New IT Trends

Macs and PCs a new digital divide

2009-11-27T12:25:00.001-02:00

Over the past couple of years, Apple has been making steady progress in increasing its market share in the personal computer business, even while it was tromping everyone else in the music player and more recently mobile phone business. While significant, the fact that their share of units sold has continuously grown pales in relation to the significance that their revenue share has been growing

The new white MacBook is a solid buy

2009-11-24T11:53:00.003-02:00

The new white MacBook is certainly a solid buy. Even if it were not for it having a nice set of specs, it would still be a solid offering from Apple, due to its new unibody enclosure. Having come to regard the term unibody as referring to the aluminum built MacBook Pros it seems a bit strange to refer to the white MacBook by it, but nonetheless, the terms is applied. The new enclosure provides

The cheap PC myth

2009-11-03T08:43:00.046-02:00

A bit over one year ago I became a Mac user. You could say that I became a convert, though my household was still primarily a Windows shop, as I had three PCs to my one Mac. At the time I decided to take the plunge into the Mac world, I chose the lowliest MacBooks as my first machine. At the time I remember thinking that I was really paying a premium on a computer that didn't even have a DVD

How can anyone still use Internet Explorer?

2009-08-21T12:02:00.004-03:00

I haven't really used Internet Explorer as my everyday browser since 2006, but until recently I hadn't really realized how bad it is. Back then it was IE 6 and Firefox 1.5, if I'm not mistaken. I preferred Firefox, but still used IE because there was at least one site I had to access, which didn't really look okay in Firefox. When I no longer needed to access that site, I made the full time

I haven't tried windows 7 yet, and I don't really care anymore

2009-07-26T16:11:00.004-03:00

Earlier this year, when Microsoft announced that it would make Windows 7 beta available for testing I was quite excited. I had hated Vista, as soon as I came into direct contact with it and my newly acquired notebook came into the very broadly defined "Vista Capable" set of computers in which you could install the system, but could not use the new interface. The idea of trying out Windows 7 was

Google's Chrome OS is so much steam

2009-07-15T04:10:00.003-03:00

Google has recently announced its intention of releasing an new operating system (OS) in 2010. This OS will be called Chrome OS and will run on both x86 and ARM based systems. While this news is generally interesting, it essentially amounts to vaporware.At the time of the announcement, and up to this day, Google didn't show so much as a single screenshot of the Chrome OS. While I do not

Opera wants to make your computer part of the cloud

2009-06-17T11:59:00.002-03:00

Opera has recently announced a new software/service offering called Opera Unite. This is included in a beta version of the Opera 10 browser that you can download directly from the company's website. With Unite Opera plans to help you bring a piece of the cloud home with you, by allowing you to simple and almost effortlessly host content for public consumption, within your own computer.Opera

The incompatible IE 8

2009-05-31T18:57:00.002-03:00

I haven't been using Internet Explorer for a long time. I think I made the full time switch to Firefox back in 2006, when I left employment at a company whose website only worked on IE. That need to use I to check on the website was the only thing holding me back from using Firefox for everything and on leaving the company I made the switch without even thinking about it. I just stopped using

Google Wave: The wave of the future?

2009-05-31T00:06:00.003-03:00

Google just introduced a developer preview of a new product called Wave. This new product combines in a single application most of what you can do with email, instant messaging, wikis, forums and collaborative word processing.The demo is quite impressive and is available on YouTube. While some may say that Google has not created anything really new with this product, just cobbled together a

On information overload...

2009-05-03T12:43:00.003-03:00

The current day's information overload is a topic that has been covered by many people, many times. Just having gone through one of those moments of revelation when you notice just how much time you've just spent reading a bunch of interesting, but thoroughly useless tidbits of information, I decided to throw in my two cents.Over the years I've developed certain habits. I visit certain sites to

The iPhone OS and the rest...

2009-03-30T00:56:00.004-03:00

Every once in a while I come across a discussion about smartphones. There is a fellow saying that he prefers Nokia model A while another is arguing that Blackberry model B is much better. Every time I run across this scenario, my thoughts are the same: "these fellows haven't got it yet".For me, an extra feature here, or an extra button there, doesn't come close to having a real, live hand-sized

Skype is now the largest international carrier

2009-03-26T16:41:00.003-03:00

I have always been a strong proponent for the use of Skype. I use it just about everyday to talk or chat with friends from the most distant corners of the planet and was quite pleased when I read the news, yesterday, that Skype is now the largest international carrier in the world. In 2008, Skype carried 33 Billion minutes of international calls, being thus responsible for about 8% of the

iPhone OS 3.0, a natural evolution to maturity

2009-03-22T02:29:00.003-03:00

Last night, I had an interesting conversation with an old friend of mine about the iPhone. He had mentioned to me that he was interested in getting one, but from the way he commented on it, it seemed clear that he wasn't up to speed with what an iPhone can do. I reffered him to the iPhone OS 3.0 presentation video on iTunes and suggested that he watch it, that way he could make up his mind if

Amazon makes smart move with Kindle for the iPhone

2009-03-04T14:15:00.002-03:00

Amazon is definitely playing it smart in releasing Kindle for the iPhone. From what information I've been able to get it seems that the first implementation of the software is still a bit "plain", but this is a huge step forward.Lets look at how this is good for readers first. Read the full article here...

