Kindle for Mac is  a free application and is clearly geared for those who already own a Kindle. Kindle for Mac automatically syncs with users’ other devices so they can pick up on the last page they were reading before switching devices. Books purchased on a Kindle or other devices are available to read at no additional charge.

When launching Kindle for Mac, users are greeted with a catalog of purchased books and downloaded samples. Browsing for books to purchase is done through your Mac’s web browser, not in the application itself. Amazon’s online book catalog is fairly easy to navigate and you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding something interesting to read considering the virtual library has far more titles than your neighborhood bookstore.

Clicking on a title in the Kindle for Mac catalog opens the virtual book, beneath a menu bar. Here, the user can bookmark a page, jump to a page or adjust the size of the font and the number of words per line. I found it most comfortable to read the included sample book D-Day with the words per line slider set to mid-point. It was very difficult for me to read with this setting maxed out, which stretched the text out nearly the entire width of my MacBook Pro’s 15″ display.

There are three ways for MacBook users to turn pages. You can simply left-click on the arrows to the left and right of the pages, swipe side-to-side with two fingers on the trackpad, or swipe up and down.  Unfortunately, Kindle for Mac doesn’t recognize other gestures, such as pinch and zoom to decrease and increase font size.

Reading Kindle Books on a bright MacBook Pro display isn’t as comfortable as using an actual Kindle. This is mostly due to the fact that staring at a bright white display and focusing on text for a long time can strain your eyes. Reading on a Kindle feels a lot more like reading a real book and is probably better for your eyes.

Doing more than simply reading a Kindle Book on your Mac can be a challenge. Users can also view notes and highlights that you jotted down on book pages using their Kindles. Unfortunately, you can’t create new notes or highlight text using Kindle for Mac. There’s no search feature, which means you’ll have to wade through page after page to find what you’re looking for, just like with a paperback.

Another feature missing from Kindle for Mac is text to speech. On a Kindle, you can have your books read to you (unless a publisher’s specifically disabled that feature their books), but this isn’t possible on a MacBook, even though OSX has a perfectly capable text-to-speech feature. The problem is that Amazon’s DRM prevents users form selecting text, which is the first step in getting your MacBook to read aloud. While I can certainly appreciate the fact that Amazon and its publishers don’t want people to pirate their books, this can make it more tedious for students to pull quotes into reports or take notes.

As I mentioned before, Kindle for Mac is free, but the best thing about the Kindle store is that there are countless free books in just about every genre. For a full list of free Kindle books, all you have to do is visit this Amazon.com page. If you want to narrow things down you can select your favorite genre from the left side of the Kindle Store page and then select ‘Price: Lowest to Highest’ from the drop menu in the top-right of the page.

Having Kindle for Mac is going to be a plus for Kindle owners that want to view their Kindle Books on a larger screen. It’ll also provide free, legal access to thousands of books for those without a Kindle. However, there’s definitely room for improvement and I hope Amazon provides a more functional version of Kindle for Mac in the near future.

Related posts:

1. Kindle for PC, Free Digital Books Available at Amazon
2. Amazon Kindle DX: Bigger E-Book Reader for $489
3. How to Turn a Netbook Into an eBook Reader

The new “green“ mini-notebook from Sony isn’t just calling itself green it is actually living up to the label with 20% of the lid and palmrest are made with recycled plastic made from CD or DVDs and it ships in a bag, instead of a box, made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. The green doesn’t stop there as Sony has also managed to keep mercury out of the LCD, switching to an electronic user manual and several other environmentally friendly features.

Like almost every green initiative and product there is a price premium to be paid with a starting price of $449 that rises past competing netbooks, even those with HD screens and HD accelerators; but when compared to the $480 that the mini-notebook cost at the beginning of February it’s a better deal.

The Sony Vaio W Eco series is available in 3 colors; Berry Pink, Navy Blue and Sugar White. The small device can also be configured with a Verizon Wireless Broadband connection starting at $599.

Hardware Tour:

Open:

Palm area:

Left Side:

Connections from Left to Right: Power, VGA, Mic, Headphone jack

Right Side

Connections from Left to Right: USB, USB, Ethernet, Kensington

Front

Connections from Left to Right: Wireless switch, Memory Stick Reader, SD Card reader, Power switch

Specifications:

The Sony Vaio W Series Eco that we reviewed has the following specifications:

• Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor
• 250GB hard drive
• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• “Large Battery” rated at 7-8 hours
• Windows 7 Starter
• Motion Eye Webcam
• Electro-static touchpad
• Wifi b/g/n
• A2DP Bluetooth
• Memorystick slot
• SD card slot
• 2 USB ports
• Mic in
• Headphone out

Design

The Sony Vaio W Eco series is a pretty machine with green a green palmrest and silver chiclet style keyboard the Sugar White netbook we reviewed caught a few eyes. The trackpad design, with a geometric pattern that reminds us of a recycle symbol is also adds to the looks. We were a bit iffy on the large bezel, which would have made us happier with an 11” display, but overall the W Eco series is nice to look at.

Some users may notice the lack of a 3rd USB port that seems to be the current netbook standard, but hooking up to a dock or a USB hub at home will provide most users with a way around this slight limitation.

It also felt pretty sturdy despite its light weight which gave us no qualms to take it everywhere we went. The only thing that stood out was a little battery wiggle; most noticeable when we held the notebook in hand and used it.

Keyboard and Mouse

Overall the keyboard on the W Eco series is OK. It’s not the best keyboard I’ve used, but it’s far from the worst. I liked the key response, feel and separation which makes typing effortless; but even after a month I couldn’t adjust to the incredibly small right shift key which I use very often. If you don’t make use of the right shift key, or can work around this you shouldn’t have any trouble with the keyboard.

