Here is a neat Utility to turn off you touchpad while typing

TouchFreeze is a great utility for a Windows based machine that will automatically turn off your touchpad while you are typing on you notebook/netbook. If you are like me, a person with gorilla hands, you probably inadvertently   brush up against your touchpad while typing. All of sudden your cursor is in a different location on your screen and you have just added a great thought to your document but it is in the wrong place! Now you have to fix this and in doing so you now have lost your train of thought.

TouchFreeze when activated, will sit in your system tray and simply turn off the touchpad when you start typing. It’s simple, free and is an open-source program that works with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7.

Laptops with Spill-Proof Keyboards

HP is finally joining the ranks of manufacturer’s that will be providing a laptop with a keyboard drain. This is something that other manufacturers, notably Lenovo, have been building into their notebooks for years. How simple is is to provide drain holes designed to allow the flow of liquid back out of you keyboard if you accidentally spill liquid into it.

One thing that has been mentioned on the Lenovo design is to not tilt the laptop until it has completed the draining process. If you tilt the notebook, you will run the chance of shorting out the machine. Just turn it off and wait. You will want to put some absorbing material underneath especially if you are resting on service that could be damaged by liquid, or you could just move it to the sink!

While this design is great, the long term result of the spill can still be stickiness and reduced function because of that. At least you haven’t burned out the system…

The new HP unit’s launch will be coinciding with the release of Windows 7, so expect to see them become available after October 22nd. Prices will start around $799. The models to look for are the 5445b and 6545b.

ACER ASPIRE 4810T-8702 NOTEBOOK

Acer has come out recently with several smaller notebooks that all fall under their 8 hour battery, Go All Day, model line. These nifty new notebooks come in several screen sizes but the model that I am talking about today has a 14” display, 250gb hard drive, 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N WiFi, 3GB DDR3 Memory, Intel GMA 4500MHD Video, and an Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 Processor (1.4GHz, 800MHz FSB).

It is part of their Ultra-thin (<1 inch) 8 Hour Green Battery Life Systems. It is very light just a little over 4lbs. Great sound and decent video specifications. Priced at around $849 it comes with XP-Pro and is ready to be part of your Business Network Life!

Some of the key features that caught my eye:

1. Thermal efficient cooling – you won’t have fans kicking on. Because of the system  components are all energy efficient you don’t have as much heat built up inside the unit that needs cooled down.
2. High Definition Screen and HDMI output port. Hook this up to your big screen TV though one of its HDMI ports and see the great graphic display.
3. 3 USB Ports, Sound in and out, Video Camera and External Microphone
4. Ultra Thin and Light – For a 14 inch notebook this unit is very, very thin and light and still has the optical drive built-in. Take a look at the picture on the right showing the frontal view. The phone on top of the unit is a new iPhone 3GS which is sleek and thin in its own right.
5. Work all day on an 8 hour battery charge. I love the freedom this feature gives you.

This system is a perfect work companion for the mobile office worker who needs a machine that will do the work and provide all the extras in a small reasonably priced machine. Thumbs up on this sexy new Acer Notebook!

Tablet PC’s – living in a world of on demand access

I just finished reading an article from CNET NEWS entitled, “Why an Apple tablet will succeed” and I think that I really want to see a device that is a sleek thin device, with a touch screen between 10-12 inches, that allows me to access online media and web applications. I want pen (scribble to text) recognition, graphic drawing capabilities, and complete wireless internet access, whether it is through Wifi, WiMax or Cell connectivity. I want it light, 2lbs or less, and very indestructible. It would be nice to be able to use it as a phone and also have a video camera capability for video conferencing as well. 

Now, I must confess that I have been for a long time, closet Tablet PC promoter, and this new direction that Apple might be taking is very intriguing to me. It reminds me of my youth reading SciFi books that have their main characters connecting and interacting with tablet like devices with each other and to the world around them. I find that the way that I use my netbook is a  perfect fit for the way that I would use a tablet as well. I am looking forward to what the next 12 months brings to the Tablet Market.

