init6 Technology

I’ve been looking quite feverishly for a good slightly larger netbook computer that is powerful enough to play HD video (mkv files). It doesn’t need to be a HD media powerhouse. I just want a very functional netbook with a full (or almost) sized keyboard.

Recently I seen news related to several netbooks coming out that will utilize the Intel Core 2 Solo ULV processors. I have tried an Acer Aspire One 10″ model and it was great except that it just didn’t quite have the power I was looking for. So after reading this article about a new Acer Aspire 1410 that is coming to the states, I was quite interested.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, I’ve been searching quite hard to find an estimated arrival date and after looking at several online retailers I found one that may have a good estimate. It’s listed on one retailers’ inventory system as being available on September 2nd.

Also it appears to be available as a pre-order from JR.com for $449.

If your not familiar with this upcoming netbook/laptop and want to be here are the specs below. There is also a video review here.

Specs:

UPDATE:
I have the blue version of the Acer Aspire 1410 on order from Amazon. I should receive it tomorrow. If I get a chance I’ll take some more pics and give some more details.

I thought this was a great article over at Gizmodo.

I have to say for the most part, I completely agree with this guy. Just recently I switched to Ubuntu for quite some time and then to a Mac. I had pretty much the same realization, almost everything I do is online now and the OS really doesn’t matter much. All three have their highlights and their low points. Windows does have one glaring problem, it is the most popular which means almost every virus and spyware program is aimed firmly at it. So I would say, why hold the bullseye when you can get out of the line of fire altogether?

Here is a great article on 9 Windows 7 hacks that might be of interest.

Short list:
1. Enable New Windows Taskbar in Build 6801
2. Enable Windows Aero in Windows 7
3. Remove Watermark from Windows 7 beta 1 Desktop
4. Remove Send Feedback link
5. Install TimerNuke (Remove Time based Windows 7 Expiration)
6. Enable Quick Launch Bar
7. Make Windows 7 Trial Last 120 Days
8. Uninstall Internet Explorer for Good
9. Windows 7 Installed on a Apple MacBook Pro with 17″ Display

According to this blogger, IE8 is now able to be removed from the latest leaked build of Win7.

It can be done from the control panel utilizing the “Turn Windows Features On or Off” option. See the above link for more details.

Interesting article about upcoming Zune models with some “rumored” features listed.  Isn’t this like a bad movie getting a sequel?

Ever wish you could have a cool dock launcher (like Mac OSX) running on WinXP?  If so RocketDock seems to fit the bill.  I’ve read several very good reviews on this, looks like something I’ll be trying soon.

Wantto see it in action, check this out.

I’ve been waiting a LONG time for Vista to come out. Don’t be mistaken, not because I want to upgrade, but because I want to see how everyone responds to the final version. Maybe I’m just negative, but in a way it would be fun to see Microsoft stumble a bit (or fall flat on their faces).

I recently read an editorial by one of my favorite tech sites Hard|OCP. The editorial is pretty much just what I expected. it isn’t a full review, but a general “feeling” of the OS. here are a few quotes from the article:

“This is obviously not the position Microsoft wanted to be in leading up to launch day. I remember meeting with Microsoft last year at E3 where I had my backside filled with smoke for an hour by the Vista PR crew. The gist of our hour-long meeting was, “It’s going to be awesome!” I kept asking them specifically about DirectX 10 and what it would bring to the table, and they said that since no DX10 hardware was available at that time, they didn’t want to comment. But it would, without question, “be awesome!” They also didn’t have a lot of specifics about how Vista would specifically and tangibly be better than XP, but man oh man, it was going to be great.”

“Fast forward to July of 2006, and I’m sitting in a room (along with many other journalists) with Peter Moore, who is in charge of Microsoft’s new Games for Windows initiative. Several people ask him questions about Xbox live and other console questions, but finally I raise my hand in the air and say, “Mr. Moore, we’ve heard all this talk about how great Vista is going to be for gaming. Can you tell me specifically how gaming on Vista will be better than on XP?” He thanked me for my question, and then rattled off a PR-laden answer that is best summarized by “It’s going to be awesome!” He finished his answer with a claim resembling, “Just wait, you’ll see.””

“However, in the interest of science, I’ve been using Vista for the past six months and it’s left me completely underwhelmed. Rather than being a major step-forward in User Interface (UI) design, accessibility, and ease-of-use, it’s largely a step backward.”

For reference here are a few more articles about Vista:

Interesting EULA finding

Tom’s hardware Vista benchmarking against XP

ActiveWin Review of Vista Ultimate Edition

Fortune Magazine’s Peter Lewis gives his opinion

I found this on Digg this evening and thought it was a great idea. Apparently, Debian Linux has released a frontend install loader that runs from Windows. It was adapted from a similar project for Ubuntu (which I was unaware of). You can even visit a website to directly start the process.

Here’s the details straight from the horses mouth, so to speak:

“This is the announcement of “Debian-Installer Loader”, a win32 loader for
Debian Installer.Overall, the process is very simple (it’s been inspired by a similar
project with Ubuntu). D-I-L runs on the users’ win32 system,
auto-detects whether the CPU supports 64-bits, picks the appropriate
linux and initrd.gz images for netboot, and uses GRUB for DOS to
chainload into it.

This has a few interesting applications:

- Migrating to Debian on hardware without CD drive (or USB boot capability).

- Migrating to Debian for users who have no idea how to burn an ISO
and/or how to configure their BIOS for CD boot.

- Migrating a system to Debian inmediately, at any time, wether
we have a boot CD at hand or not.

- Advocating Debian to Windows users. Rather than give them a CD
(expensive), give them a piece of paper with an URL.”

Interesting iPod dock review at Tech Zone.

Story clip:

“At $299.99, the Logitech AudioStation matches the retail price of the Bose SoundDock. However, Logitech’s doesn’t keep a noose around their dealer network like Bose does. Therefore you should be able to buy the AudioStation for well under the retail price. This is something you cannot do with Bose. With that reality, we would definitely take the AudioStation over the SoundDock.”