CES 2010 – Part 2 Laptop Announcements

Lenovo IdeaPad U1Hybrid Notebook

Lenovo seems to be causing the most interest at CES with its wealth of new product announcements. The one that really catches my attention is the new IdeaPad U1 hybrid notebook that will be released in the June 2010 timeframe and will be priced around $999. What makes this product so special is that it is a combination slate and notebook. The screen detaches from the notebook shell and it becomes a Linux multi-touch slate that is enhanced for digital media consumption. You can use it to watch video, listen to music, watch a movie or read a book. It has full wireless so it can also be used to browse the internet as well while detached. When you bring it back to the notebook shell it snaps into place and it instantly (or relatively quickly) switches back to a Windows 7 based notebook.

Now let’s look at its basic features: The screen is an 11.6 inch HD Led backlit multitouch screen that is detachable and weighs 1.5 pounds. When attached to the shell it weighs 3.8 pounds, is cherry red, has two operating systems each having its own processor running independently or sharing info between them.  We don’t know the specific Intel dual-core processor that is in it yet that is used on the Windows 7 side. The Screen runs the SnapDragon Processor. It also sports a 1.3-megapixel webcam, ethernet 10/100 ports, 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth, (2) USB ports and an eSATA/USB combo port to attach more storage if you care to. This is the first notebook/slate computer that combines the versatility of a notebook with the entertainment value of a slate style computer. Jim Louderback does a nice video review of this product that I have included below.

 

Lenovo Ideapad S10-3t

Tekzilla announces this Lenovo convertible Netbook a iTablet Killer. Lenovo’s Ideapad S10-3t will be released this month and will be priced starting at $499. With a 10.1 inch capacitive touchscreen that can be swiveled and laid back against the keyboard to turn this netbook into a Tablet PC. It will be available with either an Intel Atom 1.66GHz N450 processor or a 1.83GHz N470 processor, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB 6400rpm 2,5 inch SATA hard drive. Network connection is important and this unit comes with a built in 80802.11b/g/n2.11b/g/n wireless radio, Bluetooth 2.1 and Ethernet port. 3G and WiMax will be available as options as well. It has two USB 2.0 ports, a 6 in 1 card reader, VGA external port, headphone and microphone jacks, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. A 4-cell or 8-cell battery will also be available providing up to 10 hours of battery life on the 8-cell battery. Again, Jim Louderback did a very nice video review of this system.

CES 2010 Part 1 – Initial Show Notes

I am going to start off by saying that I am really excited by this year’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show). For any of you that are not familiar with this product showcase that happens every January in Las Vegas, it is the show that has survived over the years as a presentation platform for both concept products and soon to be released products in the electronics industry. This show has probably survived all of the others because of its wide range of focus.  You will find just about every kind of electronic gadget you can imagine.

This year seems to have quite a lot of products involved in several major product lines, EBook Readers and Mobile Computer Technology.  In fact, notebooks and netbooks are equally in the lime light, and the main manufacturer that seems to be coming out with the greatest innovations is Lenovo.  Smart phones are also all will blows and I think we will see quite a few new products in this arena as well.With the advent of the movie Avatar, 3D has been brought back into focus (pun intended). We will see both TV’s and players that will be giving you 3D imaging right in your living room, but that is not all. Content from multiple sources is becoming more important and we are seeing the addition of internet access right on your TV of Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube, Picasa, Bloomberg news, weather and now Netflix Streaming and even Skype video phones. So now you have the ability to have Video Phone conversations with your friends and families right from your Television.  Cameras and Camcorders are going to be interesting as well. High Def is the keyword this year and we will see many products providing High Def in many different form factors. Gadgets in your cars is fast becoming the biggest competitive area for Auto Manufacturers. Ford is starting to become the king in this area with the Ford Sync being the its initial offering now they are piling on with other video presentation of car function  and information access. I will go into this in much greater detail in future postings. I am getting to the point that I want a Ford because of the technology they are offering more than the car. I have got to touch and feel this soon!

