keyboard – can you type on it?

2. Is the monitor big enough for you to comfortably use?

3. Will the Operating System installed on it run the applications you need. (Linux won’t run Windows applications)

4. Does it have enough disk space to store your data?

5. If you are using it for presentations, does it have the proper video outputs, and resolution?

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think about netbooks.

Great Deal On a Dell Netbook: $245

Jeff Spiller — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:32:25 +0000

If you are a Sam’s Club member you can get a Dell Inspiron 9 for $245 with free shipping. This is $44 less Dell’s price This is the first time I’ve seen a new netbook under $300.

A netbook is a low end small laptop designed priarily for web surfing, and mobile computing. They typicaly have limited memory, disk space, and processing power, and cannot run powerfull applications well

Should You Buy an iMac

Jeff Spiller — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:00:15 +0000

I have had the opportunity to use an iMac for the past week, and I have to tell you that I was quite impressed. I’ve long been interested in alternative desktop Operating System (meaning Not Windows) and once worked for an entire year at home with Linux (I’m now running WinXP). The iMac has been getting a lot of press (and has cute commercials) So I jumped at the opportunity to test one out.

Here is what I Used

Hardware

iMac with Intel 3.06 Ghz Core Duo Processor, 24″ Monitor, 320 Mb HD, 4GB RAM Memory: Cost $2499

Additional Software

Microsoft Office For Mac: Cost $399

VMware Fusion (To run windows with): Cost $79.00

MS Windows XP Professional Edition: Cost: $289.00

(The 24″ 266 version is one of the higher end versions, but some start at low as $1199)

As you can see I installed windows on the machine as well, using a VMware Fusion , which allows you to run Windows Applications on the iMac. You will have to install windows yourself within the VMware Fusion product. (There is also another product called Parallels which also runs Windows) I need Internet Explorer and a few other applications that are not available for Mac.

What I liked

1. Speed. This machine was fast. The OSx operating system is optimized with the hardware, and it has a lot of horsepower. Everything ran faster than my other machine. (To my Windows machine’s defense it is only running a single core processor) . I never waited long for anything on the machine to happen.

2. Users Desktop Interface: Its clean an uncluttered and you can setup 4 different work spaces ‘Screen’s and customize your windows by task, and easily move from screen to screen. It has a ‘dashboard’ feature, that lets you setup ‘widgets’ (mini programs) that pop up over your screen so you can check your stocks, the weather, and news. It also has an application called Expose that brings all of your open programs to the front so you can see whats running in a workspace, and find the application that you need.

3. Simplicity of the hardware. the iMac consists of what appears to be a flat screen monitor (actually its the entire computer) and, a wireless mouse (optional) and a wireless keyboard(optional). It only used one electrical outlet, and has built in wireless so you don’t even have to plug in a network cable if you don’t want to. (it does have Ethernet, USB, and Firewire ports on the back of the ”monitor”). There is a slot on the right side of the “monitor” for CD’s and that’s the whole thing.

3. Applications. Office for Mac works almost exactly like Office XP for Windows. There was almost no learning curve. The Safari browser is easy to use. The version of an the iMac that I had has a camera in it so I can video chat with other iMac users.

What I didn’t Like

1. Cost. Even if I bought he base system (Starting with the lowest end model, with Windows compatibility and MS Office) I still couldn’t have the setup i need for less than $1800. I could easily get a workable equivalent Windows PC (1GB ram,250GB HDD,20″ Monitor, XP PRO) with MS office Small Business for less than $1100.

2. Setting up and running two operating systems. You have to install, and setup, and use windows as well if you are going to need it for any applications

What I’m not sure about

There is no expandability once you get the hardware. If you need to have the computer fixed, you will have to go to apple. All of the hardware is proprietary. While I don’t think this is a big problem. If they system fails you are at the mercy of apple.

My Recommendation

If money is no object. I think this a great machine, its fast, cool looking and has great features. If on the other hand you are on a budget, you will pay quite premium for to have the apple. You also are going to have to deal with a windows compatibly package, if you run the chance of needing a windows application or even windows Internet explorer compatibility.