Just laid my hands on a Fujitsu P1610 (3G) and I am going to give the low down on it. At first sight, this is probably no bigger than an ordinary note book - the paper ones and probably just as thick as a 200-page textbook that I can easily find in the school’s library. Weighing just over 1kg with battery included, this seems to spell the end of heavy days for me.

The set that I got comes installed with Windows XP tablet - not because it is the default installatin, but because I requested for it. The Vista DVD comes together with it so that I can review it if I ever want to. Powering up this baby, it gives the familiar POST screen, showing its prowess as a U1400 Intel 1.2Ghz machine come loaded with the maximum of 1GB of RAM. Not a lot of RAM to run Windows Vista on, as I had assumed but this proves to be suffiient for Windows XP.

Starting up the machine in Windows XP was easy. There was the familiar screen of Omnipass that allows the user to log in with his fingerprint - a good alternative to trying to recall hard-to-remember passwords. For a machine that’s still running in the lower of the 1-2 GHz range, starting up is faster than expectation - mind you, this is a new machine and had not been subjected to the evils of mountains of software installation.

LCD screen and digitizer

I was eager to test out the tablet mode and hastily logged in and twisted its screen so that it becomes an instant slate. Navigation with the stylus was easy - as long as you did your calibration before hand. As this is a passive digitizer, there’s no additional functions that allows you to use other parts of the stylus for other purposes, such as erasing your text or drawings. However, the pros of it is that it allows you to nagivate using your finger tip.

The digitizer recognises gestures and writings very well and is not affected with your palm resting on the screen. Its sensitivity is precise and accurate, leaving very little fuss with whatever I wanted to do. Overall, I think Fujitsu had done a good job on it.

Peripherals

Used as a normal notebook, the mouse pad that I am so used to is sorely missing. In it’s place is a mouse stick which requires a little bit of familiarizing. The good thing about having a passive digitizer is that it allows you to scroll by just moving the scrollbars with your fingers - no fumbling over the stylus as with an active digitizer. To a certain extent, it is as convenient as it can get - until I am used to the mouse stick.

The keyboard is confined to a space of slightly more than 9 inches diagonally - and probably needs a little getting used to for people with bigger palms and fingers. However, the pitch is the keys is really confortable and there is very little mistyping, if any at all. The keyboard layout is the same as most other Fujitsu notebooks - with the use of the Fn function key to access the Page Up/Down and Home/End keys. While this may sometimes be a little daunting for first-time users, it becomes intuitive with time.

Display

This ultraportable also comes with function buttons just below the screen, which allows the user to configure and access frequently used programs at the touch of a button. There is also a function button that allows - at a single press - to toggle the backlight in the LED, hence allowing the user to turn of the backlight without turning off the monitor entirely. This is allows a quick toggle of the backlight to save power when the laptop is not in use momentarily without having to meddle with the actual LCD display. Think of it as putting the LCD brightness to the dimmest possible at a single touch.

Connectivity

The SIM slot that enables 3G capabilities is located behind the battery - and this means having to remove the battery and slipping the SIM card in. At first instance, I thought this was rather anti-intuitive. However, on second thoughts - it prevents the SIM card from being accidentally removed, or worse, stolen. Connection to the local 3G network was a breeze as the P1610 comes with a pre-installed network that makes connection as easy as firing up notepad. It also comes with wireless LAN capabilities that allows connection to A/B/G networks at the flick of the switch on the side. However, do note that this switch also controls the 3G connectivity, so selective wireless connection would have to be done via the application that comes with it.

Configuration

The P1610 also comes with standard ports, including 2 USB ports, 1 set of audio in/out, 1 SD slot, 1 PCMCIA slot, 1 VGA output port, 1 10/100Mbps LAN socket and a 56 Kbps modem socket. A Keningston port is also available for securing your P1610. At the bottom of the laptop is a docking port for an optional port replicator.

The laptop has a maximum memory configuration of 1 GB of RAM, which I suspect may not be sufficient for Windows Vista - and this should be a consideration if you have an option for the Operating System to be installed. It also comes with a 1.8 inch 80 GB HDD, which is partitioned into 2 drives. It should be generous enough for most usage as the largest 1.8 inch drive that is available in the market at this point is only 120 GB. The user should consider external storage if more hard disk space is desired.

