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Windows 7, the operating system from Microsoft that people actually seem to like. Although Vista was actually a great operating system, many people trashed it for no apparent reason, other than just wanting to jump on the Vista-Hate bandwagon.

And even though Vista was and still is a great operating system, Windows 7 is a lot better. I would never even think about installing Vista on my Acer Aspire One netbook, with its tiny 1.3GHz Atom processor and 1GB of memory. But I did think about installing Windows 7. Sorry, XP lovers, but XP sucks. It is a very buggy operating system. It wasn’t designed to handle today’s hardware. The amount of small errors XP has annoys the crap out of me. It happened on my old Pentium 4 system, and is happening on my netbook.

I like tinkering with computers anyways, so I decided to install Windows 7 on my Acer. I had no data on the laptop, just a few things installed. I decided to do a dual boot for now. I downloaded Easeus Partition Master and formatted a second primary (NOT logical) partition. Then I plugged in my USB DVD drive, popped in the Windows 7 disc, and restarted the computer.

After booting from the disc, I chose customized setup and selected the new partition I made for Windows 7. After about 30 minutes, the installation was finished. I then downloaded the Windows 7 specific drivers from the Acer website, and the install was ready.

This was the simplest, easiest operating system install I ever did. Everything on the laptop works perfectly after installing the drivers. I can run full Aero with transparency if I wanted to, but doing that makes the computer lag, very noticeably. So I switched it back to the Windows 7 Basic theme (which was the default – I only switched to Aero to see how it would run). I then installed Office 2007, Firefox, Pidgin, and some other programs, and tweaked some settings to my liking.

Surprisingly, when I ran msconfig and checked out the startup items through CCleaner, there was nothing extra running that I didn’t need. The only thing I disabled was drive indexing; I turned the service off completely through Control Panel. I never use Windows Search, so I don’t need it running all the time and wasting resources. The only program running in the background is AVG Antivirus.

With the software all set up and configured, I did some initial tests. It seems to run at the same speed as XP. Firefox takes a bit less time to open. For now I will say it’s the same in terms of speed, making this a successful upgrade. No loss of speed while gaining more features equals success. Battery life estimates seem less than XP. When XP estimated 10 hours remaining, Windows 7 estimates 8 hours. Maybe it’s just better at estimating, but I haven’t tested it completely yet.

Windows 7 is a million times better to use than Windows XP. Everything is easier to do, looks nicer, and it just feels better. It’s a better overall experience. It makes the laptop feel more modern, with its tiny hardware specs. And the best thing is, it should get even faster in the next week or so, thanks to SuperFetch. That is why I am holding off on doing tests between the two. Once Windows 7 has time to optimize itself, I’m sure it will be quicker than Windows XP. I might do a side-by-side video of the two doing certain tasks when that happens.

If you’re thinking about installing Windows 7 on your Acer Aspire One netbook, you should go right ahead. I have found no negatives in the two days I’ve been using it so far. It is a great operating system, and works great with this netbook. It’s much better than Vista at handling resources. My install of Windows 7 Ultimate x86 (32-bit) is here to stay, and I will get rid of the XP partition after I do the comparisons. You should upgrade too.

Where can I even begin? Apple just announced their very own tablet PC. Called the iPad. Let’s start with the name – it’s absolutely terrible. And I’m not even complaining about the stupid “i” scheme. Even iTablet would have been better.

Moving on. This thing is just an oversized iPod Touch. Even the software is almost the same, just on a bigger screen. The screen is 9.7 inches, which is way too big to fit in your pocket, and way too small to type on with both hands. Of course there are no physical keys. And when you type, the giant on-screen keyboard blocks a huge amount of screen.

And then, how do you even type on it? It’s too heavy to hold with one hand and type with the other. You can’t put it on your lap because you won’t see the screen. You can’t put it on a table because you’ll have to look down over the iPad, which will hurt your neck, shoulders, back, etc. The only way you will comfortably be able to type on the iPad is through an external keyboard and a stand for the iPad to prop it up like a normal computer screen. And all of that costs a lot of money if you buy it from Apple.

