ForbesOnTech

It's Time for a Revolution in Notebook Cursor Control Devices--Blindfold and Put the Trackpads Up Against the Wall.

Notebook trackpad cursor controllers may be the single biggest design problems effecting consumer notebook designs. The most important element of the portable computer notebook design is the user experience. And that boils down to how easily someone can unpack their machine, set down in front of a keyboard and productively work. Unfortunately, the performance of most track pads is so erratic that users have to learn how to position their hands and palm on each notebook they use. Most portable computer manufacturers have little control over trackpad design. Track pads are commodity parts most often purchased from the lowest bidding supplier and the resulting user experience suffers from this practice. I believe that the user experience is the single most important element in a successful notebook and I have yet to unpack and test a notebook that didn’t require spending time to adjust a track pad’s sensitivity or other attributes. It shouldn’t be this difficult and I shouldn’t need to carry a mouse-pointer in my notebook bag in order to really be productive with a notebook. My experience with notebooks that use track stick pointers or which have built in mechanical mice is altogether different. I u npack them, turn them, on and work for hours on end, a happy camper. For years, the reason why I recommended business notebook brands such as Toshiba’s Tecras and IBM ( and more recently Lenovo) ThinkPads and handful of others was because they used track stick pointers for cursor control. But my all time favorite notebook—Hewlett Packard’s original Omnibook 300 through 800 line didn’t use a stick pointer at all; it had a small mechanical mouse built into its side. HP’s mechanical mouse was a thing of beauty. It was built like a tank, lived safe from accidental damage in its little mouse house on the side of the Omnibook. But more importantly, in the four years I carried HP Omnibooks, not one ever failed. Not once! My love affair with touch screens has a lot to do with cursor control. If I want the cursor to do something specific, I just use a stylus to place it where its needed and perform a specific operation. Track pads may let me pinch, squat, squeeze and grunt but the result of inadvertently hitting a track pad creates an execrable experience that gets in the way of the user experience. The solution to the problems with track pads won’t come from the lowest bidders of 500,00-part track pad orders, or their software partners. It has to come from notebook designers who have a vested interested in making their products different by optimizing the user experience. Until this happens users will keep accidentally sending their cursors to screen realestate that’s unimagined.—Jim Forbes, 11/25/2009

Apple Munches Lala.com Streaming Music Site--Serial Entrepreneur Bill Nguyen Succeeds Again

One of my favorite serial entrepreneurs just sold his most recent start-up, streaming music site, LaLa.com to Apple Inc.

Lala.com is veteran technology entrepreneur Bill Nguyen’s most recent startup. Apple acquired it over the weekend but did not announce how much it paid for the site or what it would do with the companies technology, which analysts predict will be folded into iTunes, predicting Apple would  enhance Lala.Com’s’s technology by improving its abilities to support higher streaming bit rates, which would provide a consistent user experience across the iTunes’ brand.

Lala.com was part of Bain Investments (and other private investment firm’s) portfolio.

Lala.com, which charges only $(US).10 per tune, allows its users to listen to an entire file before it is purchased. The company is Nguyen’s third successful start-up. His previous company was a unified messaging service called OneBox, which was acquired by Open Wave Inc. in October of 2000 for more than $500 million.

Although Apple has declined to comment on how much it paid for Lala.com and how it intends to use with the technology, bloggers who cover Apple and iTunes related news speculate Lala.com’s music preview abilities, its other technologies and its relationships with European record labels as well as European music producers could have been important considerations in the acquisition.—Jim Forbes December 07, 2009.

Cricket Wireless Plus WalMart-- a Marriage That Could Drive Broadband Wireless Networking

Despite a price tag that keeps it beyond  reach of many US consumers, I remain a big fan if wireless broadband networking.

My ardor for this form of connectivity has grown appreciably as close friends and even I have migrated out of dense population centers to rural America—where high speed cable or DSL Internet connectivity isn’t available or financially feasible for many households.

High speed connectivity is assumed by most PC manufacturers and virtually all entrepreneurs working to bring new products to market. But their product planning is often essentially flawed: they assume that every member of their target market has access to high speed, persistent, Internet connectivity.

