June 12, 2008

Amazon Kindle vs. ASUS Eee

Let's make one thing clear. There is no choice for the majority of people in the world as the Amazon Kindle is only available in the USA and its always-on Internet connection is only available in the USA.

For those who live in the USA there is now a clear choice of buying either an ASUS Eee sub-notebook PC or an Amazon Kindle. The Microsoft XP-based Eee versions are a recent addition to the family, until then both the Kindle and the Eee ran on Linux-based operating systems.

The Kindle is a dedicated machine with a few extras. The Kindle is designed to be the reader for your ebooks purchased from Amazon. You'll get a discount on the ebooks but it seems that the cost of $399 will take a ling time to recoup even with discounts off the latest titles to hit the bookstores. When you add the cost of paying for blogs and newspapers that you can access for free on the Internet then it looks very expensive. You should remember that most major newspapers have their own websites where articles and pictures are presented in full color. The web sites are mostly available for free. You can receive your e-mails on the Kindle but again you are charged for the privilege. You can also have an ebook converted into a format readable by the Kindle and you will be charged for the privilege. Your access to the Internet is restricted to within the USA.

The ASUS Eee is a full sub-notebook PC. You have WiFi installed so you can connect to the Internet at any WiFi hotspot in the world. You have an Internet browser. Firefox is the browser on the Linux-based one and you will find that is very much better than Internet Explorer. You can call your friends using Skype. The ASUS Eee has integrated microphone and speakers as well as a webcam so no carrying around loads of extras. The unit weighs in at around 2 lbs which allows the weakest of us can carry it. On the Linux version the office package is provided by OpenOffice, the Open source competitor for MS Office. On the Windows version it is MS Works. A full QWERTY keyboard and a 7" monitor make a very compelling package. The 4G solid state hard drive may be seen as a limitation but take with you a selection of SD cards, some with music, and others with books to read and you will not find it to be any limitation at all.

The battle lines are drawn. Do you want a full personal computer with a color screen in a small size? OK! I admit the keys are small and close together. Or do you want simply a monochrome ebook reader where the pictures and graphical images on your newspaper have been removed as the Kindle screen cannot show them.

I'll admit that the Kindle with its new power-saving screen and dedicated features would be an attractive proposition if the price was lower, but with there being no price difference between the Kindle and a fully specified sub-notebook PC, even if it is one that runs Linux, there seems to be very little contest between the two.

Go out and find a computer store selling the ASUS Eee and take a look at the clarity of the small color screen. Take a look at the keyboard and decide if you can type on the keyboard. Then find out which of your friends has a Kindle (that's right folks at present, the Kindle is only sold online) and see what it looks like and what the results are when blogs and newspapers are shown on it.

Take your choice.

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Tags: memory, wireless, headsets, consumer product reviews

Tags: Amazon Kindle, asus eee, Asus Eee vs Amazon Kindle

Filed under Gadgets Gizmos, Handheld, PC by admin

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June 8, 2008

ASUS Eee - Why Buy an ASUS Eee For Travel

You have the toothpaste, the cereal bars, suntan lotion and so the list goes on. The final thing seems to be the digital camera and the portable computer. Why the portable the argument goes? Very simple really the screen on the camera is too small to get a good look at the pictures to make sure they will look OK.

Do you really want the hassle? Do you really want to be looking after it all the time? You see the problem is that the value of a computer is not the price you paid for it. It is not even the cost of the software you loaded onto it. It is the price of replacing the data you put into it. Some pictures are irreplaceable.

Some photos that you have kept on your hard drive to remember people or places long gone cannot be brought back. I always tell people taking a portable computer with them on their travels to make two backups of the data.

The first backup is to take with them to restore something that was accidentally deleted. The second backup is to be kept at home so that the data can be recovered again.

The weight, the replacement time and effort and everything else will say don't take your portable computer with you. Until now there was not really another option. But now you have the ASUS Eee.

It will allow you to look at the pictures you have taken. To clean off the hair or grease that has clouded the lens before it ruins all the holiday snaps. It will allow you to have a copy of the pictures you have taken in case your camera and memory cards are stolen.

The ASUS Eee is small (the maximum screen size is 8.9 inches) and light (less than 2 lbs). The ASUS is not so easily damaged as a conventional notebook as it has a solid-state hard drive. The drive may be small but it is harder to break then the spinning disks of a standard notebook drive.

The ASUS Eee comes with a choice of operating systems either Linux or Windows XP You can have either a Microsoft Works suite or the OpenOffice suite. Either will allow you to write using the word process, calculate spreadsheets and perform database transactions. The OpenOffice suite does have the advantage of allowing you to produce presentations and they can be saved either in OpenOffice format or in Power Point (pre-2007) format. I cannot really imagine someone preparing a major presentation on the small screen of the ASUS Eee.

Take on your holiday the ASUS Eee and a good supply of high capacity memory cards and there you have a recipe for an easier and more enjoyable holiday. We do not need to fight our way through airports with a heavy computer. The ASUS Eee is small enough and light enough to use on the airplane while you are flying, but do remember to switch off the WiFi as it may well interfere with the airplane's systems.

The ASUS will allow you to surf the web and to use Skype to make international phone and computer to computer calls. You should also remember you are there on holiday and you do not need to be working all the time. You can always make the excuse that there is not enough disk space on the hard drive to download "War and Peace". So look out for the ASUS Eee and get to realize how much easier it can make your holiday. Less stress and more relaxation, isn't that what every one of us needs.