Why the Chrome series has a long life

  
     Many people in the IT community scorn Google's attempt at a simple and easy to use computer OS. I have never scorned the Google project and have always been a fan of the excellent and quick browser. The newest iteration of the Chrome OS is probably the safest, quickest to boot, and easiest to use OS out there. I must admit the newest hardware is much more powerful even to the point to run Windows in a Remote Desktop. The Samsung Series 550 has 4 GB of RAM and Intel innards Celeron Sandy Bridge which will probably be replaced this fall and has a 16 GB SSD which you will probably use with Windows 7/8 since it is all cloud based. The main seller for Google Chrome is the cloud. Consider that instead of using Microsoft Office you use Google Docs a free document editor with the ability to make papers, presentations, spreadsheets, drawings, and for Outlook you use Gmail and for Onenote you can use Evernote which almost replaces Microsoft Office and do not forget the template marketplace which is fully featured and is very helpful. Also schools will rest assured since Chrome OS really isn't a true OS there is virtually no possiblity of getting a virus and virus protection is built in and these things boot up in less than 7 seconds. Most people think that Chrome OS can not be used with out internet (or if yours is 3G enabled). Now Google Music, Google Docs, Google Books, all are geared for offline use. Schools will have hundreds of education tools at their disposal in the Chrome web store and businesses have plenty of options too. Low prices since hardware is very simplified is a great addition and all Chromebooks offer 3G with a 100MB of free data per month for two years which to me is great for checking a quick e-mail or updating my Facebook status. The Chromebook solution is perfect for schools and businesses on a budget that likes security and speed. Chrome will feature more hardware partners like Asus (since they made the Nexus 7 tablet) and faster innards and as some hope in the near future a collide with the New Chrome OS and Android to create a better ecosystem. I think the Chrome OS will be a great success for Google and will be the perfect options for consumers, schools, and businesses abroad.

Goodereader Tablet?? Update: Price

     It may be unbelievable but Goodereader an independent e reading and tablet reviewing source is developing their own tablet to throw into the already largely crowded tablet market. So far Michael Kozlowski the CEO at Good e reader has stated, "We are looking to have Google Play and our own Good e-Reader App Store on it, at launch. It also has a front facing 1.3 MP web cam for Skype and other things. Personally, I hate rear facing cameras and it adds on extra costs. The whole point of this tablet is to give you an alternative to the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet. It is also poised to beat our competiion in price (40.00) and developed by us."   This is a bold move if what they say the price is I think this could be a serious competitor to the likes of the Kobo Vox (pictured above) and the Kindle fire. 

Update: Goodereader has announced the price will be between $130-150.

Google Play credit card??

      The Nexus tablet is a now widely known Google Play certified device but ships with a full HD movie and a mysterious $25 app credit. This could be a good way of setting the stage for parents who could let their kids and teens a prepaid amount to buy apps, movies, books, tv series, and magazines without worrying about their credit cards. Why I point this out is because this is extremely similar to the Windows Phone $25 pre-paid app card you got for buying a new Windows Phone.

Free Windows Phone!!

If you sign up with T-Mobile you will get a free brand new Lumina 710 with a 2 year contract!! Check out the link below for more details

http://phones.microsoftstore.com/ecommerce/phones/?filterbycarrier=59&filterbybrand=1&refcode1=MST_0228_003_STORELUMIA

Our Precious Ecosystems

     Many people think that the recently revealed Surface and the just released Nexus 7 are nothing more than Halo generating products that are aimed for pushing OEM's to make better products not necessarily market share is a farce. The Nexus 7 and the Surface are poised to take two different markets. They both feature the luxury of full compatibly with their respective app markets and a high quality build and a relatively low price for their markets. Recently revealed is that the Android army consists of 400 million Android devices + compared to 350 million IOS devices and a small number of Blackberry devices and  Symbian and relatively few Windows Phones. I foresee the Blackberry market losing business share to Windows Phone/Windows 8 and the IOS kingdom under attack from the Android advance. Even if Windows 8 fails sadly Linux will not rise to the top even though Android is Linux at her core. Today at the Google I/O conference they announced 600 million apps in the Google Play store and a new magazine and movie store with movie rentals and tv series which will defiantly rival that of the 550 million app packing Itunes store which also features newsstand for magazines, and sells movies like the Google Play market. Microsoft will integrate the Zune software into Windows 8 and currently features movies, music, podcasts, but no book store (possible B&N integration but that is speculative) and no magazine store. The biggest seller to the general public is an ecosystem which Google looks like it has it all wrapped up. The Nexus 7 which will be up for pre-order soon and features a kindle fire like look with a 1280x800 IPS display and a tegra 3 core and most important Android 4.1 jelly bean. This device will be the one to beat in the current 7 inch market recently dominated by the Kindle fire in price and the Galaxy tab 7.7 tab in quality and I think the Surface will knock the Ipad off of its pedestal where whenever you have a review people will say it is better than the Ipad, but I think in quality and design will compare their devices to the Surface even though it is a tough act to follow. The IOS ecosystem is expanding at a quick rate and the Google Play ecosystem is at an even faster rate and the Blackberry system is dwindling and the Microsoft system is emerging into a viable contender.