Conclusion

Overall, the P1610 can be described with one word - sexy. It’s small built with a bundle of functions and crystal clear screen makes it an ideal companion to bring along for travel and redefines mobile computing in its own class. While a mouse touch pad would have been desired, I have no qualms sacrificing it for the power that it packs for its weight.

If you paid way much more for your new Sony PSP Slim, then you’d be in for a surprise. This is because you are actually paying way much more for less with not much improvement in functionality. Everything else is pretty much the same, except that they have removed more parts from the original PSP that makes the PSP Slim… slimmer.

However, along with this weight loss also meant a certain amount of innovation that makes it less power hungry - allowing the PSP Slim to run with the same number of hours using a lesser capacity battery, resulting in the use of a 1200mAh battery instead of the original 1800mAh. It is not stated if the older battery can still be used for a longer play.

One of the items that went with the weight loss is a set of metal plates that where embedded at the back panel of the PSP. This was supposed to aid in withstanding any twisting forces that may result from game play. In place of these metal pieces, Sony has put in ribs, which is supposed to withstand the same amount of force applied onto it.

So, there really isn’t much cutting-edge technology in the new PSP Slim - just a whole lot slimmer and lighter, and less power consuming.

"They aren’t really using any cutting-edge technology. It’s more like they’ve just eliminated the parts that were unnecessary to assure quality." That was what our engineer said after disassembling the PSP-2000, the latest model in the line of PlayStation Portable (PSP) game consoles from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc (SCE) of Japan, released in September 2007.

The PSP-2000 uses the same liquid crystal display (LCD) size, input interface and other specs as its predecessor, the PSP-1000, but weighs less by about a third as much, at only 189g. The case is also 4.4mm thinner, at only 18.6mm. "The PSP-1000 was the first portable game system that SCE manufactured, and came with a large 4.3-inch display. That resulted in a pretty difficult requirement specification as far as strength goes. In designing the PSP-2000, though, it looks like the firm applied what it learned to remove unneeded parts," added our engineer.

Eliminating Components
SCE adopted a fairly standard approach to making the PSP-2000 lighter: it reduced the number of components and replaced metal parts with plastic ones. The biggest contribution to weight reduction came from elements like the case, LCD panel and universal media disc (UMD) optical drive. On the PSP-1000 the plastic case bottom was reinforced with a metal chassis, but the bottom of the PSP-2000 is made entirely of plastic, cutting weight by 20g. The metal chassis was removed from the UMD as well for another 16g reduction. The front-panel metal reinforcement for the LCD panel has also been removed, and the glass substrate thinned down, reducing weight by 23g.

It would normally be impossible to ensure sufficient strength by merely eliminating metal parts, and it appears that SCE engineers tweaked the design to provide the needed strength. According to the engineer,

"The PSP-1000 enhanced rigidity by combining various components like the LCD panel, case and UMD; but in the PSP-2000 rigidity is instead provided by reinforcing the bottom of the case." The bottom of the PSP-2000 is covered with reinforcing ribs, which are sufficiently strong to withstand twisting stress.

The batteries in the PSP-2000 are also 8g lighter than those in the old model, although capacity has also dropped from 1800mAh to only 1200mAh. According the SCE, however, battery drive time is the same, leading us to believe that they have found a way to reduce power consumption.

The engineer noted that the PSP central processing unit (CPU) and the 64-Mbyte memory have been implemented in a single package in the PSP-2000, explaining that the switch would reduce power consumption during memory access by the CPU.

Article obtained from http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/HONSHI/20071127/143110/ on 16th December 2007

If only I have this during my Seoul trip, then I can tell you guys where exactly I am… well, almost. However, it seemed a little difficult to find where the roads are in Seoul via Microsoft Virtual Earth, so I thought I’d do something simpler - finding Pedra Branca.

As it turned out, it wasn’t that easy to find Pedra Branca either! So, you’d have to use a little bit of imagination. Do you see the words “Kampung sungai Rengit” and “Lagoi”? Well, the island is supposed to be somewhere between those words.

