Windows only: Most laptop owners have experienced the frustrations of an unpredictable cursor when your wrist grazes the touchpad. Free, open-source utility TouchFreeze disables your touchpad as soon as you start typing, re-enables it when you stop.

Photo by AlishaV

Although you can always go to your Control Panel and then to Mouse Properties to disable your touchpad the long way, it still means you have to turn it back on when you'd like to use it. TouchFreeze makes things a little easier, and as long as you're not doing any heavy photo editing that might necessitate the simultaneous use of the touch pad and keys, this should be a winner of a program for you.

TouchFreeze sits in your system tray and simply turns off the touchpad when you start typing. It's a dead simple, free, and open-source program that works with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7.

TouchFreeze [via Addictive Tips]

via Lifehacker

Moblin v2 Beta Screenshot

So with all the hype about Google’s Chrome OS, it got me to thinking about the future of the Netbook OS market space. With a glorified calculator and a 9″ to 10″ display, what is it going to take to bring real value to these little computers? As the form factor is appealing enough for Paris Hilton and her chihuahua, running Windows XP or Windows 7 may be enough to slow the system down to a bore. We can all agree that the world runs Windows, but if Microsoft is only willing to license a cheaper copy of it’s OS as long as  netbooks keep the slower Atom CPU, and no more than a gigabyte of RAM, then we may need a savior.

Since Google’s Chrome OS wont be in our laps until next year, I decided to try Moblin last night. Moblin is short for Mobile Linux and was developed by The Linux Foundation and Intel in 2007 to run on MIDs, (Mobile Internet devices). It is a sleek FAST Linux based OS that runs a monolithic kernel. A monolithic kernel is a kernel architecture where the entire operating system is working in the kernel space and alone as supervisor mode. What does that mean for security, and stability? I wont get into that now, but if you’re curious here’s a good read on Monolithic and Mico kernels.

Moblin v2 Beta Screenshot MyZones

My first impression of Moblin was Wow! After a quick 10 min install on my HP Mini 1030NR netbook, I was up and running! The interface is very sleek and simplistic and not bloated with a bunch of “stuff” that I had to wrap my little brain around. The boot time was truly amazing! A cold boot brought the little netbook up in less than 8 seconds. That’s right I’m not kidding! 8 freaking seconds! I was ready to start surfing the web and checking my email!

… or was I?

First things first. There was no built in broadcom driver for my WiFi card. Thanks to Glen Gray at Slain.org, I was able to follow his guide for the Dell Mini 9 to get my WiFi up in running in about 15 mins. I know that the official Broadcom driver is not Open Source, but come on Moblin. Every possible WiFi driver should be available from the get go.

After getting WiFi up and running, I was ready to start surfing the web and… wait, gotta install flash so I can watch the YouTubes.. WHAT? Adobe flash player is already installed? Okay, so this part was a little confusing. According to Moblin.org, it’s ALL OPEN SOURCE.

That's what they said

Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally cool with the fact that flash is there. I mean really. I was on my way to install it. I’m just a little confused by their FAQ. This was the official Moblin v2 Beta that I downloaded from their site.

So… annnywhooo. I got straight to “work”. I plugged in my Twitter, and Last.fm info and started to see what tis little OS could do. I was very impressed with it’s easy of use, and elegance. Check out this quick video below to see how it works.

I must admit I still haven’t spent as much time with it yet to do a proper  review, but I have got to say it is worth a look if you have a netbook. It may even run in a VM. Don’t know. Haven’t tried yet.

That said, I am curious if this is the right way to go with netbooks. Do we just want a full featured mini laptop at $200-$300, or a slimed down Mobile Internet Device? If it’s the latter, then Moblin may be a serious contender. But if we want a full powered laptop with a cheap price that runs Windows and has the support for all of our hardware and software, then we may be waiting quite a while for a “decent” $200 laptop.