I’ve seen little evidence to suggest that high speed internet broadband connectivity is inexpensive enough for the mass market

I was without consistent Internet connectivity here in CO my first three weeks on the cold earth of the Rocky’s Front Range. Most of my neighbors all have secure WiFI networks so I became a public library WiFi user. Anecdotally, I noticed a lot of other people who rely on the Brighton, Colorado’s, public library robust and ultra reliable WiFi network. A surprising number of them are like myself—retired professionals who live outside the subscriber areas for cable or DSL service.

But all is not lost and I’ve found a reliable solution that works for me in rural Denver, Cricket’s wireless network.

In case you didn’t know it, Cricket Communications is a Qualcomm wireless venture. They provide voice/ texting for a flat monthly rate and have very good coverage here in the west. But more importantly, they are also building out a substantial broadband network and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg per month.

Cricket’s broadband network isn’t the fastest in the world and as of now—although they advertise 3G speeds --and there are gaping holes in its geographic coverage.

But, they have taken their products to a nationwide outlet that has the depth to drive broadband networking. That outlet is WalMart. Imagine my surprise at 8:30 one Pre-Thanksgiving night as I was picking up towels for my spare bathroom as well as 12-foot length of USB 2.0 cable, and discovered a Cricket USB broadband modem in the electronics’ department display case. I was even more surprised when the clerk satisfactoriliy explained, pricing and usage.

The price-- $40 a month-- was appropriate for a consumer market device and Cricket’s network signup couldn’t be easier. Cricket’s decision to use WalMart as a retail partner is very smart. Whatever your feelings about WalMart, its success and product pull, plus consumer exposure are the stuff of business success case studies.

The Cricket/WalMart distribution strategy is bound to be closely followed in the coming months.

And less you instantly dismiss it’s potential, it‘s useful to remember that the personal computer revolution got its start in an Albuquerque, NM, strip mall.

I think a humble partnership between WalMart and Cricket could be a force that galvanizes broadband networking. All that’s needed now is a domestic success story for Intel’s WiMax long range wireless networking.

I remain hopeful—Jim Forbes on 12/02/2009.

Gateway's new affordable EC1430u Makes The choice between a Netbook and an Ultraportable Simple

 

If you think netbooks are proof of the old adage “good things come in small packages,” then you’re going to love a new generation of ultra compact notebooks that are trickling into retail outlets in time for the forthcoming Holiday season. The new class of portables offer battery life exceeding that of any netbook, I’ve examined so far, plus full-throttle computing power that’s absent in most Intel Atom processor powered netbook. Oh, and unlike previous ultra compact notebooks, the new ultra portables are affordably priced (under $500 for the Gateway EC1430u in the following review), there’s no reason not to get small now. How small? Consider Gateway’s new EC1430u, a feather light power house with Intel’s latest incarnation – a low voltage 2.1 GHz processor that brings life back to the venerable Pentium brand, up to 4GB of fast memory and a zippy 320GB hard disk.. Three USB ports, a 5-in-one card reader. a local area network connector jack and an external Video and an HDMI port, and the usual compliment of audio output and input jacks round out the connections on the rounded edges of the EC1430u'sleek case This tiny machine has a keyboard that didn’t cramp my hands despite my banging on it for hours on end as I tried to write each night on a four-state trip eastward from California.. Despite encountering WiFi networks with some of the most convoluted sign on-routines I’ve ever experienced, the EC1430u got me through the trip with ease, connecting to public networks from the edges of truck stop parking lots One of the features that caught my attention up front was this notebook’s track pad, which because of its placement in this notebook’s smallish keyboard space, seemed never to get accidentally hit (a trait I hate on most notebooks with larger screens). Points go to Acer’s and Gateway’s design staffs for delivering a small form factor machine, that’s easy to use, a joy to carry and which delivers phenomenal battery life that beats any production notebook I’ve tested in three decades. I like the EC1430u's 11.6-inch screen because it’s bright and delivers crisp displays that didn’t require I use reading glasses to check my email at night. Also despite this notebook’s small size, it has a well above average audio system, that’s makes listening to my travel music a joy. How good is the EC1430u's battery life? In two days of constant travelling, I never once had to recharge this machine and I arrived at my new house in CO with about 1.25 hours of battery power remaining in its six-cell 5600 amp hour power pack. At less than four pounds, the EC1430u is a great travel companion and it’s been such a joy to use that it eliminated any jitters I had about its operating system, Windows 7. Gateway’s EC1430u isn’t a hot rod netbook. It’s a full featured portable that delivers almost everything you’d expect in a portable except an internal optical CD/DVD drive at a price performance level that makes the choice between a this machine and a stripped down, cheaper netbook, a no brainer. The Gateway EC1430u is a hands down winner in my book and gets my unqualified recommendation because of its excellent basic feature set and unparalleled battery life.—Jim Forbes 11/24/2009.

