Damn exciting times here with a plethora of Android tablets coming to the market.

Archos just dropped 5 new android based tablets. The appealing factors: priced and different sizes. I’m particularly interested in the the 7 inch device.

For more details, hit up Engadget via the link below:

Archos Android Tablets

Will be following this closely. The only negative for me, the lack of a 3g integrated sim card. Other than that, pretty tempting.

TSnomad

(Image Courtesy of Engadget)

Specs:

Elegant styling, measuring approx. 4.4″ (5.8″ open) x 2.4″ x .57″ and weighing 5.68 ounces
3.2″ 360×480 capacitive touch screen display
35 key full QWERTY backlit slide-out keyboard, designed to feel optimally balanced when opened for typing
Optical trackpad that makes navigation fast and smooth
Powerful 624 Mhz processor with 512 MB Flash memory
4 GB built-in memory storage plus a microSD/SDHD memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB cards; a 4 GB card is included giving users 8 GB of storage out-of-the-box
5 MP camera with flash, continuous auto focus, image stabilization, scene modes, geo-tagging and zoom, as well as video recording at up to 640×480 resolution
Built-in GPS for location-based applications and geo-tagging
Wi-Fi® (802.11 b/g/n); qualifying smartphone customers can enjoy seamless connectivity to over 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots at no additional cost
3.5mm stereo headset jack
Premium phone features, including voice activated dialing, speakerphone and Bluetooth® (2.1) with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including systems that support the Bluetooth Message Access Profile standard) and other Bluetooth accessories
New BlackBerry® Desktop Software 6 with integrated media sync for easily syncing music, photos and videos**. It also includes Wi-Fi Music Sync, a unique feature that allows users to view their entire iTunes® or Windows Media® Player music libraries from their BlackBerry smartphone, create and edit playlists as well as select music for download. When in range of their home Wi-Fi network (or via USB), the changes are synced with iTunes or Windows Media Player and the songs are automatically downloaded to the smartphone
Tri-band HSDPA (3G) and quad-band EDGE support for the option of voice service in more than 220 countries, data service in more than 195 countries and 3G connectivity in more than 125 countries, including Japan and South Korea
Removable, rechargeable 1300 mAhr battery that provides approximately 5.8 hours of talk time on 3G networks or 30 hours of audio playback or 6 hours of video playback

Link for more details:
Crackberry

TSnomad

(image courtesy of Engadget)

Take the “awesome” trackpad found in the mac book pro’s and make it a stand alone device.

Replace your mouse with this and you are all set?

Perhaps. Hands on at Engadget:

Engadget

No more mouse:
TechCrunch

TSNomad

Netflix, a service that lets you stream full length and high quality movies online is now coming to Canada. These aren’t your typical illegal flicks.

Netflix

(btw, I’m not feeling the full red background on their website)
This is a fully legal and subscription based service. Hey, it’s a move in the right direction. Places like Blockbuster and walk in movie rental services are a thing of the past.

Internet speeds are now affordable and quite fast to allow this technology to take off. Bell Canada is now has fill 12MBFibre plans for as little as $30CDN per month.

Now whit this service hitting Canada, ISP providers will be “monitoring” and throttling their internet services. Call it a domino effect.  It seems to already have started with Rogers starting to reduce the monthly bandwidth they offer you. See this article for more details:

BGP=Rogers Lowers Monthly Bandwidth

TSnomad

Well, looks like Dell is hitting with a plethora of deals.

Hit the link for more details. Trust me, it’s worth going over.
Dell Deals

TSnomad

New device. Wanted to try something different that I’ve never used before.

Nice form factor, awesome screen and ferocious email capabilities.

We’ll see how this pans out over the coming months. Iphone 4G you say, not interested.

