Monthly Archive for November, 2006

Newer Asus R2H shipments come with built-in stand?

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 30, 2006
in Blog
. 7 Comments

I’ve seen this several places now, and have been meaning to mention it:

Just got home and cracked open the box [on my R2H]. It’s the US version (being from the US and all) and I was surprised to see the battery had the stand built in. From what I’ve read, the US version came with that chessy plastic stand. It is the bigger 6860 battery too.

Justin or Sean over at ProPortable.com (affiliate link), do you guys have any info on this? I’m not surprised that the package contents change slightly over different shipments, but I’d really like to have the stand integrated into the back of my 4-cell battery on my R2H. :-)

You can see from my 162-photo R2H Unboxing gallery and half hour R2H Unboxing video that both R2H units I received have no integrated stand, and come with the separate plastic stand.

Anyone have a concrete explanation for this? What’s a geek gotta do to get a battery with the integrated stand? ;-)


Thank you Google Reader…

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 29, 2006
in Blog
. 6 Comments

… for not showing me how many unread items are in my aggregator right now. I’m behind on reading feeds, like I’m behind on just about everything right now. Blogging, email, work around the house, work at work, determining my future at Intel (shh!), and a whole lot of other things. That’s why I’m sitting in my office at midnight, can’t sleep, cleaning out feeds that I haven’t checked since before the Thanksgiving break.

Mind you, I’ve been reading whatever is the latest in the “all feeds” river of news view, so I’ve kept up on what’s going on, for the most part. And there are some items I’m saving for later, that I know I’ll want to read (my “short list” feeds). But for the most part, it’s been liberating to know I can get way behind on reading feeds, and pretty much just mark them all as read and start fresh. It makes me question how much value I get out of reading over 600 feeds. I wonder how few feeds I could “get by” with, but I just can’t bring myself to find out. I’m obsessive/compulsive about it, or something.

But at least Google Reader doesn’t tell me how many thousands of unread items I have right now (like Bloglines did). Just a sympathetic little “100+” that says, “Hey, I know  you’re busy. I’ll hold on to this stuff until you get around to it. Don’t worry.”

So, thanks, Google Reader! :-)


My inaugural post on blogs.intel.com/it

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 27, 2006
in Blog
. 0 Comments

I was invited to be one of the bloggers at blogs.intel.com/it a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve owed them a post ever since they gave me access and put up my bio. Well, now I’ve posted. :-) And I think it’s an interesting one.

Check it out, and let me know what you think. I’m not going to stop blogging about Intel stuff here, by any means. I still haven’t figured out exactly how I’m going to do it, but there will likely be cross-posting of Intel-related stuff between this blog and the official Intel one. We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve also got a ton of stuff I want to post about the Asus R2H UMPC, including my video of Vista running on it, and why I decided to go back to Windows XP. It’s a busy week, but look for lots of good UMPC stuff coming! :-)


Happy Thanksgiving!

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 22, 2006
in Blog
. 2 Comments

fear my art skills! ¥

 

(no, Emma didn’t draw

this…)


Asus R2H Ultra Mobile PC Unboxing and Hardware Review, with 162 photos

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 20, 2006
in Blog
. 45 Comments

This is going to be a long post - you’ve been warned. :-)

As most of you know, I recently ordered two Asus R2H Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPC). I did a 34 minute video of the Unboxing Ceremony of the first one, which was very popular (it’s been viewed 1072 times so far). After that I dove into playing with and customizing the R2H, and because I’ve been busy with that, I’ve been kind of quiet here on the blog.

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I have a ton of stuff to post about the R2H - it’s an incredible device. There are several videos I want to do, including one documenting running Windows Vista RTM on it (what I’ve been busy with for the last few days). But here’s something I want to share now, to whet your appetites for more R2H info. :-)

The second R2H I ordered is destined to be used by the sales staff of my brother’s company, Wright-Way Moving and Storage, in Seattle. Since I shot video of the first Unboxing Ceremony, I took photos of the second one, as well as literally every square inch of the hardware and accessories. By the time I was done, I had a photoset with 162 photos in it. Those thirsty for details on the R2H hardware and packaging, I think you’ll be satisfied.

You can view the whole photoset in this photo album on TinyScreenfuls.com - created with the awesome Flickr Photo Album WordPress plugin. Here are some highlights of the Unboxing and handsome hardware of (in my opinion) the best Ultra Mobile PC currently on the market. Remember, there are 162 photos in total, these are only some highlights: Continue reading ‘Asus R2H Ultra Mobile PC Unboxing and Hardware Review, with 162 photos’


Test Post from Word 2007

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 13, 2006
in Blog
. 3 Comments

Office 2007 final bits finally showed up on MSDN. Looks like Word 2007 has a built-in blog posting functionality (I’m using it write this post on my Asus R2H UMPC using a ThinkOutside Bluetooth keyboard). Pretty slick – Word just became a bona fide (and decent!) blog editor! J

Here’s a screenshot:

How about some Ink? Hmm. Doesn’t appear to be supported.

