With more and more GPS navigation apps arriving in the App Store,  how does the new MapQuest Navigator compare?  A subscription based app ($4 monthly, $10 quarterly, $30 yearly), it requires a constant data connection but offers turn-by-turn and text-to-speech routing – but is it worth the cost over the free Google Maps app and is it cheap enough to buy instead of the $80+ “stand alone” apps TomTom and Navigon (or even the $35 CoPilot)?

Initial thoughts:

It’s subscription based.  As soon as I saw this I was instantly turned off – however – after sitting on it a bit and thinking about the price, it’s not that bad for a subscription.  At $4/month, $10/quarter, or $30/year, that price will probably be cheaper than what you will have to pay for TomTom or Navigon map updates (no word how much they will be);  $30/year is at least cheaper than the map updates of $40/year for TomTom and $95/year for Navigon stand alone units.

Update 10/12/09:  MapQuest Navigator was initially $0.99 with a 14 day trial, but due to App Store policies, they had to make it $3.99 which includes the first month of service. 

Requires constant data connection.  Unlike CoPilot, TomTom, and Navigon, this requires a constant data connection (like GoogleMaps); there is no map download that allows the app to read map information directly from your phone.  If you have spotty reception or even spotty 3G coverage this will present a problem for you.

Turn-by-turn, text-to-speech, and live traffic data:  While it has it’s shortcomings, it does at least come with welcomed features.  Unlike GoogleMaps, it does turn-by-turn “3D” directions while also announcing directions and street names (“turn left on twenty third avenue”).  Not only that, but it also integrates traffic data to help adjust your route in order to avoid traffic delays.

So all this is what MapQuest Navigator is “on paper”, how about how it actually performs in every day use?

Navigation, routing, and re-routing:

It’s so-so.  Testing it out on my way home from work today (~9 mile drive), both my TomTom stand alone unit and GoogleMaps have me go the same way – the fastest way (from many of the other possible routes, which I’ve tried).  

However, I found that MapQuest Navigator seems to highly prefer usage of highways.  It wasn’t until the 4th route recalculation that it finally had me go home my normal route (which again, is the preferred route by gmaps and TomTom).  If I were to have taken MapQuest’s route, it would have increased my trip time by 5 minutes (I’ve taken that route before, without traffic).

Re-Routing:  Understandably, it appears that it only downloads enough map data to handle your surrounding route, and also bases it’s immediate re-routing on these “limited maps”.  What I mean by this is that I turned away from the suggested route (to go the way I feel it should’ve sent me) and each road I passed it wanted me to turn down to get back on the original route.  After the 5th intersection, it ran out of road and only then did it completely recalculate the route (dotted lines added by me, which signify where the roads actually continue on):

Searching for POIs

First and foremost, it’s nice to be able to search for POIs online vs only being able to use ones that are stored locally (ie: stand alone GPS units).  However, finding the right POI can sometimes be a bit of a pain here.  While located in Baltimore (inner harbor area), I tried to search for BWI airport – I type in “BWI Airport”, click search, and then I have to zoom out to see any results (if there are indeed any).   If there are no results at your current zoom level, a message appears telling you to zoom out, and if you wait about 7 seconds that message goes away and you are looking at the map as though nothing happened.

Then, proceeding to zoom out in order to see any of my results, there isn’t a clear and easy way to tell which of the results is even close to what I’m looking for (at least not without zooming into each one and tapping the bubble to see what it is):

However, if I had chosen to use one of the preset POI category menus from the bottom, "Airports” for example, it finds it right away:

In other words, it’s fairly easy to find “general” POI’s using their preset categories, which are:

• (All) Restaurants
• Hotels & Motels
• Shopping Centers and Malls
• Gas Stations
• Coffee Shops
• Post Offices
• Parking Garages
• Grocery Stores
• K-12 Schools
• Movie Theaters
• Ice Cream Parlors
• Bars
• Pharmacies
• Airports
• Lube & Oil
• Traffic
• (clear map)
• (MapQuest info)

Another plus is that you can navigate to contacts.  From what I’ve read about other GPS apps, not all of them allow you to navigate to a contact, so this is nice.  Just simply tap the address book icon and pick your contact, then their address:

Other items to note

• You cannot play music in the background.  This could very well be a deal breaker for me if I were seriously considering buying it.  When in my car, I use my iPhone to stream music to my car (via Bluetooth A2DP).  If you are playing music and use MapQuest Navigator, the music will stop playing.

• Limited options.  This is a very basic, no frills GPS navigation app.  All you can do is search for destinations/POIs, navigate to them, browse the map or route, enable traffic display, or toggle night mode.  That’s about it.  There’s no “find alternative route”, “travel via or avoid a specific road”, etc:
   

Conclusion

MapQuest Navigator for the iPhone is unfortunately lost in the crowd due to both the free GoogleMaps app and the stand alone CoPilot app.  Though GoogleMaps isn’t really the same sort of app (no turn-by-turn directions), it’s POI and general speedy responsiveness is better than MapQuest Navigator – and CoPilot is only $5 more and yet also has text-to-speech, allows you to download the entire US map locally (no constant data connection required), and basically does everything that MapQuest does.

Good

• Text to speech
• Traffic data no additional charge
• Navigable to contacts and online searchable POIs

Meh

• Limited options
• Requires data connection (won’t work if you are in a no coverage area)

Bad

• Cannot play music in the background
• Limited route recalculation capabilities (takes a few attempts to “really” recalculate a new route)
• Cheapest subscription fee is $30/year, but CoPilot is $35 with no subscriptions.

In an effort to go completely paperless, I was presented with the problem of needing to sign a document (pdf) that was emailed to me and then needing to send it back.  Without having to print out the form to sign it nor needing access to a scanner or fax machine to send it back, you can simply take a picture of your signature, and then using free tools you can “import” it “into” the PDF and email it right back! 

This may seem long and complicated at first, but once you read through it and do it once, it should be fast and easy a second time – And granted, there may be slightly easier ways to do this with paid tools, but this guide is for using freely available tools which you also may have one or two already installed!:

1. Download and install the tools

Here is what you need to download:

• Adobe Reader 9 which you probably already have.  We will use this to view the original PDF and take a single screenshot to import into the image editing software (don’t worry, it will look good!),
• Paint.net (or really, any drawing program that can do layers and make transparent images) which we’ll use to overlay your signature on the PDF screenshot, and then also to re-print to a new PDF,
• CutePDF (or any other free PDF Printer), which as opposed to printing to a printer, will allow you to “print to” (create) a PDF, and
• A way to get a copy of your signature on your computer.  I used my iPhone to take a picture of my signature, though, you can use what ever camera phone, real digital camera, etc that you have.

