Phoenix have developed a new technology that they call Phoenix Instant Boot. The new technology cuts down the time it takes for the Bios to initialize everything to one second. This is achieved by loading devices and processes that are needed to load the operating system simultaneously. Take a look at the following video that has been posted to Youtube that showcases the boot time.

The notebook used in the demonstration video was powered by a high-performance solid state disk. It took about ten seconds to boot into Windows 7. While boot time is definitely not the only thing that counts it is nice to see some progress in this area. It is even possible, according to Phoenix, that some hardware manufacturers will offer Bios upgrades that incorporate the technology.

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As the name suggest the Disney Netpal is a netbook designed specifically for children. According to Disney, the age range is between 6-12 years-old. The Netpal features an 8.9-inch LCD display, WiFi capabilities and Window’s XP Home “with over 40 parental control options.”

Since this is a netbook marketed to kids Disney took special note of durability. The device not only features a spill proof keyboard, but also ASUS ShockShield data protection which prevents loss of data should the device experience sudden shock such as a fall.

On the design front, the netbook boasts two color choices, “Princess Pink” for the ladies err girls and Magic Blue for the boys which also features “miniature Mickey Mouse icons (the former carries “beautiful pink florals”).

But what makes this little netbook shine is the work Disney has placed under the hood, geared to kids and parents alike. The Netpal features 10 customizable themes derived from popular Disney and Disney/Pixar franchises. These include, Cars, Club Penguin, Disney Classic Characters, Disney Fairies, Disney Princess, Vintage Mickey Mouse, Toy Story, WALL-E, Jonas Brothers and you guessed it Hanna Montana (where’s Lizzie McGuire?) Children will be able to use icons from these themes as email attachments such as signatures.

But Disney has gone even further with the inclusion of software built specifically for the Netpal. An example of this is the Disney Mix which, as the name suggest, is used for music and media management. There is also Disney Pix for photo customization/organization. One of the features of this application is the ability for kids to insert pictures of their faces into Bobblehead software. Another feature (via the Disney Radio Widget) allows children to stream real time music from Disney Radio as well as submit requests for songs. There are also a number of games included (racing, memory, scrapbook etc.)

So far everything that we just covered are things appealing to the kids, for the parents there are (as we mentioned earlier) over 40 control options so parents can protect their children as well as allow limited access to certain things.. For example a parent can pre-select email correspondences, determine which websites their children can visit, as well as a scheduling option so certain features can be automated such as the time of day the child is allowed to go online or play a game etc. And more importantly parents will be able to see not only what their children were doing on the computer but how long they spent.
All in all, this sounds like a perfect idea. While I do not have kids of my own, I have quite a few friends who would be interested in something like this for their son/daughter, and with a starting price of $350 this sounds pretty reasonable. As for a release date, that is set sometime in July

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For most of us (at least for me), that research involves the fun little dance of switching between Microsoft Word and the Internet, constantly reading, writing, losing my place, cursing the world, crying uncontrollably, and then getting back to work. But I digress.

One of the best tools out there, of the many I’ve tried to avoid that vicious cycle, is WebNotes. I use it constantly as a student and a professional, and it offers the most features and best usability of any application out there.

WebNotes, at its most basic, is an annotation tool. The first step is to install the toolbar (which works in Firefox and Internet Explorer), or the bookmarklet (which works in pretty much every browser, but with a couple fewer features). When you visit a website, the WebNotes software lets you can either highlight the text on the page, or make sticky notes with comments on the page. Everything you annotate is automatically added to your WebNotes organizer, for easy access later.

Once you’ve annotated a few pages, check out the WebNotes organizer. From there, you can either see the Web pages in their original form, view your highlights and comments on top of the page, or see only your markups. You can also search through your highlighted text and annotations, which makes finding that killer quote you came across an impressively easy proposition.

You can share notebooks, or individual notes (the organization and filing features of WebNotes make sharing them easy), which makes WebNotes great for collaborating on research within a group. There’s no emailing files necessary, no trying to figure out which version is most up-to-date; instead, all your research lives in one constantly-updated place.

For the more professional users, there’s the ability to create a “Report,” which is a well-designed aggregation of all your notes and highlights on a given subject. I’ve used it for giving presentations, or just summarizing research to someone else – it’s much more useful than I initially thought it would be.

The bottom-line of WebNotes is that it streamlines all your research. One, everything goes into one place, meaning there’s no hunting through twelve different Word documents to find what you want. Two, there’s no copy and paste – just highlight or comment, and everything gets saved automatically. The best thing about WebNotes, though, is that it lets you avoid the inevitable hunt through a page you know is useful, but that you can’t for the life of you figure out why.