I think OneNote 2007 now has this blog publishing capability, too, so I’m going to check that out. Using OneNote as an ink-enabled blog editor would be awesome! J


Power out. Still online.

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 12, 2006
in Blog
. 4 Comments

AM Update: Power came back on after only about an hour - less time than PGE had said in their outage message, and it stayed on all night. And our trees are still standing - yay! :-)


Video: Unboxing the Asus R2H Ultra Mobile PC

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 11, 2006
in Podcasts and Video
. 14 Comments

Having been lovingly introduced to the world of the Ultra Mobile PCs (hereafter UMPCs) by getting to play with a Samsung Q1 for a week, courtesy of the guys at Intel Software Network, I was hooked, and had to make arrangements to get a UMPC for myself. I do IT support for my brother’s moving company, Wright-Way Moving & Storage, in Seattle (give them a call if you need a professional mover!), and he’s interested in trying UMPCs out for his sales staff. So we ordered a couple to try out. :-)

I chose the Asus R2H over the Samsung Q1 and others, because is has more RAM, a bigger hard drive, an SD slot, a camera, and GPS, for the same price.

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Here is the Unboxing Ceremony video of the R2H - from very beginning, to getting everything plugged in and up and running. I cover all of the in-box accessories (which vary from country to country), and try to get as in-detail as possible. Lots of closeups, and some personality thrown in courtesy of my 3 year old daughter Emma, and my lovely wife Rachel manning the camera for the first half. I did my homework on this device, and felt like I knew it inside and out before I even cracked the box. You can probably see how excited I was in the video. :-)

I ordered the two UMPCs from ProPortable, and their service was excellent. Not only were they practically the only ones to have these relatively new devices in stock, Sean in sales was very responsive to my emails, and the founder, Justin, is active in various Tablet PC and laptop forum communities. And you’ll see how well they packed the UMPCs for shipping in the video. I highly recommend them for your UMPC and laptop needs. If you do order anything from them, tell them that Josh Bancroft from TinyScreenfuls.com sent you. :-) I have a feeling I’ll be doing business with them again.

The video is about 34 minutes long, and weighs in at about 200 MB. You can download it using the “download” link, or get this and other audio and video podcasts delivered to you automatically by subscribing to the TinyScreenfuls feed in your favorite podcast aggregator, like iTunes. Brian Enigma informed me that my last couple of videos weren’t compatible with the iPod, so I made sure to use the “iPod” encoding option when exporting this one from iMovie. Of course, it’s still very viewable on a computer. Let me know if you have any problems.

Enjoy, and let me know if there’s something you want to know about the R2H! You can bet that I’ll be doing a more in-depth review, and sharing my impressions after living with the device for a while. Expect more podcasts and videos, too! :-)


Something fun coming…

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 10, 2006
in Blog
. 1 Comment

I’ve been quiet for the last couple of days. There’s a reason. It’s immediately obvious to anyone who has read this blog for any period of time longer than about a week. There will be lots coming soon - at least one video, maybe a podcast, and lots of posts.

But there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in the comments, especially about my post on Intel’s “SuiteTwo” announcement. Anil Dash of SixApart wrote a (very) long, thoughtful comment on it. We don’t agree on everything, but that’s what the Internet is for, right? ;-) Anil taught me some things I didn’t know (that SocialText has a free version of their wiki software, etc.). I want to do a detailed response to that, as well as some of the other stuff I’ve been hearing about it (Ross, I got your email, and I haven’t forgotten you!).

But for now, it’s catchup time on a few boring work and life things, and video production takes a longer time than I wish it would. I need to get better at it. And get a faster machine than the Core Duo Mac Mini I’m doing the video production on - maybe a loaded up Mac Pro. Mmm… Quad Xeon… ;-)


Intel’s “SuiteTwo” Web 2.0 play - the Good, Bad, and Ugly

Published
by
Josh Bancroft
on November 8, 2006
in Blog
. 4 Comments

(Warning: my opinion on Intel stuff follows. I work for Intel. But this came from my brain, not theirs!)

By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the press release/announcement that Intel made at the Web 2.0 summit yesterday - SuiteTwo is a collection of blog, wiki, and RSS tools and companies that Intel Capital is investing in. It’s targeted at “small and medium sized” businesses, and it’s basically a bundle of products from SocialText (wiki), SixApart (Moveable Type blogs), NewsGator (enterprise aggregation), and SimpleFeed (feed publishing). A company called SpikeSource will be somehow sewing all of these disparate packages into one.

