Gmail.com Themes…

Yesterday as I was checking my Google Reader account I saw a post that showed the new Gmail Themes.  I immediately went to my Gmail account to see if I had the themes option enabled yet and sure enough there was a banner at the top of the page letting me know that I could change the theme for my Gmail page.  The first theme that I tried was the ‘Terminal’ theme and I think this is a great add-on that allows people to customize their Gmail.

Here are some screen shots of the Terminal theme as well as the other themes that are available at this time.

Please leave a comment of what you think of the new Gmail Themes feature.

Google Chrome...

I have been using Google's browser called 'Chrome' since Oct. 13 and I find my self using it on a daily basis now.   If you track the software that I use on Wakoopa then you already know this.

Chrome seems to be even a little faster then IE 7 or Firefox and definitely has some features that put it ahead of the competition in my mind.  I like the fact that the web pages that I visit most often are right on the home screen when I launch the browser and the instant search built into the URL line.  The one other feature that I enjoy tremendously is the ability to grab a tab and move it to a new standalone browser window and then if I want I can drag-n-drop the tab back into another browser window.

What do you think of the Google Chrome browser?

 

Update: new browser & new mobile tech on the way...

So... this morning I decided to download the Google Chrome browser now that I have seen all of the different browser performance test bench studies that actually show that the Google Chrome browser is actually pretty smooth and fast.  I will post a review of my experience in more detail in the future.

My new mobile tech on the way...is the new T-Mobile G1!  I am so excited about this device.  As you probably know from earlier post that I currently have the T-Mobile MDA.  I do like the MDA and all of the functionality but it is time for an update.  I thought about getting an iPhone but I don't like be pre-told what I can and can't do with my own device.  So, the T-Mobile G1 device will work out perfectly for my needs and with Open Source you definitely don't have to worry to much about limitations.  iPhone killer? Yes, that is just my opinion but we will see overtime.

What do you think about the Google Chrome browser?  Are you getting the T-Mobile G1?

PicLens...

I was watching a www.youtube.com video from Chris Pirillo and he was talking about this browser plug-in that allows you transform your UI to a cool 3D view of online videos and/or photos. I been using this software for about a week now and love it. I am using PicLens on Vista 64-bit within IE 7 and it works great.

This plug-in is a huge time saver and gives viewing online video and photos a 21 century feel.

Let me know if you have tried it and how PicLens has changed the way that you view video and photos on the Internet.

Vista Service Pack 1 : To Install or Not to Install...

Vista Service Pack 1... There have been a lot of stories on the web about the different experiences and availability that Vista users have been getting.  Here is my experience so far.

As you know I have a Home Server and a 64-bit Desktop PC all running Microsoft Windows Vista.  Earlier this year in March, Service Pack 1 came up in the Windows update pipeline but as I do with everything new; wait to see what others think about it before doing it myself.  So, with the Home Server pending Service Pack 1 my primary desktop, running Windows Vista 64-bit, did not have Service Pack 1 in the cue until last week. 

I am hesitant to download Vista Service Pack 1 on either of the systems.  I have read many stories that have both good and bad experiences when installing Vista Service Pack 1.

What do you think I should do?

Leave a comment for email me at: G.WadeTech@gmail.com

Why I don't use an iPhone...

If you have been following my blog then you would know that I use the T-Mobile MDA as my phone/portable media device.  You should also know that with all US cell phone carriers you can get a discount on a new phone when you re-new your contract for another two years.  So, my contract comes due next spring and I am looking at the current products in the market that I would potentially want to get when I re-new my contract.

The newest and most popular device is the Apple iPhone.  The first thing that most people say about the iPhone is that it is expensive; but I paid $350 for my T-Mobile MDA when it first came out on the market.  So in perspective, the iPhone price is about right.

Features...this category is what I care about the most when looking at a device.  Currently with a Windows Mobile Pocket PC I can do a lot of things not to mention all of the app's that are out there for the Windows Mobile platform.  I could get some of the features on the iPhone but I would have to jailbreak the iPhone in order to do this.  I would not have a problem jailbreaking the iPhone but even with a growing number of 3rd party app's I would still not have the same functionality that I do currently.  