Below is a quick list of the different technologies zones that are highlighted this year at CES. The links provided below will take you to a better definition of each of these technologies zone designations and will give you a better feeling of what CES is all about.

Digital Health TechZone
eBooks TechZone
Experience 3D TechZone
Femto TechZone
HDMI TechZone
HD-PLC TechZone
Higher Ed TECH TechZone
HomePlug TechZone
i-stage TechZone
Kids@Play TechZone
Lifestyle Gadgets TechZone
Mobile DTV TechZone
Mommy Tech TechZone
Netbooks TechZone
PC Gaming Alliance TechZone
Robotics TechZone
Safe Driver TechZone
Silvers Summit TechZone
USB TechZone
Wireless Mobility Brought to You by Qualcomm
ZigBee TechZone

This is probably the first year that CES so excited me with the potential of the products that were going to be presented that I contemplated hopping and chat and when there myself to see them firsthand.  But, we're so blessed with th the state of the techno: Jude from presenting information across the Internet that I can take full advantage of those individuals and companies that do this full time.  So over the next couple weeks I'll be digesting all of the information that I can from all the various sources that are available and come back to you with those products that I have found most interesting and useful for all of us.

Lexmark X543DN Color MFP $100 Instant Rebate

This well built workgroup color multifunction printer is now costing you $100’s less than before. Normal Retail on this product is $749 but for a limited time (Promo ends on Jan 30, 2010), your price is just $599. This printer supports network scanning,  copying and duplex printing with output speeds up to 21 ppm in black and color.

The only drawback with this unit is that it is missing a fax function and if you need that you could upgrade to the X544DN! See product demo by clicking here!

And here is something that you don’t see every day…

Lifetime Pricing Guarantee - For as long as you own your X543dn, Lexmark guarantees never to increase the U.S. toner cartridge price found on Lexmark.com.

Feature Highlights:

Paper Handling Standard - 150-Sheet Output Bin  Integrated Duplex  Single Sheet Manual Feed 250-Sheet Input Tray

ADF Paper Input Capacity : Up to 50 pages 20 lb or 75 gsm bond

Standard Ports - Ethernet 10/100BaseTX (RJ-45)  USB 2.0 Specification Hi-Speed Certified (Type B)

Scan Area, Maximum 8.5 x 14 inches

Size (in. - H x W x D) 18.23 x 17.32 x 21.14 in.

Recommended Monthly Page Volume 500 - 1,500 pages

Microsoft Big Easy Offer 4.0

In this economy it is important to take advantage of all of the offers that are available to you. Here is one more that you can take advantage of to help with any current installations you are planning this Quarter.

The Microsoft Big Easy Offer 4.0 runs from Jan 3, 2010 thru Mar 31,2010 and provides partner subsidy funds that can be used with us to help with the implementation of your Microsoft solution including software, hardware and services.

A subsidy is a check made payable to the Microsoft partner of your choice, us I hope. This subsidy can be used to enrich and implement your Microsoft solution. The subsidy allows you to purchase additional products or services from the us thus lowering your Total Cost of Ownership.

You can build up your subsidy by choosing:

• Products from more than one product group.
• Licenses with Software Assurance.
• Advanced or Enterprise Editions.

Talk to us and we can help you decide what you want to implement now to help you afford the best solutions for you.

Here’s the big question: How do you take advantage the Big Easy offer?

• Make a qualifying purchase between January 3, 2010 and March 31, 2010.
• Redeem your purchase within 30 days of purchase date at http://www.microsoftincentives.com/BigEasy4/redeem.aspx.
• Receive your partner subsidy check from Microsoft.
• Spend your subsidy funds with your Microsoft partner upon receipt. Please note that subsidy funds expire after 90 days of the check issue date.

There is a Big Easy Calculator that is available that will allow you to work on the best scenario for your situation.