Perhaps the next plug-in that people should write is to help label the map. =)

Of course, this is the Aerial version, which basically shows what the satellites capture. If you want something crisp, you can try the Road-only version, which should look something like this:

There you have it! Hmm… so, if you haven’t downloaded WLW yet, do have a try. You do not necessarily need to post to your blog, but you can just play around with it without saving drafts.

And oh, did I mention that you can also select which category you want to post to? The toolbar may not be visible by default, so you’d have to click on View and then Properties. There should be a new toolbar at the bottom of the window.

Have fun!

This is the first entry that I am writing using life writer, and I am not sure if it’s because of the settings, or if it’s emulating my CSS of my Wordpress theme. It seemed to be the same form and header that it looks like in my blog!

So what am I going to write about? Naturally, I am going to go through the step by step installation of Windows Live Writer (WLW) up to the point I submit this post.

You would have to firstly download the latest non-beta version of WLW at http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/, which will also give you an insight of what WLW is all about. Beta testers have complained about crashes, so this might be something that you want to look into. Currently, WLW supports MSN Spaces and Wordpress. I am not sure if it supports the more popular Blogspot thought. Anyone Blogspot users out there? =)

So, after you are done with your download, you should see the following screens:

Now, you should really click on Accept because clicking on Cancel is not going to get you anywhere. This you have to trust me. =) After this, you should get the next screen:

Now, because I am not exactly an avid fan of MSN Live yet, I unchecked all the rest of the checkboxes. You should check according to your preferences. After you have decided on this, you click on Install. For obvious reasons, you may also choose to click on Cancel. =)

This portion begins the scan of your computer for other Windows Live programs, such as your Windows Live Messenger, which is essentially your MSN Messenger. This should take quite a while. It took a few minutes on my computer, and lo and behold, you get the follow screen:

Installation has apparently started without me knowing, except that it says so in the middle of the window, and  that you may feel free to do other things while you wait. This is really interesting. This is the first time that I see such messages. I hope they don’t mean that I can do *many* other things while I wait.

Thank goodness it finished within a reasonable amount of time. However, instead of the usual blank screen that screams *installation is complete*, this still looks pretty much the same, except that it tells you that the Start Writer is installed and the Cancel button changes to a Close. At this point of time, should you decide to install Messenger, Mail, Toolbar, Photo Gallery (wow!) and Family Safety, you may check on the respective boxes and click on Add to installation. It should probably continue.

When you first start WLW, it’d prompt you to set up your blog settings, or if you would like to sign up for one using either Windows Live Spaces or SharePoint blogging. Since I am using Wordpress, I selected "Another Weblog Service".

After making your selection, you would go on to the next window that’d prompt you on your Weblog Homepage and Login. For Wordpress, you just need to specify your blog URL as well as the username and password that you use to access your /wp-admin.

When this is done, WLW starts scanning the URL for more information as well as downloading the current Wordpress theme so that you have a WYSIWYG effect in the editor.

Lastly, it confirms with you your configuration. If you see a "Switch to this weblog now" checkbox, it means that you have a preconfigured weblog using WLW previously.

So, installation of WLW did turn out to be a rather pleasant experience - and hence, the next challenge would be the usability. Remember I mentioned something about the editor looking like my Wordpress theme? Well, here it is:

Quite a cool interface, isn’t it? If you noticed, the title "First entry using Windows Live Writer resembles that of my current Wordpress theme! This is totally awesome! Ok, let me enlarge that a little.

Did you see that red line under the "wordpress" word? Yes, there’s also a spell checker installed, and apparently it supports 4 languages including English, French, Spanish and German.

So, what’s my 2 cents worth of this? I’d think this is a pretty good offline blogging tool - that means I am no longer at the mercy of my Wordpress which dies on me every now and then and not saving my drafts properly. The next challenge is of course, using this as a platform to live blog - to test if it can publish and then "save and continue editing". If this is doable - without the system crashing, then this will indeed be my ultimate blogging tool.

One last thing. The images inserted in this entry is done effortlessly using the Insert Picture command on the sidebar panel. It’s totally incredible because you can just resize your pictures while maintaining aspect ratio. In addition, it throws in the shadows for you too (there are options on the right panel when you select the picture)!

