Windows 7 Beta Review
I’ve been eager to give the Windows 7 Beta a workout following the demos I saw at CES.
My living room Media Center PC was an ideal candidate. It’s a three year old Pentium 4 which takes care of all our viewing, media and browsing needs on Windows XP Media Center 2005. Microsoft has claimed that Windows 7 is a streamlined OS capable of running on lower spec hardware than Vista, it’s time to see if that’s really true…
Test environment
For reference my PC is running a 2.93GHz P4 with 3GB DDR400 RAM, 500GB hard disk and a low end Geforce 7200GS. Not the most scintillating system by modern standards and probably equivalent to a $250 purchase these days from the refurbished inventory of e-tailers. The version of Windows 7 Beta I have is Build 7000. I’ll refer to it as W7B in this article.
Installations never go smoothly…or do they?
Installation was initially nerveracking but ultimately painless. Nerveracking because I had to split a live primary partition into two, to create a boot partition for the new OS. Painless because once Linux GParted had done its partitioning stuff, Windows 7 Beta installed in superfast time, restarting a couple of times and then it was done. I had backed up my XP partition to another drive just in case, but fortunately all went according to the masterplan and W7B automatically created a dual-boot environment for me. XP booted just like before and I so was all set for my W7B test.
Stopwatch at the ready
The first thing I noticed was a faster boot time. This could have been due to having a fresh install so I initially reserved judgement on that one. However now that three weeks has passed and I’ve installed everything I’m likely to for a while, the swift boot-up lives on. It’s not a life changing improvement but in the region of ten seconds faster than my XP boot sequence once all startup items have completed.
Sounding off
All navigation elements were very responsive: Aero, widgets and snap-to-edge all performed well with no lag. But then I noticed there was no sound. W7B had found my motherboard’s SPDIF output but did not configure it correctly. A quick internet search revealed the latest Vista drivers which duly solved the issue. In fact I now get proper Dolby transmission and far more signal reaching my amp, which means having to apply less gain within the amp therefore achieving a better signal-to-noise ratio than with my XP setup.
Taskbar implemented cum laude
Taskbar, oh glorious taskbar. So much has been written of thee already, what can I add? This really is a great addition in W7B, I can envisage how well it could work once the touch interface gets enabled on the full release. Seeing thumbnail representations of an application’s open windows is a fantastic browsing aid. Being able to jump into application functions directly from thumbnail menus takes everything a step further. Best of all, the thumbnails are dynamic representations so if you are waiting for a window to complete a certain action you can hover over its taskbar icon to view its progress in the thumbnail.
CPU and Resource Management
Having an older spec PC presented a good opportunity to see how W7B would cope with average resources. 
In the initial days following installation I noticed some frantic CPU and disk activity, which I traced to Windows Media Player cataloging my music and video collection. Once that was done, CPU activity became XP-like whilst memory allocation was definitely smarter.
Like Vista, W7B was able to address all 3GB of RAM whilst my 32-bit XP build was never capable of this. W7B also supports ReadyBoost so I threw in a 4GB SDHC card and dedicated the whole thing to the OS. That’s a cheap 4GB at $10, although ReadyBoost doesn’t make use of flash cards in quite the same way as conventional RAM. However the combination keeps my paging file to a minimum and I’ve not experienced memory crunches.
Windows Firewall
The versions of Windows Firewall built into XP and Vista were never taken too seriiously by the security fraternity due their inability to block outbound traffic. So whilst others had difficulty reaching your computer, your computer could reach others…which is a pretty big risk given the amount of nasty malware out there. The W7B Firewall changes all that with firewall rules configurable for incoming and outgoing traffic. This could seriously hurt the likes of ZoneAlarm and others, who have thrived to date on the weakness of Windows Firewall. I run ZoneAlarm on my XP partition, but I haven’t needed to download it for my W7B setup so far.
