Winners | Friday Fun | My New Tablet Is Not A Tablet

I have mentioned here that I am intrigued by the new “tablet” PC’s (ala the iPad) but have held off, waiting for better capabilities at a better price. Amazon’s new Kindle “Fire” (check it out here) seemed at first glance to be the first to fit that criteria, and got my interest going — but I will not buy the first release of any product, and will wait for version 2.

My need for a portable, and the lack of really good tablet (yet) had me looking at netbooks again. Remember netbooks? The most hyped product – sure to change the game – of just a couple years ago?
I never did get one. Too underpowered, and I didn’t like the small keyboards.

It so happened that I saw in my local gizmo and gadget store a Limit One Per Customer deal (always a good indicator of a bargain) for a 15.6″ laptop (aka “notebook”) for $230. The same price as netbooks go for these days. So I got one. (An eMachines EM443). I repeat: $230.

For a mobile device, it’s big (deliciously big when Netflix watching) true enough, but it’s quite light .. and I’m not trying to fit it in a purse. (When I’m really “on the go”, my HTC smartphone is in my pocket.) Battery life. Big bright screen. Optical drive. Full-size keyboard. Windows 7 Home Premium. Build in webcam. I figure, why settle for a crimped little netbook? Or a tablet that mainly only lets you view (or “surf”)? With a stripped-down OS..

Winners announced: The folks at Novosoft generously donated 7 licenses for Handy Backup Standard to me, to award to my readers. I sincerely thank them for that.

“Handy Backup is an easy-to-use backup software designed to perform automated backup of your computer. User-friendly interface and a rich set of backup features make it one of the best PC backup software for home and small office use.“

The lucky winners are….

(Winners, check your Inbox [and maybe your Junk folder] for the Subject HBStandard Winner)

Friday Fun:

The weekend is almost here. Yay!

Today’s quote: “The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.” ~ George F. Will

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Best Antivirus For Netbooks?

Reader Asks My Reco On Antivirus For Their Netbook

Q: Hey TP. I want to say thanx for your website. I just baught my first netbook and I love it. It is windows 7 and is ASUS 1005PE. Can you tell me what antivirus I should get? Thanx.

A: Dear Sir or Ms.,
Congratulations on your new computer. One of the neat things about netbooks – I am frequently told – is how small and portable they are, yet they are big enough to do some “normal computing” on. That’s on the “plus” side.

But on the “minus” side is that this compact portability is achieved by using “modest” components — a “reduced horsepower”, if you will.

Netbooks are not powerhouses, and it pays to use software on them that has a “small footprint” (not demand too much CPU, RAM, etc.). And that is certainly a factor to consider when choosing an antivirus.

Were I to own a netbook, I would install either one of two titles, and!, both are free.
1) If I were to own an older, or really basic (aka “budget”) netbook I would use Panda’s Cloud Antivirus. Or..

2) On a reasonably equipped netbook, I would install Microsoft Security Essentials.
2a.) If Microsoft is not your thing, you might try Avast! 5.0.

I should say, though, that your ASUS has an Intel Atom N450, and very good specs for a netbook, so you could probably run most any Internet security product on it. My list of recommended antivirus products is here, and my Anti-spyware list is here.

PS — WinPatrol is also a great security program for netbooks, and!, I just happen to be having a license giveaway contest (nice segue, eh?) for it this week.

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** A Chance To Win A Valuable Prize! **

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You say you don’t know about Scotty and WinPatrol? I have recommended it here before, and I’ve used it for so long I can’t remember. I consider WinPatrol one of those essential programs to have around.

To enter my license giveaway drawing, please see: WinPatrol PLUS License Giveaway

Here’s another good review of WinPatrol: WinPatrol Revisited – Powerful HIPS with a Bite

Today’s recommended reading: The flipside: Five things Microsoft is doing right in 2010

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Another Way To Install A Program On A Netbook

A Thumb Drive Can Be Used In Place Of An External Optical Drive

Light-weight and small size make netbooks very portable. But, to achieve their compact size, certain items are missing from netbooks — most notably perhaps, internal CD/DVD drives.

This “disc deficit” is usually overcome by the purchase of an external (USB cable-connected) optical drive.

