So, I opened the box and when I saw this baby, I was like WTF? This thing is freaking small! I never thought 10 inch would be THIS small. Now I wonder how small 7 inch eeepc would be. I doubt I can work on this small screen for 10 hours everyday. Screen is ridiculously small. I wish it had end-to-end 1280*800 screen.

Config is pretty standard like other Atom based netbooks: 10 inch ( WSVGA LED), 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Card reader, 1.6GHz atom, bgn wireless, bluetooth, 3 USB, VGA, 1.3 MP webcam, XP Home.

So, here are my impressions:

1. Screen: Now as gorgeous as my G50. Not even close. Again, I’ve not seen other netbooks; so I’ll assume netbook screens are like this due to small size.

2. Speed: OK for normal work such as word processing, browsing etc.  Processor can be overclocked 8%-24% dynamically without going to BIOS. Even at 8% 720p video runs choppy (about 20fps) but at 15% it runs smooth.

3.  Keyboard & touchpad: OK, my biggest complain is Fn key placement. Both my HP and ASUS has Ctrl key at the left most corner but this one has Fn key (like Dell, Lenovo). So, I always press Fn key when I want to press Ctrl key. Pretty frustrating. Also, touchpad is very small and there is just one button for left and right click and its very narrow. Since I use bluetooth mouse that’s not a big issue. Keyboard is good. But I’m making a lot of typo. Arrow keys and “,./” (3keys) are narrow compared to other keys. I need some time to get used to.. lol

4. I tried to upgrade RAM with a 2GB RAM but it won’t recognize 2GB stick. It has onboard soldered 1GB RAM. So, you can add one more 1GB RAM. Built in speakers are crap but sufficient. I pluggd a pair of PX-100 and it sound nice. Webcam is OK for video chat.

5. Other thoughts: One nice thing I noticed is that unlike other laptops, MSI has made two partitions: 40GB OS partition and about 110GB another partition. Saved my time from resizing OS partition. Wind comes without any crapware preinstalled like ASUS. There was a folder with some software such as Norton and Powerdvd but I deleted it. I’ve not run a battery test but I’m hoping it should be 5+ hours with a 6cell battery.

Overall, it’s an excellent netbook. If you plan to buy an affordable 6cell netbook then look no further. You can turn it into a MacBook Wind if you want to I liked the new HP netbook but 3 cell is deal breaker for me.

MSI Wind Picture

Wind U100	Keyboard size
15.4 inch vs 10inch	G50V vs Wind
Too small	Size comparison
Back	in my hand
T-mobile G1 vs Wind	G1 vs Wind

First Wordpress app for Android, wpToGo. Hopefully this one gets posted. This app is very basic; simple post with image attachment feature (attached image captured by G1) with default resize option. It retrives categories in a dropdown list but no option to add new or select multiple categories for a post. Hopefully the author adds more features in future updates.

1. The display is excellent and very responsive and smooth like the iPhone. Interface is very responsive too. It can do multi-tasking and Copy-paste!

2. Building quality: feels solid.

3. Look: I must admit, I thought the phone was ugly when I first saw pictures and videos of G1. But After holding it in my hand, it’s a different story. I have the black one and it is really beautiful. I was hopping to get the Bronze one but it is too shiny and looks cheap.

4. Keyboard is nice. I never used such small keyboards but it’s quiet comfortable. An on screen keyboard is very much needed. Backlight makes a nice contrast with keyboard

5. The notification bar is great. One of the coolest features of android.

6. Browser is pretty fast. I’m on EDGE now and pages load pretty fast. I did a speed test and it’s about 180kbps. The on screen zoom controls are pretty annoying since they show up whenever I touch the screen for scrolling and take good amount of screen space. No flash, java support yet.

7. Internal memory is a joke. I had about 78MB available when I 1st checked. Apps cannot be stored in memory card.

8. The roller ball is very responsive. Better than Blackberry.

9. Music player is OK. Can’t comment on music quality since I don’t have a USB to 3.5mm audio adapter. Bundled headphone is as usual, flat sounding. I’ve order one from ebay. No video player as expected. There is one in app store but I’ve not tried it yet.

10. Camera is OK. It has auto focus. I’m not impressed with image quality.

10. Now the (in)famous battery life. I started using the phone as soon as I received it. Battery was at some 60%. Battery died after 4 hours, out of which 3 hours I was on EDGE browsing Internet, playing with settings, mp3 and stuffs. Then I charged the battery overnight (10 hours). So far, up time is 4H:13M and awake time is 1H:21M which i mostly spent in browsing, IM, taking some picture and 5Min GPS and battery says 67%. Not good at all. I wonder how long battery would last if I use 3G network.

That’s all I can think of now. Will post later as I discover more.

Picture: http://picasaweb.google.com/amitava82/G1Images

PS: Phone pictures are taken using laptop webcam :p Sorry! I’ve forgotten to pack my digicam while moving to Florida.

Finally I’ve set up a private Urban Terror server for all [DF] members so that we all DFs can play  together at some fixed place. The service is from Gameservers and the price is quite reasonable: 99 cents per slot. In case someone wondering, they do not have Urban Terror listed in their supported games list. You have to get Quake 3 server and Urban Terror is available in MOD section. Also Gameservers provides full FTP access and unlimited space for custom maps and mods. My server is a 10 slot private server. Since most of my team members are from India I was having tough time in finding Asian server but there are none. So I had to go for German server. If other DFs like this server then I’ll keep it else I have to drop the idea. I have a plan to start a Call of Duty 4 server too provided I earn enough through Adsense… :p

Here is our clan site and all started from here.

