The AnderNaut

Here is a little survey that I got in a Dell e-mail. Which continues to peak my interest in exactly what Dell is going to be doing with their line of Windows Mobile devices.

HELP US TO BETTER UNDERSTAND YOUR TECHNOLOGY NEEDS BY ANSWERING THIS QUESTIONNAIRE.

Other than your PC, which device do you use to check e-mail?
Wireless handheld
Cell phone with Internet access
All of the above
None, I check e-mail only with my PC

There have been many rumors swirling around for the last few months with Dell. The first one I heard was about Dell switching over to phone devices as many other manufactures are doing or looking into. A indication of this trend is the announcement of HTC having a State side office. Then there is the flip-flop stance on the discontinuing of Axim line. After reading this article about a Dell UMPC device, it continues to make you wonder exactly what is going on over at Dell. I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

What can I say, you just can never have enough disk space, prepare to drool.

Seagate has announced a 750GB hard drive. The Barracuda 7200.10 will be an SATA drive, with 8MB or 16MB cache, and a 5 year warranty. Suggest retail price is set to be $559.  Now that is a huge jump the largest I have seen is 500GB. This huge jump is due to a new technology called Perpendicular Recording, acquired when Seagate bought it’s competitor Maxtor. Perpendicular Recording is when the the bits on a drive’s platter(s) are recorded vertically instead of in the horizontal position allowing for greater density for data on each platter.

This looks to be a promising step to the capacity we will be needing with all the media that will be recorded or bought in the near future. And as for my friend the Library Despot inquiring as to me preordering the drive, it’s a bit too steep to buy two. :-)

Well I found my next baby, 19-inch wide screen notebook. And for those of you that know me, I just got my current one in November, which I will be selling. And you may be asking me, why on earth, and all I have to say is 19 inch wide screen. What I use it for mostly is around the house, or take on trips. So it doesn't get much travel time often. It has some great specs, the are running the AMD Turon proccesors, Nvidia dual SLI video cards, and so so much more. The drool I am. It would appear that this is the year of Wide screen specs, and laptops quite large.

(Source: Rock has 19-inch SLI notebook - the Inquirer)
(Source: Dell Inspiron 19-inch Screen… - Notebook Review)
(Source: CompAmerica's TigerShark TX-5900… - engadget)

Well, well looks who is joining the portable game. Microsoft appears to be readying a it answer to the well… I’m not really sure; iPod, PSP, Nintendo DS, you pick. I would have to say it’s a wait and see game, again, although it would appear that Microsoft is probably prepare more of a mobile entertainment device and not necessarily a mobile gaming device. This would just be another piece in there quest for the Entertainment provider extraordinaire include:

• XBox 360
• Windows Vista
• Music Store

And possibly include:

• Origami/UMPC
• Windows Mobile

Anything is possible at this point, but we will just have to wait and see, and from what I’ve read it sounds like this has been in the works for a little while.

(Source: Microsoft’s Plans for Handheld Game… - PocketPC Thoughts)
(Source: Microsoft developing”Xplayer,”… - arstechnica)

In an earlier post I talked about my iPAQ hx4705, a Microsoft Windows Mobile device, that I really like. It is a great device and is defiantly a head of it’s time. But with them saying they are getting out of the PDA business, and working with converged (PDA/phone) devices only, I am calling it quits with HP! With this latest snafu, they finally post on the Windows Mobile 5 upgrade page that the CD is ready for order, but do not have it listed on the actual order page. So now I’m looking at getting a Fujitsu/Siemens Loox device next for a PDA, and probably a iMate for a phone.

Here is my contribution/and venting to a post on the subject.

“And to think I was going to upgrade the memory, and the 4700 had such potential. Stick a fork in me I’m done with HP, I’ve been waiting and waiting for the upgrade and now this. Those monkeys banging on typewriters didn’t exactly duplicate Shakespeare, but it looks like we know where the monkeys ended up. As with the rest of you I’m looking forward to the new Loox too, not quite ready for a converged device as my PDA, I had been wanting to get one [Loox] anyway.

Hey HP if you listening, and can hear above the monkeys and typewriters, get a clue!”

I miss the good old days of Compaq when the iPAQ name still meant something. Thank you all for listening to my ranting and taking the time to allow me to vent.

(Source: HP iPAQ hx4700 WM5 Upgrade… - PocketPC Thoughts)

Matrox Graphics has released a new line cool hardware, the Extio remote graphics unit. The Matrox Extio F1400 allows you to hook up to 4 analog or digital monitors, a keyboard and a mouse at a distance up to 800+ feet over a fiber optic cable.

Matrox Graphics Newsletter: March 2006
* Matrox Extio F1400 is world’s first remote graphics unit
With this solution, the user interface of the computer - the keyboard, mouse, monitors, audio peripherals, and graphics hardware - are separated from the rest of the computer by up to 250 meters (820 feet) of fiber-optic cable. Designed for professional applications, this product supports up to 4 digital or analog monitors at a time, and has passive (fanless) cooling: http://www.matrox.com/mga/start/newsletter/mar_2006/extio.cfm

So my friends this is so true Geek-itude. Well OK, if you are a graphics designer then not so much what great screen real-estate, can you imagine having all for hooked up to 24in wide screen…

Opps, got distracted there thinking about it. I’ll have to watch that in the future or it could be sleep deprivation!

In the immortal words of Tiger
TTFN (”Tata for Now”)