Gizmos Grabowski

HP's Mini-Note Available in Canada

HP Canada continues to taunt Canadians by listing the Mini-Note computer on its hp.ca Web site, but won't sell it -- nor list an availability date.

HP Canada's pre-sales support has been spectacularly unhelpful:

-- When the Mini-Note was announced for the USA, I asked when it would be available in Canada. "We don't know that kind of information," was the response, paraphrased. A few days later, the five versions of the computer appeared on the Canadian Web site with no publicity -- but not for sale.

-- When I asked why the Mini-Note could not be purchased direct from HP through from hpshopping.ca, pre-sales support told me to buy it from a retailer.

-- When I replied that no retailer in Canada carries the new computer, I received no response.

Delayed Purchase

I'm still stoked about this fine-looking budget-priced sub-notebook, but I am glad it cannot be purchased here for several reasons:

1. It would be primarily for trips, and I have none planned for now. So there's no rush to buy it.

2. The only SSD [solid state hard drive, or flash drive] option is a mere 4GB; ASUS next month is shipping one of their budget subnotebooks with a 20GB SSD for $50 more than HP's 4GB model. Perhaps HP will react competitively.

3. Computers with Intel's new Atom CPU are due to start shipping in a few months. Perhaps HP will switch from Via to Atom -- and then it'll be interesting to see if there are performance differences, in faster computing speed and longer battery duration.

4. HP doesn't allow custom configurations right now. I would want 2GB of RAM with the Linux model; currently, you have to buy the 1GB model, buy the 2GB RAM module separately, and then swap the memory -- throwing out the 1GB. Such a waste.

Review

HP 2133 Mini-Note Review by Jerry Jackson and Tiffany Boggs

HP's Mini-Note 3122 Now in Canada

The hp.ca Web site today began listing the Mini-Note 3122 ultralight notebook computer. Price and initial configurations are the same as in USA.

One problem: you can't buy it (yet). HP.ca lists the Web-only price, available only when purchasing it through hpshopping.ca. But the hp.ca page lacks the Buy Now or Add to Cart buttons, and hpshopping.ca doesn't know about it, either.

Everything Old is New Again

Suddenly I thought back to my first notebook computer with a color screen -- a diminutive unit from Daewoo model 7400S. I hauled it out of storage, and wondered about the dimensions. They are almost the same! The Daewoo is 1cm deeper and 1cm taller, but 1 cm narrower.

Other similarities:

-- both have an 8-inch screen; Daewoo = 640x480; HP = 1280x800

-- both lack a DVD drive and a floppy drive.

-- both have VGA out and a card slot: Daewoo = PC Card; HP - Express/34

-- both have 2 data connectors: Daewoo has a parallel and a serial port; HP has 2 USB ports.

-- both have headphone out; HP also has mic in.

-- both have input devices: Daewoo = scroll button; HP = touchpad.

-- hard drives: Daewoo = 20MB; HP = 120GB.

After that, the HP also has wireless internet, fax/modem, etc., which the Daewoo doesn't. But the Daewoo has infrared.

The Daewoo was $1700 with Windows 95; the HP is $550 with Linux.

Comparison Shopping for Laser Catridges

My old Lexmark laser printer used to come with huge toner cartridges that lasted about 1.5 years. Since I replaced it with an HP 1320 laser printer (love that duplex printing!), I've had to live with cartridges that last half as long.

Today I comparison shopped for a new cartridge, and the price differences were eye-opening! The 1320 uses the '49A cartridge:

FutureShop.ca -- $113
Staples.ca -- $88
LondonDrugs.ca -- $85
CorporateExpress.ca -- $84
BestBuy.ca -- not available

But then I found a better money saver at CorporateExpress.ca: a two-pack of the '49X high-capacity cartridge for $303 ($151.50 each). Each prints 6000 pages, versus 2500 pages for the '49A.

