By Evan Ackerman

It’s unclear where exactly the line between netbook and small laptop is, but the Mouse computer LB-F1500W certainly blurs it by including an optical drive. Not just a CD drive, either… They’ve crammed a DVD burner in there. The rest of the specs are fairly bland, including a 1.6 GHz Atom, a gig of ram, a 160 gig HD, 10.2″ 1024 x 600 display, and Windows XP Home.

Is this a useful feature to have on a netbook? I have my doubts. There are certainly specific instances where having an optical drive comes in handy, but is it something that’s necessary to a computer that’s designed to be (generally) minimalist and efficient? It would be nice for, say, being able to watch a DVD while on the plane or something. But I’m sure battery life takes a pretty significant hit and the computer has got to weigh more and have a larger case, all things that netbooks were designed specifically to avoid. A much better solution would be to just get a little external USB powered DVD drive to have when you want it… And even with that, you’ll still probably be saving money over the 9 price of the LB-F1500W if you get yourself something better. Like, oh, I don’t know, maybe an MSI Wind?

VIA [ CrunchGear ]

Link to the original article…

‘Tis the season to… backup and synchronize? There’s nothing like coming home and finding out that your machine will not start up, that you’ve lost some files because of a bad file copy between locations or worse, hard drive failure. Been there, done that… kicked a hole in the wall.

Now, I back up my files from my main machine to a hard drive that has a network connection.

But every now-and-then, I also tend to have files on my other machine’s hard drive that aren’t the same as my networked hard drive or my main machine. It’d be nice to have a way to synchronize the files and let me know which file is newer while I’m manually doing my backup.

And to throw in that I might take some files to work with me on my 16gb USB thumb drive… I might have up to four different versions of the same project or file(s) and if I switch to my other machines, I might be making more work than necessary. Enter Siber Systems Inc. GoodSync and Scooter Software, Inc. Beyond Compare.

The two software, at the core, do the same thing in regards to synchronize files (mp3′s, work files, code) between web, network, physical (hard drive, thumb drive, other computer) and other locations.

Beyond Compare 3.0 - Comparing between two locations

Beyond Compare just recently hit version 3.0 and I had used it at the office countless times to take my local work up to the file server or web server at the click of a button. It saves profiles and on refresh, it would show you in a different color which file was newer. Beyond Compare does interface the Windows operating system by allowing you to right click on one file and setting it up to be compared to another file. I use this feature a ton to see which index.php file is the most updated one or to see the differences in the code. Yep… it’ll open up the files and you can actually see via it’s built in editor the actual code differences. Not to mention it’s new 3-way merge functionality – I love this feature.

But the interface to it can sometimes get in the way – it’s deceptively easy to actually move a file across between locations instead of copy and that means it’s a one way transfer. And it’s FTP functionality leaves a lot to be desired. SFTP was hit or miss for me in most cases.

Goodsync comparing between two folders

GoodSync is another file synchronization software. Immediately after setting up a job in it’s interface – which I actually like a lot better than Beyond Compare’s – all I had to do was hit the Analyze button and I could quickly see what files were new, altered and needed to be synchronized. Just a quick tap on the button and my files were updated across my network with ease. As a long-time Beyond Compare user, I went into testing between the two like I would never like GoodSync 7.5.

I was wrong. I truly ended up liking it. SFTP performance was top notch. Never a hiccup. There’s also a 64-bit version as well. It handled, cataloged and compared, as well as refreshed on a 32gb music folder faster than Beyond Compare. Again… the interface is clear enough to where even my mother could follow it easily. The newer interface on Beyond Compare just isn’t as friendly, despite being more friendly in it’s current iteration – I prefer GoodSync’s interface. Synchronization over the web, to my networked hard drive, and even between my file shares and thumb drive went without a hitch.