A few weeks ago, WebNotes launched a “Pro” version, which adds some serious functionality to WebNotes. The biggest update, at least in my own use, is that WebNotes Pro lets you highlight and comment on PDF files. Particularly in school, I do a ton of reading PDF’s, and hate changing between the PDF and Word constantly so I can take notes. With WebNotes, that’s all avoided, and PDF markups go right into my organizer. (If you love the idea of PDF markup, but don’t want to use all that WebNotes has to offer, give Foxit Reader a look – it’s got all the markup love you could want.)

The Pro version also offers better support, and Multi-Color highlighting. It’s aimed squarely at professionals and students who do a lot of research from a lot of different sources, and WebNotes wants to be the source for all your research and informational bookmarking. For me, personally, it’s become indispensable in both cases.

The Pro version costs $9.99/month, but there’s a 50% discount for students who use the promo code “student101″. For gHacks readers, however, there’s an even better deal:

3 FREE months of the full, WebNotes Pro interface. The first 50 people to click this link will get three months free of the Pro features, to test to your heart’s content.

If you don’t want the added features (and the price tag), you’ll be reverted to the free version of WebNotes – which is pretty great itself – after three months is up.

What do you think of WebNotes? Is there a better application out there?

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One of the bet ways to save battery is by reducing the power of several core components such as the processor or graphic adapters.

Notebook Hardware Control is a free software program that has been designed to take care of the needs of notebook users. Power management is however only one – very extensive – option of the software.

The software comes preinstalled with several hardware profiles like max. battery, dynamic switching or battery optimized. These profiles can be easily set by right-clicking the icon in the System Tray.

The maximum battery setting can for example be used to use the notebook for as long as possible while dynamic switching ensures that battery life will be saved as long as the system does not need additional power.

It is also possible to customize those settings further by defining multipliers and voltage settings manually.

Next to that are similar options for the video card and hard disk. The hard disk settings go further by providing access to advanced power management and acoustic management settings. An Advanced Configuration and Power Interface system can be enabled as well.

Notebook Hardware Control is a software program that is compatible with 32-bit editions of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 or higher.

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Those information would then be compiled, encrypted and the OpenDHT distributed storage service is used to store location update of the notebook. Those location updates can then be retrieved from another computer revealing information about IP addresses (internal and external), the time, access points and nearby routers.

This information can be filtered to display only data of a specific date range. This should be tested at least once to make sure everything has been setup correctly.

The Adeona software is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh. The Mac version has an interesting additional feature. It can create screenshots with a camera and add those to the tracking information.

The main application according to the developers is to recover a stolen notebook. The main problem with this kind of software based tracking is that it might help against a normal thief who keeps the notebook as his own and does not completely wipe the hard disks before using it. A clever thief would problem do that and install another operating system to start over.

I guess some users will find different uses for this kind of software, like tracking their children, wifes, girlfriends, husbands to see what they are doing.

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Bandwidth is normally not a huge deal on my local computer and I do not pay that much attention to the amount of data that gets transferred which was a huge problem at first when I started using the mobile phone and notebook combination. It’s an unusual situation but I managed to adapt quickly.

I went on a quest to optimize firefox for low traffic volumes meaning that everything that was not necessary to grab the information of a website had to go. Here is what I changed:

Turn off Advertisement:

That’s a no brainer and I’m also doing that in my regular profile. I use Adblock Plus to disable advertisement on all websites in my mobile profile. That gets rid of banner ads which usually cost about 10 Kilobyte per ad displayed on a website.

Turn off Flash Content:

Blocking Flash content is another must. Sometimes interactive content is added to websites, a video that gets posted, some animation on the entrance page or something like that. Flash Block blocks all of those flash content.

No Script:

We also have Java, Javascript and other scripting languages that can add to the traffic volume of our connection. I disable them with No Script.

The great thing about all those add-ons described above is that you can add exceptions that do load the content. It is for instance important to add exceptions to websites that require scripts to run properly. It takes a while to fine tune everything but it is definitely worth it.

Disable Images:

That’s a setting in Firefox and once again exceptions can be added. You find the check box in the Tools > Options menu under the Content tab. If you uncheck Load Images Automatically images will only be loaded on request. A huge bandwidth saver.

Disable Link Prefetching:

Link prefetching is a browser mechanism, which utilizes browser idle time to download or prefetch documents that the user might visit in the near future. Set the parameter network.prefetch-next to false in about:config to disable link prefetching.

