Josh Smith

Turn Your Android Phone Into a Mousepad and Remote

gmote_logoSick of the small mousepad on your new netbook? Wish you could sit back and watch Hulu or browse the web from the couch with your computer connected to an HDTV? Do you have an Android powered phone? If you answered yes to these questions then Gmote is exactly what you need.

NMU Provides Lenovo R400’s and WiMAX to Students

Imagine this. You're (back) in college, settling down in "your" booth of at the local coffeeshop with your decked out Lenovo R400 and you realize that all the research for your midterm essay is located on the History Department's shared network drive. If you're a student at almost any school other then Northern Michigan University (NMU) you'd have to abandon your already warmed up booth, guzzle your double hazelnut latte and trek back to campus to download the research to your hard drive, but students at NMU don't even have to depend on the coffeeshop's flaky wifi connection thanks to the roll-out of WiMAX at NMU and in the college town of Marquette.

OSX 10.6 “Snow Leopard” Ships on August 28th

Normally when the Apple store goes offline its return is met with cheers of Joy for new Apple products but the brief outage this morning didn't bring the chorus of cheers that the actual release of Snow Leopard would. Thankfully Apple did announce the new features of OSX 10.6 that Snow Leopard will ship on August 28th.
article placeholder

Nokia Expected to Enter Netbook Market

The India Times reports that mobile phone manufacturer Nokia is actively monitoring the netbook market and that it may enter the mobile computing space in the future. Speaking with the Times, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the Global CEO of Nokia said, "...the PC and the mobile will continue to come closer and merge. A lot of opportunity can be seen in this converged area." While Nokia has made news recently for it's N97 and N97 mini phones (which the company calls mobile computers, Nokia isn't a well known computer manufacturer.

Review: Blackberry 8520 with Optical Trackpad

BlackBerryCurve8520_FrontsmThere comes a time in every gadgets life when its ball drops and a more mature model comes to market. Never has this been truer than with the Blackberry Curve 8520 which is now available on T-Mobile. The new Curve looks similar to the other phones in the Curve lineup and shares many of the same features but its optical trackpad is what makes it stand out and say, "Look at me." By ditching the traditional rollerball for a smooth trackpad and throwing in a 2G radio RIM was able to create a very functional phone at an attractive price point; $50 at Walmart with a 2 year agreement.

Dell Inspiron 11z now available for $399

It seems like just last week Dell dropped the Dell Mini 12 but Dell is already offering the Inspiron 11z to fill the ~12" notebook market. The Inspiron 11z starts at $399 and made a favorable impression on the PC World staff when they had hands on time last week.

Lenovo adds 14″ IdeaPad U450p to its notebook lineup

As part of a new rollout of products, including a new media server and products aimed at the home theater market, Lenovo added a new notebook to the IdeaPad lineup. The IdeaPad U450p builds on the popularity of Lenovo's slim 13" IdeaPad U350 adding an optical drive and better ability to handle graphically intense applications such as HD video thanks to a discrete graphics card.

Airline In-Flight WiFi Offerings Compared

Even though I'm no road warrior, I am a connection junkie. That's why I've been following the inclusion of in-flight WiFi on more and more airlines over the last year pretty closely. Thanks in large part to a push by Virgin, eight airlines now offer in-flight WiFi on at least some of their planes which means it's easier than ever to find a flight that will hook you up to your twitter page at 30,000 feet. While there are eight airlines offering WiFi, there are actually 3 different companies that provide the rather expensive service to airlines and their speeds and abilities vary greatly which prompted dvice to assemble a handy comparison chart for in Flight WiFi.

Sony Ericsson W518a: Meet AT&T’s New Facebook Phone

brittany_w518a_front_openFacebook, Facebook, Facebook! Things are really heating up for the social network especially on the news that it acquired Friendfeed which could provide it a leg up on its competitor Twitter. Why am I starting out a phone review with a news update for Facebook? Well because the Sony Ericsson W518a, which runs on AT&T’s network, is all but called a Facebook phone.

New Laptop Sleeve Deserves Props

kensingtonsleeveWhen it comes to mobile technology we all love things that can pull double duty, especially if it means we won't pull our back out hauling something accessory around. That's what makes the new TwoFold Notebook Stand and Sleeve from Kensington so attractive.

New Mogo Mouse for Netbook Users

mogo-netbook-mouse-onlyNewton Peripherals, the company best known for making mobile accessories that fit inside your computer, released a new mouse today for netbook users. The new MOGO MOUSEâ„¢ for Netbooks doesn't reinvent the wheel; instead it combines two popular MOGO products with a new case in order to make an attractive package for netbook owners. The netbook kit which contains the company's Mogo Presenter Mouse, Bluetooth adapter, case and charger is available today for $99.

Make Firefox Fit Your Netbook in 30 Seconds

I used to take great pride in all the work I put into customizing Firefox on my netbook. I had installed several extensions, even diving into the source to make an old favorite compatible, all for a few extra pixels. After all of this work, I loved showing off my netbook optimized installation of Firefox to other netbook users but this always led to a lengthy customization process on their netbooks. Now, thanks to the Meerkat Firefox Extension, optimizing your netbook for the web only takes 30 seconds.

Best Buy’s “Next Class” Laptops Come Fully Loaded

nextclassThe sad part about getting a good deal on a laptop, especially during back to school time, is that too often you have to spend another $150 to $200 bucks to convert all of the trial software to full versions a month later.

Three Types of Notebooks That are Great for Students

macbook_pro_13One of the busiest (and best) times to buy a laptop is during the back to school season. For the average user, prices are as good as they’ll get until Black Friday and there are plenty of fresh models available. This year, the hard part about buying a laptop for back to school won’t be finding a good deal it will be finding the right computer for you.