Like many of you, I am torn between getting one of these 2 new touchscreen smartphones:
1) the Motorola Droid which runs on Google's new Android 2.0 operating system
2) the Blackberry Storm 2 which runs on Research in Motion's new OS 5.0 (although new, I wouldn't say its drastically different than previous Blackberry OS')

I have poured through tons of online reviews and briefly played with store dummy units and hope to provide my readers (you guys) with my insight (limited as it may be). First here are a number of useful online reviews which can help you form your own opinion.
Moto Droid:
Engadget Moto Droid
BoyGenius Moto Droid Review
CNET Droid Review
Droid Video Review

Blackberry Storm2 (9550/9520)
CNET Storm 2 Review
Engadget Storm2 Review
Crackberry Storm 2 Review
Storm 2 Video Review
Droid vs. Storm 2 Video

The bottomline (for those that don't have the patience to read my whole post) is that both are able and capable phones, either of which you are likely to be overly happy with if a touchscreen smartphone is what you are looking for. In addition to the iPhone 3GS, I would say these are probably the premier smartphones currently on the market, both in terms of hardware quality, aesthetics (good looks!), and software (OS).

The Motorola Droid is the only current smartphone to run Android 2.0, Google's opensource OS. The benefits/advantages I found for this phone are:
- Bigger screen with higher resolution than the Storm 2. Reviews I have seen have called this screen the best screen on any smartphone due to its size, brightness, resolution and colors. Personally I think this is the Droid's major selling point.
- Google's Android OS. Although this is a matter of preference, Android 2.0 has been touted as a pretty good OS. Compared to the blackberry OS, the UI is "prettier on the eyes", has widgets, and you have 3 desktop like screens that you can scroll thru and customize.
- Slideout keyboard- The physical keyboard can be a positive or a negative for the Droid. The keyboard has been torn apart by many reviewers, but some people seem to like it. I played with a dummy unit and the keyboard did not seem very good. The keys are very flat, pretty close together, and there is very little downward motion when you press a key. I would think it would be hard to type on, but some reviewers have noted that you get better over time. In any case there is also an onscreen touch keyboard in case you don't like the physical keyboard. I would say the keyboard and the camera are the 2 weakpoints for the Droid.
- Blazing fast web browsing- web browsing on the Droid has been compared to speeds obtained on the iPhone, which currently sports the fastest browser. The Storm 2 isn't terrible when it comes to web browsing, but in all the videos I've watched, the Storm 2 is slower. Even Crackberry addicts admit that the Blackberry's web browser is its major shortcoming (in addition to its older OS). Although you could use Opera Mini or Bolt, it seems like the Droid is the right choice for those who do a lot of web browsing on their phone.

The Blackberry Storm 2 is RIM's second generation touchscreen smartphone, and the Storm 2 seems to fix nearly all of the problems/issues found on the original Storm. Here are some of the benefits of the Storm2
- Sure-press screen. The screen is not only a touch screen, but also presses in to register a key/button press. The original Storm did this as well, but the Storm 2 has reportedly greatly improved on this. Instead of there being one button to push down, the screen is on 4 piezo-electric sensors. Although there is no physical keyboard, many reviewers like the Storm 2's sure-press technology compared to the physical keyboard of the Droid.
- Looks- of course this is subjective but I think the Storm 2 looks better than the Droid. It just looks more professional and polished.
- Email- Although the Droid does push email and has advanced compared to many other devices, Blackberry is still #1 when it comes to email.
- Security- Again, Blackberry is #1 when it comes to securing your info/network using BES.
- OS- although the new OS is nothing revolutionary, 5.0 has updated several features. And although Android is flashier and considered the sexier OS, many people like the simpler UI of blackberry. So like many other things, your opinion on who wins the OS wars will depend on what you value more.


So what phone will I choose? I don't even know yet! I would love to hear your opinion on it. But overall I would say if web browsing, a slick UI, and lots of nifty apps are your priorities, I'd go with the Droid. If your a seasoned Blackberry veteran, or if email and security is your main concern, the Storm 2 is your best bet. But either way I don't think you can really go wrong since both can do nearly the same things, just in different ways.

Asus 1101HA EeePC

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that there were rumors of a 11.6 inch EeePC in the works. More info has just been released, courtesy of Engadget. The advantage of this EeePC over other netbooks is fairly obvious, in that you get a larger screen (with HD resolution, 1366X768) and I would assume a larger keyboard. This netbook will sport the same "Seashell" design as the Asus 1008HA, which will probably allow for a slimmer, lighter machine compared to other comparably sized models. In addition, initial reports indicate the 1101HA will get 11hrs of battery life. Information is still sparse on this machine, so hopefully more information will be released soon.

