HP Chromebook 14 - 6 months into using it.

I've now had the HP Chromebook 14 for about 6 months, and I think it's time that I give it a fair review and explain why this is not only my first HP review, but quite possibly, the last one.


Performance. 

In the performance department, you should expect nothing but to be impressed. True, it's not the best processor available and so on, but it performs remarkably well no matter what I throw at it (I don't play games or use intensive video processing applications for example, and these will probably get it into trouble, but for the coding I need at university, for listening to music, word processing, browsing the web a lot, it works just fine). I have 16 tabs open in Chrome at the moment, a YouTube song playing in one of the tabs, Skype running in the background and a few terminal windows opened, and it doesn't have any issue handling all these. It moves like it had only one thing opened at a time. And for the battery life, it expects about 6 hours with all these opened, so it that is really fine.

Build quality, ports.

I love its design, it does really look good in my opinion. The build quality is quite good, the rubberized finished on feels absolutely great, and handles usage quite well. True, there are some light marks on the edges caused by the case I was using with it, but I can't attribute that as a fault to HP.  And there is a thing on the top of the screen which I will show in the pictures, but I can only assume they used insufficient glue to use the parts together. The ports on the machine behave outstandingly well, and the HDMI port it comes with proved of great use so far. The plastic the palm rest is made of (which also goes around the keyboard) proved to be quite impressive in quality.

Screen.

The screen is OKish. It is definitely not the best screen available, but it serves its purpose acceptably, and the colors it manages to produce are reasonable. Despite the common concerns, the resolution is just fine (especially in this price range), but the viewing angles are quite bad. Overall, I am satisfied with the screen, but would have definitely paid more for a Full HD one for example.

Touchpad and keyboard.

The touchpad is the best one I have ever used. I can't say it's better than the ones from newer MacBooks, but it is definitely on a par with them. I can only laud HP for it.

Regarding the keyboard, I have very mixed feelings about it. It behaves extraordinarily well, it is spaced enough and it feels great. But it has a huge issue, and that is, some keys tend to color in the worst possible color, pink. 

There will be some photos posted at the end of this article about this, but I had to change the saturation and improve textures for the images as a whole in order for this to be apparent in photos. It looks bad, especially in the powerful sun light or the light emitted by fluorescent tubes. The keys having this issue are probably the ones which are used more often, but this is a 6 months old machine. I began seeing this when it was only 3 months old, and it's getting worse as the time goes by.

The HP customer service (I am impressed they even bothered answering to my email) claims that this is normal, and it "is not due to a manufacturing issue, it is due to the regular usage of the computer". How on earth can a 3 months old computer have its keyboard turning pink due to regular usage? How can HP, in the first place, permit something so badly designed to get out of their factory gates (or their contractor's gates)? This keyboard should have been made in another color.. or in some other way which would have prevented this from happening. 

I was not born yesterday. I have been using lots of computers over the time, and I've rarely seen such an issue. My other Chromebook (the first Samsung one ever released) is over 2,5 years old now, and it never had such an issue with it's keyboard. That one still looks like new, while this one starting looking bad after only 3 months.

Conclusion.

In the end, I still do like the machine. It's just that HP has a customer support which treats customers like they were all born yesterday and they don't know what should expect from a computer. Would you buy a car whose color would start washing out in areas which are most often exposed to usage (the doors near the door handles?) after just 3 months? Most probably not.

For the same reason, I do recommend staying away from this laptop. Too bad it has the large 14" screen and the beautiful design, which I really like.

A serious alternative is the 13" Samsung Chromebook 2, which has just been released in the US. Samsung proved to offer much more reliable machines so far (at least when compared to HP), and I see no reason why that wouldn't go on. It has also a good design, and it has a Full HD screen (which will really smoke the one from this HP). The only potential problem with that machine? Samsung has put a ARM processor into it. I use Ubuntu for my day to day activities, and though there is stuff compiled for ARM, not anything will work on that processor.

At the end of the day, it is mostly up to you which computer would you go for, and though I agree that the HP Chromebook 14 is faster than the 13" Samsung Chromebook 2, I tend to say that the latter one would be better overall. If you need to use Linux, please be careful and check that things you'll need are compatible with the processor from the Samsung Chromebook

You can see here the navigation keys (ignore other anomalies
introduced by editing, e.g. what you're seeing on Shift).