2. Convert your PDF to a screenshot (an image)

Open your PDF in Adobe Reader 9 and zoom all the way out so you can see the entire page (even if it looks small and you can no longer read anything):

Next, select the SnapShot tool (“Tools” –> “Select & Zoom” –> “Snapshot Tool”) and starting at one corner, click-and-drag to the opposite diagonal corner to highlight the entire page.  Once you do that, you should receive a dialog box saying that the selected area has been copied to the clipboard:

However, if you proceed in using what is currently copied, it will be exactly the same size as you are currently looking at it; meaning, it will be really small and will end up very pixilated when you “blow it up” to normal paper size when you re-print it as a PDF, such as the image below (click to enlarge to full size):

So, in order to fix this, make sure the page is still highlighted (transparent blue) and then zoom in quite a bit (“View” –> “Zoom” –> “Zoom To…”).  You don’t need to zoom to 5000%, but 200-300% should be enough.  While making sure it is still highlighted, right click anywhere it is blue-ish, and click “copy selected graphic”.  You now have a much larger screenshot of the PDF in your clipboard. 

Proceed by opening Paint.net and pasting into a new image (Edit –> Paste) and feel free to save this as a PNG file if you want (I’ll refer to this image as “pdf screenshot”).  Either way, to make things easier, go ahead and keep Paint.net open while we move forward.  You now have a large, high quality screenshot (image) of your PDF which is ready to have your signature placed on top of!

3. Get your signature onto your computer

Okay, so now you need to get your signature on the computer.  Chances are you have a decent enough camera phone (and a way to get those pictures onto your computer) that you can use to take a picture of your signature , such as the iPhone – or – you can of course use a scanner, a real digital camera, or however else you can come up with a way to do it.  With my iPhone, I just took a picture of the signature in a decently lit room and then emailed my self the picture:

(and no, this is not my real signature, ha)

4. Prep your signature for overlaying on the PDF screenshot

We will now make the image black and white, enhance it (using brightness and contrast), and then make everything that is not the signature (the paper) to be transparent.  Open your signature in Paint.net (or whatever image software you are using) and 1) convert the image to black and white, and then 2) adjust the brightness and contrast so that it really is only black-and-white. 

To do this, start out by opening the signature image in Paint.net (“File –> “Open” –> find your image).  If you already have your pdf screenshot open, you should now be in a new Paint.net window:

First, we’ll go ahead and resize the signature just incase it is huge by going to “Image” –> “Resize”.  Make sure “Maintain aspect ratio” is checked and change the width to 1000 pixels (leave whatever number appears in the Height section as-is. It will probably not be the same as mine).  Click ok. (resizing now will help prevent issues when pasting it over the pdf screenshot later)

Now, 1) go to the “Adjustments” menu bar, then click “Black and White”, and then 2) go back to “Adjustments” and then “Brightness / Contrast” — for my particular image, I had to set brightness at 52 and contrast at 79 for it to look like the following (your settings will vary) – the goal here is to have the background as white as possible while having the signature stand out and be clear:

Now we need to make all the “white” become transparent so we can overlay it on top of the pdf screenshot.  

First, select the Magic Wand tool and start with a tolerance level of 50%:

Then, hold the CTRL key while you start clicking on the white areas of the image.  Keep clicking the white areas (while still holding CTRL) until they have all been selected so you get something that looks like this (zoom in if you need to in order to get enclosed small areas such as the white space in letters like P, B, O, etc):

At this point, you can then press the delete key, and everything that is highlighted (all the white) will be removed and will be replaced with transparency (white and grey checkered boxes):

There, now your signature is ready to be placed on the pdf screenshot!

5. Paste the signature onto the pdf screenshot

Start out by copying your entire signature by going to “Edit” –> “Select all” and then copy it (edit->copy).  Then, move on over to your pdf screenshot (just click on it’s thumbnail in the top-right corner if you still have it open, or if not, open it! [with Paint.net] ).

From here, create a new layer on top of your pdf screenshot by going to “Layers” –> “Add new layer”:  (this will allow you to place the signature “on top” of the pdf screenshot without covering anything up)

Next, paste the signature into this new layer (“Edit” –> “Paste).  Chances are, your signature will be a big large, but either way you will need to resize it to the size your actual signature would be and move it down to the signature line:

With the signature still selected (dotted lines still surrounding it), hold the SHIFT key on the keyboard while you click and drag one of the corners of the signature selection  (when you move the mouse cursor to one of the corners, the cursor should change from a solid black arrow to a white hand, thus signifying you can resize).  Hold the SHIFT key while you resize it so it will keep the same aspect ratio.   Continue to resize it until it is about the right size that you signature would be.  Once you are happy with the size, let go of the SHIFT key and release the mouse button – now, move the cursor to the middle of the signature so you now have a black arrow cursor – this will now allow you to move the signature down to the signature line:

Now, click and drag the signature to the signature line and release the mouse button.  With the signature where you want it on the pdf screenshot, proceed to “flatten” the image (combine the “signature layer” with the “pdf screenshot” layer) by going to “Image” –> “Flatten”.   Congratulations, your PDF screenshot is now signed and ready to be re-saved (“printed”) as a pdf!

6.  Print to PDF

Now, go to “File” –> “Print”, and select your PDF printer (in my case, “CutePDF  Writer”).  Be sure that you select Full Page Photo and don’t choose the option for cropping if you see it (I am using Windows 7, but if you were using XP you may see the option for full page photo cropped) and continue to print.

Your PDF printer software will now most likely have some sort of dialog box asking you what to name, and where to save, your new pdf – go ahead with that, and then enjoy your signed pdf!

So there you have it, you were able to bypass having to print it and scan it in (or fax it)!  Have a simpler (free) way to add a signature to a PDF?  Did I miss a step you can’t seem to get passed?  Let me know in the comments!  (caveat emptor, this guide is in no way meant to act as a way to forge, or otherwise impersonate, someone’s signature!)

There have been many sales on the (refurbished) Dell Mini 10 and 10v’s lately, so here is a comparison review of them.  All things considered, for the price you can get them for in the Dell Outlet, I would have to say they are the best netbook you can get today – with the 15% outlet coupons (which come out every few weeks), you can likely get grab one for around $228 before tax that is 10”, 1.3mp camera, Intel Atom 1.6ghz, 6 cell battery – about the same specifications as any other 10” netbook at a fraction of the price!  Now, on with the review (both  in general, and compared to each other):

Specifications:

The below specs are that which were used in the reviewed units, (specs in parenthesis are different options that are available, but not reviewed):

Comparison photos:

When compared side to side, the only difference is that the Mini 10 has an HDMI port (10v VGA), the 10v’s screen is a bit recessed, and they have different placements of USB ports – otherwise, unnoticeable differences in dimensions/appearance:

As you can see above, the Mini 10v’s screen does not sit flush with the bezel like it does with the Mini 10, nor is it as glossy. 