TSnomad

How do we keep it all together?
I’m sitting here looking at the new Apple iPhone 4 and I’m thinking to myself, do I want this or the Ipad?
But what i want has nothing to do with it, it’s how do i plan to keep all my devices in the loop and up to date with all my data.
I personally use my laptop, desktop and 4-5 mobile smart phones. How the hell do i keep track of what’s on what. Here enters the cloud.
First-my emails are all synced up server side. No matter what device, they all support MS Exchange Server. This allows me to jump on any device and have all my emails synced (Inbox, Folders and everything)
Calendar-Synced as above.
Contacts-Haven’t figured out how to seamlessly do this yet. Centrally, they are stored on my laptop. When i switch a device, i sync with Outlook on my laptop and it copies over the contacts.
Here comes the hard part, Data-Files, Pictures, Word Docs. Currently, i can only keep my iPhone, laptop and desktop in sync with a service called DropBox. I use this for generic things and nothing sensitive. It’s a cloud based service that gives you 2GBS of online space. They beauty, the have a Desktop and iPhone application. Simply put, saving to a folder is simply enough and it gets replicated to the cloud and all other machines instantly. Privacy is the issue here. I’d like to pay for a service as DropBox, but offers more in terms of encryption and fully controlled by the end user.
And there you have it folks.
Food for thought-in a world where there are single and convergence devices-how do we keep it all together?

TSnomad

To all the Small Businesses and Start-ups out there, what’s your backup routine?
Let’s talk layers, restoration and data reliability.

Backup works best in layers. Have at least 2 forms of backup. 1-External hard drive 2-Dvds. Done. Two copies of your data stored on 2 different media types.
Restoration-What good is your data if the restoration fails. This can either be via a software restore with an application such as Symantec Back Exec or coping a a backup file from an external hard drive. The backup needs to be easily accessible and the restore process must be fairly seamless.
Lastly, the data must be consistent in the backup for it to be usable. What good are the backed up files if they are corrupt.

I merely pose questions and suggest a strategy for an efficient start to backing up data for a Small Business.
You know where to reach me if further information or a backup plan is needed.

TSnomad

To add to my entries, regular Case uploads of issues i come across in my field.

Well, in my field, i come across peculiar situations. Most times, they take a fair bit of troubleshooting to figure out. Today, i give you the case of the Corrupt Registry Entry.
Issue-Upon trying to print, two errors would become noticeable:

-Pop up box with the following error-Spooler Subsystem App stopped working and was closed-Error 1
-The Print Spooler Service would keep crashing-Error 2

Google is an IT’s Professional secret weapon. Off the bat, Error 1 tells me to check the Print Spooler service. It was then i noticed the Print Spooler service had stopped. I went to the properties of the service and started it-adjusting the fail option to have it restart after 1 minute. In watching the service after a few minutes, i noticed it kept failing and restarting itself.
This would always proceed the pop up dialog box with Error 1.
A quick search by typing in the eaxact error message, led to Vista and a corrupt printer driver. Now i needed to check if a printer was recently installed. Oddly enough, the user confirmed they had tried to add a printer via our printer server. Needless to say, this was the incorrect way to do this, though the user had no way of knowing this.
Once i pinpointed the printer that was the issue, i needed to now remove/check the driver.
Two ways of doing this, Method 1-going to the printer properties in the list of Printer in the Control Panel of the machine. Now, if the Print Spooler Service is not running, one cannot access the properties of any network printers listed. Method 2, access the registry and remove the corrupt printer from the list.
Registry map:

Start -> Run - Regedit -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> ControlSet001 ->
Control -> Print -> Environments -> Windows NT x86 -> Version -3 -> Remove
All Printers From Here (Delete HP First See If that resolves the problem)

Mind, you, this was all troubleshooting and there was no way to tell if this would work. As always, a backup of the Registry was made before proceeding to make the changes.
After the Printer listing in the Registry was removed, a quick reboot and all was well.
The end.

TSnomad.

It’s seems about that time where I’m in the mood for a new project.
Something low cost and effective. Really, looking at all my technical gear, I can’t seem to pinpoint any one item that I need.
Hell, I can’t even figure out what my project will be about. I just feel the need to work on something now that I have some down time.
I have been considering making a hot swap NAS device that will connect to a Windows Homer Server and be used to back up the server itself. I’m think a full aluminium body with a rear and front fan.
To be continued.

TSnomad.