A Day Working With The #IntelInsiders Asus Transformer 10.1 Tablet

Using the Intel Asus tablet on the TTC Subway train writing this post.

As a guy who is constantly on the go in the city of Toronto and beyond I have to say having the Asus Transformer 10.1 Tablet powered by Intel is an absolute dream. It is lightweight, takes up very little room in my bag, has a QWERTY keyboard with a mouse touchpad, and comes complete with a fully functional version of Windows 8.1 and Microsoft Office. The detachable nature of the keyboard and full touchscreen capability of the device mean I can use it for reading ebooks or pre-loaded web articles even in the depths of the subway with no signal (which would come from my cellular device being used as a Wi-Fi hotspot).

The tiny footprint of the device also means that I’m ready to get things done pretty much anywhere. Case in point, this sentence was actually typed as the device sat on top of the transfer machine in Toronto’s TTC King Subway Station!

Although the new version of Windows – Windows 8 – takes some getting used to this is something that is a Windows thing and not a comment on the quality of this device. Wherever I need it to do some work be it on the subway, in a Starbucks, lying on a couch, or on my desk, the Asus Intel is great for getting the job done!

Of course, I should mention that this device was kindly supplied to me by the folks over at Intel Canada as part of the #IntelCanada Intel Insiders program. But being a guy who usually goes for a 15.4 inch screen laptop with tons of power the portability aspect of this device is just so amazing I can honestly say I should have got one or one like it on my own dime years ago.

I'm required to disclose a relationship between our site and Intel Canada.

Windows Mobility Center: A Useful Tool In Windows 7 I Just Recently ‘Discovered’

I use Windows 7 Home Premium on my laptop (which is my main computer) and like to think I am well versed in its workings. Friends and family are often amazed when I tell them about different shortcuts that I have been using in various incarnations of Windows for years and which I don’t even think about anymore. However, I am often astonished as to how many things there about the Windows OS (Operating System) that I simply didn’t know about and how much better of an experience they make my in my day-to-day use of the Windows OS.

One such thing I stumbled upon not too long ago was the “Windows Mobility Center” (pictured at the top) and it happened completely by accident. It occurred a little after I had written my post “How To Change The Network Adapter Priority In Windows 7” and I am sort of happy I learned about it afterward because if I had known about it before I never would have done the research for and written that first post. If you read that post, part of the root cause of why I had looked for a way to switch the adapter priority was because I was leaving my WiFi on all the time so I could leave the Bluetooth on all the time as well but I found it was slowing down my connection speed because my computer was preferring to use the WiFi connection over the hardline connection. Now that I found Windows Mobility Center the problem became pretty much completely irrelevant. Why? Well, as you can see in the top picture, the Windows Mobility Center gives a user easy one button access to turn WiFi on or off in its top right corner.

“There are some questions that can’t be answered by Google”;This Church’s Sign Brought To You By Microsoft Bing

 

"There Are Some Questions That Can't Be Answered By Google." I am confused as to where the Microsoft Bing logo is on this sign...I don't see it anywhere!

 

 

I have seen this church mentioned/pictured before in the media and on the interiorwebs but the other night I was passing by and saw this sign as I stopped at the stop sign across the street (like the good law-abiding citizen I am) on my way home from the Tigits Launch Party. According to the Anglican Church of St Timothy at 100 Old Orchard Grove in Toronto “There are some questions that can’t be answered by Google.”  I looked around to see if I could find a Bing logo or a Microsoft logo anywhere on the sign or a Bing logo but found nothing. I was really expecting to see something, somewhere…I think the marketing department at St. Timothy’s might need a hand with this as they could probably be making some serious coin if they kept that up for a while and just slapped a Bing logo on there. You might be thinking that I completely missed the point of the sign and they were trying to reference the Church or God or Christianity (or all of the above) having the answers and not that we should switch search engines. However, being a Jewish computer geek this is immediately what sprang to mind so I thought I’d share it with you. I hope no one finds that offensive. However, if you do I suggest you step back and re-examine why you are offended…clearly this is a snarky comment being made by the church and it is meant to draw attention to it. Therefore me posting about it means the sign did its job. If even one other person (preferably an Anglican Christian I’d guess) sees this sign and learns about the existence of the church and decides “Hey, if they’re gonna be trying so hard to be hip and cool with the kids today mentioning the interwebs on their lawn sign maybe I should check them out” then that sign has done its job.

