We have talked about the Asus Eee PC before, but I thought I would go back to the subject because the enormous and, as I think most people will admit, the unexpected success of the little laptop is actually beginning to have some potentially significant and long reaching effects.

Effect 1 - Pushing Linux on to the desktop

It is beginning to accelerate the push of Linux onto the desktop. For a long time now Linux has actually been good enough for the desktop, having increased in usability and capability significantly over the last few years. But there was never any really compelling reason to switch, and try and cope with the inevitable differences from what users where used to. But Asus have managed to tweak the desktop so that the standard features that users are expecting are easy to find and what is more, just work. I have read some commentators suggest that because of the different form factor, people are more willing to adjust to the slight differences from Windows, and I can see the sense in that. So that barrier has being broken.

Effect 2 - What a price

At this price it is almost worth buying just to have a play! A fully functional ultra portable laptop at that price is an enormous attraction, and is probably the big selling point. The ability for Asus to get down to these prices again is helped by the Linux operating system, probably cutting overall costs by around 30%. If the software had been a pig to use then this approach would of back fired, but it did and it hasn’t! Other vendors are now having a look and are having to at least think about their own prices and that will be good for all consumers.

Effect 3 - A whole new market

The success of the Eee has got all the other vendors taking note, and their are loads of rumours of similar models in the works from the likes of Elonex and Acer. There is a whole new market niche being created in front of our eyes. And will all these new models be running Linux? Probably pushing the open source operating system further out on to the desktop.

It turns out the that the little laptop that could is presently PriceGrabber’s featured computer. I am really tempted. Have any of you succumbed already?

The iPhone is continuing along its disruptive path in the world of mobile computing. The iPhone, while actually having a very small foot print in terms of global mobile phones, (it is slightly bigger if you only look at “Smart phones”), is having a significant impact on the whole approach and the success of mobile computing. The iPhone has a significant number of issues, which can be quickly run off along the lines of:

• Lack of 3G - significant problem for surfing
• Low quality camera - way behind some of the competition
• Software and usability issues - learning curve with the keypad and lack of effective search

Despite these ongoing issues the iPhone is having a significant impact in some unexpected areas. One of these areas is in web browsing. Despite the lack of 3G the iPhone is credited with significantly driving up the level of data use on networks, and is becoming the websurfing platform of choice for a growing number of people. It also seems to be getting a disproportionate focus from 3rd parties. Last week the BBC launched a version of its iPlayer for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Users will be able to view streaming video of shows over WiFi networks. This might disappoint a number of people who would have preferred to be able to download the video to the device. The BBC has said that the iPlayer will be supported on a large number of projects in the future but it is interesting that they choose the Apple devices first.

In related news Apple have also finally announced their iPhone software development kit (SDK), and an application store so that users can browse for soon to be available 3rd party applications. Good 3rd party applications will increase further the viability of the platform for mobile computing. If you don’t need or want the phone capabilities I would say that the iPod Touch is increasing looking like a great buy.

I think I mentioned before the prediction that by 2010 there will be 988 billion GB of digital data in the world. Which of course is an absolute huge figure, so big in fact that it is almost impossible to get to grips with, sort of like trying to comprehend the size of the universe! Most of this data will actually be made up of a huge number digital photographs yet to be taken by billions of cameras and mobile phones. From my own experiences, I would not be surprised if the predication came true. The amount of digital photos that I have accumulated on my computers over the last few years is beginning to get a bit out of control.

I really need to create some sort of system to ensure I am a bit more organised, especially so since I am supposed to be an Information Management consultant! I really need to get used to the idea of actually deleting some of the photos, as I can safely say that they are not all masterpieces! I have done a bit of research over the last few years but have not really found any software tool that really suggests itself as the right solution. I guess you could say that Adobe Photoshop CS3 has to be the most complete solution, but is probably a little overkill for me. There is free software that may do it, but at the moment I thinking of going for Adobe Photoshop Elements which has enough editing features for me, combined with a pretty reasonable “management” capability.

How do you manage your photos? What software do you use?

I am sitting here at home in the dark, with my laptop sucking on its last few minutes of battery power. Yes real excitement in the house as all the power has gone off, and with it my access to the internet, and most of my computers. The laptop was not fully charged as I was using it on battery at the office, but as I do have a few minutes left I thought I would bash out a quick post.

We are in the dark here as my local sub station burst into flames sometime this afternoon, which is sort of interesting I suppose. But what this has really brought home to me is how much I take for granted the ability to instantly connect anytime I want to the Internet. I was sitting here with the kids in bed, really wanting to get down to some surfing and perhaps even a little blogging. Well I can, because fortunately I still have a little juice left in the battery, but it won’t be for long!

Given that I have often in the past been short of battery power while traveling and how close I am right now to the “hibernating” message, I thought I would briefly talk about laptop batteries. Batteries are the thing you are always hearing about being recalled. You know what I mean the “500 people catch fire in laptop battery disaster, 4 million batteries recalled“ type of headlines. However a spare battery or power pack can be very useful in some situations. Like now for me! Only last week or so ago I was looking at the PSA 60Wh Universal External Laptop Battery, pity I didn’t get one, I think I could use it so…….

I asked my son today if he knew what Netscape was and was really quite surprised to learn that he didn’t have a clue! To me it seems like only yesterday that the Netscape browser was bringing the Internet to the masses with this new thing called the “World Wide Web”. I heard a comment on a podcast today that equated Internet years to dog years, in other words 1 year on the Internet is like 7 normal years. That seems to ring true, especially given that my sixteen year old son doesn’t even know what Netscape is, and its already a long time since Netscape lost the browser wars.

This week AOL the current owner of the Netscape brand has announced that the Netscape browser will be no longer be supported. This sort of makes sense given that its market share is only around 0.5%, and that nearly everyone who would of been a Netscape user, is now probably using the Firefox browser anyway. In fact AOL is recommending that the remaining users upgrade to either Firefox or Internet Explorer, but my recommendation would be Firefox.

Netscape really was the start of the Internet for most people, and it is a shame to see the name finally go. It is the end of a era. For all those Nestcape users who will still need a computer on which to use their shinny new browser, I suggest having a look at the Fujitsu-Siemens AMILO Pro V3515 Notebook!