Netbook vs Tablet

Entry level netbooks are selling at S$399 - S$449 with 10.1" display, 1GB of RAM. Today we no longer see netbooks with SSD of 16GB, instead 250GB SATA harddisk. Tablets of the same display size would cost S$499.

It is unlikely for tablets to replace netbooks, but we are seeing lesser netbooks on offer.

When I found that China made Android tablets with 1024x800 7" display, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, are selling at S$225 at Sim Lim Square, I was very excited about that. The price point is a very important factor.

With that price point, I would get one and explore how useful is Android tablet. To use it for casual note taking, writing short memo, reading ebooks, carrying it around as it is less than 400g.

It can be used by students who can't effort a computer to do simple things like searching for information on the web, note taking, reading ebooks and other learning purposes.

With this price point, it is much cheaper than the first netbook ASUS EEEPC with 7" display and 4GB of storage, 512MB RAM which cost S$699 many years ago. If you prefer to use a keyboard on the tablets, you can always attach a normal USB keyboard to it at home to type a full speed.

I still prefer to have a light weight netbook to do most of my things if there isn't cheap tablets available. But with cheap tablets at that price point, I would start to use tablets for non-series things.

Camera on Mobile Phone / Tablet

Although cameras on mobile phone and tablet device have limited functions compared with even compact digital cameras, these cameras are designed with different purposes in mind. These cameras are intended for easy recording of information for documentation or for note taking.

As we grow older, we could no longer remember well. So instead of trying to remember or writing pieces of information on pieces of paper, we use these cameras to capture the information for later use.

For the front camera on mobile phone or tablet, these are built for video call. If you need to use it to capture images for note taking, test out the auto focusing time so that you can use it to capture images without seeing the picture, check the picture to ensure it is properly captured.

User Guide

Having iPhone for almost a year, I have not actually use it other than as a phone replacement, like I used to use my Treo650. Like many people, I never put an effort to find how to get around using the device, like setting up the font size, how to enlarge .... So I blame the device and never use it to search information although I signed up data plan.

Last night, I took out the box and read the finger tips and realised that all my frustration of using the device could have been avoided if I read the user guide on day one.

Two weeks ago while I was at Sim Lim Square meeting a friend, we found that a 7 inch Android tablet with screen resolution of 1024x600 from China is selling at S$225 only. Before that I thought the price of a tablet would be above S$400. With this price, I am considering getting one to use it as a PDA , ebook reader ... etc. As I always consider the screen size of my iPhone too small and the font on it too. So I told another friend on this, and he told me how to change the fonts on iPhone, how to use three finger tapping on the screen ...

Wireless Access Point Router

We would assume all wireless routers are similar and most of the time could not understand why there are so many different model from each manufacturer.

As one customer wanted to block Remote Desktop Access from the wireless router/access point, to any of the machines on the network, I have to find out whether there is such a router with web interface for easy administration. His network vendor supplied him with Linksys Cisco E1200, which does not have any way of configuring. I then setup my ASUS RT-N16, updated the firmware and test out the configuration to do the blocking of remote desktop protocol from the wireless client to the WAN side of the router.

I bought this router years ago at one of the computer show, thinking of testing DD-WRT/Tomato firmware as I had not done that before. But due to some reasons, I never open the box. However, while checking the compatibility, I noticed that ASUS RT-N16 has 128MB RAM, 32MB Flash memory but all Cisco Linksys wireless routers have at the most 16MB of flash memory. http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Asus

The device has the 2 USB port and a USB harddisk can be attached to it to share out file as a Media Server. Recently, I have my TV replaced as it was covered under extended warranty from Harvey Norman, the new TV has the function of connecting to media server on the network to place video or music files stored on the media server. As I was testing the port filtering, I also tested the working of media server.