Have Laptop Will Travel

iPod plays FLAC? Yes, if you’ve got Rockbox

Originally posted on July 28, 2007 @ 10:52 pm

One of the biggest shortcomings of the Apple iPod is the fact that it only supports a very limited number of audio formats, namely, AAC, MP3 and WAV. That’s a paltry three formats when other competing music players can support more than five formats. I have nothing against the AAC format that Apple developed. But I am really just much more comfortable with the other audio formats that I personally think sound much better. For example, I think that the FLAC lossless format is far superior to the Apple Lossless format. the logical solution would be to just get these competing players but I Apple’s good customer support and the iPod’s better resale value is something that I just cannot ignore.

What I have done instead is to install Rockbox on my 5G iPod. The Rockbox is basically an operating system replacement to the  existing OS installed in various music players. The plug-in architecture of Rockbox means various features can  be added to further enhance the capabilities of these players.

I’ll write about the other great features of Rockbox at some future time. Right now I am quite happy that with this firmware/OS replacement I can now load my favorite FLAC files on my iPod. These files have now been freed from my laptop. Even OGG files can now play in my machine. Nothing gives a smile to your face than to hear your favorite songs in lossless fidelity. My Tom Waits collection appreciates the upgrade.

5 Tips To Improve The Battery Life of Your Laptop

Originally posted on June 13, 2007 @ 10:44 am

If you’re always on the road with your laptop, you know the problem : after only some months the battery life has tremendously reduced. My last laptop, a Sony Vaio, had after 2 years around 30 minutes of battery life left over. And that was without pushing the engine.
When I bought my new laptop, I made sure to go for a bigger 9 cell battery, but still there are some things to take care of to enjoy your laptop as a real portable device as long as possible.
My 5tips to make your battery last longer.

[Read more…]

The Asus Eee Specs

Originally posted on July 21, 2007 @ 8:13 am

I promised to give more details about the Asus Eee PC 701, the company’s new contender in the highly competitive ultraportable market.

Below are the base specs for the computer:

  • Display: 7″
  • Processor: Intel mobile CPU (Intel 910 chipset, 900MHz Dothan Pentium M)
  • Memory: 512MB RAM
  • OS: Linux (Asus customized flavor)
  • Storage: 8GB or 16GB flash hard drive
  • Webcam: 300K pixel video camera
  • Battery life: 3 hours using 4-cell battery
  • Weight: 2lbs
  • Dimensions: 8.9 in x 6.5 in x 0.82 in – 1.37 in (width x depth x thickness)
  • Ports: 3 USB ports, 1 VGA out, SD card reader, modem, Ethernet, headphone out, microphone in

As you can see, it is not a very powerful computer. It has very conservative power and RAM. But look at the additional features and you will be amazed. For such a small gadget, Asus has managed to cram in 3 USB ports, an SD reader, WiFi, and even a webcam. The Eee runs on a modified version of Linux and according to tests, the whole thing boots up at an astounding 15 seconds!

The features alone opens up many possibilities for its usage. Imagine using Skype, teleconferencing, surfing the internet (with Firefox), open and edit Word and Excel documents, view your photos and listen to music — all from a little gadget that can comfortably sit on your hand. The Asus Eee PC 701 brings mobile computing to a whole new level.

Annoying keyboard lag problem with Acer 4520

Originally posted on August 15, 2007 @ 12:18 am

A number of my friends recently bought  Acer 4520 laptops. These laptops are from Acer’s new Gemstone series.

These babies really look good, are very affordable and packed with so many features. In fact, I can even suggest them for those who are into light PC gaming since there are models that carry nice ATI or Nvidia GPUs.

But here’s the problem, a number of them are complaining about an annoying keyboard lag. They press a key and it takes a second before it registers on screen. It’s a minor glitch, yes. But it can be very annoying, too. My friends have tried updating drivers from the Acer website with no improvements. A laptop store owner who is a member in one of the forums we go to admitted that he has not been able to duplicate the keyboard lag problem in any of the Acer 4520 units in his store. He then suggested replacing the RAM inside the laptops to Hynix modules, which some of my friends did. He may have been on to something with his suggestion because some of the 4520 owners did upgrade to bigger RAMs but they used the Kingston brand. The guy suggested Hynix because he noticed that Acer uses RAMs from this manufacturer. The result? Although some reported that the situation improve slightly — meaning the response is a little faster — the lag was still there!

My friends are pissed because they could not find any solution to this annoyance. Last I heard, they are planning to compile a list of 4520 owners who has the same problem and then contact Acer with an official complaint. I’ll keep you guys posted about this.

Asus releases new upgradeable notebook

Originally posted on July 31, 2007 @ 10:27 pm

I know I’ve talked about gaming notebooks yesterday but having read this new gaming notebook from Asus — I just have to write about it.

I am quite excited by the Asus C90 because of the company’s claim that it is upgradeable (Asus has even decided to market it as a “tailor made” notebook computer). The machine, which has a 15.4 inch widescreen monitor capable of displaying a resolution of 1680 x 1050 has a Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor. Asus said that this is of the desktop variety.

What is quite interesting about the C90 though is that the processor can actually be overclocked. This is the first time I’ve heard of an overclockable notebook computer. Asus said that the C90 can reach up to 2.93Ghz. What makes this feat even possible is the Turbo Gear technology that does the job of keeping the machine cool. It does this through fan control and thermal module technologies that are in place.

Asus has really made the notebook’s innards easily accessible. It is easy to swap the CPU, the graphics card, RAM, the hard disk and even the optical drive. This feature really drives home the fact that it has also entered the desktop replacement territory.

Other great features of the C90 include a built in 2 megapixel rotating CMOS camera with a face traking capability, a finger print scanner and a tv tuner.

Now who wouldn’t want to get one of these babies?