Cloudy Days and Connected Nights

CULV Acer Aspire 1810TZ trounces HP Mini 311 ION in every way that matters to me

Straight up: despite the hype, while the Atom/ION platform provides some advantage over a conventional netbook on at least some real world applications, it does not begin to compare to the dual core CULV machines that share the same form factor and similar pricing.

The CULV Aspire Timeline 1810TZ with a dual core Pentium U4100 and Windows 7 Home Premium is two to three times faster than the HP Mini 311 with Atom 270, W7HP, and the full ION, on all of the things that matter to me…and it does, with ease, things the HP Mini still simply can not do well, or do at all.

Pairing the nVidia ION graphics accelerator with an Atom 270 is like pairing an energetic professinal sprinter (nVidia ION graphics acceleration) with a six-year-old (Atom processor) for the three legged race. There are portions of the course where the sprinter carries most of the weight and they go faster than the six-year-old can on his own, but for most of the course, the pair are pretty much limited to the six-year-old’s pace…certainly, tied leg to leg, they never achieve the pace you would expect, or hope for, from a professional sprinter.

Of course, if you allow the sprinter to pick the 6-year-old up and carry him, they do go, at least for a short time, faster. You see a lot of bench-marks published for the HP Mini 311 where that is essentially what they have done. In the real world the course is much more varied, and very few programs are written to allow the sprinter to do all the work.

On the other hand, in the CULV machine, you have an enthusiastic 14-year-old gamer (the GM4500 integrated graphic acceleration) paired leg to leg with a talented advanced amateur sprinter (child of a pro, maybe not turned pro yet but showing the breeding of one: the ULV processor, often dual core). They might not match the speed of the pro-sprinter, and they might not even match the full possible speed of the amateur, but they certainly will, and do, run circles around the Atom/ION pair. At least, as I say, in any three legged race that matters to me.

If you want to know how I came to this conclusion: read on.

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If you are in the market for a slightly bigger, more powerful, higher resolution, alternative to a conventional Atom Netbook, as I recently have been, you have basically two choices:

1) An ION powered super netbook like the 11.6 inch, 1366×768 resolution, HP Mini 311…or…

2) A CULV powered, 11.6 or 12.1 inch mini-laptop (thin-and-light) with the same screen resolution, like the Acer Aspire One 1410s/Timeline 1810s, or the Asus U20.

The ION platform pairs a conventional netbook Atom 270 or 280 processor with the nVidia ION Graphics Accelerator. This combination, in theory, should boost performace just where netbooks are weakest, in the graphics department.

The CULV machines (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) come with low voltage versions of the processors that power real computers: single and dual core Centrinos, Pentiums, and Core2s, paired with integrated GM4500 graphics acceleration. The low voltage requirement means they do not have the full processing power of their larger siblings, but they do provide incredible (by last year’s standards) battery life, and large bump up in general processing power from the Atoms.

On the graphics front, there is no doubt that the discrete ION acceleration engine is much more powerful, and potentially considerably faster, than the integrated GM4500 graphics engine that runs with the CULV machines.

I recently, kind of by accident, ended up testing both an HP Mini 311 ION based machine and a CULV Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ. Long story, but the gist is that I installed all my work-a-day applications on both machines and compared performance side by side, doing the kinds of things I do everyday on my netbook/laptop, and the kinds of things I want to be able to do, but could not on my trusty netbook.

My previous travel workhorse was the 10 inch, Atom based, Windows XP Acer Aspire One 250, about which I have nothing but good to say, and I have owned and used two other Celeron based netbooks from Asus, a 7 inch Linux machine, and a 10 inch XP, both with SSDs instead of hard drives.

What I need my travel computer to do is:

1) all my net based stuff, surfing, twitter, facebook, smugmug, flickr, gmail, google reader, etc. etc: so basically the machine must run Chrome really well. Adobe AIR is a strong second since I use some AIR based twitter and facebook clients.

2) process and catalog my images on the road: it has to run Lightroom, and should run PhotoShop Elements (ideally at the same time).

3) display decent quality steaming video from Hulu and CBS.com. I don’t watch TV…but I do follow some shows on the internet.

4) open and do some light editing on MicroSoft Office documents: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Office, or one of the immitations, must run at least okay.