The screen will get scratched. Where are you going to put the iPad? In your backpack or briefcase. It will get scratched unless you get a cover for it, or protect it very very well. And a cover costs a lot of money coming from Apple.

Speaking of money, the iPad starts at $499. With only 16GB of flash storage. And no real operating system, unless you consider a slightly adjusted cell phone OS an operating system suited for a netbook or laptop. And that also means there’s no flash support. Oh but there’s over 100,000 apps! Well, with a real netbook, there are literally millions of apps.

So what do you get for almost $500? 16GB of storage, a glossy (meaning unreadable with other light sources present) 9.7″ screen that’s only 1024×768 resolution, and a 1GHz Apple processor. There are no USB ports, and Apple doesn’t even state how much memory (RAM) the iPad has.

What did I get with my Acer Aspire One for $314? A 1366×768 screen that’s 11.6 inches, a full sized keyboard, a 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. It also has USB ports, a camera, and it doesn’t need a case. Where does the iPad beat my Acer? It has a touch screen, an accelerometer, and a compass. Apple claims the iPad has 10 hours of battery life. My Acer claims 8, but can actually do 10. Oh, and I almost forgot, the iPad can’t multitask. You can only do one thing at a time. Amazing.

Now time to wait and watch the Apple fanboys camp out in front of Apple stores to buy this useless giant iPod.

Have you every considered setting up a dedicated computer to act as a media center in your living room? Well, if you have some older hardware around, you can do this right now.

Surprisingly, you don’t need a lot of powerful hardware to have a good, functioning media center. Case in point: I recently set up my old Dell Dimension as a media PC for my 1080p TV. This computer is around 4-5 years old, and guess what, it works perfectly as a media center. It is a Pentium 4 at 3GHz, 512MB RAM, and a Radeon X300SE graphics card with 128MB of onboard memory. Sure this sounds very weak compared to modern hardware: 4-8 GB of memory is now the norm, as well as quad core processors. But for playing 720p video, my setup works flawlessly.

Yea, believe it or not, that little X300 and Pentium 4 can play 720p video without any lag whatsoever. It can’t handle 1080p, but I’m 100% satisfied with 720p on my 52″ screen. And how much did I spend to make it all work? $7 at Radio Shack for a headphone-to-headphone cable. I plugged the TV in as if it were a monitor, using the standard blue VGA cable. Then plugged in the audio cable just as if the TV was a speaker system, and there you have it: a budget home theater system, while saving a computer from being thrown out or put in storage.

So if you have an old computer, but not too old, laying around, give it a shot and see if it will play high-def videos. You might be surprised. And if it can’t, you can always buy a $50 video card from eBay or Newegg. If my X300 / Pentium 4 computer can run a 1080p resolution and play 720p video, you can see right there that you don’t need to spend hundreds on a home media center.

If you are using Windows XP and are on a netbook or using a laptop with a small screen, text might seem difficult to read. The fix for this is to download ClearType Tuner from Microsoft’s XP PowerToys website. This is Microsoft’s own tool for using ClearType text on Windows XP. ClearType is a technology that makes text easier to read by using special antialiasing methods on text (just how video games use it to fix jagged edges.

Below are two screenshots of how ClearType works on the Acer Aspire One netbook.

Before:

After:

The difference this makes on an 11.6″ 1366×768 display is huge. And I also recommend to set the slider to the darkest option, otherwise the text looks a bit blue:

You most likely have a dirty laptop screen. Lots of people like to touch their LCD screens for some reason. This makes them disgusting to look at after a while, and they can get really dirty. Yet people still don’t clean them until it’s so dirty that the dirt distorts the colors.

So you don’t want to buy any LCD cleaners because they cost over $10? Good, because there is no reason you should. All you need to clean your screen is your fingernail, a napkin, and your breath.

