ForbesOnTech

Acers Spin 3 Foldable Twoin-One, Great Display Above Average Battery Performance and Excellent Basic features

A Handful of portable computer makers now offer a offer two types of  two-in-one notebooks.> portables with screens that fold over the back of the system case; and machines with detachable screens. Lenovo and Acer are examples of manufacturers that offer both types of notebooks.

Right up front, I need to disclose that over the last two years,  how I use portable computers has changed radically.  One of the biggest forces behind the  big change are two-in-one computers.I like the ability to choose whether I want or can use a computer passively  as a tablet  or quickly switch over and begin actively taking notes using a keyboard.

The ability to switch between modes is important to me. I’m a California history buff so one of the most important uses of any two-in one I use or review is to display maps showing the locations of pioneer towns, trails,mining or claim saites,  PLUS major routes such as the actual path of the El Camino Real and trails in the CA Gold country or near the Spanish missions here.

My lean forward  usage, model means I need a great screen with very good display capabilities and long battery life when I’m using the computer as a tablet. Because battery life is important to how I use a two-in-one, notebooks with detachable  screens simply don’t work. The reason for this is simple:, detachable screen two-in-ones have two batteries: one in the system case, and a smaller battery right behind the screen.

I recently was sent an Acer Spin3 notebook to review by its manufacturer, Acer.

THe Spin3 uses a 2.5Ghz i7 processor and comes with a whopping 12GB of memory and a humongous 1 terabyte hard disk drive plus a 15.6 inch screen with a full, 1,930 by 1080, HD display to switch from conventional portable to tablet, you merely fold the screen over the back of this notebook’s chassis

ALthough its slim for a two-in-one with a foldover screen, Spin 3 isn’t petit. It measures 0.89 by 15.02 by 9.88 inches ands thunks down on the scale at 4.75 pounds.Acer’s folding two-in-one has good basic external expansion -- two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, an HDMI port, MicroSD slot, as well as an audio jack.

I really like the  Spin 3’s crisp display. One of the problems i’ve had with other two=in one machines are displays that are so small, I quickly get eye strain. But with a 15.6 inch screen that’s not much of a problem.

The fit and finish of the SPin 3’s black plastic case is very good. There is no lateral displacement of its screen hinges and when it's used as a tablet or in tent mode, the screen stays solidly in place. I question how easy  it would be to use the SPin3 as a tablet for extended periods. It’s near five pound weight mandates that it be held resting on one forearm while the other hand enters data on the touch screen.

The keyboard on SPin3 has deep set backlit keys however the backlighting remains on for less than a minute and a half. The trackpad on SPin3 is offset to the left of the keyboard’s center and  is big enough to allow three finger gestures

SPin 3’s overaLL Battery life isa below that of other two-in-ones, bUT when i used as a tablet,  it can run for more than seven hours-- compared to about 2.25 hours on My Microsoft Surface Pro, which has a screen tablet battery that’s separate from the system battery

As configured this version of Acer’s spin3 can be purchased at  Amazon for $609, about $250 less expensive than Lenovo’s, i7 based,  14 inch FLex two-in one.

My final test of the SPin3 was to watch back to back episodes of PBS’ Nova series on pacific coastal crossing (SeaTac to San Diego) on landing shut down, I still had a little more than half a battery charge left.Not bad!

SPin 3 may not be for everyone, but if you need a two-in one with a tablet that offers long battery life,  an incredible screen but is heavier than most other machines in this class, it’s a good choice.--Jim Forbes on December 13, 2017.

an excellent piece on the death of alternate weekkly newspapers by one of the world's best columnist and OC Weekly editor. Gustavo Arellano. I weep for the death of fun reporting and alternative papers.

http://reason.com/archives/2017/11/04/the-death-of-the-alt-weekly-as-told-by-a

David Churbuck on 25 years of ThinkPad and why Lenovo is still a top ranking portable computer design center

I don't often redirect to other blogs, but David Churbuck's piece on the new 25 years of ThinkPad and Lenovo's design legends is worth reading.

And with that, here's the Master and Commander, David Churbuck.

https://churbuck.com/2017/11/15/25-years-of-thinkpad.

Codes of Conduct linked to Badges May be Needed for Conferences

The Current Silicon Valley  sexual ASSAULT shit storm Prompts me to ask several rhetorical questions about work places and events such as technology conferences.

  I have to ask:

1. Would I badge or allow anyone to speak who has admitted to or been convicted of sexual assault?
2. As a conference producer do I have a responsibility to do basic background checks on someone alleged to have committed a sexual assault?
3. How  do i find out from my legal department if my banning someone from attending or presenting at my conference constitutes restraint of trade?
4. Do I make sure bartenders understand their legal responsibility to deny alcohol service to anyone who has over consumed.
5. Is it time to develop a code of conduct for conferences. And link signed conduct agreements to badges? Violate the terms of the code and get  escorted off premises.
6. It’s  time to establish  and enforce codes of conduct for conferences.
7. One of the most important things any conference organizer has to do is create a safe environment for attendees.Not to do this is to invite catastrophe. If this means some industry luminaries could be  excluded, so be it., It’s more important to me to provide the best experience I Can for attendees who have spent thousands of dollars to attend an event than it is to provide a sounding board for individuals who may be suspect, or whose content lacks value to my audience.--jim Forbes October 25, 2017.