Internet TV & Media Center
Ever since the touchscreen demo of W7B Media Center I saw at CES, I’ve been aching to try out the integration of Internet TV in the EPG. Until now we’ve needed to open a browser, navigate to NBC’s website, find the news page, find the video page and then start streaming the news. W7B changes this by putting content from nbc.com (and many others) right into the EPG so it’s accessible from within Media Center with the remote control.
The demo of this looked awesome and it’s just as good in my living room. Content takes a little while longer to access than regular TV channels, but it’s a heck of a great feature and the integration is seamless. News, concerts, full episodes are all available and free to access with occasional advertisements for some content.
Snap-to-side
Throwing a widow to the side of the screen results in W7B automatically resizing it to fill half the screen. This makes comparing documents or images super easy. Throwing to the top maximizes the window. Again it’s easy to see how these small but useful enhancements will make life easier once the touch version gets released.
What’s needs work?
Hmmm…I haven’t found anything yet inherent in W7B which consistently fails. My sound sometimes cuts out following a video call, which could be a driver issue. My computer wakes from standby mode much more often than it did in XP, probably due to some strange service which I might not need to be running. Skype is not yet fully compatible. There’s also a registry fix out there for .msi installers which fail – I had an issue installing Office 2007 and when the installer failed W7B automatically downloaded the fix article from Microsoft’s knowledge base…finally intelligent context sensitive help has arrived. After following the instructions in the article to update the problematic registry entry the installer worked.
A game-changer for Microsoft?
Apart from that the whole experience has just worked superbly and I’m happily running W7B as my everyday environment now. The Beta version expires on August 1st, so perhaps this hints at the possible release timing of the full version. Remember that the release version will hopefully be touch-enabled, so that will be a whole new ball-game, and from what I’ve seen so far Microsoft could hit a home run with this one.
Neil Berman
Acer Aspire One Review
Following a false start worthy of the Olympics, Acer’s repair shop just delivered me a new Aspire One. My first One must have been so fried that it was not worth repairing, so take two begins…
First impressions are just as before: great ultralight design, perfect keyboard, boots in under twenty seconds…but this time continue beyond five minutes as the WiFi connects swiftly and I’m off surfing in no time. I upgraded to Firefox 3 with this handy guide.
And that’s when it hit me: the One is loading pages faster than anything I own. I’m unable to pin it down to any one system element, but the combination of the Intel Atom, the SSD and Firefox running on Linpus Lite makes the internet scream on this baby. Way faster than my EEE 2G was, no comparison. Firefox’s full screen option makes the experience even better, taking advantage of all 8.9 LED backlit screen inches.
I installed Skype and tried a video call. I told Skype to start video automatically and the webcam worked perfectly. My friend at the other end of the line in Tokyo could hear and see me clearly and I could hear him fine too. Again, the quality of the experience hit my old EEE for a home run…where I tended to reach for my Nokia N810 for Skype due to the 2G’s choppy chatter, the One was clear as a bell and it was handling the video well too.
The One also ships with several installed applications, such as OpenOffice, a media player and photo maanger, which together with the web browser 
may take care of most owners’ needs. Again, OpenOffice opened much faster than on my EEE 2G and saved documents almost instantly. This Linux version running Linpus Lite ships with an 8GB SSD. If you need more storage there are two SD card slots, of which one allows an inserted card to show as a hard drive extension in the file manager. The second slot shows up as removable storage.
Unlike my EEE experience, I have been able to touch type naturally on the One. The keyboard is very usable with everything in the right place. I’ve also found the trackpad to be big enough, as long as you’re a tap-to-click type and not a button pusher. I would like Acer to have implemented a MacBook style double finger right-click tap, as right clicking requires moving off the trackpad to find the button. There is a dedicated button on the keyboard for opening context sensitive menus however, which makes this omission easier to forgive.
The keyboard and wrist rest also remain at a reasonable temperature during use, as does the underside of the One. This is probably due to the low power consumption of the Intel Atom processor. A small fan kicks in now and again but it is unobtrusive.