Thoughts on Moving to Colorado, but Sad about sending Ma Forbes home to Southern California

I’m one of several hundred thousand Americans who take care of an elderly parent. And I”ve discovered it can be a full time job that comes with a generous heaping of sleep deprivation.
I recently moved from Southern California to a small rural town northeast of Denver, and after a lot of discussion with my mother—who lives with me and who relies on me to take her shopping, the beauty salon and to our HMO. Ma said she wanted to move with me.
I thought things were going swimmingly in the new digs: I like my new house, love the town of Brighton and fell instantly in love with Colorado.
My mom, who is 91, had just the opposite reaction. She felt isolated, and had been intimidated by the little 3-inch snow fall we had our first week here, and started calling her friends, and a handful of family members back in CA.
Well, you can imagine where the waste flowed from there. Soon the begging to return to California kicked in, and then came the phone calls from loved ones MaForbes had talked to. “What were you thinking of when you moved her to Colorado?” is something I’ve heard a lot recently.
It’s a disturbing query to me. What I was thinking of was: a new life, grad school, learning to write in a new voice, and renewed friendships with former classmates, colleagues, entrepreneurs and closely held friends. Besides at the time I moved from California on Halloween, I had come to the realization that I was horribly lonely and starved for affection. But most of all I was thinking about a living environment where my mother was free to use all of my house and not remain isolated in the addition I built at my place in Escondido, pinned to the television watching Law and Order reruns in the afternoon.
Mom couldn’t adjust to the altitude here in the Denver burbs and has had difficulty breathing, which was the piece that finally let me solve the equation of encouraging my mother to go or urge her to stay here.
So MaForbes is leaving my house in Brighton, toddling onto Southwest 737-400 bound for Southern California tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. She’s spending the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend with my big brother at his house and I’m sure she’ll have a lot of fun.
My respect for Southwest Airlines has returned as a result of this experience. It’s reservations agents helped me route my mother back to Ontario, CA with a minimum of fuss and made sure Ma will have a wheel chair pusher to the gate here in Denver, at her intermediate stop in Las Vegas and from the plane to the baggage retrieval are in Ontario, CA—where my sister in law will pick up Ma, her cat and her bag in the thick air of Southern CA.
Oh and Southwest came through with a low senior fare.
Southwest, your tops here in my blog: You have my thanks, my business and a recommendation on my blog. Good customer service wins every time in my world.
I’m sad that Mom is leaving and hope she can spend a few of her remaining days, sitting in her chair on her porch in Escondido, watching wild long-tailed weasels tear after cotton tail bunnies zigzagging through my old peach trees. It’s going to be odd not having her as part of my daily life. Through good times and bad, Ma has been behind me and for the lat 25 years I’ve enjoyed our interactions.
So, as I’ve learned in countless 12-step meetings, G*d really does have a way of doing for me what I can not and will not do for myself. And to family members who’ve questioned me over the last four weeks, “yes, I have joined a local non denominational church and yeah, my soul is a little more peaceful.”
And I found this piece in Colorado; a land spoken of reverently by both sides of my family many of whom lived here in the time of the silver and gold booms. There’s no trout season here yet there’s an abundance of fish and the air, while thin is clear, and the vistas to the east, west and north are breathtaking.
The view to the South? Well, I’ve been so busy looking at the night skies in the other three compass points that I’ve not made the time to look there. But the time will come. Soon.
There’s a lot to recommend Colorado. The Denver area has a unique culture and its suburbs are filled with the politest people I’ve ever met. On the weekends the parks overflow with parents, grandparents and children and if you walk the South Fork of the Platte fishermen are happy to show you their catches and tell you what kind of fly they used to tease a tasty trout to their creel.
To come full circle, while I’ll stay in touch with Ma Forbes by phone on a daily basis, I’m snuggled up here in Brighton, CO, my copies of Hemingway by my side, my computer connected via a high speed link to the Internet. And I’ve a strong feeling that the rest of my life has finally opened up.
So I apologize for the lack of recent posts. I’m alive here in CO, experiencing things I’d only dreamed of before.—Jim Forbes, on 11/23/2009 from Brighton, CO.

how My Realtor, Rovena FLores, Made Buying my New Home in Colorado, Painless.