Here you can compare "a", "s" and "d" with "z" and "x".

You can see here that the bezel of the screen is not completely
glued to the back part of the screen. Probably just insufficient
glue used.

XXLF1 radio for Galaxy Nexus, OK to install (works good).

Yesterday I installed the latest radio available for my GSM Galaxy Nexus, version XXLF1. It works without any problems, didn't occur any signal drops or anything like that. The WiFi signal seems to be the same, while the GSM signal is significantly improved (HSDPA). It's difficult to notice any battery change, but it seem to be slightly improved (30% at the end of the day).

Please note the the beginning "XX" means that this is a radio only for the European networks, so don't try to install it if you live somewhere outside the Europe. It works very good in Romania, didn't have any issues after installing (Vodafone). Tested on Jelly Bean.

Download from XDA: link (flashable zip, flash in CWM recovery). If the link becomes broken, please report in a comment and I will change it. 

In case you have issues with Market on your Android device, here is what you can try.

As you probably know, there are somewhere around 100 000 apps currently available in the Android Market, growing faster and coming forcefully behind Apple's App Store (which has around 200 000 apps). Is isn't currently any problem for Apple, but there's a matter of time until there will be a real challenge for Apple to keep up with the incredible grown of the Android Market.

However, the Market (the place from where apps for Android are officially installed) isn't a perfect app. Actually, it's quite buggy, maybe too buggy in some situations. Nexus One, a device on which the Market worked perfectly and which is considered "the Google Phone", got some problems since it was updated to 2.2. There weren't big problems until about a month ago, and, from then, my phone fails most of the times to install some updates (when more updates are available in the same time).

This is a common problem on many Android devices, and here is what you can try in order to get Android Market working properly. First, disconnect your device from wifi. Then go into Settings | Applications | Manage Applications | All (if these steps doesn't correspond to your device, just find in the settings the list with all apps).

From there, scroll down to "Market", tap on it, and then tap "Clear data", "Clear cache", and "Force stop". This will practically clear everything Market had saved about your apps. Then, connect again to wifi, and start Market. You'll be asked to Accept the "Terms of Use", and then it will list all your installed apps and the available updates on "Downloads" (just like it was before).

Now, just don't force it to update everything. Update every app from the update button (inside the app page), and make sure you don't update two or more apps in the same time. Otherwise, it will continue failing to update some of the apps.

Keep in mind that this is just a temporary solution, and doesn't work at all times. Additionally, make sure you have enough free internal storage memory on your device, as this could be the problem in some situations.

Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, declares really interesting things.

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, claims that the young users of the internet will have, most probably, to change their names in the future because of data explosion and the lack of privacy which, in his opinion, is going to be a real problem. He warns that those users who share a lot of data on the internet, for example, their location in real-time with the help of FourSquare, are at an enormous danger. By regularly following somebody's location, there is a possibility to predict that that somebody is going to be in a certain location, at a certain time.

What's worse, Facebook is the social network which is going to create the biggest problems for the young users of the internet. Eric says that by a simple search, pretending that you're a teenager now, any employer will able to find out anything about you. Practically, all what's there is only user generated content. The employer will see what you've done on Facebook, you're profile data, what you've shared with others, you're comments, and even your photos, so the employer can immediately make an idea of who you are.

And the problem is that this data can be stored even for many years, so even if you've changed a lot and you're a really serious person now, because you had a lot of fun 10 years ago and you seemed like a crazy person, for example, an employer might refuse you.

He even says that CIA doesn't need to work very much to profile you. You already profiled yourself. They just need to browse a little bit, and they'll find what they need. They recently bought web software capable of predicting the future, and this is something which says a lot.

Only the time can prove that what Google's CEO predicts now is true. And if it is, I don't see a bright future for many of us (nowadays teenagers).

Apple still doesn't admit that iPhone 4 has problems with signal reception.