   
Here, you can see that they are the same other than usb placements and HDMI (10) vs VGA (10v).

And lastly, the front and rear are the same!

Build quality / keyboard / touchpad:

The Mini 10/10v have one of the better keyboards I’ve used in netbooks (other than the EEE PC 1000HE or Samsung NC20).  The keyboard’s size is 92% of a regular keyboard and none of the keys are placed in crazy locations (…such as the Dell Mini 9…).  There is no noticeable flex and the keys are not loose.  One thing that is different when compared to most netbooks/laptops is that the function keys require you to hold down the FN key, as opposed to having the “extra” keys (brightness, volume, external monitor, wifi switch, etc) needing the FN key.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just different.

The touchpad is a catch 22 for me on the Mini 10 – it’s great in that it’s large and works just like any other touchpad, but the multitouch really gets in the way.  I am used to having my thumb rest on the touchpad buttons and then just using my middle finger to navigate the cursor.  However, when I keep my thumb on the touchpad button (not depressed, just resting on it), I am unable to use my other fingers for navigating the cursor – it registers both fingers as a multitouch action (even though my thumb is on the touchpad button area and not the “navigation” part).  What’s strange, though, is that this isn’t an issue with the 10v – I can have my thumb on the button and still use my finger to move the cursor…strange (and I cannot find an option to turn off multitouch).

Overall build quality for both Mini 10/10v is on par with most any other netbook – no flex, sturdy lid, etc.  If you’ve held/used an acer aspire one, msi wind, hp mini – they’re all pretty much the same as the Mini 10/10v in “build quality”.

Battery:

Aesthetically, the 6 cell extended battery on these looks awful.  Not only that, but it sticks straight down from the netbook as opposed to others’ which tend to at least extend at an angle towards the back.  This effectively adds about an extra inch of thickness at the back and causes the netbook to sit at a relatively sharp angle. However, the 3 cell battery is flush with the bottom and adds no extra thickness or ugliness:

However, the 6 cell battery at least performs well even if it’s not pretty. Below is a chart of battery times when using both the 3 cell and 6 cell while either having hulu running full screen 100% of the time, or auto refreshing 3 webpages (cnn, engadget, and yahoo news) 100% of the time. All the while, brightness was at level 4 brightness:

As you can see, they were very close in batter life, with the Mini 10v being able to handle over 6 hours when doing ONLY basic web browsing.

Performance:

Let me first say they are both Atom processors with integrated graphics.  They’re not powerful.  Basic web browsing, word processing, etc is fine.  Dvd watching / music listening, okay.  Light gaming, you’re stretching it.  Flash, photo editing, etc, no.   That being said, besides the Mini 10 being a bit more sluggish when having more applications open (1GB), they both faired just as well as every other netbook out there (sans the EEE PC 1000HE overclocked).  I was unable to get PCMark05 to run on the Mini 10 (no idea why), but I was able to on the Mini 10v which scored 1,498.  (This is only slightly less than my EEE PC 1000HE which scored 1563 in super performance mode). 

Mini 10v PCMark05 scores:

• PCMark05 score:  1498
• CPU Test Suite:  1481
• Memory Test Suite:  2357
• Graphics Test Suite:  545
• HDD Test Suite:  4100

Upgradability:

The Dell Mini 10 is pretty “locked” down as far as upgrading goes.  The memory is stuck at 1GB (as it’s integrated in the motherboard), and in order to upgrade the wireless card, you’ll have to fully dismantle the laptop (like you do in order to upgrade the memory in the Mini 10v).   However, in the Mini 10v, there is actually an access door to upgrade the wireless:

To upgrade the hard drive, both simply require the keyboard to removed (which is just removing 3 screws from underneath):

And of course, the Mini 10v is upgradable to 2gb though requires fully dismantling the laptop to get access to the memory slot which is on the bottom side of the motherboard (there is no easy access panel like there is for the wireless card in the 10v). 

Conclusion:

All things considered, when choosing to get the Mini 10 or the Mini 10v it mostly comes down to whether you want HDMI (with 1GB max) or VGA (but with 2GB max).  I say “mostly” only because with the Mini 10 you are now able to get an HD screen as well as integrated GPS and TV tuner (but which also substantially increased the price).   I also highly recommend regardless of which one you go with to purchase them from the Dell outlet to get a significant savings in cost – they carry the same warranty and most times you can’t even tell they’re refurbished!

As Google Voice gains more and more steam, here are a few tips and tricks you may find useful (if you are one of the people who have had your invite accepted):

– Call from your GV number (from whatever phone you have in hand) –

You can make an outgoing call as your GV number (recipient’s caller ID would show GV too) from any phone by:

• Dial your GV number
• Press *
• Dial your GV voicemail pin
• Press 2
• Dial the number you wish to call
• Press #

So say your GV number was 111-222-3333, pin 1234, and outgoing call 999-888-7777, you would dial:  111-222-3333 * 1234 2 999-888-7777#

– Google Voice works with Gizmo –

Gizmo is very similar to Skype in that it is a VOIP application you can run on your computer (Win, Mac, Linux) or mobile phone – again, very similar to Skype.  One major advantage Gizmo has over Skype is that you can have it work with your Google Voice number, so you can answer any of your GV calls from the Gizmo app (again, from your computer or mobile device).

One more thing that’s great about Gizmo is that you can use it to make free incoming and free outgoing free 3 minute outgoing calls from your computer!  A  few days/weeks ago, posts filtered in about there being actual feature to pair up your GV account & Gizmo to be able to dial out directly from Gizmo without having to pay for any of the first 3 minutes of call out credit / any in credit, or having to login to google.com/voice and then start the call from the GV web interface :

Pair this setup with an ATA device (ie: an old SunRocket or Vonage box), and can you can be able to make free 3 minute outgoing calls and receive unlimited free incoming calls using a land line phone (without having to have a computer running), or through the Gizmo5 app (with a computer running).  Learn more about how to do this from my earlier post, Use Gizmo5 for free calls with Google Voice.