How to use the calculator:

1. Select the license type for each product version. If you don’t know which license type to select, contact your partner for more information.
2. Select the product group from the second list.
3. Select the product from the third dropdown list.
4. Enter the number of licenses for each product in the worksheet below.

Increase your subsidy amount by adding more product groups and number of licenses, choosing advanced or Enterprise versions, and choosing licenses with Software Assurance (L&SA)!

The bottom line is that if you are considering upgrading, then here is something else that you can take advantage of to help offset the cost of implementing your installation. Be sure to contact us to help you make the best decision for you!

A quick look at MS Office 2010 beta system requirements

I loaded up the Office 2010 beta the other day and I am finally getting some time to play with it this weekend. So far I like it but several of my Outlook synchronizations broke (not unexpected) and I decided to take a look at what the system requirements are. The first thing that jumps out at me is the Operating System requirements. You will need at  least, Windows XP with Service Pack 3 installed. I suspect that this will be one of the reasons that we some push to new equipment. The Memory requirements (256 MB) is still low but like 2007, I wouldn’t run it with less than 2GB, which I suggest for any system right now as the bare minimum. Always remember that minimum requirements are not optimum requirements. You never really run a program at its minimum specs.

The display minimums was the other specification that jumped out at me. I am already sensitive to the screen limitations on my NetBook so I really look at these closely. Most of your 10.1 inch NetBooks have a 1024x600 screen and most of the first units, that were 8.9 inch were the same resolution. Any way, the recommended resolution is 1024 x 768 which is no problem for desktop and notebooks. Five programs will fall within the screen resolution guidelines which include Excel, Outlook, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word. That leaves Access, Publisher, InfoPath and Visio that will not work on your NetBook. Since you have probably read before that I don’t believe a NetBook is a true production machine but more of a research, communication and light writing device then maybe this isn’t a great problem. My next step is to try loading it onto my NetBook and seeing just what the limitations are.

Below are links to the Beta Versions of Office, Visio and Office Web Apps. If you click on the Office 2010 Beta image above you will be taken to the the Office 2010 support page.

Downloads Download Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta Download Visio Premium 2010 Beta Download Microsoft Office Web Apps Beta

First impressions of my Flip HD Video Camera

Merry Christmas Everyone! It’s rainy and wet here today, Yuck!, but we still have a little snow to make it seem like Christmas. I want to start with the Flip camera.

I liked how easy the camera worked and the low light capabilities of the unit. One thing that I noticed though was how noisy 20 odd people can be when crowded into a small space. Because the camera is so light you don’t get tired holding it but you also don’t have the heft to help you steady it either. I tried putting together the pictures using the Flip Software but it seems cumbersome so I tried switching to Window’s Movie Maker. The sound track from the video seemed to shift some on that and I wasn’t real happy with that either. That bothers me because Movie maker is easy to use it would be nice if it would work for this purpose.

I need to give it another try but I miss my big machine. It got a little sick with of the stupidity of its primary operator. I had a Facebook message come through that pointed to a site that a virus/trojan attached and I went through the motions of loading the virus without thinking. Shouldn’t be operating a computer that early in the morning I guess. It really got zapped and the guys are still working on it. I hope we don’t have to reload the computer from scratch. This is not the time of year to be doing that.

My off loading the data to network drives will allow me to bring the system back up to speed rather quickly though if that is what we have to do. So if you run into an email that has you installing software onto your system, don’t do it. Delete, Delete DELETE! Even the best of us can get suckered.

I Caved In!

What I really wanted was a Canon 5D but the Camera Fairy isn't coming through for me. So... I picked up a Flip Ultra to tide me over until she decides if I have been naughty or nice. Oh, I guess I’m mixing up my holidays. Whoops!

The Flip is a cute little thing, and it is hard to believe that the Flip, smaller than a cigarette case, can take such beautiful pictures and store up to two hours of video.

