Somewhere between the list of components for a new box (not to mention a high end monitor), I gave in to temptation and started playing with an IQ504 in a local store last summer. The sleek design actually was (to me) the best of that genre and really appealed to me. And it was just, well, a lot of FUN to use.

The IQ816 was “to die for” but at least $500 more. For my purposes, the IQ506 had enough awesomeness. (And I already have two Media Center OCUR/DCT boxes connected to high res widescreen displays for HDTV goodness). At the time, I didn’t have any Blu-Ray DVDs so I was pretty happy with the specs of the IQ506. 

So I ordered myself an IQ506 in early October. Before the stock market and the economy took an atomic nose dive. And I knew someone that could put the old desktop to good use, so I gifted it. I’m not sorry I spent the money even though it is going to now put a cramp in my holiday plans.

Click the image above to watch a VERY entertaining demo.

And after 5 weeks, I’m still as much in love with this computer as day one. This is a FUN machine. It’s possibly the best family oriented machine I’ve seen and unless you are a hard core pc gamer, it is a machine to seriously consider as a general purpose machine.

The touch screen interface doesn’t take long to become accustomed to (and you always have Windows Vista’s default interface available when you want it.

It’s kind of neat to drag my fingers along the bottom to bring up the various applications. And yes, you can add RSS feeds and view web sites within the interface.

Above shows how my blog appears inside the TouchSmart interface. I think it is cool that I can drag my finger up and down over the website to scroll. It’s like having the best of a tablet pc interface with all this neat HP touch functionality at the same time. Did I say it was fun?

There isn’t much not to like about the IQ506. My biggest beef was that these come with Vista x64 Home Premium and some trialware and Symantec crapware with 60 days of Live Update pain. But, I easily formatted the hard drive, installed Vista x64 Ultimate SP1 and then the apps (including TouchSmart) that I wanted from HP, plus all the drivers are on the HP support site. Sure I could have done a Windows Anytime Upgrade, but it’s much better to have Ultimate and do a complete image backup after you get your apps installed and everything running perfectly than it is to use an OEM “recovery” which puts you back to crapified whatever. Shame on Microsoft for not including this in Home Premium. Maybe with Windows 7 this will change.

Anyway, I’m having lots of fun with my IQ506. My advice is – go get yourself one of these. If you are impatient, some of the Best Buy stores have started carrying these. And start having FUN.

Full specs as supplied by HP:

	Operating system		Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition with Service Pack 1
	Processor		Intel Core2 Duo Processor T5850
	Memory		4096MB
	Memory speed		PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
	Total memory slots		2 SoDIMMs
	Maximum memory		N/A
	Graphics card		Integrated Nvidia GeForce 9300 M GS HD graphics module with 256MB dedicated video memory and support for Microsoft DirectX 10
	TV and entertainment experience		TV Tuner: Dual-format NTSC or over-the-air ATSC high-definition TV tuner, HP Media Center remote control with IR (infrared) receiver
	PCI expansion		N/A
	Hard drive		500GB 7200RPM [gigabyte is defined as 1,000,000,000 bytes, accessible capacity may vary]
	Primary CD/DVD drive		Slot-load SuperMulti DVD Burner
	Secondary CD/DVD drive		N/A
	Networking		10/100/1000 BaseT network interface; Integrated Bluetooth and 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN with built-in WLAN antenna
	Sound card		Integrated High Definition Audio with 2.0 sound capabilities
	Speakers		High-performance 2.0 Speakers
	Front-side bus (processor dependent)		667MHz Front Side Bus
	Power supply		N/A
	I/O ports		5-in-1 memory card reader supports Secure Digital (SD, SDHC), MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro 1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) port (front); Headphone (front); Line-in (back); 5 USB 2.0 ports(2 front, 3 rear)(5 available); Line-out (back); Digital Audio Out (back)
	Software, full versions		HP TouchSmart Music – Create playlists with your favorite music; HP TouchSmart Video – Watch, record and upload your personal videos using touch; HP TouchSmart Photo – Share your fun and memorable moments in life with family and friends; HP TouchSmart RSS Feeds – Get the latest news right at your fingertips; HP TouchSmart Browser – Browse the web in a whole new way; HP TouchSmart Calendar – Manage your busy schedule and stay in touch with family; HP TouchSmart Notes – Quick and easy text and voice notes right at your fingertips; muvee autoProducer Basic: Automatically create professional looking home videos and burn to DVD; Cyberlink DVD Suite Deluxe: Automatically fix and edit videos and create CDs and DVDs. Edit, burn and archive data to discs; Microsoft Works 9: Includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database and calendar; Adobe Reader 8.0: Read and print PDF files; HP Total Care Advisor: Customizable desktop tool provides support, system health and shopping information
	Software, introductory versions		Norton Internet Security 2008: Protect your PC out of the box (60 days of complimentary live updates)
	Trial Internet service		Easy sign-up to major dial-up and broadband Internet Service Providers High Speed Internet Services Comparison Shopping
	Dimensions		21″(L) x 2.6″(W) x 17.4″ (H/D)
	Basic warranty		One year of hardware parts and labor coverage, 90 day software toll-free phone assistance

And I took it home. I like the machine alot, but it isn’t perfect because as shipped, with Home Premium, it doesn’t include two things I need, RDP Host and full image based backup. (It’s stupid that MS does not include full image backup in the Home SKU. Probably the single most helpful software when disaster strikes. Ultimate Extras are a joke and don’t matter to me at all.  You can read about the specs at http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vaio-aw125j-h/4505-3121_7-33309981.html but this post is more about my continuing adventure in transforming the machine into an x64 Ultimate (instead of Home Premium).

This is the first VAIO I have owned. I’ll write about it when it is running the OS I prefer.

Windows Anytime Upgrade from inside the GUI displayed a browser string and would not lead me to the correct web page. I contacted MS support who told me I needed to get this upgrade from Sony. I know how to get to the anytime upgrade site, but I was concerned.