I was very happy with the trackpad on the W Eco series mini notebook. In addition to a responsive mousing surface that didn’t stick after extended use it has two separate mouse buttons which I really appreciate.

Performance and Screen

As far as performance goes the Sony Vaio W is limited by the Intel Atom N450 and 1 GB of RAM; but so are the rest of the netbooks. I didn’t have any running standard netbook applications like word, Internet Explorer, Chrome, TweetDeck, Excel, Skype and more.

I didn’t have any trouble watching local HD video; but like many netbooks streaming in HD was a challenge at times. Playing an SNL clip on Hulu was watchable in SD and in HD, even at when expanded to full screen; though there were a few times when the video stuttered. YouTube in HD was a major challenge and basically unwatchable, but videos played fine in standard definition. So long as you don’t plan on using this as a dedicated video watching machine you should do alright for the occasional viral video or to catch up on a show while traveling.

The display on the Vaio W Eco series is what really drew me to the mini-notebook and ruined my ability to use most netbooks. While I wish the display would go just a little brighter the 1366 x 768 resolution was incredible. The extra screen space really transformed how I use a netbook. I could actually take advantage of the Windows 7 shortcuts to put two items next to each other for comparison and the ability to read a post without scrolling every 5 lines was great. One side effect of the increased resolution is that text appears smaller, but I didn’t run into any issues with the text size. The only other note on the display is that, like almost every notebook I review, I wish it would tilt back a few more degrees for more comfortable use on my lap.

One additional touch that I liked about the Vaio W Eco was that it didn’t come full of crapware; instead it already had the Google Chrome Browser and Evernote installed and ready to use.

Battery

The “large” battery which sticks out of the bottom of the Sony Vaio W Eco mini notebook is rated for up to 7 hours at Max brightness and up to 8 hours on default settings.

During my typical use I had the brightness turned all the way up with WiFi on and a few programs open and I was able to get in the 6 and a half hour range on a pretty consistent basis. Most to the time this meant a few Chrome windows open, Word, Norton (installed on the W Eco when purchased) and a few other random programs. I wasn’t watching videos or listening to a lot of music which would have put a bigger strain on the battery.

Heat and noise

Despite the sticker that warns users not to place this mini notebook in contact with your skin, I didn’t run into any heat issues that concerned me. There were a few times where the Sony Vaio W got warm, but it never got so warm that I needed to remove it or use a lapdesk.

For the most part the Vaio W Eco series runs quiet, even when the fan kicks on. But it’s not totally silent. I found that if I was in a quiet room with the W Eco series sitting next to me, I could hear a small “tch-tch” coming from the hard drive area. Not something that will bother most users, but if you have a picky ear and work in very quiet environments this might annoy you. Personally I didn’t notice it enough to become a dealbreaker.

Conclusion

The Sony Vaio W is a capable netbook that gives users an attractive visual package with good specs, performance and battery life while offering a greener computing alternative. The higher price may be tough for some users to swallow, but it’s a premium paid for a green product and for what you get it isn’t a bad deal.

Personally I couldn’t get over the keyboard issue, but if you can handle the keyboard key sizes and the other minor issues the Sony Vaio W Eco Series is a well equipped machine that provides a green computing experience.

Related posts:

1. Sony VAIO W Series Netbook Announced
2. Sony unveils the M series VAIO Mini Notebook / Netbook
3. First Impressions of the Sony Vaio W – Green Netbook

First off, this mouse looks sleek, and if you’ll allow me even sexy. The brushed aluminum top and the shiny caps on the battery portion give it a really nice look and keeps what little weight there is to the back end of the mouse.

The biggest change in mousing that the Eclipse TouchMouse brings to your desk is the removal of the scrollwheel! Instead of the scrollwheel, the TouchMouse is equipped with a small trackpad that lets you scroll left-right and up-down just like you would on a laptop trackpad. When you click the trackpad you can activate a gesture.

The Eclipse TouchMouse lets you do the following gestures:

• Mouse Forward – Home Page
• Mouse Left – Previous Page
• Mouse Right – Next Page
• Mouse Backward – Internet Refresh

There doesn’t appear to be a way to reprogram the gestures at this time.

I’ve had a chance to use the mouse for about a half hour now and I’m sure I’ll have more to say in a full review or an early hands on but I am really impressed by the accuracy of the mouse and the ease of using gestures. I have been working through the gestures in Chrome and they work out great. Really handy for popping open a new home tab and clicking on one of my commonly visited sites.

Let me know if you have any questions on the TouchMouse from Eclipse and look out for a full review soon.

Related posts:

1. How to Add Two Finger Scrolling to Windows Notebooks
2. Fujitsu LifeBook MH380 Review
3. HP Pavilion dm3t Boasts 9 hours of Battery Life With WIFI

Google Voice shifts the hub of your voice/text out of your pocket and onto the web, just like your email.

If you’re already using Google Voice you’re probably well aware of everything I’m about to write. If you’ve never heard of Google Voice, you’ll probably find at least a couple of reasons to make Google your phone company. If you’re someone that calls me and is confused about why I’m using Google Voice this will clear things up.

The primary reason I started using Google Voice is because my iPhone can’t reliably receive calls at home and many of the places I go. The result is that I can actually answer calls whenever/wherever I am, manage my messages more effectively and save time.

The service has proved so valuable to me that we’re giving Google Voice a Notebooks.com Editor’s Choice award. The service is relatively new and there is room for improvement, but it’s still the best telephony service I’ve ever used.

What is Google Voice?

Google Voice is a free service that enhances voice calling, voicemail and text messages. The service allows you to centralize your communications and have total control over your calls, voicemail messages and text messages.

When you sign up for Google Voice you’ll get a new phone number, which can act as your personal voice and text communications hub. You’ll be able to log in to your Google Voice account from any web browser to send/receive text messages, listen to voice mail and dictate exactly what happens when each of your contacts calls your Google Voice number.

