Don’t throw away your laptop for iPad!!

I constantly get asked what is the cheapest laptop that can do X, Y and Z. Customer wants the cheapest. Cheapest does not mean high quality in electrical goods especially computers. Then they will return a few months later with their newly purchased laptop and ask “Why can this laptop not run Autocad or Photoshop?” – Politely to answer “It was a CHEAP laptop you were looking for to use the internet and send emails, not a working horse laptop that you need for any highly weighted software packages”

Now the tables have not changed, they are just herded into the “I need this” syndrome. Apple name is the “must have” name. It means you stand out in the crowd, apparently. I do not understand. Yes the Apple computers are fine machines, for those that are doing specialist jobs on it and to an extend they do not get viruses. Mainly because Apple has 5% of the computer OS Market, where Microsoft dominate approx 90% of the consumer market. The malware creators sit in their room with a white sheet of paper with a line down the middle. Microsoft vs Apple. Who will be effected more if i create a super virus??? It’s a no brainer. That is why we (Microsoft clients) have more attacks that Apple users. Same can be said about Linux also.

Now, going back to my original point, where ever that started!! People now don’t care about Apple iPhone or iPad price tags because these are the devices that will make me cool and fit in with everyone else!! “Hi look at my new iPhone, cost me €500, I have more money than you!!”. Yet there have been many devices of same standards out longer than the new iPhone or iPod. Smartphones have been on the go for years now, Blackberry holding the throne and same with MP3 players. There are better and easier to use MP3 players out before and still out on the market that are cheaper and better than the iPods. What will everyone do with their new iPad when suddenly they want to play a DVD, type an assignment, download software that is needed for a project (guess what its not tablet friendly) and use external hard drives etc. This is where i came across an article written by Tom Dunlap, PCWorld recently and I thought he hit the nail on the head about several of these issues. I have snippet below of the post.

I thought this an interesting article regarding the new “Tablet Craze”.

Everywhere I go these days, my friends slam laptops. They tell me my PC of choice is a dying breed and sing the praises of their new, "post-PC" Apple iPad.

Lenovo ThinkPad X30They carefully pull out their Apple device. I admire it and then say: "So where do you insert the DVD? How do you bang out a long e-mail on a touch keyboard? Oh, and guess how much less I paid for my little Lenovo ThinkPad X30 laptop than you did for your iPad."

I recognize that the iPad is thin, light, and easy to travel with, and I understand the advantages of portable entertainment. But if you don't need the prestige of having the latest-and-greatest tech, I believe you can get all that and much more for much less than the cost of a new tablet. All you have to do is tote around another measly pound or two.

If you're willing to take a chance on used equipment, you can find slightly older laptops on Craigslist starting at about $200. Also check out PCWorld's Daily Deals.

[PCWorld Business Center blogger Tony Bradley responds in the Net Work blog: Why My $185 Tablet Crushes Your $200 Laptop.]

My Reasons

Here are the top reasons that I think my used ThinkPad--which I paid about $200 for--crushes your iPad 2, which new, starts at $499 and can run more than $800, depending on the configuration. (Of course, a used iPad 1's price would be lower; on Craigslist, prices started at around $400 on the day I checked.)

My ThinkPad has a CD and DVD player/burner: If you're into permanently saving photos, music, or movies, or if you're serious about backing up your hard drive and programs, you probably need to burn discs occasionally. Your relatives in Indiana need a copy of the video of cousin Paul's drum recital, or they'd love to look at a CD containing pictures taken during your night trip to Alcatraz. You can't cram everything onto Facebook.

It has a physical keyboard: Most iPad users readily admit typing data-intensive text on their tablet's touch keyboard is difficult. I'll go further: I detest typing on a touch keyboard. As PCWorld reviewer Jon L. Jacobi sarcastically puts it: "Overpriced pads: Touchscreens without keyboards. How innovative." Flimsy, add-on keyboards don't cut it. Give me a solid, built-in board like the one on my ThinkPad. It's one of the best laptop keyboards ever, and I still like the old-school Trackpoint eraserhead cursor control.

It has lots more storage space: If you want to download and store tons of decent-quality movies, TV shows, videos, music, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, and the like, the iPad 2's maximum 64GB of storage falls short. Even the 250GB of storage on a decent laptop fills up faster than you might expect. (I do grant you that you can easily back up almost anything to external storage or to a cloud-based service.)

It has useful and versatile ports: No USB port on an iPad? Sure you can buy a pricey adapter, but what if you want to plug in a mouse, digital camera, and/or printer? So much for the iPad's smooth lines and ease of use. Being able to insert a USB device or a thumbdrive into my laptop is essential to me.

As for Apple's iPad, here are a few of my least favorite things about it.