Well, I’ve been having adventures now for a couple of weeks. Bottom line is that using a regular x64 Ultimate DVD and performing and in place upgrade installs a new copy of Vista. And many of the Sony supplied utilities don’t work and definitely the WinDVD Blue Ray software does not work. A format and clean install of x64 Ultimate, and then an attempt to reinstall Sony drivers is only partially successful. And forget trying to reinstall the apps I really wanted. No can do.

I made some noise and got hooked up with a very senior support VP office. Exchanged email. Had a phone call.  Some MS folks were conferenced in as well. This happened on 11/12 and afterwards I responded by email:

Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me. I’m thrilled that you are going to provide me with an x64 Ultimate install DVD and all Applications for this machine.

While I didn’t get the DVD and drivers to fix me up overnight as initially promised, a week later (11/20) I got another phone call. This time Sony asked to conference some more Microsoft folks in and I agreed. So a bunch of people were looking at my issue. Sony acknowledged the problem scenarios and said that the WAU should work, but I’d need to uninstall and reinstall some apps and they were working with MS on the issue with WinDVD. I thought I was promised that a WAU upgrade would be sent on that first con call (11/12) but maybe I misunderstood.

So last night I was told it would take 7-10 days to ship me a WAU DVD x64 SP1 Ultimate WAU disk. (And I don’t know how they would ship it.) That threw me, as I don’t quite understand why the MS folks that promised to send me the DVD can’t grab one and stick it in a FEDEX envelope. So I expressed some displeasure and they said they would expedite and ship it “express” (whatever that means). Update: that meant express mail and it just arrived 11/22. And Sony was supposed to email me instructions and a KB fix link as they had successfully performed the upgrade and other than these “work arounds”, I should now be able to perform the upgrade.

I suspect I will see the DVD WAU media around XMAS and I’m not sure when Sony will be emailing me the instructions and KB fix info.

I asked what they were doing for the user community, and they said that they would get the information up on their esupport site.

All in all, I am happy that the Sony and MSFT folks are going to fix me up with what I need to get the OS I want on this machine. But the waiting is horrendously painful. Sony should ship these with x64 Ultimate to begin with.

Stay tuned..

Nice looking hardware, piano black finish (production units will have a neat Zen imprint) with a solid heft/feel. Connections for component and HDMI (720p and 1080i supported on both). An HDMI cable is included (nice touch). Audio jacks include RCA stereo (analog) and Optical Digital (SPDIF). No Coax digital, but that suits me just fine. I ranted some about the lack of Optical output on the ”competing” (and I use that term loosely) Linksys DMA-2100.

802.11a/b/g/n (Draft 2.0n) wireless (and 10/100 Ethernet) connect this device to your home network. The device sports USB ports front and rear and includes a HP Pocket Media Drive Bay (the 21st century version of sneaker net storage used to move your digital “stuff” between computers and devices).

If you are looking at size and aesthetics, this image shows the sizes of the x280n, the Linksys DMA-2200 (the 2100 is even smaller and as I blogged, chintzy in feel and cheap looking), the D-Link theater component size DSM-750, and an Xbox 360. For me, it is a draw between the component sized D-Link which, in the real world would fit nicely on the rack that holds my home theater receiver and the HP x280n which would fit nicely and discreetly on top of or under the TV. Top to bottom: HP MediaSmart x280n, Linksys DMA-2200, D-Link DSM-750, Xbox 360.

HP includes a really nice handheld remote. It’s certainly the best of the remotes offered with any of the extenders I’ve seen. It’s backlit (which for me is a must in a darkened room). Setting up the x280n was menu driven and simple. It found several of my 2.4GHz  “N” networks (I’m not certain it is seeing 5GHz N yet, more to come). I associated it, entered the WPA2-PSK passphrase and it was off and running. The first thing it did was check for new firmware. Finding a newer version, it downloaded and applied the newer firmware. After a reboot, it was back up and ready for action.

I elected to set it up as a Media Center Extender first and verify that my OCUR/DCT high def streaming was good to go. No problem there. Since I can do MCX setups in my sleep, and at the speed of light, I was able to quickly get through setup and watch Live and Recorded HD TV.

Exploring the HP MediaSmart interface:

I had a short amount of time to explore HP’s MediaSmart proprietary interface for Media Sharing. I used Windows Media Sharing and UPnP streaming from a server. I have yet to setup HP’s own MediaSmart gateway software, but I’ll get to that. HP has developed a slick and intuitive interface which can be used with Windows XP, Vista, and most likely will be future proof, at least for a while. I like the HP interface and functionality slightly more than D-Link’s MediaLounge interface. Linksys has no such secondary interface. I was easily able to start playing some music and access my photos and play a slide show. This works almost exactly the same way it does on the Media Center Extender interface. All in all, in my first look, a nice, user friendly, solid piece of hardware with great functionality.

I’ll be updating this post as time permits as I continue to explore and experiment.

Before I left home, I recorded a few TV Shows with an external USB tuner I already owned using Vista’s Windows Media Center. (HP does have a tuner for the TX2000 but I have not had the opportunity to see/try it.) The passenger in the middle row seat on my outbound flight asked some questions as I had the TX2000 in tablet mode and was watching some of this recorded TV via Media Center.  He had earbuds and I let him plug into the spare earphone port. The TV in my hotel room was an old CRT tube type and I just can’t watch those after living with LCD’s and Plasma’s. Watching recorded TV on the TX2000 was a much better experience than watching anything on the hotel television.

One of the first travel incidents that happened to me was that I broke off a prong on the Jawbone BT earplug A/C power plug. It’s a two piece deal, USB plugs into the wall wart. I now very much appreciate the three USB ports on the TX2000 (and I’d definitely been scratching my head wondering how I could use three at once). One port each for my Moto RAZR phone, my IPOD Touch, and my Jawbone BT adapter. Obviously notebook has to be powered on to charge up these items, but I found a routine of waking up, plugging in, showering, etc. reading email and doing morning online stuff before leaving the hotel was enough time to charge everything for the day.

Battery life on the TX2000 was pretty decent. Even with the smaller 6 cell battery installed (to save space and weight), I found that by using Power Saver mode coupled with an electrical outlet halfway through the day for a quick drink of energy that I could pretty much get through a day of presentations and meetings (not constant use). Like other true tablet pc’s, the screen can be a little hard to read in bright sunlit settings. A few times where I was sitting in an enclosed courtyard environment with natural bright sunlight I had to move around a bit and turn up the brightness.

