Wednesday night I spent a glob of time at Digital Experience a mini CES one-night event that runs in parallel with with its larger bastard cousin here in Las Vegas, which I enjoy because it allows me to get some intimate time with some PR folks before the exhaustion that is 4 days in the desert sets in.One such encounter happened at the Lenovo table.
The avid Mac fanatic in me was screaming the entire way over to the table, but the fact of the matter is as much as I love my 15 inch MacBook Pro he's not easy to lug around trade show events like CES. It's a bit cumbersome to whip out Alem (the name of my MBP) at a presser that has less space open then a sardine can. I do have a 12 inch Power Book G4 that I used to bring around and I may start doing that again but part of the reason I brought Alem into my life was to have a machine powerful enough to do video and audio work on the spot as well as any fast graphics I may need to turn around for an article. It's this last statement that for the most part has kept me out of the netbook range outside of the fact that they are all Windows OS based machines. (Though some can be hackintosh'd. Don't know what that means, Google It.) However, until the fine folks at 1 Infinite Loop decide to hook a sista up with a 10 inch MBP (the sucker has to at least let me run Aperture on it, my library is on an external drive so I only need 160GB internal... in case Apple is listening) I am heavily looking into finding a small machine that can handle my fingers of furious internet searching, coding, and twittering.
And with that, I was introduced to the Lenovo X100e. Starting around $499 with many customizations available (up to a 320 GB internal drive, 4GB of RAM and Bluetooth) and sporting Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (upgradable to Windows 7 Pro) she's not a bad lil machine. I say she because the model I got to play with was hooker red and whenever I think of hookers, I think of ladies of the night not dudes of the night. Sexist I know, but what can you do? The X100e sports an 11 inch screen and offers up around 5 hours of battery life which should get any social media addict through a days' work with a minute or two to spare. Where I was nearly sold on an impulse by was the weight of the machine. If you haven't gotten it by now, size does matter to me as well as weight. I do not want to carry around the equivalent of a bowling ball on my back or hip all day to have the ability to do my job.
I even went as far earlier today to visit the Lenovo Web site and price out a machine for my needs and built a 160GB Windows 7 Pro 2 GB machine with Norton Antivirus pre-installed and Lenovo's standard warranty for $554 which isn't too bad considering what I would be walking away with, but I'm not jumping ship just yet so Alem has nothing to fear...today. As we start ramping up the events we cover here at ESH mobility is going to be king, and I'm not sure that Alem will always be a travel companion for me because he's just too big.
Labels: CES, Computers, Ninjasistah, Technology, Tradeshow
While I'm still uncertain about EXACTLY what I will get to see and play with this year one thing is for sure: 2010 has already started off as the year of gadgets. 
The crew here at ElectricSistaHood was feeling a bit down last week not being able to attend the Penny-Arcade Expo [a.k.a. PAX] this, turns out it was probably for the best... evidently some of the folks in attendance had Swine Flu.
Yes indeedy, it's a good old fashioned tongue lashing... so sit back, relax and enjoy 
Day two is nearly done here at E For All and today was much more busy on the floor than yesterday.
I'm sitting at the SJC airport waiting to get on a plane to head to LA for 
So, the Penny Arcade Expo is now over and I'm bushed, but it is Monday so I had to hit you guys with 
I'm not kidding. While we never wound up getting any love out of the ESA in order to roll three deep to E3 this year, we did get a nice reach around from PAX and will be on a plane to Seattle next Thursday.
The music bags really stood out to me because while they were design with the mp3 player in mind they really can be for a variety of devices from you phone to camera. There are multiple pockets where you can slip in an ID or metro card and there is even a great zipper pocket on the back so you can put items you want to be really secure. They have also opted to not do a belt clip in favor of a small carabineers which I think will led it's self to be more versatile. 
to dig through there bag trying to find that one item that you swear you had with you only for it get lost in the dark pit then this is the bag for you. The back compartment is for you laptop but unlike conventional backpacks you load your computer from the side making it so much easier to fit everything. The second compartment where I at lease end to just dump everything else into has see-through zipper compartments so you can put everything into it perspective place. But just in case you forget where you put it you phone those see-though pocket come in handy. 
The most impressive thing that I saw today actually wasn't functioning. Razer has been hard at work on a new speaker system that [once you have a unit not missing the power cable] may damn near eliminate the speaker sound bounce problem without sacrificing look or audio quality. 
The last thing that I looked at from Razer today was their new 1800dpi infrared mouse. This thing looks and feels the balls. I should have one in for review shortly, so I'll hold off my final verdict until I've put the thing through it's paces... but the silicone/rubbery membrane type texture of mouse "buttons" alone made me want to get all freaky deaky on some PC games... and y'all know how I don't do that.
As I type this, I prepare my luggage for it's inaugural "covering [insert event name here] for ESH" trip. Yes, my journey to Las Vegas will be my first actual outing covering an event for ESH. Be on the lookout starting next Monday for tidbits, news breaks, and all around cool ass stuff coming from me and Evermore next week.