Everybody hoped that Apple will, in a final, admit that the iPhone 4 has problems with signal reception, at the conference they organized today. But Apple still doesn't admit this, saying that "phones aren't perfect", and declaring that BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris and Samsung Omnia II have the same... little issues. This surely wasn't the answer that anybody wanted to hear.

The only good news is that Apple will offer free Bumpers for everybody who own an iPhone 4 (what an incredible fix, Apple!), and when they will run out of Bumpers, another accessory for your device will be offered. But this happens as long as you bought your phone before September 30th. They also claim that they spent over $100 million in special rooms, where they tested iPhone's antenna, and they didn't discover any problem. 

Moreover, they also said that only 0.55% of iPhone 4 owners called AppleCare to complain about the reception issues. If anybody finds details about this problem on the internet, who they think that is going to call them just to be told that the phone doesn't have any problem with antenna?!

Personally, I am completely disappointed by this policy of Apple. Are they ever going to admit (maybe in the following 50 years) that the iPhone 4 had problems with antenna? 

Yahoo! Messenger login issues?

Since this morning, I've been experiencing important problems when logging in into Yahoo! Messenger. In the morning, I started my desktop PC on which I got the following message several times when I tried to connect from Ubuntu, with Pidgin

Account locked: You have been logging in too frequently.  Wait a few minutes before trying to connect again.  Logging into the Yahoo! website may help.

followed by

Received invalid data.

After all these messages, it simply connected by itself. I thought that it was a problem with the way Pidgin was authenticating on Yahoo!'s servers, but in the after-noon, I tried to login from a Window-based laptop, on Yahoo! Messenger 10, and surprise. It said that my password was wrong. OK, I gave it another try. And then another one. And I continued like this five more times.

In an end, I got an error which said that the messenger can't communicate normally to its servers (actually, my password wasn't wrong). After I got this, I successfully logged in at the following try.


I have no idea which is the problem, but I hope that Pidgin was wrong. I mean, I don't login frequently on Yahoo! and, anyway, I think that it was referring that somebody tries again and again to login from my account so it was locked because of this (exactly, I'm afraid that somebody tries to hack it).

If you have this problem please don't hesitate to leave a comment telling us also when your problem started!

Apple promises to fix iPhone 4 signal problems via software update, experts say it's impossible.

Apple published today a letter regarding the iPhone 4 and its signal problems. Officially, it seems that the device really has some problems with the signal, and not the users were actually causing that problems (letter is available here). Apple declared that they have a failing algorithm which calculates the power of the signal, and explained the problem into the letter. They also promised that they are going to fix that problem via an update (in a few weeks), thanking everybody for their patience.

The wireless specialists don't agree with Apple. However, they say that the thing with the bad algorithm can be true, an update can possibly improve the accuracy of the displayed bars (they aren't currently displaying the real signal). But, there still is a problem. The phone loses completely the signal while in the hand, and this isn't a problem caused by a badly configured software. The experts say that this is a problem with the design of the device, when you cover with your fingers or your hand the region which causes the current problems, it will lose the signal in any situation. It doesn't matter what software it is or how it is configured, this is simply a problem with the design of antenna. 

I'm curious to see what happens when Apple will launch the next update, and which will be the people's reaction if the wireless reception problems will not be fixed. 


Full article on Gizmodo here. 

iPhone 4 just arrived, as well as major problems.

iPhone 4, the phone which "changes everything, again", seems to fail quite much this time. The guys from Engadget have been using the iPhone 4 for 6 days now (this is really interesting), and they noticed some scratches on the back of the device. Apple said that this "Gorilla Glass" which covers the front and the back of the device is...I don't know how many times resistant than normal plastic, and it is very hard to scratch.  However, the guys from Engadget got it scratched. More here (+photos).

The front of the unit doesn't stay better, also. After just 4 drops on asphalt, the screen broke. Probably the screen didn't work anymore, but they (the guys from Engadget) couldn't test that, because the device stopped working from the second drop already!!! More here (photo+video).

There are problems, again, with the screen. Many users are seeing yellow spots at the bottom of the screen. It is not known if this is a manufacturing fail or an IPS LCD issue, but it is clear that there are problems with the screen. Apple said that they are working on a fix, but it is improbable that they are going to resolve something as they had 600 000 requests on the first day of pre-orders, and most probably there are over 1 million devices coming to their customers currently. Anyway, it seems that IPS screens are harder to create than it was thought, so only a half of Apple 4 units can be delivered at expected time. So, I think that it is 99% sure that we'll have problems with the stocks, again.