Packing the last few boxes for my move to Colorado

in two weeks I was struck by how fortunate I’ve been to have found a great realtor who understands interstate moves from a home buyers’ view point.

In my case I was given a recommendation for a realtor named Rovena Flores at Colorado Homes, a Caldwell Banker brokerage in Westminister,CO.

I’ve been pretty specific about my requirements for a new home and unlike many other realtors I’ve dealt with here in CA, Rovena took the time to understand what I was looking for, and that because I take care of my 91 year old mother, I had some pretty specific requirements.

Ms Flores did a lot of prescreening for me, which completely eliminated my looking at houses that obviously didn’t meet my needs or which were priced beyond my housing budget.

I made my selection based on an Internet listing, Ms Flores’ and a quick inspection by an old trusted friend who lives in

Brighton, CO.

After listening to the reports and reading the Realtors’ summary of her walk-throughs, I loaded Ma Forbes in my shiny new red Kia Soul ( aka the hamster van) and hit I-15 to Cedar City, Utah, where we hooked a right on I-70 to Denver, arriving at my the house in Brighton, CO  less than 24 hours after I left Southern California.

The house was much more than I expected and has a master bedroom with ensuite bath for MaForbes, a half-acre fenced back yard with raised vegetable beds and a nice fox-proof vacant chicken coop. Looking west from my front porch I have a nice view of the

Rockies a

nd a neighbor’s wonderfully eclectic collection of 19^th and early 20^th Century farm implements.

My new place is rural and somewhere on my street is a vocal mule that I’m looking forward to meeting.

Oh and I have a huge finished walk-in basement with two bedrooms, an office and a den I plan on turning into a home theater.

With one minor exception caused by a clerical error—a one digit mistake in my social security number on my DD214-- made by someone at the Bureau of Naval Records, the dreaded mortgage process has been a walk-in the park. This has been the easiest home purchase I’ve ever experienced and I believe it’s due largely to my realtor, Rovena Flores at Colorado Homes and my mortgage banker, John Weller and his staff at MegaStar Financial in

Denver

. I just wish my entire previous home buying experiences had been this good.

The short answer to the question “Why Colorado?” is this: I like the state, its people and its universities.  And in the near future I intend on taking some graduate western states history and creative writing classes. My roots in

Colorado

are incredibly deep, my father and his siblings were born in the tiny Western slope town of

Saguache

, CO, and my maternL grandfather spent much of his youth in

Cripple Creek

. My love of western history, trout fishing, and writing were whetted by their experiences.-- Jim “Go East Young Man” Forbes on 10/19/2009.

Demofall 09-- great new technologies just keep coming!

Demo has always been like a great Boston Pops concert; brilliant solos, stirring melodies with an underlying percussive beat.

The rhythm of Demofall 09 has been supplied jointly by the its technology/product demonstrators and its  audience, 575 of which paid up attendance or demonstrators’ fees to see Demofall 09’s technological symphony.

The show kicked off with several powerful products; a new conferencing application from Industry pioneer Hewlett Packard intended for work groups and corporations, and an mapping application that’s analogous to Google Maps for Interior.

HP SkyRoom, which was developed by HP Labs expands and redefines the video conferencing category. It offers real time video conferencing in ultra high definition that applies equally to video feeds and shared workgroup files.

SkyRoom establishes a new standard for quality imaging, and if you follow the news of the space program, you’ve already seen what it can do, since it was a big part of NASA’s high resolution imaging transfer process from its Mars rovers.

HP’s video conferencing application has been optimized for high performance desktops such as those made by Hewlett Packard, Dell and Lenovo. Initially SkyRoom will ship standard on HP’s high end desktop and portable computers and will ship as a “trial” product with several forthcoming premium workstations and notebooks.

SkyRoom is available beginning this week from Hewlett Packard and costs $149.00.

Micello, one of the stand outs from the first morning’s session is one of those products that generate true “Aha!” moments. If you’ve ever become frustrated searching for that special shop in a sprawling megamall, you’ll appreciate Micello, which can be thought of as Google Maps for interior spaces.

Micello says the company plans to roll out about 10 maps of high traffic  locations (shopping malls, sports arenas and airports) per week.

Micello’s maps are based on public street maps such as those from Google and other entities and because they are user extensible can be annotated with unique Metadata or notes.