At 2.4x less output, the A cartridge would have to be priced at $63 to be competitive with the X one. (Or, to put it the other way around, you'd spend $270 on '49A cartridges purchased from FutureShop to print as many pages as one '49X cartridge from Corporate Express.)

A few minutes comparison shopping on Web sites saved me $120.

The PalmPilot is Dead; Long Live the Mini PC

My two-year-old Palm TX is in perfect shape -- except for the serious misalignment of the digitizer. (I'll write more about the problem in another posting.)

Yet, it is nearly dead. More accurately, the PalmPilot concept is nearly dead -- for me, and for most of the market. Business people would rather have the equivalent of a PalmPilot in their cell phones, and so the Treo and iPhone are popular.

For me, the PalmPilot began to die following our family's once-in-a-lifetime trip together to New Zealand. Due to a syncing problem, I lost all the daily notes I took during the 19-day trip. That was several years ago; since then, I increasingly found myself not using my PalmOS model of the time, Sony's magnificent Clie.

When it died two years ago, I automatically bought the latest and greatest, the Palm TX. It's an amazing device, pre-dating the similarly spec'ed iTouch by three years. (Where was Palm marketing?) But it was bundled with a lousy (free) external keyboard and lately the unfixable digitizer drift is making it miserable to use.

What to do?

I could replace it. (Refurbished units are $200.)

I could wait to see what Palm might have next. (Something is promised for 2009.)

I still use its address book, play some games (barely) on it, and use it to access Internet radio on our living room stereo.

2133

Then HP announced its Mini-Note (model 2133) notebook computer. For the price of a Palm TX and extra-cost keyboard, you can get a full computer with 8" screen, nearly full-size keyboard, running Linux. $500 (for RAM disc) or $550 (with 120GB hard drive). Primary drawback: no DVD player, although an external one could be added.

I've read some exclaim that they can get an HP 15" notebook computer complete with DVD for the same price. They could, but then they would miss the point.

For a writer who travels (like me), the idea of this class of sub-notebook is an exciting concept, combining the compact size of the PalmPilot with the full functionality of a regular notebook computer. The exclaimers should also contrast the Mini-Note's price against that of similarly sized units from Sony -- care to pay $2,200?

The mini-notebook is not HP's idea, but HP reacting to the new market segment created by Asus and its EEE notebook. I find it interesting that the market rejected Microsoft's idea of what a mini notebook should look like (the overpriced UMPC), but is thrilled with something conceived in Taiwan by a builder of hardware.

With me finding reasons to use Google Docs, GMail, and FireFox, a Linux-powered computer would not seem as strange as it as in the past.

I plan to try out the 2133 once it becomes available in Canada (date unknown, HP Canada tells me).

#1 Reason to Hate Vista

...other than because of its excessively slow speed, of course.

#1 Reason to Hate Vista: display problems. (I already know that Microsoft's astroturfing drones will announce self-righteously that device drivers aren't Microsoft's problem, and I would reply, I don't care, there is just one customer. Got problems with the Microsoft-written OS, and HP has to foot the support bill -- how'd HP and other manufacturers let themselves get suckered into that one?) Anyhow...

My Vista-running HP notebook has nVidia graphics, and I can't count the number of problems I have with a second monitor attached. Here's a partial list:

-- sometimes, the notebook's monitor is identified as monitor #2, while Vista identifies the external monitor as #1.

-- if the notebook is allowed to blank its display, the cursor no longer appears on the external monitor after the display comes back. Only solution I have found is to reboot the computer. This means I can never blank the monitor, only dim it manually with the keyboard buttons.

-- the list of available resolutions varies by the day of the month, seriously. The external monitor runs at 1400x900. This resolution sometimes appears on the available list, and sometimes not. Sometimes other resolutions appear, as high as 2048, other times as low as 1280. Sometimes there are just a few resolution choices; other times many. All this occurs without changing the driver.