Download Moblin

Ubuntu Moblin remix

One of the key market pillars for Google’s new Chrome OS is the fact that it is targeting the netbook market. It’s a market that is growing rapidly with one forecast pegging 2009 growth of nearly 70 percent in 2009.

While Linux has been a player in the netbook market since the beginning, NPD Group recently reported that Microsoft Windows now represents 96 percent of the market. Amidst that backdrop, what will take for Chrome OS and other Linux vendors to capture share in the netbook market?

“Linux will naturally capture more share on netbooks as Microsoft economics prove unrealistic for this market,” Amanda McPherson, vice president of marketing and developer programs at the Linux Foundation told InternetNews.com. “Microsoft as it existed for the past 20 years does not fit into a world of free carrier-backed netbooks and an Internet OS.”

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) currently makes Window XP available to netbook vendors and is currently working on a version of Windows 7 for netbooks. Microsoft told InternetNews.com earlier this year that Windows on Notebook PCs in the U.S have gone from under 10 percent in unit sales during the first half of 2008 to 96 percent as of February 2009.

The current market share for Windows on netbooks does not deter Linux backers. McPherson noted that the industry is moving into a services-based PC model and that will put margin pressure on the OS side of netbook vendors. It’s a margin pressure that in her view, does not favor Microsoft.

“But make no mistake: Microsoft obviously has a lot of resources and a huge monopoly advantage,” McPherson said. “They can adjust to the new model but it will be painful for their margins. We feel Linux will continue to make strides against Windows during this shift to a new PC model.”

via internetnews.com

The netbook market is new and constantly in flux. We explain what models are available to you today.

Introduction

The term netbook, coined by Intel, conveys little useful information about this category of machines. Sure, they all have wireless networking, but so does every other laptop. What the term originally helped to identify was a class of small, ultralightweight, cheap-as-dirt mobile PCs.

Read more…

First of all, let me start by saying that unless is a Mac, I never buy computers from the store. You always get a better deal by ordering online and the ability to customize your order. That being said, I bought the new HP Mini 1030 NR Netbook from the Casa Grande Best Buy last week. Why? Well I have been eyeing the netbook market for a few months now and as soon as Best Buy brought in their first batch, I decided to take a look.

They had four brands/models to choose from, Acer or HP. After seeing them in action and getting the specs, I went home to do my homework. Turns out that the HP Mini was exactly what I wanted. The online price was about $60 cheaper with the option for a few customizations.

My goal was to find a lightweight “cheap” netbook to be able to run the most common web apps. You know Gmail, Google Docs, and web conferencing. It only comes with a 16GB solid state Drive. No biggie since I don’t plan on installing many programs, or storing files directly on the computer.

At first glance, this netbook has a very sleek design. Thinner than it’s competitors. It has a nice design on the top cover to give it a nice polished look. Open it up, and there’s a bright 10.2” inch LCD staring back at you that makes you wonder how HP got so much screen into the little netbook. Enough screen real estate for your most common web sites and more. Not to mention the built in webcam above the screen.

General speed is average compared to a regular notebook. Not bad at all to work with. There are times when it seems to run slow but it’s only using a 1.6GHz Intel ATOM CPU, and 1GB of RAM. I use Skype a lot for my business, and in my testing I found my video conferences to work great… for a while. It seemed that after a good 30-60 mins of video chat, the HP Mini seemed to be a little sluggish. After every call, I would have to reboot to get my speed back. It comes with Windows XP Home Edition, but the first thing I did was install a dual boot Ubuntu Linux setup on it. (By the way Linux runs much faster than Windows on it.)

After using it for the last 5 days I have to say it’s a perfect solution for anyone that needs a computer to surf the web, check their email, and do a little video chatting. I anticipate these things to be selling like hot-cakes this year while everyone is looking to spend less on a computer. At $399, I didn’t even get an extended warranty. It comes with a standard manufacturer 1 year warranty. If it breaks after a year, you will be able to get a faster one for the same or cheaper price.

If you decide to get a netbook this year, or already have one, let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.