Replace the Refrigerator Door with a HP (Hewlett-Packard) TouchSmart IQ504 All-in-One PC. The HP IQ504 (and higher end IQ506) models replace last year’s TouchSmart Iq775. This time around HP has included a number of improvements which make it easier to imagine using it in the kitchen, serving as a replacement for a family’s organizational calendar and notes on the Refrigerator Door.

With a 22 inch touch-sensitive screen, the TouchSmart IQ504 has touch based tools like a Note Taker and Family calendar. Although the touch interface is not as sophisticated as the Apple iPhone, it allows for touch-based entry without having to resort to a keyboard and mouse. Even so, because it is an All-in-One PC, the keyboard is always close at hand.

The specs of the HP TouchSmart IQ504 are what you would expect for a Vista Desktop PC:
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB RAM, a 256MB Nvidia integrated graphics chip and 500GB hard drive. The system has full 802.11n wireless networking, and both the keyboard and mouse connect to the system using Bluetooth.

After neglecting my Asus EeePC 701 Netbook for a number of months, I’ve now loaded a new Operating System onto it. The Netbook had fallen into misuse even before I started “playing” with UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs). The UMPCs with all their miniature delights almost put the Asus EeePC right out of my thoughts.

Then, a several days ago I charged it up , booted up and looked at the same old pre-installed linux Operating System, which for some reason is giving error messages when I try to get updates. Fortunately, I had just seen (and downloaded) Eeebuntu, after reading “Let Eeebuntu Free your Eee PC” on the GHacks blog.

I followed the steps mentioned in the blog. This took longer than expected - which is almost always the case when working with computers – the third step (”Plug in a >= 1 Gig Usb flash drive to your computer.“) taking the longest. For some reason the smallest USB flash drive I could find was a 4GB SanDisk micro. It had files on it, so I had a “quick” glance through them, backed some up, then deleted them from them removable drive; formatting it would definitely have been faster. An hour or so later I had Eeebuntu installed on my Asus EeePC 701 Netbook.

Now the downside. I should have spent a little more time trying it out, because for some reason the screen resolution is cutting off the bottom of dialog boxes. What that means is that I cannot see the buttons at the bottom of the dialog boxes to apply settings (I need to look at an Ubuntu distribution on another PC to see what the buttons are). Once I know the layout of those all important buttons, I can change the screen resolution and join the Asus EeePC to my home wireless network…

The HP (Hewlett-Packard) Pavilion dv2-1030us looks like a Notebook, although a very slim one. With 4GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive, it sounds like a notebook. Instead of an Intel Dual Core or even AMD Turion X2 mobile processor, the HP Pavilion dv2 has an AMD Athlon Neo running at 1.6 GHz. The Neo is AMD’s answer to Intel’s Atom processor – specifically meant for Netbooks. This means that inside this Notebook is a Netbook processor, and this Notebook delivers performance which is more like a Netbook than a Notebook. All is not lost though, as the AMD Neo processor has enough power to run Windows Vista smoothly.

This machine appears to be aimed somewhere between Netbooks and Ultraportable notebooks. It is pricier than Netbooks, but it does have a 12 inch screen. Like Netbooks it does not have a built-in optical drive, but it does include and external DVD writer.

Other Notebook-sized Netbooks similar to the HP Pavilion dv2 are the Samsung NC20 and the Dell Inspiron Mini 12 Notebook.

From the company who practically invented the Netbook, comes their latest Netbook, the Asus Eee PC 1000HE.

The Asus 1000HE features the new 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 processor, which was designed for low-power products such as Netbooks. One of the main differences from previous Asus Netbooks is the keyboard, which has widely spaced, flat-topped keys. These make for an improved typing experience.

It also has 1GB RAM and a 160GB hard drive, which seems to be the current standard for Netbooks. Other specs include a 128MB Mobile Intel GMA 950 graphics card, 3 USB ports, SD card reader and Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for networking. It runs Windows XP.