 

About me: . I produced the  Demo Mobile conference and worked with Chris Shipley on Demo. I was a senior editor at Infoworld, PC Week and also worked at MacWeek,Windows Magazine and was a correspndent at Mcgraw Hill’s Worldnews division in Silicon Valley I am a 1973 CalPoly Pomona  graduate , was  a USMC NCO  who  served  at Khe Sanh during its multi month siege by the North Vietnamese Army.  i live in avocado infested Escondido, have two dogs and a cat that gets ProZac daily.

Acers Swift7: Ultra thin, but built like a tank

 

The Acer Swift7 should be a welcome addition to most portable computer users backpacks.

Its unbelievably thin but has enough power and functionality to accomplish most everyday tasks.

The Swift7 slips right into  most backpacks with room to spare. Its measurements are: 11.7x7.3 by a skinny 0.47  inches tall and it’s black and gold polished aluminum case is a departure from the average silver notebook The Swift7’s basic configuration is 8GB of memory, a 256GB solid state drive, two USB 3.1,type C ports,a 13.3-inch 1920 x1080 screen and a headphone jack

The 13.3 inch screen isn’t touch enabled..

I found the keyboard on this to be a little cramped,although after I used it for about an hour, my typing speed was back up to my normal 65 words per minute. The keyboard is not backlit, which I found unusual given that the Swift7 it competes with other super slim notebooks that come with backlit keyboards,

The large touch pad on the Swift 7 is a joy. There’s enough room to use multi-finger gestures and get accurate results

It’s when I went all geeky, that I came to the conclusion that this notebook’s i5 1.2GHZ processor is a shortcoming.. But,despite its relatively low clock speed I found the swift7 had have enough oomph to power through presentations, graphics and streaming video without hiccuping. In the positive column, the Swift7 produces vivid displays, which .I think makes this skinny notebook a good choice for road warriors. Another big plus is the  near-8 hour Battery life While testing this system,  I never once run out of juice--including one close the ld in San Diego  and resume work 475 air miles later in the San Francisco Bay area experiment with a half  charge on the battery.

Supplied to me by the manufacturer for this review, this notebook can be purchased from online retailers such as Amaon for $999.00

The downside here is the Swift 7  could have better performance. The Upside is the Swift 7 is built like a tank and it’s small  footprint and light weight means there’s more room in my  backpack for essentials such as a new collapsible freshwater spinning rod and  reel, a selection of lures and an electronic book containing Hemingway, Steinbeck and Tom Wolfe.--jim forbes on September 9,2017.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/local-governments-keep-using-this-software--but-it-might-be-a-back-door-for-russia/2017/07/23/39692918-6c99-11e7-8961-ec5f3e1e2a5c_story.html

hmmmm, governments using in-country applications to deliver malware?
I've often wondered if venture capital suppliers give long term thought to their backing of off shore companies

Acers New Veritron All in One-- Solid Yeoman Performance but this Mainstay But Really Needs a Better Keyboard

 

Acer has had a good run with its 23-inch screen all in one desktop computers. SomE desktop PC makers have used all-in-one desktops as place holders in the performance pc market , Acer has two different product lines, the Z1, which is performance oriented and Veritron, which is the type of computer often found on receptionist’s desks.

Supplied to me by Acer for the purposes of this review was the Acer Veriton AU5-620-UR51, with Windows 10. The configuration I tested included a 23-inch touch screen, 8GB of DDR3 memory, a 1TB hard disk drive, an optical drive, all driven by an Intel 4210n I5 processor, plus an Intel graphics controller.

One of the many things I like about this computer is it out of the box experience. I took me less than five minutes to pull this computer out of its box and bring it up on my wireless. By comparison, set up time on several 27-inch screen all-in ones I've tested has been about 10 minutes.

Right up front, I need to make it clear i feel Acer should scrap the keyboard that ships with this machine and replace it with one that has better key spacing. Three times now I have managed to kick myself off a website in the middle of a transaction by accidentally hitting one or more keys

I’ve tested this in my garage And my home offic eand found it;s a good fit for basic computing tasks, although the performance on this machine is noticeably slower than other all-in-ones with the same, or equivalent, processors.

The Veriton AU5-620-UR51 is a great general office desktop that’s easily adjusted to fit the needs of individual users, but it desperately needs a new keyboard. This all-in one is a solid yeoman and will meet the needs of almost everyone that uses an all-in-one desktop and has a retail price of $649.99.--i
Jm Forbes on November 09/1016.

Explosion of Startups Has Ended--- Technology's Cambrian Age Ended-- Investor Duncan Davidson

the end of funding in the Cambrian Age of Technology

Writing in online pub Medium, venture capitalist Duncan Davidson posits that the era of investing in every little thing may be over. I believe he's spot on.

Davidson left some wiggle room in his piece for VR and IoT funding. although he's far from bullish on either of those two technology categories.