Google Voice’s designers apparently realized that people are a lot more mobile than they used to be, have multiple phone numbers, communicate in a variety of ways and need more flexibility. The service was actually born as Grand Central about five years ago. Google bought Grand Central an has since integrated it with its suite of online applications.

One Number for All of Your Phones

I still remember when my parents, brother and I shared a single land-line back in the 1980s. Yeah, that’s right four people and one phone number.

Now it’s not uncommon for individuals to have two, three or four numbers where they can be reached. For example, my iPhone is on contract with AT&T, my Blackberry has a number with T-Mobile, my emergency phone has a pre-paid SIM card from T-Mobile and my home office line is provided by Comcast. A much more common scenario is for people to have a home line, mobile line and office phone. A lot of my friends carry company phone in addition to their personal mobile phones.

Having multiple numbers creates a lot of challenges. Which number do you give out to friends? Which number should your family call you on in case of an emergency? What about business associates and people you just met? Then there’s the fun of dialing in remotely to check your landlines’ voicemail when you’re out of the office or away from home.

Users can add and remove numbers whenever they want. When I went to go visit Microsoft in Washington for example I added my hotel’s room number to my Google Voice account temporarily because I couldn’t get a reliable connection with my iPhone.

With Google Voice, you can simply give out a single number to everyone. You can then control which of your phones actually ring when different people call you. This is important, for example, if you don’t want your business clients calls to ring through to your home phone. You can even set up Google Voice to send specific callers straight to voicemail- I’ve had to use this for overeager salespeople and PR reps.

If you get really sick of someone you can block their calls completely and they’ll be led to believe that your phone number is invalid.

As you use Google Voice you’ll figure out which features are most valuable to you and ignore many of the others. One such feature is call recording – it might be valuable for those of us that interview product managers to learn about new products, but is ignored by many other Google Voice users.

This is what my Google Voice settings look like for one of my contacts. Josh Smith is a Notebooks.com editor and friend of mine. If he wants to get a hold of me I don’t mind the call coming through on any of my phones.

Enabling call presentation requires a caller to say his/her name. When you pick up any of your connected phones you’ll hear who’s on the other line. Users have the option of pressing 1 to accept the call or hitting 2 to send the caller straight to voicemail.

Google Voice Voicemail

The way most voicemail is handled isn’t all that different than what we had back in the 1980’s with landlines and answer machines. You probably have to dial in to listen to messages on each of your phone lines. This can be a big waste of time, especially with landlines that don’t have a way of alerting you when you have new messages.

Google Voice takes into account that people actually move from place to place and spend a lot of their time online.

One of my favorite things Google Voice transcribes voicemail messages and then delivers them to my mobile phones as text messages and to my email inbox. It tries its best to transcribe messages and delivers them as both email and text messages. This is very useful when I’m in meetings. If the message is urgent I can excuse myself and return a call. If it’s not so urgent I can wait until my meeting’s over to return a call. Voice recognition is far from perfect, but there’s generally enough words transcribed correctly to get the gist of the message. Google Voice’s voice recognition transcribes phone numbers particularly well, which has eliminated the practice of replaying voice mails in order to jot down numbers left in a hurry.

Back in the old days of answering machines it was pretty common for people to screen calls and pick up mid-message. If you send someone to your Google Voicemail you can stay on the line and listen in to their message as they record it. If you want you can pick up the call mid-message.

In the above image of Josh Smith’s contact settings you’ll notice there’s a pull-down menu for voicemail greetings. This allows me to assign custom voicemail greetings to specific contacts. For example, I can designate a professional message for business contacts and an endearing message for family members. When I go out of town I can create a new recording telling family members details about my travel plans without revealing too much personal info to others.

One thing that’s frustrating about most email systems is that you can’t share them with others. I can’t count how many times I’ve had to relay messages to others. Inevitably, information gets jumbled in translation. Google Voice lets me share my voicemails with whomever I want by email. I can even embed messages on websites if needed

Google Voice SMS

Google Voice delivers text messages to multiple mobile phones and allows users to send/receive them through email and the Google Voice dashboard. This means you can avoid incurring SMS usage fees, archive your messages and search through them in the future.

I’ve used Google Voice to communicate via SMS while in foreign countries and while aboard Virgin America jets, all of which are equiped with in-flight WiFi. I recently communicated with my wife while I was in flight to coordinate a ride home from the airport.

Unfortunately, Google Voice doesn’t support MMS so you can’t send or receive photos via the service.

Google Voice International Calling
Calling overseas can get pretty expensive, especially if you don’t subscribe to an international calling plan. Google Voice offers some very competitive rates for calling foreign contacts. When using most phones you’ll need to dial into your Google Voice number or use your Google Voice dashboard to initiate a call. If you have Google Voice installed on your smartphone you can dial directly.

Using Google Voice to dial internationally is similar to using JaJah.

Google Voice charges $.06 per minute for calling landlines and mobile phones in India, where many of my wife’s relatives live. If we use our Comcast service to call India it costs $.28 per minute to call call landlines and $.30 per minute to call mobile phones.

Not Quite Perfect

Like just about every service, Google Voice has its flaws. The service is only available for people with a valid U.S. number. Users can’t add international numbers to the service either, which means you still have to give out your overseas numbers when traveling abroad. I’d sure be willing to pay the international charges for connected calls when I travel to Europe or Asia.

The system is overly complex for some users and there’s definitely a learning curve. You’ll have to spend some time setting up how all of your calls, messages and contacts are handled. If you only communicate with a handful of people or you have relatively basic telecommunications needs Google Voice is probably an unneeded complexity.