The 1000HE weighs a bit on the heavier side for Netbooks, at 3.2 lbs, but for that you get very good battery life: Asus promises up to “9.5 hours” of battery life, but CNET.com tests showed 6 hours and 21 minutes, which according to the CNET.com Asus Eee PC 1000HE Review is still “an extremely impressive number“.

A month ago I blogged about extended batteries for the iPhone (see “Longer battery life, continued“) , and mentioned the Power Slider by Incase. It is similar to the Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone, except that it is a full case for the iPhone 3G as well as an external battery.

I’ve been using the Incase Power Slider with my iPhone for several weeks now, and I am quite impressed. In the evening after having the iPhone on all day, making one or two calls, checking email and browsing the internet (as much as I can do during my lunch break), the battery of my iPhone is still at 100 percent. The Incase Power Slider is usually down to about 60 percent, or if it has been a particularly heavy usage day (for me anyway), down to about 20 percent, at which point it stops charging the iPhone’s battery.

The remaining battery charge of the Power slider is determined by a button at the lower back, which when pressed, lights up a line of 5 small LED lights which indicate the battery’s charge; 1 light means about 20 percent, 5 lights mean 100 percent, etc.

The iPhone can be synchronized with iTunes while still in the case, but the supplied USB cable (which is rather short) has to be used, and the button on the back of the case pressed for 3 seconds for “sync mode” prior to syncing.

Normally I remove the Power Slider before syncing, and leave it ready for recharging it overnight. It definitely works better when started with a full charge.

Physically, the slider consists of two parts. The iPhone slides into the bottom piece, which contains the battery and a connector. Then the top piece slides over the iPhone, so it looks like it is in a case with an extended lower end. SlashGear.com’s review of the Incase Power Slider has some pictures of what it looks like.

The Power Slider does add some extra weight to the iPhone, and my only gripe is that it leaves the screen unprotected, but then the majority of iPhone cases don’t protect the screen either.

In my previous blog posting, “No Shuffle for me“, I may have given the impression that I dislike the iPod Nano. This is not true, as I had a Nano before getting an iPhone, and I still have a Nano as a great sidekick to the iPhone. This is especially so during my daily commute. I’ve thought of using the iPhone, but since I drive to work, I need an MP3 Player with tactile controls – it would be very dangerous to have to glance at the screen every time I wanted to pause playback or select another track.

The iPod Nano is perfect for listening in the car. First I had an 8GB second generation iPod Nano. Its only fault was that sometimes when I turned it on for the first time it froze. That was just a minor annoyance, nothing that a reset couldn’t fix. I also never quite figured out how to duplicate it. Sometimes it would happen, other times it wouldn’t – which made it difficult to take it in for exchange.

When the third generation iPod Nano was released, I bought one for a loved one, but my second gen was still working fine, with the occasional hiccup.

But when the fourth generation 16GB iPod Nano was released, it didn’t take long for me to yield to temptation. It does have some cool features, including a built-in accelerometer, so the screen orientation changes just like the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The scroll wheel just felt a bit slippery until I got used to it.

After reading about problems being reported with the new iPod shuffle, I remembered the one and only time I had considered buying an iPod Shuffle. It was a little over three years ago, and I was looking at buying my first MP3 Player. The first generation iPod Shuffle was in my price range, and I had heard too many bad things about the first generation iPod Nano to even consider it.

The main problem with the Shuffle was that it had no display. All the competing MP3 Players had displays,  but the Shuffle didn’t. The larger iPods and MP3 Players were not only out of my price range at the time, but I was looking for a small device I could easily carry in my pocket.

Then I saw a 1GB SanDisk Sansa m240 on sale. It ran on 1 AAA battery, and needed no additional software to drag music files to it. In MSC mode Windows saw it as an external hard drive. Although not as cool or flashy as the iPod Nano, it had more features, including an FM radio and voice recording.

Ironically, the SanDisk Sansa m200 series are still around, they were just that easy to use.