Wireless connectivity “just worked” thanks to the built in Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n wireless radio. No matter what SSID I needed to connect to, there were no hassles. I had a chance to use the wired Ethernet as well on this trip and had no issues. Not that I wouldn’t expect this great performance, but I am sure glad that HP did not use the problematic Intel 4965 wireless chipset (lots of driver issues).

After taking some NEF+JPG images with my Nikon D300, I used a Lexar Professional USB 2.0 high speed Compact Flash Reader to get images into the TX2000. While the TX2000 has a built in media reader, it does not handle the larger format compact flash cards (which is true of all other notebooks I’ve seen). I’m pleased to report that some batch processing with Adobe on this 64 bit Ultimate machine with 4 gigs of RAM is very acceptable (as compared to the TX1000 which was quite slow). It was pretty neat to put the TX2000 in tablet mode and play a slide show of the day’s photos for some friends. Speaking of friends, quite a few of them (30 or so) had some hands on with this TX2000 on this trip. Since I’d been talking about it and blogging about it, there was a lot of interest. Even folks I didn’t know (on the airplane and at the conference) wanted to take a look at the machine. Definitely thumbs up from a very discriminating crowd of geeks. Only a couple of friends that are business tablet users felt that it would not suit their specific needs. Even people I didn’t know wanted to take a look at the TX2000. On my outbound trip, TSA at my local airport at the security checkpoint said, “is this a new laptop” and went off to inspect it. I think they were curious and not alarmed. When they handed it back to me, the comment was, “this looks pretty cool”.

All in all, it was a great trip. The TX2000 was a great machine to take on the road, serving all my needs.

” A small number of early production DSM-750 Wireless N HD Media Center Extenders have an issue with a corrupted security certificate, which results in the communication error messages described in this post when trying to affiliate the DSM-750 with a PC running Windows Media Center. Unfortunately, this defect cannot be rectified through firmware upgrade, and can only be addressed by a factory-trained technician.

If you receive the communication error while attempting to affiliate the DSM-750 with Windows Media Center, please call D-Link technical support at 888-900-3939, Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm PST. This a special number which will allow you to directly reach appropriate technical support agents. They will assess the issue and determine if your unit needs to be replaced. D-Link is ready to quickly resolve this issue; tech support agents have been briefed and customers will be shipped replacement units if needed. “

Almost exactly one year after receiving the TX1000 for review, HP contacted me and asked if I was interested in looking at the HP Pavilion TX2000 Entertainment PC. Of course I said yes. And I won’t keep anyone in suspense. I REALLY like this notebook. Below are my first and early impressions in detail.

The TX1000 series was not a true Tablet PC and as I wrote a year ago, handwriting recognition was pretty iffy and slow. The TX2000 series is definitely a “real” tablet, with a good active digitizer. It even understands my hen scratches (a tough thing to do since not only has my handwriting degenerated over the years, but because I type 99% of the time, when I do use a pen or pencil, ten minutes after I’ve written something I might not be able to read it myself!)

HP has listened carefully to end users. (And I don’t know of any other computer manufacturer that has gone to this much trouble to solicit feedback, yet alone incorporate it, in a consumer notebook product.) Circuit City is describing the TX2000 as an HP Pavilion TX2000 12.1″ Touchscreen Entertainment Laptop. I’m guessing that the word “touchscreen” has less of a “business only” connotation than “tablet”, but it is a true tablet pc.

The nitty gritty: The machine I received was one at the top of the line. According to the website (as of April 11, 2008), models start at $899.99 for a base configuration and with HP’s recommended Config, currently cost $1168.99.

The hardware I received:

Turion 64 X2 TL66 (2.3 GHz 512+512 L2 Cache)

4 GB DDR2 System Memory

Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone

Wireless a/b/g/n (draft) + Bluetooth

250 GB SATA 5400 RPM hard drive

LightScribe 8x DVD+/-RW Double Layer

Wireless Remote Control (for Windows Media Center and Quick Play)

6 cell & 8 cell Lithium-Ion batteries

Tablet Pen Digitizer and Cord

12.1” (1280 x800) WXGA Nvidia Go6150 powered graphics (shared memory)

2 sets earbuds

I’m forever converted to x64 computing, so a machine with 4 Gigs of RAM, Vista Ultimate x64 and a dual core AMD Turion loads an impressive deck. (Actually the top processor offered in this series, the AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology Gold Edition TL-68 (2.4 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache) is one of the faster of its kind.)

Setting up and firing up the TX2000 for the first time was a breeze. HP includes their standard poster for folks that can’t figure out how to insert the battery and assemble the two pieces of the power cord. After powering it up for the first time, the typical OEM Windows Vista setup screens appeared including license acknowledgement and after Windows setup completed, HP’s own registration application. It’s all pretty slick as you can see from the shots below. A short video was next and a few screens asking me if I needed an Internet provider. Since I’m a very happy Comcast broadband user, I was all set.

HP’s default wallpaper is shown below. This same design is imprinted (black on a striking piano black finish) on the top pf the notebook.

I “pointed” the a/b/g/n wireless at one of my 802.11n (draft 2.0) networks and was off and running, actually speeding. Windows Vista downloaded a ton of updates while I looked around and worked on personalizing my drive configuration. The 250GB hard drive was configured as a single volume (Drive C) and one of the first things I did was change the hidden recovery partition drive letter to F and then shrink the C drive, create a D drive and format as NTFS. I like to keep my data (including images, videos and music) on a non system drive. Old habits die hard!