I also don't enjoy the touch keyboard and I would rather have a physical keyboard for lots of typing on the device if needed.  So, I am looking for the next best device from HTC to stream into T-Mobiles product pipeline.

If you have any suggestions of some insight that would be useful to me or others then leave a comment by clicking on the link below.

Link to YouTube related videos: MDA vs. iPhone

Windows XP Service Pack 3...

So, now the only PC that I am running Windows XP on is my notebook.  I wanted to take this time to let everyone that reads this blog that I had an almost flawless install of Windows XP Service Pack 3.  The only problem that I ran into was the fact that I left my wireless PCI card in the notebook during installation.  Then when SP3 was done installing I was not ale to connect the my wireless Internet router.  But, after removing the PCI wireless card and a couple of system restarts all is good.

Have you installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 yet?  Did you have any problems with the install or was it flawless for you?  Please leave your own story about how your SP 3 install went in the comments for this post.

Forecasting the future OS plans for Microsoft...

As I was listening to the Buzz Outloud Podcast this morning they had a segment about how Microsoft could possibly be spinning off their next Service Pack for Vista (Service Pack 2) as the next version of Windows. I found this to be very disturbing as I have my Home Server and main desktop running versions of Windows Vista.

It could be true because Bill Gates was quoted as saying that the next version of Windows would be out within a year. Although this is all speculation, I can't help but think about what Microsoft has planned for all of the consumers like myself that bought Vista and are waiting for Microsoft to make improvements?

In my opinion there are two different ways that Microsoft would go with this news if it turns out to be true. 1) abandon the current Vista users after releasing Service Pack 2 in an attempt to get out of the negative press or 2) release Service Pack 2 to the current Vista users and merge them into the new version of Windows; codename "Windows 7".

Only one of those outcomes is going to have a chance of decreasing the amount of hate that is building against Vista and I believe that would be the better decision for them if they really want to change the moral of the technology universe.

Windows Vista User Account Control...

For those of you that are not familiar with Microsoft's latest version of Windows this might not make very much sense; however, Vista users will know what I am talking about.

Microsoft has taken some strides to ensure that Vista is more secure then the previous OS version Windows XP. Along with other advancements in security Microsoft has added a feature (and yes it is a feature) to Vista called User Account Control (UAC). This feature shows the user a pop-up in front of the desktop background that allows the user to select either "cancel" or "allow". The only time that this pop-up will come up will be when you or a program makes a system change or is adding/installing software to the current system.

I have read many blogs and news stories regarding this subject of UAC. Since it is easier to write negatively; I have read more about how people don't like it or think that UAC is an annoyance. I think that UAC is great. On my main desktop I am running Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition and because of the added security accompanied by UAC I don't run Anti-Virus software because with the advanced security features of Vista and common knowledge of what is malicious on the Internet I see no reason too.

If you have an opinion or would like to make a comment regarding this subject please do so by either leaving a comment under this post or go to the bottom of this page and click on the email link.

Technology Prices...

The general prices of technology products in the last 5 years has come down significantly. I mean think back to the last computer that you bought; mostly likely the price that you paid for the internal components of the computer are considerably more expensive per part then what you can get today. That is not even saying that the computer you are buying today is like a twin turbo on NOS compared to the technology of yesterday.

I get a weekly email from newegg.com that has their latest "hot deals" and every week I am astonished by how low some of the prices are for the various components. System RAM is the product that I notice the most. I mean 2 GB of quality RAM would have cost you around $125 and today you can buy quality RAM for $50. That is a crazy price drop in the industry.

The reason that I was thinking about this topic and wrote about it is because I want to know what others think about this topic. What do you think of the price drop in the technology industry? Do you think that this is a sign of a falling technology and if so what is new to come? Your thoughts on the subject?

MacBook Air...

