Don’t Get Screwed!: Atlantic Ave’s Pro Line Home Theater Sucks It

I’m a proponent of justice; swift, hard, unwavering justice. So when I encounter an out of control predator stalking the meek, the one avenue of control that I have (short of dressing like a bat and executing street vengeance), is to let my fingers and keyboard regulate. Consider it my small, but vital, contribution to society. Read more

Acer H213H Monitor: An Excellent TV Substitute

True movie buffs know that its paramount to view flicks on a suitable display; color saturation, resolution, and contrast are vital elements to a pleasurable viewing experience. That’s why when it came time to replace my aging 24-inch tube, I decided to make a move to a quality flat screen – - but I didn’t purchase a television. Read more

Acer Aspire One: A Wallet-Friendly Netbook For The Budget-Conscious

When I was just a young’un in the mid ‘80s, I was a precocious tyke. If there was trouble to be found, I had an extraordinary sense that enabled me to sniff it out, by either performing daredevil stunts (such as bus or train surfing) or total landing into it by accident (I’ve broken more than my fair share of windows playing baseball with the crew).

Oft times, my parental would give me a valuable life lesson in lieu of a good ol’ fashioned strapping, which would involve stimulating moral lessons that, even as a pre-teen, I somehow got. These lessons were often direct and to the point (Mama Wilson wasn’t one for fluff), but on odd occasions she provided examples of the appropriate course of action by demonstrating what not to do. Which is exactly what I’m to do here.

I cover the consumer electronics space in one of my other gigs, and I consider myself fairly knowledgeable in the field. So when dear Mama Wilson, the sage of my childhood, performed a major, major purchasing blunder, I was shocked and appalled. This 50+ year old woman, who does nothing PC related other than checking her AOL Mail, bought a PC that cost over $2,500. $2,500 just to forward me photos of puppies frolicking in meadows. That just wasn’t right.

After a small chastisement, I realized that it wasn’t her fault entirely; she was probably a victim of an upsell by a blue shirt. Still, the idea of my mom owning a machine that video editors or hardcore gamers would drool over was more than a little bit hilarious—and quite a bit of overkill for her needs.

This rather long (but hopefully insightful) intro was crafted to demonstrate that blind purchases where one doesn’t analyze the usefulness of a product, and cost you big bucks. Mama Wilson could have made due with a netbook, a low-cost, lightweight mini-notebook designed for anywhere web access. We’ve touched upon netbooks in previous post, but never delved into their fruits. Consider that oversight rectified as we’re going to take a look at the new $349 10-inch Acer Aspire One. I know what you’re probably thinking—a PC under $400 has to be crap, right? Slow down, cowpoke. The Acer Aspire One is a kickin’ little netbook, and show we’ll show you why the vast majority of PC users in the hunt for a new computer need some of this slickness in their lives. The Acer Aspire One doesn’t have the mind-blowing specs of other computers, but chances are the “meager” specs are all that you need. Let’s break it down.

Design: For a computer that’s remarkably cheap, the Acer Aspire One is a pretty sharp looking device. It comes in four colors (black, white, red, blue), and features nice touches like a brushed metal palmrest, glossy bezel that surrounds the 10-inch display, and sweet-looking tear-drop shaped Acer logo built into the hinge. In other words it’s full of pimposity. The 10.1-inch display is very bright, and you even get a webcam for videochatting with buds. The touchpad is a bit small, but its no dealbreaker.

1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor: Without getting all uber-nerdy on you, I’ll say that the CPU powering the Acer Aspire One is more than sufficient for working in documents, checking out photos, and blaring tunes from your music folder without any lag our hiccups. Plus, with many applications living on the web instead of on your PC, all you need is a decent Wi-Fi connection to check out the YouTubes, the Gmails, and the Slackers. In short, you have enough horsepower in the engine to handle your typical day to day computing tasks.

1GB of RAM: The majority of new PCs run Windows Vists, which is a notorious resource hog, but the Acer Aspire One is powered by Windows XP, a far lighter operating system that can run smoothly on 1GB of RAM. You can expect smooth performance while working and playing.

