After almost calling this blog posting “U810 > UX50?”, I realized that it may be a bit too cryptic. Actually the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet PC does remind me of a supersized Sony Clie UX50 dressed in black. It is probably because the screen of this clamshell Ultra Mobile PC swivels to form a tablet, just like the Clie UX40 and UX50. However, the U810 becomes an ultraportable tablet PC.

The specs of the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet PC are as follows:
Powered by a 800MHz Intel A110 Processor, with 1GB of RAM, it has a 40GB hard drive, integrated Mobile Intel Express 945GM Graphics, a 5.6 inch touchscreen (measured diagonally) and runs Windows Vista Premium. As for size, it is 6.6 by 6.5 by 1.1 inches, and weighs 1.6 pounds. It includes Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g wireless as well as wired 10/100 Ethernet. Of course there is the obligatory fingerprint reader, microphone, a VGA (0.3 Megapixel) camera and a card reader which supports Compact Flash and SecureDigital memory cards. Oh, and only one USB port, but because this UMPC is actually reasonably priced, small omissions like these can be overlooked.

Unfortunately the processor does seem a little underpowered to run Windows Vista. Apparently you can get the Operating System downgraded to Windows XP Tablet Edition, which would make for a much more pleasant user experience.

The other day, during a particularly cold snap, I was working at the dining room table near the woodstove instead of in my office, where the temperatures tend to go Arctic on me. And I noticed that my notebook computer was revving like a 747 about to take off from John Wayne Airport in Orange County. Instantly, I recognized the problem. I’d let it overheat, sitting on the tablecloth instead of on the raised plastic rack where it normally resides.

And I began to think, wouldn’t it be cool to have a specially designed notebook stand that included a little fan so I could work wherever I chose?

I should have known somebody would beat me to the patent. In fact, a large number of companies have done so. They go by names such “Chill Mat” and “Chill Hub,” but the idea is the same — a small stand that integrates a fan to keep the computer off the flat surface where you’re using it.

Most, such as this Targus model, let you set the angle for the computer to make working conditions slightly more ergonomic.

Another one swivels (helpful when you need to collaborate with somebody right there or you just want to take your computer for a spin when you’ve hit a goal…), and a fancy version from Logitech includes a cordless keyboard and a three-port USB hub but lacks the fan.

All I can say is, it’s a good thing I’m not running a unit with one of those exploding batteries. Otherwise, right now you’d be viewing my tale of woe on YouTube instead of reading this and feeling not a whit of sympathy for me or my popsicle toes. A laptop stand is defintely less expensive than buying form-fitting abestos clothing or keeping my fire extinguisher recharged. 

When the Apple iPod Touch first came out, one of the most common complaints was “only 16GB? I’ll wait until there is one with a 30GB hard drive”. Well, now the wait is over. Just after the news of the possible Microsoft and Yahoo merger and during the craziness of Super Tuesday here in the US, Apple announced that the capacity of both the iPhone and iPod Touch would be doubled. For those hoping for an iPod Touch with a 30GB hard drive, it didn’t happen. Instead the flash memory has been doubled to 32GB. The capacity of the iPhone has been doubled to 16GB.

It was just a matter of time really, as the 32GB Creative Zen Media flash memory player has been available for a while and SanDisk has already announced a 32GB version of their Sansa View. Of course the difference is that Apple announced the newer capacities and that they would be available immediately.

So, will I upgrade? No, $500 for a 32GB media player is steep, even though it is the iPod Touch. Instead I’ll practice memory management with my 16GB iPod Touch. That means limiting what gets transferred to it, and deleting anything which I’ve already watched or am not going to watch.

For anyone getting the iPod Touch for the first time, the $100 difference for double the capacity is something to be seriously considered.

Travel clocks have come a long way, haven’t they? First, there was the foldability. What a boon, to be able to buy something that would slip into your bath bag. Next up: the ability to read the numbers in the dark. Then came the doze button, just like the pricey model you rely on at home.

