Netbooks have become a sort of ultra cheap computer in the tech scene today, and in my view they give you what you pay for. I own a Lenovo S-10 netbook, I love it and it’s become my main computer. But after having it for about 8 months, I’ve come to learn that I may have made an error in judgment when purchasing it. Sure it’s portable, the battery lasts for quite awhile and it’s a windows machine; but it can’t compete with a real PC which is what I think that a lot of consumers in the market are expecting it to be. You can’t run any sort of game on it, or anything even remotely graphic intensive such as Photoshop. Netbooks are made for light internet browsing and email etc… In the current economic position that most consumers are in today, they are looking for something cheap that will give them good value in the long run. Netbooks just can’t fulfill that yet, you can spend a few hundred dollars more and get a regular laptop that really lasts and can keep up with the rest when it concerns running more CPU intensive applications. I would even recommend substituting a netbook with an iPod touch for instance. It’s a portable wi-fi device that is basically a small version of a netbook without the fancy OS. It still has a keyboard (and a separate Bluetooth one if needed) and it has a slew of applications that do just about anything you can think of. The only difference that really sticks out is the lack of a webcam and video conferencing capabilities. I’d just like to point out that I am not trying to discourage anyone from buying a netbook, I just don’t want anyone to be me a few months down the road realizing that my new little gadget doesn’t do all the things that I expected.

In conclusion, if you are a light internet surfer, watch a few Youtube videos here and there and don’t need to do anything that intensive on a computer like gaming or graphics then a netbook might be a good choice for you. But if you are into even light gaming or have a big music collection etc…, I would highly recommend getting a regular laptop and maybe even an iPod touch to go with it.

Microsoft has plans to open a Microsoft Café in Paris. This café has been created to muster up some interest in Windows 7 and Windows products in general. The café will be equipped with different Microsoft products such as the Xbox and computers for the cliental to mess around with. Though the café will not sell any Microsoft products per se, they will have the general café fare of coffee and pastries. Because hey, it is France after all! The café will be open from October 22 and on, and will close a few weeks later. It’s sad to think that with all Microsoft does, the food business won’t become a permanent part of their product line. I would love to get up in the morning and have a Vista cookie and a cup of Excel coffee.

In recent developments, some photos of some very cool looking phones which have been jointly developed by Sharp and Microsoft have been leaked.

These Phones will run on Windows Mobile 7 which should be out later this year. Both devices sport a QWERTY keyboard and maybe even a touch screen with the lack of physical buttons on the face of the device. We will have to see what further developments come of these devices.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I’ve been swamped with the first weeks of school.

I recently got my beta invite to LifeIO after missing my opportunity on TechCrunch to get one. LifeIO is basically an one stop shop for everything online concerning your calender, social sites, web IM and much more.

I found LifeIO to be useful in someways, I don’t know if it’s just me, but i did not really find the LifeIO interface to be all that great. It feels very claustrophobic with different information everywhere and the news feeds quickly scrolling up and down on the right hand column. I found the IM capabilities to be decent, but still can’t compete with such services such as Meebo. The Social Network tab was also quite limited giving you only Facebook wall posts and the usual simple Twitter feed. The Shopping feature is very basic and not very functional, they might want to scrap that one. The only features that I found fairly useful was the Calender and the To-do List which can be easily replicated with an add on to a web mail client. Finally the LifeIO email reader, it’s very unorganized and could really use account separation boxes and a bit more “flashy” graphics to make it pleasing to the normal consumer.

In truth, LifeIO is still in beta with a small amount of users, but I would recommend that they greatly simplify their interface making it similar to the Asus EEE Pc Linux operating system in a way, large Icons with good functionality and more graphics.  Otherwise LifeIO is still a decent service that is worth checking out.

You can visit them here.

Earlier today I had the privilege of speaking with James Wanless from Talkster.  Talkster is a multi featured free international calling site which offers other services such as cheap international texting and picture messaging besides their well equipped voice services. You can visit them here, and for the mobile application/lite application click here. Thanks to James for the interview!

Jeff: How is it that Talkster is able to offer International calls free of charge?

James Wanless: Talkster is offering a freemium pricing model. The free world dialing is an ad supported application providing our customers with long distance and international calling. More and more of our customers are looking for more than just a free call. Typically they have a core group of friends that they set up Free World Dialing numbers for, but they also have a lot of other people that they communicate with and for this use the paid part of our service to make calls and text these other people that they communicate with perhaps on a less frequent basis.

Jeff: Can you explain what the new feature Talki is and how it’s used?

James Wanless: Talki is an Application that you can install onto your mobile phone and there is also a lite version that can be accessed via the mobile device’s browser. Talki is an easy to use application that offers the following features:

-Cheap calls to anywhere in the world
-Options to send cheap text and picture messages to anywhere in the world (prices range from 2-5 cents a text)
If your friend also has Talki on their mobile phone you can send messages back and forth free of charge, You only have to pay for the small amount of data used.

Talkster began with the free world dialing service; but customers wanted more. What more? They don’t want a new number for every person that they call. So we decided to make it even simpler. Talkster introduced a paid calling service that consumers can use to make cheap calls to any number. But customers wanted more communication options such as text and picture messaging also. Talki is a combination of all the things that our customers asked for in one place.

Jeff: Does Talkster have any new features that will be rolling out anytime soon?

James Wanless: We will soon begin offering our communication platform to 3^rd parties to white label it for themselves. Branded companies will soon be using the Talkster platform to communicate with their networks using the Talkster functionality.

Jeff: Does Talkster plan to release any applications for the iPhone or the Google Android platforms?

James Wanless: Yes, Talkster will soon be releasing applications for the iPhone, Windows Mobile devices and Android devices besides our current Java application.

Jeff: How do you feel about competitors such as Rebtel,Jahjah and others?

James Wanless: Unlike Talkster, Rebtel is very focused on just calling; they have chosen this as their area. Jajah which is making their network open to many different companies to transport calls but in reality Jajah is competing more with phone companies than anything else.

Jeff: The communications industry has seen amazing leaps in technological advances in the last 10-15 years.  What innovations can you imagine in the next 10-15 years that could change the market as we know it today?

James Wanless: Technology really is a means to an end. Consumers care nothing about technology; they only care about the service that they can derive from the use of technology. Price continues to be driven down and people use the services more and more because of the lower prices. Soon all communications will be available on a single and most importantly mobile device. There will be better access to texting, voice calling, video calling and more.

I think the problem today is that people aren’t wowed by technology anymore. There used to be that when someone called from California to New York, everyone would run to the phone and be amazed that they were talking to someone from such a long distance away. Now that is not the case, texting has turned into the main mode of communication. The wow factor needs to be brought back to the simple telephone call. Hopefully with 3^rd generation and 4^th generation networks which will provide voice and data session simultaneously will accomplish that. Someone could be browsing the web and sending pictures to a friend while on the phone. The integration of texting and a voice conversation included with simultaneous data sessions will revolutionize the market and the way we communicate.