Fabriceh Techno Blog

Test Zoho Word

fabriceh — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:44:29 +0000

Here is a test of using Zoho. com Word application. Does it work very well or not?

I am going to try and do tables…

Here	is	a table
I just	setup	in Zoho writer
It works	just	as you would expect

I work as a Business Consultant for Executives in the tech industry, on business strategy, product management, and marketing

I specialize on new and innovative products and services for the Digital Lifestyle Consumer

Do PC OEMs care about design?

fabriceh — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:50:59 +0000

Contrary to popular belief, PC OEMs do care about their product design. But they have very valid business reasons for not caring as much about product esthetics as an Apple does.

One of the big challenges of Design in the business world is in measuring “good design” and its value for the business bottom line. It may help to think of Design along two axis – functional product design, and esthetics. Functional design is the combination of physical attributes that define the product and its physical interactions with humans: product features and placement of features, weight, shape, thickness, texture, temperature, would be part of the functional design. Esthetics would include color, shape, weight, thickness, texture, placement of visual elements, etc.

Many of these factors influence both the functional design and esthetics, but in different ways. For example, the shape of a car impacts its friction in the air, passenger comfort, engine access, storage space and access, etc. The shape of a car also influences our visual perception of it as friendly, sporty, practical, edgy, feminine, etc. Lightweight can be functionally desirable to increase portability or usability, but could be perceived “esthetically” as lower quality.

PC manufacturers care a lot about functional design. They spend a ton of time and money researching better product usability, engineering product features that will enhance the functional design of their product. I would venture that HP and Dell do a very good job at hardware functional designs, which lead to product that are functionally complete and for the most part highly useable (their software experience design is another issue however). Feature for feature, HP and Dell actually have products that are superior to Apple in functional design. They integrate more functions that what Apple does: card readers, removable media slots, media access buttons, etc. Nothing “earth-shattering” maybe (though I do find it a pain to have to carry a separate USB media card reader to use with my Macbook), but a slight edge nevertheless.

Esthetics is where Apple takes a different strategic direction in design. Apple is investing an important amount of money and product cost in the esthetic qualities of their products. They are successful doing so with PCs because they have a business model that is centered around high product profitability, not pure market share. PC OEMs strategy is high volume and high market share, across all price points, with razor-thin margins.

In summary this is how I explain the status of PC Design today:
- Apple has a strategy of limited market share with high profit margin with a premium product line. That strategy warrants a high investment in product esthetics design to maintain the premium value of the Mac.
- PC OEMs (HP, Dell, etc) compete for very high market share with low product margin and very tight product costs. They do invest considerable resources in functional product design that maximizes product functionality across all price points, at a very efficient product cost burden.
- PC OEMs invest in industrial and esthetics design for their products. Their products typically incorporate a higher number of features than a Mac and have a specific look and feel that matches their brand values.
- The value of esthetics is very hard to measure and quantify, especially for large corporations that are very numbers/volume/share driven.
- The value of investing more in industrial and esthetic design is relative to the business model pursued. Apple gets high value for its design investments with a premium priced business. OEMs like HP and Dell enjoy very high market shares at their current level of design investment, and do not see a positive ROI for higher design investment in their high volume/high market share business model.

CodeWeavers to run Windows apps in OSX

fabriceh — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:08:28 +0000

CodeWeavers is an Open Source effort to provide a native and real-time translation environment for Windows Applications on other OSes – Linux and now Mac OSX.

CrossOver Mac has just released in beta form. You can download and install it from here, and then try your favorite Windows Apps to see if they run or not. CodeWeavers will be keeping tabs of which apps run well (Gold medal), not so well (Bronze?), or not at all here.

CrossOver Mac was highly anticipaed by Mac Gamers who are hoping to run their favorite PC games on the Mac this way.

Final release is expected in 60 days or so, for $60.

Dell updates the E1405 with Intel Core 2 Duo

fabriceh — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 04:37:18 +0000

Already a recommended configuration for a business laptop, the Dell Inspiron E1405 gets updated with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor for more performance. And coupled with the 9-cell battery (an $85 upgrade) the E1405 can for up to 8 hours on a single battery charge…wow!

