August 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: The zen of Web apps and Mac OS X
Have you been thinking to get yourself a Mac for a long time and never did? Then don't miss this week Enterprise Windows where Oliver Rist asks (with his well known subtlety): "Does Mac OS X suck?". Oliver's column is the closest you can get to walking the Apple road yourself, and may be you will after reading it.
Is the Web treating you well? Or more to the point, are Web applications treating you well? Moving an application from the quiet waters of a corporate network to the stormy weather of the Net takes more than being technically savvy, warns Tom Yager in this week's "Ahead of the Curve". In his column Tom explains why, and reveals what's the secret sauce to make good Web apps. A useful reading also for non-developers.
Posted by Mario Apicella on August 29, 2007 08:30 AM
March 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Preview: Though cool, diminutive FlipStart micro PC falls short
It's got well-known investors; it has loads of buzzwords, including ultra-mobility, WWAN, InfoPane, and Vista. It's the FlipStart "micro PC" from Vulcan. So let's check it out.
First, it's small. Damn small. Shots of the Flipper next to my hand and a CD case for scale:
It comes with amenities, including a docking station and that much-hyped but little-seen InfoPane technology that's lately supported by Windows:
InfoPane allows you to check on e-mail, appointments, and contacts if you're in a work mood, but your FlipStart is closed. Or you can goof off and use it to play music straight out of your My Music collection.
It also comes with a long-life battery that basically "stacks" onto the bottom of the case:
Ours came installed with Windows XP Pro, though we'd requested a model running Vista Business (the only other option). Vulcan couldn't make Vista Business work in time, so we're stuck with XP Pro. Not a bad thing, actually, because most of what I'm probably going to use this thing for is watching movies or listening to music, and Vista Business makes you install Media Player as an option.
Now don't get me wrong; I'm not going to pan it right away. I've only had the little munchkin for a day, so a full review seems premature. I'm taking it to InfoWorld's Editorial Retreat next week, where I'll be stacking it up against normal-sized notebooks, Sasquatch Venezia's Toshiba Libretto and hours and hours of meetings.
Meanwhile, I am going to point out a few things:
1. The keyboard is flat out unusable for work. If all I'm doing with my $2,000 FlipStart money is text messaging, then I suppose it's OK. But I can't see taking it to a meeting and keeping accurate notes.
2. Why make it so small as to make an optical drive impossible? As you can see from the scale shot, a CD is wider than the FlipStart. But if they'd just made it an inch or so wider, they could have tacked on an optical drive that "stacked" the same way as the battery. Now that would have been cool.
3. 30GB of storage space? My music player has more than that.
And aside from cool, it would have made it way easier to use. I haven't quite figured out Vulcan's target demographic with this thing, but it does seem like a gadget. Gadget means a large swath of beginner/home users. Without a CD drive, you're asking those users to figure out how to install software off a home network or a USB drive. Or you're asking them to drop another $200-plus on an external CD or DVD drive -- which Vulcan really should have as a bundling option. You'd have fewer issues with that segment if you just gave them an internal drive. As it is, this thing is a walking advertisement for BitTorrent.
There's more that Vulcan could have done here. Most of which was done in the Flybook, which I wrote on back in January.
That box is slightly larger (there's another Oliver's Hand comparison shot in that post, so check it if you want to compare), but it's still small enough to qualify as an ultraportable. It's got a usable keyboard and also turned into a tablet, which the Flipstart doesn't.
And while both the Flipper and the Flyer have WWAN broadband wireless built-in, only the Flybook takes this as far as it can go -- adding the ability to take a SIM card and actually turn the Flybook into a phone and also supporting a GPS service so you can just flip the Flyer open and it'll tell you where to go.
'Nuff on this puppy for now. Maybe I'll find a killer app for it in the next few days. I'm not only going to put it through its paces this week, I'm also going to give most of the InfoWorld staff a crack at it and we'll arrive at a mass consensus in the upcoming official review.
Posted by Oliver Rist on March 8, 2007 11:41 AM
December 05, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Review: Twinhead Durabook built to last
I'm the kind of guy that tries to get the most out of everything he has. No matter if it's a computer or a lawnmower, I milk it for everything it's worth, sometimes long past its usefulness. This was especially true of my current faithful PIII notebook -- it still ran, so why spend money on a new one?
Well, not too long ago, I was given the opportunity to try out a Twinhead Durabook D14RA and quickly found myself wondering why I had not upgraded sooner. The Durabook I checked out had an AMD Turion 64 MT28 CPU, 1GB of RAM (max amount available), and an 80GB hard drive. The built-in 802.11 b/g WiFi adapter worked flawlessly in all situations as did the 10/100 physical network card.
While no "wide-screen," the 14.1 LCD is more than adequate for my needs in the lab or server room. The DVD-CDRW combo drive is a nice addition as are the 2 USB 2.0 ports. Battery life averaged around 3 hours -- not the best available but not terrible.
As someone who always ends up cabled up to a router or other device, I love that the Durabook comes with a serial port. So many of the notebooks on the market don't have this one little luxury that makes my (and other sys admins) life so much easier. It always bugged me that I needed to carry a USB-to-serial converter just to log in to a router.
I'd be remiss if I didn't give kudos to the feature that gives the Durabook its name: its durability. Unlike many other notebooks, the Durabook's case is made of magnesium alloy, up to 20 times stronger than ABS plastic (per Twinhead's claims - I wasn't about to intentionally trash the unit) and meets military 810F specifications. It also comes with anti-shock protection for the hard drive and the LCD screen, both of which can suffer irreparable damage if dropped. The spill-resistant keyboard is a nice touch, too.
I have to say that the Durabook D14RA turned out to be a great notebook in all aspects. Performance with Windows XP Pro was more than adequate, networking worked without a hitch and it had all the creature comforts like DVD-CDRW, USB 2.0 and a 9-pin serial port. Sorry old notebook, looks like you've been replaced.
Twinhead D14RA Durabook
Cost: $999
Verdict: Excellent performance wrapped in a chassis made to be abused. The spill-resistant keyboard keeps liquids from damaging internal electronics and the anti-shock system for the LCD and hard drive keep the delicate devices humming. All of the necessary elements are included, like USB 2.0, DVD-CDRW drive, a serial port, 802.11 b/g WiFi and 10/00 Mbps networking, stereo sound and a built in 56k modem.
Posted by Keith Schultz on December 5, 2006 02:48 PM