This entire blog post was done using 3 tools: Windows Live Writer, Windows Snipping Tool and Windows Paint. I do hope WLW lives up to its name. =)

PS: The reason why I put a "Part 1" is because I think there’d be more to come. So do stay tune if you are interested in offline blogging (not that this is the only tool around, but it does seem to work well so far).

Yup, that’s right! It’s old news that merchants were testing out a new payment system codenamed GBuy (or some prefer to call it Google Buy), which could be running head-on-head with one of the most popular online payment systems around - Paypal. After news of it spread in December 2006, which is almost 1 year ago, further updates about this online payment system had ceased and no one knew anything about it. At least not me.

However, if you do a search on google.com, you would find that there is another system that Google is building that sounds suspiciously like GBuy. Presenting to you, Google Checkout!

Google Checkout is a fast, secure way to buy from stores across the web. However, Google Checkout is only available to U.S. and U.K. merchants. In addition, U.S. Google Checkout merchants must have a U.S. bank account and address, plus either of the following:

• A Social Security number (optional) and a valid credit card.
• A Federal Tax ID/Employer Identification Number (EIN).

U.S. and U.K. buyers and buyers from many other countries outside the United States and United Kingdom can also sign up for the service and make purchases (in U.S. dollars or Pounds Sterling) through Google Checkout. Check the Location: drop-down menu on the sign-up page to see if Google Checkout is available in your buyer’s location. They are working towards making Google Checkout more widely available in the near future. At this time, however, they cannot provide any details regarding when Google Checkout will be available in specific countries.

You may wish to check out their slides here. In addition, they also have a blog for it. So go on, sign-up and explore the wonders of GBuy Google Checkout!

Since you are here, you might want to relive history here, here and here.

Heh heh… bet you guys think that I meant moblog - short for mobile blogging where people blog with their handphones/pdas/whatnots and send back to the blog API using SMS or GPRS or MMS. Well, I’m doing… mobile blogging, pretty much in the real sense! You see, I am now blogging in the train, happily seated in the last carriage on the train, and typing this post on IE.

So, mobile computing has come of age! From SMS to GPRS to 3G and now HSPDA (or something like that). I am currently using M1 Broadband to connect to the Internet and I had always wondered if M1 Broadband allowed mobile computer, or in my case, mobile blogging, literally. So here you are, live blogging from the comforts of the MRT train.

Well, I am not sure if it’d work when the train goes underground in a matter of stations. I’d soon know. Of course, Starhub and Singtel offers something similar. Maybe someone would like to try blogging using their services and provide some feedback? Just for the records, I had been on the lowest price plan of 384kbps and this seems fine to me, since peak traffic periods slow all traffic, regardless of plan, to the same slow speed.

Here’s to mobile blogging! Cheers!

There was an iPhone demonstration presented ‘live’! To me, that is… I wasn’t on any camp with regards to the iPhone but have been a quiet listener to all comments - good and bad about the phone.

Well, yes, the battery is not removeable, and all the applications that you have is what they give you (excluding web apps, that is). But hey, this phone’s usability is really cool and it’s the user experience that Apple’s promising to give. At least it seemed to be bug free and seamless when I tried using it for myself. Everything was pretty intuitive and it doesn’t require many steps to achieve something - and I am saying this because I am a WM5 phone user.

What impressed me the most was the portray-landscape-portray automation when you turn the phone. It makes using the phone much simpler, and yes, it’s user experience again!

It might be a tad heavy, and the only worry that I have is whether it will slip off my hands and fingers; but I guess getting an anti-slip for this should solve the problem! Cool stuff!

And yes, you can see more here too!

It’s official! The TZ will be release later this year, somewhere in August. Sources here, here and here.

Two models were listed, VAIO TZ11MN/N and VAIO TZ11XN/B, seemingly differentiated only by basic hardware choices such as RAM, hard-drive and lid colour (1GB, 80GB and silver, respectively, on the N; 2GB, 100GB and black on the B). Otherwise it’s niceties such as the 11.1-inch X-black LED-backlit display (running at WXGA 1366 x 768), built in DVD re-writer, gigabit ethernet, a/b/g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0

No release date has been established yet, nor prices, but they’re expected to be released at some point in the Summer.

