[From Rita El Khoury, Lebanon] Desktop PCs are basically dead. What used to be so hip a couple of years ago is now "old" and laptops literally replaced them. I first faced this truth a while ago, when I decided to look at a newspaper, something I don't do often. I found nothing more than 2-3 desktop PC ads and more than 20 laptop ones. Now people are talking about how UMPCs and small mobile devices will one day replace the laptops. Devices like the EEE, the overdue HTC Shift, the HTC Advantage, and others are flooding the shops and the net pages (and review sites). Many of them carry lots of potential yet fail to deliver, now, a good laptop replacement. So I have been wondering, will they ever reach a state where they can really free us from the heavy burden of a laptop?
The answer is yes, but not in their current form. Technology will evolve, and what is now hardly crammed in a 15" laptop will tomorrow be easily placed in a 7" device, yet one problem remains. When a device gets smaller, the screen gets tinier, and NO people are not comfortable working on a 7" screen. The day when what is today called UMPC (and all the derivatives like ultra mobile linux, or mac) will rule is when they can be linked to a TV or better when they have some sort of 3D projection for virtual working.
I have been pondering these thoughts over the last weeks, and I got a chance to test it. Over the last week, I have had some problems with my laptop charger. My Toshiba laptop is my main computer so I was left without a computer. A couple of years ago, that wouldn't have bugged me the least, but right now all my work, studies, and even some hobbies are computer/internet-bound. Lucky enough, I received a Nokia N810 from WomWorld, the Nseries PR team, to test for a couple of weeks. They seriously couldn't have sent it at a better time. For those of you who don't know, the N810 is an Internet Tablet that runs Maemo, a Linux system. Although the label is "internet tablet", this baby can do a little bit more. Since I was left without a computer, I had to fill my free time doing something else. Enter the N810. I have a thesis to work on, due sometime in late May, and basically this involves a lot of article reading. Medical articles. These are all found in pdf format and luckily the N810 has a built-in PDF reader. I just had to search for these articles online, using the tablet, download them and there I was, ready to roll. I spend a couple of days without a laptop, yet for my current needs, the N810 did it for me. It has a 4.13" screen, which was a little painful at first but I eventually used the Zoom option and that made my day. But would the N810 have filled my needs if I wanted something else? Definitely not. It doesn't have an office viewer/editor, it doesn't have the ebook reader I use (mobipocket), it can't be used for picture & video editing... It's a good music & video player, image viewer, pdf reader, internet browser, game device, but it doesn't do what a whole computer would do.
So no, for now, ultra mobile devices can't compete with laptops, and basically erase them as the laptops themselves did to the desktop computers. They will be bought in addition to a laptop for someone who doesn't have a lot of needs on-the-go and who hates having to tout around a heavy 5-6pound laptop & bag. They will get better, however, through the years to come, but the first one to really establish itself as a laptop killer will be the one with a virtual 3d projection of a good 15-17" screen, that's the era I am waiting for.
I spot another Mobile Phone health story today on the BBC website. "Heavy mobile phone use may be linked to an increased risk of cancer of the salivary gland, a study suggests.
Researchers looked at 500 Israelis who had developed the condition and compared their mobile phone usage with 1,300 healthy controls.
Those who had used the phone against one side of the head for several hours a day were 50% more likely to have developed a salivary gland tumour.
The research appeared in The American Journal of Epidemiology.
Numerous studies have focused on the risk of tumours among those who use mobile phones, and overwhelmingly found no increased cancer risk.
But researchers at Tel Aviv University say these have tended to focus on brain tumours, and often did not include long-term users.
Cancer of the salivary gland is a very rare condition. Of the 230,000 cases of cancer diagnosed in the UK for instance annually, only 550 relate to this area." Read in full at the BBC website.
The past week saw the Blackberry blackout across North America. The reason given for the three hour outage was a system upgrade that had gone awry.
Sometimes, your pda is just what you need as a way to pass the time. For me, Sunday evening on a train was one of those moments.
I read Ermin Mistica's editorial the other day (
Recently I have begun flirting with my shiny new Blackberry which is gradually taking over from my Treo 680 as my main device, why? Palm is great, nothing will replace the simplicity and ease of use of PalmOS however Garnet hasn't moved on at all since it was released back in 2002 and it is starting to feel it's age. That combined with pressure from work has made me move over to the shiny new Blackberry 8310 'Curve'.
I enjoyed reading Rory Cellan-Jones review of the MacBook Air this morning, after some struggles he does really seem to like it. "The MacBook Air certainly wins the battle with the Asus rival when it comes to looks. I was besieged in Barcelona whenever I got the notebook out and started working. As a design object it is a worthy successor to the iMac and iPod which have made Jonathan Ive, Apple's chief designer, such a huge influence on the look and feel of the modern gadget." 
Washington Post has a good editorial entitled Stay Productive With Mobile Services which illustrates some good mobile services available for us to take advantage of. "Meeting with clients. Visiting suppliers. Presenting at trade shows. You have a lot of work to do outside the office. Fortunately, staying productive when you're mobile is getting easier, thanks to Web-based services.
Each of the following eight mobile tools can help you more efficiently manage some aspect of your business while on the go--without your having to fire up your laptop. Many of the services are free. Like any software or service, however, these tools each have some limitations, and may not appeal to everyone." 
I am ending the MacBook Air Giveaway this week so you need to get your user thoughts if you wish to be entered 
I am going to end my MacBook Air Giveaway this week so if you want a chance at getting your hands on it then you need to get me your user thoughts into me as soon as possible. As usual the guidelines are pretty much the same as usual and you can find them in the post at the 
