Top Ultraportable Laptop - Dell XPS M1210

Looking for a light weight laptop, but has reasonable performance? The Dell XPS M1210 notebook will be perfect for work and play on the go. I have tried to configure one on Dell New Zealand website and want to share with you:

• CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7400 2.16GHz, 4MB Cache, 667 MHz FSB (will be good to go for the T7600 2.33GHz if you can afford the extra NZ$560.25)
  
• Operating System - Windows Vista Business
• Warranty - 1-year XPS Premier Service
• Display - 12.1" Wide Screen XGA display with TrueLife (1280x800) & 1.3MP Web Cam
• Memory - 2GB 667MHz DDR2 (will be good to have 4GB, but the extra NZ$994.50 will be too high)
• Audio Solution - Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy ADVANCED HD Audio Software
• Video Card - 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 TurboCache
• Hard Drive - 100GB SATA 7200RPM Performance Hard Drive
• Internal Optical Drive - Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Combination Drive with dual layer write capabilities
• Primary Battery - 9-cell 85Whr Lithium lon Primary Battery (NZ$189 for an extra 9-cell battery)
• Bluetooth Module - Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module
• Wireless Network Solution - Dell 1505 Wireless-N Mini-Card
• Dell also offers a free 20" LCD monitor at the moment

By having the above, the total price is NZ$3,197.25. Not a bad price to have such a good and portable system.

Top Smartphone - RIM BlackBerry Curve 8300

The BlackBerry Curve 8300 is an impressive device for people seeking a smartphone with strong e-mail and multimedia features. It is also the smallest and lightest BlackBerry smartphone ever to come with a full QWERTY keyboard. Let's have a quick summary of its pros and cons:

Pros

• Most compact QWERTY BlackBerry yet
• Improved media player

Cons

• Productivity applications still thin
• No high speed or Wi-Fi support

Overall, I'll say it is a superior smartphone!

Top Budget Digital Camera - Canon PowerShot A460

Looking for a budget digital camera? I'd recommend the Canon PowerShot A460 which was announced January this year. Let's have a quite look of its features:

• Max. megapixels: 5 megapixels
  
• Optical Zoom: 4X (38mm-152mm)
• Media slot: SD Card
• Price: US$130 (NZ$175)

It offers controls such as exposure compensation, and has a super macro mode, though it's limited to ISO 400. Basically, you can get everything you want for that price. Unfortunately, we don't have it yet in New Zealand. We currently only have the A450 here which uses 3.2x optical zoom instead of 5x. The price for A450 is NZ$245 (yes, we don't have a good price here).

Top 100 Best Products of 2007 - #4 Verizon FiOS

Internet service, price:

• US$40 (NZ$53) per month - up to 5 Mbps
• US$50 (NZ$67) per month - up to 15 Mbps
• US$180 (NZ$239) per month - up to 30 Mbps
  

Verizon's FiOS internet service is supplying enough bandwidth to offer IPTV plus Internet access at up to 30 megabits per second, fiber is the way of the future. 30 Mbps/s!! How good that will be! (But not cheap for 30 Mbps option)

Top 100 Best Products of 2007 - #3 Nintendo Wii

Game console. NZ$499

Don't need to say much about it, do I? It's the best-selling game console currently. With motion-sensitive controls and a slate of fun games for all ages, Nintendo really has something with the Wii.

However, I won't buy one personally. I still think it's for kids, with the less powerful graphics compare with PS3 and Xbox 360. But the NZ$499 price tag sounds very attractive for family shoppers.

ViewSonic PJ258d Video iPod Projector

What's the greatest thing about iPod? It's not only in millions of people's pockets, but also creates an industry around it, including all the iPod accessories, speakers, services and even an iPod monitor made by ViewSonic. Is that enough? No, ViewSonic comes back with the iPod projector PJ258d - the world's first iPod projector.

It's capable of projecting images and videos directly from an iPod. Simply dock your iPod into the projector to view your content, no computer necessary. It will even charge the iPod while it is being used. Of course it's a projector, so you'll be able to connect to PCs, DVD players and game consoles.