5) manage my iTunes library and my iPhone apps: iTunes 9 is right at the limits of what an Atom processor is up to, believe one who has a lot of experience.

My Aspire One handles all that relatively well. Lightroom and PhShEl at the same time is painful, but marginally possible. Editing a PPT on a screen that small can be done…just.

What I want my new machine to do, that the Aspire One could never handle, is:

6) play 720 HD video from my camera: QuickTime? Windows Media Player? Media Player Classic? Don’t care. It just as to work. (My Aspire One could just about manage Media Player Classic…if I shut down everything else, and ignored the occasional abrupt jump in the video.)

7) edit 720 HD video: much harder. I never did find a program that would come even close on the Aspire One.

So, with those needs in mind, and mindful of the new ION and CULV offerings, along about Thanksgiving, I went shopping. I spent two days reading reviews and studying specs, and then ordered the HP Mini 311 with ION graphics and Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit. Again, part of the long story, but a week later I ordered an Aspire Timeline 1810TZ with dual core Pentium su4100, with integrated GM45oo graphic acceleration, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.

I now have both machines, and I have installed all my software on each. I upgraded the HP to 3 Gigs of memory, and the Aspire came with 3 Gigs. I enabled ReadyBoost on both, using identical SanDisk Cruzer flash drives. And I have run tests on the things that matter to me. Not scientific. Not bench-marks. Just press Start on an action and the stopwatch on my iPhone at the same time, and hit stop when the action finishes. Twice. Once on each machine using identical files and identical actions. I also tested HD video in various players, Hulu full screen, and garnered an impression of routine acts like sliding the sliders in Lightroom, scrolling in Adobe AIR apps and Chrome, etc.

Results, in no particular order. And remember, the HP Mini is already faster than the Aspire One 250 in almost every action, by at least a noticeable amount.

PhotoShop Elements 7.o

Smart Adjust action on same image
HP: 10 sec./Acer: 4.8 sec.

Unsharp Mask, radius 30, amount 18
HP: 8 sec./Acer: 1.3 sec.

Adjust colors: + 2 blue:
HP: 2.8 sec./Acer: 1.1 sec.

Filter: Brush strokes; ink outline
HP: 12.5 sec./Acer: 9 sec.

Lightroom
export jpeg to disk: (includes rendering changes on original file as well as saving to disk)
HP: 12.5 sec. /Acer: 3.9 sec.

edit psd copy with Lr changes in PhShEl
(from pressing start to image open in PhShEl, includes time to render copy, open PhShEl, load image)
HP: 33 sec. /Acer: 10 sec.

Switch modules and load image for development.
HP: 7.3 sec. /Acer: 2.4 sec. (takes longer the first time the Dev. module is used)

Windows Movie Maker
2 min. video from 720 HD file, with title, save to disk as .avi
HP: 11:50 sec. / Acer: 5:06 sec.

Cyberlink Director 8
same vid with transition saved as .avi
HP: 4:54 sec. /Acer: 1:39 sec.

In addition:
The Acer plays 720p HD video in QuickTime Player without stutters. HP will not.

There is a very slight delay in Lightroom sliders on the HP. None on the Acer.

The Acer plays 720p HD clips in the edit module of Corel VideoStudio 2x just fine. HP will not. In fact, HD video editing is very possible on the Acer using either Corel or Cyberlink. It is problematic on the HP at best.

Both machines play Hulu streaming video at full screen very smoothly.

Scrolling in Seesmic Desktop (Adobe AIR app) is noticeably faster and smoother on the Acer, as is scrolling in Chrome…but both are enough better than the Aspire One to make the differences between the HP and Acer insignificant.

It is not that the HP Mini 311 is slow…it is significantly faster than a conventional Atom netbook in most routine actions, even in Lightroom and PhotoShop Elements. It is just not at all fast compared to a CULV, dual core machine like the Aspire.

So, not scientific at all. But enough so that the HP Mini is going back to Amazon, and the Aspire Timeline 1810TZ will be my new travel computer. No doubt. The HP Mini with ION might excel in a few tasks, and with a few apps, but day-in and day-out, at least the way I work and the way my days go, the CULV based Timeline 1810TZ is simply the more capable machine.