The MacBook Air is the newest addition to Apple's notebook product pipeline.  I am not going to attempt to do a technology review on the MacBook Air as that has already been done by so many others.  What I am going to review is the overall idea with some of the features along with my opinion.  The MacBook Air is Apple's addition to the arena of sub-notebooks.  I think that this computer market is not nearly as big as the current 15 inch to 17+ inch standard notebooks.

Apple's MacBook Air Offcial Ad

The feature that ranks highest on my chart is the multi-touch pad.  Although I think that they should have taken this technology from their iPhone further on the MacBook Air however this multi-touch pad is still new to the market. 

On the bottom of my feature chart is the fact that the MacBook Air does not come with a internal drive bay.  Apple calls this "Remote Disc".  Basically it is the same as mapping a drive from a local network PC to the another PC.  The reason I think that this feature is horrible is because most people will feel intimidated and therefore not buy the MacBook Air.  In my opinion Apple should have made the Air a little thicker and included one of their internal Super-Drives to make a more complete product.  I don't think that most people traveling would want to carry around an external drive bay and would rather opt to have a notebook that is a little thicker with the basic features.

In my opinion Apple would have made a better addition to their current product lineup by announcing at least a tablet notebook; if not a multi-touch display only notebook, such as the OMPC.  This is a topic that many others are talking about on the net and we can only hope that Apple provides what its customers want. 

If you have an opinion or would like to link a review of the MacBook Air to this post please do in the comments.

CES vs. MacWorld...

                        

As I was thinking of what to write about this week, my original plan was to try and pick one product from the CES lineup and do a virtual review.  But that is not what I decided to do.  Instead I thought that I would do a broad review  comparing CES to MacWorld.

So this is not a direct or fair comparison as the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) convention covers all things that are technology related, while MacWorld is Apple product specific.  But since Apple doesn't have a real presence at CES I think that this is how most people feel; that CES does compare to MacWorld.

Without getting to many details involved more people come to CES then they do MacWorld but that number is vastly changing as more people are buying and becoming more interested in Apple products.  If I had to choose between going to CES and MacWorld I would go to CES because there are so many categories and various products revealed that would keep my interest rather then just focusing on one brand of technology.

I think that CES is the better technology convention because they get all of the major brands as well as new and innovative products into the showroom floor.  With that said I am still interested in what MacWorld brings to the technology universe every year.

If you have any thoughts or incite into the CES vs. MacWorld comparison email me or leave a comment to this post by clicking on the comments link below this post.

My Samsung SyncMaster 22” LCD Monitor…

This is the newest addition to my desktop setup. I love having more desktop real-estate and it is said that you will be more productive if you have more space to work with; I hope that is true. As I have mentioned in previous post on G. Wade Tech Review this monitor is the Samsung SyncMaster 2220WM that gives off a very nice picture. With a glossy bezel and a LCD non-glossy screen you get the best of both worlds. I like the non-glossy screens because you don't get the reflection as if you are looking into a mirror. Even though you get an enhanced picture from a glossy screen I don't think it is worth it when you can't see parts of the screen very well because you happen to have a light on that is behind you or a window open in the background blinding you from the reflection in the monitor. This monitor has a 5 ms response time as well as both an analog and digital input. The monitor does lack some of the other more common inputs such as: composite, HDMI, S-Video, USB, and others I may be missing. Since I use other peripherals for those purposes I don't mind not having them built into the monitor.

I picked this monitor up at Best Buy on Black Friday for $200 as one of my Christmas gifts from my wife. (Thanks for the nice gift.) As I was doing my research on which monitor I wanted to get I decided on this monitor over other monitors because I wanted to add it to my other Samsung SyncMaster 720N 17". This works out great because the 22" widescreen monitor and the 17" monitor have almost the same height so when I have them next to each other they are as close to the same screen height as you can get without having two of the same monitors. The other reason that I wanted this monitor was the fact that they have the same color settings in the menu so I don't have to go through and adjust the colors to try and get them to give off the same picture.

Here are some pics of the 22" Samsung SyncMaster 2220WM:

If you have a dual monitor setup or just want to let me and the G. Wade Tech Review community know what kind of a monitor you are using leave a comment under this post.