-- sometimes, for no apparent reason, Vista changes the "main" monitor to the external one, meaning that the taskbar, desktop icons, etc appear on the external monitor.

-- the external monitor can run at 75Hz, but no matter how many times I change it to 75, Vista changes it back to 60.

I've tried to get HP support to fix some of these, the most frustrating being the fluxuating number of available resolutions. The weak response: install a different driver. nVidia is as bad a Microsoft, and won't touch the problem, either. Yet, their driver support software has a "Contact nVidia" button.

I s'pose it's only poetic justice that Vista SP1 should be worse even than Vista FCS.

Update

Here is a photo of Vista mishandling the screens:

* The desktop icons moved themselves to the external screen, even as the taskbar remains on the notebook's screen.

* The external screen is identified as monitor #1; the notebook computer's screen is id'ed as monitor #2.

Blue-Ray And Gamers

My son has an XBOX 360, got the external HD-DVD player from a workmate for cheap and was buying HD-DVD movies until last month, when the supply dried up.

He's slightly ticked off at backing the wrong horse, and we were talking yesterday about how the Sony PS3 with its built-in Blu-Ray player is the exact same price (currently) as a stand-alone Blu-Ray player. With Microsoft continuing to believe that people will download movies, there is no Blu-Ray option for the XBOXers.

Download movies? My son says Microsoft's online XBOX site has no movies worth downloading, partly because of our location outside of the USA. In any case, how many HD movies can be downloaded before hitting your ISP's GB limit?

At 15GB, mine is pretty high, but downloading a single season of a TV series is 7GB. I'd rather buy the discs, thank you.

Back to Sony's PS3 and its built-in Blu-Ray advantage. It really is no advantage unless you also replace your otherwise prefectly good tv with one that sports 1920 lines of resolution. And those ain't so cheap yet.

ARS Technica today posted the shipment numbers for gaming machines in February:

1. Nintendo DS -- 597,6000
2. Nintendo Wii -- 432,000
3. Sony PS2 -- 351,800
4. Sony PS3 -- 280,800
5. Microsoft XBOX 360 -- 254,600
6. Sony PSP -- 243,100

Overall, the Japanese gamer companies blew away their American counterpart:

1. Ninentdo --1.03million units (48% marketshare)
2. Sony -- 0.88 million (41% )
3. Microsoft -- 0.25 million (11%)

The small marketshare parallels that of Microsoft's share of search, and makes one wonder that if the convicted monopolist had to compete in the OS and office software markets, whether these products also would be in the very low double-digit range.

USB Power

I felt compelled to sort through my massive collection of cables. Dozens and dozens of cables collected over my 25 years in computers.

I came across an odd one: USB plug at one end, mini power connector at the other. Hmm.. I wondered if...

I plugged it into one of my computer's USB ports, and plugged the other into a portable CD player I still have. It worked!

That solved the problem of listening to CDs while not taking up the computer's CD slot for more important tasks. I'm currently listening to "By Request," sort of a greatest hits collection of "The Academy of St Martin in the Fields" (that's the name of the orchestra) under the direction of Neville Marriner.

Device Drive Rollback

The Vista varient of Windows is able to rollback device drivers. That means that if you install an updated driver for a graphics board or whatever, and if it screws up your system, then you can ask Vista to uninstall it and use the previous version.

That happened to me yesterday.

HP periodically offers updated drivers and other software for my TX1120 tablet-like notebook computer. Problem is, the updates they offer are offered with no explanation. I have no idea whether the update does me any good.

There was an update for the nVidia graphics board. After I gave permission to download and install it, I noticed something strange. The image of the second monitor looked fuzzy, a sure sign of resolution mismatch.

(Speaking of which, I noticed that our local FutureShop pulls that stunt. On their cheapest monitor, they do a resolution mismatch to make the image look worse than it really would be -- a means by which to dissuade customers from spending that little, perhaps.)

