There’s apparently very little like posting a complete story via one’s own Nokia N810. It’s made even more special because I’m not typing it in using the in-built keyboard. Nay, I’m using an Apple 2nd Gen Bluetooth Keyboard, the tiny little silver one.  Uaing this little battery-powered wonder allows me to type a long closer to my regular speed, and on the miniscule N810, its even more portable. I’m working on a Wi-Fi connection, but I can easily imagine doing this via a data connection on a phone. I would not say however, that this is a replacement for a lappy, but its working damn well for what it is. Earlier today I used “rdesktop” to connect to a Terminal Server which then runs Windows in a remote session., Loathe though I am to admit it, it was quite nice to see it working so well. I’m going to be posting a  late-season review of the Nokia N810 soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

written by Tyler Regas

Gizmodo has a great little piece on some guy who has managed to get Mac OS X Leopard, that’s 10.5 for the few of us who don’t do names, onto an MSI Wind micro lappy. Yeah! Here’s the Giz piece and here’s a link to the Insanely Mac Forum posting (note, its in Spanish). Here, then, is a picture to whet your appetite…

written by Tyler Regas

Panasonic has made a real business out of its ToughBook line, now offering the new CF-U1 model. The MIL-STD ruggedized UMPC weighs in at 2.3 lbs. and features Intel’s new Atom CPU clocked at 1.33GHz. Its also rather packed with a 1D and 2D barcode scanner, 5.6″ 1024×600 touchscreen LCD display, a backlit keyboard, 2MP camera, options for 16GB or 32GB SSD, an optional fingerprint scanner, optional 3G and GPS, and a claimed 9 hour battery life with dual hot-swappable modules. It ships with Vista Business Edition (downgradeable to XP Pro for a fee), but if that sounds like the shiz to you, it can all be yours for a mere US$2,500.

written by Tyler Regas

Its official, folks! OpenMoko is announcing that its Neo FreeRunner open source handset will be available July 4th. Purchase it for US$399 from the site and they will start shipping units on July 7th. The Neo FreeRunner is a unique piece of kit in today’s handset market in that it runs GNU/Linux and its hardware specifications and even the cases CADD files are availalbe at no cost. This allows anyone to modify every single aspect of the handset to meet their own needs. OpenMoko was spun off from FIC, the Taiwanese motherboard and PC system components maker, last year after an extremely popular developer release of an earlier version of the handset.

written by Tyler Regas

People really seem to love FaceBook and recent numbers seem to indicate they’re loving it more than they are FaceBook, though I really can’t fathom why. Now Palm is in the act with a FaceBook client for a short list of their handsets, namely the Centro, 680, and 755p. Specifically, it will work on Palm OS 5.4.9, so don’t get any ideas of getting it to work on your Treo 180. What’s nice is that its free. Cool.

written by Tyler Regas

When you have kids things just generally take longer. Sadly, technology doesn’t really make it any easier. You might be surprised to discover that I am not a PIM freak. In fact, I try to use PIMs as little as possible and I’m pretty successful with that effort. I’ve never found a PIM which liked me. There are plenty of them out there, too. I just can’t find one that works with what I like, nor is there likely to ever be one. I’m a nerd first and a journalist second. I get loads of gear all the time. Just check out my reviews, which really only represents about a third of what I get. Considering that the majority of the gear I get is mobility enabling, I should be able to find something which suits me and my needs. Continue reading »

written by Tyler Regas

The great thing about being a nerd is that you look everywhere to find out about new kit. In this case, I was watching a recent episode of Beyond Tomorrow on the Science Channel and they showed off this little gadget. This is the Yamaha EZ-AG Digital Guitar. Its not a real guitar, mind you, though it does have strings to strum and a neck to play chords and notes on, but each string and fret position is actually a key, like on a keyboard. It can be used as a MIDI device, but its mission is to teach people how to play the guitar, and I think its fantastic. Its retailing for US$199 and it runs on batteries! Neato Toledo!

written by Tyler Regas

If you were looking at these 15″ and 17″ backhinged, widescreen lappies sporting an integrated webcam and thinking, “Damn! Dell just undercut Apple big time!“, you’d be mostly right. Sadly the 15″ model ships with a 1280×800 display while the 17″ gets 1440×900, and both get connected to 256MBs of dedicated VRAM, except the lowly 15″ base model. They come with 2-3GBs of RAM, 160GB to 250GB SATA drives, and ship in a slew of colors. I think they’re quite attractive, which is a lot coming from a Mac phreakboi like myself. Pricing start at US$799 and goes to US$1,299. Not too shabby, Dell!

written by Tyler Regas

I’m not sure when this will become available in the US or for how much, but its kinda cool. Honlai has shown their new QingBar iPod projector dock and its looking pretty neat. Keep in mind, however, that it maxes out at 10-15 Lumens, a 200:1 contrast ratio, and 640×480 fixed resolution. That’s not so bad, though, considering that its not meant for presentations.

written by Tyler Regas