The seashells- Asus' new 10 inch EeePC lineup

Asus 1008HA Review courtesy of CNET

Asus 1008HA Seashell Review courtesty of Engadget

Asus 1005HA-M and Asus 1005HA-H courtesy of Engadget

Exciting news coming from Asus, includes the release of the new Asus 1008HA "Seashell" netbook (priced at $429.99 at Newegg currently). This is a new line of Asus EeePc's, that will be followed shortly with the release of additional "Seashells" with the Asus 1005HA-M and 1005HA-H. The new product line, in my opinion, is a great step forward for Asus and netbooks in general, as it moves the market towards slimmer, sleeker and better looking netbooks. The toy-like design synonymous with many previous netbooks is gone in this line, as these puppies are extremely pleasing to the eye. These seashells allow for a pretty good mix of price (only ~$20-$40 more than the chunkier Asus 1000he), performance, size, and looks. The internal hardware is similar to most every other netbook on the market, but the size and beauty of this netbook is what sets it apart from the rest of the field.

The 1005HA-H and 1005HA-M (not available in the US yet) are just variants of the the already released 1008HA. This is where is gets a bit confusing, with all of these very similar yet different Asus netbooks. The 1005HA-HA will be a "deluxe" version of the 1008HA (with more port options, bigger battery, but more weight), and the 1005HA-M will be a "1008HA light" version (no bluetooth, better battery, bigger).

A few notes to mention with regard to the already released 1008HA: The battery is not removable (boo!) and it uses a mini-VGA port (not a big deal but somewhat annoying). The 1005 models do not have these issues so you may want to wait for them (although they are bigger in size because of this). Overall this is not a dealbreaker, and the new Asus Seashell line is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise cookie-cutter world of netbooks.

Netbooks have come a long way in a very short time. Increases in screen size, keyboard size, and more advanced components make today's netbooks lightyears ahead of the first netbooks released a few years ago. They've come so far, that many people are starting to wonder if a netbook can be their primary machine. There are advantages to this, most notably that they cost substantially less than a full sized notebook. But can a netbook actually replace a mainstream laptop as your primary machine? I've gained some insight into this question (unwillingly) over the holiday weekend and will share with you my opinion.

The scenario: The power-brick of my 15.4" Lenovo laptop got fried, and due to the long holiday weekend, it would be at least until next week before I received my replacement AC adapter. So after draining my battery, what was I supposed to do for my computing needs? Well. I have a 10" Asus EeePC 1002HA netbook, so I would be using this as my primary machine for the long weekend.

The netbook: Asus EeePC 1002HA netbook. 1.6ghz Intel Atom N270, 2gb RAM, 100gb 7200RPM HDD, 10" screen. These specs are very similar to the majority of 10" netbooks on the market today, although I did upgrade my RAM and HDD.

So after using this netbook as my primary machine for the weekend, I have summarized my answer to 2 categories: Computing Power and Overall functionality.

Computing power: 90% of what I do on my computer (and probably most average computer users) consists of email, Microsoft Office, and Internet Browsing. I did this, as well as updating my blog layout (hopefully some of you have noticed the new layout!). Netbooks, are more than adequate for these tasks. To further support this, I generally use my netbook for work (hooked up to an external keyboard, monitor and mouse, the reason for this will be explained later) and it is more than up to the task for most of my basic needs. You will notice an occasional slowdown here and there, especially if something (i.e. heavy flash sites) taxing comes along. But overall, for the majority of average computer users, the power of a netbook is more than enough for their needs, thus potentially allowing you to use a netbook as your primary machine.

In addition, the hard drive (and the hard drive of most netbooks) has more than enough room to store all of your files (music, photos, documents, etc). Most hard-drives are 80-160gb, and since most netbooks come with Windows XP, the operating system doesn't hog up too much space.

Overall functionality: With regard to overall functionality, this is where, in my opinion, netbooks fail with regard to being a primary machine. The two aspects that hurt netbooks are screen and keyboard size. Screen size is less of an issue for me, but the screen real estate is substantially less and I can see how it could be tough for some to deal with if a netbook were to be your primary machine. The bigger issue, is keyboard size. My Asus netbook, although not sporting the biggest netbook keyboard, is above average for a 10" netbook. But still, it is noticeably smaller compared to a full-sized laptop. It affects the speed and accuracy of my typing a little bit, but continued use does improve your results. But more importantly, its just not as comfortable to type for extended periods of time on such a small keyboard. Adding to the keyboard woes, is that the palmrest area is smaller, making it awkward to rest/position my hands while typing. For me, this is the dealbreaker for me as to why a netbook cannot be my primary machine. However if your hands are smaller (I have fairly large hands) this may not be a dealbreaker.