Given its size and weight I expect my One to get plenty of outdoor use. The screen is bright enough to use outside in the shade, but becomes unreadable when hit by direct sunlight. As a guide it’s a lot brighter and sharper than the EEE 2G, but is outshone by a MacBook. The One does ship with a slip cover, which offers useful (non-waterproof) protection in transit. Regular travelers might prefer a closed protective case, but it’s a great free addition as a basic cover. Nice One Acer.
Battery life is quoted at three hours for this three cell Linux version and I achieved close to that with sensible moderation of the screen brightness to fit my environment. On full brightness with constant WiFi usage I’d expect that to go down to around two hours. Acer quotes the Windows XP version at 2.5 hours, probably due to the SSD being replaced by a regular hard drive. After boot-up I hardly ever see my SSD light illuminated, but the XP model is likely to be busier. So taking more frequent disk accessing together with the effort required to spin the platters would definitely reduce overall battery life.
On balance, the One represents the best balanced experience of any of the small (< 9 inch) netbooks I’ve tried so far. Its keyboard beats the EEE 901, its size is more practical than the seven inch models 
and its processor runs more efficiently than the VIA C7 powered HP Mini-Note or Everex Cloudbook. In six cell guise with XP, it would be compelling but I have also appreciated the fast boot-up time and low resource usage of Linux.
The market is about to get more crowded with the imminent arrival of Dell’s mini Inspiron and future VIA Nano based machines. The ten inch Lenovo, Asus and MSI netbooks are also worth considering if you want to move up on screen size. For now though, the Acer One is a solid contender amongst the midsize netbooks.
Update: Acer has now lowered the retail price of the 3-cell Linux version to $329. The 3-cell XP version is now down to $349 and the 6-cell XP version is set to retail at $399.
Neil Berman
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- Netbooks captured the the public’s imagination in 2008
Asus EEE 900 vs. HP Mini-Note 2133 mini review
It’s been just six months since the launch of the first Asus EEE PC and the sector has exploded. The original UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) name has been supplanted by Microsoft’s ULCPC (Ultra Low Cost PC), Intel’s MID (Mobile Internet Device) and various manufacturer led acronyms – MSI’s forthcoming Wind is actually an abbreviation of WiFi Network Device.
Screen sizes and storage space have increased, but in most cases so have price tags. Asus itself is a case in point, with its recently launched EEE PC 900 offering a nine inch screen and up to 20GB of onboard storage but a hefty $549 sticker price. The majority of the hardware on the inside is similar to the 701, but the increased screen real estate in a similarly sized package makes web browsing and general working more manageable.
Unfortunately the keyboard feels the same size as the original, which I struggle with after a few months of daily use. It’s fine for occasional emails etc but for more consistent work I make too many typos with it as my fingers sometimes land on two keys at once.
The screen seems a bit brighter than the 701 and fills the (slightly larger) lid nicely, with the webcam still preserved. Looks and build quality haven’t kept pace with the competition however, as we segway into the HP Mini-Note…
…which is one of the best looking laptops money can buy.
Powered by a range of VIA C7 processors up to 1.6GHz it sounds at first like it will outperform the EEE’s 900MHz Celeron, but user testimonies indicate that the Mini-Note often gets stuck in the slow lane.
When I tried it out running Vista it was actually pretty decent, loading apps quickly enough for general usage. In fact if you write a lot and have limited multimedia requirements, then the Mini-Note is a fair choice because the keyboard is absolutely awesome.
The keys are large, almost as large as a full size laptop, and I was able to type fluently from the get-go. The trackpad is responsive too and although the buttons are oddly placed on either side, this makes the pad’s area larger and is not a problem if you tap-to-click.
The looks, screen quality and overall usability beat the EEE and the whole thing seems better constructed too, if larger, whilst pricing is similar. The Mini-Note starts at $499 for a Linux build, compared to $549 for the Linux EEE 900. The top of the range Vista Mini-Note model sells for a not so appealing $749.