Finally I got rid of my old Compaq laptop and bought a new ASUS G50V-X1 Gaming laptop from Newegg. It has been a long time since I played a good game. I’ve received my new laptop yesterday evening. Since then I’ve been trying out some of the highest rated games such as Crysis, COD4, Portal etc. So far I’m very impressed with this baby. It looks like a gaming laptop and performs like one. I wish ASUS had put a 9800GT in this system.

Config: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26G, 15.4″ WSXGA+, 4GB DDR2, 200GB HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT 512MB DDR3 VRAM and other usual stuffs. It comes with 2 years international warranty and 1 year ASUS Accidental Damage Warranty.

I’m not going to do any review since there are plenty of them over notebookreview.com. But I did a little benchmark with 3DMark06 and Crysis (with Crysis benchmark tool) and the results are pretty much same with notebookreview benchmark.

Apart from the laptop which comes with 200GB 7200RPM HDD, I purchased another 250GB 7200 RPM HDD. Now I have a sweet 450GB HDD. I also got a Cyber Snipa Gamepad because I don’t want to torcher the keyboard like I did with my last laptop (had to replace the keyboard once :p). Along With the Laptop I also received a Logitech MX518 Gaming mouse, Alone in the dark DVD,  and a cool Backpack for FREE! Overall I’m pretty satisfied with my purchase.

Dropbox is a desktop application (for Windows and Mac OS X) and storage service that just works. It’s the easiest way to share and store files online and keep files in sync across your computers.

Here is a video demo which explains everything about Dropbox. It’s still in beta stage and invitation only. Beta users get 2GB free space. Setup is pretty simple. Create an account, download the client software and you are ready to go. Just drag and drop the files in your Dropbox folder you want to sync. Soon they will release Linux version too along with bunch of new features.

Since it is in early beta stage, expect some glitches such as uploading speed. Also you cannot select custom Dropbox location which is a major shortcoming. Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the concept and how its taking shape. I can see it is going to be a huge success provided basic service remains free.

Oh one more thing, I get to invite 10 more people for beta testing. So, if you want to try it out, just let me know.

The theme is called fooAvA by dawxxx666. Get it from here. You will get installation instructions over there and it’s pretty easy to install. The theme has plenty of features and settings to play with. If you are a Foobar user; I’m sure you will love it.

• System config (Laptop) : Intel Core solo 1.8 GHz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, Intel 945GM.
• Hackintosh: Leopard 10.5.2 iAtkos.
• Windows: XP Pro SP3 with all the drivers installed.
• Arch Linux: Kernel 2.6.25 Arch with Gnome 2.22.3

And here are the numbers:

Screenshots: at Flickr

Final thoughts

Memory uses of Arch is pretty impressive even with Compiz but the CPU uses is really odd. In idle mode it is using 10% and with compiz enabled, CPU uses jumped to 21%! This is not Arch specific. All the Linux distros I tried had similar CPU use pattern. Fresh installed XP is breezing fast but start up and shutdown time is pretty high. It can be attributed to the fact that it loads couple of extra services that came along with drivers such as bluetooth, synaptic touch pad, wireless, and Intel graphics. I should have disabled them before testing. Hackintosh’s performance can not be compared with an Apple Mac but still it turned out to be fastest in terms of start up and shutdown time. I can’t say anything about memory uses. Initially it was using 290MB RAM but as soon as I pressed screenshot shortcut buttons memory use jumped to 340MB. Only if I had a real Mac to test actual performance.

And btw, this post has been made from Arch.

My laptop is pretty old and configuration is not that great: Intel core solo 1.8GHz, 945GM, and 1GB RAM. Initially I thought Leopard won’t run on this config, but I thought of taking a chance. Previously I tried Tiger on this same laptop which worked as expected. So far Leopard is running great. It takes about 15 seconds to boot up and 5 seconds to shut down.. :O Speed is amazing. It takes less than 500MB RAM with all those eye candies and runs pretty smooth and very responsive. Applications open up in within a second. It is hard to believe considering the fact that its a non Apple computer. I have Arch Linux installed which takes about 300 MB RAM with default Gnome installation without any eye candy and windows XP which takes about 500MB RAM with many startup programs. Overall I’m very impressed with speed, simplicity and of course look!

Now the bad news. As usual, Intel 3945ABG wireless card is the culprit; my wireless is not working. Not a problem. I’m ordering a USB wireless card which is mac compatible. And headphone jack is not working. So I have to stick to boring laptop speakers till I get a USB sound card (not anytime soon).

I’m planning to transfer all my works from Windows to Leopard once I get that wireless card. Let me try out leopard for sometime. Specialy I want to see how web development goes on Mac. If I like it then a MBP is locked on my wishlist.

Anyway, coming back to my wish. You must be wondering why don’t I just build once if that’s what I want? Well, that’s the problem. What shall I build? Honestly, when comes to generating ideas, my right brain is so dead! I never managed to come up with any kind of creative ideas. I suck at creative thinking .

Whenever I think about building some kinda web application; only thing that comes to my mind is ‘blog’ or ‘CMS’ (can you believe that!). I seriously need some help. So, if you have some ideas please let me know. We can work on it together. Who knows; it might turn into the next big thing on Internet! What say you?