Techno Cop

Yet Another Gadget Bag

In a recent post I wrote:

Back to the HK trip, my long-time friend and mentor, MARTIN CEPEDA, asked me to accompany him to a Montblanc shop to buy a pen. We went to the branch in Pacific Place and he went inside the store as I wandered through the other signature shops nearby. When he finally got out of the store, he was carrying a huge shopping bag with the store’s logo emblazoned on it. So I asked, “ boy, that must be a hell of a lot of pens that you brought there.” To which he replied, “Nope, this is my gift to you.”

As promised, here is what my friend got me from the MontBlanc shop;

It is an elegant messenger bag made from deer skin. It does not offer much support to a laptop that is why I always have to carry the Macbook Air in a Speck hard shell case. However, It is spacious enough to fit my daily mobile gear. Here is what I always carry with it:

L-R: MontBlanc Messenger bag, Macbook AIR, USB modem,  Minimax speaker,  Plantronics 925  bluetooth headset, notepad, VGA adapter, Nokia E71, iPhone 3G, and Bang & Olufsen A8 earset.

Windows7 on the Macbook AIR

In a previous post I wrote that, “2009 will be the year where I will be less distracted by new gadgets.” Well, compared to years before, I can say that that has been quite true. We are almost at the end of the 1st quarter of the year and I have not added any new gadgets to the TECHNOCOP HQ. In the cellphone department alone, I have stayed with my very sleek E71 and iPhone 3G.

But all that has changed and I would have to blame Windows 7 and a recent business trip to Hongkong together with a close friend. After being extremely happy and productive in Windows 7, I found myself walking the streets of Causeway bay looking for a thin and light netbook. You guessed it, a thin and light netbook that will sport Windows 7 just as soon as I lay my hands on it. Heck, I even brought with me the installer and an external DVD drive. Let us cut through the chase, I bought a Macbook Air 1.86 GHZ Core 2 Duo with 128 gig SSD and 2 gig RAM. At 3 lbs, it is just as light as any netbook on the market.

The Windows 7 install (Using Bootcamp) on the AIR went without a hitch as expected. I simply followed the very well-written step by step guide in Simple Help. Here is my quick take on the experience thus far:

• My eyes are thanking me for the AIR’s very crisp 13 inch screen.
• I enjoy using the trackpad that I do not carry a mouse with me anymore.
• The processor speed is decent. It boots Windows 7 in just 40 seconds and WORD 2007 in 3 seconds. 
• The battery is good enough for my regular day of use. The meter shows 3+ hours but I will have to validate that some more.
• Even with its brick power adapter, the AIR hardly occupies space in most of my bags.
• All my software are running without any issues (Office 2007, Photoshop, TextAloud, Windows Live writer, Firefox 3 beta, Sugarsync and the Mindmanager Pro).

As I put the AIR with Windows 7 to the test in the days to come, I will report here other experiences that you may find helpful.

Back to the HK trip, my long-time friend and mentor, MARTIN CEPEDA, asked me to accompany him to a Montblanc shop to buy a pen. We went to the branch in Pacific Place and he went inside the store as I wandered through the other signature shops nearby. When he finally got out of the store, he was carrying a huge shopping bag with the store’s logo emblazoned on it. So I asked, “ boy, that must be a hell of a lot of pens that you brought there.” To which he replied, “Nope, this is my gift to you.”

In my next post, I will tell you what the gift was. (HINT: it is perfect for the Macbook AIR).

Windows 7 Experience Index

In my previous blog I wrote about why I am now seriously considering switching back to windows after almost two years of quite satisfying and productive experience with Apple’s OS X (both Tiger and Leopard). The dilemma was primarily a consequence of my amazing experience with the beta version of Windows 7.

Ever since I downloaded the beta version, I have already installed W7 in 3 computers:

1. HP 2710P Tablet PC. 1.2 ghz Core two Duo with 2 gig RAM.
2. Netbook. Asus EEE 1000H with 1.6 intel Atom proc and 2 gig RAM.
3. Desktop. The most recent addition to THQ, a $500 powerhouse sporting a Quad Core 2.4 ghz proc (Q6600) with 4 gig RAM.

Here are the Windows Experience Indexes for each:

HP 2710P

Asus EEE 1000H

Quad Core 2.4 4 Gig RAM

I have already said that Windows 7 turned the the 2 year old HP 2710P into a productivity gem. I can now also say that the same is true with the Netbook which used to run OS X (hackintosh). The only issue I encountered when installing W7 in the netbook was with the wifi. I had to to actually look for the original installer from Asus and installed from the CD the Ralink WLAN driver.

As happy as I may be with my two laptops running W7, I am blown away by the speed I am currently experiencing with my new $500 desktop. You add to that an absolutely flawless install of W7 (all drivers and applications working) and I was thinking why I ever even left Windows in the first place (Answer- a five letter word that starts with a V). This desktop easily beats in every department my sub-$2000 Dream Desktop (circa 2005).

Having all these extremely impressive experiences with this new product from Redmond, these had me thinking as to what I am really looking for in a computer. When you remove the eye candies, form factors and Veblenesque, I am actually looking for only 3 things:

1. It must work like a slave. It sits when I tell it to sit, it works when I tell it to work.

2. It must work with all of my must have applications. Right now, I mean Office 2007, Mindmanager 8.0, TextAloud, Photoshop CS (?), and Firefox.

3. It must provide me with a reasonable degree of immunity to the prevailing threats out of the box.

Let me leave you with this question, how does your present OS measure up in these 3 departments? Please share with me your thoughts.