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  • Acer Aspire One Runs Cooler Than Lenovo IdeaPad S10

    Engadget reports that the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (not yet available) runs what looks like an average keyboard-side surface temperature of 104 degrees F. If accurate, this is incredibly uncomfortable to use. My old Dell Latitude D600 notebook used to run about 100F on the palmrest area over the hard drive. It was so uncomfortable at that temperature that I ended up getting a USB keyboard for my office (it was my main computer). The Dell Latitude D620 that replaced it a few years later ran at much cooler and more comfortable temperature (around 90F, if I recall correctly).

    My Acer Aspire One has gotten up to 96F which is pretty warm itself though a considerably cooler than the Lenovo S10. The one advantage both netbooks have over full-sized notebooks like the D600 is that their small keyboards mean that you will probably not actually use the palm rests. So, these surface temperature are not as much of a problem as they are with notebook PCs.

  • CNN: Bosses worry if telecommuters are really working

    CNN asks…

    Bosses worry if telecommuters are really working

    This is the question that always came up in discussions over years and different employers. I actually telecommuted one-day per week when my child was an infant. That was great. But, the technology to work effectively from home wasn’t in place in my office or my home back in the mid-90s. Today, the technology is here, but the real issue comes down to management trust.

    I telecommute full-time now as Editor of MobileAppsToday. The main thing that is needed, IMHO, is some kind of reasonable metrics. There needs to be some way to measure quantity of work, quality of work, and some kind of ROI on the part of the employer. In my case, quantity is easy: If stuff doesn’t appears on the MobileAppsToday blog, I’m not doing my job. The quality part is, of course, more difficult to get a handle on. And, I don’t have control over the ROI (are my employers getting enough value from their investment in the cost to employee me?).

    Are you telecommunity full-time like me? Part-time? Tried it but gave it up? Want to try telecommuting?

    I worked remotely when I managed the Microsoft Network (MSN) Computer Telephony and Windows CE Forums back in the 90s. I also had a full-time day job at that time. So, I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep :-). So, I have some experience telecommuting. But, this is the first time I’ve telecommuted full-time for my main (day) job. So, any advice would be appreciated. In turn, as I learn more about full-time telecommuting and, especially, its mobile technology aspects, I’ll share them here.

  • A Different Kind (but important) Mobile Device: My Contigo Mug

    I’ve been office-less since my old day job ended on June 30. I just work wherever I have a decent data connection for my new job as Editor of MobileAppsToday.com. I carry around an assortment of mobile gadgets depending on what I am doing while wandering around. But, the three items that are always with me for sure these are my Windows Mobile Dash smartphone (love its thumb keyboard), iPod, and a silver version of the Contigo mug pictured above (I photographed the red one because it looks better in a photo :-). It has three great features: (1) It fits in the car’s cupholder. (2) It does not spill. I held it upside down and shook it while full of water and it remained water tight. (3) It keeps things cold for a long time (hours). The trick I’ve learned is to fill up mostly with ice before leaving home and then fill it up with water or soft drinks while wandering around. Easier to find water or beverages to fill it with than ice.

  • U.S. Sites Need to Become More Mobile Browser Friendly

    David: Yes, U.S. sites have a long way to go in terms of creating mobile friendly sites. However, I think that if mobile platform designers provided better mobile browsers, we’d have an easier time to “meet in the middle”. The Apple iPhone Safari browser demonstrated that people in the US will browse the web from their phone in large numbers with a decent browser. That, in turn, inspired many website to fit the sites better specifically to the iPhone. Browsers have been running on Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and Symbian S60 (Nokia) for many years now. But, the user experience provided by them were so disconnected (one might say broken) from their desktop experience that most people chose not to use them. I think it is important for people like you and me to let site owners know if we would like to get a better mobile browsing experience. And, if they already do so, to let them know we appreciate their effort. And, yes, I’ve asked MediaBistro about a mobile browser friendly experience too 🙂

    Originally posted as a comment by Todd Ogasawara on mediabistro.com: MobileAppsToday using Disqus.

  • Mobile Tech Info Related to Hurricane Gustav

    FYI: I’ve been collecting and posting information related to hurricane Gustav on MobileAppsToday.com for the past couple of days. Here are the links to these posts:

    T-Mobile HotSpots Available Free of Charge in Areas Affected by Hurricane Gustav

    Mobile Phone Carriers Announcements for People in US Gulf Area Affected by Hurricane Gustav

    Small Screen Friendly Hurricane Information Site

  • The Case of the Vanishing Starbucks Hotspots – SOLVED

    Well, I finally learned why I could not see a T-Mobile SSID and connect to T-Mobile hotspots in local Starbucks locations. See my MobileAppsToday blog for the details. The short answer: Although T-Mobile hotspot tech support says their SSIDs are visible, they are, in fact, invisible. So, I had to manually create WiFi profiles for it on each of my devices. The tmobile SSID was visible as of last month (July).