Apple iPad 2The iPad doesn't support multitasking: As a result, I can't listen to sports talk radio online, check to see if little Charlie has bitten anyone else's finger, and type my blog, all at the same time. Such versatility is why I love mobile computers--and it alone will ensure my allegiance to laptops.

It is confined by the limits of iTunes: Jared Newman, a PCWorld blogger, summed it up: "Even if you never sync a single piece of media from a computer to an iPad, you still need iTunes on a PC or Mac to keep the tablet's software up to date. This needs to change," he wrote in the Today@PCWorld blog. (For a longer look at the iPad 2's limitations, check Jared Newman's list of 5 Disappointments With Apple iPad 2.)

Its battery isn't replacable: I know the iPad has respectable battery life, but if you ever have to work on a long plane ride and in a café with no available power outlets, you need excellent battery life and a back-up cell that is easy to install. This isn't possible on either model of iPad. As on all other Apple mobile devices, the battery is sealed and nonreplaceable.

I hope you found my article interesting which I have copied in an insert from Tom Dunlap to further my point? Don’t throw your laptop away for an iPad, stick to the big guns.

 

 

 

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New IT Technology to watch out for 2011. Apple???

With 2010 at a close, that can only mean one thing: Bloggers are conjuring up predictions lists so that they can take a few days off around the holidays. It's much the same here in Cringeville, but with one key difference: Unlike other prognosticators, I'm totally unencumbered by facts. That tends to make my accuracy much higher.
Here's what's going to happen next year. You can bank on it.
[ Check out Cringely's list of the 10 dumbest tech moves of 2010. | For a humorous take on the tech industry's shenanigans, subscribe to Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]
Apple will unveil new iPads, iPhones, and iWhatevers, instantly making all of our lives more magical and revolutionary.
The face of Steve Jobs will be seen on a tortilla; the holy bread product will later be donated to the Computer History Museum in San Jose.
Apple will apply for, and be granted, a patent on tortillas featuring the face of Steve Jobs.
Google will debut its long-awaited social networking offering, GoogleMe. It will immediately inspire a massive kerfuffle over some stupid breach of user privacy that could have easily been avoided if only Google engineers left the Googleplex every once in a while and went to see a movie or something. The company will quietly shut down its Facebook killer 24 months later, except for the Portuguese-language version, which will inexplicably thrive.
In a speech, Google CEO Eric Schmidt will declare that the new Chrome OS will be able to actually read your mind through your keyboard. He says Google will only use this information to anonymously serve advertising to your cerebral cortex.
Steve Ballmer will declare that the ability to read people's minds through their keyboards has been present in Microsoft operating systems since Windows 98; it turns out people really do want their computers to freeze up repeatedly and run more slowly over time.
The population of Facebook members will surpass India's by late 2011. It will then apply to the United Nations for nation-state status but will be rejected when a majority of the governing body's members fail to click Like on its application.
Facebook will not announce an IPO (initial public offering). Mark Zuckerberg, however, will enjoy an ISE (initial shaving experience).
Google Android will surpass the RIM BlackBerry, and Apple iOS to become the most popular smartphone platform on the planet. Google will also announce new tweaks to the base OS that extend an Android device's battery life to an entire hour.
Question-and-answer-based social network Quora will become the Twitter of 2011. The most popular question asked on Quora: What the frak is Quora?
Yahoo will not be acquired by Microsoft. No one besides Carol Bartz will care.
Skype, Pandora, Tumblr, Groupon, Twitter, and Angry Birds will all announce IPOs, signaling the birth of a new irrationally exuberant Internet bubble. Time Warner will again allow itself to be acquired by AOL for a ludicrous sum.
The collective forces of Anonymous and 4chan will stop harrassing enemies of WikiLeaks and go after China in an attempt to tear down the Great Firewall. The Internet as we know it will cease to exist.
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Internet Explorer held Twitter bug for 2 years

