Since the advent of the netbook, I've stated to many customers that I believe the netbook will be the smallest computer you can actually use until speech recognition technology gets alot better. Why no smaller? Its the keyboard. Anything smaller then a netbook and you can't touch type. You can thumb it in or peck and poke, but not type. Now typing may become a thing of the past, but as of July 2010 speech recognition just doesn't' work.
Many of you have seen/heard the infuriating commercials with the person calling a service center and having their words garbled by a computer answering system. "Did you say you want to buy a compactor?" When you are looking for a laptop. Now when speech recognition actually works then you'll be able to have the computer a size of a button. It's the input (keyboard/mouse) and output (monitor & printer) that are the most limiting in computer size. I just set up an iMac desktop computer at a local office and the size of the keyboard was that same minimum size of a typical netbook.
I know I'm amazed at the ever decreasing size of phones and the tremendous amount of capability they have. They now have so many features that computers have and many that they don't! GPS, music player, camera, book reader, database, calendar and on and on. I was amazed the other day when a person with an iphone showed me how to use it as a bar code scanner. They picked up an item in a store, scanned the bar code and immediately could look up the product for reviews, pricing and more information then you possibly could use. I certainly use my phone for way more then a phone. It has my schedule, contacts and a couple of neat games. It can translate several languages and connect to the Internet for information searches.
A complete computer computational power can now be on one chip. The input/output devices are what makes the computer large. I've seen demostrations of computers built in to clothing, sunglasses, pet collars even a tiny surveilance camera. How small can they make them? I guess we will soon see (or not!).
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
#181 The new Mac mini!
The new mac mini has arrived at PCSS. We got our first mac mini in 2006. We have used it as our Internet device (browsing all over without fear) and as the home of our music and movie
collections. Four years later and we were ready for a bigger hard drive, fast processor and the new Apple operating system Snow Leopard. There was nothing really wrong with the old one. So we have re-purposed it by reformatting the hard drive and installing just the essential programs. In fact we are typing this update on the old mini.
After healing a computer for the 3rd time this year, a customer asked if I ever get malware infections. The simple answer was no. I do the vast majority of my Internet work on the Mac Mini. I do email on my PCs (laptops and desktop) when I am home but that is about it. No Mac has ever been infected as of today.
So what else is new about the mini?
Its shorter, a bit wider and has several new ports on the back side. Here is the rear and from left to right we have power, Ethernet, firewire, HDMI, mini display adapter, 4 USB ports, SDXC memory card reader, microphone & speaker ports. The top, 2 sides and front are brushed aluminum. The bottom actually opens up so you can easly upgrade the memory (yeah). Unfortunately Apple has filled all the memory slots so you have to remove memory to upgrade (boo).
We purchased the basic model. Intel 2.4GHz Intel Duo Core processor with 2GB of memory, 320GB hard disk drive, NVIDIA GeForce 320m graphics (Hi Def!), DVD burner (no blue-ray), Built in wireless & Bluetooth. Minis don't come with keyboards, mice or displays, so you can use any USB keyboard or mouse. It comes with a DVI adapter for display, but if you are like me and don't have a DVI display, you have to purchase the VGA adapter. Cost was $699 for the Mini and $29 for the display adapter.
We moved all our music and movies without much trouble. We are waiting for an HDMI cable to attach it to our flat panel TV. Plans are to get the AVATAR DVD to watch and see how we like that aspect of the Mini.
Let me know if you have comments or questions about this remarkable little PC!
collections. Four years later and we were ready for a bigger hard drive, fast processor and the new Apple operating system Snow Leopard. There was nothing really wrong with the old one. So we have re-purposed it by reformatting the hard drive and installing just the essential programs. In fact we are typing this update on the old mini.After healing a computer for the 3rd time this year, a customer asked if I ever get malware infections. The simple answer was no. I do the vast majority of my Internet work on the Mac Mini. I do email on my PCs (laptops and desktop) when I am home but that is about it. No Mac has ever been infected as of today.
So what else is new about the mini?
Its shorter, a bit wider and has several new ports on the back side. Here is the rear and from left to right we have power, Ethernet, firewire, HDMI, mini display adapter, 4 USB ports, SDXC memory card reader, microphone & speaker ports. The top, 2 sides and front are brushed aluminum. The bottom actually opens up so you can easly upgrade the memory (yeah). Unfortunately Apple has filled all the memory slots so you have to remove memory to upgrade (boo).We purchased the basic model. Intel 2.4GHz Intel Duo Core processor with 2GB of memory, 320GB hard disk drive, NVIDIA GeForce 320m graphics (Hi Def!), DVD burner (no blue-ray), Built in wireless & Bluetooth. Minis don't come with keyboards, mice or displays, so you can use any USB keyboard or mouse. It comes with a DVI adapter for display, but if you are like me and don't have a DVI display, you have to purchase the VGA adapter. Cost was $699 for the Mini and $29 for the display adapter.
We moved all our music and movies without much trouble. We are waiting for an HDMI cable to attach it to our flat panel TV. Plans are to get the AVATAR DVD to watch and see how we like that aspect of the Mini.
Let me know if you have comments or questions about this remarkable little PC!
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