However, this is where the two products differ. Beyond Compare is definitely a coder’s best friend. It allows for quick perusal and comparison of code in *.txt, *.php, *.html, *.as, *.xml among other files with it’s built in text editor with the greatest of ease on top of synchronization. GoodSync does not have a built in editor, so if you right click on a file and open it, it will open up your associated editor for that file – which in the case of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, it can be a very long wait sometimes.

Ease of use definitely goes to GoodSync. A more refined and friendly interface lends itself well to a consumer that just wants to update and synchronize files between locations.

So if you’re a developer, you can’t go wrong with Beyond Compare:

And if you’re savvy and carry your files around or have scattered files, you seriously need to look into GoodSync:

Beyond Compare retails for $30.00 for the Standard version and $50.00 for the Pro version which adds SFTP and a few other options, view the comparison here. GoodSync has a Shareware version, but the added functionality of the unlimited jobs (how you setup synchronization between locales and files) make the Pro version at $29.95 worth it, view the comparison here.

[ GoodSync ] [ Beyond Compare ]

I had gotten my first MagicJack USB VoIP device on July, 19 2007. After one small business trip, it somehow stopped working but the guys over at MagicJack replaced it without question last October. So my “one year review” truly started in October, 19 2007.

A year later, I have gone from Windows 2003 Server SP2 to Windows Vista SP1 – I know, I know… it still sucks – switched professions and cities, and I still am using the same replacement MagicJack device. I’ve even pumped in about $50 into making overseas calls while on-the-go – the rates are “competitive” to most countries… but honestly still a disappointment to some other countries compared to other VoIP options.

The good news, I just renewed for another year of phone calls within the US and Canada for some $20 USD for the entire year. The device has been updated at least 5 times using their upgrade process, only once have I had to manually update it – that was during my switch to Vista. It was quick, painless… and it seems that I was somewhat fortunate. I’ve read about some horror stories over at The Unofficial magicJack Support Forum. The unofficial site that is about one of the only sources for reliable help if you have questions since magicJack’s main website is mostly about just selling the device. You can still get assistance via their live chat at magicjack.com, but it’s only active after you use search.

The bad news. You will have to always keep a machine up and running in order to receive a phone call. For the geek type that loves to have uptime records to brag about, that’s great. For somebody like my mother that treats her computer much like a lamp… it’s off the moment she walks out of the room; that’s going to be a problem if you wish to receive a phone call via the magicJack device. This is not a standalone ATA device like you’d have with Vonage. MagicJack uses your main machine – it only works in Windows XP and Vista, as well as Intel Mac OS X – to receive a phone call. No Linux version yet.

Once you open up the blister pack, place it into an USB2 port and after a very quick and simple registration process, you will be up and running in no time. Place a regular phone into the back of the magicJack device, hit talk on the telephone and you should hear a dialtone; dial all 10 digits of whomever you’re calling in the US/Canada… and you’re golden. I think even my own mother could set this up without even calling me once.

Along with a my.magicjack.com account that will mirror your e-mail and password that you input earlier, the system will prompt you to how to get into your voicemail within the actual phone application itself. You can use either a headset and microphone or use the aforementioned connected telephone. While traveling, I’ve actually hijacked the telephone in the hotel room and plugged it into the magicJack device instead of carrying around another telephone with me or even a headset for that matter. But if I were to use the device at a coffee shop, I’d probably switch to a headset to avoid whipping out a big telephone and looking crazy.

Then again, I might just eBay an old rotary phone for the heck of it now.

If you have good broadband access – my cable modem is rated at 3mb/s down, 1mb/s up normally – your voice clarity will be as good as a cellphone, if not better. I’ve had compliments from people when I call them using magicJack. But as with anything that’s bandwidth dependent, if you get busy downloading things, or use something that likes to hog the bandwidth, like Skype or bit torrents, your voice quality will suffer. Google around and turn off Skype’s supernode if you insist on using that program.

