Have Laptop Will Travel

Windows Vista price drop

Originally posted on March 3, 2008 @ 11:53 pm

Microsoft is kicking its efforts to increase migration to Windows Vista up a notch through a more enticing method — a price drop.

The company recently announced that it will be dropping the price of the Windows Vista OS in retail stores as a way of enticing more PC users to use Vista. The plan will be implemented in over 70 countries and will coincide with the shipment of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista, the first major update to its newest OS.

At present Windows Vista only account for ten per cent of all the licenses sold of the Windows OS that is installed in about 90 per cent of all the computers on earth. The new tactic is seen as a great way of increasing the sales of the stand alone copies of Windows Vista. Most copies of Vista sold are usually part of a bundle that comes with new computers.

In the US, Windows Vista Ultimate price will drop to $319 from $399. The upgrade version will go down to $219 from $259. Vista Home Premium will also get a price drop from $159 to$129.

How one laptop can change a life

Originally posted on May 29, 2008 @ 10:55 pm

Here’s a rousing speech on the “One Laptop Per Child” project given at the MIT Media Lab this May. It provides an update on the project — and a really good quote on what one tiny machine can do to change lives.

“We are not delivering computers. We are delivering a time machine. A time machine that is so enormously transformational that everything after that is changed. Changed for ever. Imagine this. A hut in an African village. An old man and an old woman cooking their dinner by firewood . At a small table a young boy about 11 years of age is tapping into a computer looking at the key board in the half light of a flickering kerosene lamp. He has escaped his hut. His mind is elsewhere, connected to the global internet community. He is doing his homework together with 7 other kids in similar huts 1 km away. The huts are connected to the children. The children are the nodes and the village community is brought together by their laptops.”

Best Laptop Bags for Women

Originally posted on May 27, 2008 @ 6:27 am

My wife’s biggest complaint about men’s gadgets is that…they look like men’s gadgets. For her, performance needs to have the style factor, and chrome just won’t cut it. Then I found this list of best laptop bags for women. Yes, there’s the girly pink — even a few wit flowers on them — but there are also sleek, classic designs for execs. Some of them can be worn like a backpack, good for women on the go.

WinXP SP3 update woes continue

Originally posted on May 9, 2008 @ 7:33 pm

After delaying the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 because of a bug, Microsoft finally released it again thinking that they’ve ironed out all of its troubles. Apparently, SP3 related problems are still there and this time the result is far more troublesome.

According to some Windows XP users who upgraded to SP3, they have suffered an endless reboot cycle upon installing the update. The problem seems to confine itself to AMD based PCs, but some Intel users have also complained about the same problem.

There are some experts who say that SP3 is not the problem per se. But let’s see how fast Microsoft can solve this bug. As for me, I’ll wait a couple more months before I attempt to upgrade my OS with the SP3 update.

On the hunt for the EEE

Originally posted on February 5, 2008 @ 11:57 pm

I’ve been on the hunt the past few weeks. I’ve been obsessively calling all of the computer stores in my area (and even beyond), trying to track down one unit of the ASUS EEE. I don’t even care if I get the 4gb or 8gb Surf version, I just want my laptop fix and I want it now!

Actually, I really need an ultraportable this week. I’m going out of town for a trip and I really need to bring a spare laptop with me to continue working while I’m away. Unfortunately, every single unit of the EEE has been snapped up faster than the stores can replenish their stocks. I am actually quite surprised by the massive popularity of ASUS’ new money making gadget. I know that the EEE has respectable specs at price point that is insanely cheap but I’ve always thought that it will still remain a niche product because it is too small and it has a Linux OS out of the box. The fact that it’s selling like hotcakes could mean that ultraportables have really established itself as a legitimately viable sector and that this is the magic price point for electronic gadgets — most especially for laptops that have been traditionally seen as very expensive.

Hopefully, I get my EEE this week…