Unfortunately for both the EEE and Mini-Note, their respective Celeron and VIA processors have a tough time managing multimedia applications fluidly. This is forgiveably in the $299 EEE 2G, but less so in a unit costing around twice as much.
Overall the HP Mini-Note and Asus EEE 900 have strayed away from the original EEE ultra-low-cost concept and are competing with budget laptops but offering limited power. Of course these machines are all about portability but other models due out soon may offer a better balance…
Speaking of which, we will see MSI’s Intel Atom-powered Wind in June. With an 80GB hard drive, ten inch screen and rumored six hour battery life under Windows XP, I’d wait to check out the Wind before handing over the plastic on either the HP or Asus just yet.
XP extended to at least 2010 on Asus EEE style computers
Michael Dix’s announcement on Thursday that Microsoft would now offer Windows XP Home until at least June 30th 2010 tells us one thing: the Redmond giant is getting more sensitive to its little customers.
The message behind the April 3rd statement seems clear: Microsoft is nervous of losing a whole market to Linux and Google-apps-cloud-style computing. That market is what Dix called the ULCPC (Ultra Low Cost Personal Computer), which includes the amazingly popular Linux-powered Asus EEE, Everex Cloudbook and forthcoming models rumoured to be on the way from Acer and HP amongst others.
In the past I think Microsoft might have just said, ‘our current platform is Vista, make your hardware better‘. However on this occasion market forces led to the creation of a more viable option. Most EEE buyers are probably happy with the price/power/battery trade-off in the unit. I know I am. Would I pay another few hundred bucks for a same size, same screened EEE with enough power to run Vista? No way.
So Microsoft will now continue offering XP Home to OEMs of ULCPCs for the next few years. Good decision, and well done for responding to customer opinion. Dix said there is no intention to extend the sales period similarly for other XP versions. In any case, Vista sales have just reached one hundred million licenses so I would not expect the other versions to get a further extension.
Microsoft’s statement was swiftly followed by Asus announcing that they would start selling an XP-powered EEE on April 9th, priced at $400. The specs are believed to be identical to the existing 4G model, only this time some of the nice bits, such as the webcam, are more likely to work out of the box with applications like Skype. According to Laptop Magazine, XP boots in 40 secs on the EEE. That’s pretty quick for XP. Asus is going to sell bucketloads of these.
A few weeks ago Microsoft reinstated support for certain legacy file formats in Office 2007, following requests from the user community. I would expect that users of those legacy formats (mainly Office 97) are already strong candidates to move to OpenOffice or Google Docs. Perhaps this reversal from Redmond might keep them on side for a little longer.
Is there a trend emerging here? Perhaps the giant is feeling like some dwarf’s are getting taller.
Neil Berman
www.neilberman.com
Market Share: Who’s winning and losing in Windows vs Mac vs Linux; IE vs Firefox
Ten thousand choices. Ten thousand opinions. What do my last ten thousand page hits tell us about our Macs on Safari and Vistas of people Fire-ing Internet Explorer?
Internet Explorer vs Firefox:
Is Firefox really challenging IE’s market share?
In a word, yes. 31% of the page hits came from Mozilla’s Firefox, with 61% coming from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. That is a staggering statistic, given that IE is shipped in the vast majority of all computers sold. The other players – mainly Safari and Opera – fought it out for the remainder. I have started using Firefox myself on my MacBook after getting frustrated with Safari’s compatibility issues with some sites.
The figures for Mac and Windows Firefox take-on are similar on each platform, with around 30% of each user group Fire-ing the Apple and Microsoft offerings according to my stats. Firefox seems to have the Linux visitors well under its wing with almost 90% coverage.
Windows vs Mac:
Is it war?
Yes and no. In 2004 the W3C internet activity stat for Mac usage was just under 3%. My last ten thousand page hits registered 5.5% Macs and over 90% Windows. So from a global perspective it’s no…or at least it’s a very very slow war.
