Thinking about Pogoplug

OK, somehow I managed to ignore the information about Pogoplug coming out of CES.  I saw people mention it, but I thought it was something different.  On closer inspection though, I think I will be ordering one.

What is Pogoplug?  It is a very simple device for connecting a USB hard drive to your network and to the Internet without having to know anything about networking.  Basically, you plug the device into the wall, plug in a ethernet cable and a USB drive and you are set.  You go to the Pogoplug website and link your device to an account.  After that the drive is accessible anywhere you can get to the web page.  They also have a small application you can run that will integrate the drive with Windows Explorer.

There is an API  for Pogoplug, and I am hopeful that it might be used to allow the Pogoplug to connect to web services like SkyDrive and Google Docs .  I am not sure if that is the intention, but it would be a unique offering.  I have been playing with Gladinet  for that sort of web services integration, but it is not very polished.  The few videos I have seen of the Pogoplug web interface are a lot nicer.

I sent the company, Cloud Engines, that makes the device an e-mail with a few questions.  Depending on the results of that call I will decide whether or not to place an order.  The device is currently on a pre-order special of 79.00, but will be 99.00 after the release.  Pre-orders are expected to ship in March.  I will post the questions and answers here when I hear back.

Lot’s of good reading about this device if you are interested in knowing more.

A week of awesome tech stuff

This week was CES.  For those that do not know, CES is a yearly technology trade show in Las Vegas.  It has become one of the major shows during the year where manufacturers roll out new products and ideas.  It is a show I have wanted to go to for a while, but I have never actually gone.  This year might have been a good one to have attended as it appears that attendance was a bit lower this year than in some years past.

This post is really just a chance for me to highlight some of the tech announcements to come out of CES this week that I have found most interesting.

EEE Keyboard

The EEE Keyboard is basically a computer inside of a full sized keyboard.  The keyboard also has a small 5” touchscreen that allows you to work with the basic functions of the computer.  The guts of the thing are pretty impressive.  According to the Boy Genius Report the specs are:

• Self-contained PC / keyboard combo with integrated 5-inch touchscreen display
• OS: Windows XP Home Edition
• 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor
• 1GB of DDR2 DRAM
• 16GB or 32GB SSD
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Ultra Wideband HDMI
• USB 2.0 x2, VGA, HDMI, headphone and mic ports
• Weight: 2 lbs

Perhaps most interesting is that the keyboard will use wireless HDMI to connect directly to a TV.  As I understand it, you can get a connector to connect to your TV that will allow the keyboard to work over the wireless HDMI.  I have moved the majority of my files to the cloud or to large external disks so that they can be easily accessed from multiple computers.  This type of keyboard computer would be very cool as a way to access all of that stuff.  I am very, very anxious to see the pricing on this.  I think I will be getting one of these regardless.

Update:  OS News is reporting that the keyboard is expected to ship in the September time frame.

EEE Keyboard News  |  EEE Blog Updates

Touch Screen EEE PC’s

Going into CES week I would have said that the Tablet PC form factor was nearing death, and that the UMPC, Netbooks and MID format had won.  However, ASUS announced not one, but two convertible tablet style EEE PC’s.  Prior to purchasing my EEE 901 I was looking to see if a touch screen convertible would be released.  When the release didn’t look likely I went with the 901.  Needless, to say I was very excited to see these two notebooks pop up at the ASUS press event. 

ASUS has announced the t91 and the t101.  It looks like the main difference between the two is the display size and the keyboard.  The t91 has an 8.9 inch screen and a keyboard that is basically the same as the 901.  The t101 has a 10.1 inch screen and a new larger keyboard.  Both devices will have an ASUS created touch interface which looks pretty slick, and I believe they both run with hard drives as opposed to SSD’s.  I would much prefer an SSD though, so I will have to wait and see what the options are.  They both run Windows XP home.  The best thing about them is that I have heard the price on the t91 may start at $500.  That is certainly a better price than I had expected.  I should also mention that GPS and a TV tuner will be an option on these devices.  I use a Bluetooth GPS with my 901 now, but having these built in would be cool.

I am anxiously awaiting the release and some hands on reviews.  Sounds like I need to wait till March.  I think it is likely I will replace my 901 with one of these.

EEE PC News  |  EEE PC Blog Updates

Windows 7

The beta release of Microsoft’s new Operating System was made available this week.  We were able to get a copy via MSDN at work, which allowed me to avoid the chaos that ensued on Friday morning during the general release.

I installed Windows 7 on one of my main work computers and my initial impression is positive.  It should be known that I am a pretty big fan of Vista, and I try to run it on all of my computers (except my EEE 901).  There are a few UI changes that take some getting used to, but I can report that the OS does seem faster than Vista.