Disable Auto Update:

Make sure that Firefox is not trying to automatically update the browser. This has the effect that Firefox is not connecting to Mozilla to find out if a new Firefox version is available and that it won’t download that version automatically. Change the parameter App.update.enabled in about:config to false.

Disable Search Updates:

Firefox checks regularly for Search Plugin updates which can be disabled by setting the parameter browser. search. update in about:config to false.

Do you have any additional tips on how to reduce the traffic caused by Firefox ? Let me know about them, looking forward to reduce the traffic even further. I would also be interested in finding out if there are significant differences between the traffic volumes of Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer.

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Since it is a mobile device I would like to be able to check my emails, manage my web server using SSH, connect to the Internet and write articles for my websites. The device has to support WLAN and make use of a QWERTY keyboard. I could live with an add-on keyboard that has to be purchased separately.

The device should be lightweight. I’m not sure if all those sub-notebooks like the Asus EeePC or MSI Wind fit the bill, prefer something for the pocket instead. It does not have to be state of the art as long as it does the job. The performance has to be sufficient for the tasks and there should not be huge delays because of a lack of CPU power or system memory.

I do no need Bluetooth, Infrared, games, multimedia features, GPS, a Touchscreen, Radio, TV, a Digital Camera.

I have one alternative. I could replace my Nokie N73 phone with a new one that is providing the features that I need plus offering phone capabilities. The advantage for me would be that I would only need one device that I could carry around and not two.

My guess is that it will be a device with the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating systems but I’m open for other suggestions. What would you recommend me to get ?

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The guys from Laptop Video 2 Go have come up with a solution to this problem. They provide an inf generator and driver downloads so that most notebook users can updated their notebook’s graphic card by downloading those files from the website. The modded inf files not only work with most notebook graphic cards but do provide access to several hidden features as well that fix issues and add tweaks to the drivers.

Basically the user selects a driver that he wants to install, downloads the modded inf file from the website, replaces the inf from the driver package with the modded one and starts the installation of the driver.

I suggest you read the FAQ on the site which explains the process in detail and provides links to the pages that are needed to download the files.

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It displays a radar like image with different colors dots. Green dots mark free wireless connections while red and yellow ones mark inaccessible ones. Once a green spot has been discovered by the software it automatically tries to connect to that Wireless access point to access the Internet.

It’s opening the default browser and loading a test website. A message stating the success will be shown if the connection was successful. It is really amazing how easy it is to find open wireless access points in towns. Should be harder if you are living in a rural area though.

I would not advise to check the mail from such a spot though unless encryption is being used. It’s not likely but possible that someone is using the open access point to snoop on the data of everyone who is connecting to it. Easy WiFi radar is available for Windows and Pocket PCs.

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NetSetMan, short for Network Settings Manager, is a software for Windows XP, 2000, 2003 and Vista that provides up to six network profiles that can be activated with two mouse clicks. The settings are divided into three sections: IP, DNS Server and Additional.

The IP section defines if the IP address is obtained automatically in that profile or if a predefined IP, Subnet Mask and Gateway should be used. The DNS server can also be obtained automatically or added in the preferred and alternate slots in that section.

The Additional setting finally contains several important configurations such as the default printer, network drives, PC Name, Workgroup and DNS Domain as well as links scripts – bat, vbs, js – that can be executed.

The settings are saved separately which makes it easy to transfer them to another notebook or computer. The Professional version of the Network Settings Manager comes with a few extras like unlimited profiles, network-domain and proxy settings. NetSetMan is a great application for users who have to switch network settings regularly.

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Locate PC only works if the thief is stupid enough to boot your computer while being connected to an internet connection. I cannot really say how many thiefs would do that but it can happen and that’s probably reason enough to use Locate PC. A slim chance is better than no chance at all, don’t you think ?

Locate PC (via Cybernet News) will send emails periodically whenever the PC is connected to the Internet, by default one email is send per day and another one for every IP change. The application is running in the background with an obscured filename and no system tray icon making it harder to identify. I would say that you do not need to worry about that though, if the thief really boots the PC while it is connected to the Internet then you should not fear that he will discover the little tracking application.

One thing that actually might work pretty well is to create a bogus account that does not require a password. I mean, a thief that gets a password prompt will probably not be able to load the operating system which would make the whole configuration void.

The emails that are send contain several interesting information, not only the IP that it is being send from. It displays the computer’s host name and logged in user. This will be probably your information though. More interesting are the network connections that are listed. A dialup connection would reveal the phone number and the user name which can lead directly to the thief.