– Forward calls going to your cell, to GV, when out of range so you won’t miss the call –

With most (any?) cell carriers, you can setup conditional forwarding rules to forward incoming calls to different numbers based on the situation.  For example, you can have your incoming calls forwarded only if you have no signal, if you ‘deny’ the call, or if you simply want to send people to a different number as opposed to using your default voicemail.   This could be useful if you live in an area that gets poor cell reception – you could set your phone to forward to Google Voice when you do not have signal (ie when at home), and then have GV ring your Gizmo phone (either on your computer or via an ATA device like mentioned earlier), or your land line if you still happen to have one (do you?).  No more missed calls at home!

For reference, unconditional means it will forward every call at all times, busy is when you are already on a call, no reply is when you don’t answer the call (when the call would normally go to voicemail), and not reachable is when you phone is not getting signal (out of range).   Also, dialing the code for disabling unconditional forwarding will disable all call forwarding and you are ‘billed’ normal minutes for any forwarded call (if you spend 5 minutes on a forwarded call, it’s like you spent 5 minutes on your cell). 

(thanks wikipedia):

So for example, say I wanted to forward calls to 123-456-7890 when I have no signal, I would dial *62*1234567890# and press send/talk – You should get some sort of confirmation that the forwarding is now in effect;  I know on my old at&t Fuze, I would get a simple dialog box saying “forwarding saved”, and now on my iPhone, I get a fancy dialog confirming exactly which conditional forwarding rule I just set:

– Use GV for just it’s voicemail capabilities –

Can’t see a real use or need for a 2nd, all-purpose, forwarding number?  Then just set your Google Voice account to Do-Not-Disturb (or don’t enter any forwarding numbers) and just use GV for it’s voicemail service.   Transcriptions still have a long way to go, and it appears it does much better with female / higher pitched voices, but most of the time you can get the gist of what the caller is trying to get across.  Being able to first try and ‘read’ your voicemails is already 10x better than having to sit through the long drawn out voicemail prompts (though they can be shortened). 

How do you set this up?  Login to your account, go to Settings (General tab), and scroll down and check “Enable ‘Do Not Disturb’”:

Then, setup your call forwarding as mentioned earlier to forward to your GV number for all three options (busy, no reply, and unreachable).  This will effectively replace your providers voicemail service with Google Voice’s. 

– Firefox extension to make calls using GV on any webpage –

Chad over at thatsmith.com has created a firefox extension that builds upon his earlier GrandCentral Click to Call Add-on to make any phone numbers on a webpage clickable which will initiate a call through your Google Voice number.   All you need to do is simply install the Add-on, click on a phone number on webpage, and you’ll get a call from your GV number and it will connect you to the number!

– Create bookmarks/favorites or desktop shortcuts that act as speed dials –

Every contact in Google Voice has their own, unique URL at the mobile version of the site (https://www.google.com/voice/m).  If you click on a contact, the URL that brought you there is unique to that particular contact (it will look something like  https://www.google.com/voice/m/contact/5680533939988165049).  Now, while this is not a URL that will automatically start the call, it will still only be one (more) click away — you’ll have to click “call” once at that page:

So what are some ‘useful’ ways to utilize this? 

You could create a Firefox bookmark toolbar folder of contacts,

Create some desktop shortcuts,

Or even add it as an iPhone webclip icon (thanks Eric & lifehacker.com):

Questions about any of these or have any tips or tricks that aren’t listed here?  Then spell it out in the comments!

With Google Voice (what is Google Voice?) fulfilling more and more invitations, some more great news has recently been discovered (thanks cnr1109):  you can now setup Gizmo (a VOIP application very similar to Skype) to make free incoming and outgoing calls using your Google Voice account – no longer do you have to “start” the call from the google.com/voice webpage (or similar).   Not only this, but if you get a SIP/ATA device (devices used for Vonage/SunRocket/etc), you can plug it into your existing home phone line and have free calls from home without having to use your computer!  And what else?  it’s easy to setup:

1. Add your Google Voice number to your Gizmo5 account

Login to your gizmo5.com account and enter in your google voice account information (if you are weary about giving them your gmail account information, which you shouldn’t be – but if you are, you can request your google voice account be associated with a different gmail address)  Google Voice number:

update 7/27/09 7:30pm est:  There is now a notice on the page that this is an experimental service and calls will be limited to 20 minutes.  They also provided a link to more information at www.gizmovoice.com:

update 7/30/09:  Now it is limited to 3 minutes of outgoing calls, unlimited incoming, and more – find out full details over at http://www.gizmovoice.com/ or http://gizmocall.com/:

 

update 8/8/09:  (how many more changes will there be!?)  Now you no longer have to enter in your Google account credentials:

2.  Add your Gizmo5 number to your Google Voice account (and verify it)

Login to Google Voice (http://www.google.com/voice) and add your Gizmo5 number (if you haven’t already):

Once you click save, you’ll see a window pop up with a verification code.  Make sure you have Gizmo installed and running on your computer, and then click ‘connect’ (tip:  if having problems getting Gizmo5 to work in Windows 7, install AND run it [once installed] in Windows XP Compatibility mode):

 
Answer the call within Gizmo (you do NOT need to be paying for Gizmo incoming call feature for this call), and then enter in the 2 digit code:

Now, at this point, you can now make free outgoing, and receive free incoming, calls from the Gizmo application (using your Google Voice number)!

3.  Setup an ATA device for free calls using a land line phone

To be able to make/receive these free calls from an actual land line phone (using the “normal” phone lines in your house/etc), you will have to obtain a ATA \ PAP2 \ VOIP device.  This is basically a box that you plug in to your router/modem and then you can plugin a normal phone line into this device.  You then configure the device to work with your Gizmo account, plugin a land line phone (or, plug it into your home’s phone jack in the wall, and then any phone plugged into a different phone jack will work) and viola!  Free incoming/outgoing calls using your land line phones. 

Where can you find such a device?  These are the devices that were/are used for such services like Vonage, the now defunct SunRocket, and the like.  Here are a few examples of ATA devices (get already unlocked ones and save your self hassle):

• Linksys Sipura SPA-2100 (or basically any unlocked sipura model numbers) – ebay
• Linksys PAP2 – ebay
• InnoMedia MTA6328-2Re – ebay (not sure how to unlock these)
• Happen to already have an old SunRocket device (most likely InnoMedia)?  Follow these instructions (thanks WorpX) to unlock & use with Gizmo5

Once you have a ATA device, here is the information you want to use to set it up to use your Gizmo account (how to access the admin panel of your device depends on the device):

• Username:  your ten digit Gizmo number and country code [1 ### ### ####] with no spaces  (you can find your gizmo number by logging into your http://www.gizmo5.com account, and it will be listed there as your “SIP Number”)

  