The controls are simple and straightforward. So to it will be very simple to learn how to use and operate. It has a 2X zoom lens and the image you get is very good. I'm not real wild about the sound but it's not too bad when you get close up to the individual you are taking a photo of.

The video we are shooting is done with two small HD cameras, one of them an Aptek the other is a Flip similar to the one I just got.

The biggest problem that I am observing with what we have done so far is with the sound quality. We'll have to see what we can do about that. We are looking at at a sound kit that has a mixer and a desk mic in it, and I have a wireless lavalier mic that we can try as well. If that works we'll need a second wireless set later as we keep going.

We are all very excited about how many options and uses we will be able to use these videos for. So be sure to come back often and see how we grow our video library with different product reviews, how to's and news from our industry.

First Take on new Webcast

Here’s our first try at the webcast. First problem we see is that the sound is a bit tinny. We need to setup and use a microphone and mixer I think to get this to get a bit more base.

Here is a neat Utility to turn off you touchpad while typing

TouchFreeze is a great utility for a Windows based machine that will automatically turn off your touchpad while you are typing on you notebook/netbook. If you are like me, a person with gorilla hands, you probably inadvertently   brush up against your touchpad while typing. All of sudden your cursor is in a different location on your screen and you have just added a great thought to your document but it is in the wrong place! Now you have to fix this and in doing so you now have lost your train of thought.

TouchFreeze when activated, will sit in your system tray and simply turn off the touchpad when you start typing. It’s simple, free and is an open-source program that works with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7.

Video Studio

We have been putting the final touches on the first edition of our video studio. We are so excited about what we are doing and how well it is coming together. Paul Koslow who is our webmaster, is starting a new project that includes producing online videos and quick commercial video as well. We feel that with the technology and software available today that we can put together a first class production house, in our house, pun intended, that will allow us to not only provide us with a video content production facility for our website but also for short spots on cable TV like the ones we have done in the past for FYI. This gives us more control, faster to finished product processing, and will help us learn more about what we need to make this all work well for us. Be sure to tune in for more information as all this great stuff begins to mature. Below is a screen test of what will be coming to you soon…

Some exciting news about a new addition to CCI Web Page

We have been getting much closer to putting the final touches on our first “produced” web video which is going to become a weekly feature of our website. These videos will contain content from a varied subject matter but will all pertain to our Solutions Oriented focus. So, you will see videos on new products, news items, how to’s and interviews with individuals in our industry. We are really looking forward to this new venture and really hope to be able to grow it into a valued support tool for you our clients. Stay Tuned and I will bring you more news about this new feature from www.localsupport.com.

Here’s another video showing how quickly a site can go from being clean to infection and back to clean again.

This is not a newsworthy item as mentioned in the YouTube submission that this video stream came from. It is interesting how transient an infection can be on a website. AVG is showing how they can find cached versions of the pre/post/post clean sites and detect the path and style of the infection. For me this demonstrates how easily you can be infected if you don’t have the proper protection in place and if you are not aware of what can happen so easily when you are not careful of the sites that you visit. Again, Thank you Jude for sending these video streams to our attention.

Interesting Video Showing a Virus Scam used to hijack your system

AVG Research Lab presented this video on YouTube to show how easily a user can be scammed into buying a fake security program. Once your initially caught it is very hard to get you system clean again. Jude brought this to my attention and thought it might be of some interest.

Voice to Text has finally arrived on the iPhone

If you've been following me at all lately. You will notice that I am constantly looking for an application that will give me good dictation capability with voice to text recognition on my iPhone.

On the PC, I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking and these same people have developed their own iPhone application to dictate on your iPhone-and it works very, very well. In fact, I am using this program to write this article that you are reading right now! It recognizes all your commands for punctuation, so don't forget to put that in.

The interface makes it very easy to make changes during and after dictation segments. Just tap on any word on the screen that it has converted from voice to text and you will be given options to delete or replace the word with other words that might be similar to what you said.

