It is, so consider words eaten. It comes in $599, $699, and $799 configurations. This is far below the $1,000 to $1,500 people were expecting.

It is well above the price of entry level laptops and all netbooks, but considering it is full touchscreen and can be connected with AT&T or Verizon (not confirmed but supposedly it will), that can justify the extra bucks needed to buy one.

Will you be buying one?

I won’t.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Apple Tablet Is Priced Right

Many of you – including yours truly – remember when the Windows Media Player went from version 10 to 11 and seriously screwed things up when playing DVD movies. Some had no problems, but the rest of us did. Whether it was flickering, an odd resizing of widescreen aspect ratio movies (which is just about all of them) on playback, or whatever it was, WMP 11 more or less destroyed the ease of DVD playback that WMP 10 had.

On top of that it seemed every other DVD player (CyberDVD, WinDVD, etc.) worked, but WMP 11 never could quite get it right.

And let’s not forget that in Windows XP you’re essentially forced to upgrade to WMP 11. If you try that “rollback” to 10, chances of that working correctly aren’t that good. Some make it work, but many cannot.

Windows 7 uses WMP 12. This can be run independently on its own, or you can use it in Windows Media Center. For true television-style playback the Media Center is the better choice.

Media Center and WMP 12 plays back DVDs exactly as they’re supposed to. It works with no hassle. No need for downloading any special codecs or any of that nonsense. Pop in a disc and go.

In the video below I show how Media Center works with a regular DVD disc, but bear in mind that it can be set up to accept a remote control, has Internet TV capability and a whole host of other goodies. This is all included in the Windows 7 editions mentioned above.

It’s nice to have a Windows that doesn’t require all that codec/configuring nonsense just to play a DVD. Truly.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Windows 7 Media Center

 
An elephant never forgets

Elephant Data Systems made floppy diskettes years ago. And they possibly the most iconic of the 5.25-inch floppy diskette media because of the unforgettable elephant logo. You can see more examples of the logo here.

Back before PCMech

PCMech always had the pcmech.com domain, but the "full" name was formerly PCMechanic. I had asked the audience (some of which were forum members) to locate for me the oldest post on the forums. User Ryuk999 found it here:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?p=21403

Posted September 4, 1999.

If there’s one older, please feel free to correct it by posting a comment below with the link.

Apple II Ethernet card

"But Apple never made an Ethernet card for the Apple II.."

You’re right, but someone else does. He currently doesn’t have any in stock, but if you want one, get on the waiting list as I’m sure he’ll be making more.

 
Yes, it was always better than Windows 95

There is no argument whatsoever that IBM’s OS/2 Warp was always better than Microsoft Windows. It did everything better than Windows ever could at the time. So why didn’t Warp become the dominant OS? Many say it was because Microsoft had much better marketing prowess, and the fact IBM didn’t put enough effort into promoting its own products for the consumer. Others say it was because IBM didn’t put enough presence into major retail stores like Microsoft did. And I’m sure there were other reasons besides that.

But we all know Warp was the superior OS. Those who used it back then remember it fondly, and hated giving it up for Windows.

It doesn’t get much more retro than this:

I used the video below for a PCMech Premium article to describe old-school client/server setups and how you can adapt just about any older computer to still be used today in a similar setup.

What’s really impressive about the video is that what’s seen is not a PC. It’s a DEC VT-240 terminal manufactured originally in 1984, connecting to a Linux server via NFS.

We’re talking green-screen text-only glory here. And the DEC is in near-pristine shape (after cleaned up at the 3-minute mark of the video).

The person in the video not only uses the DEC, but also connects to a homebrew Linux server to browse the web and play media files on another computer.

It’s like I said – this is about as retro as you can get.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Elephants, Forums, 8-Bit Ethernet And More

Since we discussed the Flip originally, it was acquired by Cisco. Backed by Cisco’s finances, they have already released a new model for the Flip. I’m seeing TV commercials every now and then which advertise the Flip. And, now, they seem to be expanding the product line.

Flipshare TV is designed to take your entire Flip Video library of photos and videos and put it onto the television. The unit looks like a tiny little Mac Mini, in a way, complete with a simple little remote control. It connects to the TV via composite or HDMI (included). Then, the unit connects to your computer via a USB key and wireless technology. Essentially, the USB key has a little wireless transmitter on it which connects wirelessly to the Flipshare TV. No home network is required.

FlipShare TV Features:

• Watch FlipShare video and photo library instantly on the TV
• View any shared Flip Channel videos on the TV
• Share Video with anyone else who has a FlipShare TV
• FlipShare TV Includes:  TV Base, USB Key, and Remote
• TV Base Console: 4.6 x 4.6 x 1.3 inches / 4.6 oz
• Remote Control: 3.9 x 1.6 x .04 inches/ 1.3 oz
• USB Key: 3.5 x 1.0 x 0.5 inches / 0.6 oz
• Wireless:  802.11n point-to-point proprietary interface (does not require a home wireless network)
• Batteries: 2 x AAA for remote (included)
• Composite cable included

It’ll be interesting to see if this product takes off. It is, however, a logical addition to their product line. Priced at $149.99, you decide.

For more information, head on over to the Flipshare TV homepage on TheFlip.com.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Flip Video Launches FlipShare TV

Yes, this is traditional email and not in-system-only as it’s always been.

How does it work?

Fortunately it’s easy. Just pick an email name and that’s all there is to it. It works with your existing MySpace inbox, so there is no separate site to go to or any of that nonsense. Your user-to-user emails will be right there along with your new traditional-style email.

How much email space do you get?

Unlimited.

Can you add things like pictures and files to emails?

Yes.

Does it have spam control?

Yes.

Can you create folders?

I didn’t see any way to do it, so I’m assuming the answer is no.