• Password:  your Gizmo password
• Server:  proxy01.sipphone.com (or, if you are having problems with hearing audio when receiving calls, try stun01.sipphone.com:3478 – thanks ccengineer)

update 7/30:  As mentioned earlier in step 2, Gizmo has now limited (free) outgoing calls to 3 minutes but still allowing unlimited incoming minutes.  Here is the email I received this evening about it:

Gizmo Voice Moves from Experimental to Beta

---

Thanks for trying our experimental Gizmo Voice service. The viral spread of this service surprised us and we’ve received valuable feedback from many users on their experience of linking their Google Voice number to a Gizmo5 account so they can make and receive calls from wifi phones, ATAs, PC software and even a browser window using GizmoCall.com. Many of you have told us about the wide range of SIP devices you can now use to connect to Google Voice and we’re keeping a list of user suggestions of compatible wifi phones and software you might want to try out.
We’re now moving the service from Experimental to Beta and there are some important facts you should know:

• Gizmo Voice will remain a free service for Google Voice users to link their telephone number to a SIP account via Gizmo5.
• Unlimited incoming calls will be permitted to any SIP software or hardware.
• Free 3 minute calls to US numbers.
• All outbound calls will display your Google Voice CallerID.
• Longer calls will require a purchase of Gizmo5’s Call-Out which offers low per minute fees to all destinations.
• Unanswered inbound calls will use Google’s voicemail with unlimited online storage and free voicemail transcripts.

We hope you are enjoying the high quality VOIP service Gizmo5 has to offer, which includes unlimited calls to 800 numbers, other SIP networks, GoogleTalk users and even the ability to call a Skype user from any SIP device. (To test the SIP to Skype gateway call Try dialing 1-333-666-1111 which is the Skype echo line.) Gizmo5 is committed to user empowerment that comes from the use of open standards and interconnected services.

Any questions!?  Have better ATA devices to use? Feel free to ask in the comments!

As opposed to simply providing a removable door (like they did for the mini-card) to upgrade the memory, Dell decided to make it difficult by requiring you to dismantle the entire laptop… (but what do I know, maybe it would affect structural integrity or something to add a door?).

So, in light of this fact, here is a step-by-step how-to video (and pictures) on how to upgrade the memory!  All you will need is time, a set of mini screw drivers, and patience!

While following this video, I would highly recommend having the Dell created service manual to follow along in case anything shown here is unclear/etc:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins10v/en/sm/memory.htm#wp1180987

Since YouTube caps videos at 10 minutes, I broke it up into:

Taking it apart and adding the memory:

and then another putting it all back together:

Or, or those who prefer a guide using pictures as opposed to video:

1.  Start out by removing the battery by sliding out the battery lock clips, and then pull the battery straight out.  Then remove the (3) screws holding in the battery and the (1) screw securing the mini-card door, and remove the door.

2.  Remove the mini card.  Gently pry off the two antenna cables by, for example, placing a small screw driver underneath the cables where the gold metal and cable meet – then softly prying it up.  Then, remove the single screw holding the mini card down, then pull out the card.

3.  Remove the keyboard and it’s ribbon cable, as well as the ribbon cable for the touchpad.  You’ll need to basically use a very thin flat head screwdriver, credit card, etc in order to ‘pry up’ the keyboard from the center near the screen.  Once you are able to get your fingers underneath it, just pull up on the right and left sides until the laptop is free:

(there are small clips holding the eayboard in on the right and left, just pry the keyboard up as if there is a hinge at the palm rest and it’ll come loose).  Don’t pull the keyboard too far from the chassis as it’s still connected via it’s ribbon cable:

With the keyboard free, remove the ribbon cable(s) by sliding out the left and right grey “clips” holding the ribbon cable(s) in. (they will “slide out” about 2mm or so) 

4.  Remove the palm rest.  This can be a bit frustrating, but basically you want to use your thumbnail / thin creditcard to start prying from the left and right edges, where it meets the bracket:

5.  Prep for palm rest bracket removal.   First, go ahead and remove the 1 screw holding in the hard drive, and slide it out (blue).  Then, unplug the 3, or 4 if you have bluetooth, cables (green).  Finally, unscrew the 4 screws securing the palm rest bracket from the top (red).

Turn the netbook over and remove the 5 remaining screws securing the palm rest from the bottom:

6.  Actually remove the palm rest bracket.  Dell suggests starting from the hinges and working down, but I was unable to undo the clips here to start.  So instead, I started at the speakers (which are already loose), and started prying off the bracket from here.  Basically, just start pulling the entire bracket up, working your way from the palm rest area up towards the hinges, until it is removed.  (that being said, once I started getting the bracket unclipped half way to the hinges, I was able to pry off the hinge-area):

7.  Prep system board (motherboard) removal.  Almost there!  Now you need to unplug the 3 remaining cables (green) and 2 screws (red).  It may not matter, but when removing the display cable (top right), pull from the middle of the cable, as that’s where all the wires are bunched:
 

8.  Remove the motherboard.  The board is now completely loose from the chassis and can be removed!  Be careful not to nick it on anything while pulling it off, but it’s relatively easy not to.  Flip over the board, release the memory and pop in your 2GB stick:
  

9.  Put everything back together.  Basically, just follow all theses steps in reverse, power on the system, and enjoy your 2GB Dell Mini 10v!

Have any questions or run into problems?  Find an easier way to pry apart the palm rest bracket or etc?  Let everyone know in the comments!

Need your parents to send you some cash?  Do you pay the rent and have your roommates pay you back their share?  Oh perhaps a friend/family member just simply owes you money but just don’t want to have to deal with receiving and depositing a check?  Well, you can now (at least, as of 6/3/09) send and receive “personal” payments via PayPal which will not result in any PayPal fees (and you don’t need to have a separate personal/business/etc account – at least I don’t)!

Splitting the cost of an apartment 3 ways, one of us usually pays the rent in full and then the others pay their share to that person.  Sometimes, we’re not all around at the end of the month, so a check is usually left/sent for the others to cash.  This time around, instead of writing a check and having to wait a few days for it to clear, we decided to just skip the hassle and just send PayPal and eat the 2.9% fee – but then noticed the “Personal” tab and discovered that it can be fee free!:

Needless to say this was exciting to find out – now I can lend (and borrow) from friends/family, instantly, for free!

But what are the ‘fine details’ to this free transferring of money?  It must be:

• for a personal transaction (“A personal transaction involves sending money to and receiving money from friends and family without making a purchase”),
• the sender and/or receiver must be in the US, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Taiwan (otherwise there’s a 0.5-2% fee),
• the source of the payment must come from a bank account or your existing PayPal balance,
• (and you can not send “payment requests” for personal transactions)

Here is a more detailed listing of when you will, and will not, be charged a fee (from PayPal’s policy update on 6/3/09), copied from https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_update-policy:

Fees depend on whether you are making a commercial transaction or a personal transaction. A commercial transaction involves buying and selling goods or services, and payments received when you send a “request money” using PayPal. A personal transaction involves sending money to and receiving money from friends and family without making a purchase.