In conclusion, don't take this article as a knock against netbooks. They are extremely useful tech equipment, and I personally love my netbook. As a secondary, portable machine, nothing can beat a netbook especially when price is taken in to account. The question that was posed was if a netbook could be used as your primary laptop. In terms of computing power, in most cases they can be used for this purpose. But for extended use, the keyboard and screen size are too small to warrant a netbook as being my only machine. However, if you're more accommodating to a smaller keyboard/screen, or if you hook up your machine to an external keyboard, mouse and screen, it could be your primary machine. In fact, I use my netbook as my primary work machine (I hook up to external components).

If you're looking into buying a netbook as your primary machine, but portability isn't a huge concern, consider getting a 14-15" mainstream notebook at the Dell or Lenovo Outlet. It is possible that you can get one of these for $400-$500 (don't forget to look for coupon codes!).

If portability and price is a concern, some exciting releases in the netbook world that may change this answer are the new "netbook hybrids". These are 12-13" lap/netbooks, with weak but energy efficient low voltage core2 solo chips, bigger screens and keyboards, yet still thin, light, and energy efficient. Although these will be more money than a typical netbook, they are priced substantially lower (~$800-1000) than most thin and light notebooks (which can cost up to ~$2000).

A number of new netbooks or refreshes of previous netbook lines have recently been released (or are about to be released).

Overall, nothing earth-shattering is different about these netbooks than previous models. But there are little things here and there that make them more appealing. And in many cases they are not more expensive, or not much more expensive, so you might as well get the newer models if you really want them (or snatch up deals on the previous generation models). Some of them are listed below

Asus EeePC 1008HA Sleeker and more stylish than previous EeePCs, this model hits the sweetspot for a combination of good looks, performance and price ($429)

Dell Mini 10V What sets this netbook apart from its competition is its price tag: $299. I'm actually quite baffled by this, since the original Dell Mini's were pretty expensive considering their specs. I'm still trying to find the catch, but maybe Dell is just trying to undercut the competition with price.

Samsung N120 and N310 Samsung has not found the need to undercut their competition, as consumers have consistently purchased their netbooks despite their relatively high price tags. For this high price you do get a sleek looking netbook, with one of the best keyboards on the market. This is especially true for the N120 (~$450), which comes with an even bigger keyboard than previous generation Samsung netbooks. The N310 I believe is their "style" line, and you pay more for it ($479).

Acer Aspire One 571 This model is probably the furthest from being released, but has some of the most interesting features. It sports the newer Intel Atom N280 (which many of the newer netbooks have, but honestly I can't imagine the speed difference is noticeable). But it also sports a 720P screen, a Quartics Q1721 Multimedia Processor to help with high def content, and a miniature optical drive. I'm really curious about the price point of this little machine.

After compiling this short list, I realized the absurd number of netbook models each manufacturer has and is about to have. Asus is the worst offender, with the 1000H, 1000HA, 1000HE, 1002HA (these are older models). Now they will release the 1008HA, and supposedly they are releasing a 1005HA-H and 1005HA-M which are variations of the 1008HA! All of these different offerings are good since it provides the consumer with variety, but the differences between these models in many cases are minimal. If anything it just seems to confuse consumers in terms of which model to pick

Anyway, good luck with your netbook search. There are definitely more netbooks to choose from. One of note that I left out, is the HP MiniNote series. HP MiniNotes are supposed to have the best netbook keyboard, and recently they have released a deal with Verizon allowing consumers to get a discounted MiniNote if they sign up for the data plan.

Click me for info and review!

At $429, this will pose a serious challenge to a lot of netbooks out in the market, in particular Samsung. Asus has improved and expanded their netbook line overtime, and this model is a good blend of price, performance, and looks. Of course Asus also offers more expensive netbooks if you want a really stylish netbook, as well as cheaper netbooks if price is your main concern. The Asus 1008HA in my opinion is the netbook that has enough of everything to satisfy a wide range of netbook consumers.

Click here! Of course this is just a mockup picture and I have not seen any official confirmation, but more will be here to followup.

More and more netbook manufacturers are beginning to offer 11.6" netbook models (Acer being another). This trend of releasing slightly larger screen sizes is in my opinion a good one. Netbooks in their early days were equipped with 7" screens, and have slowly increased in size over time. Currently 9-10" screens dominate the market, with several 12" models (Dell, Samsung) making a small dent. This trend is good, mostly due to the fact that many of the smaller screen models have a very thick frame surrounding the frame. By reducing the "frame" size, netbooks can maintain a similar overall profile, while allowing for more screen real estate. Of course, netbooks will reach a point where they cannot increase in size without becoming a regular, full-size notebook, but for the time being this is a welcomed addition for everyone's eyes.