One of the tricks is to keep your sentences short because it will only have a certain amount of memory to use for the conversion. At the end of your dictation you have the ability to send your text to the clipboard for use in another application. There are also two buttons available that will send you directly to the mail application or text messaging application.

The most useful part of this application is that it allows me to store this text in the clipboard so that I can share my dictated notes with whatever application that I want to insert in to.

The best part of this application for all of us, is that it's free. This App gets my big thumbs-up to add to your library of applications on your iPhone.

A Must Have New Jing Release

You have heard me talk about Jing in the past and now there's one more reason for downloading it.  Jing is a free software package that lets you capture and add visuals to everyday online conversations.  The new release has added the ability your screen captures to Twitter.

Use Jing to:

• Capture a picture of her computer screen
• Recorded video of your onscreen activities
• Then share via Twitter, email or instant messaging

It is available for either Windows or Mac OS X

And the best part is, It's free!  So if Twitter is one of your main stays, there is a no other way to take your Twitter stand out from your peers.

Logitech® Webcam C905

We received a new Logitech® Webcam C905 and put it into use right away. We connected it on Jude’s desktop and setup Skype so he could make internet video call using this program.

The unit plugged right into Jude’s Windows 7 machine and instantly saw it and offered to download the device drivers off of the web. A minute later he was running.

This Webcam has a crystal clear image and really good sound quality. I am going to see how well it will pick up and recognize his speech patterns for use with voice to text recognition and will report back on that in a few days. I liked it so much that I am picking one up for myself as well.

I think that its quality is very similar to Logitech’s 9000 pro’s version and would not hesitate picking this unit up.

A few highlights: HiDef, Autofocus, Closeup, Universal Clip, Work with most IM applications, Built-in mic with Right Sound™, Carl Zeiss® Optics, 2 megapixel sensor and Right Light™ 2 Technology. There is also a fun feature available using Logitech® Video Effects™. It’s easy to spice things up with neon splashes, fish-eye distortions, and more.

To see more detail about these features go to this products Features Page.

Video Studio is just about here

We are putting together a video studio that we will be using to put together a simple weekly support video for our customers. We are looking forward to this new addition to our support portfolio and will be posting these videos for your use in several different places. I will continue blogging on this site of course, and will be creating content both in the studio as well as from my desktop. We are looking forward to sharing with you tips, tricks and new product reviews of the many technology related items that we have found. We hope you will find this new venture helpful and enjoyable as well. Welcome to our world of Tech Talk with Bob and Jude!

We had a beautiful visitor at CCI

I have been told that this guy has been around the area for awhile now. These magnificent birds are so beautiful.

He was probably a red-tailed hawk, not being a consistent bird watcher I am not 100% sure. But I love the coloring on his face. The wind was really blowing some cold air which made him puff his feathers more. At first when he turned his head to look at me creeping up on him they were so puffed up I thought his head looked like an owl. Then the laid back down and you could tell that he was not.

The branches of the tree he was perched in were so thin that while he was he sitting there they bounced up and down in the wind quite a bit.

To learn more about these magnificent animals visit:

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Red-tailed Hawk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Red Tailed Hawk Conservancy

Red-Tailed Hawks, Red-Tailed Hawk Pictures, Red-Tailed Hawk Facts ... National Geographic

 

Microsoft AER Renewal for 2010

We are once again authorized for Microsoft Educational purchasing/sales.

Computer Connections goes through yearly renewals of all of its Microsoft Credentials. This entails many hours of training and testing programs and the paperwork that goes along with documenting all of these processes. We do this for you, our customers to be able to provide the widest choice of products and services we can.

Definitely Enjoying my Kindle

While the PC app isn’t quite up to par with the one from Barnes and Noble the Kindle I just purchased is a great little ebook reader and I recommend it highly. You can get yours by clicking below.