Using the thing now is like second nature. I walk in, grab a phone, dial a number, the software window pops up – it autoruns on windows start, and will pop up each and every time you minimize it, then use the telephone. There are ways to remove this nature as well. I’ve found some good tutorials on how to do so over at the Unofficial MagicJack Forum. But to be honest… it just works.

Sure, there’s been a few times it failed – I might have dialed too fast, missed a number, or the software didn’t register a few numbers I dialed. I tend to dial quite fast, so it happens quite a bit. But the speed dial numbers work every time. Perhaps I’m a clumsy dialer. It rings just like a regular phone, if you leave a message, they see the number – but not the proper name, it just says whichever city you got your number from usually. And speaking of numbers, magicJack has quite a list of area codes and numbers. Not all areas are covered – my part of South Carolina is not covered at all – but since most cellphones have the ability to call long distance now, or in my case I use a Grandcentral number for local numbers – that’s really not an issue. And if you call overseas, you will hear before it attempts to connect you an approximate amount of minutes announced before it dials out. To me, that’s a plus.

With how to use it and how it sounds out of the way, my gripes are very simple. I don’t like the fact that I have to keep my machine running, always. The machine my magicJack device is hooked up to… it’s loud. Like Boeing 777 about to take off loud. In order to make phone calls overseas, you have to pre-pay. Which isn’t a problem, but they don’t accept Paypal. And that… annoys me somewhat. Being a windows process control freak, I do not like the fact that it installs an USB driver that’s always started up – UTSCSI.exe. And for some reason, on my machine, magicJack doesn’t always autostart; which is resolved by merely double clicking the magicJack icon. Nothing major, but it’s a gripe if I were in a rush and thought it was already running.

There are a few other minor gripes; however it just works fine for me – but I’m a casual telephone user. For a month, I had my own mother try it out. She’d get confused sometimes, miss calls and the VMail button wouldn’t announce that there was an voicemail waiting for her (they’ve since fixed this, btw) and not all of her messages came to her directly via e-mail. Some were delayed by a day or so.

This device is also not ready to replace my normal landline. True, it has e911 which works rather well – ask Vonage, it’s the same type of system. But some numbers, such as AT&T 800 numbers just refuse to work. You get some unnaturally fast busy sound. I’ve also noticed problems with toll-free numbers that start with 866 or 877 also being a problem as well. And outages aren’t that rare either.

But when it works… it’s great.

By now, I’ve rambled long enough. Is it for you? I’d say that depends… are you a casual telephone user, do you slaughter your cellphone minutes like I tend to do? Or do you just want to drop a landline and have a cheap secondary line besides your cellphone? I’d say go for it. If you want to replace your landline… I’d say try it out first. If you want to make this your sole telephone line… I’d just honestly say “Don’t do it and wait for another option.”…

All in all… 3.5 out of 5 (It’s good)

It doesn’t really add any new features that I can immediately tell. It doesn’t reduce the memory usage. It doesn’t even make my Vista experience on an AMD 6400+ Black edition processor with SATAII drives, 2GB of Corsair memory and an ATi HD 2600XT with 512mb GDDR3 memory seem any faster.

In fact, it really didn’t make anything break, slower or worse.

And that’s a good thing. Microsoft didn’t break anything. My anti-virus software still works. As does my NetLimiter Pro firewall. As does my MagicJack, Skype, Pidgin, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. I still have to clean up crap with CCleaner occasionally, and above all it didn’t stop VLC from working…

It didn’t make anything seem faster, but it didn’t make anything seem slower. So… job well done Microsoft. You had the chance to make Vista seem better… and you didn’t capitalize.

If it makes you feel better, I feel like Leopard, before Apple OS X 10.5.2 that is, had slowed down on superior software. Running Windows XP on this same machine is like moving at mach speed. Running OS X 10.4.11 on the same hardware seems to make 10.5/10.5.1 seem slow as well. At least 10.5.2 made things better, at least on the machines that I use.

Here’s to hoping that SP2 make Vista better; SP1 did not.