Click here for review!
Samsung has just released their followup to the NC10 netbook with the N110 and N120. These 10 inch models are not radically different than their predecessors, but Samsung already had a solid basis to build upon in their netbook line. Although the specs are the same and comparable to almost all other netbooks available (1.6ghz Intel Atom, 1gbRAM, 160gb HDD), they revamped the already sleek looks of their netbooks, increased battery life to 7hrs and increased the size of the touchpad. In addition the N120 has a keyboard that is 97% the size of a standard keyboard, which is larger than the N110 and the previous NC10 netbook (and most netbooks on the market. I believe this is the largest so far). This is a great upgrade since one of the downsides of netbooks in the eyes of skeptics are the small, cramped keyboards that make it difficult to type.

These netbooks are priced slightly higher than their competition (~$470), but the larger keyboard and overall benefits of the N110/120 may outweigh the increased premium you pay. Personally I feel these prices are pushing the limits of what the public will pay for a netbook, but this does not seem to have affected sales of Samsung's previous netbooks too much.

Coffee Table Multitouch Computer

A pretty neat idea. A touch screen computer that serves as a coffee table. Move, slide, rotate your pictures with your hand, just as if you scattered your personal pictures on an actual coffee table. Cool yes, practical, I don't know. The price for this is still not known, and although it would be a lot of fun to have, would you shell out some money for one? I personally wouldn't, but maybe there are some that would.

Asus 1008HA

Asus' new netbook model, the 1008ha, is reported to be released in May for ~$500. This model is a higher end netbook, targeted towards the same audience as the Asus S101 and to a lesser extent the Asus 1002ha. It looks to come in at least 3 colors: red, white and black.

For $500 you're getting a remarkably thin, light, and sleek netbook. But it's performance is still on par with most other available netbooks. Hopefully the price will come down a bit and hit a sweet spot of ~$400 so that it can compete with other netbooks like the Samsung NC10.

Cnet Article- Netbook Processor Showdown

In a very unscientific, and almost useless feat of benchmarking, CNET tries to compare the 3 most popular CPUs found in netbooks today: Intel Atom, AMD Athlong Neo, and Via Nanao. Its useless because they tested them using 3 very different systems. However you can make some general observations about them.

Bottom line, don't get a netbook based so much on the CPU inside of it. They are not meant to be computing powerhouses. Base your decision on other factors like screen size/quality, keyboard size/layout, battery life, and size.

We've all experienced it. Our brand new computer which should be fast, seems to be bogged down a bit. Or our older machine that was fast at one time, has been slowing down overtime. But there is something you can do about it, short of buying a new machine or re-installing Windows Vista. Here are a few tips for new and old owners alike to 1) Make their computer run faster and 2) Maintain that speed. Many times for purpose #2, people give up and wipe their drive clean and do a fresh operating system install. And although that will make your system snappier, it can be a pain in the butt. Through regular maintenance you can at least prolong the amount of time in between clean installs. I've had my laptop for about a year, and with these tweaks and maintenance methods, I have not noticed a slow down on my machine.

These tips are mainly geared towards Windows Vista, but some are universal.

First, to increase the speed of your system:
1) Remove unnecessary bloatware. Remove any programs/apps that came with your system that are useless or are notorious system hogs. Norton Antivirus and other Norton products are principal offenders. Get rid of it but make sure to get other antivirus (i.e. Avast, Antivir) and firewall (ZoneAlarm) software to replace it. Not only will removing these programs increase speed by eliminating a lot of background processes, it will also free up hard-drive space.

You can remove these through the windows un-installer, or download CCleaner which has good uninstalling features.

2) Optimize Windows Vista by following the tips outlined in the first post in this thread. By following some of these optimization tips, you can increase the snappiness of your computer by eliminating unnecessary start-up programs, background apps, etc. This can lead to a faster computing experience as well as potentially decreasing windows boot times.

3) Defragment your hard-drive. This speeds up the performance of your hard-drive, especially if you've never done this before and your drive is highly fragmented. I recommend using Diskeeper, Jkdefrag, or Defraggler for good free options.

4) Defrag and re-order your bootfiles. Follow the guidelines outlined here. This optimizes your bootfiles, allowing for faster boot-up times.

Now to maintain the current speed of your system, as well as to maintain the general health of your machine:
1) Defragment using diskeeper, jkdefrag, or defraggler on a consistent basis. I try to do it once a week.

2) Use CCleaner to clean out junk files and unnecessary registry entries. This safe and effective program will clean out files like temporary internet files to free up hard-drive space, and will delete unnecessary or old registry entries. I've been using this for a while and it is completely safe. Again, try to use this ~once a week.

