June 7, 2008

ASUS Eee - Why Buy an ASUS Eee for Your Business?

In business sometimes the best technology is the cheapest and simplest. I still use a File-o-fax and prefer to write things down and lose the paperwork than lose it on my computer. Whatever technology we use needs to be cost-effective. Often the battle we face as business managers, directors or owners is to persuade the technical people we employ not to spend the entire department's budget on one new "toy".

When we travel the balance must be between having what we need and not hurting that aching shoulder. We need to have enough technology to be able to maintain our business and family contacts but do not want to have an 4 or 5 lb computer with its case and power adapter and all of your paperwork suddenly fall or get covered in coffee. You don't need all your business and personal information for the past year or more to be suddenly inaccessible. Leave your main computer at home. Take with you a little ASUS Eee for your work and personal communications.

What are the advantages?

If you do not have a large amount of personal and business data with you then the risks of this being lost or destroyed are far less. Your weight is reduced. The solid state hard drive on the ASUS means that it is far more robust than your normal PC. You may not want to be keying for long period as the keyboard is smaller than normal, but that is a small price to pay.

Where is the trade-off?

You need to make sure that all the data you really need with you is on the machine or on small memory sticks that you can keep in your suitcase. If you leave anything behind then you can use Skype to transfer any files from your business or your own computer to you anywhere in the world. A very big file may fill up the whole hard drive on the 700 series but should fit in the new 900 series.

You need to be familiar with either Microsoft Works or OpenOffice word processors, spreadsheet ad databases. Works is on the Microsoft XP-based systems and OpenOffice on the Linux based systems. There is a learning curve with both of these products but they will repay your time and effort y giving you freedom to travel without the hassle of a large laptop to carry.

On the ASUS there is a web browser and that will enable you to connect to any website you want.

There is a program to play audio files. There are issues with the quality of some of the speakers but if you do not need hi-fi quality then they are acceptable for background music. If the worst came to the worst then you can invest in a pair of PC speakers or a good set of headphones to improve the quality.

A full-size portable has the option to play DVD films and CD music. The ASUS Eee does not have an internal optical drive so there is a limitation, but how many of us really watch films on our PC.

I consider the ASUS Eee is excellent value for money for the traveling business man. The options are there and the weight reduction and improved shock-proofing make it an ideal traveling companion.

Asus Eee 1005HA M 101 250GB Laptop 1005HA-MU17-BU

US $318.99

Asus Eee PC 1005HA M 101 250GB Netbook 1005HA-MU17-BK

US $318.99

10400mAh Battery for Asus Eee PC EeePC 900 12GB 20GB Bk

US $38.99

10400mAh BATTERY FOR ASUS Eee PC EeePC 701 700 4G 8G 7

US $38.99

10400mAh Battery for Asus Eee PC EeePC 900 12GB 20GB

US $38.99

Li-ion Battery for ASUS Eee PC 700 701 900 eeepc 77Whr

US $38.99

Tags: small kitchen appliance reviews, bluetooth headsets, gps, memory cards

Tags: asus eee, Asus Eee for business, buy ASUS Eee

Filed under Gadgets Gizmos, PC by admin

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June 6, 2008

ASUS Eee or Amazon Kindle II

This article is about freedom of choice. Not meaning to sound political... but there are distinct differences between the Kindle and the ASUS Eee series regarding online access of ebooks, newspapers and blogs.

Let us consider some typical books. You can buy 2 types of books. Reference (these will include recipe books) and reading. For most people, a reference book is bought to go into their reference library at home and be brought out on demand at any time. Reading books are there to be read. The majority of time people read a book once, and then they are put away. However, a book has some value and it can be sold or given to someone else who has expressed an interest in the topic of the book or in something by the same author. You purchase a book and it is your property to dispose of as you wish when you have finished with it.

A book purchased from the Amazon Kindle bookshop for your Kindle can only be used on that Kindle with your account and not on any other. You have no rights to the text to sell it afterwards, or even to give it away. There is a promise from Amazon that in the event of your Kindle being stolen you can block the old machine and have all the books you have purchased from Amazon downloaded onto the new Kindle you buy from Amazon. After you die there is no residual value for anything on the Kindle. If you want someone else to read a book on the Kindle then you have to lend them yours, you cannot loan the book to them or sell the book to them. Personally I feel that this business model defeats the whole object of getting an ebook reader.

What about the ASUS?

Use your favorite browser and search for free ebooks. What is the result? For me I found www.free-ebooks.net, www.gutenburg.org (with over 25,000 titles), www.e-books.com.au, and the list could go on. Yes these can be downloaded onto the Kindle, but then you lose half of the benefit of having a machine with "always-on" Internet access. The Internet access is for you to download your ebooks from Amazon's Kindle shop immediately. You can get what you want, when you want it.

Consider also a growing family; there are 3 children each within a year of their closest sibling. You buy all the children a Kindle and each year you load their textbooks and reading materials onto the Kindle for that year. Then that Kindle passes to the next child and the next. They cannot keep their own machine as the Kindle license is for one machine only.

I have not forgotten about access to newspapers and blogs. In order to get updates of newspapers and blogs on the Kindle you have to subscribe. This means you may have to pay to continue, once the trial period is over. If you travel outside the USA frequently on business or pleasure, you'll get the blogs and the newspapers delivered to your Kindle when you get within range of the USA mobile phone transmitter. For the vast majority of readers the newspapers will be out of date on your return, but you still have to download them all. With the ASUS you can access the web sites of these newspapers for free once you are at a WiFi hub. The same with your favorite blogs. You can keep up to date and not have a pile of reading when you get home. Anything that needs to be looked at when you return home can be e-mailed to your home computer for a review later.

The Kindle is a great machine, but to lock all your ebooks inside it may be unhelpful. Your choice.