When I first saw Micello, I asked why Disney or any other recreation destination wouldn’t want to provide Micelle maps of their theme parks in California, Florida or other parts of the world?

Micello is exactly the sort of technology that can take geo mapping to its next level and which extends an existing technology category.

Waze inc. was another company at Demofall 09 with mapping technology. As someone spends a lot of time on freeways cursing delays that threaten to make me late for various appointments, I like Waze because it gives me access to road and route conditions from other drivers headed the same general direction as I am.

Waze reminds me a lot of an earlier turn by turn navigation system called “Way to Go”. Like many of the demonstrator’s at the event Waze showed its product on an Apple iPhone.

Waze does a great job of providing turn-by-turn directions and I really like it because the information is crowd-sourced.

Not all Demo presenters use the show to launch products that are directly aimed at consumers.  Over the years some of the most successful Demo technology launches have been products have been infrastructure plays. One of the best examples of this at Demofall 09 was by an east coat startup called EMO which showed off a zero foot print speaker technology that I believe should find a home in all televisions, all-in-one computers and notebooks that are marketed to users who value a first rate entertainment experience.

Emo’s transparent speakers, free entertainment consoles, desks and other storage spaces of standalone speakers and deliver an audio experience that’s equivalent, if not better, than the high end speakers I use with my computers and televisions.

Emo enhances not just the audio experience of consumer electronics, it also boosts visual entertainment media by providing an audio experience where the words a character or other speaker says, appear to come from the subjects mouth.

The more I looked at Emo’s on stage and in the demonstrators’ hall demonstrations, the more convinced I am that in the future there will be notebooks and all-in-ones that incorporate Emo’s Transparent Edge speaker technologies and all the others. It’s just that simple an equation for this demonstrator.

Eye Hand was a third infrastructure play aimed at consumers. The market for this product however includes: cable networks, entertainment companies and technology savvy movie or television producers. Eye hand’s demonstration captivated the Demofall 09 audience because it turns the largely passive television viewing experience into an interactive experience using nothing more complicated than a smart phone.

A part of Eye Hand’s technology resides on smart phones, the consumer’s cable box and at the cable head end. One of the ways it can be used is to snap a picture of a tv screen. Since most people take pictures of what interests them, Eye Hand’s software assigns five “hot spots” to each picture and returns weighted information relating to each of the five hot spots to users’ smart phones.

Eye hand is a nifty technology that has potential markets with cable operators, large consumer goods manufacturers, cell phone networks, advertising agencies and consortia, broadcast entertainment, news or other networks as well as related producers who work with or for such organizations.

Eye Hand has a controllable successful future, providing they can attract the business development specialists who can sell to the entities needed to bring this product to consumers.

Other companies have tried to launch less capable technological solutions for turning passive entertainment in to an  interactive experience and failed either because they either lacked gravitas to sell the idea to the correct entity, or because they lacked the fundamental experience in bringing new technology to market.

While I was working As a Demo event producers I invited two companies to introduce nascent technologies that attempted what Eye hand is trying. In the end, both companies failed because they didn’t know how to sell to cable and broadcast networks, and because usable smart phones were still uncommon.

Thiss startup could go on to become the “Little Engine That Could be the little engine that can in this category and  I hope they quickly can show their technology to AT&T, Fox, CBS and The History Channel. I also hope someone from Apple, Nokia, or Google looks at this start-up since it could help to sell their smartphones.

Demo shows have always been snapshots of the entrepreneurial landscape at a specific moment in time.  I was impressed by the fact that almost 600 people were in attendance, there were numerous VC cruising the demonstartors pavilion talking to start ups and entrepreneurs are as hopeful as ever, but much more realistic in their expectations than I’ve ever seen in my 35-year career as journalist and finally as producer of Demo event producer.—Jim Forbes on 09/23/2008.

Demofall 09-- Scouting the landscape-- Innovation is Alive and Well, despite a tight economy

My favorite part of Demo is the day before the show begins. The halls of the event are buzzing with companies deep in pitch rehearsal and new technology is out in the open.

Watching companies practice their presentations is a part of Demo that’s always attracted me. Words get reordered and emphasized in presentation, computers get the same level of attention as a concert violinist gives their prized string instruments, and if you look carefully you can see the show come together section by section.