I went to change the resolution back to 1440x900 -- but found I could not. The closest was 1440x1024. After scrolling through all available resolutions, I realized that nVidia's latest update eliminated the resolution needed by my new monitor.

In the meantime, the displays were freaking out, shuddering in black flashes each time I tried to find that ellusive combination.

Then I hoped that rolling back the driver to the previous release might work. As so much in Vista, Microsoft chose to make this difficult to access:

1. Rightclick the screen.
2. Click Personalize from the menu.
3. Click DisplaySettings in the dialog box
4. Click Advanced Settings button.
5. Click Adapter tab.
6. Click Properties button.
7. Click Driver tab.
8. Click Rollback Driver button. (If this button is grayed out, Windows cannot rollback the driver.)

The rollback worked, and I have my 1440x900 resolution back. No more driver updates!

Problem is, I cannot complain to nVidia, who created the problem and wasted my time. Even though their utility software has a Contact nVidia button, they want nothing to do with us; it's HP to whom we're to take our woes.

Upgrading a Notebook Computer, Part IV

My collection of hardware was coming together:

-- keyboard, check.
-- keyboard drawer, check.
-- 19" LCD monitor, check.
-- 1TB Firewire 800 external hard drive, nope.

FutureShop was advertising the LeCie drive, but did not have them in stock anywhere. "Our shipments arrive Mondays and Thursdays," the salesperson told me.

But I was running into another problem: cables.

Or, more accurately, lots of cables to unplug each time I wanted to make my notebook computer with me. Then I recalled seeing an port replicator for my TX1000-series notebook computer laying abandoned on a shelf at Staples in Coquitlam. It had a "Reduced" sticker on it. "Oh, that's because it was opened," explained the manager. "You get an extra 5% off."

The expansion module (HP calls it a "Quick Dock") uses a single proprietary cable to feed nearly all data and power between the computer and QuickDock. It replicates nearly all ports, and it adds extras that were missing from the computer, such as 6 more USB ports, and extra video connectors.

However, it fails to replicated the Express slot, and there is no FireWire. That means I'll have an extra wire to disconnect, the one between the external hard drive and the Express/34 Firewire 800 port.

Another drawback is that the QuickPort connector is located on the rightside of the computer, so it interferes with the mousing area. The connector has a huge plug and fat cable, so it does not tuck out of sight very well. It would have been nice if the connector was right-angled.

Still, it does the work of reducing the number of items to unplug down to one, for even the power goes into the QuickDock.

Upgrading a Notebook Computer, Part III

If I was going to get me that "free" LCD monitor, I needed to get that DOS-era "German for Everyone" program running on Vista. I finally figured it out:

I initially installed the software just like normal, but the first sign of trouble came when the old version of QuickTime (provided with the German CD) displayed an error message during the install, and then seemed to freeze. Running the German program showed just a black screen.

I got a Vista-compatible version of QuickTime, installed that, but the German program would not work with it.

I deduced that the problem was that (1) the German program ran only with that old version of QuickTime, and (2) the old version of QuickTime did not run with Vista.

Compatibility Mode

After detouring through a fruitless attempt to install Windows 2000, I recalled Vista's compatibility mode. Right-click a program or shortcut, click the Compatibility tab, and then choose an operating system. I picked Windows 98/ME.

Running the German program in compatibility mode still didn't work. Then a thought struck me: what if I install both components in compatibility mode?

I uninstalled QuickTime and the German program.

I right-clicked both icons on the CD, and set them up to be compatible with Windows 98/ME.

I first ran the QuickTime installer, and this time it installed successfully. I followed that by installing the Germany program.

Finally, I ran the German program in compatibility mode. It worked!

(If it hadn't worked, my next step would have been to buy the cheapest hard drive in town in order to install Windows 2000, side-stepping the Microsoftian imposition that prevented me using whatever OS I want.)

Now that German for Everyone worked, I could swap in the old LCD and keyboard to the new computer, and then steal the new keyboard and LCD for my notebook computer expansion.