Disclosure,i've written articles on Duncan Davidson's startups and selected at least one of his companies for the former technology launch event, Demo. I am not now and have never been an investor in any of his venture funds.

For Virtual Reality to Break Out of Fantasy Land, It's Going to Need a Catalyst Like Desktop Publishing

For the last 10 months I’ve been looking at the Fantasy land category of virtual/ augmented reality and numerous proposed hybrids. I’ve participated in couple of way cool technology demonstrations and then gone out for coffee and ran the numbers  it’s going to take for me to buy an “E” ticket on technology’s next big ride.

Initially, I think any technology that will take three grand in current dollars to acquire is like a walk through a mine field wearing a blind fold. But there are other equally important issues I’ve not seen addressed. High up on this list is the fundamental issue of how will VR/AR and hybrids be marketed and where will the marketing professionals needed for this come from?

It’s easy to imagine numerous headsets making their way to various technology share and tell events where event producers motor on about how great the technology is without ever really positioning it in a fast growing category, Claiming this or that headset Is better because it’s not encumbered by hardware-bound firewalls, or because it’s a great platform for whatever game is momentarily hip adds very little to a critical look at an new hardware technology. My bet is that technology’s front men and "analysts" will do exactly that.

So what’s needed to catapult VR/AR and hy7brid technologies right off the starting line?

For the answer to that question you need not dial the Way Back machine any farther than the mid 1980s. The model then was the Apple Macintosh which initially wasn’t found in many corporate settings other than General Electric in Connecticut and a handful of talent representative firms on the west coast. Although the Mac popularized th graphics interface, the first models, (the 128K and 512K Macs and the Mac Plus lacked a compelling purchase motivation

The super charger and fuel the pushed the Macintosh to mass acceptance were the Apple LaserWriter and Aldus PageMaker, which combined gave Apple the keys to a brand new market that was the key to a dynamic new corporate market; desktop publishing.

Desktop publishing made the Macintosh, the Apple LaserWriter and Aldus PageMaker virtual gold mines. It was the reason corporations and small businesses both Apple products.

SO, if virtual/augmented reality is to take off the technologies are going to need the 21^st century analog of desktop publishing. I absolutely do not believe the technologies will be still born.

In fact, were I decades younger, I’d be back in college trying to refine and bring to market technologies that let me create and assemble content for VR.

But to travel back to that point I may have had to put on cammies again, and go camping with 125 of my closest packaged meals eating buddies.  But I never want to be a lance corporeal ever again. However I’m confident there are developers working on hybrid reality composition software right now.

And when it arrives, it could well be the Desktop Publishing kick start virtual and augmented reality need to kick off the next wave of computing. Hang on, it’s coming. –Jim Forbes on 29 August 2016.

Retirement Can be Fulfilling and a Period to Find New Opportunities

Watching my fellow boomers and younger adults use retirement or changes in employment to pursue and master new interests is one of the joys of friendship

My best friend is a retired medico who thanks to nore freetime lives what he calls “The Craigslist Lifestyle.

His name is Andy and his house is a showcase of oak furniture  found on Craigslist and refinished. Andy’ has the perfect skill set for a fulfilling retirement. Before being admitted o UCSF’s medical program, he was a shop teacher. This guy is driven. HE has a graduate degree in shop.

This guy is a power Craigslister. It helps that his garage is a wonderland of wood working tools and that he acquired a used van to transport his finds to his home.

 My favorite Example of my buddy Andy’s dedication to the Craigslist lifestyle is as follows: one morning just after Craigslist went live, He saw a post by a contractor working in Menlo Park who wanted to get rid of a set of pocket doors that were excess to his project. SO my buddy calls the contractor said he’s interested and would be “right down”

Andy shows up in pressed khakis and a crisp button down. The contractor shows him the doors. Andy pulls out his cordless reciprocating saw makes a series of measurements and carves out the door frame. Then he carries the frame and doors out to his van. On his way out the door the contractor casually asks Andy what his occupation was. Andy says “retired dentist” and leaves the contractor in a cloud of wonderment.

I also use my retired friends as information sources.

Following a life altering stroke, One of my buddies suggested I get my butt into an adaptive PE program at the College of San Mateo. This guy told me to get a Sam Trans pass for the short bus and use it to get to my PE class, go grocery shopping or to go see movies or attend the San Mateo County Fair. It was the best advice I got during my stroke recovery. It got me out of the house, away from cable TV and helped me reengage with life.

That nugget came from a handicapped retired buddy.

Dennis Turner, fellow Gladstone high School Sixty-Sixer od washed by a Thai elephant.

Another retired chum has also turned to handicrafts, designs jewelry and creates embossed metal artworks of. Like other retired Boomers, My buddy Dennis has gone back to school to learn the skills he feels he needs to further his avocational interests. In his case, however school was more than halfway around the world in Thailand, and lasted three weeks. While in Thsiland Dennis learned how to parallel park an elephant.

We are boomers and we are redefining retirement.

What about me? I’ve use retirement to learn as much as I can about the real history of California and someday I’d like to write about it.---Jim Forbes on 16 July, 2016,