160GB Hard Drive: Although the Acer Aspire One has a $349 price tag, it comes packed with chunky 160GB hard drive, which is more than enough real estate for photos, music, video, docs, and other files (that’s more storage than on my 60Gb Mac Mini desktop). Considering that most users won’t be editing HD clips or gaming on the device (it does, after all, have only a 10 inch display and a fairly pedestrian graphics card), you’ll have plenty of space for your goodies.

6-Cell Battery: Included with purchase is a 6-cell battery, which provided over 5 hours of juice with the power management settings positioned for maximum battery efficiency, and with the screen dimmed (with the screen at its brightest, we saw 4.5 hours of endurance).

So is the Acer Aspire One worth the coin? You betcha. It’s lightweight (2.8 pounds), attractive, and gives users access to the Web, which, in the modern PC age, is pretty much all that’s needed for a more than satisfying computing experience. It doesn’t feature a CD or DVD drive, but in the era of Amazon MP3, Hulu, and software downloads, you can get virtually anything you need as soon as you connect to the Web. In short, the Acer Aspire One is pound for pound one of the best bang for your buck netbooks on the planet.

A Crash Course In Free Wi-Fi Etiquette

As a writer, universal, free public Wi-Fi is the dream that I hope is made manifest within my lifetime, but until that day comes, cafes make for a fine option for connecting to the web to fetch information for stories, check e-mail, and chat with friends. From the looks of things at my local coffee house, Vox Pop, and similar spots throughout the five boroughs, you concur: you can’t walk into a cafe without seeing at least one Apple or Dell logo. The prospect of free internet gathers both the diversion-seeker and workaholic.

That said, there is a strict code of conduct that must be adhered to while going about your business. Although many of the following suggestions are followed to the letter by the vast majority of coffee house Wi-Fi users, there’s always that one funky monkey that manages to ruin the party for the do-gooders. For s/he we’ve assembled this list of tips to make the experience pain-free for all parties involved.

Don’t Be A Free Wi-Fi Mooch
Is there really such a mystical energy known as free Wi-Fi? In a nutshell, no–unless Nikola Tesla manages to work his eccentric magic from beyond the grave. If your local cafe has the courtesy of serving up unrestricted internet access to its patrons, that 802.11 signal that you’re hopping on in order to check e-mail or Wikipedia is coming from a router attached to a cable, DSL, or some other information pipe; a pipe that costs a pretty penny per month to maintain. So if your goal is to get out of the apartment and take in a Hulu movie marathon at the neighborhood coffee joint, and you don’t have any intention of buying anything, you’ve crossed over from the realm of human being into that of the Wi-Fi Mooch.

It goes without saying that some will shout “Well, if they didn’t want me on their signal, they’d secure it.” Very true, I’d retort, but with this addition: most businesses give you access to their signals in the unspoken hope that you’d purchase a small item or three during your session (except for Starbucks–expensive coffee and paid Wi-Fi? WTF!). Thanks to mooches, establishments sometimes post signs requesting that you make purchase per hour. Order a snack, drink, or drop a dollar into the Wi-Fi pot, leech.

Don’t Be A Bandwidth Hog
The absolute last thing that fellow web-surfers and the ownership needs is for someone to BitTorrent the entire run of House. Why? All of that cascading data can create a virtual traffic jam that slows down the Web experience for your fellow surfers. Former senator Ted Stevens can explain far more eloquently than I.

The Coffee Shop Is Not Your Office
This is one of the most overlooked, yet vital, tips to remember. Simply because you can work from your favorite cafe seat, doesn’t mean that you can transform the area into your personal workspace. I’m not talking about miscellaneous books or magazines, I’m talking about hardware. If you complement your notebook or netbook with a monitor, scanner, external mic, speakers, or other gear, you’ve officially crossed the line from mobile professional to become a person that should be banned from any coffee house’s premises. In short, don’t be this guy.

MSI Offers Free Netbooks to Lovers This Valentine’s Day

Sure Don Juans of days past attempted to woo fair maidens with treats of chocolates, sweet smelling bouquets, and sweet nothings whispered in the ear, but modern ladies who are just as geeky as their boyfriends require zeros and ones, instead of saccharine-soaked Hallmark cards. Read more