Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of our readers!

HP Firebird 803 leaked

Reading about the leaks online about the HP Firebird 803 feat. Voodoo DNA this morning caught me by surprise… not because of any mind blowing specifications, but a gaming PC setup in a net-top-like form factor (plus the Blackbird 002’s design). The Firebird 803 will supposedly feature a Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz processor, 4GB [included?] RAM (though for a gaming PC, I’m expecting it will be able to SUPPORT up to 8 GB of RAM), Blu-ray drive and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S cards with NVIDIA nForce 760i SLI. The “confirmed” features (looking at the leaked images) are a single slot-loading DVD drive, dual hard drive bays, 6 USB ports, 1 Firewire 800 port, 2 eSATA (non USB hybrid though, unlike those on the HP HDX16/HDX18 notebooks), HDMI, 1 S/PDIF and 1 DVI dual-link port.

The HP Firebird 803’s PSU will be external to reduce heat and supposedly shares the same one as the Voodoo Envy 133. Based on the leaked pictures, I’m pretty sure the PSUs of HP’s latest notebooks can fit as well (whether they can be used is another story).

Looks to be a solid concept – miniature Blackbird 002, less features and customizability, but probably less expensive as well. I’m guessing it’ll be available in February, from $1300.

In other news, Dell has confimed that they will be releasing their ultra-thin notebook, MacBook Air competitor very soon… which will also be competition for the Voodoo Envy 133. It will be called the Dell Adamo (sounds a whole lot like the Honda Asimo)… Voodoo, are you feeling the heat?

A little overload

Wow, this is madness, my HP Mini Note 2133 hung for quite a bit while I was rushing out this morning. I was trying to download about 150+ MB worth of files from my USB drive and SD card, so I didn’t need to bring those with me (Yes, data security is a large concern for me). I had three instances of File Explorer open, along with Firefox having several tabs open, Microsoft Word 2007 attempting to open one of my (huge) files… and then AVG decides to start its once in a while computer scan – oh what a right time to start a scan and bog down my system!! One more app decided to run by itself – Windows Update and everything grinded to a halt. Bugger.

I knew I had to close some of the programs… It took a while (like a minute?) for the Mini to close Office 2007, then my browser window, then the My Documents folder (which then came up with “This program is not responding”). I then reopened File Explorer, transferred my files across to the HDD, unplugged my flash drives and was out the door. In a way, I was lucky not having to reboot Windows Vista – because I was going to do that when the system hung and wouldn’t respond to any of my mouse clicks.

8GB SDHC works on HP iPAQ hw6915

HP iPAQ hw6915 owners and fans rejoice, I’ve just tested my 8 GB SanDisk microSDHC memory card with the HP iPAQ hw6915 (via a microSD to mini SD adapter, of course) and guess what? IT WORKS!! And with just ONE 3rd party driver I downloaded from the internet too! Fantastic.

Now I can go to the gym tomorrow with all my music and in-ear earphones! Here’s the story: I’ve been using a 2 GB microSD card with my HP hw6915 via a micro SD to mini SD adapter since the device can’t detect 4 GB and above cards. Problem is, all my songs can’t fit on a mere 2 GB card… and also, having a few MOVIES at hand is a plus, in case I get bored of just songs while working out. Meanwhile, I’ve got four 2 hour long movies and over 600 songs in the 8 GB micro SDHC card I use in my iPAQ 614c, but the hw6915 has never managed to detect the 8 GB card… until today when I installed the unofficial SDHC update.

Why not use the iPAQ 614c for music then? Well, the iPAQ 614c has a triple-duty mini USB port which handles charging, data transfer and headphones. But I want to use my own headphones (sometimes it’s in-ear, sometimes it’s the big over-the-head headphones that I use for gaming) and they all need 3.5 mm jacks, which is the standard. I prefer my own headphones because they have noise-isolation/cancellation and have VERY good bass and “thump” – the iPAQ 614c’s bundled “dangle from the ears” type of earphones (you know like those bundled iPod earbuds? same case) lack both. Also, the iPAQ 614c can NOT use HTC mini USB to 3.5 mm adapters because HTC’s mini USB ports are slightly squarish, making them sort-of proprietary and HTC exclusive, whereas the 614c’s port is more mini-B shaped.

