Cool Tech Reviews

Adam Pash at Lifehacker makes some interesting suggestions on how to Get Vista’s Best Features in XP. The sad part is that there is so little there beyond eye candy of dubious utility or applications for very specialized niches. In the latter category, I liked:

Take Quick and Easy Screenshots: PrtScrn has been around forever, but it’s never been the most user-friendly way to get a screenshot. In Vista, Microsoft threw in a screenshot utility called the Snipping Tool. Fact is, if better screenshots are important to you, there are gobs of excellent free screenshot apps available for XP like Screenshot Captor (original post), Clip2Net (original post), and Jing (original post), among many others.

Choose Clip2Net or Jing if you want to share your captures on the Web or Jing if you want to grab a screencast, but for my usual chore of taking screenshots and saving them on my PC, Screenshot Captor does the job and more. Screenshot Captor is for Windows only and is donationware.

We all know that Microsoft would like everyone to install a Windows PC at the heart of their home entertainment centers, but how well does it really work out in practice? Andrew Schmidt points us to a review on AnandTech:

Anandtech has an absolutely horrifying review of the trials and tribulations of setting up a Windows Vista home theater PC [HTPC] with the first HD capable TV tuner from ATI (AMD).

Even with the on-site assistance of Dell (DELL) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) (with promptness and technical expertise you or I could never hope to see) it took two days to get the Windows Vista PC, external HDTV cable tuner, and Time Warner Network integrated and up and running. The resulting experience was great, though most consumers would have never had the patience or technical fortitude to get it up and running. It makes one wonder why anyone would bother to do this at all.

Some good lines from the review:

Prior to Dell’s arrival we had a handful of telephone conversations and email exchanges to clear our intentions for this article. Dell is used to dealing with sending review samples of complete systems that it has built and tested time and time again. Dell was not used to sending a platform out that was buggy, not yet ready for prime time and dependent on a cable network that it had absolutely no control over. In short: Dell was nervous.

Dell asked us if it was alright if a handful of representatives accompanied the system to our office in North Carolina, just to make sure things went smoothly. We didn’t anticipate any problems but said that if it made them feel more comfortable, they were welcome to oversee the initial setup. From our perspective the setup couldn’t be simpler: 1) Setup the system, 2) Insert CableCARD, 3) Watch TV. It turned out that we were a bit optimistic.

The ordinary home user like you and me is more than nervous already. A key part of the trepidation has to do with using a PC as a digital cable box:

Vista changed everything; it was chock full of DRM and was secure enough to make just about everyone confident that high definition content could be stored on it without being easily compromised. While it’s far too early to determine if that holds true over the coming years of Vista’s existence, the important part is that it’s enough today. At CES 2006 ATI demonstrated what had the potential to become one of the biggest features of Vista, the first working Open Cable Unidirectional Receiver (OCUR) for a PC running the upcoming OS.
…
We were impressed by OCUR, as it had the potential to make media center valid and useful once more. The downside was that we had to wait; we saw the first demo of OCUR at CES in January 2006, and we were told that it wouldn’t be released until Vista was available to the public. At CES in January 2007 ATI, now owned by AMD, introduced the final product: the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner (DCT).

Gosh! It seems really simple to me!

Dell came prepared; upon landing at RDU International Airport, we got a call asking if it was okay if a Time Warner technician was present during the install to help with any problems. The more the merrier we thought, so Dell made a phone call and a Time Warner technician was present. As a side note, the last line was exactly how it happened. Apparently the magic number Dell called dispatched a Time Warner technician to what is known internally as a “VIP Customer”. There were no vague time windows, no waiting, and no arguing; just a phone call and poof: instant technician. After discovering this magic ability that Dell possessed, we asked Dell to move in with us permanently. Regrettably Dell declined and its representatives did not confirm whether or not they had similar influence over the local phone or utility companies.

There’s a nice picture of the Time Warner truck with flashing lights pulling up. Despite that, let’s just say things did not go smoothly.

At the end of the entire ordeal, the senior TWC representative that was with us turned to us and asked us what this system could do. We explained, to which he responded with the most priceless of facial expressions. It was an expression that needed no explanation; his reaction asked the question “why on earth would you go through this when you can just rent an HD-DVR from us for $9 a month?”

There’s a lot more in the review, but I have to conclude that Windows Media Center Edition, now replaced by Vista Premium Edition is not really ready for prime time - at least as far as home entertainment is concerned. Yes, they finally got it working and yes, there are a few bugs, but the real problem is that it doesn’t pass the simplicity test. If the average consumer can’t just buy the the PC, take it home and plug it in, it isn’t going to garner any share. Ordinarily, I’d say “Keep working on it, guys!” but it’s clear that Microsoft’s OS development cycle lags the home entertainment development cycle and that has to change for a Windows PC to even have a chance in home entertainment.