Can you access via POP/IMAP?

This is MySpace we’re talking about, so of course not. Whatever mail is in MySpace stays in MySpace.

This email service is beta, so don’t expect it to work perfectly. This email is about as basic as you can get. You don’t get many options, but if you’re a "MySpace ’til I die" type of user, maybe an @myspace.com email address is just the thing you were looking for.

Being it’s beta you can also expect features to be added in over time.

This may also be something that gets Facebook’s attention. Having an @facebook.com email address is definitely something people would want.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

MySpace Gets Email, As In Real Email

These are direct links. No coupon codes or any of that b.s. to deal with.

Hanns-G 23.6-inch monitor, $149 with free shipping

If you were looking to upgrade your monitor to something big that looks good, functions well and is as cheap as they come, this is it.

Specific Apple authorized resellers starting Black Friday sales early

Whether looking for a MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini or iMac, you’re covered. See link above to see who’s selling the stuff at discounted BF rates right now.

Free shipping on a ton of stuff

NewEgg fortunately has a direct link (click the above) that lists all the items there with free shipping. With the holiday season in full swing they’ve increased the number of free-ship items quite a bit. See link above for details.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Pre-Black Friday Deals

If you hadn’t heard, AOL will be splitting from Time Warner and will once again become an independent company. This will be occurring on December 10, 2009. ICQ happens to be an AOL property currently.

Know that ICQ has a huge presence basically everywhere but the United States. It is widely used in Russia and China and has somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 million users. This is something that would be attractive to capitalize on for many internet companies looking to expand their user base.

AOL has internet properties in 40 countries (I bet you never knew they stretched so far) and they are sure to sell off a whole bunch of those – ICQ being one of them.

Will ICQ be snapped up by an American company like Google or Microsoft? Highly unlikely. Microsoft already has a huge worldwide presence with Live (formerly MSN) and Google has Google Talk and Gmail which is also worldwide.

What will most likely happen is that  a non-U.S. internet company will make the purchase.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

ICQ For Sale, Only 300 Million (What A Deal!)

That being the case, MSN’s upcoming changes are sure to get noticed. The logo changes both with the butterfly and font, the blue background is (finally) gone and said honestly the overall experience of using it is a whole lot better. Heck, you might even find it useful because we all know the current MSN just plain sucks.

Why does the current MSN.com suck? Because the design coddles to a bygone era where web designers were deathly afraid of making anybody scroll for anything, hence the stupid tiny text on the current MSN. There’s this ridiculous belief that if anybody has to scroll down for any content on your web site, you lose. This is only true if your content sucks. Scrolling down is not evil, never has been and never will be. If you’ve got something worth reading, the reader will happily scroll; there is nothing wrong with that.

What makes the new MSN.com a notable improvement?

Color coded organization:

This is a big deal and it’s not easy to pull off design-wise, but the new MSN makes it work. And when hovering over menus, a nice dotted border appears with menu choices below.

Tabs:

The blue "Games" in the screen shot above is an example of a tab in the new MSN interface. These are located in several areas and yes, they work well. Like with the top menu, some (but not all) tabs will have different colors compared to others.

Social connectivity:

Oh yes, it has it. The old-school Web 1.0 portal finally jumps into the modern age with Facebook and Twitter connectivity right from the same page. This is a really big deal because it gives people a reason to use MSN as their home page other than for just looks and information.

The beauty of the way it works is that the new MSN doesn’t shove you elsewhere, such as a "my.[web-service-here].com" just to get this feature. It’s on the home page right where it should be. That counts and counts huge. And YES, you can post status updates right from there as well for Facebook or Twitter. I tested it myself.

Microsoft said a few years back that they were going to put a huge effort into making their offerings modern. This started with Windows Live, then Bing and now MSN. I never thought I’d ever see MSN get out of Internet Stone Age, but it looks like it finally will – and do so in a way that truly will wow you and prove to be useful at the same time.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

The Soon-To-Be New MSN.com

Everybody knows that in order to get the computer, you have to subscribe to the ISP. And of course this never applies to the "basic" internet plan. You’ll almost always have to go with the mid-to-premium plan.

In some instances, getting the computer requires you to jump thru a lot of hoops, such as is the case with Sprint. Where they nail you with first is the mail-in rebate. As you know, once you mail that sucker in, you’re the sucker because yet another company has your mailing address to send junk mail to. And then comes the fact that the broadband modem is embedded in the netbook, so you can’t move the service from the netbook to another computer whatsoever.

Very crappy. This is not a "deal" at all.

There was a time not-so long ago when certain ISPs tried to hock supposedly "free" computers, so this idea is nothing new. Back then the PC you received was annoying slow, riddled with built-in spyware/malware and did nothing but make your computer experience nothing short of a nightmare. The modern variant of this is the netbook, but instead of spyware/malware, they lock you in with ISP-specific proprietary hardware.

Note that not all ISPs who offer free netbooks are shady. Some do deliver on their promise and you do legitimately get a new netbook with no hassle or any up front cost for the computer. But I’d still recommend buying a computer outright instead of receiving anything via an ISP "deal."

This is yet another one of those instances where you have to read the fine print, because if you don’t, well.. you know what happens.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Beware Of Netbook "Deals" By ISPs

In order for this to be enforced, signs must be posted. In addition, to be fined (which is $200 per infraction), the cell phone must be to your ear and your vehicle must be in motion. This means hands-free devices are acceptable and/or if you’re stopped, that’s okay also.

There are few instances I can cite where a bill is written correctly the first time; this is one of them. It’s fair, and the fact Texas is giving its cities and towns the choice of whether to enforce it is even better.

Big kudos to the Lone Star State for this one. Job well done.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Texas Bans Cell Phones In School Zones