3) Run in the background and conduct regular system virus scans, adware/malware scans, and maintain an active firewall program. Nothing will sap your system faster than a virus, worm, or malware on your computer. The best way to prevent them from affecting your system is to prevent them from getting on their in the first place. If you get one you are usually stuck wiping your system completely. So be sure to have these programs up and running, updated, and used frequently. Here are some of my recommendations (free software). Some of these free versions have upgraded versions that you pay for. In most cases the free version is more than enough. Personally I only use the free versions:
Antivirus: Avast, Avira Antivir
Firewall: ZoneAlarm
Ad/Malware Detection: Adaware


4) Reduce the heat of your machine=increase its lifespan...this is somewhat unrelated but a good thing to do anyway for laptops. Laptops produce large amounts of heat due to the confined spaces the internal components find themselves in. If your machine runs very hot, you could be shortening the life of your machine (the extent of which is debatable, but it doesn't hurt to make your machine run cooler). Physically you can prevent this by making sure your air-vents aren't blocked and by periodically cleaning out the air-vents/fans.

On the software side you can undervolt your CPU to reduce the heat that your chips produce by using RMClock. Depending on your chip and machine, undervolting can have a dramatic or minor effect on system temperatures and energy savings. The basic premise is that your CPU is given an excess amount of voltage to account for variabilities between individual CPUs. But the voltage is in excess, and you can tune it down using RMclock to use a lower voltage that is perfectly fine for your particular chip. I have done this and shaved a few degrees off of my temperatures, and there are no ill-effects from doing this. Your chip is running at the same speed as before, just with lower heat output and voltage input. Follow the guide here for more information. It will probably be helpful to also download hwmonitor (temperature monitor) and Orthos (to stress test your CPU under new voltages).

5) Once you have tuned your machine to be running fast, is virus/malware free, and have all your windows settings/personalizations the way you like it, its a good idea to create a "original" or "baseline" backup image on an external drive, using a backup program such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. Then, all you have to do is backup your personal files over time. If your computer dramatically slows down or becomes infected, instead of doing a clean install you can just restore to that original image, and you'll be back to that original speed of your machine.

More Dell Adamo reviews are finally materializing. Here are a few more recent ones:
http://gizmodo.com/5205524/dell-adamo-full-review-macho-outside-sissy-inside

http://i.gizmodo.com/5207518/dell-adamo-dissected-its-neat-and-tidy-on-the-inside-too

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/dell-adamo/4505-3121_7-33560244.html?subj=re&tag=TOCmoreStories.0

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343975,00.asp

Engadget Review

Some "real user" (as opposed to the pros at gizmodo and cnet) reviews as well. One guy even had the guts to take his apart:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=342287&page=40

Unboxing video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WESVH-uNvsg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wikio.co.uk%2Fvideo%2F1003464&feature=player_embedded

The initial impression from these few reviews indicates mostly what we knew or suspected all along. The Adamo is a great looking, super-thin, and relatively light notebook that will definitely catch people's eyes. Performance wise, it is no speed demon, but what did you expect since it comes with a ULV 1.2 or 1.4ghz core 2 duo. However it seems to be adequate for most tasks, just don't expect to be playing Crysis on it.

Other observations, it appears that the fan noise may be rather loud. Interestingly the battery is the entire base of the laptop, and is thus not user-replaceable. Battery life has been reported to be slightly disappointing , since it seems to get about 2.5hours of battery life (compared to ~5hrs advertised). In terms of upgradeability, the RAM is unfortunately not replaceable, so you are stuck with your preconfigured amount of 2gb or 4gb, depending if you got the entry level or higher end model (it's really disappointing that you have to spend $600 more to get 0.2ghz bump and 2gb more RAM). It looks as though the SSD can be replaced, but the 128gb uSATA Samsung drive that it comes with is a pretty good SSD.

Overall this is Dell's answer to the Voodoo Envy 133 and Macbook Air. It is their luxury model. It is not meant to be a powerhouse, but a classy, functional piece of hardware. You are paying a premium for a nifty looking laptop. If you are really concerned about performance you may want to wait for future versions of the Adamo that may correct this current perceived shortcoming. However, some people are willing to sacrifice some performance in order to have a beautiful, slim and light laptop. No matter what you think of this laptop or its price tag, it is definitely unique and eye-catching.

There are a large number of external drives you can purchase for adding extra storage or for data backup. But what should you buy? What factors should you look for in a good drive? In most cases speed isn't an issue since the majority of the time the drive maxes out the USB2 interface anyway. Don't worry about the included software, since all of it is terrible and usually requires you to pay extra for the full version. You're better off getting Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost, or free software solutions available online. So the most important factors you should weigh in your purchase are capacity (every brand has a wide range of sizes so this doesn't really matter either), reliability and.....LOOKS! That's right...you might as well have a nice looking box on your desk compared to a cheap plastic looking, or over-the-top looking with flashing lights everywhere external drive.