From a regional perspective, the story is different. For North America the page hits registered as 10% Mac and 83% Windows, for Europe this dropped to 6.5% Mac vs. 86.5% Windows, whilst in Asia over 94% of the hits came from Windows PCs.
We know that Apple lost the corporate sales war a long time ago. So the North America stat suggests that Mac penetration as a home computer in the region is pretty strong. This is probably the one market where an Apple vs. Windows war is now on, albeit contained within the upper end of the price range. Europe seems to have a decent amount of Mac users, although they are almost equalled by Linux hits at over 5%. In Asia, Windows appears to be almost unchallenged.
Linux:
Is it a viable alternative?
Yes for sure, and with hit products like the Asus EEE taking the market by storm the amount of Linux users should be rising. From my last ten thousand page hits though, only 3% were Linux users. It will be interesting to see if this percentage grows as more products are launched with Linux distros. The Everex Cloudbook is due to go on sale tomorrow.
Neil Berman
The data in this article is based upon page views registered on this site as tracked by Google.
CES 2008 News: Laptops & UMPCs Part 2
The Aigo’s implementation of screen, keyboard and power make it one of the most promising UMPC designs out there currently.
The beautifully patterned red lid is striking and Lenovo had made a great effort to make the keyboard user friendly with large keys. The U110 will be available with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, choice of 64 or 32 GB SSD or regular 160 GB HD and a 11.1 inch screen. 
Communication features include bluetooth, WiFi and a 1.3MP camera. The ultra-thin design ranges from 0.7 to 0.9 inches at the thickest point. This dream machine will be available in April priced at around $1,800.
The keyboard to the right of the screen sports a mixed key use arrangement. This is currently a prototype with no production details available.
Samsung also expanded its Q1 range with the launch of the Q1 Ultra Premium. The Q1’s thumboard, which I have generally found difficult to use, has been supplemented with a large software keyboard. Dial keys is gone. The Q1 Ultra Premium will be available with a 64 GB SSD and has a range of Intel processor options from 1.06 to 1.33 GHz. A Samsung representative said the current Q1 Ultra range would continue to be sold for the time being.
The Amtec U650 has again a different form factor, where the screen slides up to reveal a well designed thumboard.
In the face of competitors from Aigo and LG, the unit feels pretty chunky for something with a 5.6 inch screen. 
Sony has updated its Mylo communicator, which comes with Skype preloaded.
has a range of available accessories, including a snap-on keyboard. It also uses Intel’s new Silverthorne / Menlow CPU range which goes up to 1.6 GHz.
Finally Toshiba’s eMotion Feel UMPC is yet another different form factor proposition. 
Currently a working concept, the eMotion Feel looks expensive and heavy but amazingly weighs under one pound. The front panel’s pointer and buttons seem limiting as the main controls, along with a stylus. Its unique feature is tilt scrolling, 
which is activated by pressing a button on the left side and then holding the unit at an angle to scroll through a page. An interesting and intuitive design feature.
Read part 1 of the CES 2008 Laptops & UMPCs News here
Neil Berman
Asus EEE PC Review
Latest: Click here to read the CES 2008 laptop and UMPC news, including details of the Asus R50 UMPC
After weeks of low supply, the Asus EEE PC has finally appeared. I spent some eagerly awaited quality time with the small, cute and cheap 4G model.
UMPCs: When size does matter
Next to a regular ultraportable the Asus EEE PC is noticeably smaller. It´s also thinner, most likely due its lack of optical or mechanical hard drives. It does however still manage to pack in a VGA output, Ethernet port and 3 USB 2.0 connectors without needing a port replicator.
The screen is also smaller than most ultraportables at seven imches, the same size as Samsung’s Q1 series. However in the case of the EEE this seems to be to keep the cost down than anything else.
The keyboard is also a shrunken affair but is surprisingly easy to use. I was able to type lines of text accurately without any need to acclimatize. This will depend on finger size but I was pleasantly surprised. For such a thin laptop the keys also have a positive feel with a decent amount of travel.