The biggest challenge I’ve had is getting people to use my Google Voice number. Despite repeated requests, many of my contacts still dial my iPhone and Blackberry directly out of habit or because those devices’ numbers are still displayed on their Caller ID.This can be avoided by using the Google Voice application to place calls, but unfortunately Apple yanked it from its application store. If you want the best Google Voice experience on a mobile phone you should pick up a Nexus One or an alternative Android-based phone.

Google Voice does not currently support number porting (transferring a phone number completely to Google Voice). I imagine that this capability is coming in the near future.

Another limitation is that you have to be a Gmail user to use the service. Changing both your phone number and your email address can be too daunting of a task if you’re on the fence about how much value you’d get out of the service.

Google Voice registration is also limited. In order to get started you’ll need to be invited by a current Google Voice user or need to request an invite from Google.

Related posts:

1. Google Nexus One Coming to Sprint
2. Mobile Spyware Can Invade Your Privacy On-The-Go
3. How to Track Your Lost or Stolen Cell Phone Free

The ThinkPad Edge 13 is a break from the old for Lenovo in terms of style and design but in the transition they kept many of the ThinkPad favorites such as the famous TrackPoint which helps this notebook look new without providing too much of a shock to users who want the same ThinkPad experience they are used to.

Oh, there’s also a glowing LED dotting the “i” in the ThinkPad logo that looks adds a little pizzazz to the otherwise blank lid and palmrest.

Along with the new design the Ultra-Portable Edge comes with a lower price than the traditional ThinkPad series starting at $799 for an AMD powered version and climbing to $1,199 for the WiMax equipped model which we are reviewing. The good news, for shoppers on a budget, is that the AMD model is routinely on sale for below $600 and the Intel Core 2 Duo model can be had for $799-$899 on a regular basis.

Hardware Tour

Glossy lid of the Lenovo Edge 13

Left to Right: Kensington lock, vent, VGA, HDMI, Ethernet, Always On USB (charge your gadgets)

Left to Right: SD card reader, Mic/headphone jack, USB, USB, Power connector

Specifications

The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 unit that we reviewed comes with the following specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Processor ( 1.30GHz 800MHz 3MB )
• Windows 7
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
• 13.3 ” HD Glare with integrated camera 1366×768
• Industry Standard 2 button touchpad with TrackPoint
• 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion
• Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250
• Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
• One year warranty covering parts and labor

Design

Not as svelte and swirly as many notebooks on the market today but for a ThinkPad it is a little flashy. The Edge trades in the matte black that has long been the hallmark of ThinkPad notebooks for a glossier finish available in black and red which looks very elegant without appearing looking like you borrowed your tween’s notebook to make a boardroom pitch.

Keyboard and Mouse

My first impression of the Lenovo Edge 13’s keyboard came with a few key placement gripes, but I was able to fix them in a matter of minutes and have been happily typing every since. In a given day I can easily type close to 1,000 words, and that’s just what I track on Notebooks and WalletPop, so I am as picky about keyboards as golfers are about their clubs.

These keys will spoil you for any other notebook

If you’ve read any of my other reviews you’ll remember that I typically settle for a keyboard but with the Edge there’s no settling, this is one of the best keyboards I’ve used on an ultra-portable notebook; and perhaps on any notebook in recent history. The keys on the Edge are of the new chiclet style which translates into perfect spacing, great feedback and an incredibly enjoyable typing experience. The Edge’s keyboard even gets the little things right with a giant right shift key and recessed page up and page down keys that round out the great typing experience. My fingers are already aching at the thought of typing on any other notebook and especially at the prospect of picking up more of my mobile writing on a netbook.

Both the trackpad and the TrackPoint nub provide an enjoyable mousing experience including the ability to use gestures. Personally I can’t understand how users can make do with the TrackPoint nub on an extended basis as it drives me crazy but from what I gather you’re either nub user or you aren’t so I’ll keep my comments on the TrackPoint to the fact that it performed just as every other ThinkPad pointer stick has. The mousepad is on par with the keyboard when it comes to usability thanks to a large size and two separate mouse buttons.

Performance and Screen

During my use, the Edge did everything from web browsing and writing to editing movies with Windows Live Movie Maker and handled it all without complaint. The only issue I had during my 2 months of use in terms of performance came from having Firefox open for a few days and putting the computer to sleep multiple times per day; but this problem was fixed by restarting and switching to Chrome so it isn’t so much an Edge issue as an observation of how Firefox handles on it in an on-the-go setting.

The Edge’s 13.3″ screen performs well providing ample workroom thanks to a 1366 x 768 resolution and minimal glare, even outside, despite the glossy finish on the screen. The brightness settings were sufficient, though there were a few opportunities where I would have preferred the screen to go just a little brighter.

Battery

While Battery Eater wouldn’t run for me to give you a benchmark battery life my real world experience with the ThinkPad Edge has been one of 5-6 hours, with 5 hours occurring while using Wifi with the screen set at a usable “12″ out of “15 on the brightness scale. I didn’t use the Edge to watch much video, not because it wasn’t capable, but it should be able to get your though a downloaded movie with no trouble. When you need to recharge, the Edge can fill up quick — from 3% to 99.1% in an hour and 15 minutes — which will turn this 5-6 hour battery into an all day one assuming you can find a half hour at a outlet over lunch.

Heat and Noise

When it comes to heat and noise the Edge scores well on both fronts. While you can hear the fan humming along slightly at times the Edge is overall a very quiet machine and it wasn’t too hot to use on my lap. The fact that the Edge didn’t scorch my lap like my HP Mini 1000 and HP tx2000 do is a welcome change.

Conclusion

The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge is a very capable notebook and using it for the past two months has brought me to a conclusion similar to the one Matthew Dillon had when he abandoned his various sized netbooks in favor of a Macbook; a powerful 13″ notebook is the perfect compromise between size and use. Thanks to solid performance, good battery life and light weight the Lenovo Edge 13 is a great notebook for professionals or students and provides a glimpse of what ThinkPad’s can look like when they loosen the corporate tie a little.