The NZ$1,899 price is not too bad for a projector. The question is how many people will buy a projector just for an iPod. However, if you're looking for a projector anyway, it's a good choice if you own a video iPod.

Sony NWA800 Series MP3 Walkman

Sony has released the new iPod nano competitor - the NWA800 series MP3 Walkman. It has a very slim body and a big 2-inch LCD screen compared with nano's 1.5-inch. Sound quality is excellent and also can play video (iPod nano cannot). You can enjoy up to 30 hours music playback and 8 hours video playback time. It's also better than iPod nano's 24 hour music playback and 5 hours slideshow playback time. The price is also not bad:

• NWA805 (2GB) - White or Violet - NZ$260 (iPod nano 2GB NZ$228, Silver)
• NWA806 (4GB) - White or Pink - NZ$330 (iPod nano 4GB NZ$318, Silver, Green, Blue, Pink)
• NWA808 (8GB) - Black - NZ$399 9 (iPod nano 8GB NZ$399, Black)

In my opinion, the Sony NWA800 is sexier than the iPod nano and has better performance and functionality. The price is also acceptable, especially the 8GB model. It's definitely a great option for people who want to buy an iPod. But I'm still happy with my current 4GB 1st generation iPod nano, not time yet to change:-)

Free YouTube Uploader

What does the program do? You can say from the name - it will upload videos to YouTube for you. Run the program and enter your user name and password, and it logs you into YouTube. Then select your video, and write a title and description, and add tags, and walk through the simple steps of uploading your video, including selecting a category.

It does more than just automate the process of uploading your videos, though. YouTube has a limit of 10 minutes or 100 MB per video, so the program includes a simple, easy-to-use video trimmer that lets you trim the video to size before uploading it.

It only works with Windows XP. Download free from here.

New Apple Leopard Features - 13

Time Machine

We've known about Time Machine, the automatic backup feature built into Leopard, for a while now. Connect an external drive, and Time Machine will offer to begin automatically backing up your files.

If something goes wrong and you'd like to retrieve a previous version of a file, simply fire up Time Machine and use its timeline interface to zip back to the last time you edited the file.

Apple has said that Leopard has over 900 new features, but I don't want to list them all here. The 13 new features I highlighted should give us a good indication of what's coming.

New Apple Leopard Features - 12

Stationery

Support for stationery lets you jazz up your e-mail with HTML-based templates.

New Apple Leopard Features - 11

Mail RSS

Apple has also built in the obligatory RSS reader, but searching and Smart Mailboxes make finding things within your feeds easier.

New Apple Leopard Features - 10

Mail Notes

The latest update to Mail supports handy little notes that get synced to your mail server, so your reminders can follow you everywhere.

New Apple Leopard Features - 9

Front Row

Leopard's updated Front Row interface looks much more like Apple TV.

New Apple Leopard Features - 8

iChat Theater

Collaborate with other users or just have fun sharing files in iChat Theater. You can share any file that works with Quick Look while chatting.

New Apple Leopard Features - 7

iChat Backdrops

New backdrops and photo effects let you spice up your iChats. Add in the appropriate backdrop, and you can make it look like you're chatting from Paris.

New Apple Leopard Features - 6

Spaces

Virtual-desktop fans will want to check out Spaces, which lets you build multiple desktops for different projects or activities.

New Apple Leopard Features - 5

Reflective Dock

It may not be the most useful feature, but the reflective dock in Leopard sure looks nice. Drag an application window down toward the bottom of your screen, and you'll see its reflection in the dock background.

New Apple Leopard Features - 4

Quick Look

View files without opening them, using Quick Look. Apple promises that this file viewer will work with nearly any format on your system, including videos and multipage documents.

New Apple Leopard Features - 3

Preview Icons

Even the normal icon view for files should look a bit more detailed. The same attractive thumbnails that drive Cover Flow appear here as well.