Lifestyle: Skype

2009-02-27T01:06:00.002-03:00

Since 2005 I have been a regular Skype user. Right after I started using Skype I ran into a group of heavy users and pretty much took a dive into it. With all the traveling in my life since then, I've really grown into using Skype for all my long distance communications.I guess that is one of the reasons why running into a tech-savvy group of people that pretty much ignores such an incredible

A bit more on the EEE PC 1000HD

2008-10-14T19:46:00.002-03:00

From a comment on my previous post I noticed that I was remiss in not mentioning how this incredible little computer performs when used to play media. I shall now strive to correct this omission.For music I have to say it performs exceptionally well. I have used it with Apple's iTunes to listen to some music while I worked and it certainly performs that job well enough. To be truthful I never

Moving onto a small notebook

2008-10-14T01:21:00.006-03:00

For many years I have considered that really small notebooks are impractical. I know several people who have been using them for a long time, paying obscene prices for the privilege.When the Asus EEE PC came out it caught my attention and I have been following all the releases by different manufacturers as netbooks became all the fashion. A run in with a 10-inch EEE PC quickly brought me to the

Chrome - Google's going into browsers, full speed

2008-09-01T22:22:00.004-03:00

For a long time it has been rumored that Google would release its own web browser, but I doubt that many expected to get the news that is going into beta tomorrow. Google's close relationship with Mozilla had many people considering that the search giant was happy to have Firefox as the independent browser of choice for running sophisticated web applications everywhere.It seems that that is not

The downside of the iPhone

2008-06-11T23:58:00.003-03:00

I've always considered the iPhone to be an impressive product. The recently announced software and hardware updates have only strengthened this impression but nothing did as much for my opinion of the product as reading a recent blog post on ZDNet. In his post, Larry Dignan, lists as the only negative point of the new iPhone the fact that there will be many games available for it and that this

A new type of device for Apple

2008-06-08T00:42:00.001-03:00

As Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) approaches, the speculation always runs high. In reading some of the theories around, I thought I’d write about not what I think Apple will introduce but what I think it should be introducing. It was not too long ago that I wrote a post about Apple reinventing the handheld computer market. With the introduction of the iPhone SDK that allows

Outsourced Infrastructure - It's a whole new ball game

2008-05-29T12:14:00.001-03:00

There can be no question; we are entering a new age for infrastructure outsourcing. The services now offered by Amazon have reached a threshold where several companies exist entirely its data centers and have a very clear view of what will it cost to scale their operations.The cost predictability and reliability of Amazon Web Services (AWS) make it a lot simpler to plan the evolution of online

Small notebooks, you're still going to have one

2008-03-29T15:14:00.002-03:00

I've convinced my self that I am not going to escape having a sub-notebook, now that there are options, such as the Asus EEE PC, which do not cost more than a full-blown notebook or desktop system. For years I've thought that the small size is ideal for short trips and for extreme mobility but never managed to find the price of these equipments (most from Sony) be worth it as I still felt that I

Apple reinvents the handheld computer market

2008-03-16T14:09:00.003-03:00

Some days ago, while watching Apple's introduction of the iPhone SDK I realized how amazing the events unfolding (in Quicktime replay) in my computer screen were. It would all have been amazing, no matter what company had been demoing such features, but considering that it was Apple and that the device behind it all is the iPhone it was even more.Let me go back a couple of years to explain my

New EEE PC model might open new markets

2008-03-03T17:28:00.006-03:00

Asus put on display today a new, 9 inch model, EEE PC. No details are available about this new model yet though. Asus plans to hold a press event tomorrow in which more details should me announced.From the pictures that have become available so far it is possible to tell that the new model will be only slightly larger when compared to the 7 inch model that has commanded such attention. If Asus

HP to launch EEE contender

2008-02-20T11:02:00.003-03:00

It is getting increasingly clear that tiny notebooks are "in" this year. As a friend of mine would say, "it seems that every man and his dog is out to release one of these".Since yesterday news and rumors have been going around that HP is going to release an ultra-portable notebook to compete with Asus' EEE PC. These rumors now seem to be firming up since Engadget received some pictures and