Rodfather Mobile

Thinking of getting a MacBook for my Mom.

At the campus bookstore, I can get the following deals for the previous versions of the MacBook:

Here are the prices for the new MacBooks I can get with an educational discount:

Looking at the new version, I’m not sure if the deals on the older MacBooks are worth it except maybe the black MacBook.
The major differences for the new MacBooks are the multitouch touchpad and the Penryn chip.
The major difference is the Penryn chip.

Not sure if those changes are worth it either.

Which one would you choose?

This made my day.

YouTube – I went to Fry’s and got a technology enema

No love for UMPC inkers
I am writing on my old trusty Samsung Q1.
A year ago most tableteers wouldn’t even
consider this as a viable inking device.
I’ve gotten used to it and I hardly have
any vectoring issues with it even with
my palm resting on the screen. Now
I have the Fujitsu U810, which in my
case, has even a softer touchscreen. In
a nutshell, inking on the U810 is plain
horrible.
Looking down the line of future
UMPC’s such as the HP 2133, which
I consider a subnotebook, and other
Asus Eee PC clones, it appears there’s
a slim to none chance we will see a
viable UMPC inking device. Even MID’s
will pass and try to go with finger
touch interfaces to compete with the
iPhone/iPod touch.
So what’s left for people like me?
Hope OQO continues with including an
active digitizer? Hope future Nokia
Internet Tablets will still have a
touchscreen and include a stylus?
Oh well… I’ve all but given up on
seeing a UMPC with a 7″ screen
that has a dual-mode active/passive
digitizer.

A new Cloudbook blogger has just surfaced. Jamesha “JamFish” Fisher arrives with an excellent first post: ‘Highlights…First 24 Hours with The Cloudbook’.

She has experienced the common difficulties of the initial set up but dives deeper into the WiFi issues than other reviews.

Pluses so far go to the screen, webcam, touchpad, and, of course, portability.

Via ultramobilelife.com

I’m sure most of you have seen the Everyday video where this dude Noah takes a picture of himself everyday for 6 years (and counting?).  Well at least you’ve heard the music in the NBA’s Where Amazing Happens commercials..

Anyway, now you can easily snap a photo of yourself everyday straight to the browser using a webcam with Daily Mugshot.

I’m not sure if I will keep up with this but since I have the Fujitsu U810 with me all the time with its built-in webcam, why not.  Maybe this will be a good incentive to live a healthier lifestyle and not look so much like a chipmunk.

Keeping current with Web 2.0 goodness, they offer an embed code to stream your mug to your favorite social network.

Via lifestreamblog.com

CarPC’s have been a hot topic here lately.  Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine just put up a short video on his UMPC moblog site showing how you can have a 15 hr CarPC/desktop PC using the Everun, Car dock, Samsung Q1 USB keyboard, and a Tekkeon MP3400 external battery.  Well, I have 2/4 items..  Looks to be a nice solution if you want to mount the Everun on to the windshield or a flat surfaced dash.

Here’s my mounting solution for the Fujitsu U810 using a ProClip vehicle mount and a RAM Mount cradle. 

Chippy’s UMPC miniblog.: Portable 15-hour car/desktop PC

I found out Inkseine was available a day early from Rob of gottabemobile.com so I went ahead and installed it.  So far it seems cool.  It works perfectly fine on the Fujitsu U810’s touchscreen.  I like the interface, but I’m not exactly sure what I’d use it for.  I’d still rather use Windows Journal for ink blog posts.  It’s fun to use so I suggest you try it out.

There’s been an annoying issue with the touchscreen on the U810.  If you don’t use it after a certain amount of time, maybe 10 seconds, it takes a second to get the touchscreen to respond again which makes inking frustrating.

I noticed the UMPC Portal forums, rexibaby posted a link to a comment in an Amazon review showing the solution to the response issues.

Chris Heitmann says:

In reply to #8:
After using the u810 for a day – I also became frustrated with the unresponsiveness of the Touch Screen after not using it for 10 seconds or so. It was so frustrating to me that I was beginning to consider a return. Fortunately I finally found the solution so I thought I’d share.
HERE’S THE FIX! (Instructions are for Vista Home Premium – might be different on XP)
Open up “Device Manager” in Control Panel.
Expand “Human Interface Devices”
Double Click “FCL USB Pen Tablet”
Choose the “Power Management” tab
uncheck “allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”
That’s it. Real responsiveness! This really makes a HUGE difference in usability. Even if you have gotten used to the way it works or you’ve never had another tablet so you feel it’s performing ok – try this.

I tried it out and it works.  The touchscreen is much more responsive now.  Happy inking!