First off, a warning: if you are not extra careful, you will damage your screen. Try this at your own risk.

When following these steps, be extra gentle and use your brain. LCD screens are easy to damage, so don’t wipe it as if you were cleaning your windshield. Apply almost no pressure – it will take longer to clean, but you won’t crack your screen.

1. Turn off the screen.
2. Get a napkin (a better alternative is a microfiber cloth, like those for cleaning glasses) and make sure it is an extra soft napkin with absolutely no dirt on it. A tissue or toilet paper might work, but a lot of the time they leave behind tiny pieces.
3. Put your mouth a few inches from the screen, and breathe warm air onto it so it fogs up, then gently wipe that area of the LCD. Repeat this until you cover the whole screen.
4. Now look at the screen from an angle so you can see if there’s any spots left. If you can’t clean them off with the napkin, use your fingernail to gently scrape the debris off the screen. Then breathe on and wipe that area.
5. Look at the LCD at an angle again and repeat until the screen is completely clean.

It’s that simple, and works 99.9% of the time. Save money on LCD cleaning solutions, or better yet, stop touching your screen.

Phoenix Instant Boot looks like an impressive new technology that lets computers start up in just a few seconds. But let’s take a closer look at what is really happening.

The video is demonstrating a new BIOS that starts in about one second. The BIOS is supposed to make Windows load instantly as well. But this cannot happen with current hardware and a normal install of Windows. This is the key point – the Windows install. A normal install will have background applications running, more icons on the desktop, a higher resolution, and more things which will make it take longer to start. The video demo shows Windows Aero disabled, a resolution that appears way too low than it’s supposed to be, and it’s obviously a brand new install, maybe with the exception of a program or two installed (but not starting up).

The Windows install shown in the video is customized in a way that a normal user would never have it. That is why it boots so fast. And the thing about it changing how people will use the device – most likely no. It won’t change how people use laptops. It will just let people turn them on quicker. But then, who ever turns off their laptop? Hibernation cuts Windows loading time to half or less, and that’s what laptops do when you close the lid.

Don’t get me wrong – faster is always better when it comes to boot times. But people should also be realistic in terms of how much to expect – you just can’t boot a normal operating system in a few seconds on today’s hardware.

With more and more laptops coming with an SSD option, is there a point in getting a 5400 RPM hard drive for a laptop? The simple answer is no.

SSD – solid state drives – are soon going to become mainstream in notebooks. Right now, most mid to high end laptops either have an option for an SSD drive or come with it standard. This means the 7200 rpm hard drive will soon be outdated. Yet some laptops still come with 5400 rpm hard drives. If you are looking to buy a laptop that comes with a 5400 rpm hard drive as standard, it is most likely a low end computer. So since 5400 rpm hard drives are getting outdated, should you still buy the laptop with this option? Yes, if you’re getting a good deal on the notebook, you can overlook the hard drive for two reasons – it’s very easy to upgrade in most laptops, and it’s not that big of a speed difference for the average person.

If you want to buy a new hard drive separately for your laptop, then do not get a 5400 rpm hard drive. You can get a 7200 rpm drive for the same price or even cheaper if you look around. In addition, most new 5400 rpm drives are for IDE connections, while 7200 rpm drives are for SATA connections. This means most newer laptops will accept the 7200 rpm drive, and if the price difference is no more than $10, it’s better to get a 7200 rpm drive.

In conclusion, if you find a deal on a laptop but it has a 5400 rpm hard drive, you should still get the laptop. If you’re buying a new hard drive for your laptop as an upgrade, get a 7200 rpm drive over a 5400 rpm drive if the price difference is $10 or less. The difference in speed between the two is not noticeable unless you are doing something like video editing all the time. And contrary to popular belief, a faster hard drive will not make your internet any faster whatsoever – a 5400 rpm hard drive can transfer data many times faster than your internet connection can.

