J . M A I L

This was supposed to be the future …

I have been obsessed with laptops lately. Every time I think I have found the new best thing I soon discover some fault and find something better. This chain of compulsion and discovery has resulted in some ideas regarding almost every computer company out there.

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I have specifically been  obsessed with sub-notebooks and thin laptops. I compare everything I see to my current setup:

Gateway 11.6 ” / Intel SU3500 single core 1.4 cpu / 3 gigs ram / 80 gig intel ssd / 3 pounds / less than 1 inch thick / 5:30 battery life

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I think at this point I have explored many options leaving me with some constraints.

Constraint # 1 - Screen less than 13 ” in size. Past 13” I feel the the base size of the laptop is too large. 11 ” - 12.1” is preferred.

Constraint #2 - Good keyboard. Preferably 100 % of full size. Typically any laptop 11.6” or bigger will have a full sized screen.

Constraint #3 - Thinner than my current machine.

Constraint #4 - Equal or better battery life than my current machine.

Constraint #5 - The lighter the better. (current machine is 3 pounds)

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That said, here are the options from the various pc makers out there.

Asus

• Asus EEE laptop line (atom cpus)
• Asus U20A

3 pounds - The problem here is that none of the computers they make are really smaller than my current machine. Same size / same weight = Taking a pass

(side note: the 13” inch asus with a reported 12 hours of battery life is a very nice and interesting machine)

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Acer

• Aspire One
• Timeline X (1830T)

Again none of these units are smaller or lighter than my current unit which is not surprising as my current laptop is pretty much an 1810t. The new timeline x is really fast with a low voltage i3 cpu but for what I do (web/office) not worth the price of $650.

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Dell

• Adamo XPS

3 pounds - Too pricey! Funky design, that I think would be awkward to use while laying on a couch with the laptop actually on my lap. The extreme thinness (the worlds thinnest) is offset by the larger base size produced by making a longer and thinner laptop (they basically stretched out this machine). Battery life is also pretty poor. No vga out is a bummer.

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Apple

The mac book air is meh.

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Toshiba

Portégé A600

2.4 pounds ! Fast 9400 intel dual core low voltage cpu.

Sadly, with a price tag of $1600 its hard to justify over my current machine just to save 1 pound.

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Sony

• Vaio X

Then there is the vaio x. The world’s second thinnest machine. Just taller than the vga port as you can see above. The world’s lightest laptop at 1.5 pounds.

Sadly this comes at a price… $1300 and an Atom cpu. Now, this is the fastest atom cpu ever released at 2.0 ghz but it is still an atom.

The keyboard is also only 90 % of full size. The larger battery for it gives this unit 10 plus hours but then makes the laptop almost 2.5 pounds and makes it thicker. A smaller battery is available that makes this unit only 2 pounds but gives it 5/6 hours of battery time. This laptop also has the smallest screen at 11.1”

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I left out a bunch of cheaper atom machines from different companies but they are all pretty much the same.

I feel that my current machine has just enough cpu power for what I do and going lower seems risky (ala atom cpu). Also, most laptops also don’t provide much better battery life than I current have. It is proving really hard to justify replacing my year old $450 dollar gateway laptop.

As it stands now, I am watching ebay for a deal on the vaio x but a $1000 dollar netbook is still just a netbook even if it is the lighest and one of the thinnest laptops ever created. If anything the vaio x is more of a status symbol then anything.

Hopefully this info was interesting and useful to some other people out there. Thoughts and comments are welcome as always.

Boxee Fail Review

I have been thinking lately about media center software for pcs. After thinking a bit about options from Apple their hardware choices were rejected as possibilities for me due to their price. That left me with a few other choices to explore: Windows Media Center, XMBC, and Boxee. This post is about my failed experiment with Boxee. (note: I did not really consider the PS3 which is an option)

I wanted to build a very easy to use media center for my parents’ living room.  Nothing too fancy, no PRV capabilities, just the ability to play downloaded media like TV shows and movies up to 1080p quality. I thought about the media solutions out there and decided Boxee might work for my parents new media center computer.

What I liked about boxee was the limited number of buttons and choices on most screens. I really liked how it got the art work and show synopsises from the internet and displayed them in what I thought was a simple but nice design. I liked that I didn’t need to rename the files to make them appear correctly in boxee.  I also really liked that hitting the back button enough times would return me to a root menu. I feel for most systems an easily accessible “emergency exit” is vital to help novice users to feel comfortable.

All of this was for naught; my parents did not get comfortable using boxee. Boxee was just too buggy. My big complaint is that Boxee would not stay on top of other windows. It was not usual to turn the TV on to find a pop screen (skype, windows updates, mostly just the windows taskbar) on top of Boxee running in the background which confused the heck out of my parents.

Another big complaint I had was the accidental pressing of the green windows mce button on the media center remote I bought my parents. This of course caused windows mce to launch on top of boxee. I know I could disable that button on the remote using third party software but that is extra work and the software I did try didn’t work.  Ideally, the green mce button should launch boxee and there should be an option in boxee to take over the use of that button on media center remotes. That green button is like the ultimate “emergency exit” button it is very important for novice users.

