Vivek’s Blog

I’ve been away from the whole “forums” business for a few months, but I recently started hanging out on the NotebookReview.com forums and I realized, again, just how much people tend to bitch, moan, and argue with each other online.  A lot of people just conveniently forget how to conduct a civilized discussion on the internets.  I see it on Digg all the time but most Digg comments and arguments are at least hilarious.  On tech forums, a lot of discussions get ugly because of how opinionated people are.  The mentality of “my way is best and your way sucks” permeates throughout and it’s annoying.  Everybody has a right to have their own opinions but forcefully imposing them on others is not right.  Don’t even get me started on fanboys.

The reason I’ve been on NotebookReview is that I’m researching what people think of the laptops that I’m after.  There are some large threads on the whole LED vs. CCFL backlighting issue.  While LED has a lot of support, there are those who are willing to take the higher resolution CCFL displays over LED ones.  This is something I’ve been wondering about too.  Should I take the 1440×900 LED-backlit display or the 1680×1050 CCFL one?  If I was to buy the XPS M1530 right now, I would pick the LED because Dell is not offering the 1680 panel anymore - possibly because a lot of the panels made by Samsung had a grainy look to them.  The LED display is certainly a bright sucker but how much screen real estate will I lose by going down one notch?  I mean, I do have my external display at 1680 and I can probably have a dual screen setup which would increase the effective resolution.  That actually sounds like fun - use one display for the browser and the other for videos or anything else I might want to do.

But, but, but, I’m still waiting for Montevina and the GeForce 9M series to make it to laptops.  Judging by the Lenovo ThinkPad leaks, it seems as though Montevina will also bring in DDR3 RAM to laptops - a welcome upgrade over the DDR2 667 that’s been on offer for ages.  But seriously, Lenovo needs to hire someone to redesign the ThinkPads - they are fugly.

I apologize for that XXL-sized title but I had to do it.  With 1.7 million iPhones sold in Q1 2008, Apple has slotted right behind RIM as the world’s third largest maker of smartphones.  While it still has a long way to go before it can overtake RIM’s 4.3 million Blackberries sold in the same period, the gap between Apple and Nokia is, to put it lightly, wide.  Nokia continues its run at the top with a whopping 14.6 million units sold in Q1.

The second coming of the iPhone will most certainly boost Apple’s marketshare further but I don’t see it catching up to Nokia any time soon.  While it may lose out in the US, Nokia’s utter dominance of Europe and several markets in Asia will help it stay on top.  Hell, Apple will have a hard time just overtaking RIM.  The company has the Blackberry Bold and the Kickstart lined up for release, which will keep it in the #2 spot for now.  Apple’s life will become even harder if US-based carriers start offering more Nokia smartphones that have not been castrated.

What these numbers also indicate is exactly how far behind all the other cell phone manufacturers are.  Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Palm, LG, and others are not even in the top three.  They do move a lot of non-smartphone devices, however.

Before I sign off, may I say how much I hate the shameless coverage given to the iPhone by the interwebs?  It’s disgusting.  I get it - you guys are all Apple fanboys.  Now can we please stop with this madness?  I just hope Jobs announces the new iPhone at WWDC on Monday so that all the wild speculation can finally stop.

Source:  TG Daily

So, just recently, I was saying that I hadn’t heard much about the mid/high-end 9M chips from Nvidia.  Today, at Computex 2008, Nvidia came out and announced a whole bunch of them.  While they strangely left out important specifications like core and memory clock speeds, it is nice to see the cards going official.  The top-of-the-line card for now seems to be the 9600M GT, although I saw the 9650M GT being mentioned somewhere as well.  Of course, they’ll bust out the real high end 9800/9900 cards down the line but those are intended for beasts like the Dell XPS M1730.

I’m hoping that a 512MB 9600M GT finds its way into the XPS M1530.  I might go for it even if Centrino 2 will be delayed - I was more concerned about the graphics anyway.  The T9400 will bring no power savings over the T9300.  Sure, it will feature a 1.06GHz FSB, but I’m not entirely convinced that it will bring in a large performance boost.  I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong though.

Among other things, EMI allowed iTunes to sell the entire Radiohead (who are no longer with EMI) backcatalog and I’m still theme-hunting.  I have a couple that I will try out soon but no promises on when a new theme will actually go live!

I am looking to buy a new laptop.  Soon.

I had planned on using my current laptop for about 4-5 years in total.  I paid a premium for it, but it was worth it in the long run.  However, since the backlight on my laptop display gave up, I’ve moved up my plans to get a new laptop.  End-August is my current target since the best back-to-school deals show up then.

I was going to buy a new one by early August, but Intel’s Centrino 2 processors have been delayed, consequently delaying my purchase.  My plan for early August was also influenced by rumblings of new mobile GeForce graphics cards coming out in June/July.  I’ve heard nothing on those so far, however.  I’m hoping for a 9600M GT with 512MB or more memory.  Since the 9500 series is based on the 8600 series, the 9600 should be based on the 8700 or the 8800 series.  This would provide a significant boost in gaming performance compared to the current 256MB 8600M GT card that’s become a standard on mid-high end machines.

Which laptops am I looking at right now?  There are very few contenders.  I have no laptops from Sony, Toshiba, or HP in my shortlist.  I’m looking at a couple of ASUS offerings, particularly the G1 series, and the Dell XPS M1530.  I could consider a 14.1″ screen if the rest of the configuration is enticing.  I’m leaning towards the Dell since I’m not very confident in ASUS’s tech support setup in the US.  Granted, Dell might not have the best tech support around, but ASUS is still relatively new and doesn’t have an extensive setup.  Further, I don’t know anyone who owns an ASUS laptop.  A friend of mine just ordered an M1530 with the LED-backlit display so I’ll get my grimy hands on it soon.

I am also tempted to get a MacBook Pro.  The only thing holding me back is the price - the student discount doesn’t help much at all.  I can get the same config in the Dell for a lot less, even though I wouldn’t have Mac OS X.  Plus, I would install XP and/or Vista on it anyway, so that it can run my games and other apps not made for OS X.  So what’s the point really?

There’s also the question of what I’ll do with my current laptop once I get the new one.  I doubt anyone would buy it since the display doesn’t work right.  I might use it as a Linux box or some kind of storage server or something.

I’m talking about the Symbian version.  I have it installed on my N95-3 and I tried it out today.  The interface is slick and the speeds are good, courtesy the ad-hoc Wi-fi from my laptop.  The number of stations is staggering to say the least.  It’s going to be a while before I identify the good ones.

I guess this is more useful if you have an unlimited data plan from your carrier.  Then, it becomes a lot more practical since you can use it anytime, anywhere.  I mean, I have all my music on my Zen/laptop and it doesn’t make much sense to use it when I’m in my room.  Plus, I can get a more diverse range of internet radio stations from my laptop.  I think this software might come in handy when I’m on campus and want to listen to some new music, instead of what I already have on my phone.

Anyway, just thought I’d post a blurb about this.  If you have an S60 handset, grab Internet Radio from the following link:

http://europe.nokia.com/A4668051

Be sure to check for compatibility before downloading any files!

Countdown to D-Day:  4 days