Tag Archives: PC

PC or Mac…. Mac or PC

The PC I use is now over 5 years old. Today one of the graphics cards decided to play up, so I’ve had to revert to the internal card and go from two displays to one, which is a bit of a shame. I liked the dual 1280×1024 display set up a lot. Mail in one screen, browser in another etc.

So the obvious quick fix may be is a wide screen single display… but sadly the internal graphics card won’t support more than 1280 x 1024.

So do I just get another graphics card… my machine is quite old so it’s AGP only… although you can still get those cards.

So may be a new graphics card and a wide screen display.

I’ve been thinking about upgrading to a new machine anyway… but what… another PC, with Windows 7 may be… or may be a Mac Mini.

I need to sit down and look at my real requirements and compare the two to see what I actually need.

At first sight Windows machines look cheap and Mac’s expensive… but specifying them up to similar performance, there’s not much difference in them really.

Anyway my spare display can now be used on my notebook, or on my old G4 Mac over in France!

Samsung NC10 Netbook


Well it’s happened.. I have finally got a netbook. It’s a Samsung NC10 in blue. There’s plenty of info on the machine on the net. But here is my take on the machine after using it for a week or two.

In summary, the NC10 is a 10.2 inch netbook featuring a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, up to 160GB of disk space, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, three USB ports, a special anti-bacterial keyboard, and Windows XP.

I’m not disappointed in the performance of the machine. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB on the day of purchase so I didn’t use it very long with the 1GB in it. It’s loaded with MS Windows XP, which suits me, not that I’m afraid of Linux, I use it on other machines here. I might try a USB install of Ubuntu.

I’ve installed Open Office for my office suite (word processing, spreadsheet etc) needs. Also Firefox and Thunderbird have been installed. Also on Thunderbird I have added Lightening and provider, this gives me access to my Google calendar as well as all my Google mail on the machine.

I’ve installed Skype which works very well with the built in microphone, speakers and webcam (1.3 Megapixels)

The machine as a SD card slot reader which supports SDHC cards, so I’ve tried out a 4GB card in there as well as using my external USB hard drive and an external USB DVD writer.

I took the machine on a recent trip to France and although we had our Dell 15.4 laptop there as well, I never once reverted to using it.

I’ve found the common complaints about the touchpad on this machine being a little on the small side to be justified, although I have been using mine with an Apple Mighty Mouse (Bluetooth) when I’m sat at a desk or table. But for the sort of use I am using the machine the touch pad is fine. The keyboard is very good and I find it easy to touch type on it.

I’ve yet to fully run out of battery, with the screen dimmed down and bluetooth disabled I’m getting over 4 hours of life before it reports 50% battery capacity. Other reviews have reported 6 hours as being a typical battery life for this machine, which I think is justified and can be exceeded with some battery power management. Boot up time is also very quick, not timed it though.

My netbook is effectively replacing my Psion 5MX, my iPaq Pocket PC PDA, but not replacing my Filofax!!

The built in Samsung utilities are very good I have no complaints about them. I wish other laptops I have/use included some of them.

Anyway that’s just some first impressions of mine….

£200 Laptop

So can a £200 laptop cut the mustard…

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/reviews/review.phtml/2731/3755/Asus-eee-701-pc-laptop.phtml
http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/mobile-computing/notebooks-and-tablet-pcs/news/dirt-cheap-sub-notebooks-soon-to-be-the-norm?articleid=876125417
http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/mobile-computing/notebooks-and-tablet-pcs/news/asus-eee-good-things-come-in-small-packages?articleid=2131952546
http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/mobile-computing/notebooks-and-tablet-pcs/review/asus-eee-pc-4g

It comes with Linux pre-installed… you can use an external USB drive for storage, or use on line storage of course… great for emails and a bit of surfing the net.. looking on the forum etc….what else do you need?

I think of it as a Psion 5mx replacement… it’s quite small… about the size of a hardback book…

Or there is the Nokia N810… although a friend was saying last night that it’s not that brilliant…

http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/internet-and-broadband/news/nokia-n810-who-needs-an-iphone?articleid=843338695
This one is a bit more portable.

Or there is the iPhone… very nice, but you would be tied to a mobile phone contract…. may be not, I think I would prefer to stick to a 2/3 box solution…

1. Mobile phone
2. Ipod
3. Laptop/small notebook pc/PDA of some kind.

Palm where about to bring out the Folieo
http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/mobile-computing/news/palm-cancels-foleo-mobile-companion?articleid=834975120
but for various reasons the product was cancelled…

Apple are rumoured to be bringing out a flash based MacBook in the new year… but that will not be in the below £500 bracket…