A traceroute command is issued as well and identifying information are pulled from Windows. The important information that can lead to the thief are the IP address, the network connections and the traceroute command. Everything else will be your information unless the thief decides to chance the name and address of the owner to his own.

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They were able to compare the Asus Eee PC models 701 and 900 in white and the 701 in black. Both white models are using the same keyboard while the black keyboard looks and feels different and the assumption can be made that the black 900 model will have the same keyboard as the black 701 model.

The first obvious difference becomes obvious when you place the black and white keyboards next to each other. The black keys seem to be a bit smaller and use a wider spacing than the white ones. They also go deeper which means that the user will receive more feedback from the keyboard in comparison to the white keyboard.

The texture of the black keyboard uses rougher plastic which makes it easier to grip. I have not tested it myself but it looks like the difference between a notebook keyboard and a usual desktop pc keyboard at first glance. Maybe the difference are not that big but the comparison seems valid.

It’s still strange that Asus would create different keyboards for different colored models and the reviewer at Laptop Mag came to the conclusion that this may be caused by the manufacturing process and not by design itself.

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I already see signs of a public outcry in the Internet landscape. How can it be that a version for a free operating system, Linux, is more expensive than the version for Windows XP ? If you know only these facts you might think that Microsoft is using their power to promote Windows on the EeePC 900 by either giving the version away for free or even subsidizing it.

This may very well be a valid point but you have to know the following fact to come to a conclusion. The Windows version of the EeePC 900 will ship with a 12 Gigabyte Solid State Disk while the Linux version will have a 20 Gigabyte one. The price difference between the two versions is $50 Australian Dollars according to website apcmag.

So the reality is that Asus did cover the license cost of Windows and Works on the EeePC 900 by reducing the hard drive of that version. Which version will sell better when the EeePC 900 comes out ? I think it could be the Windows version. It’s cheaper which is always a good selling point and it is Windows, something the users are used to work with. Casual users will have trouble finding out if 8 Gigabytes of additional hard drive space are worth the extra 50 bucks and the time it takes to feel comfortable working with a Linux system.

A first short review was also included in the article:

The XP version of the Eee boots quite speedily for a Windows box, but is still notably slower than its Linux counterpart. Even Asus’ press release promoting the product acknowledges that the Linux machine is faster to get started. “It provides a fast boot-up time, ideal for quick internet access while waiting for public transport or taking notes on-the-go,” it breathlessly proclaims.

Apparently, “the Linux version is suited to users who desire an icon-driven and easy point-and-click interface – well suited for children or users with limited computer experience”. We’ll leave the reader to deduce what that implies about the XP interface.

Does this imply that the Windows XP version will be suitable to computer experts only ? Every technology inclined user will obviously buy the Linux version and not the Windows one. Additional eight Gigabytes of space for $50 is well worth the extra cash.

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If you purchase a new notebook – and it does not really matter from which manufacturer you make the purchase – you notice lots of software, many call it crapware, that is preinstalled on that notebook. You get demo or trial versions of software, lots of unnecessary applications from the manufacturer and much more that slow down the computer. Many companies love to add a Norton or Symantec trial to the computer for instance.

Sony obviously thought that some customers would like the crapware removed but instead of offering this as a configuration option that is free of charge they charge $50 for it. Yes that is right. Those who add the crapware ask the customer to pay $50 for its removal. That’s a nice business model don’t you think ?

If you feel desperate you could try to use the software PC Decrapifier instead which removes quite a few applications that are usually installed on new notebooks and computers.

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Here is how it works. You can configure Blue Lock the way that it automatically locks your computer when the Bluetooth signal of your mobile phone does not reach the computer anymore. The success depends largely on the sender unit of your mobile phone of course, if it`s to powerful you would have to walk the extra mile to lock your computer. Might better think of locking it manually then or buying one of those cheap phones with low signals.

Just imagine walking into a store requesting the cheapest phone with the lowest Bluetooth reach. Anyway back to topic.

If you walk away it will automatically lock your computer but it will not unlock it when the signal picks up strength again. You have to unlock it manually after all. One nice feature is that you can run applications when the signal gets to weak and Blue Lock is starting to lock the computer. Could be used to wipe some temporary files for instance or run another security application.

Start Blue Lock, and after about half a minute a list of discovered Bluetooth devices will be displayed in the window on the right of the screen. Click on a device (you may have to wait a while as the GUI is frozen whilst the Bluetooth driver is scanning for devices – increase the timeout to increase the chances of discovering your device) and its ID and hardware address will be copied to the “Lock Device” field at the bottom of the screen. The program will now loop continuously, and if that device is not detected the system will immediately lock up. The system locking is a standard Windows API call and is perfectly safe, it’s just the same as if you locked the system with CTRL-ALT-DEL.