So I am going to try Windows Media Center on my parents media center computer. I will report back with an update of how that works out.

HCI / UX People …. Click Here

I am looking for 3-4 good people to start a new business with. I am seeking motivated, ambitious, and entrepreneurial persons in the field of usability and HCI (human computer interaction) that can claim to be UX professionals and/or have academic credentials to back up the claim of being a usability/hci professionals/experts.

What I propose, is starting a usability review panel. The purpose of this group would be to consult with online businesses to review and provide a rating of their sites / services. What this really boils down to is the ability to give a stamp of approval to those seeking a usability professionals endorsement for their particular site/program/service.

This idea could be explained a bit better with an example of a group that already does the a similar thing for a different market. I.E. I was watching TV this weekend and an ad came on TV for a product. During the course of this ad they mentioned that the product had received approval from a group of professionals, a group name you would might recognize if I were to state it but for the sake of anonymity I will omit. After to talking to some people in the room I learned that this review panel was actually made up a select few group of individuals who had formed the group themselves.

This got me thinking, why couldn’t I employ the skills I have to do the same thing. What I want now is to get a few more people on board and we will be off to the races.

If you have interest in participating please email me and let me know your credentials / send me your CV and we can proceed from there.

This is a great opportunity to get on board with something that could be very exciting, educational, and profitable. The group will be limited to at most 5 members so if you have interest in learning more get back to me ASAP.

Thanks,

Jonathan 

iPad - Please Don’t Hate

I was excited to watch the apple release of their new tablet yesterday. This has apparently been a pet project of Steve Job’s for years now and you could tell he was really excited to show it off. The reaction from most other people has been poor and I want to address this a bitty.

1. This is first gen product and those that do buy it will suffer an early adopters tax much like the first ipod/iphone/zune/eeepc ect. but unlike a lot of other first gen releases this one is built upon a much stronger foundation of the existing iPod line and iPhone OS. I expect this to be the most polished launch product apple has had in years.

2. People complain about the lack of media card reader, camera, stylus (I really wanted this one), but that is missing the point. This product is being let down because the expectations placed upon it are far too great by far too many.

Apple is not know for making new revolutionary things (despite what they say) but are know for making existing things better than the competition.

IE. Mp3 players had been around for a long time but the iPod line was just better in a lot of ways than anything else in the market.

Smart phones have been around for years but Apple was the first to really hit the sweet spot and combine technologies for the North American market.

So then what is apple making better this time around? the ebook reader!

If you want this product to replace your laptop you will be disappointed, if you want it to replace your phone you will be disappointed, but if you want to compare it to a Kindle ebook reader you will be amazed.

For $10 dollars more than the top of line Kindle you get a WHOLE lot more, colour screen, better build quality, internet access, iBook store, overall prettier product ect.

3. Yes, the next gen of iPad will have the features people wanted this one to have but for the price of $500 us (way below expectations) can you really complain? If it had everything included in this version and had cost $1000 people would have complained about the price?

4. For novice computer users this will be a great product. For some people file management and folders are confusing, multitasking is confusing, the internet and email are a mystery. For the novice users, the iPad and a wireless router will let them do almost anything they can imagine. They won’t know any better about the quality of the virtual keyboard compared to a physical keyboard. This device will just work for them.

5. This device, I hope, will do for books what the first ipods did for digital music, make a bigger and better industry with easier access for consumers.

Will I be buying the first gen iPod? I will probably pass for now as I am very happy with an iPod touch and my 11.6” windows netbook.

This is not a review of John Mayer’s new cd - Battle Studies

I haven’t listened to Mayer’s new cd half a dozen times and as such I can only imagine what a review of his cd might say. Lets just pretend then …

at 11 songs the cd isn’t short but isn’t too long either. I feel like this cd is a departure from his other poppy stuff. Upon my first imagined listening to this album my reaction was simply “meh”. I have a feeling this cd will grow on me but it it doesn’t stand up to his other releases. His first released single off the album, “Who Says” might be one of the best songs on the cd, make of that what you will.

His song “Assassin” stands out an interesting song worth a listen. Most of the songs seem to be lacking in emotion behind them as compared to his older songs like, “Victoria” “Why Georgia” “Say” or “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” just to name a few.

Another difference is that he has not revisted any older songs with a new cover of his own song, which he seems to like doing and does so very very well in my opinion (ie anything covered from “Where the Light Is”)

I loved “In Your Atmosphere” and “Free Fallin’” from “Where the Light Is” and was really hoping for other songs that I would fall in love with off this release. Also, where is the stand out amazing guitar playing that John is know for? I am sure it is somewhere in this new cd but it doesn’t stand out as particularity noticeable like on past albums.

The cd seems to becoming from a different era in John’s life and I think this comes across in his music. I am a huge mayer fan but so far for me this cd is just so so.

Not that any of this really matters … I and other fans will listen to this cd a million times over and if the song “Waiting on the World to Change” can win awards I bet he will win an award for some song off of this release.

I give it : 2 out 5 stars.