Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 30, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Surface Pro: Too much money for too little tablet?

The Surface Pro, Microsoft’s Windows 8 hybrid tablet/laptop for business, sounds good. But, at a starting price of $899 for the 64GB model, without a keyboard, is anyone going to want it?

The good news is that the Surface Pro runs full Windows 8, rather than the crippled Windows RT. While I have no use for Windows 8 on a desktop, I’ve also thought that its “Metro” interface might work well on a tablet.

In addition, with an Intel Core i5 processor the Surface Pro has the horsepower needs to run Windows 8 properly. The Surface RT, with its NVIDIA Tegra 3 ARM processor, is underpowered. So why do I think that the Surface Pro will be too little, too late?

In two words: the Apple iPad.

Surface Pro: Too much money for too little tablet? More >

November 30, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

5 reasons why the Roku is the best Internet TV streaming box choice

There are lots of ways to get Internet streaming TV networks, such as Amazon Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, and Netflix. But the single, best way is with a Roku.

Obviously, there are plenty of alternatives vying for your attention – and your hard-earned money. You can buy a Smart TV . But I’ve yet to find a Smart TV to which I can give a confident thumbs-up in regards to features and functionality; besides, they’re expensive. You can also get cord-cutter TV with an Internet-enabled DVD player, such as the Sony BDP-S590 or a DVR like the TiVo Premiere, but you probably already have a perfectly good DVR and DVD-player. You could also consider an Apple TV or a WD TV Live Media Player. But if you are going to get just one device to watch Internet TV – and how many of us need more than that? – then a Roku is hard to beat.

5 reasons why the Roku is the best Internet TV streaming box choice. More >

November 29, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Dell XPS 13 laptop: The Ubuntu developer edition arrives

Several months ago, Dell told me about their plans for a killer Ubuntu Linux developer notebook computer, Project Sputnik. The planning is done and this top-of-the-line programmer’s laptop, the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition is ready to ship for $1,549.

What you for get for that is an Intel Ivy Bridge i7 CPU, 8GBs of Dual Channel DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM, and a 256GB Solid State Drive (SSD). For a display it uses 13.3″ HD (720p) Truelife WLED Display with 1.3MP HD Web-cam backed up by Intel HD 4000 Graphics.

Behind the hardware, is Ubuntu 12.04.1 Long Term Support (LTS) with its usual assortment of open-source programs. It also comes ready to work with two beta community projects, Profile Tool and Cloud Launcher, that make it far more than just an extremely well-equipped, Linux-powered Ultrabook.

Dell XPS 13 laptop: The Ubuntu developer edition arrives. More >

November 28, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Splashtop introduces remote Ubuntu to Android and iPhone

Ever been 500 miles away from your Ubuntu Linux server and the only computing device you had to manage it was an Android smartphone or an Apple iPad? Splashtop is working on the program. for you: Splashtop Streamer for Linux.

The beta Splashtop Streamer, when used with Splashtop 2 a remote desktop app. for Android devices, iPad, and iPhone and iPod Touch, will enable you to connect remotely to Ubuntu 12.04 systems. It does not support, at this time, other versions of Linux or Ubuntu. Splashtop 2 already supports Mac OS X and Windows.

Splashtop introduces remote Ubuntu to Android and iPhone. More >

November 27, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Fedora Linux 18 beta finally released

Fedora 18, Red Hat‘s community Linux distribution, may have an odd name, “Spherical Cow,” but with the GNOME 2.x fork, MATE, it may also be the most user-friendly version in years.

Fedora, a cutting-edge Linux distribution, has long been known for championing the unpopular GNOME 3.x Linux desktop interface. While GNOME is showing signs of returning to a friendlier interface, other old-style GNOME 2.x like interfaces such as Cinnamon and MATE have grown in popularity. Now Fedora’s developers, seeing which way the wind is blowing, is also supporting MATE.

According to the official Fedora MATE page, all of MATE’s packages have been approved and pushed to Fedora 18. The Fedora MATE project owner, Dan Mashal, stated, “MATE is a traditional Gnome 2 like desktop user interface. Many users have expressed interest in this feature since Fedora 15 in which Fedora was switched from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3.

Fedora Linux 18 beta finally released. More >

November 27, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

With Google readying its own Nexus Chromebook, will it marry Chrome OS to Android?

The China Commercial Times (Chinese language link) reports that Google has placed hardware orders with Taiwanese manufacturers Compal Electronics and Wintek to produce a Chromebook with a 12.85-inch touch display. Could this be the start of Google merging Android and Chrome OS?

Chromebooks are lightweight laptop and desktop devices that use the Chrome Web browser for their primary interface, with Linux on the back end. There’s really no reason why they couldn’t use Android to support the Chrome interface. Indeed, Chrome is now the default Web browser for Android 4.x and higher.

While Chromebooks don’t get as many headlines as Microsoft Surface and Apple iPads, the devices are quite popular. For example, Samsung’s ARM-powered Chromebook  is Amazon’s top-selling laptop computer, as of November 27th. At the same time, Android now owns 72% of the entire mobile devices market–not just smartphones.

Review: The ARM-powered Samsung Chromebook

What would you get if you put these Android and Chrome OS together in a touch-enabled laptop? You might well get Windows’ true desktop successor.

With Google readying its own Nexus Chromebook, will it marry Chrome OS to Android? More >