Personal Transactions. Fees depend on the payment source that the sender selects. The amount of the fee will be shown at the time the payment is sent. The Fee is paid by either the sender or the recipient. The sender decides who pays.

Domestic Personal Transactions – U.S. sender and recipient.

	Payment Fully Funded by PayPal Balance or Bank	Payment Fully or Partially Funded by PayPal Credit, Debit Card, or Credit Card
Sending / Receiving	Free	2.9% + Fixed Fee (see below)

International Personal Transactions – The sender or recipient is outside the U.S.

	Payment fully funded by PayPal Balance or Bank	Payment fully or partially funded by PayPal Credit, Debit Card, or Credit Card
Sending / Receiving	This fee is based on the country of the recipient. Recipient’s Country: Australia 1% Canada 1% China 0% Germany 2% Hong Kong 0% Singapore 0% Taiwan 0% U.S 1% Elsewhere 0.5%	This fee is based on the country of the recipient. Recipient’s Country: Australia 3.4% + Fixed Fee (see below) Canada 3.9% + Fixed Fee China 0.0% + Fixed Fee Germany 3.9% + Fixed Fee Hong Kong 3.4% + Fixed Fee Singapore 3.4% + Fixed Fee Taiwan 3.4% + Fixed Fee U.S. 3.9% + Fixed Fee Elsewhere 3.9% + Fixed Fee

 

So if you need money from (or need to send to) a friend, there’s no reason to have to wait the time for a check deposit or to only deal with local friends and family – use PayPal and save time and hassle!

The first contender from the list of Lifehacker’s Five Best Netbooks that I will be reviewing is the Acer Aspire One 10” netbook (AOD150).   Weighing in at 2.91lbs with a price tag of about $330 (or $280 using Bing.com cashback), this 10” netbook definitely holds it’s ground in the competition (not to mention quite an improvement from it’s older 8.9” sibling).  Just how nice is it?  As always, continue reading to find out!

Specifications of the reviewed system:

• Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 533mhz, 512KB L2
• 2GB DDR2-8800 (running at 533mhz)
• 10.1” WSVGA CrystalBrite (glossy) TFT Screen
• 160gb Western Digital Scorpio Blue SATA HDD
• 6 Cell battery
• Intel 950 graphics
• 2lbs 14.5 oz
• 10.3” x 1.3” x 7.3”
• VGA, 3xUSB2.0, Headphone/Mic, Ethernet, 802.11b/g wifi.

Glamour shots / views:

I’ll start out by simply showing different views of the netbook:

First we have the top, and then the bottom:

Left side (VGA, ethernet, usb, headphone, mic, memory card reader), and right (2 x USB, power jack, lock):

And then the front (power light, wireless switch)

Screen:

The 10” Acer Aspire One comes with a 10.1” glossy screen – and as I mentioned in the Lenovo S10-2 review, it basically comes down to personal preference whether glossy or matte is better for you. 

The lid itself isn’t as sturdy as I would like.  While it’s not as flimsy as the Lenovo S10’s lid, it doesn’t take too much force (twisting action) to make the screen bend.  Over the lifetime of owning this netbook, you may start to see pressure marks on the LCD if you pack it with books and the like on top of it in a book bag.  Also, like the screen, the lid is also glossy – meaning, it is quite the magnet for fingerprints:

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The keyboard is 89% the size of a normal keyboard, which unfortunately was not upgraded from the same size keyboard of the acer aspire one 9”.  The key clicks However, the keyboard is well built though with a SLIGHT bit of flex – but you don’t notice it during normal typing:

The increased area of the touchpad (over the 8.9” AAO) is a welcome edition.  The left and right buttons are combined into one, and the entire touch pad area is slightly recessed from the rest of the palm rest:

Battery:

Compared to other 10” netbooks I have reviewed so far, I was a bit disappointed at the battery life that this Acer has (for the tests below, I had WiFi one, screen at level 4 brightness, and let the battery run down to 3% and interpolated the remaining 3%):

• 100% full screen hulu:  3 hours, 58 minutes (238 minutes)
• 100% web browsing (refreshing cnn, yahoo, and engadget every 10 seconds):  4 hours, 37 minutes (277 minutes)

This is quite lower than I would have expected, so I will try to run some more of the same tests to see if perhaps I may have messed something up, but I already ran the 100% hulu twice, but the 100% web browsing only once – so we’ll see (does anyone else get similar results?) – this is about the same battery life you get w/the 6 cell and the Acer Aspire One 8.9”.

And, if anyone happens to need it, here’s a picture of the battery all by it’s lonesome:

Performance:

As with most other netbooks, the Atom N270 is not very powerful, and therefore performs about on par with every other N270 netbook out there.  It does just fine with basic usage consisting of web browsing, office work, music listening, EVER SO LIGHT photo editing (resizing, cropping, blurring, etc), and the like – but once you start playing back full screen Flash (hulu), any sort of game above pinball, or heavily multitasking, you’ll start to see the netbook fall to it’s knees.   Below are some simple performance benchmarks:

Super Pi:

• 1M = 1 minute, 33.937 seconds
• 2M = 3 minutes, 30.078 seconds

HDTune:

• Min:  31.6 MB/sec
• Max:  63.3 MB/sec
• Average:  50.7 MB/sec
• Access Time:  17.1 ms
• Burst Rate:  62.4 MB/sec
• CPU Usage:  3.9%

PCMark 05: 1501 pcmarks (connected to an external monitor at minimum required resolution of 1024×768)

As you can see from the results above, don’t plan on replacing your normal laptop with this (or any) netbook :)

Upgrades:

As with all the other 10” netbooks I’ve seen, Acer has given easy access to the hard drive (which is replaceable/removable), memory slot, and wireless card.  Also, Acer is using the same hard drive that can be found in the Lenovo S10-2 and S10:

Versus other 10” netbooks:

So how does it stack up (visually) to other 10” netbooks with 6 cell batteries?  Well, lets see!

vs Dell Mini 10:

For all these pictures, the Acer is on the left, Dell on the right:

vs Asus EEE PC 1000HE:

Final thoughts:

While it’s not as thin or has a long of battery life as other 10”, 6 cell netbooks, it’s price helps compensate where it falls short.  The Acer Aspire One 10 AOD150 is definitely a worth upgrade from it’s 8.9” version (as well as any 8.9” / 9” netbook for that matter) as it is hardly any larger/heavier, yet packs a larger screen and touchpad.  