Related posts:

1. Lenovo Edge First Impression On The Road
2. Lenovo Announces Edge and X100e Notebooks for Small Biz and Consumers
3. Win a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13!

What is a Gelaskin: A Gelaskin is an adhesive protective cover available for many electronics ranging from netbooks and notebooks to iPhones, smartphones and game devices like the Nintendo DSI. The iPhone and smartphone Gelaskins also come with matching wallpaper so your phone is completely skinned. Gelaskins come in many styles and colors and thanks to partnerships with National Geographic, Marvel and top indie designers as well as giving you the option to upload your own images and designs. The skin is held in place with a 3M adhesive and protects against scratches and has an anti-UV coating.

Notebook before the Gelaskin

Installation: Based on past experiences installing screen covers I prepared myself for an arduous process of positioning and repositioning — and smoothing out air bubbles and cursing. Thankfully, there was only a bit of repositioning which went really well. In two words; the Gelaskins installation process was smooth and forgivable.

The 3M backing held its tack while I found the perfect place to put the “Take me to your leaders” Gelaskin, and even though I had to reposition it several times once I had it in the correct spot there were no air bubbles and it held fast. This was by far the easiest protector installation I’ve ever gone through. In all it took me about 4 minutes including cleaning off the top of my Lenovo Edge.

After a day or so the Gelaskin sunk in a little bit around the ThinkPad logo that is on the Edge, but unless you look close it isn’t very apparent and it doesn’t detract from the overall look of the skin.

Protection: As far as protection goes Gelaskins stand up to punishment. Since I have only had mine on for a few days I decided to put it to a stress test against my keys. As you can see in the video below the Gelaskin stands up to a key very well with only a few marks showing when the light hits at the right angle. If you left a pen or your keys in your backpack or briefcase with a Gelaskin covered notebook you should come out OK at the end of the day.

Overall: If you’re looking for an easy way to prevent scratches and fingerprints from marking up your new notebook or netbook Gelaskins are an attractive way to protect your gadgets.By combining great designs, an easy application process and a price of $29.95 and under Gelaskins are a great way to protect your notebook while expressing yourself.

Related posts:

1. Lenovo Edge 13 Review
2. Lenovo Offers New Textured and Styled Covers for U350 and S10-2 Notebooks
3. Sony Vaio W Eco Series Review

At CES 2010 Sony announced the new Sony Vaio W netbook, which adds a green focus to the netbook and how it’s shipped. I’ve had the chance to use the Sony Vaio W series netbook for a week now and wanted to share my first impressions of the new green netbook. Overall I have found the Vaio W to be a good machine, but I have a few minor quibbles so far.

To start, the Vaio W is a pretty sleek netbook that feels pretty sturdy and looks stylish, except for the battery. Now, don’t get me wrong the prospect of 6-8 hour battery life under real world usage is appealing but I wish the Vaio W didn’t have the snail tail battery that sticks out the back. In the end, it’s no deal breaker and it works as a handle and to prop the keyboard up a bit for a better typing experience so I can let it slide.

Speaking of the keyboard. After a week of usage I both love and hate this keyboard. I love the silver color, key spacing, responsiveness of the keys and the feedback. But the keys are small. While the spacing makes it easier to deal with what really gets me is that the right shift key is one of the smallest keys on the Sony Vaio W. This means I am constantly missing it, which I find annoying.

Then again, when I shared this frustration on Twitter I was asked what I used the right shift key for, so maybe this is a non issue for most of the population. For the record, I have cobbled my own version of home keys meets hunt and peck which serves me well and allows for a pretty crazy fast typing speed so long as  know what I want to say.

One thing that I found really useful as soon as I wanted to write a post on the Sony Vaio W, was that it has a screen resolution of 1366 x 768, This is big enough that I can have two windows up next to each other, snapped to the left and the right in Windows 7, and still see well enough to work. This is a huge improvement over the 1024 x 600 resolution of my HP Mini 1000 and even though some text can be small, there’s no way I can go back.

As part of the green theme of the Sony Vaio W, details below, the brown reusable carrying bag made out of recycled juice bottles with a light green zipper accent. I really like the bag because it fits the Vaio perfectly. You can store the battery in a Velcro slot at the bottom of the bag, or if you want to keep it in the netbook it fits that way too. Not a lot of room for anything else, but I found that I can slide a moleskin notebook in alongside the netbook, so it is good enough for daytrips.

The Sony Vaio W has 3 main green “features”:

• 20% of the PC/ABS resin used in the cover, palm rest and incidental parts is comprised of reprocessed plastic from DVD and CD waste
• Electronic user manual in place of the standard 76-page printed manual to save paper
• Packaged in a reusable carrying case that utilizes 100% recycled PET material (material from plastic bottles)

The Basic specs on the Sony Vaio VPCW212AX that I will be reviewing are:

• Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor
• 250GB hard drive
• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• “Large Battery” rated at 7-8 hours
• Windows 7 Starter
• Motion Eye Webcam
• Electro-static touchpad
• Wifi b/g/n
• A2DP Bluetooth
• Memorystick slot
• SD card slot
• 2 USB ports
• Mic in
• Headphone out

More info on the Sony Vaio W at Sony.com

Related posts:

1. Sony VAIO X Reviewed as a Netbook
2. Sony Vaio W Eco Series Review
3. CES- Sony’s going green with the Vaio W-Series Eco

I started the trip using PDAnet for my Droid, but was very excited to get a review MiFi unit from Novatel late the first day so that I could get connected without any cables or fussing around with software.