New Apple Leopard Features - 2

Cover Flow Is in Finder

Leopard's reworked Finder now permits you to flip though your documents and images using the same Cover Flow interface that iTunes employs to let you browse thorugh album covers. You can flip through multipage documents or play videos right in Cover Flow.

New Apple Leopard Features - 1

I'm not a real a big Mac fan myself, but I do like it. Apple showed off lots of new features of its upcoming Leopard release of Mac OS X this week. Here's a look at some of the highlights.

Stacks

Leopard's new system for eliminating desktop clutter is called "Stacks." Click any stack you've created, and the images, folders, applications, and other files you've added to it fan out from its icon in the dock.

If a stack contains many items, it appears in the grid view. Files downloaded in Safari or Mail automatically appear in a downloads stack.

Safari is on Windows now!

Apple has released the new Safari 3 Public Beta which can work on Windows XP or Vista. It's the first time that Safari works with Windows. Is this related to the meeting between Bill and Jobs :-)?

According to Apple, there are 12 reasons you'll love Safari:

1. Blazing performance (Apple said Safari is twice as fast as IE7, don't know whether its' true or not, at least I didn't feel it)
   
2. Elegant user interface (It does look good. Apple is good at it, isn't it?)
3. Easy bookmarks (not that special, I think)
4. Pop-up blocking (everyone does this)
5. Inline find (very handy feature, even better than Firefox, much much better than IE7)
6. Tabbed Browsing (both Firefox and IE7 do it)
7. SnapBack (could be useful)
8. Forms AutoFill (others do as well)
9. Built-in RSS (others do as well)
10. Resizable text fields (could be handy)
11. Private browsing (I won't care this too much, but some people do)
12. Security (hard to say)

What's my experience with Safari so far?

• Feels like working in an iTunes (I'm not a Mac person at all)
  
• It works fine on my office computer which runs Windows XP
• Not very well on my home computer which runs Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit, every time I maximum the window, it disappears.
• Overall, nice try. But I won't use it as my main browser, still prefer Firefox 2 70% of the time, and IE7 for the rest 30%

Download free from here

Two New Zealand News

1. For the first time in New Zealand, Samsung is showcasing all its products at the Aotea Centre on the evening of 4th July 2007. The show will be open to the first 250 people who register online at www.artofsamsung.co.nz

2. Want to buy something cheap each day - check out 1-day (www.1-day.co.nz). Knew this kind of US site, but just got to know we also have one in New Zealand.

Top 100 Best Products of 2007 - #2 Intel Core 2 Duo

Desktop CPU; US$150 (NZ$200) and up

It's superfast, it's not too expensive, and it uses less energy than its predecessor does. But could Core 2 Duo be too good? Unless AMD can respond to its startling success, the absence of competition could drive up desktop PC prices. That's how terrific this CPU is.

Top 10 Camcorders

1. Sony DCRDVD608E DVD Handycam

Sony's chunky, DVD-based DCRDVD608E (NZ$900) is the current Best Buy. It has a 2.5" LCD touch screen and is easy to operate with just one hand, plus 40x optical zoom and Super SteadyShot.

2. Canon DC51

Canon's DVD-based DC51 (NZ$1,600) gives you a viewfinder, a video light, and optical image stabilization.

3. JVC Everio GZ-MG155

The compact JVC Everio GZ-MG155 (US$600, NZ$785) was the top-performing hard drive camcorder. It provides a one-touch backup button, a 32X zoom, and extra controls on the LCD bezel. It's not available in New Zealand yet, the MG145 is sold for NZ$1,300 (we really don't have a good price here compared with U.S.).

4. Panasonic VDR-D310GN-S

Panasonic's VDR-D310GN-S (NZ$1,200) burns footage to DVD and has three CCD sensors. It offers optical image stabilization, a viewfinder, and support for DVD-RAM.

5. JVC Everio GZ-MG555

At US$900, the JVC Everio GZ-MG555 is expensive. It has dedicated buttons for DVD burning and copying files, as well as supplementary control buttons on its LCD bezel, but video quality was subpar. We don't have MG555 in New Zealand, but we do have the MG575 for NZ$1,800.