I will not talk about reliability since every other site will talk about the reliability of different hard drive brands. I want to point out the "looks" of the external drive and give you a list of the top looking external drives.

As you can tell from my other posts, I am somewhat vain. I paid extra for a fancied-up Asus netbook, and am a big fan of the over-priced Dell Adamo. So what external drive do I have? A Lacie Golden Disk. That's right, an external hard drive that is solid gold........well at least it looks like it. These pretty drives will cost a little more, but not terribly more, and at least in my case with the golden disk, perform just as well as other external drives. So here is my list of the best looking external drives.

1. Lacie Golden Disk- What can I say. I own it, its gold, and has a curvy top to it. Its definitely eye catching. Its a fingerprint magnet, but comes with a microfiber cloth so you can buff it up every day for that extra shine. Lacie makes a bunch of "artful" drives, devised by several designers. One of which resembles a Lego block. Its pretty cool stuff.

2. Lacie Design by Neil Poulton- Another Lacie Drive! A more subtle look than the golden disk. Here you have a nice black case.

3. Maxtor BlackArmor- Similar in looks to the Poulton, but seems to be smaller, more portable.

4. Seagate FreeAgent Go- Small and portable, with a nice brushed metal case that comes in a variety of colors.

5. Seagate FreeAgent Desk- Just a larger version of the Go, but no colors.

6. Western Digital My Passport Elite- Had to have this here. It is "elite" and they use "luxurious" in the product description.

7. Drives that match your system. These are good if you want a drive that is designed to look like your laptop. But sometimes they are nice enough to get even if you don't own that particular laptop
Matching drive for Dell Adamo
Matching drive for Thinkpads

So there you have it. My picks for the neatest looking external drives. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to see them. Once you get one of these, you're only part of the way there to backing up your data. Check back later for some tips/hints for backing up your data.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/08/acers-timeline-gets-its-own-splash-page-and-press-shots-like-a/

Looks like Acer's answer to the Dell Adamo. Obviously not at sleek, but is thin, light, and with similar components. It even looks pretty good, a lot less cheap looking than most Acers. Acer appears to be trying to make this their luxury model, even copying what dell did with their Adamo by coming up with a fancy java based "exploration" of the Acer timeline laptops.

Prices are supposed to be ~$699-$899, so Acer may carve a nice niche in terms of producing a more affordable thin and light notebook with amazing battery life.

The first wave of Dell Adamo's, Dell's new luxury 13 inch laptop, have made their way to customers today. Here are some user reviews and pictures on notebookreview.com:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=342287&page=40

So far it seems good, which it better be for the $2000+ it costs. The Adamo starts with a 1.2ghz low voltage core2duo, to help preserve battery life. The lower end model comes with 2gb of RAM, a 128gb SSD, and more importantly looks great and is extremely thin. It is no powerhouse, but what you are paying for is the sleek design.

Update 4/10/09: CNET just received their final shipping version of the pearl Dell Adamo. They have more pictures and a more detailed review is to follow.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10216050-1.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

I have been trying to find more user reviews, and have only found 2 actual user reviews. This is on a very popular notebook forum, which leads me to believe that sales of the Adamo are very low. Hopefully this means a price-cut is in the near future.

Here is my list of the best looking notebooks currently available, price being no object. These machines tend to be smaller, thinner, sleeker, and just pure awesome. The downsides usually entail being pricier and having lower specs (don't expect SLI graphics in these guys).

#1. Dell Adamo (can be had for a mere $2000!) which comes in 2 colors, black and white.

#2. Voodoo Envy 133 which now only comes in black. It used to be customizable in almost any color for a hefty fee.

#3. Samsung X360. This is probably the best deal out of all of these laptops in terms of price.

#4. MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. Very popular design for many people. The pro is much bigger, but more powerful. The air is freakishly small which makes it very sexy.

Feel free to post your sleekest looking notebooks. Notables that I left out are numerous Sony and Asus models, but I wanted to post only the best of the best. Are these machines worth the extra cost? That's a question you'll have to answer yourself, but these things do look damn good!

Tired of the default Windows Vista desktop? Want something that's more eye-catching, unique....something that will grab others' attention when they're looking over your shoulder (no not porn!) Then customize your desktop with several tools that you can get from the links below.

First you need a background or wallpaper. My favorite site for this is deviantart.com
They have a ton of wallpapers in a variety of resolutions to best match your screen (widescreen/standard).