Buying it new from Tiger Direct (assuming the Bing.com cashback is still 15%), at $280 this netbook, in my opinion, would win the “best for the price” category (if such a one existed) – even though it’s possible to get the Dell Mini 10 (review coming soon!) cheaper, the Acer Aspire One 10 has a slightly smaller profile which should help it edge ahead of the Mini 10 (in the race for the cheaper end of the netbook spectrum)

Pros:

• Cheap ($330 @ Amazon/Tiger Direct, $280 after Bing.com cashback)
• 6 cell battery does not add to much to thickness
• Well built, weight evenly distributed
• Light weight, under 3 pounds

Cons:

• No bluetooth
• Only 89% sized keyboard (other 10” have 92-93%, albeit not much real-world difference)
• Lower than average battery life (~4.5hrs light usage)

With Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral) starting to fullfill invites and hopefully opening to everyone soon, many people may not be entirely clear about just what exactly Google Voice is.  I’ve written about it before in an earlier review when it first evolved from GrandCentral, but basically in a short, high level thought, it’s a (free) phone forwarding service — but of course, that just scratches the surface.

What all can GV do for you?  Well, to start out, what you get when you sign up is a new phone number (or, you can port your current number, if you so choose to).  With this phone number, you would probably opt to give all your contacts this new number, setup different forwarding rules on your current phones (to forward to your GV#), so some combination of both.  

What it does:

When someone calls your GV#, it will proceed to ring (forward the call to) all the phones you have listed in your account (or, only certain numbers based on rules you can setup based on who is calling):

For example, if you have a bunch of contacts you have saved under the “Work” category, you can have all calls that come in from someone in there to be forwarded to your “Office” line – have all your contacts from the “Friends” category forwarded to your “Cell” – and then have unknown callers forwarded to all your phones, or perhaps straight to voicemail. 

Once a call is forwarded to one of your phones (cell, office, etc), once the call is answered, you must (by default, but can be changed) press “1” in order to accept the call – this is to handle the event that if the call gets forwarded to two different numbers (your cell and home) and someone from each location picks up the call, the first person to press “1” will actually receive the call. 

Voicemail:

Besides “simple” call forwarding, Google Voice also offers advanced voicemail services which can (attempt to) transcribe the voicemail and send you the text version via email or text message.  At this time, it’s not perfect (as reviewed earlier), but you can usually get the gist of the message that was left and not have to go through all the voicemail prompts and listen to the long messages people can leave :)  — here is an excerpt from my earlier review:

(“hey and here is one set with the radio playing in the car all first five this is back around now just asking about six ninety five people more often the road just kind of thing and stuff like that the fax christian here and now i’m gonna put the alright the speaker and see if there’s any way or not i can transcribe the phone i’m ohh hey nine nine five and that’s the best”)

Send/receive free text messages:

You are also able to send, and receive, text messages from within the GV console (and you can have them forwarded to your cell as well if you wish):

Use as a backup for when you get poor cell reception:

Besides voicemail transcription which I use GV heavily for, I also greatly rely on it’s ability to forward calls to my Gizmo number.  Basically, you can think of Gizmo as Skype – it’s a free computer based (ip) phone client which works on Windows, Mac, and Linux (as well as windows mobile and Nokia tablets) – and, as an added benefit, you can have one of the numbers that your GV# forwards to be your Gizmo number (for free)! 

While there are many implications for this, one that I use it for is to essentially forward my cell phone to my Gizmo (computer) number whenever my cell has no signal or has a dead battery. 

How do you do this?  You’ll want to first setup your phone to forward your calls to your GV# whenever you are “unavailable” (meaning, the cell carrier cannot locate you either because you don’t have signal or because you phone is off/dead).  Then, in GV admin page, you’ll setup a call forwarding rule to forward calls to your Gizmo number.  And now, whenever someone calls your cell and either it’s out of range or is dead, you will still get the call as it is essentially forwarded to your computer!  Perfect for those who live in an area where cell reception is a bit shady!

(however, this means you’ll either need to buy a USB phone, headset, or some other sort of microphone/speaker setup in order to actually talk to someone using your computer).

What Google Voice is not:

Google Voice is not a “phone”.  If you call out from your cell/home/work number, the callee will not see your Google Voice number on their caller ID – so if you give out your GV#, if you call those people straight from your phone, they will not see your GV# but instead your “real” number. 

However, you can of course login to your GV page and place a call from there, in which case GV will first ring your number and wait for you to pickup, and then it will connect you (by calling the callee via your GV#) – in which case, the person will see your GV in caller id.  You can also instantiate the call on your smartphone by either visiting the mobile version of GV page (see the “Quick Call” towards the bottom):

or by using GV Dialer phone app (30 free trial, but must pay after that) on your smartphone:

Wrapping Up:

So basically, Google Voice cannot act as an actual “phone”, but rather is a very resource full tool.  Good for giving out to people you may not want to know your “real” number (i.e. craigslist meets), or even to use as a backup incase you don’t get good signal at your home.   Also, it’s a great way to try to move away from voicemail completely (by setting all calls to go to GV voicemail for transcriptions). 

I have, however, left out some features that Google Voice can do, and on this note, here what Google lists as all of it’s features:

One number for all your calls and SMS

• Call screening – Announce and screen callers
• Listen in – Listen before taking a call
• Block calls – Keep unwanted callers at bay
• SMS – Send, receive, and store SMS
• Place calls – Call US numbers for free
• Taking calls – Answer on any of your phones
• Phone routing – Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones – Add phones and decide which ring

 

Voicemail as easy as email, with transcripts

• Voicemail transcripts – Read what your voicemail says
• Listen to voicemail – Check online or from your phone
• Notifications – Receive voicemails via email or SMS
• Personalize greeting – Vary greetings by caller
• Share voicemail – Forward or download voicemails

 

More cool things you can do with Google Voice

• Conference calling – Join people into a single call
• Call record – Record calls and store them online
• Call switch – Switch phones during a call
• Mobile site – View your inbox from your mobile
• GOOG-411 – Check directory assistance
• Manage groups – Set preferences by group

(from: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html)

Have you signed up for Google Voice yet?  Any tips/tricks you have discovered to be invaluable?  Share in the comments!

If the Lenovo Ideapad S10 is the male, the new S10-2 would be the sleek and slender female – it’s made from (mostly) the same parts but with a different exterior.  The S10-2 was redesigned from the S10 to have a glossy screen and lid, more defined curved edges, 4mm thinner, 5.5oz lighter, and larger keyboard and touchpad.  Was the redesign of the S10 a success?  Continue on to find out!