With a freshly charged MiFi, and an Eye-Fi card on loan from Xavier, I set out to cover day two of CES and immediately recognized the benefits of the MiFi unit over tethering to my phone. Leaving the Venetian I hopped onto a 10-15 minute shuttle ride over to the big show and while I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of connecting my Droid for such as short period I was able to connect my HP Mini 1000 to the MiFi quickly and knock out a post I had leftover from the evening before. Tethering my Droid wouldn’t have been practical in this quick cramped situation.

The MiFi unit also came in incredibly handy throughout the show as I had it turned on in the pocket of my ScotteVest for practically instant on connectivity wherever I ended up; be that on the floor, a corner of the USPS booth or camped out at RunCore’s booth in the Netbook Zone.

When the entire Notebooks.com and GottaBeMobile team covered the Intel keynote the four of us each connected a computer to the MiFi unit as well as Xavier’s Eye-Fi card which he used to provide the rest of us with almost instantaneous access to his photos that were uploaded to his Flickr account. This situation highlights one of the biggest benefits of a MiFi card over any tethering solution; the ability to share a connection and do so without any extra installation.

Connected with MiFi wishing for a backlit keyboard!

If I wanted to share my PDAnet tethered Droid with the rest of the group I would have had to pull some workarounds in Windows to share over the built in WiFi or lend the connection to one person at a time and even then they would have had to install the software and USB drivers and hope it worked. Because the MiFi shares over WiFi the only setup is typing in the network password and clicking connect.

The ability to upload pictures from anywhere with a Eye-Fi card and a MiFi was another positive at the show after a helpful Eye-Fi rep showed me how to fix a user error that prevented the images from uploading when the notebook was on one connection and the Eye-Fi card on the MiFi. This connectivity is one of the things I will miss most as I pack up the MiFi unit and return it to Novatel tomorrow. The fact that combining a MiFi and the new Eye-Fi Pro X2 means you can keep taking photos without ever running out of room may be enough to cause my wife, who is a shutterbug, before I do!

As far as speed goes during the comparison I tested both PDAnet and the MiFi several times; both moving and standing still and the speeds were very close no matter which device I used. That said the MiFi was faster by about 200 Kb/s up and down while in a moving vehicle that was traveling between 35 and 45 mph. It is likely that this difference was due to small changes in location and networks rather than a clear advantage but nonetheless the differences existed in my non-scientific tests.

Really the only trouble I had during my test was uploading large files to YouTube, but I wouldn’t have even attempted that when tethered and it’s possible that part of that was due to network and YouTube saturation at CES.

If you couldn’t already tell, I am sold on the MiFi. Not only is it dead simple to use, easy to share and tiny but it just works. Not once during my use did I run into an issue like you see below that popped up with PDAnet on a few occasions. The MiFi device is one of the simplest ways to connect to the internet on the go and offers several advantages over traditional tethering such as the ability to share and Eye-Fi connectivity.

You can currently get a MiFi device from Sprint or Verizon for practically nothing if purchased on Amazon with a contract. If you don’t want to pay between $40 and $60 a month you can pick up a Pay-As-You-Go MiFi device and use it only when you need it which may fit those of us like myself who travel less frequently better than adding another monthly data fee.

For the time being I haven’t decided to pick up a MiFi, only because while I continue to have a day job that puts me behind a desk 9 hours a day without much travel I don’t connect as much on the go to justify purchasing one. If that situation changes, or Verizon lets you add a MiFi to the same pool of data my Droid uses, I will be much more likely to pick one up.

Bottom Line: If you need mobile access from Verizon or Sprint a MiFi is the device for you — it does so much more than the USB cards they both sell and when purchased from Amazon a MiFi is as about as cheap as you can get.

Here’s what the MiFI looks like when it’s up and running.

Related posts:

1. Verizon MiFi – Looking Good for Mobile Pro
2. CES: Surviving with the MiFi and ScotteVest
3. Novatel MiFi 2352 Unboxed

Hardware Tour

From right to left: Kensington lock port, A/C plug, Vent, USB 2.0, HDMI

Multi-card reader (SD/MS/MMC/XD), Headphone/mic input, USB 2.0 x 2, VGA output, Ethernet adapter

I’ll spare you detail shots of the front and back as they lack any ports or buttons whatsoever. For the more adventurous of you out there, removing a panel on the bottom allows access to a single RAM slot as well as the HDD, and two Mini PCI Express connectors (one of which was unoccupied on my model).

Specifications

The Mini 311 that I’m reviewing has a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, Nvidia ION graphics, 2GB of RAM, and Windows 7. The screen is 11.6” with a 1366×768 resolution, which is higher than most netbooks (often 1024×600.) Higher resolution, of course, means that one can see more on the screen when compared to a lower resolution.  One can configure most of these specs to their liking, but the base model can be had for a reasonable $399 direct from HP, and possibly even cheaper elsewhere. All models are equipped with ION. If you are customizing through HP, you have several options: a 1.6GHz or 1.66GHz CPU, 1/2/3GB of RAM, 160/250/380GB HDD (or 80GB SSD), Windows XP or Windows 7, and your choice of white or black lid. The 311 can also be equipped with a 3G WWAN chip for cellular internet access for an additional $125. HP says this works on AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint.

Design

I’ll be up front with this one. The 311 is sleek. HP has really stepped up their game lately. While you might be used to very noisy designs on HP laptops of the past… the Mini 311 is undeniably clean, and could easily be mistaken for a more expensive computer just by its looks alone.

The lid, which is predominately black, has a spiral/swirl design which is revealed if one looks closely, which I feel is a nice touch over the alternative (completely black). The 311 slopes down (as you can see in the side images above) to a nice thinness. This slope makes the 311 feel even more thin than it is (1.2” at the back end and .78” toward the front). It is also rather light — weighing in at 3.26 pounds – making it easy to tote around.