Next I would recommend adding a dock (a la Mac OS). These docks look great, are highly functional (I find it much easier to find and open files/programs), and allow you to remove the clutter of tons of icons scattered about your desktop. Two good/free programs for this are
Objectdock and Rocketdock. You can tweak the way it looks by changing the dock backgrounds and icons (both programs come with a number of options but you can download a ton on the web from sites such as deviantart.com)

Other cool customizations are gadget like tools. You could use the built in Vista sidebar and download additional gadgets from Microsoft. But most of these are bland, and the positioning is limited to the location of the "sidebar". Google gadgets is another, better option. My favorite is Rainmeter and be sure to download custom skins from http://customize.org/rainmeter. Think of rainmeter as the sidebar program, and the skins as various gadgets or suites of gadgets. Some of my favorite rainmeter skins are HUD.Vision and Enigma (both of which contain multiple gadgets). You can then choose which gadgets to display such as a calendar, live weather forecasts, clocks, news RSS feeds, computer info (CPU/RAM usage), CPU/GPU temps, etc. What I like most about this is you can move the "gadgets" anywhere on your screen. If you want a more functional desktop calendar try Rainlendar, which allows you to add events/to do functions to your calendar.

One major key to keep in mind, is you want all of your desktop features (background, dock, gadgets) to blend or fit together nicely. This is easy to do since there are so many customizable options. For those who pay attention to every little detail, you can also customize Vista completely by adding themes. This can change things such as your taskbar, start button, windows, opacity of windows, etc. First you need to "unlock" windows so you install custom themes by using vistaglazz http://www.codegazer.com/vistaglazz/ (Note: I do not take any responsibility if this messes up your computer, it should be safe. I and many others have used this to install custom themes). Then you need to find custom themes on the web and from such sites as deviantart.com (this site is awesome, if you haven't already noticed). One of my favorites is Ezlo or Ezlo thin. Many of the Windows 7 themes are also popular.

So there you go, my guide on how to pimp your desktop. With a little effort and persistence you can have some eye candy and/or a desktop that reflects your personality. Feel free to post your favorite customization/wallpaper download sites and any suggestions. Or post your desktop for others to see! Finally a good forum site to get more ideas and see some more customization features is here.

So you've heard about these new, really expensive solid state drives, or SSDs. You heard they were rediculously fast but never got one because of the insanely high price. But no more! SSD prices are dropping fast, and a decent drive can be had for $100-$200 for a 30-60gb drive. But be careful. There are a lot of cheap drives out there that are enticing with their low prices and good tech specs. Unfortunately many of these cheap drives suffer the dreaded "stuttering" problem where your computer freezes for a very noticeable amount of time. So why do certain drives stutter, and more importantly which drives can you trust enough to purchase? This article from Anandtech is a GREAT read. It summarizes the recent history of SSDs, details which drives have issues, details which drives are good, and even explains why they are good or bad! Very long but well worth the read if you are going to purchase one soon.

If you can't be bothered to read, from my experience the only drives worth the money are:
All intel drives
All samsung drives except for the really old first generation SLC drives that pop up on ebay.
Mtron drives
And OCZ Vertex (and any of its variants from other manufacturers)==>although this is relatively new and a little more risky since it may be possible that there are bugs that haven't been found yet.

Be careful if you are purchasing any other OCZ drive as most of them stutter, as well as any other SSDs from other manufacturers that use the same Jmicron controller as most of the OCZ drives (but not the vertex, it uses a different, newer controller that is much better).

If you don't already know SSDs are great not only because of the blazing speed and fast application loading times that they bring to the table, but since they have no moving parts they are less prone to damage if dropped or moved around, compared to traditional mechanical hard drives. In addition, a large number of these drives require less power, thus generating less heat and resulting in longer batterylife, key for many laptop users.

Here is the anandtech article. They also have several other articles on SSDs, but this one does a great job summarizing most of what has happened and is going on in the current SSD market.

http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

Got my Asus 1002HA about two weeks ago and thought I’d write a review about it. In order to avoid being redundant, I am going to review this in a somewhat different light. There are numerous written/video reviews of this unit so I’ll try not to repeat the basic information included in those. I am hoping to provide a review through the eyes of someone (me) who never thought they would purchase a puny, toylike netbook as a compliment to their core2duo powerhouse. I hope to provide information from the perspective of a doubter that is now very satisfied with his new netbook, which is possibly one of the few netbooks that could satisfy all of my wants.

First a little background. I already have a 15” core2duo laptop that is well equipped to handle almost anything thrown at it, and is very snappy at that. I was thinking of getting an additional computer to bring to and from work, as I don’t want to lug my 15” around and also don’t want to risk dropping or getting stolen my $1000+ laptop. So then enters my mind, “what about a netbook”, as I noticed prices were getting very enticing ($250-$400). But I still had doubts. Would the little atom processor be enough? Would the keyboard be large enough? Is the tiny screen going to drive me nuts? Are my co-workers going to laugh their asses off at me when they see my tiny, plastic netbook?

