Extreme makeover, Intel edition

The iPad may have captured the hearts of yuppies everywhere, but netbooks are the overlooked heroes of portable computing. The enormous touchscreen on the iPad is pretty sexy, but it is utterly useless for those of us who actually use the Internet to get work done. Unfortunately, the most of the netbooks you can buy now have been hit pretty hard with the ugly stick. There's a reason why you'll have a hard time spotting a netbook in broad daylight at you local Starbuck's; faux chrome accents and flimsy plastic casing aren't exactly cool.

Thankfully, for those of us with the gift of eyesight, Intel has the solution.

Enter Intel's new duo-core Atom processor and "Canoe Lake" (huzzah awkward Chinese translations) chipset architecture. Long story short, the new tech that Intel presented promises to allow netbooks to be faster, lighter, and most importantly, sexier. The first two improvements most techies will love, but the last improvement is what all tech geeks and nerds secretly really want in their electronics. After all, they do call it tech fetish for a reason.

It's unfair to compare the iPad and netbooks, since they each do have unique specialties despite having common functionalities. But at least when this new Intel tech hits shelves later this year, we won't have to choose between looking like a nerd and looking like a geek. Trust me, there's a difference.


Source: Engadget

...And I'm Back Folks!

Just got back from Taiwan, so hopefully I can get back to my normally (un)scheduled ramblings. Here are some choice shots that I took from my trip, so go ahead and click on the thumbnails to view the full shots. Sorry, I don't have a DSLR, I just had an ancient digi-cam to work with. Still, some of these shots turned out fairly decent.

Talking about something somewhat tech-related, it's interesting that Apple doesn't have actual stores over in Taiwan. Instead, they outsource actual physical retail to a local company, who copy the look of the Apple stores pretty closely. But it's still pretty obvious that the guys behind the rows of iPods and Macbooks aren't exactly the Apple-certified geniuses.

Also, taking photos without a DSLR is somewhat annoying, not because of the quality differences and the lack of photo settings, but because without a giant obnoxious giant lens on your camera people tend to look at you weird when you're trying to position yourself with tiny digi-cam. I guess you need to look like a photographer before people start ignoring you.

Acting like a photographer has also made me appreciate how much nerve and shamelessness you need to pull off some of the more dramatic shots with people. All those dramatic depth-of-field shots with people in them are really, really difficult to do unless you have the guts to put aside your fears of prying into some personal space. Props to you photographers; you sure know how to invade people's privacy.

Taipei was such a great place to take photos. It's not as pretty as Tokyo, nor as historic as London, and it's not as romantic as Paris, but it is a city that's full of raw, unadulterated life. Hopefully the next time I go, I'll bring along a DSLR, so I can show you more of Taiwan's gorgeous and interesting scenery.