Every one of the Netbooks I have owned so far (4, but who is counting? 2 Asus, 1 Acer, 1 HP) have had the same USB problem. 3 ports, two on the right and one on the left. 3 is often just not enough. If you use a mouse, there goes one. If you have a portable external drive, there goes another. If you then want to transfer files to or from a USB flash drive, or attach an external optical drive, or a card reader, or your ipod…or all of them at once…

And, so far, on every machine I have owned the two ports on the right are simply too close together. There is no way you can plug two flash drives in there at the same time, and even one flash drive and anything else is a problem, unless the USB cable on the second device is much more dainty than usual.

And worse, anything you plug into the right side USB ports sticks out into your mouse space and is forever in the way when you are mousing around. Invariably you run into the USB cable or flash drive just short of being able to drop the file you are dragging into the destination folder. Hassle!

Therefore an external USB hub is a really attractive accessory for the Netbook. I recently stumbled on what may be the best USB hub for a Netbook. It is certainly the best I have yet found.

It is from igogear, and its obvious attraction is that the ports are in the top of the device, well spaced, so you can plug almost anything in there without issue. Not so obvious, but even better, is the built in mini-USB connector tucked away in the side of the unit. The packaging says it is for charging devices with mini-USB charging ports, but in fact, checking the more complete description on the igogear website reveals that it is a fully functioning USB mini port, capable of both charging and data transfer. That means if, as I do, you regularly use a portable drive to extend the drive space of your Netbook (my current HP Mini has a generous 250 gig HD, but that fills up fast when working with photos, video, and music), you can plug the hub into a single USB port, uncoil the mini-USB cord and plug, and attach the HD directly to the hub. That leaves you with all three USB hub ports still open. Plus you eliminate one USB  cord from your workspace. How cool is that?

This is harder to describe than it is to see…take a close look at the pic. That’s my wireless mouse receiver sticking up, and you can see the protable Seagate FreeAgent drive attached directly to the hub. No mess. No fuss. Elegant.

The price is right too. Check it out on the igogear site. I got mine for $10 on sale at Target. What a deal!

Hot topic. Yesterday saw the release of the new and improved TweetDeck and the matching iPhone TweetDeck, hard on the heals of the first non-preview version of seesmic desktop. Seesmic has been slowly overtaking TweetDeck in the features race, if  not in actual user base, and clearly TweetDeck is fighting back hard.

Let me say right up front that in my mind seesmic has been the app to catch for quite a few releases. I never warmed to TweetDeck, and therefore I am not addicted to its UI or feature set. I don’t have an investment in TweetDeck groups, etc. On the other hand, seesmic has been my desktop twitter (and Facebook) client for several generations now, and I, maybe, am biased through habituation to its UI and feature set.

So, lets just say that TweetDeck would have to try really hard to win me over. Did they try hard enough in this last release?

The primary reason I invested my time in seesmic in the first place was the ability to follow and manage multiple twitter accounts. TweetDeck, until this release, could not do that…so it was, for me, a non-starter. With the new version, TweetDeck not only adds multiple Twitter accounts, but establishes an master TweetDeck account (one account to rule them all) which allow you to log in to all your accounts with a single log-in, and, allows TweetDeck to sync your account info (groups, columns, read/unread etc.) across multiple computers and devices.

Of course, along the way seesmic began to add Facebook features. First the ability to post updates to your FB account, view your stream and like updates, and then, wonder of wonders, full integration, with the ability to comment on friends’ updates. With full FB integration, seesmic desktop became the one app I always have open on my desktop.

I even began to use the UserLists (groups) features and the saved Twitter searches. All very easy and very useful. To add a user to a list/group, just click on the gear icon in the atvar, choose add to Userlist, and pick your list from a dialog.

Seesmic also, to my mind, has the most natural way of managing @ (mentions), DMs, your posts, and favorites. Little icons across the bottom of the Twitter columns are one click fast in pulling up the selected items for your view. No new columns to deal with. When done, just click the Home icon to return to the normal view of your friends’ tweets.

It should be noted that you can have all tweets, from all accounts, as well as your Facebook updates, appear in the same column if you want, and use the navigation panel provided to navigate to @, DM, Favs, etc.