I got a nice configuration with a 2Ghz Core 2 Duo, 1Gig of Mem, 80 Gig HDD, 8X DVD burner and Wi-Fi + Bluetooth (and the large battery) for just under $1200. Not bad!

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Samsung, new force in Digital Cameras?

fabriceh — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 00:08:07 +0000

Samsung is flooding the digital photo press with press releases and advertising for its new line of compact digital cameras – the NV3, NV10, and NV7 OPS. All cameras boast a new all-black and very thin design, innovative new menu system, and aggressive pricing.

The NV3 is a 7 megapixels camera with 38-114mm zoom, a 2.5" LCD and is 17.5mm thin! It can also be used as an MP3 player (?) with stereo sound. Amazon lists the NV3 for $299.

The NV7 OPS is a 7 megapixels camera with 38-270mm zoom and offers both Optical Picture Stabilisation (OPS) and Advanced Shake Reduction (ASR) to eliminate blur. It is 21mm thick with the lens collapsed (when switched on with the lens extended thickness is 35.7mm). Amazon lists the NV7 OPS for $399.

The NV10 is a 10 megapixels camera with a 35-105mm zoom, 2.5" LCD, anti-shake reduction, a manual mode and 18.5mm thick! Amazon lists the NV10 for $349.

There is yet little hands-on information about these cameras on the web, the cameras being scheduled to be on the market mid-September.

Earlier this week the NV10 won the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA represents some 52 magazines from 18 European countries) award in the Compact Camera category (other camera winners included the Nikon D200 and Canon 5D).

You can see sample pictures taken by the NV10 here.

Tags: camera, samsung, EISA

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Intel Core Duo 2 Mobile (Merom) is out

fabriceh — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 00:00:56 +0000

Intel refreshed its mobile line of CPUs with the Duo 2 line, available in a range of speeds (1.63Ghz to 2.33Ghz).
The processor was extensively tested by PC Magazine which concludes that it is indeed a more powerful processors, but again at a cost in increased heat and power draw – both issues that have plagued Intel CPUs in the past and forced them to revise their strategy of racing for more Megahertz towards one of dropping megahertz but increasing the number of cores on a chip.

The Core Duo 2 being fully pin and chipset compatible with the 1st generation Core Duo, and Intel having priced the Duo 2 at parity with Duo 1 (one could have expected a premium price for the new line), the switch to Duo 2 by laptop OEMs is bound to be quick.

Tags: laptop, mobile, CPU, Intel, Merom

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Should you buy a 15 inch laptop?

fabriceh — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 00:43:56 +0000

I am not a big fan of 15″ laptops. I think they now represent the mediocre offerings of the market, either too big to be good travel laptops (see my other post for my recommendations on travel laptops with screens in the 12″ to 14.4″ range), or too small to be good desktop replacements machines – a market much better served by 17″ or more laptops. I believe the Japanese manufacturers are seeing this trend and spending their energy marketing 14″ and below, or 17″ and above.

Given the wide set of laptops available in the 12″ to 19″ range, why would anyone want a 15″ laptop? I can think of three reasonings:
1) Because they are cheap for a complete configuration (in a “mediocre” size offering);
2) Because you want a desktop replacement laptop that you can also travel with;
3) Because you want a travel desktop you can also use as a powerful desktop replacement PC.

We no longer live in an era where 14″ and smaller laptops sacrificed performance to attain a smaller size and long battery life. Those highly portable laptops now feature dual core CPUs, large hard drives, 2 gigs of memory or more, integrated DVD writers, and dedicated graphics card that can deliver great 3D output for business apps and even some of the more demanding action games.

So if travelling by air is your thing, make it easy on yourself and get a smaller laptop that will be easier to carry around (weight and size-wise), and a lot easier to open up and use on the cramped-up in-flights tablets (have you ever had a laptop screen crushed when the person in front of you lowers her seat?).

If flying really is not your priority (you don’t travel much or do so by car or train) and you want performance, step up to a 17″ screen and enjoy the increased real estate for a true desktop-replacement experience.

But if money is the limiting factor, then a 15″ laptop may be what you should get.