Back to School – Should you get a Notebook or should you get a combination Netbook and Desktop?

We have been discussing this kind of configuration internally for a long time and I have personally been using this type of setup for myself. I have desktops both at work and at home and I have found that for the times that I need to have a little bit more mobility that a Netbook is filling the need just fine. I feel the netbooks, because of their lightweight design, probably will have less chance of being dropped then a large notebook and will not break your child’s back as they are going from class to class. The 10 inch size screens give you a pretty good display and for the things that they would be used for primarily they will probably fit the bill just nicely. Then if you student is needs the use of a more powerful workstation or larger screen display the desktop will be there for them in their dorm room. Moving data between systems has become even easier with the online cloud storage available from so many sources. So as long as you have internet access you have access to all of your data.

Pricing? A notebook will cost you between $700 and $1500 depending on the model and configuration you choose. A Netbook starts at $300 and you can get a decent workstation for between $500 - $900 dollars. This gives your student the best of both worlds.

Wheeeeee! CCI mobile phones are finally caught up to the fun stuff!

With Nick’s help I have gotten my new iPhone 3GS configured pretty close to the way I want it.

First and foremost our concern was with email. I have quite a few accounts and I am still trying to decide if I want all of them to connect to the iPhone or not. It is nice to have access and to manage the accounts from on central interface which is what this is allowing me to do. We encountered two problems, one is caused by the way I have my folders setup in Exchange, the other was with the server settings which is fixed now but required some server tweaking to do so. When we installed the Exchange mail program we lost the camera app on our phones. Turns out this is a security setting that was needed for the government. Once we fixed that the camera app came right back up and worked like a champ. My folder problem I am going to have to work on when I get a chance. Otherwise everything came right over.

The Plantronics Bluetooth ear bud was simple to install and connected without a sweat. It integrates real well with the phone.

The next test I had was with my Garmin 885T GPS unit. It has Bluetooth and that was pretty easy to connect. However, when I clicked on the phonebook icon it just sat their forever. I have a huge contacts database so what was going on was that it had to download to the device. Once it finally grabbed it the interface on the Garmin worked flawlessly with the phone. Great!

The last concern was whether or not I could get my Acer Netbook to tether to the phone and allow me to connect to our servers remotely. This process only took a few minutes and worked wonderfully. I can’t believe how cleanly everything came together. It took most of today to get me there but I have a really strong working setup now to allow a truly mobile office.

Lenovo - Notebook and laptop computers - ThinkPad T Series - Features

We have always been big enthusiasts with Lenovo’s notebook products. Here is a great information page that will let you move through the features that can be found in the  different T-series notebook products.

You see some great videos that will help you understand the differences as well.

Lenovo - Notebook and laptop computers - ThinkPad T Series - Features

Sony to enter the netbook market soon…

The new Sony Vaio W will be based on the 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 processor just like its competition but Sony plans on differentiating itself by offering a larger touchpad and a higher resolution screen. Typical netbooks in the 10 inch screen arena sport  1024x600 pixel screen but the Sony units will have a display resolution of 1366x768, providing a significantly larger desktop area to work in. This will mean less scrolling on applications  and websites and potential better experience in the long run.

Along with the higher resolution comes a higher price tag.The estimated cost will be around 500 dollars. The Units will begin shipping in August and will initially be available in the U.K., France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Russia and be available form Sony's online shop. There has been no

The proposed Sony specs on release: Windows XP Home, 1GB RAM, 160GB  Hard Drive, only 2 USB ports, 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN and Bluetooth, Camera and a Memory Card Reader. The Battery Life is estimated at 3.5 hours on the low side for money.

I love Sony products primarily because their systems usually have much better screen displays, and as usual, you will be paying for that feature as well. If you need better resolution on your netbook, then this product might be the answer.However, the price tag may be the deciding factor to keep it out of the booming netbook market. I sure hope it will be available in something other than pink!