Microsoft’s new Vista operating system may only be getting lukewarm reviews, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some useful new features. James Kendrick describes how Vista shadow copies saved his bacon when he accidentally deleted a bunch of notes he had taken with Microsoft’s OneNote application:

Reader Ryan Kabir left a comment and sent me an email with the two words that I’ll never forget– Vista’s shadow copies. OK, that’s three words but you’ll have to forgive me as I am as giddy as one can be without chemical influence. Ryan’s comment pointed out correctly that in Vista, shadow copies are activated by default (at least I didn’t specifically enable them) which means the OS saves snapshots of user files when they are modified. I’ve just spent 30 minutes, the most fun I’ve had in a good while, recovering EVERY SINGLE OneNote file that had been overwritten. Every. Single. File.

Vista and Ryan have come to my rescue and I am now grinning like the village idiot with all of my notes back where they were before catastrophe struck. Big shout out to the Vista team for putting shadow copies into the OS for just such an emergency.

Backup is easily the most important thing that most people never do for their computers and I am as guilty as everyone else. Vista shadow copies are a great idea for protecting yourself against user error, but you still need something external to protect you against hard drive crashes or the like. Some suggestions on that will be upcoming in a later post.

Today and tomorrow are filled with Microsoft events hyping tomorrow’s launch of the consumer versions of Microsoft’s new PC operating system, Windows Vista. Below is a roundup of reviews, but while the words are different, the tune is the same: You won’t mind Vista when you get it on the next new PC you buy, but there’s no reason to consider installing it as an upgrade on a machine currently running Windows XP.

Robert Vamosi at CNET:

Windows Vista is essentially warmed-over Windows XP. If you’re currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we see no compelling reason to upgrade. On the other hand, if you need a new computer right now, Windows Vista is stable enough for everyday use.

Rob Pegoraro at the Washington Post:

For most people buying a new PC after Monday, getting a Windows PC will mean getting a Vista PC; there’s no choice to be made. And there need be nothing wrong in that case — on a computer with enough memory and processing power, Vista clearly exceeds XP.

But for most people with older machines, Vista demands too much to justify its benefits. If you fall into that category, you’re better off upgrading XP by adding third-party programs — for instance, Google Desktop, the Firefox Web browser, Thunderbird mail program and the Picasa photo album — to paper over XP’s deficiencies. Wait for Microsoft to fix the inevitable bugs in Vista and for Windows developers to rewrite their software to work better in Vista.

Then, if you’re both patient and lucky, by the time you’re ready for a new computer, Vista will be ready for you.

Larry Magid at CBS News:

Vista is good, but I still question whether it’s worth nearly $160 plus the cost of any hardware upgrades for anyone but those early adapters who love to live on the bleeding edge of technology. For most people, the best way to get Vista is to get it the next time they buy a PC.

Walter Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal:

It has taken the giant software maker more than five years to replace Windows XP with this new version, called Windows Vista — an eternity by computer-industry reckoning. Many of the boldest plans for Vista were discarded in that lengthy process, and what’s left is a worthy, but largely unexciting, product.

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Gradually, all Windows computers will be Vista computers, and that’s a good thing, if only for security reasons. But you may want to keep your older Windows XP box around awhile longer, until you can afford new hardware that can handle Vista.

David Pogue at the New York Times:

According to a SoftChoice survey, in fact, only 6 percent of existing corporate PCs have enough muscle to run all of Vista’s goodies. No wonder Microsoft expects that only about 5 percent of PC users will upgrade their existing computers to Vista.

Online, there’s much talk of Vista’s place in the universe. Is it too little, too late? Does the Mac’s uptick in market share threaten the dominance of Windows? Does Web-based software make operating systems obsolete?

None of the above. Windows isn’t going anywhere, the landscape won’t be changing anytime soon, and the corporate world will still buy it 500 copies at a time.

In other words, it doesn’t matter what you (or tech reviewers) think of Windows Vista; sooner or later, it’s what most people will have on their PCs. In that light, it’s fortunate that Vista is better looking, better designed and better insulated against the annoyances of the Internet. At the very least, it’s well equipped to pull the world’s PCs along for the next five years — or whenever the next version of Windows drops down the chimney.

Wal-Mart kicks off holiday season with $398 laptop:

Wal-Mart Stores is whacking prices on PCs and TVs in a bid to expand its electronics business.

The retailing giant has started selling a Compaq laptop for $398 a few weeks ahead of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

Wal-Mart is also touting a 42-inch Panasonic plasma TV for $1,294 (down from $1,794) and a 37-inch HDTV LCD from Panasonic for $997 (down from $1,297).

Wal-Mart tried a similar electronics blitz last year without great success.

Wal-Mart’s salvo won’t be the last holiday price cut, Baker predicted.

“We’re probably going to see a $199 notebook on Black Friday,” he said. “Certainly, we are going to see aggressive prices.”