The day before Demo begins is a non-stop whirlwind of activity for the event's producers, Chris Shipley (who is leaving the show after 13 years) and Matt Marshall, who is co producing DemoFall 2009 with Ms Shipley (but who will take over as the Demo’s’ executive producer at Demo 2010). Producers spend much of the day before the event begins answering last minute questions, rehearsing and polishing introductory remarks and making sure that all the demonstrators’ questions are answered and that the myriad production issues have been resolved.

For members of the press, the day before Demo begins is prime time to sit down with a company, enjoy a thorough demonstration and have the time to ask detailed questions. After the show begins it’s often difficult for both reporters and demonstrators to find free time to openly discuss their technologies.

Another reason I cherish the opportunities that the day before Demo provides is because I’m handicapped and I use the time to sit down with demonstrators, set up my notebook and take notes that I use as the basis for my Demo coverage.

After spending six hours scouting technologies and general themes that will be launched in the coming two days at Demofall 09 it’s apparent that entrepreneurial enthusiasm and great innovation are still the hallmarks of this show.

Tuesday morning’s session is one of the best collection of new technologies I’ve ever seen. I’m not going to write about them individually now, but in summary what’s first up are a group of companies that make it easier to make use of interior building and facility maps,  new interface technology that turns passive consumer electronics into interactive highways, software tools that enhance the value and clarity of task list  and other items, software that lets you record and share information on personal and recreational travel, next generation conferencing applications, including one that significantly raises the bar for of still and video images used in electronic conferences by corporations and disparate work groups. Although new technology is the heart and soul of Demo, deep down the show has always been a forum for entrepreneurial driven ideas and Demofall 09 expands this to a new level with “Alpha Pitch” segments that let infant companies pitch their ideas to seasoned investors and proven entrepreneurs in 90 second spots.

Another show segment promises to lift the kimonos of product research efforts of several key startups that have until this week have been operating behind closed doors. This Wednesday afternoon segment will see Google and Numenta (Palm co-founder Donna Dubinsky’s latest startup) demonstrate research projects that could mark the beginnings of new technological frontiers for enterprise, governmental and consumers alike. Palm hand held designer Rob Hatani is also on the program for this segment to outline research at his new startup, Vitamin D Inc.

Lest some think Demofall 09 has gone completely consumer, there are many startups here at the show with a variety of new technologies for the enterprise.

As in year’s past, you don’t need to fly into San Diego to tap into new products and technology being unveiled at Demofall 09, merely click here to watch streaming video of the show on Demo’s web site.—Jim Forbes 09/21/2009.

Disclsoure: I am a retired producer of Demo events and the editor of the printed and electronic versions of DemoLetter and Demo Mobile Letter.

Lenovo and HP Expand All In One Lines With New Machines

Increasing numbers of savvy PC makers are coming down market with a new generation of all-in-one PCs based Intel Atom processors and matching Intel core logic. The migration down market lets PC makers establish new price points for all-in-ones and increase their market share among consumers looking for a second PC for their homes, small businesses or to send away with college bound students.

Lenovo last week unveiled its Think Centre A100, a new all-in-one PC equipped with single or dual core Intel Atom-based desktop that has 1GB of memory (upgradeable to 2GB) and hard disks with capacities as great as 320GB, plus an 18.5-inch screen.

Lenovo is just one of several PC makers who are using Intel’s Atom processor family (which is best known for netbooks) to power new all-in-one desktops. Acer’s e-machines business unit, Dell, and a handful of Taiwanese computer makers also have released Atom- based all-in-ones in recent months.

Not all PC makers are stampeding to build Atom-based all-in-ones. Hewlett Packard, for example last week expanded its all-in-one line with a new offering that uses AMD’s 1.5Ghz Athlon X2 processor, but which does not support a touch based interface, which is used in two of HP’s best known existing all-in-one Touch Smart computers. Like Lenovo and eMachines, the new HP MS214 sports an 18.5 inch screen and a sub $500 price tag.

Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, eMachines and others are all moving into this category.

Although Apple Inc. is widely credited for popularizing the all-in-one form factor, the design was a mainstream staple in the earliest years of personal computing. Acer Inc,.Compaq Computer, KayPro, Osborne and Morrow Designs  all offered all-in-one computers. And while many of those pioneering companies are no longer around, their ideas for compact form factor machines live on in today’s new crop of all-in-ones.—Jim Forbes on 09/21/2009.