Multimedia Powerhouse

There’s no question that the TX2000 is an Entertainment Notebook PC (and is deserving of that label). The stereo speakers (Altec Lansing) are quite good for a laptop. I’ve certainly seen my share of crappy, tinny laptop speakers driven by cheap chips over the years). There are TWO earphone/earbud out ports. Couple this with tablet functionality and turning the TX2000 into tablet mode, watching a DVD on an airplane with a travel companion is a great experience. Both of you can enjoy the DVD while everyone around you can watch the movie offered by the airline that you’ve already seen twice. I carry some great Shure sound isolating high performance earbuds which provide an incredible experience, but entry level inexpensive earbuds are available as options from HP with the TX2000. It’s not a bad idea to carry a set of these if you want to share with someone not carrying their own earbud gear. HP includes Quick Play button functionality (which launches Vista) to give you one button access to your music and more.

Windows Vista Media Center is a powerhouse on its own and is included in every version of Vista Ultimate or Home Premium. For $100, you can order an optional HP USB Digital/Analog Tuner w/Remote for a premium Live and Recorded TV experience. On top of that, HP has added enough additional entertainment features that I was tempted to look for the kitchen sink

Kitchen sink aside, HP includes a link to SlingMedia’s web site for a 15% discount on a Slingbox (and the Sling Media player is pre-installed). StarZ Vongo is also pre-installed. The basic version of muvee autoProducer is pre-installed (along with the option of activating a 21 day free trial of the fully featured version). Cyberlink full version software is also pre-installed: Power Director 6 (for the Steven Spielberg in you), Power2Go v5 (media burner), Label Print and YouCam (webcam effects). HP Photosmart Essentials is also included.

Electronic Arts Trial Version of Sims Life Stories is also pre-installed. It’s not really my “thing” but HP certainly includes a rounded selection of entertainment vehicles.

HP included a lot of other software (loaded to the gills, actually), including a 60 day trial version of Microsoft Office 2007 Student and Teacher (which I am replacing with a full Office 2007 Ultimate and Expression Web). The S&T version may be just right for the average user, but I’m accustomed to the Ultimate version of Office 2007 and I do author PowerPoint decks. Also preinstalled was a 60 day trial of Norton Internet Security. Norton is one of my least favorite apps, and after 10 minutes, I uninstalled it (and substituted Eset’s NOD32 which I like a lot as it is lightweight but strong). I do understand the need to include a working AV product out of the box.

Much of the included software has easy access shortcuts on the default desktop and/or in the system tray, but some only appears on the Programs menu.

The TX2000 is currently shipping with updated drivers and Vista Service Pack 1 pre-installed. This means that out of the box, the machine doesn’t need to download hundred’s of megabytes of updates and fixes and that the drivers are SP1 compatible. (My review unit needed some updates from the HP Support site, including a BIOS update and some drivers, but HP has one of the best systems I’ve seen and their “Softpaqs” are nearly bulletproof. After installing the HP updates, I made a few passes at Windows Update and downloaded and applied a few rounds of updates before SP1 was offered.) After Vista was done downloading about 121 megs, SP1 installed in about 25 minutes.

The networking options for wireless vary, but the higher end selection of a/b/g/n (draft) 802.11 with Bluetooth certainly meet all my criteria. The hard drive choices are 160, 250, or 320 GB 5400 RPM SATA. For an optical drive, HP included a LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support.

Like the TX1000 series, the TX2000 NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 6150 graphics chip drives the display. Video memory is shared and not dedicated (one of the few things I dislike). You can, however, alter the amount of dedicated memory in the system BIOS settings. The Video rating is what drives down the overall Windows Experience rating. In spite of the rating system (which I don’t think really represents any real time normal usage), I’m happy with the performance of this notebook.

The TX2000 has 3 USB ports (but no Firewire-fortunately the ExpressCard 34 firewire cards I bought work just fine so I can hook up my Canon HV20 camcorder and import and edit video). Video out is VGA (I’d prefer HDMI or DVI). A 12.1 inch screen runs a max resolution of 1280 x 800. It weighs about 4.5 pounds and at its thickest is 1.5 inches.

After using the fingerprint reader on the original TX1000, I don’t think I’d consider purchasing any notebook or tablet that didn’t include one. I use the TX2000’s fingerprint reader for convenience. Much easier than typing in long passwords on web sites and having it actually encourages me to use different strong passwords for individual websites. One trick I learned living in a changeable climate where outside is 10 degrees and inside is 70 – my fingers when cold don’t register the same way as they do when at normal room temperatures. So on each hand, I’ve registered two fingers at room temperature and two more when I’ve just come inside from colder weather. And I have a warm and cold thumb as well. This insures quick and positive authentication.

While providing business class tablet pc features, the TX2000 is an entertainment centric pc. As I look around at what is available from manufacturers that include true tablet functionality, a webcam, fingerprint reader, media center and music player functionality, the TX2000 stands alone and in a class by itself. This would actually make a great business machine. While I doubt Enterprise IT types would be interested in mass deployment (sadly), anyone with a small or home based business should take a good hard look at this one. I’ve got a friend in the real estate business that would LOVE the TX2000.

Anyway, I’m about to take the TX2000 on an extended road trip. I’ve loaded up both Adobe’s photo processing software and Nikon Capture NX as I plan to do some digital editing of what I shoot with my D300. I’m hoping that the weather cooperates. The TX2000, my Nikon D300 and various necessary odds and ends all fit nicely in my Kata 101 photo backpack. I’ll be posting a follow up on performance (and more) after my return. In the meantime, I see that Circuit City is starting to receive a pre-configured model, so if you want to check the TX2000 out yourself..

Some unboxing and setup images can be found at one of my websites.

Out of the box, the DSM-750 blows the dinky Linksys DMA 2100 out of the water. Solid construction and a nice looking peripheral that doesn’t look like cheap plastic in my living room. The DMA 2100 has no optical SPDIF (RCA flavor digital SPDIF only) and worse, does not see Atheros based 802.11 Draft 2.0 N SSID’s and probably some other brands. The DMA 2100 only has two antennae. D-Link has all the ports and three antennae, which really helps with wireless connectivity .

D-Link integrates network setup with Extender setup and it is a real easy task to get up and running. While I admit to having had experience with a beta engineering sample, the engineering sample was wired only without the 802.11n dual band capability. I was really impressed with how well it worked and how integrated it was. D-Link has tons of experience with something like 6-7 previous versions in the Medialounge wireless media player line. This experience shows.