Microsoft Investigates Two-Year-Old Bug In Internet Explorer

Microsoft is looking into a long-known vulnerability in Internet Explorer that could be used to access users' data and Web-based accounts.
The bug can allow hackers to hijack Web mail accounts, steal data and send illicit tweets, Google security engineer Chris Evans said in a message posted on the Full Disclosure mailing list.
Evans also published a demonstration that showed how the flaw in IE8 could be used to commandeer a user's Twitter account and send unauthorized tweets.
The vulnerability, known as a "CSS cross-origin theft" bug, has a long history. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, who recently published a paper ( download PDF ) on the subject, have traced it back as far as 2002. Those researchers will present their paper at the Conference on Computer and Communications Security next month.
Even so, the flaw received little attention until Evans blogged about it in December 2009 . He had submitted a bug report for Chrome eight months earlier.
Although Microsoft has not patched the vulnerability in IE8, other browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera, have fixed the flaw. Google patched the bug in Chrome last January, while Mozilla did the same in July with Firefox 3.6.7 and Firefox 3.5.11.
IE9 includes a fix for the vulnerability. Microsoft plans to ship a public beta of IE9 on Sept. 15.
On Friday, Evans explained why he was adding to the patch pressure by crafting a proof-of-concept. "I have been unsuccessful in persuading the vendor to issue a fix," he said of Microsoft.
Microsoft issued a statement Friday saying it was investigating Evans' reports, but declined to answer questions on Monday, including whether earlier versions of IE were vulnerable or why it has not yet addressed the bug.
"We're currently unaware of any attacks trying to use the claimed vulnerability or of customer impact," said Jerry Bryant, a group manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center, in the e-mailed statement.
Microsoft should not have been surprised by Evans' disclosure. In early August, Evans blogged that IE8 was the "most vulnerable" to the flaw. In that blog, Evans also said he had a proof-of-concept able to appropriate a Web mail account. "It's a nasty attack," Evans said, "E-mail someone a link and if they click it, they are owned with a pure browser cross-origin bug."
This isn't the first time that someone from Google has released information about a bug in Microsoft software after claiming he got the cold shoulder. Earlier this summer, Tavis Ormandy -- like Evans a Google security researcher -- went public with a Windows flaw after he said Microsoft wouldn't commit to a patching deadline. Microsoft disputed Ormandy's account.
Microsoft eventually pushed up the patch date for Ormandy's bug by a month.
On Friday, Bryant reiterated Microsoft's position on early disclosures. "To minimize risk to computer users, Microsoft continues to encourage coordinated vulnerability disclosure," he said, referring to his company's new term for keeping vulnerability information secret until a patch is available.
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No access to Hotmail!! Read this for help

Microsoft says download Windows Live Mail to fix issue

Users have hit back at Microsoft over errors in the new Hotmail webmail service that locked them out of their accounts, blocked them from viewing mail or kept them from accessing contacts.

Microsoft started rolling out a revamp of its Windows Live Hotmail in mid-June, and said it had completed the upgrade for 350 million users earlier this month.
But since late July, complaints spiked dramatically on the free service's support forum.
Some of the threads on Microsoft's support forum have also been heavily redacted, with numerous messages now labelled only with "This post was deleted by a moderator". Other threads have been locked down, and will accept no new messages.
"I'm now going on week 2 and still can not read/write emails," said self-described "Angry_user" in a message on a support thread last week. "I guess this is another way of Microsoft telling their subscribers that if the new upgrade does not work, well, you are SOL and it's time for you to get a new email service from someone else."
Several follow-up messages from Angry_user were deleted by Microsoft moderators.
The number of complaints is difficult to gauge, since they are spread across a number of threads, some that have been archived for what Microsoft has called "technical difficulties".
But users believe the count is significant. "Since July 28, Microsoft has received thousands of complaints in these forums from customers who are having trouble with Wave4 Hotmail," charged "langware" in a thread that kicked off yesterday. "What has Microsoft done with respect to these complaints?"
In that same thread, Angry_user popped up on with another status update on Tuesday: "We are now on week 3 and I still can not read/send email."
Bugs range from the most basic - an inability to access email or contacts or both - to the bizarre.
"I open my SENT folder, select a message, and then move it to some other folder... [and] the sender's name (for the message that was just moved) changes to my name!!" reported langware on Aug. 3.
Much of the advice Microsoft or its forum representatives have given users was to tell them to try a different browser. In a message on Tuesday, Microsoft again listed the supported browsers, which include Internet Explorer (IE) 6 and later, Firefox 3 and later, Safari 4 and later, and the newest version of Chrome on Windows.
"[The] Hotmail product group is using [user-supplied] information to create hotfixes for the issues reported by customers," Microsoft said in the same message. "We will be making broad updates to this thread as we have new workarounds or fixes related to the issues."
Microsoft declined to answer questions about why it's deleted large numbers of user posts and how the bugs were missed during beta testing.
The company is working on a fix for a problem related to accessing Hotmail over a mobile broadband connection, however, and said it will update the service as necessary. "The Hotmail team will continue to make periodic updates based on customer feedback," a Microsoft spokeswoman said. She did not reveal a timetable for such updates, however, or whether they would be publicly disclosed.
As a workaround, Microsoft suggested that users download the Windows Live Mail desktop client to access their Hotmail accounts. Windows Live Mail, a part of the Windows Live Essentials bundle, is a free download. Numerous users on the support forums reported that they were able to finally access Hotmail using the desktop client.
Microsoft also recommended running Chrome, saying users had reported that they were able to reach their Hotmail accounts with Google 's browser after rivals had failed them.
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