All I want for Christmas is a New Netbook

…and an iPod touch, and an Amazon Kindle…

Denver Abernathy

We’re always looking out for the hottest tech gadgets for Christmas. This year we’ve heard a lot about netbooks, iPod touch and the kindle. Since we wouldn’t mind seeing any of them under our trees this year, we thought we’d give you a little review of each and let you decide which you’d like to give to us.

Netbooks
If you’re thinking of buying a new computer for Christmas, chances are you’ve been introduced to the netbook computer. So what’s a netbook? Think small laptop with limited features. They typically have smaller screens and keyboards than typical laptops. They are generally WiFi enabled and come equipped with a number of USB ports. The size and weight are big advantages, but the price is the key feature to most.

Most of the big names in computers now offer netbooks, but the top-rated models don’t come from the names we generally consider top contenders. Samsung’s N120 and the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (Seashell) are making the tops of most reviews. Toshiba and Acer beat out HP and Dell in most categories.

The keys to remember are:

1. With Windows XP Home Edition or Windows 7 Starter Edition, Netbooks are not built for networking. This means that they will be handicapped at the office. Most do not have compatible docking stations either.
2. Netbooks are built for convenience and are optimized for Internet use and word processing. You won’t have much luck loading the latest Adobe Creative Suite.
3. When evaluating, don’t let the cute factor trump functionality. With color options, and sleek designs, manufacturers are all fighting hard to win the battle of the cutest. Some have really sacrificed functionality, however.

iPod touch
The iPod touch offers many features of the iPhone. It’s a bit of a middle ground between the traditional iPod and the iPhone. For many, one of the drawbacks of the iPhone is that you have to switch your phone service to AT&T. The touch is WiFi enabled so you can have access to the Apps that people enjoy on their iPhones. Of course, it still does music and video playback like the iPod, but it plays video horizontally for better viewing. The touch-screen replaces the tracking dial of the traditional iPod and gives a lot more real estate to the viewing screen. One downside is that, unlike iPod and iPhone, Apple will charge for iPod touch software upgrades.

Kindle Wireless Reading Device
I gotta’ get me one of these! I’ve heard what hot items they’ve been for some time, but I haven’t bothered to look. Who could blame me? Digital reading devices have been around for a long time, right? Yes, but this one seems to have something. It’s 3G wireless so downloading books is fast and easy. It reads like real paper with no glare. It only weighs 10 ounces. It has enough battery life for up to a week of reading on a single charge.

You can download newspapers from around the globe before they hit the newsstands. It supports thousands of popular blogs. The text-to-speech feature can even allow you to read while you are at home and then listen while on your way to work. You can review PDFs and Word documents on it as well. Books are also cheaper to buy from the Kindle store. NYT Best Sellers are only $9.99.

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Web Tools You Should Know About

Tony Valle

I spend most of my waking hours tapping away at my computer keyboard. Life has been that way for about 15 years now. Sometimes I’m amazed at the gaggle of shortcuts, tools and secret websites that get me through my day efficiently and effectively. I thought I’d share a couple that might be useful to you.

Netvibes.com
Netvibes is absolutely critical to my every day effectiveness. This clever site acts as a virtual “desktop” that allows me to organize all sorts of special information. Scads of bookmarks link to websites that I often visit. Netvibes allows me to even organize my bookmarks by category, such as “favorite blogs, newsgroups, and funny.” Netvibes also acts as a very powerful “aggregator,” which means that I can pull in feeds from blogs, newspapers, google searches and much more. The result is almost like being able to build my own online newspaper filled with information specifically targeted to me and my interests. Check out netvibes!!!

Yousendit.com
Have you ever had to hire an expensive courier to deliver a little USB drive across town just because your file was too big to send through email? With yousendit.com, you never have to do this again. Send files up to 2GB through this service and receive confirmation when your recipient views your file. Simple, yet oh so critical in certain situations.

Whatsitscolor.com
What’s its color is an image-color processing utility that will evaluate an image and give you the image's primary and complementary dominant colors, how many visually unique colors are in an image, and the top ten visually unique colors in the image. That’s extremely useful when creating any type of designs around an image. Results will display your image on the best suited background for that image.

Backpackit.com
Get your projects organized by using Backpack. Create to-do lists, notes, files, images and a calendar with reminders that can be sent via email or to your mobile device. The web team here at Promethius happily used Backpack for a number of years before we outgrew it.

Writeboard.com
Have you ever had a client or coworker revise a document and end up wiping out your work? Use Writeboard to share and collaborate while saving separate versions each step of the way.

GoToMeeting.com
Use GoToMeeting to keep in touch with clients and coworkers via online meetings. We use it here at Promethius almost every day!

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