Then too, seesmic makes finding individual users profiles dead simple. You can click any @user and their profile and recent tweets appear in the column, or you can type in a user search field and find anyone. So easy.

This last release (o.3rc) fills in a few of the remaining gaps. You can now simultaniously post to any combination of your open Twitter and Facebook accounts. You can set the app to intelligently reply only to the account where you hit the reply icon (very slick).  And, for UI fanatics, the Update bar now sits narrow and restrained at the top until you click it…then it expands to a two line text entry box.

Of course, seesmic has full integration with url shorteners, including (new this release) the ability to use your own bit.ly account for statistical purposes. Seesmic can post pics to any one of  5 different services, using either personal (generally Twitter) accounts or the default account.

So what does seesmic not do? There is still no way to view a list of your friends (a la Tweetie or Twitterfon or Twitter.com for that matter). There is no conversation view for @ or DMs, so to find out what tweet some cryptic Reply is referring to, you are booted out to the Twitter.com site, where you see the single referenced tweet and nothing else. We are spoiled by the iPhone clients who manage @ and DM conversations much more elegantly.

And no Trends, though the very effective Twitter search makes up for it somewhat.

Both seesmic and TweetDeck, of course, suffer from what is, in my opinion, the major frustration of AIR apps…flaky browser integration (at least with Chrome…I have not tested other browsers). When you click a link in a tweet or update, it really looks like the app has died while it is sending the url to the browser and the browser is dealing with it. And it takes an unacceptably (imho)  long time to deal.  (seesmic, at least, is developing a browser-based version which may eliminate this issue.)

The major advantage, to my mind, for TweetDeck at the moment is the iPhone version and the ability to sync between iPhone and desktop…and between any number of desktops. That is cool!

However, on first impressions, I just can not like TweetDeck desktop a whole lot. I don’t like separate columns for @ (mentions), DMs, and Favs (even if you can hide them). I do not like the Facebook integration, which lacks the ability to post or view comments (a killer for me).

So, okay, with use I might come to accept the way TweetDeck does its business. In fact, I am certain that I would, and especially if I began using some of its deeper features. What you can do with individual tweets, for instance, is impressive. And the though neither seesmic or TweetDeck have trends in the usual sense of Twitter.com or the iPhone clients, TweetDeck has some unique tools: TweetDeck recommends, StockTwits, and TwitScoop. I will admit I have not experimented with them much at all. And, of course, you might actually prefer the TweetDeck way out of the gate…and you are certain to favor it over seesmic if TweetDeck is already your client of choice.

So, what about the iPhone TweetDeck.

Way cool!

The interface is elegant (with some obvious, not to say glaring, lapses), fully functional, and does a very good job of translating the desktop TweetDesk experience to the smaller screen of the iPhone. Columns appear first as smaller windows (very like pages in the Safari browser multi page view) which you can flick through (or even rearrange using the same metaphor used for rearranging apps on the iPhone screen), and which open to full screen with a tap. Once open you can flick sideways to move between columns. Here we have one of those glaring UI things. There is a huge arrow at the bottom of the column that you can tap to move to the next column if you don’t want to flick…two arrows if you are in a center column…which is, imho, a total waste of space. A little popup telling how to navigate columns on the first use  (or until you turn it off) would eliminate the need for the ugly (and huge!) arrows.

Major fail! No Facebook in the iPhone app. Not even the limited integration of the desktop version. Massive fail! Worse. You can’t even post to Facebook from the iPhone app. Can you hear the sorrow in my voice as I report this inexplicable fail?

Also, I managed to crash the iPhone TweetDeck already, while viewing a linked web page in the in-line browser.

So, no, as far as I am concerned, TweetDeck did not try hard enough to overcome the lead seesmic desktop has in features and UI on the desktop (unless you really need TwitScoop, etc.). Facebook integration alone, even if there were no other differences, would decide it for me. And even though the TweetDeck iPhone app is one of the most inventive uses of the OS I have yet seen, it offers no compelling reason to switch from the much more fully featured Tweetie or Twitterfon Pro.

I am waiting, with bated breath, as they say, for seesmic’s iPhone app. I only hope they manage to shoehorn Facebook in there as they have on the desktop, and that they preserve the one column multi function model made popular by Tweetie and Twitterfon (and seesmic desktop for that matter). That would make it a killer social client for the iPhone, and make seesmic the clear choice for both desktop and mobile applications.