Now comes the ability to stash photos, which works like digital photo frames. With a  digital photo frame alarm clock, you feed the images in from your computer or other device and they scroll through, a slideshow in miniature for your eyes only.

No longer will you feel so far away from home on those dreary business trips. You can come back from the hotel bar and sulk over dozens of images of the family dog, wishing you were there.

Of course, the next step is to put those images into an even smaller format. I saw a few samples of this at the Consumer Electronics show.

Forget Timex. Forget Fossil. Forget Diesel. The next digital watch you buy is going to let you show 140 digital images of the kids to that ex-boyfriend you just happen to run into at the mall.(Trust me, he’ll never bother you again!)

Unfortunately I don’t have any insider news about Palm, Inc. The last Palm refers to the last top-of-the-line standalone PDA released by Palm, namely the Palm TX. The name may seem familiar, as I have previously referred to it in passing. Along with the entry level Palm Z22 and the mid-range Palm Tungsten E2, these are currently the only non-smartphones offered by Palm. The Palm Z22 and Palm TX were released in October 2005, which is a long time ago as technology goes.

However, the Palm TX is quite a capable machine. It has a 312MHz ARM-based Processor, 128 MB of non-volatile memory with over 100MB accessible to user, a 320 by 480 pixel backlit TFT touch screen with 65,000 colors. It also has Bluetooth 1.1 and 802.11b Wi-Fi and a SD (Secure Digital) card slot for expansion. With exactly the same dimensions as its predecessor, the Tungsten T5, the TX can use most of the accessories made for the T5, including cases and screen protectors.

The TX comes with DataViz’ Documents To Go 7 Professional, an Office Suite which allows editing of Word and Excel documents. It also features a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and is bundled with Pocket Tunes, a full featured MP3 Player. Other bundled applications include a web browser and an email client.

This decade will become known — I believe — as the era of the display. If it isn’t the hi-def plasma TV we bought to watch the Super Bowl on, it’s the widescreen LCD display we do all our surfing on. Or the little screen on our iPhone or the viewer on our latest digital camera.

Whatever it is we’re looking at, it’s going to get smudged up. You’re either going to be pointing out with taquito-grease-laden fingers how the play should have gone to your buddies or you’re going to find yourself struggling to watch Chad Vader Episode 8 — the final episode — through a nose print.

That means grimy looking displays that will gross out anybody but us or our small children. You need an appropriate cleaner to keep those surfaces shiny.

Yet, I have a sweetheart with a sensitive nose. Use the kind of cleaner on equipment that my mother would have found perfectly acceptable, and it’ll cause nasal distress in my household. Not a pretty sight.

That’s why I was delighted to find out about Purosol, a company that makes display cleaners that are alcohol, detergent and solvent free. In other words, it’s non-toxic. You can buy it in tiny purse-sized kits or honkin’-big super-soaker-sized bottles.

Yes, using this product is slightly more expensive than spitting on a tissue and wiping with a gentle hand. But you have to think about it as an investment in preserving your stuff. Your buddies for one and spouse for another will appreciate the gesture.

Last year I mentioned the Asus EeePC Notebook in “A Second Laptop“. The EeePC is surprisingly capable for such a small notebook. I know this from first hand experience, as I have written and posted blog entries with the Asus. It is aimed at people who already have a desktop or notebook computer though. In fact it ships with a recovery DVD but does not have an optical drive, so you need another PC or an external USB DVD drive.

The reason I’m stressing this point is that some technology writers seem to have missed the point and written than for just a few hundred dollars more you can buy a notebook that is more capable for everyday computing needs. However, then you are looking at a notebook in the budget notebook class which will weigh considerably more. Out of interest I looked around for a budget notebook for less than $600 (since the Asus Eee PC 4G Notebook costs about $399).