The Linksys takes forever to connect to the host Vista machine while the D-Link connects seamlessly and far more rapidly.

In my opinion, if you have a choice between the Linksys DMA 2100 and the D-Link DSM-750, the D-Link is well worth the wait. Linksys was first to market, but the race is not always to the swiftest.

Acer refuses to provide a 64 bit winphlash. I finally figured out a quick and easy solution (not wanting to buy a USB floppy). Acer adamantly refuses to acknowledge that 64 bit users want to update their BIOS. And the Ferrari 4000 doesn’t support booting from a USB flash key.

So I figured it out. Ingredients, hardware, and instructions:

Hardware

1. Acer Ferrari 4000

2. USB Flash Drive

3. Vista 32 bit DVD

Instructions

1. download the BIOS from ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/ferrari_4000/vista/BIOS/ 

2. Unzip to root of USB flash drive (mine was formatted as FAT32)

3. Unplug the USB flash drive and power down.

4. Insert the 32 bit Vista DVD and boot from it (you are not actually going to end up installing it or doing anything, this just gets you to the 32 bit WinPE environment)

5. Click through until you get to the screen with the activate online checkbox and uncheck it.

6. Connect the USB flash key to the computer

7. Press Shift-F10 to open a command prompt

8. Change to the correct drive for the USB flash drive

9. type winphlash and press enter

10. browse to the correct wph file and go for it!

11. after the flash is complete, before letting the machine restart, EJECT the DVD. (remember, nothing was installed and nothing really happened except you had access to a 32 bit WinPE environment which you needed to flash the BIOS).

Microsoft has published my column on Vista computers and devices that all work together transparently on my home network.

I priced a machine today, to see if the $$ were more reasonable than the Dell $1700+ for a friend. I was pleased to see that the price is now under $1300. No monitor included. You can beef this up when you customize. No option for no installed crapware though (unlike Dell who doesn’t force you to take Norton, etc.)

Alienware is apparently entering the market on the super high end side with a dual OCUR machine. Cost unknown. Here’s a quote from Cedia News:

“Shortly, Alienware will be delivering a higher-end Media Center product with CableCard capabilities and other premium features that are best sold through specialists.

The product has yet to be named but we know it will come standard with four swappable hard drive bays for up to 4 TB off storage. A Blu-ray option will be available, as well as an option for distributing audio to four separate zones.

“You could put it in a party mode where all rooms get the same audio,” says Kaminski.

The high-end Media Center will accommodate two CableCards via internal receivers.”

This looks to be an enhancement to the Hangar 18 HD computer, based on the AMD Live platform.

More info is here. 

“While the industry had waited for years for Vista, the software was not really ready when it was launched to great pomp at the start of this year” when your company has done so little itself?

Don’t blame Microsoft. You’ve had more than enough time to join the party.

Yes, my Ferrari 5000 runs like a dream under x64 Ultimate, but my Ferrari 4000 is still missing updated drivers for the pccard controller and media reader/card slot. Yeah, the 3 year old ones from XP x64 still work, sorta, almost.

The word “schmuck” comes to mind.

Some of my peers asked me recently how I’d compare this Turion x2 64 bit processor to Intel’s Core 2 Duo. Tom’s Hardware has some gearhead type comparisons that look pretty decent (sans the Intel Santa Rosa). He used a Ferrari 1000 for his comparison (and that only had a Turion 56 X2 processor as opposed to the 60 in the 5000).

It isn’t as simple as that for me. It’s a holistic experience that includes the processor, the HD performance, the video performance, and the hardware and peripheral feature set. (Note: the 3945a/b/g wireless on these Intel models sucks beyond belief.) And the performance of my applications is what it’s all about. Photoshop is important to me. Benchmarks are theoretical and good marketing materials. I live in the real world.

I’ve been running Vista Ultimate x64 on the Ferrari 5000 on 2GB of RAM quite happily since I received this machine last November, but my batch image processing seems to be getting larger by the day and I’m wondering if more RAM will make Photoshop happier. It certainly takes advantage of the 64 bit processor.

The last time I priced 2x2GB sticks for this machine, it was like as much as some entire laptop computers. All of a sudden, the prices seem attractive and I’m having a hard time resisting. In fact I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before I make the call.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Ferrari+5000+Series pricing is very very very sweet. It will be like a second honeymoon.

Some of you may remember that back in December 2006, Microsoft and AMD shipped me a Velocity Micro Cinemagix Pro Cinema Entertainment System.

This AMD Athlon X2 system with an ATI x1950 dual DVI card, 2 gigs RAM and huge hard drive was a wonder. Microsoft installed Windows Vista x64 Ultimate and Office 2007 and I was in, well, computer heaven. It was exactly the box I’d spec out myself. Perfect in every way. And certainly the fastest computer I’d ever had in my home.

It was perfect then, but today it is more than perfect. It returned last week after visiting the Velocity Micro factory where it received a BIOS upgrade and a tune up. Why send it back for a BIOS upgrade? The only thing missing was Digital Cable Tuner compatibility (to use CableCARD technology to view and record high definition TV). That feature was not available at the time I received this computer, but IT IS NOW.

To use CableCARD technology with Windows Media Center in Windows Vista, you need five pieces:

1. A machine with a certified (by CableLABS) DCT BIOS
2. A video card with HDCP compliance
3. A monitor or TV that is HDCP compliant
4. A Digital Cable Tuner (formerly called OCUR device)/DCT (or two if you want to watch and record at the same time)
5. A CableCARD from your local cable company.

Velocity Micro is offering this amazing machine with either an internal or external DCT. (You can add a second tuner as well).

I’ve got two external DCT’s attached to this machine and I’m in, well, high definition TV heaven.

If you’ve been waiting for the ability to watch and record high def TV on a kick-ass machine, run, don’t walk to Velocity Micro and customize one of these. Even if you aren’t into high def, this is one great computer.

Some of you may remember that back in December 2006, Microsoft and AMD shipped me a Velocity Micro Cinemagix Pro Cinema Entertainment System.

