DaveBirchall.com on Business Technology

Archive for the ‘Hardware Review’ Category

iPhone was launched worldwide last Friday. If you didn’t know that, you have either been locked in a cupboard or on another planet. In typical apple style the media went into melt down to cover the queues of people ( or devotees) desperate to get their hands on it first.

Some of my colleagues simply strolled down to the shop after the queue dies down and bought on without too much fuss.

So I asked them, what does the iPhone do that my windows mobile doesn’t do? No one could really answer this in a way that I could consider definitive. Then, over my morning coffee Ray, our lead architect handed me his and said ” see for your self.”

In the moments I had to play with it, I started to get the picture. There was no one feature that stood out for me but the experience was a wonderful thing. Its a solid piece of kit, its easy to navigate and just fantastic to use.  Essentially, what apple have done is take something that works and add ’sex appeal’ to it. Typical apple really.

The enormous screen helps matters considerably and makes for a far better experience than my HTC touch.

Word has it that there is a growing uptake in apple technology for business use. For instance, using mobileme your iPhone takes on push email functionality and starts make your old blackberry quiver in the corner of you desk. Lets face it 20GB of hard-drive in you pocket could also become handy too.

Further reading

I don’t normally comment on hardware but an interesting bit of kit came in to the office a few weeks ago that I have been meaning to discuss.

One of our engineers is of travelling for a few months and he bought a eePC from Asus to take with him. You may have seen or heard of them before , so what’s is the hype about?

Well for a start, it’s part of a new class of portable devices known as UMPC or Ultra Mobile PC’s. In a nutshell they are small and lighter than a laptop and more accessible and functional than a PDA. Personally, thats the holy grail of functionality I have been craving for.

There are a number in its class. Fujitsu, Apple, Sony, Asus and Lenovo to name but a few have models that compete in this area. But for me the eePC is appealing for one very good reason… Price! It starts at just AUD 400

Yes other PCs have more processing power, more storage, better build quality and a whole lot more, but let face it, a portable device takes a beating and its not in my interest to carry an expensive machine around.

On compatibility, all the work I do happens in a web browser these days so I don’t see this as being an issue.

It comes with either Windows or Linux and it comes in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB hard disk options. Also, its a solid state drive so you can use it between meeting in the bus, train, car, cab etc. You can run skype, windows messenger and use the built in webcam. Internet access is through wireless 802.11 b/g radio. You can’t use dial up, but when would that be a problem?

It comes with a few USB ports for additional peripherals. I have heard of people using GPS receivers and using it for Satellite Navigation and there is also talk of a touch screen interface coming soon.

Summary

It can’t replace your laptop or desktop PC but it can provide awesome, rugged accessibility at a great price.

http://www.asus.com.au/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=2281&l1=24&l2=163&l3=0&l4=0