There was not much choice in this price range for a new notebook with semi-decent specs. What I found was two notebooks: the Dell Vostro 100 and the Acer Aspire 5520. Obviously other notebooks with better specs may be available on special. Both notebooks have AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processors, with the Dell Vostro having 2GB of RAM. Unfortunately it only has Windows Vista Home Basic which is the most “basic” Windows Vista edition. The Acer has Windows Vista Home Premium, but is hobbled with only 1GB RAM. Both notebooks weigh three times as much as the Asus EeePC at over 6 pounds, so are not as portable. They do run Windows though, and have built-in DVD writers as well as 120GB hard drives, and are relatively suitable for everyday computing needs.

I’m a web worker. Are you?

I fell into it purely as a result of the work I do as a magazine editor. Eventually, print gave way to online publishing, and I found myself working in a virtual world where I no longer needed to linger over the shoulder of a designer putting pages together — we could shuttle URLs back and forth until we were satisfied with the results. And given the economic doldrums in tech during the new millennium, layoffs became common enough that I finally decided it was time to go freelance fulltime and stop depending upon the “kindness of strangers” to keep my future rosy.

That’s why I’m excited to read Connect!, a new book by former Web Worker Daily editor Ann Zelenka. (Full disclosure: I’ve worked with Anne and still do a bit of blogging on WWD.)

Connect! is a manifesto for the new way of working. The knowledge worker of the ’90s — who inhabited a cubicle and worked on a massive project defined by his or her employer alongside other people who worked for the same company — has given way to the web worker, frequently a free agent who works anywhere broadband can be found on “a variety of projects across organization boundaries… [collaborating] with people she’s met on the web on an ad hoc and occasionally more formal basis…”

As Zelenka describes it, desktop-installed software has given way to web-based services . And the work process of building and creating now consists of composing and assembling. The currency of time and money now includes attention: If you can get it, it can have value for you. Our connections aren’t around the espresso machine; they’re online through Twitter and our personal blog comment sections.

I’m looking forward to reading this book specifically for two of the chapters: “Burst Your Productivity,” where I’ll learn “new methods and tools” to help me manage my to-do list, calendar and daily activities (always a challenge!); and “Rethink Your Relationship with Email,” where I’ll “explore different ways of dealing with and relating to [my] email.”

But it may be that you want to learn how to work more effectively with colleagues who aren’t physically in the same offices; or you want to “explode” your career, helping you figure out how to work when, how and where you want.

At any rate, over the next month you’ll find me buried in its pages at the second cubicle near the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature at my local library. They have incredible — and free! — wi-fi there. Now, if they’d only add that cocoa bar, I’d be set…
 

The Hewlett-Packard iPaq 210 Enterprise PDA is finally available. This business-oriented handheld was announced last year along with the consumer-oriented HP iPaq 110 Classic. The HP iPaq 210 features a 624 MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, and 256MB of ROM. This phone-less PDA has a 4 inch, 480 x 640 pixel resolution touch screen with landscape and portrait display modes. It also has built-in Wireless, both 802.11b and 802.11g, and Bluetooth.

For expansion there are integrated Compact Flash type II (CF) and Secure Digital (SDIO) slots. The Secure Digital slot supports high Capacity cards (SDHC). I was wondering why HP handhelds aimed at business have a Compact Flash slot as well as an SD Card slot. After some research I saw that there are already a 32GB Compact Flash Cards available, whereas SecureDigital Cards are currently at 16GB. The battery is removable (user-replaceable), as with most Pocket PCs.

The Enterprise 210 handheld is slightly bigger and heavier than the 110 Classic, and has an extra 64MB of RAM. The screen is also bigger, 4 inch VGA rather than 3.5-inch. It runs the latest non-smartphone Windows Mobile 6 Operating System, called “Windows Mobile 6 Classic”. HP also sells an optional HP iPaq Bluetooth Keyboard for the handheld, which brings it closer to being a Notebook replacement.