There are also problems with the signal. Cellular signal. We don't know yet if there are problems with the Wi-Fi, because there weren't any reports saying this, but as Apple's products are usually having problems with the  Wi-Fi, it is expected to come in the following period reports confirming this or not. Certain is that there are major problems with the cellular signal. If the device is kept on a flat table, the signal is excellent, the new construction of Apple does it's job excellent (the antenna is integrated on the structure of the device). But in the moment you take the device in your hand, the signal decreases, until it loses it. If you put the device on the table, it gets the signal again and goes even until full.

More about these two problems here (photos+video+polls).

Are you having any of these problems? Please leave a comment to let us know if you have or not.

Nexus One, after three weeks.

I now have about three weeks since I got my Nexus One, so I'll tell you my experience with it. First of all, it's the best phone I've ever touched. It looks, feels, and moves excellent. So, here are its specifications: 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 512 MB RAM and 4GB storage card included. So, very powerful hardware.

It has a beautiful 3,7" capacitive AMOLED touchscreen, and it is a pleasure to view anything on it. Also, it has a 5-megapixel camera, with (single) LED and video recording capability. The battery has 1400 mAH, but because of the hardware, if you use it intensively it will keep you about 2 days. I am really satisfied with battery's life

Android, its operating system, is made and developed by Google, and is one which promises a lot. It's the best OS for mobile devices, in my opinion. It is the direct competitor for Apple's iPhone OS, since it comes strongly behind. Apple's AppStore has now about 180 000 applications, but the Android Market grows fast, having until now about 50 000 apps available.

Here are some problems, with the Android Market. Anybody is allowed to post any app he wants, so Google is probably not testing the applications that are in the Market. There are some ones even infected, so this is a risk for users. But it's better than how it is in the AppStore, where Apple approves and denies what he wants without any reason. One thing is clear. The Android Market grows. And the best of all, there are only free applications inside.

So, let's return to the phone. I have two words to describe what it can. Total customization. I hope you understood what I wanted to say. You have 5 screens, you can customize them how you want, you can add folders, plenty of widgets, shortcuts, you can open what application you want, let it open, open other, return to the first one without closing the other. The phone does a very efficient multi-tasking, the applications work like they are connected to each other, you have lots of options inside the apps, and on that screen.....everything is amazing.

However, I've experiencing some things that are not really ok with the phone:

• The phone started peeling off at the bottom. I think that it's from that sleeve case I got in the pack. Now I'm not using it anymore, so the phone is ok (no more peeling observed)
• When I wanted to wake up the phone, the screen didn't turn on at all. Nothing worked; I've even tried to keep the power button pressed for a few seconds, but the phone didn't wake up. The solution was to remove the battery and then turn the phone on (this happened two times).
• After keeping the phone charging for longer time, it heats quite much, but not excessively so this is not a problem.
• The power led indicator sometimes turn green, even if the phone has not been charged completely yet (it should be orange).
• The screen has also some problems, sometimes. It happened about 3 times (I think) for the touchscreen to be inaccurate when I was writing something with the keyboard(this is not a big problem). Pinch-to-Zoom works excellent in Maps, Browser and Pictures. However, via a painting application, it is obvious that if the multi-touch is used and the fingers are moved in aleatory directions, the screen is highly inaccurate. It is not known if this is a hardware or software failure, or just this is the way screen behaves, but I'm sure that somehow it will be fixed.

These were the only problems I experienced. The phone has also a trackball, which is very useful in different tasks. It also lights if there is something that you need to be notified about. What else I must tell you is that the soft buttons (back, menu, home and search) must be pressed above in order to be used. They work perfectly (don't believe the others who say they are not working as they should).

The sound when you receive a call is not high enough to hear it. I mainly hear its vibration, not its ringtone. What seems strange is that there was not implemented any file browser on the device by default. However, third party applications of this type are found on the Market.