I had been contemplating on getting either a Fujitsu or Sony lightweight laptop because my current Fujitsu P7120 had been burning my laps and crawling like a snail. The latest addition to the problem is a batter that dies out after 7 mins. Now, I am at the mercy of an external battery that dies off without notice. Sigh.

Apparently, the Wireless-n which is expected to coming along is sorely missing in the specifications. However, at 2.62 lbs which is approximately 1.2 kg, with an 11.1 inch screen and 7.5 hours of batter life with everything else built-in, it’s still a good set of configuration. I am not sure of the price though. Gizmostuffs mentioned that it costs $2,299, which I suspect is in USD. While this translates to S$3,699 with an exchange rate of about S$1.6 = US$1, I suspect that it might jolly well retail for S$3,999, just a dollar shy of S$4,000.

For the record, I paid S$3,699 for mine, over a period of 2 years. Yes, I am still paying for it.

And oh, did I mention that the CSO at Fujitsu Service Center force shutdown my laptop and effectively erasing everything that was in hibernation? Yes, I will rant about that soon. I thought they were rather irresponsible. I hope someone from Fujitsu is reading this - that because of that incident, I am switching over to Sony.

Anyway, the specifications are below… and it’s making me drool…

VAIO VGN-TZ11MN/N

# Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo U7500, 1.06 GHz
# OS: Windows® Vista Professional
# Memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM (max 2GB)
# Hard Drive: 80 GB Ultra ATA (4200 rpm)
# Optical Drive: DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM
# Screen: 11,1” X-black LCD with LED backlight, WXGA (1366 x 768)
# Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
# Ethernet (1000Base-T / 100 BASE-TX / 10 BASE-T);
# Modem: V.92/V.90
# Wireless: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR support
# Microphone integrated
# Protection: Shock protection G-Sensor Hard Drive
# Instant On technology
# Ports:

* 1 i.LINK (IEEE1394, 4 Pin), 400 Mbps port
* 1 DC in
* 1 Audio out
* 1 RJ-11 Modem
* 1 RJ-45 Direct Port (Network)
* 2 USB 2.0 Port
* Fingerprint reader
* 1 VGA port connection
* 1 Microphone
* 1 SD card Slot
* 1 Express Card 34mm
* Memory Stick Reader (Duo, Memory Stick PRO duo, MagicGate)
* “Motion Eye” Camera ( 20 Images per second), 0.3 Mega Pixels, max video resolution VGA (640×480)

VAIO VGN-TZ11XN/B
# Dimensions: 7.8-in x .89-in - 1.17in x 10.9-in (198 ,2 mm x 22.5-29.8 mm x 277 mm)
# Weight: 2.62lbs
# Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo U7500, 1.06 GHz
# OS: Windows Vista Professional
# Memory: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM (max 2GB)
# Hard Drive: 100 GB Ultra ATA (4200 rpm)
# Optical Drive: DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM
# Screen: 11.1” X-black LCD with LED backlight, WXGA (1366 x 768)
# Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
# Ethernet (1000Base-T / 100 BASE-TX / 10 BASE-T);
# Modem intégré V.92/V.90
# Wireless: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR support
# Microphone integrated
# Protection: Shock protection G-Sensor Hard Drive
# Instant On technology
# Ports:

* 1 i.LINK (IEEE1394, 4 Pin), 400 Mbps port
* 1 DC in
* 1 Audio out
* 1 RJ-11 Modem
* 1 RJ-45 Direct Port (Network)
* 2 USB 2.0 Port
* Fingerprint reader
* 1 VGA port connection
* 1 Microphone
* 1 SD card Slot
* 1 Express Card 34mm
* Memory Stick Reader (Duo, Memory Stick PRO duo, MagicGate)
* “Motion Eye” Camera ( 20 Images per second), 0.3 Mega Pixels, max video resolution VGA (640×480)

# Dimensions: 7.8-in x .89-in - 1.17in x 10.9-in (198 ,2 mm x 22.5-29.8 mm x 277 mm)
# Weight: 2.62lbs