Yes you can!

AVS through its site at AVS4You.com offers a full range of video and audio editing, conversion, recording, and burning tools which, despite the system requirements published for the various programs, work just fine on an Atom powered N’tbook.

AVS4You program manager.

They have a pretty unique licensing system too. You pay a flat fee for a one year, or unlimited (your choice) license key, and that gives you access to all their programs. Yes all. And to upgrades as they happen. Considering the quality and number of their offerings, this is pretty spectacular. Enter your key for any of their programs and a little program manager app downloads which allows you to download and install what you need from their library with a single click for each program. Could not be easier.

I was looking specifically for a program to edit AVCHD files from the new Sony Webbie HD cameras. There are not many out there. I turned AVS up in a Google search.

Despite the descriptions, you do not want the AVSVideoRemaker. You what Video Editor 4, which imports and edits AVCHD files with ease, and allows you to save the edited files in any number of useful formats.

AVSVideoEdit 4

It runs well on my Aspire One 150. You need to set the screen to 1024×768 in the video control panel to get to the buttons on the bottom of some of the screens but with auto scroll it is not an issue.  AVCHD files import flawlessly, and the editing functions work without undue lag. You can not play back the clips in real time (they are somewhat jerky on an Atom based computer) but you can easily trim clips, add effects, add text, install fades, etc. It is not real snappy, but it works and is certainly usable. Comparison testing with my work laptop (duel core)  shows that the N’tbook is a bit slower on all edit functions, and takes about 1/3 again as much time encoding a 10 minute video to MPEG. Acceptable for N’tbook use,  imho.

You might also want the DVD Creator from AVS, and the VideoConverter. Both worth the download. The AVS Video Player is also an interesting alternative to Windows Media Player (but see below on MediaPlayerClasssic).

And while we are boosting video programs, if you need to play AVSHD files on your N’tbook, you need a copy of WindowsMediaPlayerClassic. It is the only player I have found so far that will play AVSHD files smoothly on an Atom based N’tbook. For a download try here.

So, yes, video editing on a N’tbook is possible, even in HD. And they said it could not be done!

Workstation for the Week

For the past week I have been totally dependent on my Acer Aspire One. Through a series of unfortunate events, my work laptop got left in California and is wending its slow way back to Maine via UPS. (Ever try to set up a remote pick-up of something in CA while in ME? Without labels? Not easy.)

During that week I have had to create a major Powerpoint presentation for work, with Excel charts and graphs, knock out two other PPTs, keep up with my blogs (4), Twitter and Facebook, and all my personal and work email (had to redirect and forward all work email from by Blackberry, which is still, thank God, connected to the Blackberry enterprise server and picks up my work email).

I have edited photos in Lightroom and Photoshop Elements, uploaded to both Flickr and Smugmug, downloaded a huge app and one album in iTunes (and synced to the iPhone). For a blog entry, I took 20 screen shots on the iPhone, and downloaded them to the computer via USB.

In creating the PPT for work, I had two portable drives and 2 flash drives connected to the One at the same time (used a hub), looking for backups of files that are on my work laptop.

I have printed wirelessly to my networked HP printer.

In other works, I did a pretty complete week’s business on my n’tbook.

And it was no strain at all. Everything worked. Everything got done.

So when you read the industry disclaimers that N’tbooks are fine for light internet related stuff, but not for serious business, you can pretty much laugh them off. Unless you do 3D graphics or video rendering for a living, a n’tbook is all you need. No strain. You can get the job done.

Clearly, given the price of n’tbooks these days, and the price of real serious laptops (like for real business and work), this is a fact that the industry would like to downplay…would like to keep secret…would like to bury under lots of fine sounding disclaimers. If a n’tbook can really replace a full sized laptop for most business work, then who is going to pay for all those business laptops?

Not me. In the next round of laptop appropriations at work, I am going to request a n’tbook (now that Dell makes one…our IT will only buy Dell???). I travel 170 days a year. Why would I carry anything else?

And, if my work laptop had been a n’tbook, it would not have gotten left in California due to that series of unfortunate events I mentioned earlier. And I would not be writing this. Go figure.