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All of these apps cost money individually, and there will be an additional cost for the “integration” that SpikeSource will be doing. Intel has stated that they don’t intend to make any money from this software bundle directly, which makes sense, since we don’t make any of the software that’s being sold. :-) The cost for companies who want to buy SuiteTwo will be $200 per year per person. That is, if I’m a company of 10 people, it will cost me $2000 per year.

I’ve been following reaction to this announcement in the blogosphere. Sentiments range from skeptical (Matthew Ingram wonders, “Is it just me, or is Intel desperate?”) to misguided (I read one post that I can’t find now, saying Intel was giving a boost to the open source movement, but none of these products are open source). Mostly, no one really knows what to think about it, because this is a paper/vapor release.

That’s right - we did a Web 1.0 Press Release about a Web 2.0 product. Everyone just regurgitates what’s in the press release and on the brochuresite, because, well, we don’t know anything else. I guess that’s what a Press Release is for, though, no? The bits aren’t even going to be ready until next year, so the best we get is screenshots on the website, and marketing speak in the press releases. In fact, the whole SuiteTwo website is basically an electronic glossy brochure. I wish we could have waited on this until we actually had something to put in people’s hands and show them.

Based on the conversations I’ve been reading and having about this, I’ve come up with the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of SuiteTwo:

The Good

  • The more companies and workers that start using these social web tools, the better. Or rather, the more companies that start actually providing these tools for their humans to use, the better.
  • Each of these tools are great - SocialText is a great wiki. NewsGator makes terrific aggregators. SixApart’s MoveableType is a good, popular blog platform.
  • Hey, it’s the thought that counts, right? ;-)

The Bad

  • The tools are proprietary, not open source. Yes, they use “open standards”, like RSS, etc., so it shouldn’t be too hard to get your data out if you decide to jump ship, but not being open source means you’re at the mercy of the developers when it comes to adding new features or customizations. No getting under the hood. Want custom support? It’ll cost ya.
  • It’s expensive. None of these tools are free, and there’s an extra cost being tacked on for SpikeSource to do the “integration”. $200 per year per user is a LOT of money for any business, especially when…
  • There are many great, free, open source alternatives. Want a wiki? Why pay for SocialText when MediaWiki is free and super easy to use? (Check out wikimatrix.org for comparison of all wiki apps - there’s bound to be one that meets your needs) Want blogs? Why not use WordPress MultiUser? Want fancy, pretty feeds and stats? How about Feedburner? How are you going to tie it all together? Find a geek in your company who lives the stuff. He’s already set these things up, played with them inside and out, and would be happy to get them going inside the firewall. Heck, he may have already done it, and you just don’t know about it. ;-)

The Ugly

  • I couldn’t find an RSS feed ANYWHERE on the SuiteTwo web site. For shame! Robert Scoble once said that anyone who launched a marketing web site without an RSS feed should be fired. How are we supposed to take SuiteTwo, which is all about Web 2.0 and RSS, seriously, when they don’t even offer a feed of their own?! Seriously, guys, this was a huge mistake.
  • The name, while clever, violates Josh’s First Rule of Naming. That is, never pick a name that you have to spell out every time you speak it, or have to explain how to pronounce every time you write it. Not so bad on the latter, but it fails the former. How much time are you going to waste saying “No, it’s S - U - I - T - E - T - W - O” when you’re talking to someone about this?
  • I wonder if Intel will “dogfood” this - implement it internally? At $200 per head per year, times about 100,000 people, that’s about $20 million per year. Maybe we’d get a discount, but still. And it would be competing with existing, well-entrenched tools. At any rate, I’d love to get my hands on the bits, and try them out. Maybe there’s something cool and magical about how it all works together - if so, I’ll be the first to start cheerleading for it! :-)

I’m not trying to be harsh. I know the folks at SocialText, NewsGator, and SixApart. They’re super nice, super smart people. And the Intel folks I’ve talked to about this are great, too. I’m not trying to bash on this idea, because the idea has potential. But you’re executing on it in the old fashioned Web 1.0 way. No bits to put in people’s hands (would Apple ever make a Press Release-style product announcement without something to show?). Web site straight out of 1999. Trying to ride on the buzz of the O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference instead of generating your own. Lots of buzzwords and marketspeak.

Do you know what all of that feels like to those of us who actually get excited about arcane, geeky ideas like having company-wide blogs and wikis? It feels like a big company trying to embed their marketing axe in our heads, and manipulate us into convincing our bosses to spend the money on these tools. Thanks, but no thanks.

First, make a great product. The, let me get my hands on the software, try it out, ask questions (and get answers), and THEN I’ll decide. If it’s good, then I’ll be telling all my geek/influential friends about it. If it’s not, well, I’ll probably tell them that, too, or worse - just not talk about it at all. THAT’s how marketing should work in “Web 2.0″. ;-) The jury’s out until then.