What’s this I have here? Why it’s a cracked LCD from a Windows 2000 era IBM Thinkpad. Makes a perfect platform for my netbook (to allow the fan to suck in air while it’s on my lap), makes a perfect writing pad, and I’m sure someone will be able to think of many more uses for this LCD. I didn’t do a thing to modify it – the back still has the circuit boards on it, but they’re behind a cover and the back of the LCD feels smooth and never catches on anything. If yours has something sticking out, you might be able to tape over it with duct tape or something if you can’t rip it out.

Seriously, this is just perfect for a laptop stand. It’s flat, it looks awesome, it’s free, does its function (cools your working laptop), it’s light, and you’re being friendly to the environment if green is your thing. And before someone says I’ll break it and have liquid crystals spilled all over, I doubt that will happen. (But just in case, do not try this at home).

I just bought an Acer Aspire One. I got this netbook on eBay, brand new, for $314 after Microsoft Bing Cashback. This was the cheapest netbook I could find that had a full size keyboard, which was the main selling point for me. I tried typing on netbooks with smaller keyboards before, and it was really hard.

The Acer Aspire One has an 11.6 inch screen running a resolution of 1366 x 768. That is a lot of resolution for such a small screen. My 19″ monitor runs 1440 x 900, which is just a bit higher. I got the Aspire One model with the 6 cell battery, 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive.

Here is a review after a few days of using this netbook. First off, it looks amazing. Acer designed this Aspire One really well. The cover is glossy on both sides, and the keyboard is matte. The keyboard looks great, and it looks like the keys are oversized. Come to think of it, it looks quite a lot like Apple’s new keyboards. As for the screen, as far as I know there is no matte option, but I could be wrong. I couldn’t find one. Still, when the brightness is turned up, you do not notice the reflections mostly, and it ends up looking better because of the richer colors made possible by the glossy finish. However, if it’s sunny and you’re sitting near a window, the glare is horrible. The cover is a fingerprint and dust magnet. It looks good, but if you want to keep it looking nice, you will have to clean it with a cloth every couple of days.

Going into functionality now, let’s start with the trackpad. This trackpad is a multi-gesture trackpad, letting you go back and forward between web pages, and… zooming? I turned the zoom gesture off, because I never zoom, and it got in the way of page navigation using two fingers. I don’t see any other useful features of the trackpad, although you can spend half an hour in the software setting up different things related to the touchpad, so that’s a big plus. You can customize every little thing on this trackpad. A downside, however, is the physical button – it’s too loud when you click it. As for the keyboard, there is not much to say – it’s a full sized keyboard that looks better than any laptop keyboard I’ve ever seen. It also feels great to type on, and I’m actually writing this review using the laptop.

The hardware in the Aspire One is slow, and that’s that. However, you cannot have a dual core that runs 10 hours on a single battery. It just has to be slow to last long. It lags just a tiny bit when playing high quality YouTube videos. It lags when dragging an empty Notepad window around the screen. The Intel GMA 500 graphics chip is weak, and the Intel Atom Z520 is slow. Having said that, you must know what you’re buying, and netbooks aren’t for gaming. It runs applications like Firefox and Microsoft Word 2007 just fine, taking a few seconds to start each one. This is a good trade of performance for battery life in my opinion. The 6 cell battery is rated for 8 hours of life, but the Windows XP power meter shows 10 hours remaining with the screen brightness on 3/10, WiFi turned on, and browsing the web. If you are going to be using this netbook for school, you most likely won’t need to bring the charger with you. And to finish off the hardware section of this review, the WiFi is great – it catches my router’s signal at a place where no other laptop, cellphone, or desktop with wifi adapter can get a signal. The Aspire One is also very quiet, and I don’t think it even runs the fan when it’s not plugged in. Weighing around 3 pounds, I can actually keep it on my lap without having to worry about getting burns on my legs – it’s the coolest-running laptop I’ve ever used. And I almost forgot about the webcam – I will never use it, but the quality is decent (but still worse than my cell phone).