Gaming Laptop or Ultrabook? You Decide!

         Deciding on getting a powerhouse gaming laptop versus getting a small portable Ultrabook may be a hard decision. If you are like me, and are a gamer/student this post is for you!

         Ideally, you want to have a small and portable laptop for home, school, and just for the reason that you can bring wherever you want to. But as a gamer, I understand that this is not generally simple if you want to be able to play intensive games like BF3, Crysis 2, or Skyrim.

       On the other hand, people who only play things like Star Craft 2, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Left for Dead, or Star Wars the Old Republic can deal with using a smaller less powerful laptop.

This brings us to the comparison of an Ultrabook and a gaming laptop. (I chose two laptops from asus that each cost roughly the same amount of money, $1,500)

Asus G55VW-DS71 -

This laptop packs a 1920x1080p in a 15 inch LCD
12GB of DDR3 1600mhz (expandable up to 32GB)
750GB 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
Standard DVD-CD player
2GB Nvidia GTX 660m
Intel Quad Core i7-3610QM @ 2.3Ghz-3.3Ghz (in Turbo Mode), with 6mb L3 cache



Asus Zenbook Prime UX21A-

This Ultrabook also has a very nice 1920x1080p resolution in a 13 inch LCD
4GB DDR3 1600Mhz
256GB Solid State Drive
No CD-DVD player
Integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics
Intel Dual Core i7-3517U @ 1.9Ghz-3.0Ghz (in Turbo Mode), with 4mb L3 cache


HDD- The Zenbook Prime has a Solid State Drive which is far more faster than the g55's 7,200 rpm hard drive. The Zenbook is much lighter, smaller, extremely thin, and incredibly portable, while the G55 is much bigger, thicker, heavier, and bulky.  But a trade off for speed leaves a much larger hard drive capacity for the G55. The decision is whether you want to have speed when opening files, programs, or having it turn on fast or having a three times larger capacity.

CPU- The G55 contains an i7 quad core from Intel that can reach 3.3 Ghz, while the Zenbook has a Dual core Intel i7 that can reach 3.0Ghz. Its clear who wins in this category, but not to say that the Zenbook's CPU is slow. It is actually very powerful considering the Zenbook only uses up to 35 watts. Both of the CPU's are Ivy Bridge 3rd Gen i-processors.

CD-DVD- The G55 comes with a standard disk reader, but you can always change it out and swap for a Blue Ray drive at any time. The Zenbook requires an external disk reader. In this case you are sacrificing not having a disk reader for having a smaller size, and weight.

Resolution/Screen- Both the G55 and Zenbook Prime have a 1920x1080p LCD screen. This resolution is often known as Full HD, and is very sizable. The Zenbook has a 13 inch screen, while the G55 has a 15 inch screen. The two inches does not really make or break either laptop, its just a preference of small or big.

RAM- The clear winner is the G55 with its 12GB of RAM. The g55 is also expandable to having 32GB, while the Zenbook can only have 4GB. The Zenbook's RAM is also built into the motherboard, so you cannot add or take away any RAM.

Graphics- The G55 contains Nvidia's new Kepler series 660m. This card is much more powerful than the Zenbook's integrated HD 4000 graphics. Both of these GPU's run Direct X 11, as opposed to intels previously Direct X 10 Integrated graphics. To see an in depth look at both the graphics performance, please check these links
HD 4000 - http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html
660m - http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-660M.71859.0.html

Size- From the pictures above, it is obvious on which one is smaller and more portable. The Zenbook is also 2.5lbs while the g55 weighs about 9lbs. 

 Gaming- The G55 crushes the Zenbook with it superior RAM, CPU, and GPU. The G55 can play any game out on the market to date. But this doesnt mean that the Zenbook can't play any games. The Zenbook is fully capable of playing games as well. The only things it cant play (cant play well* i should say, because it technically can play anything at a lower resolution) are brand new games that utilize the latest graphical technology. Older games such as World of Warcraft, Left for Dead, or Star Craft 2 are able to be played better than you may think on the Zenbook.

School- Because the Zenbook uses a much lower wattage than the G55, the Zenbook will have a much higher battery life. The Zenbook is also very small and can easily fit into any backpack, while the G55 will either not fit, or barely fit. Both also have back-lit keys for lectures using power points in the dark. Carrying a 9lb laptop combined with the weight of books or other things may be cumbersome for some people. The Zenbook is very light and small, so it wont be very cumbersome at all.

You Decide!- At the end of the day, it is all up to you if you want to have a gaming laptop or Ultrabook. As for me personally, i chose to get a G53 (the older brother of the G55). I chose it because it was a desktop replacement. Looking back at my decision i somewhat wish i bought an Ultrabook simply because my G53 is very heavy and big. I find it cumbersome at school because it just barely fits into my back pack, and carrying a backpack, a big binder, and a 17-inch case (because of its size) is tiring. But i love my laptop none the less. If you are willing to bear the weight and size of the G55, it is well worth it. But if you travel a lot, the Zenbook is definitely for you.