And the biggest problem. If you search something in the Market, you can't delete that! Very unpleasant. If you search for example "gifts for my girlfriend", you won't be able to delete that so she might see that. I think that this is the biggest problem of this phone. There is a possibility to delete this history, but the phone needs a modified rom and this will void your warranty. Browser's history can be entirely deleted without any problem.

But mainly, the phone is amazing. It is everything I wanted. I've been using an iPhone for 1 year and a half, but the Nexus One is like a fresh breath. It's something new, something faster, something better. I've been using it in U.S. with a Vodafone Romania SIM, and I didn't experience any problem with the signal (you probably heard about this), using the phone on T-mobile, AT&T and Verizon. It costs about $565 in the U.S., with all tax included.

Problems with drag-and-drop gadgets on Blogger.

The problem is simple. You just can't move the gadgets from your blog. I've had this problem in the past, but now, no one of my browsers from my MacBook is capable of moving gadgets. I've tried with Chrome (5.0.307.5 dev), Safari 4.0.4 (5531.21.10) and Firefox 3.6, and the moving of gadgets is impossible. I've never expected something like this from Google...which "has" both Chrome and Blogger services.

Are you experiencing similar problems? How does drag-and-drop functionality work on Internet Explorer? I'm pretty disappointed of Google...

Nexus One. Do you like it or not ? :)

Nexus One has been recently launched, being already very popular. The phone is very performant, having inside a "monster" Qualcomm QSD 8250 Snapdragon ARM processor which runs at 1 GHz, assisted by 510 MB of RAM, which makes the device one of the most powerful available on market. It has 512 MB storage memory, and a 4GB microSD card included, with the possibility to insert storage cards up to 32 GB.

The screen (capacitive one, of course) has 3,7 inches, and a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, with 100,000:1 contrast ratio and 1 ms response rate. It has a battery which a capacity of 1400 mAh, which offers up to 290 hours on standby, 10 hours while talking, and 5 hours while browsing. The camera has 5.0 megapixels, with recording possibility, geotagging, auto focus, and flash LED.

What I don't like about it is the plastic it is made of, which gives a sensation of cheap phone. Users complained, so far, about problems with connection through 3G networks. The phone runs on 2.1 version of Android, and it is available without any contract (network free) for 529 dollars.

What do you think about the Nexus One? Do you like it or not? Do you have plans about buying one, or you have already got one?

Problems with TweetDeck shortcuts on Ubuntu Linux.

I've turned my laptop to Ubuntu a few hours ago, and, like usual, I installed a few programs, including TweetDeck. After I rebooted, I noticed that there were no shortcuts for TweetDeck anymore. I searched for it on Applications -> Internet, where isn't, and it is not even on my panel (where I put it after installation). It's not the first time I get this problem, so I've decided to report the problem to TweetDeck, hoping they have a solution (I searched through Google, but it seems that no one has reported problems like these with TweetDeck).

TweetDeck launches and works if I press "Launch TweetDeck" button on their website, so the installation is intact. I guess there are only some issues with shortcuts.If guys from TweetDeck will give me a solution, I'll post it here, even it will be to go where TweetDeck is installed and send from there a shortcut to desktop.

Update: I've talked to somebody from TweetDeck support team, and he told me that it sounds like being an issue with Adobe Air. He recommended me to reinstall TweetDeck, but since Adobe Air is managing it, I wasn't able to find a solution to uninstall it. I've just played a little with Adobe Air (just a few clicks inside it) and after I found TweetDeck into "Accessories". I don't know how it got there, what I know is that it was reseated in somehow, because that "welcome" window appears again (I set it when everything was normal not to open again).

So, I recommend you searching for the shortcut into "Accessories", and if you can't find it there, try to play a little with Adobe Air, eventually give it an uninstall, and then install it again.

Windows 7 shortcuts are... gone !

I opened my laptop a few hours ago, because I had to do a project for school, and after Windows 7 booted completely, I found a desktop without any shortcuts. I saw only the bar from the bottom and the widgets. I tough that there was a boot failure... so I gave it a reboot, hoping it will help. But, surprising, the were still no icons after reboot. So I've started Google-ing for any problems about that, but with no result so far. I don't know what happened.