Now, normally when reviewing a computer I wouldn’t even mention software, as it is installed separately and has nothing to do with the hardware itself. However, since this netbook doesn’t have an optical drive and it would be too much work to make a bootable USB drive, I didn’t reinstall Windows on it. I decided to get rid of the crapware manually. It took five hours. The amount of crap software that was bundled with this computer was astonishing. There were about 30 game trials, a bunch of Acer software, a trial of Office, Microsoft Works, DVD software, messengers, and the list can go on. Now really, they installed PowerDVD when this laptop doesn’t even have a DVD drive. It was incredible slow when I first booted it up. After five hours I managed to remove everything, and I am certain it now runs twice as fast without 15 programs running in the background. I really hope Acer got paid large amounts of money to install this much CRAP on this computer. And it’s a shame because 99% of people will never experience the full speed of their computer because they don’t know about the software that’s running in the background, and that they don’t need any of it. This preinstalled crapware is by far the worst part about the Acer Aspire One.

Now here are a few of the things I did to optimize the computer, make it a lot faster, and then a summary. I changed the Windows style to Classic. I removed all the crapware that came with the computer and ran CCleaner and msconfig to optimize startup. I replaced McAfee with AVG Free, and Adobe Reader with Foxit Reader. The only Acer software I kept was Launch Manager, which makes all the media keys work properly.

In conclusion, the Acer Aspire One A0751h looks great, is slow, lasts 8+ hours as advertised, has great WiFi reception, and comes with a lot of crapware. Buy this netbook if you do not need it for gaming or watching movies. This is the perfect note-taking laptop for school. At the $380 MSRP it’s a good deal; at the $314 price I got it for, it’s a steal. I highly recommend this netbook if you need long battery life, light weight, low heat, etc. Do not expect speed or performance though, as that is the opposite of what this computer is designed for. If you have any questions about the Acer Aspire One 11.6″ feel free to ask in the comments below.

Looks – 10/10 (looks great, shiny, great keyboard, screen, etc)
Quality – 10/10 (everything is solid, the WiFi switch wobbles, but that’s minor)
Performance – 3/10 (however, this is what enables long battery life)
Battery Life – 10/10 (Windows XP says 10 hours, but I can get it to 11 if I need to)
Software – 2/10 (the crapware is horrible, like a disease of the operating system)

The Novatech Icon Desktop PC comes with black colour and has a 320GB Hard drive Capacity, which is powered with SATAII technology. This desktop pc has an optical drive 22x Dual Layer +R/-R/RW DVD burner that reads and writes both CD and DVD with great speed. This desktop pc has Integrated ATI Radeon 2100 Graphics support for multitasking applications and is enabled with a GeForce 9500GT 1GB PCI-E Graphics card in the pro version. It is powered with an AMD 690V Motherboard and comes with AMD 740G + SB700 in the pro version. This desktop pc has 4GB DDR2 RAM memory and an AMD X2 Dual Core 7750 64 Bit Processor. It comes with overall dimensions of  (H x W x D) 60 x 180 x 390mm and comes with the processing speed of about 2 x 2.7 GHz.

This Novatech Desktop PC is equipped with 5.1 channel high definition audio and is loaded with the Windows Vista Home Premium operating system. It comes with a Novatech optical mouse and keyboard. This desktop pc includes Microsoft Works 9 software and comes with 6 USB input and output port connections. It has one Gigabit LAN facility and comes with a 12 month warranty period. This desktop pc is an affordable machine that is designed with large amounts of storage space. It has a well built body and has a good cooling system.

There are two USB ports in the front panel and the remaining USB port connections are positioned in the rear of the desktop cabinet body. This desktop pc is enabled with Thunderbird core technology and enabled with added on-die 256KB L2 cache memory unit.

This desktop pc has high speed real time motherboard functionality and features a built in graphics card slot. This desktop pc is made with a reliable chipset that offers stable performance for both office and home use.

It comes with a powerful hard drive which spins at 7200rpm and is made with SATA hard drive technology, which is capable of storing up to 16MB in Cache.

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