This AMD Athlon X2 system with an ATI x1950 dual DVI card, 2 gigs RAM and huge hard drive was a wonder. Microsoft installed Windows Vista x64 Ultimate and Office 2007 and I was in, well, computer heaven. It was exactly the box I’d spec out myself. Perfect in every way. And certainly the fastest computer I’d ever had in my home.

It was perfect then, but today it is more than perfect. It returned last week after visiting the Velocity Micro factory where it received a BIOS upgrade and a tune up. Why send it back for a BIOS upgrade? The only thing missing was Digital Cable Tuner compatibility (to use CableCARD technology to view and record high definition TV). That feature was not available at the time I received this computer, but IT IS NOW.

To use CableCARD technology with Windows Media Center in Windows Vista, you need five pieces:

1. A machine with a certified (by CableLABS) DCT BIOS
2. A video card with HDCP compliance
3. A monitor or TV that is HDCP compliant
4. A Digital Cable Tuner (formerly called OCUR device)/DCT (or two if you want to watch and record at the same time)
5. A CableCARD from your local cable company.

Velocity Micro is offering this amazing machine with either an internal or external DCT. (You can add a second tuner as well).

I’ve got two external DCT’s attached to this machine and I’m in, well, high definition TV heaven.

If you’ve been waiting for the ability to watch and record high def TV on a kick-ass machine, run, don’t walk to Velocity Micro and customize one of these. Even if you aren’t into high def, this is one great computer.

He has this one 100% on target. There is nothing worse than getting a shiny new Vista machine and finding it infested with craplets. Applications that the OEM was either paid to include (Norton, McAfee, Rhapsody, and all manner of unwanted garbage) plus trial versions of some software or links to it. Yuck.

Even customizing a machine on line isn’t foolproof. There are some Dells that you cannot simply customize to NOT include some 6 month trial – you can select from AOL/Earthlink/Net Zero, but you can’t select NO. Dell is used as an example, most others are equally as bad.

Here’s Walt’s video on the subject:

One of my few complaints about HP’s TX1000 is the 802.11g performance with the embedded Broadcom radio. 802.11a on the same wireless radio is better, but the G side performance was not up to my expectations nor was it as good as other Vista Broadcom chipset/driver combinations.

So, I asked my friends at D-Link for one of their new ExpressCard/34 draft 802.11n cards.

It (DWA-643) arrived this morning. The difference was like night and day. I can copy files over the network at blazingly fast speeds and no dropped connections.

D-Link uses Atheros (as opposed to Broadcom) chips in their draft N gear.

I’m still struggling with the Tablet PC handwriting functionality. Without taking extra care to apply pressure to the stylus and write “just so”, I’m still getting Klingon letters. My friends among more knowledgeable tablet pc owners and Tablet PC MVPs tell me that this is due to the difference between the passive technology and the Wacom technology found in other vendor’s offerings. Still, I think that after some additional training, I could get some usefulness (but could never use tablet handwriting full time and give up the keyboard).

I’ve been sampling the entertainment features. The included QuickPlay application interface seems dull when compared to the Windows Media Center interface. QuickPlay doesn’t “see” media on networked drives except using Windows Media Sharing UPnP. I’ve got a lot of media on desktops, so would have preferred the ability within the QuickPlay app to find source media on these drives directly in the same way MCE allows me to. QuickPlay does support Karaoke and .car files. I’m pretty sure college kids will find this a great feature. (If you’ve ever heard me try to sing you will be grateful that I didn’t attach an audio sample to this post.) I’ve heard a rumor that QuickPlay will eventually tie in with Slingbox and asked HP about this. They’ve confirmed this will happen and will show up after an update in the TV source section of QuickPlay.

Speaking of Recorded (and Live TV) while HP makes a TV Tuner that fits older notebooks with an ExpressCard/54 slot, they do not offer one for ExpressCard/34 slots. This is disappointing (although there are USB tuners available). This would be a great accessory add-on and hopefully this is at least on the drawing board.

The TX1000 comes with an awesome mini remote. One real plus (and a great feature) is that the included mini remote control that stores in the ExpressCard/34 slot operates both QuickPlay and MCE. That was a surprise and a pleasant one at that! Equally surprising (and amazing) is that the remote can be used to present a PowerPoint slide show.

Stereo Altec Lansing speakers are mounted below the screen and rotate with the display. This means that when tablet mode is used, the speakers don’t get buried under the screen (and are front and center in every configuration you use). There are dual headphone jacks (good for those airplanes trips when two of you want to watch the same DVD or listen to the same music) and one apparently supports SPDIF if you purchase a special cable.

There were two sets of (really cheap, as in $6.99 for two when you include if customizing the notebook on line) earbuds included with the package I received. I’m a proud owner of Shure E5C’s (http://www.shure.com/PersonalAudio/Products/Earphones/ESeries/us_pa_E5c_content ) so I didn’t try the earbuds that were supplied.

There are buttons surrounding the rim of the screen that invoke QuickPlay, DVD and buttons behind the rim for stop, play/pause, FFWD, REW, etc. These are accessible in all rotation modes. Clearly well thought out and pretty neat to find. This gives the TX1000 high marks as an entertainment device.

tx1000

HP and AMD were looking for non tablet users to evaluate a new “convertible” tablet pc and I raised my hand. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could adapt my computing lifestyle and become more productive at the same time. Plus, there was the chance that if I could find all the  drivers, x64 Vista might actually run beautifully on the Turion x64 x2 processor. I knew it would ship with 32 bit Windows. I told the AMD folks up front that I’d be installing x64 on the machine. If you order this Tablet PC from the HP web site, one of the options if you customize is an upgrade to x64 Vista Ultimate. Yes, there is hope! This is the first I’ve seen of an option for 64 Bit Vista pre-installed. Thank you, HP, for making the commitment to 64 bit computing.

The HP Pavilion TX1001xx Tablet PC arrived on Tuesday, March 20th. I’ve had a few days to experiment, I’ve spoken to HP a bit about the unit, and this is the first of several posts about my experiences and opinions.