The EEE PC has a traditional trackpad which 
has a separated section on the right hand side. Using the media player this section controlled playback volume. The trackpad was fairly responsive to movement but less so to taps, although it is usable. There´s only one button, like a Mac, but improving on Apple’s design the left side of the button gives a left click and the right side gives a right click (thanks for the pointer Neil). Great idea and works well in practise.
In comparison to competitors, the EEE dwarfs the Fujitsu U810 (above) and Sony UX380N (below).
It’s cheap, but can I actually use this thing in real life?
Switch on the EEE and it boots quickly (I counted 24 seconds) into a home screen with big icons and tabs. It looks ultra easy to use and find what you want.
In this regard it’s similar to the iPhone home screen. But then I always thought the iPhone home screen looks simple because it only has a few preloaded applications. The EEE is similar, with limited applications it’s easy to give everything a big icon. I expect most owners will never add any applications anyway, as much of what you need to get going is included right out of the box.
The EEE ships with internet, office and media playback software sitting on top of its Linux operating system. The look and feel is overtly Windows XP and when I was using the file explorer I actually had to do a double-take to check I was not using an early shipment of XP preloaded EEEs.
Following years of anti-Microsof sentiment from some corners of the IT community, it is somehow ironic that Windows has become so popular that competitors either mimic it or allow users to run it on their own environment to attract switchers.
Using the internet browser will be straightforward for most owners, with the exception that some sites optimized for Internet Explorer may not work properly. I occasionally find this on my Macbook and Nokia tablet with their respective Safari and Mozilla browsers. Similarly the office software is not Microsoft Office so again there may be compatibility issues if you are trying to share files with MS Office users, although some common file formats are supported. The media player is also less friendly than iTunes or Windows Media Player but is usable nonetheless.
All of this of course results from the low cost of the EEE. Building a Linux system is much cheaper than building a Mac or Windows system. Unfortunately file, application and peripheral compatibility is where you ultimately pay for this. So make sure that whatever you want to do is Linux compatible before you purchase your EEE. The alternative is to either install Windows (which can be done by running the installation from an external drive), or wait for the Windows preloaded version to be released. Of course this will have a cost implication and if you then want to run Microsoft Office then this is another $150 as a home user.
The EEE PC 4G’s lid houses a webcam. This is missing from the cheaper models in the range, but a fantastic feature to have if you can afford a higher end EEE. The quality of the camera is on a par with similar devices in other laptops. Every laptop should have one of these!
EEE owners are likely to take their units around with them due to the small sixe, so how is it likely to stand up to road use? 
First impressions are that the EEE seems well built with an assuringly solid looking hinge mechanism. Apart from this and the keys, the EEE is pretty low on moving parts. There are no mechanical hard or optical drives to break in transit so some risk associated with traditional laptops is not present in the EEE. Of course it is still vulnerable to failure like all electronics, but hopefully Asus’ choice to go for a solid state drive will save many a users’ data on a bad day.
So is it the bEEE’s knEEE’s?
If you’re a light, or adventurous, user then don’t let my compatibility comments put you off. For mobile corporate users running thin client software this is also a winning solution. It’s the middle tier of users I think are likely to struggle. These are the people who want to do funky things now and again and might not have the knowledge to do it quickly in Linux. If you’re one of these people then you may prefer to wait for the Windows version.
If on the other hand you’re happy with EEE’s preloaded goodies or are a Linux lover then this is the IT bargain of 2007. Expect other companies to follow…
May 2008 update: Read the Asus EEE 900 vs HP Mini-Note 2133 comparo here.
Jan 2008 update: As predicted above, others have followed. Read about Everex’s $399 here.
See photos and read CES news about: Laptops & UMPCs, Home Entertainment, Media Players, Cellphones, Gaming and Trick Technologies.
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To read all the CES 2008 articles, click here.
For details of the new Asus R50 UMPC, click here.
The colored EEEs are now available, click here for photos
Neil Berman
theONbutton
Turning the world on, one gadget at a time.