Once you open the lid on the Mini 311, the clean and sleek look will really grab your attention. There are only two buttons (not counting the keyboard and mouse keys) on the entire computer. These two buttons are the power button at the top left of the deck (the plane that the keyboard is on) and a WiFi toggle button opposite the power button.
The keyboard is also quite stylish, featuring some very spacious keys, and HP’s usual curve look which is found on other netbooks from their Mini line. The trackpad is perfectly flat with the rest of the deck and has a left and right mouse button running along the bottom of it. It is perfectly smooth and the only marking on it is a simple line to show where the scroll-sensitive area is. (We’ll talk more about the keyboard and trackpad, and how well they function, in the performance section below.)

Performance

Nvidia ION

The Mini 311 is based on Intel’s Atom platform, as the majority of netbooks are, and while most netbooks out there feel like they are fresh from the cookie-cutter, the ION equipped Mini 311 really stands apart from the crowd.

ION is quite the game changer. In simple terms, ION means that the 311 has a chip that is dedicated to increasing the performance of visually intensive processes. Video playback is particularly improved. The Mini 311 is the first netbook that I’ve seen that can handle HD playback, which for some media junkies out there, is a huge deal.

What is even more impressive is the fact that, when combined with Flash player 10.1, the Mini 311 can provide users with silky smooth flash HD playback. This represents a really important step forward for netbooks; While just a few months ago, a netbook might not even be able to play Hulu videos smoothly — now ION allows the 311 to make quick work of flash content, really completing the idea of the ‘netbook’ which is supposed to be great for the web. Awesome portals of HD entertainment have been unlocked, even for those that don’t want to spend $1000 on a computer. I stand in awe as I watch the Mini 311 handle a 1080p flash video with perfectly smooth playback:

ION also enables the 311 to do some light gaming. I was able to play Half-Life 2 (albeit with the settings turned way down) at a reasonable framerate. Still, I wouldn’t look to play any modern games with the 311.

Screen & HDMI output

The Mini 311 has a high resolution screen when stacked upagainst most netbooks. The screen is 11.6” and runs at 1366×768. The screen is semi-glossy which some people prefer, while others would rather have a matte screen. In general, glossy displays aren’t going to offer great outdoor (high-sunlight) performance because of glare.

The viewing angles (how accurate the screen looks from an angle) are adequate on the Mini 311. Horizontally, the screen can be viewed at a very steep angle, while vertically it is less than great, but not too bad. If you are looking down on the screen from a high angle, the screen washes-out pretty quickly. I found myself adjusting the screen after repositioning myself in my seat so that I am looking at the screen more head-on when using the Mini 311.

The 311 has one HDMI port which allows you to output video to anything that will accept HDMI (you’ll find an HDMI port on pretty much any new HDTV that you’d see in a store today.) Output to my HDTV works great, but so far I’ve been unable to get the audio to output through my HDTV through the HDMI port. It should be supported however, and may simply a matter of figuring out how to enable it in Windows 7. (Look above in the ION section for a demo of the Mini 311 and HDMI out.)

Keyboard & Trackpad

The Mini 311 features a very spacious keyboard. It has everything that you’d expect from a full laptop keyboard. The style of the keys lend themselves to large footprints, but this comes at the cost of feedback. What I generally say about this type of keyboard is that it is great for people who look at the keyboard as they type, but for those of us that type without looking, it can be less desirable than a keyboard where one can feel more easily around the keys.

The Mini 311 is no different. The keys are very wide and nearly run into each other, with little space between. This ensures that each key has a lot of surface area, but doesn’t provide the feedback that a more traditional keyboard style would (think: raised keys), which allows serious typists to feel their way around the board without looking. Not to say that one can’t get used to it, but if you are an established typist, you’ll need a bit of practice. On the other hand, the 311 keyboard is great for people who are less experienced with typing.

The keyboard has Fn key shortcuts which are bound up in the function-key row. While the letters printed on each key are a bold black color and easy to see, the Fn symbols are grey and very similar in color to the plastic of the 311’s deck and keys. This sometimes makes it hard to see these symbols. At the right angle they can almost look invisible against the grey plastic of the keys. I often have to adjust my angle when looking for a particular Fn-key symbol to be able to see it clearly.

The Mini 311’s trackpad is of ample size, but it lacks the usual hardware trackpad toggle button that is featured on many other HP notebooks. A rather bothersome issue with the 311 is that the trackpad is very close to the keyboard. In testing, I would find that my palms frequently graze the sensitive trackpad, sometimes resulting in a click or movement of the cursor, which can wreak all kinds of havok when you are in the middle of typing something. I found a small utility called TouchFreeze which helps to some extent, but doesn’t completely eliminate the issue. I really wish that there was a hardware trackpad toggle, or even a button bound to the function-keys which would allow you to temporarily disable it, but unfortunately there is not.

The mouse keys on the trackpad a split evenly down the middle and act as your standard right and left click. Clicked in the right place (near the center split) they are nearly perfect in terms of the force necessary to press them down, but unfortunately as you move away from the center click it becomes very hard to press them down. When they are pressed in the right spot, the result is a satisfying click sound with good tactile feedback.

Battery Life

The Mini 311 comes with a 6-cell battery standard (many netbooks come with a 3-cell, and offer 6-cell as an extended battery at an additional cost.) I was surprised to find that despite the large high resolution screen, and Nvidia ION, the Mini 311 has some pretty good battery life. I ran a test using a small piece of software called BatteryEater. The test runs the laptop at 100% CPU usage until it shuts off. All power-saving features are disabled for the test as well. Under these conditions, which are designed to simulate the lowest possible time that the computer will be able to run for, the Mini 311 lasted for 3 hours and 12 minutes. This translates roughly to around 5 or 6 hours of real use, which is decent by most standards. And when I say real, I mean average web browsing and word processing usage. I’m sure you could drain the battery pretty quickly if you are attempting to watch flash HD content for hours on end.