I look forward to seeing more funny sign posts from you Anglican Church of St Timothy. When I went to you guys on Google Maps Street View – see they DO have the answers! – all I got was times for Easter services and a different sign that was missing the rainbow flag. I hereby grant you guys the title of “Coolest Church Lawn Sign In Toronto” and “Coolest Church Lawn Sign In The Greater Toronto Area”. Although I don’t spend very much time reading church lawn signs so you may want to take that title with a grain of salt; nay, an entire salt shaker.

 

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: A Google Chrome User’s Experience & Review

This post is being written using Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 (IE9). I downloaded it last night when the full version became generally available to all as a full release during? after? its launch party at SXSW last night. Honestly, though I have been a Google Chrome user since pretty much the day it came out. Before that, I was a Mozilla Firefox user as Internet Explorer (IE) just wasn’t as good as the other browsers available. So when they had the launch party and I read about the it being available for download I didn’t really pay much attention to it.

However, all that changed when my friend Joseph aka @jpuopolo told me that the new IE9 is super FAST and I should really give it a try. He had been using it since it was available for download and said that he is going to be using it for a one week trial period to see if he will make the switch to it. He said in his mind so far so good and most importantly it’s UBER SPEEDY so I decided to give it a try. I My comparisons in this post and experiences in this post are using IE9 9.0.8112.16421 64-Bit and Google Chrome 10.0.648.133 both running on Windows 7 Home Premium.

NOTE: I have not changed my default browser settings on my computer. I didn’t know if I was going to and as the testing went on I decided definitely against it. Similarly, although IE9 has the same option as Google Chrome to make different websites into ‘apps’ within the Windows taskbar with their own icons I didn’t bother switching those over and just left them as Google Chrome ‘apps’.

For everyone who wants to know what my verdict is without reading my full thoughts: As of the writing of this post I’m going to stick with Chrome. IE9 is a definite improvement from previous versions of IE but it isn’t enough to get me to switch.

INSTALLATION, LOOK, & FEEL

Installation was pretty painless. I went (using Chrome and feeling like a traitor) to Microsoft.com and clicked on the link which took me to the IE9 Download Page and I downloaded IE9. Once it was finished downloading and began its install it told me it needed to shut down EVERY OTHER PROGRAM that was running on my computer because apparently it is integrated with Windows that deeply. I made sure I had left nothing open which wasn’t already saved and complied (first grumbling in a tweet for having to turn off every program) then waited for it to install. Once it was done installing it told me it needed to reboot Windows. I allowed it to reboot Windows and watched Windows shut down, inform me it was making changes/updates, turn off, my computer to turn back on, begin the boot sequence into Windows, Windows to inform me it had to make some more changes/updates before booting and then was finally presented with my usual login screen.

That whole process was not quite a strike against IE9 because I can understand why it happens but it didn’t earn any points in my books. I would have liked a warning about the reboot and maybe I would have chosen to do the install later, but then again there MAY have been one and I ignored/missed it.

The look and feel of IE9 is so-so. It is definitely better than previous versions of IE giving the user the option of having the “Status Bar” (the little bar at the bottom of the screen that displays links and other information) always showing or merely floating and appearing when necessary much like Chrome does. As to the top bar – I have read on other blogs that they think the top bar takes up a couple LESS pixels than Chrome’s but I disagree. You can judge for yourself in the picture below which one is bigger, but when I loaded the same page in IE9 & Chrome all I gained was an extra line of text and some white space at the bottom so however it does it Chrome is displaying marginally more on one screen than IE9.

(You can click the picture to view it in full size – 1920 pixels wide – & really judge for yourself. These top bars are taken from IE9 {top} and Google Chrome {bottom}. My screen this screenshot was taken on is 1920 pixels wide and these are unchanged from that resolution.)

Personally, I still like the Chrome top bar better but that could also be because I am used to it. I am given to understand that the reason Microsoft chose to leave all that space on top is so users can easily use the “Snap” feature of Windows 7 with the individual tabs. Quite frankly, I don’t care – as a Chrome user, I see all that space on top as WASTED. I think they should have given us the option to move everything so it is more compact. You can move the tabs below the Address Bar (now called the ‘One Bar’ but we’ll get to that) and take up more room but you can’t make it so it takes up less screen real estate. At the end of the day, in my books, the name of the game is SCREEN REAL ESTATE and Microsoft wasted way too much of mine in IE9.

In terms of the size of the top bar it isn’t a strike when viewed against Google Chrome because they are so very close. However, in terms of giving a cleaner look and making you almost forget you’re using a browser at all Chrome definitely is the winner. I think IE9 could have had this if they had allowed for more customization of the top bar but because they didn’t they lose points here.