6. Panasonic SDR-H200

Panasonic's hard-disk drive SDR-H200 (US$720) offers optical image stabilization, but it doesn't have a viewfinder. Again, we don't have it in New Zealand, we have the H250 for NZ$1,500.

7. Sony DCRSR42 HDD Handycam - 30GB

The DCR-SR42 Handycam (NZ$1,300) comes with a powerful 40X zoom, an LCD touch screen, and offers long battery life, but it lacks a viewfinder.

8. Canon DC210

Canon's low-priced DC210 (NZ$800) offers a powerful 35X zoom, a viewfinder, and many controls, but lacks a USB port.

9. Hitachi DZHS300A

The hybrid Hitachi DZHS300A (US$570, NZ$750) lets you dub video from its 8GB hard drive to a mini-DVD disc without a PC. It uses a viewfinder and electronic image stabilization.

10. Panasonic VDR-D220GN-S

The Panasonic VDR-D210 (NZ$900) has a low price, and includes optical image stabilization.

I'm using a Sony miniDV Hanycam DCRHC30EL at the moment which I bought 3 years ago. Sony is still my favourite brand for video camera personally. If I pick one from the list for myself, I'll probably go for a hard drive model - like the Sony DCRSR42E. But for the first time buyer, the first Sony DCRDVD608E will be a great choice. If you're going to upgrade your existing camcorder, like me, I don't think it's a good time yet. I'll wait for a really good high-definition hard-drive model. The coming Sony HDRCX7EK will be interesting to watch, which is the World's Most Compact AVCHD Handycam, said by Sony. It records on Memory Stick.

The 100 Best Products of 2007 - #1 Google Apps Premier Edition

Web applications; US$50 (NZ$67) per user per year

Google is much more than just a search engine, and with its invaluable Google Apps suite, the company is well on its way to challenging Microsoft for productivity-suite supremacy. Google's Docs & Spreadsheets (soon to be joined by a PowerPoint-esque presentation application) already makes for an interesting alternative to Microsoft Office. Combine it with Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Calendar, and suddenly nearly all of your basic productivity programs and data can be available online.

For small businesses that need more than the free versions offer, Google Apps Premier Edition adds capacity, support services, and tools for integrating existing infrastructure so that all your employees can use Google's powerful Web apps - no matter where they are. Printouts may never die, but if Google has its way, the office-less office may become a reality long before the paperless one does.

Click here to find out more about Google Apps.

Apple iPhone TV Ads

Lots of you may already know, Apple iPhone is coming 29 June in the U.S. Apple has released some new TV ads. With 2 years contract, the 4GB iPhone will be sold at US$499 (NZ$666) and US$599 (NZ$800) for the 8GB version. Not too bad, lucky American.

Links below for the new ads:

• Never been an iPod
• How To
• Calamari
• Watered Down

Turn on Remote Desktop in Windows Vista

With Remote Desktop, you can connect to your work computer from home and access all of your programs, files, and network resources as though you were actually sitting in front of your computer at work.

Remote Desktop is disabled by default in Windows Vista, but it's easy enough to turn it back on. If you need to access your Vista PC from another location, it's an essential thing to turn on.

Note: The Remote Desktop Connection only feature in Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions.

First, go to the configuration page. You can either right-click the Computer icon and choose properties, or you can type in "system" into the start menu search box.













Now you'll want to click the Remote Settings link on the left hand side:














Now you can finally turn it on:
























To connect from another Vista PC on the same network, click the "Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication" radio button. If you need to connect from a Windows XP or Windows 2000 machine, click the "Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop" radio button.

Vista will set up firewall rules for you automatically.

Sure Delete

If you delete a file, it isn't really gone because Windows just marks the space they occupied as being available. And anyone with a program such as Restoration could probably recover them, meaning that personal data could get into the wrong hands. The author of Sure Delete says that this free program deletes the file, then wipes and removes the data left over.