This year’s $398 Wal-Mart laptop comes with a 15.4-inch screen, a 3300+ Sempron processor from Advanced Micro Devices that churns at 2.0GHz, a 60GB hard drive and 512MB of memory. It’s beefed up from last year’s $398 notebook, which had a 15-inch screen, a 40GB drive and 256MB of memory.

Despite a statement in the article, it’s only available in stores currently and not online, but it seems to be a quite reasonable system that’s quite a bargain at the price. Of course, when one retailer starts shooting, the others will fire back so I would guess there will be similar offers elsewhere too. Unless you really relish the Black Friday mosh pit, you should check out these early bargains.

Finally, I have a caveat on buying PC’s this holiday season. The Wal-Mart machine comes with XP Media Center Edition which may well qualify you for a free upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium, (see also [1]) but there’s no mention of such an offer in the online listing although the machine is the bare minimum “Vista Capable.” If you really plan on upgrading an XP machine bought during the next few months with a coupon, make sure you are getting what you think you are getting. And if the idea of upgrading the operating system fills you with trepidation, then you should wait until Vista actually starts getting preloaded as some commentators are recommending.

One of my pet theories is that if a PC manufacturer would only turn out units with slightly “out of date” technology instead of competing on specs with everyone else, they could offer some amazingly cheap but still very functional PC hardware. It looks like Fry’s Electronics is doing just that as Loyd Case reports at PC Magazine in Your Next PC Will Cost $159:

Holy tightwads, Batman! A better PC than what you’re running costs less than a pair of designer jeans? What’s happened to the computer industry?

Were GQ magazine to design a computer, it would sport a Gucci leather jacket and stroll in slick Prada loafers. It would also cost eight, maybe nine thousand dollars. But when Fry’s Electronics designed the GQ system, it wasn’t thinking of luxury linens and leather. It wanted something cheap. The surprising thing is that the GQ (short for “Great Quality,” by the way, not Gentleman’s Quarterly) turns out to be a powerful PC. It’s low-cost, in other words, not high crap.

Hit the link for the full review but here’s what you get for $159:

What $159 Buys You…

• COMPUTER In addition to the 1.67-GHz AMD Sempron chip (and integrated graphics and 6 channel audio), you’ll get four USB ports, Ethernet, and an AGP slot.
• MEMORY Only 128MB of RAM, which is barely adequate, really. Replace it with 512MB for around $40.
• 40 GB hard disk.
• SPEAKERS They’re included, but they sound awful. Really, these speakers are just terrible.
• Generic modem
• KEYBOARD AND MOUSE A surprisingly responsive keyboard and generic ball mouse round it all out.

…& What It Doesn’t

• NEW TECH You’ve heard of PCI Express, SATA, and dual-core, but you won’t get them here.
• LCD MONITOR Nope. Not a chance. In fact, there’s no screen included, period. (Fry’s offers a companion 17-inch CRT for $119.)
• DVD BURNER There’s no DVD recorder, not even a CD burner. But there is a fast CD-ROM drive.
• SOFTWARE Nothing from Microsoft here, but to be fair, the Linspire OS is pretty decent.

As far as the hardware goes, the memory is obviously short, even for Linux, but while you can argue about some of the other features it seems to be a pretty capable machine. Case was impressed with Linspire (which comes with OpenOffice) but obviously that’s going to be a matter of taste. If you have to buy Windows XP, it’s likely at least another $70 on top which rather spoils the deal but gives you an idea of where the money on a PC is going.

However, it turns out that there’s another alternative. Microsoft’s Chris Sells saw the PC Magazine review and decided to give the bargain PC a try. Apparently the $159 PC was a limited quantity offer, but he came up with an equivalent one for $171 and added $100 for 1GB of RAM and $95 for an ATI Radeon 9550 AGP card. The net was a $366 PC and he installed a beta of Windows Vista on it!

At 12:04am, I started the Vista Feb ‘06 CTP installation. At 12:44am, I was running Vista, it having recognized all of hardware (except the sound device) from my $366 PC, including enabling those cool “glass” effects and the nifty animations, integrated search and all the neat things you’ve read about in the Vista reviews.

I know I work for “the man,” but even so, I’m seriously impressed. The install was fast and seamless. The performance is way better than I thought it would be. And the little UI tricks are fabulous. I can’t do any media stuff ‘cuz my audio device wasn’t recognized, but it was cool when I tried to play video and a DVD, that the Vista Media Center UI came up (my complete home entertainment needs are served with a coupla TVs, a Media Center PC and an XBox).

I know, I know, I got the OS for free, but come on! It’s still beta and it runs great on my cheapo PC!

Hit the link for all the details including a certain amount of disbelief from some commenters who have had performance problems with the Vista beta. I’m not recommending buying an inexpensive PC in anticipation of Vista, but it looks like there truly is some capable bargain hardware out there if you are willing to shop around.