So first, most netbooks have similar hardware/processor specs, so that didn’t require much thought except to avoid the older models, as well as the dell mini’s that have the slower atom/Celeron processors. Since I wanted a larger keyboard (to accommodate my big hands) as well as the largest screen possible, I focused on the 10” models. I didn’t feel that this would compromise portability at all since even the biggest 10” models are still under 4lbs. So at this point I narrowed it down to all 10” netbooks with 1.6ghz atoms. I was still skeptical if this would be big or powerful enough. I’d seen 9”models in stores and they seemed ridiculously too small. I was hoping a bump to 10” would help but I wasn’t completely convinced.

Now to my last concern, the appearance of the machine. Call me vain, call me shallow…whatever. Also I’m sorry if I offend anyone, but the majority of netbooks I saw in person (mostly in Bestbuy and other electronics stores) looked terrible. Most stores only carried 9”models, and they were so small that it just looked silly with my 6foot frame squeezed behind it. Plus most of them looked “cheap”, with way too much plastic. Then I stumbled upon the asus 1002ha. This thing was gorgeous in pictures and had the same specs (minus a ginormous battery) as the asus 1000HA. I found a good deal on it and $330 later it was mine.
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So was it worth it? So far it’s a very strong yes. With regards to looks and size, it is spot on. It has to be the best looking netbook on the market (minus maybe the high end Asus s101). It has its share of plastic (what notebook doesn’t?) but its brushed aluminum lid and wrist area, and glossy black screen make this thing look classy. The first time I brought it to work resulted in a number of people looking at it in awe of its good looks and “cute” small size. I am highly impressed with the aesthetics of this machine, as well as it sleek, thin look. It definitely looks like it is worth more than 300-400 dollars.

So if looks were my number one concern, screen and keyboard size were next on the list. The overall size is surprisingly a lot larger than the 9” netbooks I saw previously, much to my relief. I wouldn’t think 1” would make much of a difference, but its enough to give it a little more “substance”. Yet this thing is still incredibly light, due in large part to the smaller high capacity battery (which can still get 3-4hrs on a full charge). The 10” screen is small, but is more than enough for most tasks. You’re not going to have multiple spreadsheets opened side by side, but for most things it is fine. For work, I actually extend my desktop to another external monitor. The keyboard is also more than adequate. I have big hands and it did not take much of an adjustment to get used to the slightly smaller keys. At work, I just have it hooked up to an external keyboard and mouse. So overall, the keyboard, touchpad and screen are more than fine for most tasks, but for extensive use, external components are probably preferred.

The majority of my concerns about netbooks were unfounded, in large part due to the specific design of the 1002ha. But what about performance? How does is compare to a core2duo machine? Can I use it as my main work machine? I was actually pleasantly surprised. Make no mistakes, you will notice the difference between this atom netbook, and a core2duo laptop. The majority of the work I do just entails word, excel and internet use. So nothing intense, and the atom should be more than enough for these tasks. And indeed it is, but again you can tell the difference between this machine and a c2d. Is this a problem? No! Instead of the instantaneous loading, etc. I see on my full sized notebook, Microsoft office or firefox might take a few seconds longer. If I click on My computer it might take a few extra seconds to show the contents of the hard-drive. But in all honesty, these few extra seconds do not bother me. I popped out the stock Seagate 5400.5 drive (which is ridiculously slow even for a 5400rpm drive) and popped in a spare Hitachi 7k200 drive. This seemed to make the machine a bit snappier. Also, I have not upgraded the ram yet, so I’m still running on 1gig of ram. All in all performance exceeded my expectations. I can do basic office tasks, and can also watch streaming videos at a decent quality (although HD is a no-no). I also have antivirus, a firewall and adaware running in the background, as well as objectdock and rainmeter. This machine is more than up to the task of running these small footprint apps in the background. XP bootup is also very fast (probably due to Asus’ bootbooster technology).

So as a once doubter, I now love my netbook. And I think this is one of a few, if not the only netbook that I would be happy with. Funny thing is, I’ve even started using this little guy around the house a lot more, even with my bigger, better machine not 2ft away from me. Its just easier to carry around if I want to take it to bed, or to the kitchen. My gf is even asking to use it even though she has her own computer. The other funny thing is it also makes you appreciate how fast your full fledged laptop is, as well as how big a 15” screen is, lol. But all in all, this netbook is awesome. Its powerful enough for the minimal tasks I do at work, light enough to not really notice it in my backpack, long enough battery life to be away from an outlet for a while, and did I mention this thing is sexy? I have not stressed this machine by running photoshop or any intensive apps, but will report back if I do. So again, as a doubter who never thought he could use anything but a full-sized notebook, this little netbook compares well. It can faithfully carry out the majority of tasks you do on your normal laptop (in large part because most tasks require minimal computing power), and the 10” 1002HA is big enough for extended use, and is sexy enough for anyone.