Gateway Sets New Price Performance Bar with Vesatile NV5708u

If The ultimate test of any notebook answers the simple question “how suited is it to its intended task” then Gateway’s new NV5807u is a hands-down winner.

The configuration of this new notebook has everything you need for a box-seat entertainment and high performance computing experiences a price that doesn’t bankrupt your pocket book.

Gateway’s 5807u demonstrates a level of attention to detail I admire. First off, its  luminous 15.6-inch screen has an eye-pleasing 16:9 aspect ratio, and it has more than enough display real estate to do equal justice to any form of visual entertainment or presentation graphics application.

Its four USB ports, one HD video and one VGA port on its sides,. This configuration makes moving this notebook from one physical setting to another quite painless. Gateway hasn’t scrimped on this configuration.  For example, while other notebook makers have discontinued built in modems, you’ll find a telephone line port on the back right hand side of its case. The NV5807’s power switch is nice large button on the right of the case hinge, where it can’t be inadvertently hit

Like other travelers, I’m still not ready to give up a built-in modem as part of a standard notebook configuration. And on a recent trip this proved helpful, when, while staying miles from a public WiFi connection and well out of range of Verizon’s cell network, I had to connect to the Internet using a dial-up through my ISP. Again, Gateway scored on my list of good things I like about the NV5807u by including a modem.

What’s under the hood of this notebook is a beefy power train that includes: 2.1 GHz dual core Intel processor, 4 GB of system memory a 320GB SATA drive. My one minor complaint with this system is that it’s hard disk isn’t a speed demon, which is unusual for most SATA drives on notebooks I’ve tested. The NV5807 uses Intel’s GM45Express core logic and an Intel Graphics media accelerator. It’s processor is an Intel Core2 Duo 6500, which has a clock speed of 2.1 GHz.

The WiFi transceiver on the NV5807u is compatible with the Draft N 802.11 specification—which is backwardly compatible with existing 802.11 standards. I was able to effortlessly connect to my home WiFi network as well as numerous guest networks while traveling without any problems

A web camera and microphone are built into the upper part of the screen housing. I’ve used this notebook extensively for video conferencing and calling using public and private WiFi networks and can recommend it for this application wholeheartedly.

I like the keyboard on this notebook because it has just the right amount of tactile feedback I need to type comfortably for extended periods.

Gateway has included touch sensitive multimedia controls above the function keys.

The only other minor complaint I have with the Gateway NV5807u is its smooth track pad. I prefer textured surfaces because I can feel if one of my fat fingers has come into contact with the track pad. The trackpad on this notebook supports a wide range of easily learned gestures, that once mastered improves personal productivity.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this system’s price, $599, which sets a new price point for Intel-equipped cross over notebooks with 15.6-inch screens, aimed at enthusiast and general computer users.

Th operating system supplied on ,y reviw unit was Vista Home Premium, SP 1.

Anyone who purchases this system now is elgible to upgrade to Windows 7 under a Microsoft’s program window7 upgrade

The fit, finish and design of this notebook are excellent. It’s sleek looking and has no sharp edges. Its weight, 6.82 pounds, doesn’t seem excessive and is on a par with other notebooks in this new category. Like other machines, it’s six-cell battery pack delivered an average 1.9 hours of power throughout the lengthy period I tested this machine (which involved two multi-day trips including one camping experience). The image of the Gateway NV5807 as a go-anywhere, do anything notebook, is enhanced by a 5-in-one card reader, which helps make this machine even more suited for entertainment and personal productivity applications. An optical drive—located on the right side of the system case-- is standard on this notebook.

I’ve used the NV5807u in extensive daylight and office settings and believe it delivers a first-rate user experience, providing the user takes the time to adjust screen brightness and contrast for individual settings.

As an entertainment notebook, the NV5807u goes on the short list of notebooks I’d recommend to friends and family. Its audio delivers crisp music and clear dialogue, which is more than I can say about many notebooks I’ve tested over the last two decades. I like this notebook and have no reservations, except as noted. Most users will find the Gateway NV5807u meets their needs for today and tomorrow.—Jim Forbes, 09/10/2009

This is Just So Wrong--- Jumping cattle

This is just so wrong on so many levels, i'm hard-pressed to write a caption.

Jumping Cattle? Holy Cow!

Special thanks to my young friend, second-year law school student, Marie Sobieski, for the original idea.- Jim Forbes, 0806/2009.