As much as Bill Gates has wanted tablet pc’s to become the mainstream choice of road warriors, students, and entertainment aficionado’s everywhere, the tablet pc has been a concept that hasn’t yet grabbed the attention of middle America. I’m trying to frame my experience both as the target market (students, teachers, entertainment enthusiasts looking for a small machine to travel with is my guess as to the real target) and how it fits in with my own probably higher end needs.

I won’t keep readers in suspense. I mostly like this convertible tablet after 4 days of use. But I’ve used it mostly as a traditional notebook since I’m still trying to train myself and/or the handwriting recognizer.

The unit I was provided is the top of the line model with all the bells and whistles. Specs include an AMD Turion x64 x2 TL-60 with 2 gigs RAM and an embedded Nvidia 6150 video chip with 128megs (shared) memory. It arrived nicely packaged in typical HP style and included the Tablet PC, a regular and extended use battery, power cord, two sets of earbuds, a remote control for the consumer IR (that stores in the ExpressCard/34 slot), a quick setup guide, manuals, etc. I was able to attach the extended life battery, assemble the two piece power cord and plug it in to be charged without reading anything (DOH!).

The computer came with a 160 gig SATA drive in a large C:\ partition with Vista Home Premium 32 bit installed and a small mostly hidden D recovery partition. HP offers a $19 option on their web site with customized orders for actual recovery media. I used Vista’s disk manager utility to shrink the partition to about half its original size, and then installed Vista Ultimate x64 as a dual boot. The drivers and bits I needed were actually in a flat folder on the original C drive, except for the software needed for the fingerprint reader. It wasn’t available as a restore from the Recovery bits either. HP is sending a CD so that I can install on the 64 bit side.

My initial impression is that the computer is extremely well made. Nice piano black finish (which is HP assured me is extremely durable. This model comes with a touch screen (and stylus) and is easy to convert to tablet mode. The coolest feature is the embedded Authentec fingerprint reader (and accompanying software). I’ll have a lot more to say about that soon.

I’ve calibrated the tablet and more or less can use the stylus in tablet mode, but I scribble faster than the learning mode of handwriting recognition is able to cope with. There are 50 sentences. I’ve been through them all once and am doing additional training. I’m a Type A personality and it’s really hard to slow down and write at a speed that the recognizer can keep up with. When I do slow down, I think that the recognizer does its job. So I fear that I’m the one that has to be trained and not the tablet. I’ll need some time to work through this before I have a real verdict. I also have to figure out how to incorporate handwriting in my day to day computing life. I tried a grocery list but it came out in Klingon the first time. I’ll keep trying. Personally speaking, my own needs have not generally included scribbled notes. My handwriting has degenerated over the years and is worse than my doctor’s and I type 90 wpm. This may take a LONG time.

This machine is to be marketed as an “Entertainment” system and I was disappointed that there was no DVI or HDMI out (plain VGA is the highest quality supported) and that there was no firewire port. I went looking at retail for an ExpressCard/34 firewire card so that I could try video editing on this machine, but struck out completely. Even the local Apple Store didn’t have one. I’m thinking about ordering one online. When I asked HP, I was told they hadn’t tested any cards like this with this computer, so I’ll be breaking new ground.

HP offers a few choices for wireless NICs. 802.11b/g – 802.11a/b/g and a 802.11b/g/draft n. The machine I received had the a/b/g. I had some real issues copying large files over my network wirelessly. The connection dropped out on all my G networks (all Atheros based routers and access points). I downloaded and installed a newer driver from the HP support site (this driver was not present on Windows Update and out of the box, x64 Vista installs an old June 2006 Broadcom driver). I’m chugging along on 802.11a fine with this driver copying over the network (same Atheros on the other end) but G drops out. Note that on my Acer Ferrari 4000, the wireless 802.11 b/g (no A) Broadcom chip has received several updates from Windows Update and has no issues copying over the same network. My friends at D-Link are sending me an ExpressCard/34 802.11 draft N card. I’ll report back on how that works.

There was alot of software installed on the 32 bit side, enough to make the Vista desktop look cluttered. HP has a “Quick Play application that handles images and music and videos (included Media Center Recorded TV dvr-ms unprotected files). The included remote works with this app. I much prefer the richness of Microsoft’s Windows Media Center which is included in every version of Home Premium and Ultimate. Both a licensed version of Microsoft Works and a trial version of Office 2007 were pre-installed. If you custom order this machine, you can order a licensed version of Office 2007 as well. Office 2007 is my preferred choice over MS Works.

I was not excited to see lots of AOL and Yahoo related software. The homepage was preset to some HP/AOL hybrid. Norton Internet Security 2007 had been pre-installed and it slowed the system to a crawl. I removed it and installed a trial version of ESET’s NOD32 (which I run on my own machines) and the performance difference was like night and day. HP states they need a well supported AV solution and I understand that. But I will still recommend removal of Norton and replacement with another less system crippling AV before doing anything else.

HP tells me that the TX1001xx (model number may vary depending on options) will be available widely at retail in early April. While I don’t know the specs of what will be at retail, when I priced a customized machine as close as possible to what I received, the price was around $1950. Pricing a model with x64 and a little more customization was around $2050.

tx1000

Just received an email from Chris Morley at Velocity Micro that they are shipping these awesome machines at last!

I’m still enamored of the custom box I received and think it’s an awesome Media Center box not to mention a screamer of a Vista machine.

If you’ve been waiting for the ability to use a cable card and get high def in the US via Media Center, it’s finally here.

Here’s the computer I have here.

There is native support in the Vista shell and Windows Photo Gallery to display WDP format (but sadly, none in Windows Media Center).

I actually have been testing the plugin with Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. Using the default setting of .9 lossy, the file size is about half of saving to a non compressed jpg. Hit the slider and go up to 1.0 on this new format and the size is bigger.  The plugin allows files to be saved as WDP or HDP. HDP is not working for me in the Windows Shell or Photo Gallery (x64 Vista). The files save, but no file association is created. I can open them in PSE 5.0, however.

Screen capture below shows support in PSE 5.0, Windows Photo Gallery, and the explorer shell.

The folks at Nikon have earned my complete disdain for their unwillingness to support Vista x64.