Configuration recommendations:
- Widescreen 15.4″
- Dual Core CPU, Intel or AMD
- 1 Gig of Ram
- 80 Gig of HDD (or more)
- Dedicated video card with 256 Megs of memory
- Wi-Fi
- Windows XP Media Center
- DVD Rom (or writer as an option)

Recommended models for this category:
Dell E1505 – $1000 properly configured with an Intel Core Duo, 1 Gig of Ram, 80 Gig HDD, ATI Radeon X1400 w/256MB.

HP DV600Z – $1000 well configured with AMD Turion X2, 1 Gig of Ram, 80 Gig HDD, Nvidia GeForce Go 7200 w/256MB.

Gateway NX560XL – $1200 well configured with Intel Core Duo 1.73Ghz, 1 Gig of Ram, 80 Gig HDD, ATI Radeon X1400 (w/128MB memory only though), 8x DVD-writer, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and great battery life (go for the 8-cell battery for $39 more).

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Best Vista Business Laptops

fabriceh — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 09:53:20 +0000

Here are my choices for best laptops for (small) business work. I consider that a great laptop for small business work gives you portablity (these are not desktop replacement machines), power to run Vista, battery life, connectivity, DVD watching (for those hours on the plane).

Specifically, I recommend: – Dual Core CPUs only, 1.66Ghz-1.83Ghz is plenty sufficient (no need to pay extra for 2+ Ghz) – 1 Gig or Ram required – 80 Gigs of HDD required – DVD drive built-in required – 3.5 hours battery life or more required – 14" widescreen or smaller – 6 pounds or less, with 4 pounds being the top of the line in this category

Recommended Vista Laptop (powerful + graphics capability to use Vista’s fancy new 3D UI).
HP Pavillion dv2000t, $1000 or less for a good configuration.
What’s good about it: Good for Vista in the 128MB GeForce Go 7200 configuration, Intel Duo Core (best price/performance is probably the 1.73Ghz T2250 option), Widescreen display, 12-cell battery gives more than 5 hours battery life (the 6 cell is a disappointing 2.5 hours or less), wi-fi & bluetooth, quiet, quality built, modern design, built-in webcam, 3xUSB, 1xFirewire, just under 6 pounds.

Dell Latitude D620, $1500 for a good configuration
What’s good about it: Good for Vista, Intel Core Duo processor, WideScreen display available in 1440×900 resolution, two battery option for extra long battery life, NVidia Quatro graphics performance, wi-fi, bluetooth and cellular broadband ($200 option for Verizon or Cingular), about 6 pounds.
Dell XPS M1210, $1800 for a good configuration What is good about it: Great for Vista, powerful but light and small, 5 pounds with the large capacity battery (4 hours), 12.1" widescreen display, Intel Core Duo processor, NVidia GeForce graphics performance, wi-fi, bluetooth and cellular broadband ($200 option for Verizon), built-in web camera.

Sony Vaio SZ160 (or SZ120 with 128MB video memory only), $1600 for a good configuration
What is good about it: Thin, small with 13.3" widescreen display, light at 4 pounds. Good for Vista with an NVidia dedicated graphic card with 256MB of memory, which can be switched off (at boot only) for lower power Intel graphics when battery life is more important than 3D graphics. Sony claims up to 7 hours of batter life possible (w/larger battery?). Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Firewire. Maybe a tough one to find in store.

If you don’t require Vista’s fancy 3D UI…

Toshiba Satellite U205, less than $1200.
What’s good about it: Great for light mobility, 4.1 pounds, 12.1 widescreen display (1280×800), Wi-Fi, Dual Core, DVD Supermulti drive (DVD+/-R/RW/CD-RW), 3 USB & 1 Firewire ports, built-in media card reader, over 4 hours battery life.

Dell Inspiron 1405, $1000 or less for a good configuration
What is good about it: cheap for what you get! 14" widescreen at 1440×900, dual core, 8xDVD burner, 5.5 pounds, Firewire and 4 USB ports, small and light but not so thin, 3+ hours battery.

Apple MacBook, white, $1250 for a good configuration
What is good about it: it is a Mac, a beautiful one, it is pretty powerful, can run Windows natively (Bootcamp) or as a virtual app (Parallels) as well as Apple’s iLife suite. Comes only in 13" widescreen. This is my current laptop by the way…

Tags: laptop, vista, business, intel