Specifications:

Below are the specifications of the S10-2 reviewed here (as well as the S10 that it will be compared to):

Unboxing & glamour shots:

Hopefully yours will be handled better during shipment, or at least put inside a proper shipping box, because mine basically came pre-opened and a little crushed :-\

However, upon opening it, everything looked fine and upon booting it up, more importantly everything worked fine!

As you can see, you get your standard array of pamphlets/manuals, as well as the battery, ac adapter, and of course the netbook. 

And here we have the glamour shots — we’ll start off showing the left (ethernet, exhaust, vga, usb, mic/headphone) and right (wireless switch, 2 usb’s, lock, and power jack) sides:

The top (glossy and checkered-like pattern lid) and bottom (notice the two downward firing speakers on the left and right):

And last but not least, a shot of it straight on with the lid open (with the memory card slot towards the right):

Screen:

The S10-2 moved away from the S10’s matte screen and slapped on some glossiness, and on this front, it’s just your personal preference whether you like glossy or not.   The S10-2 sports a slightly smaller screen at 10.1” (vs 10.2”), and when compared to the S10, you can’t really tell the size difference.   Viewing angles are very good, I didn’t find my self having to consciously tilt or move my head in order to get a good picture. 

My only qualm about the screen (other than that I have grown to prefer matte), is that with the 6 cell battery, it cannot open at too wide of an angle.  When I’m sitting in a chair with the netbook in my lap, I have to stick my legs out a bit in order for the laptop to slightly tilt back in order view the screen straight on (that being said, it may because I am on the tall side and have a smaller chair, ha):

Webcam & face recognition:

The webcam is about on par with any other netbook webcam – it works fine to do basic video chat, and is laggy in low light situations.  What seems to really set them apart from each other, however, is the software that comes with them.  With the S10-2 (as well as S10), Lenovo has included “Lenovo VeriFace Recognition” which allows you to login using your face.  Setup is quite fast and easy, and logging in is pretty snappy.  However, please don’t use this thinking it is a good security measure – all that someone would need to get through your impenetrable fortress of security would be to pull up a picture of you on Facebook.

Keyboard & Touchpad:

The keyboard is 89% full size and requires slightly more force to depress the keys than any other netbook I’ve used.  After using it for a day, you will get used to it as I did (just as you’ll need to get used to a smaller keyboard in general if you have never used a netbook) – but, basically, I would find my self occasionally missing a space, or any other key that requires a stretch of the fingers (t, y, 5, 6, v, b, etc) as you need to press harder than you’re used to; that being said, they keyboard does feel closer to the “normal” lenovo keyboard (no flex, strongly built, etc).   Both shift keys have been elongated to respectable sizes, as well as they moved the Home and End keys to the top row. 

The touch pad not only has been increased in size from about 5.6mm x 2.6mm to 5.6mm x 3.4mm (0.8mm ‘taller’), the buttons require less force to press and are quieter when clicked.   The texture of the pad is also slightly smoother, allowing one’s finger to slide across it more easily (not that it was ‘difficult’ to slide across on the S10, but it “grabs” less to your skin when using it). 

Built Quality, Heat, and Noise:

One of the few differences between all netbooks is their build quality, and the S10-2 would rank among the top.  The keyboard has virtually no flex and the screen lid is resistant to bending.  A (slight) thumbs down on quality, however, is that the battery is a little loose, and you can feel and hear it move around when holding it which bothers me:

As far as heat goes, it stays much cooler than the S10 (even with the S10’s updated bios), and I can’t remember once being able to hear the fan (even though it was running) – again, unlike the S10’s fan which was on quite frequently and audible.    The S10-2 does get warm, though not uncomfortably so as the raised battery seems to helps with airflow. 

Performance:

Simply put, the S10-2 stacks up to all the other netbooks running the N270 Atom processor – it’s good enough for the basics (web browsing, listening to music, watching/playing non-flash based media, word processing, VERY light games), but once you start doing light photo editing, or watching flash (especially full screen) you’ll start to feel the pain of sluggishness.   When trying to watch full screen hulu, it constantly stuttered and stayed at 60-70% processor usage.  That being said, here’s some benchmarks of SuperPI and HDTune speeds:

Battery Life:

I was hoping that since many other things were slightly improved upon in the S10-2 compared to the S10 that the battery life would too – and it did (about 7% longer).  Tests were performed at level 4 brightness, wifi on, and auto performance:

And in case years down the road, someone happens to buy a used s10-2 and wants to buy a replacement battery … or something … and needs to know all the numbers and barcodes on the 6 cell battery:

Upgrading:

As with most of the newer netbooks (basically, unlike the original line of 9” ones that first came out), it is fairly easy to upgrade the memory, hard drive, wireless card, and WLAN – all you need to do is remove the bottom covers, pop out the old and put in the new.  And contrary to the Lenovo spec sheets, the hard drive IS removable/replaceable:

Comparison shots to the S10:

To further drive in the (minor) differences/similarities of the S10-2 and S10, here are a few more pictures of them together.  All-in-all, the actual main chassis of the S10-2 is thinner, but the feet are a bit taller than the S10 thus making it appear the same thickness overall.  As you can tell, the S10-2 is barely shorter than the S10:

And while the S10-2 is slightly thinner in the front, it’s slightly thicker in the back, so it evens out. 

And then two more shots showing the size of the battery (almost exactly the same), as well as their height when opened 90 degrees:

Final thoughts:

All things considered, yes, the S10-2 was a successful redesign of the S10. However, unless you really want the extra battery life, it’s not worth the extra price of the S10-2 – as of 6/24/09, you can get the refurb S10 for $277 or a new S10-2 for $399 [though, after time, s10-2’s will pop up in the outlet, for a lower price].   

As far as performance, it’s about on par with any other netbook I’ve used/reviewed.  The added benefits over other netbooks is that it is smaller/lighter than most, has a great keyboard, and when it was first released it was only $300 (now $400 through their main site, who knows if they’ll lower the price again).   With a battery life of around 5 hours with ‘normal/light’ usage, it’s definitely a netbook you could feel comfortable with taking with you on a day trip without having to pack the charger. 

Pros:

• Light (2 pounds, 11oz)
• 5 hours + battery
• Sturdy keyboard, no flex
• 3 usb ports
• Stays cool and quiet
• Large touchpad & soft(er) buttons

Cons:

• Loose battery
• Too expensive for it’s differences compared to it’s predecessor (S10)
• Fingerprint magnet (as is any glosssy netbook/screen)