Heat and Noise

I’m very surprised to report that the Mini 311 is not only cool, but it also stays very quiet. There is a single fan which seems to rarely turn on, and when it does run, it is quiet. I have a small handheld computer that is probably 1/4 the size of the Mini 311 and it can make more noise with its fan than the 311 seems to be able to.

I was assuming that with the ION graphics doing some extra processing, the Mini 311 would get pretty hot and have to run the fan often. I’m sure it’ll run constantly when it is being used for high performance applications, but using the Mini 311 for standard web browsing doesn’t seem to prompt the fan to run too often or too loud.

Conclusion

The HP Mini 311 alone could be looked at as a stylish and high quality netbook, but the infusion of Nvidia ION, and the performance that it provides, really pushes the Mini 311 beyond just good netbook, and in to the realm of great value. Adding to this value is a high resolution screen, good battery life, HDMI output, optional 3G cellular internet, and probably most importantly, a reasonable price. If you are interested in purchasing the HP Mini 311, check out links below directly from HP (where it can be customized) or through Amazon:

HP Direct

Amazon

Related posts:

1. HP Mini 311 Review Roundup
2. HP Mini 311 Brings High Value to Low Cost With the Help of ION
3. Dell Mini 10v Review: I Believe in Netbooks Again

Google Nexus Reviews:

To kick things off, here is a look at Engadget’s first impressions; from there we’ll dive into full on reviews of the Google Nexus One

Engadget: “Now, of course everyone seems to have one question about the device — is this the be-all-end-all Android phone / iPhone eviscerator? In two words: not really. The thing that’s struck us most (so far) about the Nexus One thus far is the fact that it’s really not very different than the Droid in any substantial way. Yes, we’d say the design and feel of the phone is better (much better, in fact), and it’s definitely noticeably faster than Motorola’s offering, but it’s not so much faster that we felt like the doors were being blown off.” – Joshua Topolsky

TechCrunch: “I’ve been using the Nexus One with TMobile since mid-December as my primary mobile phone. This is the best Android powered phone to date. It’s also the fastest and most elegant smartphone on the market today, solidly beating the iPhone in most ways. In this rapidly evolving market there is sure to be something better just around the corner. But if you are looking to buy a high end smartphone right now, this is the phone for you. The Nexus One is the Android signature device.” – Micheal Arrington

All Things D: “The Nexus One finally has the right combination of hardware and software to give Android a champion that might attract more people away from their iconic iPhones and BlackBerrys. It has a larger screen than Apple’s phone, and is a bit thinner, narrower and lighter—if a tad longer. And it boasts a better camera and longer talk time between battery charges.

Also, because it will be available on the large, well-regarded Verizon 3G network, the Nexus One could tempt American iPhone users, tired of problems with AT&T (T), to switch.” – Walter Mossberg

WIRED: “Probably the best feature in the Nexus One is the ubiquitous voice recognition. Just about every time a text field appears — in search, in maps and even in e-mail — you can press a microphone key on the virtual keyboard and just say what you want to put in the field. If you take it easy and enunciate your words as if speaking to a fairly dense child, a reasonably accurate transcription of your words will appear on the screen. There are the usual cosmic misunderstandings, but expanding voice recognition is a welcome step toward our eventual liberation from Lilliputian physical keyboards and unforgiving soft keyboards.” – Steven Levy

New York Times: “Finally, the Nexus just doesn’t attain the iPhone’s fit and finish. The buttons under the screen (Back, Menu, Home, Search) are balky, often ignoring your finger-presses completely. One of the animated wallpapers freezes the phone with a message that says: “Sorry! The application Android Live Wallpapers has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.” (Note to Google: I did. The same thing happened.)” … “But maybe it doesn’t matter if the Nexus One isn’t nirvana. Google says it’s only the first Google phone of many, with one store to sell them all.” – David Pogue

GigaOm: “Usability & Extensibility: Looks, they say, aren’t everything. And they’re right. If anyone has ambitions to beat the iPhone, then they need to bring their A-game, emphasizing ease-of-use and seamlessness when it comes to the user experience and from a software standpoint, simplicity. Here the Google Phone misses the mark.” – Om Malik

NexusOneBlog: “The display screen on this phone is simply incredible. There has yet to be any device out on the market to date that looks as crisp and clear as the Nexus One. The difference is like taking a look at a 30” television and trying to compare it with a brand new 46” Sony LCD. The Nexus One boasts a 3.7” (diagonal) widescreen, WVGA AMOLED screen, delivering at 720×480. Picture quality is very impressive. … Responsiveness to touch on the screen is definitely on par with the iPhone. There are no delays when touching apps and moving from screen to screen.” – N1

Engadget: “Industry politics aside, though, the Nexus One is at its core just another Android smartphone. It’s a particularly good one, don’t get us wrong — certainly up there with the best of its breed — but it’s not in any way the Earth-shattering, paradigm-skewing device the media and community cheerleaders have built it up to be. It’s a good Android phone, but not the last word — in fact, if we had to choose between this phone or the Droid right now, we would lean towards the latter.” – Joshua Topolsky

Even if the Google Nexus One isn’t the superphone Google is claiming it will be it certainly cements the company’s support for the Android platform, which some tech analysts were concerned about given the upcoming Google Chrome OS. As an Android user, I can’t wait to see the software refinements of Android 2.1 come to the Droid and the additional apps that will come as the Google Nexus One attracts more users to the Android OS.

Related posts:

1. CES: Google Nexus One Hands On Video
2. Google Nexus One Coming to Sprint
3. The Motorola Droid Review Roundup – !DROID!