But since my iPAQ hw6915 started developing the tendency to self-reboot randomly at times a few months ago, it became unreliable as a phone. So I use the iPAQ hw6915 now almost exclusively as a music player (plug in my own headphones via a 2.5 mm to 3.5 mm adapter, and made even better now with 8 GB SDHC compatibility) while using the iPAQ 614c as a phone and sometimes music/video player.

Until HP releases a nice large and wide touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard Pocket PC phone with a 3.5 mm headphone jack… umm which should be in the near future right? Hey EVERYONE has one now (HTC Touch HD, Nokia N97, iPhone 3G, etc all have 3.5 mm headphone jacks) so why not eh, HP?… then I guess I’ll have to switch between or sometimes carry both devices (oh, what a drag!) along with me.

Of course, it would appear that the Nokia N97 I talked about a few days ago sounds like it would fit the bill perfectly, I would rather use the Windows Mobile OS, and preferably a HP device (for many reasons).

By the way, to save you all that time searching the net, here’s where I downloaded the update for SDHC compatibility with the HP iPAQ hw6915. Do note it’s 3rd party (but what Windows Mobile add-on isn’t?) and I’ve personally tested my iPAQ hw6915 with cards up to 8 GB, all of them work. Just put it in your non-SDHC card (like 1 or 2 GB normal mini SD), put the card into your iPAQ hw6915, install the CAB file and restart. After that, the device should be able to detect memory cards up to 8 GB.

UPDATE (June 2009): Since the time of writing this article, I have since returned the iPAQ hw6915 and iPAQ 600 phones, and transitioned over to the HP iPAQ Data Messenger. So, sorry, I will not be able to test memory cards with the hw6915 as they come out with larger capacities (ie 16 or 32 GB) in the future.

Just reminds me of Voodoo PC

Yesterday while going out for dinner, I came across this ornament on a wall near the restaurant (picture on the right) and almost instantly, the word “Voodoo PC” came to mind (see the screenshot taken of the Voodoo PC logo on the left, from one of the pictures posted by Rahul Sood on his blog).

And this other one I came across today totally reminded me of Call of Duty: World at War, and the reason is pretty obvious:

*ONLY* two hours?!!

Hmm frustrated, tech-unsavvy users nowadays can actually make life hard for computer companies. Today I happened to (over)hear the ranting of a really dissatisfied guy who recently bought himself a new $350 consumer notebook PC and he had “heard” the battery life of his computer model was 3 to 3 and a half hours. But in his usage, he could only get “less than 1.5 hours of just web surfing, without wifi and on Windows Vista’s power saver mode too” out of his computer. It also seems that the computer company managed to perform testing on his notebook and THEY could get around 2+ hours of web surfing, WITH wifi AND maximum screen brightness. Either way he was pissed and had pretty much convinced himself to think there’s something wrong with his notebook PC because he couldn’t achieve that “three plus hours” that he wanted… and so he spent about two hours in a conversation, debating with some customer support guys about that.

One of his other argument points was that with technological advancements today, battery life should be the same or better nowadays – in some way, that’s true but on the other hand, I feel that people should be aware despite the fact that processors and hardware in computers nowadays may be more power efficient, they are also more powerful and pack more processing power (ie Dual core Core 2 Duo versus a single core P4 chip). What does that mean? Let me give an example: If you say “Ultra Low Voltage Core Duo”, then we’re talking, but otherwise for regular Intel Core and AMD processors, any “power efficiency” benefits may well be negated or reduced by the fact that processors today are much more powerful and hence use equal or negligibly less amount of power versus processors from say, the Pentium 4 era.

This guy was comparing apples and oranges. He expected his new notebook’s dual core 2.0 GHz AMD processor to his old notebook’s Pentium 4 single core 1.8 GHz processor! Maybe comparing the power efficiency and speed of a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom versus 1.6 GHz Pentium 4 would be more fair in an “old versus new” comparison.

However, a quick check, google and in fact a few people I know own that specific model of that notebook PC reveals that the battery life of that notebook model itself is around 2 hours on average and 2.5+ hours of power. And as far as the rest of the world is concerned, just about every recent consumer notebook out there with a 14 or 15 inch screen averages around 2 hours of battery life and I’d say the guy was being unreasonable. I didn’t bother to listen in on the rest of the conversation, but that was a pretty interesting two hours of my day this week while I was typewriting some articles on my HP Mini Note 2133, then I went off for dinner.

What do you guys think?