Operating Systems: Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 9.x, Windows Me, Windows XP

Free Download

Toshiba's 1kg Portege R500 Laptop

Toshiba's sleek ultraportable laptop is an attention-getter that packs a ton of features into its compact package. Let's take a closer look.

Airy Portable

The Portege R500 weighs just 1.09 kg, including its 2.5-inch, 120GB (5400 rpm) hard drive and its optical drive. The notebook carries an estimated street price of US$2150 (NZ$2860) for the R500-S5002 (with Windows Vista Business), and US$2000 (US$2660) for the Windows XP Professional flavors, the R500-S5001X/S5002X. According to Toshiba, the R500 is the first notebook PC with a 12.1-inch wide-screen WXGA transreflective LED backlit display. A button below the screen lets you turn off the display's backlight--useful if you're outdoors, where the ambient light can go into the screen and be reflected back.

Sleek Lines

The R500 is slim and compact: It measures about the size of a sheet of paper--11.1 by 8.5 inches--and stands at just 0.77 inches deep (not including the feet). In its chassis, Toshiba fits a small motherboard with components on both sides. The guts of the R500 include an ultralow-voltage processor, Intel's 1.2-GHz Core 2 Duo U7600 processor (64-bit), 1GB of memory (1.5GB maximum supported), a 120GB SATA hard drive, and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 graphics core (the R500-S5002 adds dynamically allocated shared graphics memory).

No Ports at Back

Since the R500 has a drop-hinge design for its display, the unit has a clean presentation from the rear; it has no ports on its back. Instead, all of the notebook's ports are distributed along its sides. The chassis is made of what Toshiba describes as an advanced magnesium alloy that helps dissipate heat away from the notebook's components.

Drop Hinge

Like the Portege R200 before it, the R500 features a drop-hinge mechanism for the notebook's screen. The hinge is an extension of the back left and back right of the chassis; this design let Toshiba reduce the thickness of the notebook (it is 0.77 inches thick).

Attractive Touchpad

Toshiba paid attention to subtle design points, too: Here, you can see that the touchpad has the same matte silver finish as the rest of the notebook's chassis.

Ports and Slots at Right

At the right rear of the R500, a slider switch lets you enable or disable the wireless radio. The R500 offers Bluetooth 2.0, as well as 802.11 a/g/draft-n wireless connectivity (great! 802.11n is included). Also seen here: one of the notebook's three USB 2.0 ports, a gigabit ethernet port, and, cleverly tucked away beneath these ports, a PC Card slot.

The R500 crams an optical drive into its superslim, superlight form factor. The unit is the first with Matsushita's 0.7mm DVD Super-Multi drive; the drive supports a slew of disc write formats, including 24X CD-R, 10X CD-RW, 8X DVD-/+R, 4X DVD-/+RW, and 3X DVD-RAM. Unfortunately, the drive handles writing only to single-layer DVD media.

This model is not available in New Zealand yet. But we do have the Toshiba Portege R400

For more Toshiba laptop models in NZ market, you can visit www.mytoshiba.co.nz

YouTube in deal to offer local television programming

Hearst-Argyle Television and YouTube have announced a joint effort to add news, weather and entertainment videos and original Hearst television programming in five local markets to YouTube.

Beginning Monday this week, Hearst TV stations in Boston, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Manchester, N.H., will begin posting local video to dedicated YouTube channels.

The deal marks the first distribution agreement between Google subsidiary YouTube and an independent television broadcaster, according to YouTube and Hearst. YouTube last week announced a deal with EMI Group to begin showing music videos and performances on the site.

For Hearst's part, the deal fits within its overall strategy to distribute its content on TV, the internet and mobile phones, says executive vice president Terry Mackin.

As part of the deal, Hearst will also use YouTube as part of its new digital video project and will broadcast high school football and basketball and local amateur entertainment on YouTube.

Websites operated by Hearst television stations nationwide generate 1 billion page views each year and provide Wireless Application Protocol content, podcasts, web-based newscasts, web videos and blogs in various markets.