Saturday, September 27, 2008

901 and EeePC strategy

EeePC 901 is no more selling in Malaysia

This is what local sales person told me, it was replace by 900 and 1000H. 900 is using Celeron CPU and 1000H is using Atom CPU but with a SATA hard disk (80G or 160G), selling price around RM2000.

I ask the sales person, since 1000H is using SATA hard disk, will it consumes more battery power compare with 901? The sales person told me, both 1000H and 901 battery life is the same. Later I found out from Asus's official specification, 901's battery last 1 hour longer than 1000H.

I feel like Asus EeePC strategy slowly losing their direction. Asus EeePC 701 as one the first successful sub-notebook, is getting popular because is light weight (less than 1 kg) and low cost (selling less than RM1k, now is about RM800).

If you look at the 1000H model that the market is selling now, the weight has increase to 1.45kg compare with the original 0.99kg. The price has been increased from RM1300 to RM2000, about 50%.

Using Intel Atom CPU is a good move, because it almost double the battery life. Using HD (as in 1000H) and selling with a higher price, I don't think is necessary, even there could be a market for it.

With RM2000 budget, I rather add a few hundred more, get a HP mini than EeePC 1000H. HP mini looks nicer and with a bigger size keyboard.

Personally I think 901 suit best for me. The weight is 1.1kg, using Atom and SSD storage, 6 cells battery which last for 4.2 to 7.5 hours. Just the price is slightly over my expectation, or else is just a perfect sub-notebook (without full size keyboard).

Too bad, Asus is no more selling 901 now.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Twitterrific on Mac OS

These days, the first thing I do after I login to my Mac is launch Twitterrific.

twitterrific
Twitterrific on Mac OS

I like twitterrific because twitterrific integrated with growl notification system. Twitterrific is a simple desktop application, with a nice user interface, and is configurable. It has an iPhone version as well.

For Microsoft lover, a twitterrific clone call MadTwitter is available on Windows platform.

More twitter client can be found here.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Google says is right time for Google browser

Google says it by release Google Chrome

While I am still wandering is Google going to create their own browser, and yes, Google release their open source browser Google Chrome, which base on WebKit and Mozilla.

Since Google has a close relation ship with Mozilla Foundation (Mozilla Foundation earn 10 of millions through partner ship with Google, refer here), Google is no hurry on releasing their own browser. Seems like Google is not satisfied with Firefox and can't wait to release their own browser, Google will do it when the time is right.

Should not be a surprise, since Google already building their own browser on Android platform. A desktop version of Google browser will be released, if not now it will be the in the future.

Some website says Google Chrome was accidentally announced, but I think it is a very good marketing after 1G Gmail account. There are more that 700 (now over 2000) news reporting on Google Chrome, is one of the top keywords on twitter search.

Another unavoidable browser war for Google and Microsoft has just begin, and this is just a warm up.

Google Chrome can be downloaded from here.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Why do you buy an iPod Touch?

Why not?

I told my friend, I want to buy an iPod Touch.

"Why don't you buy HTC Touch Diamond?", my friend ask me.

"I don't want to buy a mobile phone, I just want to surf net."

"HTC Diamond can surf net as well."

"The screen is too small."

"Too small... hmm... why don't you buy a Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable)?"

(huh!?)

"I don't want to play games, I just want to surf net."

"PSP can surf net as well."

Ok. I know. I want to buy iPod Touch because it is using Safari browser. Safari use WebKit html render engine which is one the fastest render engine and it support AJAX.

What is AJAX? AJAX is asynchronous javascript and xml.

What is javascript? Javascript is not java, is a scripting language which runs on browser.

What is xml? xml is extensible markup language.

What is markup language?... err...

I just want a portable device which is good enough for me to surf internet. I really hope there is something which better than iPod Touch.