I have not tried it yet to be honest because my notebook is currently at a friend who is coding an online application currently that we are going to release soon. Still, I was wondering what would happen if the battery of the phone died. Would it automatically lock the computer all the time until you turn the software off ?

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A Moleskine is awesome, because it basically gives you the freedom to create your very own task management application, which you really can take anywhere, even in your pocket. There are no limitations, frameworks, only your mind, and since all you need is the notebook and a pen, anyone can use it.

I prefer the somewhat large daily diary. I recommend this because since it is quite thick, you can use it like a notebook, but if you do need the agenda, the dates are there for your comfort. You usually get a back pocket to sore a few bits of paper and all notebooks come with cool rounded edges, so no dog ears. They usually come around $18 for pocket versions and $25 for larger ones, but you can find it much cheaper on Amazon, or in my own Moleskine roundup.

Take a look, grab a few, even if you just take notes in it it will grow on you. If you’re an artist or a musician you can find sketch pad and notation Moleskines as well!

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Reports are all over the Internet (here, here or here for instance) and from the date of the news we can see that it is not really a “new” problem but one that exists for several years. If you own a Sony laptop and want to buy a separate battery you have to pay roughly three to four times the price if you buy a original Sony battery instead of a generic one.

If you make the decision to buy the generic battery you might be in for a nasty surprise. Sony is not allowing generic batteries in many of their notebooks by using software and hardware protections. The software protection is simply a file called ISBMgr.exe which prevents the usage of another battery not manufactured by Sony. Some users were able to use the battery by removing that program from their computer. (ISBMgr.exe is apparently run at system startup, use msconfig or autoruns to disable it.)

One user described the error message that he received when he booted his Sony notebook with the generic battery:

I got an error message saying the battery either wasn’t properly inserted or wasn’t a genuine Sony, and that the notebook would go into hibernation and the battery must be removed

The hardware protection on the other hand cannot be disabled which means that if you have a notebook with that hardware protection you will not be able to use a generic battery. The It’s a Sony slogan becomes a whole new meaning, don’t you think ?

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Battery Run is a little command line utility that checks if a power cable is connected. Once it gets disconnected it starts a user defined action and another one when the cable gets connected again. You could for instance play a sound if the power cable gets disconnected to notify you or a software that would reduce power consumption.

Usage is straightforward. Download and unpack the file on your hard drive. Use the command batteryrun load-program-when-disconnected load-program-when connected. For example: batteryrun disconnected.wav connected.wav

Batteryrun will play the disconnected.wav file when the power cable gets disconnected and the connected.wav file when it gets connected again. A icon should appear in the system tray if everything was setup correctly.

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The Wlan – Network Card example was just one possibility. Many notebooks have a card reader, DVD drive, webcams and V.90 Modems among other components. My notebook for example offers both Wlan and LAN access and I have disabled the network card which had the positive side effect that it reduced the boot time of my notebook.

I disabled the card reader and the internal modem as well because I never use those components. The DVD drive is disabled as well most of the time because I rarely use it. I don’t have the necessary test equipment to test the battery usage before and after disabling the components but I can verify that the boot process into Windows is faster than before.

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A friend of mine told me about the Asus EEE PC which is a subnotebook with an 7 inch screen, a 900 Mhz Intel Celeron M cpu, 512 Megabyte of Ram and a 4 Gigabyte Solid State Disk. This is not a notebook that you can use to play games or big applications but it could be ideal for my situation for several reasons.

It comes with a keyboard which is definitely a plus over those PDAs that I looked at. Sure there are external keyboards for those PDAs but it would mean that I would have to carry that around as well. A 7 inch screen is much nicer than the screens that the PDAs use.

Another advantage of the Asus EEE PC is the price of €299 and the Linux operating system. Future versions will also see Windows XP as the operating system of choice. The EEE PC boots Linux in 15 seconds which can be attributed to the Solid State Disk drive.

The RAM can be pumped up to a total of 2 Gigabytes of RAM and another Solid State Disk can be added to the Asus EEE PC as well. What I do not like that much is that the battery will not last for more than 3.5 hours according to Asus.

Reviews of the Asus EEE PC complained about the tiny keyboard and the low res display as well. I guess I have to test on before I make a decision. The biggest turnback is the battery power of the EEE PC though.

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