I've been using Windows 7 Enterprise (its the free trial) for about 25 days and I have experienced multiple problems using it, so I'm not satisfied by it. I think I'll turn to Ubuntu on my laptop. The experience between Ubuntu and Windows 7 is comparable, and I would say that Ubuntu is better (my opinion). And the difference between Mac (which I'm using right now) and Windows is enormous, Mac being definitely better.

If you know how to fix the problem with shortcuts, or if you have the same problems, please leave a comment.

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Get Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial.

Have you ever wanted to get Windows 7 for free, legally, for a limited time just to test it ? Microsoft is offering a free trial version of Windows 7 Enterprise (the equivalent of Ultimate, but this one can't be found in stores). But if you want it, you need to hurry. The time of the offer and the number of downloads are limited, so get it as soon as possible.

You need an account at MSN Messenger, or MSN Hotmail, or a Password account, which represents your Windows Live ID. Now you have to visit http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx, click on "Download a 90-Day Trial of Windows 7 Enterprise", go at the bottom of the page, and select the language for the corresponding system version (if you are unsure about the version that your computer operates on, select the 32-bit which works on both). Now login with your Windows Live ID, and wait while the page loads. On the page that will appear after loading, where it asks "what occupation describes you best", select either "IT worker" or "IT manager" to be able to download the Windows.

Now you will have to wait for a while while it downloads. My download was very slow. I downloaded almost all the time with 60 kb/s, even if my bandwidth is nearly 700 kb/s permanently (Romania). I hope yours will be faster...

What else you need to know:

• The key is included in the operating system, don't search for any because you don't need one
• You must activate Windows in maximum 10 days after installation ; after that period the operating system will shutdown every hour until activation
• After activation, the Windows will work for 90 days; after that period the operating system will shutdown hourly again
• You must reinstall completely a new Windows because there is no option to upgrade to any other version of Windows 7
• If you reinstall it again, you can use it for only 10 days; after that period your computer will shutdown every hour, and Microsoft won't activate it again.

Consider doing this on any Windows operating system because the download from Linux or from Mac can't be started (the page that appears after selecting the language loads forever on non-Windows operating systems). That is not cool, Microsoft !

So that's all. Enjoy using Windows 7 for 90-days ! For any problems, don't hesitate to contact me.

Problems with Yahoo! Messenger 10 ?

Yahoo! Messenger 10 was launched some time ago, but its problems are not yet resolved. Most of the reported problems are with the statuses, which refuses to change (and for sure, this is one of the most annoying problems). I got this problem several times, but Yahoo did not launch yet a fix for it. Other reported problems, and met by me, were with the sudden blocking of the program, and sometimes, even with the instant crashing of the program. On the last days, I really had serious issues when trying to change statuses, so that's why I decided to open this subject. 

If you have problems like those mentioned before, or any other kind of problems with Yahoo!Messenger 10, please don't hesitate to leave a comment with details about it here. 

ATI Radeon X300 aero on Windows 7/Vista.

*Update: Download ATI Radeon X300 driver for Windows 7: http://www.4shared.com/file/199253812/27d26aeb/atix300driver.html

I attached a link which contains the back-up of the driver for ATI Radeon X300 for Windows 7. Since I'm no longer using Windows 7, I can't tell you for sure if it works or not (it should be working). I think it might be installed via control panel, by clicking update drivers (and selecting the file you've downloaded). Note that you should have WinRAR, because it's a .rar file (uncompress it before starting the update procedure). Please leave a comment to know if works or not !

*

As you probably know, the are some problems on running aero effects from Windows Vista or 7 on ATI Radeon X300 graphic cards, due to incompatible drivers with these operating systems. After searching for hours on forums, I thought there is no change of running aero from Windows 7 on my Dell D610 laptop. But I found a solution, when I was searching a driver for my sound card.

There is a program available, named DriverMax, which searches automatically for newer drivers available for all your components inside your computer. In the free version, you can download only 2 updates for any pc component every day, in the paid version the number being unlimited. Until now, it did his job excellent on all my computers, even if they were running Windows XP, Vista or 7.


So, just give it a try, it takes you nothing: http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/