Today I want to point out that should you not happen to have an external drive available, frequently you can substitute, and use a “thumb drive” (“memory stick”) instead.. such as using the following method to watch DVD movies — see, Tech Tip for Travelers – Make Your Movies More Portable!

Tip of the day: Use a thumb drive to install programs on to a netbook.
To install a program (you have a CD for) onto a netbook using a thumb drive, you will need two things; one, access to a computer that has a CD/DVD drive and; two, a thumb drive large enough to hold the contents of the Install disc. [note: CD’s are roughly 700 MB’s (.7 GB’s) and DVD’s are typically 4.7 GB’s]

1) Go to the PC with the optical drive and insert the thumb drive. Then insert the Install disc into the drive tray.
Cancel (stop) any setup/install process from starting, should it try to “autostart”.

2) If the AutoPlay window opens, select “Open folder to view files” (which should be the bottom choice).
If you have disabled AutoPlay: Click Start > Double-click Computer (My Computer in XP/older) > right-click on the optical drive (CD-ROM) and choose Explore.

3) Drag the entire contents (all the files) of the CD/DVD to the icon for “removable drive” that is the thumb drive. Take mental note of what the installer executable’s name is – typically, it is setup.exe.

4) Use “Safely remove” and remove the thumb drive, and then insert it into your netbook. If the AutoPlay window opens, select “Open folder to view files” (which should be the bottom choice), if you have disabled AutoPlay: Click Start > Double-click Computer (My Computer in XP/older) > right-click on the removable drive (your thumb drive) and choose Explore. Find and then double-click the setup.exe.

That will “launch” the set up process and install the program on to your netbook, just as if it had been run from a disc.

Bonus tip: When you’re all done, you can drag all those setup files to the Recycle bin.

Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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It’s Time We Talked About Netbooks

The word netbook is a portmanteau of the words Internet and notebook.

Netbook users typically rely on online applications and services which do not require powerful hardware on the local computer (aka “cloud computing“), such as Google Docs and Calendar.

These are not speed demon gaming rigs, media servers, or even very small laptops — what they are is lightweight and very portable. And they’re cheap (I don’t mean “flimsy” or “poorly made”). Using one, I was reminded of state-of-the-art… in the year Windows XP came out (2001).

Some (most?) netbooks do not have conventional hard, or optical disc drives. Such netbooks use solid-state storage devices instead, as these require less power and are smaller, faster, and lighter. (On machines with no optical disk drive, application software is typically downloaded from the web or read from a USB device.)

All netbooks on the market today support Wi-Fi wireless networking and many can be used on mobile telephone networks with data capability. Mobile data plans are supplied under contract in the same way as cell phones. Most also include Ethernet and/or modem ports for broadband or dial-up Internet access.

I look at netbooks as filling the gap between smart phones/PDA’s and travelbooks/”mini”-laptops, and the pundits are saying netbooks are our future. Google seems to be betting that line, and it’s new Chrome OS is aimed squarely at this segment (see Netbooks: Google’s ace in PC war with Microsoft).

Recently I have been playing with a borrowed 9″ Acer “Aspire One” ZG5 (its main competitors in the low-cost netbook market are the Asus Eee PC and the Dell Inspiron Mini 9) which has the Intel chip and Windows XP. That combo is what I would buy.

I like the screen size and brightness, and I like the light weight, and I like the keyboard (which I would guesstimate to be 3/4’s of a “regular” keyboard) as I am not skilled at typing with my thumbs on tiny QWERTY arrays with miniscule buttons — I need KEYS. The unit feels solid and sturdy. It is too big to fit in any of my pockets, though.

I think these machines do what most people – even business people – use their mobile devices for.. e-mail, browsing the Internet, and working with documents; and by “ripping” a DVD to the drive, they can also be media players too (see, Quick Tip: Movies on the plane). I think they are worth a look-see, if you haven’t “checked it out” yet.
(They might make a perfect ‘first computer’ for a child, too…)

Purchasing: As I always advise, and due to the smaller key arrangements and touchpads, this is something you definitely want to “test drive” before you buy. Make sure it “feels right” before you buy.

The future of computing? I’m not so sure. What do you think?

Today’s free link: Hacker steals Twitter’s confidential documents

Today’s free download: Free YouTube to MP3 Converter Extract sound from videos on YouTube and convert sound tracks into MP3.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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