The UI changes are not major, but some of the minor changes will still take a while for people to get used to.  The new taskbar is quite nice, but the inability to just click once on an icon that has multiple windows open is a bit of a drag.  If I have 5 Outlook windows open for example I need to hover on the Outlook icon, and then select the open window I want with another click.  It works fine, but takes some getting used to.  I only played with it for about 1/2 a day, so I will need to write more later.  I am certainly excited to get past some of the Vista quirks and move on to the next thing.

Other Stuff

Some of the other big news at the show was the Palm Pre and the Sony P.  Both do look pretty cool, but I am not as interested in either of those gadgets.  I think the new Microsoft Sync stuff in Ford’s looks pretty neat.  I am considering a Ford for a new car, perhaps this will be a differentiator.  The new Dell Mini notebook was announced with a 10 inch screen, larger SSD’s and an application store.  Very interesting development considering…

I had hoped to hear RIM announce a full featured application store for the Blackberry Storm this week.  The Storm desperately needs a central place for developers to work and share their programs.  Hopefully this will be available soon.

A huge shout out to everyone who took the time to live blog, share video, and in general cover the CES event this year.  I am especially grateful to Chippy and JKK from the UMPC Portal podcast for spending so much time online with live video covering all of the news.  Their huge list of contacts that were able to call in live from the show was great.  I would have loved to have spent the entire week skipping work and just participating in the chat and link sharing going on there.  Also a thanks to Kevin Tofel and James Kendrick  from JKontheRun for there coverage of all of CES, especially mobile technology.  Finally, Engadget did an awesome job of live blogging many of the big press events (even the disappointing Dell Adam”no” press event).

If I was at CES…

If you were bored, and decided to spend a day recently cyber stalking me (did you?) you would have seen me looking around at CES gear reports.   I love reading about what mobile (and not so mobile) gear people take with them to conferences.  I also love reading the after conference reports where people say how well the gear worked, and generally recap the event.  I am also usually interested in what bag people are using to haul things around in.  Have not seen to many bag reports this year though.

I decided that I would throw my gear bag out on a table as well, and snap a new gear picture.  It has been a while since I have done a “what’s in my bag” post anyway.

Things have changed a little bit from last January when I took this picture.

I do still have some of the things in the first picture, like the Dell, but with the 901 it rarely ever leaves home.  The web cam in the earlier picture as well as the bluetooth chip have been retired since they are both built into the 901.  Both pictures have notes on Flickr to say what everything is.

The bag on the left is my old Timbuk2 Metro Messenger, and I use that bag for weekend use around town.  It is easier to hit the store/mall/park with this bag than the backpack.  The pack on the right is my fairly new Tom Bihn Ruck’s Sac.  The pack is designed to be small, light and carried by someone with a small frame.  I think it works great.  Not a lot of pockets, but with the interior rings for the pouches work great.

One day with the Blackberry Storm

I got my hands on a Blackberry Storm yesterday at work.  I have been using it for a little more than 24 hours now, and I have a few observations.

1. It does not have a keyboard, and that is not a bad thing.  I agree that it is easier to type on a Blackberry that has a keyboard, but using the keyboard on the Storm (the QWERTY in particular) is quite nice.  I have only used an iPhone for a short period of time, but this was much easier to pick up and use.  I think maybe I am 25% slower using the Storm qwerty keyboard.  I still have to get used to the Suretype when portrait, but I think I will like it as well.  The only issue I have thus far is the auto correct.  I want to type Pearland not Pear land. 
2. The screen is very nice to look at.  The audio even through the speaker is also very nice.  I have not made too many calls on it yet, but it seems to work fine.  The buttons make accessing menu’s very nice.  Over all I think they did a nice job on the hardware side of things.  The flash/light for the camera is really bright.
3. In my opinion the biggest problem with the Storm is that it is incredibly slow.  Slow to rotate the screen, slow to switch applications, slow to login (I use a login password due to a BES policy).  Even with the new firmware the device is slow, slow, slow.  I often see the little timer spinning around.  I wonder if it is going to sleep to fast, and needing to much time to wake up before it can be used?  Regardless, the device can basically become unusable due to the slowness.
4. Slowness aside, I have yet to see the device lockup or crash (I know it has only been a day), but I think it is good that even though things get backed up it does not cause a lockup.
5. I have been using the web browser as much as possible as that is one of the main things I want to use the Storm for.  Once you get used to selecting links the browser is really nice to use.  My one issue with the browser is that there is not a visual cue when you want to select a form button.  It can be very hard to get it clicked.  Other than that I have not had any issues. 
6. Battery life seems to be about one day of good use.  I think that is fine.  The battery does seem to charge fairly quickly which is good.

Just a few quick thoughts after a day of usage.  I am planning to keep this loaner device through the weekend.  If I like it I am going to buy one of my own.  At this point I think it is a fairly safe bet that I will get one of my own.