One of the new default Vista security policy settings needs to be adjusted

For Vista Ultimate:

Start,Run secpol.msc [enter]

Click on Local Policies then Security Options

Navigate to
Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level
double-click to display Properties.

The default Windows Vista policy is NTVLM2 responses only.
Use the drop-down arrow to change this to

LM and NTLM – use NTLMV2 session security if negotiated

For Vista Home Premium:

Open a cmd prompt “as administrator” and ack the prompt

Type regedit [enter]
Navigate to

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

If it doesn’t already exist, create a DWORD value named LmCompatibilityLevel

Set the value to 1 and reboot

Microsoft accepted some paid advertising for banner ads on Windows Live Messenger and MSN that inflicted some harm/pain on some users. This malware is called System Doctor 2006 which inflicts Winfixer and Errorsafe. Sandi’s Spyware Sucks site has the details.

My ad blocker of choice is Ad Muncher. It even works on x64 Vista. It kills ads on Windows Live Messenger and IE.

This seems to be yet another clueless drone talking head with really no credibility.

So, why don’t I trust C|Net reviews?

1. They are unabashedly anti-Microsoft

2. Their reviewers have no technical skills

3. They want to increase hits and their content is editorially slanted to achieve this

4. They are unabashedly anti-Microsoft

5. Do you really want to base your purchases on someone who only gives good reviews to advertisers products?

The folks at i-mate really are a class act. The Momento 70 I’ve been using is pre-production from the floor at CES 2007. While in a IM conversation with their Sideshow developer, he mentioned that these frames can be updated remotely and that they poll and pull down new firmware. So I asked to see this in action (and to get newer firmware). When I “woke” the frame this morning, a screen displayed advising me that a software update was available and instructed me to press OK on the remote. After only a few seconds, the frame rebooted and came right back up displaying images. I checked through the menu system, and it reported a new version. Take a bow, guys. This is what “transparent ease of use” is all about.

The folks at i-mate really are a class act. The Momento 70 I’ve been using is pre-production from the floor at CES 2007. While in a IM conversation with their Sideshow developer, he mentioned that these frames can be updated remotely and that they poll and pull down new firmware. So I asked to see this in action (and to get newer firmware). When I “woke” the frame this morning, a screen displayed advising me that a software update was available and instructed me to press OK on the remote. After only a few seconds, the frame rebooted and came right back up displaying images. I checked through the menu system, and it reported a new version. Take a bow, guys. This is what “transparent ease of use” is all about.

If you want to know if there is a signed WHQL’d driver for your wireless NIC, this page has the list you are looking for. Remember that some of the larger vendors like Atheros, Broadcom, Realtek et al produce the wireless radios in your Netgear, D-Link, Linksys etc. wireless card so if your particular model isn’t listed, it doesn’t mean no support.

Note that some drivers are on Windows Update only. This means that unless you first connect with a hardwired connection, you will never be able to pull down the driver.

Looks like Velocity Micro is gearing up to sell OCUR/Digital Cable Tuner Vista machines for high definition Cable TV via CableCard.

http://www.velocitymicro.com/wizard.php?iid=89 for AMD

I have this computer here, sans DCT. It’s definitely a winner.

http://www.velocitymicro.com/wizard.php?iid=96 for the Intel version.

I’ve got the Live Sidebar Stock Quote gadget on my desktop and have enabled it for the Momento in the Windows Sideshow Control Panel applet. I also received a test weather application that is sideshow enabled from the same talented programmer and enabled that as well in the Sideshow Control Panel Applet. This one relies on a weather feed subscription from MSN Weather configured in IE7 on Vista.

Here’s a close-up showing the detail:

http://nikonimglib.com/nefcodec/

 So I wrote to Nikon tech support. And Nikon replied:

Discussion Thread
—————————————————————
Response (David D.) – 01/27/2007 09:03 PM
HI

Thanks for the question. The current codec is only for 32 bit versions of Vista. At this time we do not offer support for the 64 bit version. Sorry.

-David

Thanks for using Nikon products!

So why does Windows Photo Gallery keep prompting me to get an update? Did Microsoft think there would be a 64 bit codec?

I’ll have more to say about this one soon.

“The bottom line: Windows Vista is essentially warmed-over Windows XP. If you’re currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we see no compelling reason to upgrade. On the other hand, if you need a new computer right now, Windows Vista is stable enough for everyday use. “

Clearly C|Net exhibits blanket anti Microsoft editorial style on a consistent basis that I take with a grain of salt, but don’t these guys and gals talk to each other? And is there some sour grape mentality coming through?

“Microsoft sent hundreds of bloggers (not including CNET) free copies of Windows Vista Ultimate; Microsoft did not send boxed copies, rather the software giant sent top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops with the operating system preinstalled. So even Microsoft seems to admit that the best performance is only available on top-of-the-line machines manufactured within the last year or so. “

I don’t think they get it. With every new OS, Windows and Mac, the hardware bar is higher. And yes, it does run on older machines with older hardware. Sure the best performance is on the latest and greatest state of the art hardware. In the automobile world, this happens all the time. Even my dentist has better equipment than he did 5 years ago.

On the residential networking side, lots of new devices (and hopefully old devices via firmware upgrades) work transparently with Vista over the network using LLTD and other Windows Rally technologies. I’ve seen cameras, photo frames and wireless routers so far.

Saw a demo today at a private showing of WCN Simple Config using my favorite router, the D-Link DIR-655 (GigE, Draft N, what could be better?). This Window’s logo’d router will be on display at the CES 2007 Partner Pavilion. It supports configuring a new SSID with WPA2 over a wired connection using a vendor supplied 8 digit authorization key. I wrote about this last year. And now the finished consumer routers are available. It’s great news for the unexperienced consumer.

Close-ups of front and back are below.

It’s quite the machine and has center stage in my living room, hooked up to my 45 inch LCD. I’m running sound out through SPDIF to my Home Theater. Came with one of those MCE keyboards. I like the keyboard but not the stick mouse on it (too stiff) so hooked up a wireless MS notebook mouse. When I find the Gyration Air Mouse I’ve hidden away somewhere, I’ll replace the mouse with that.

And it’s up and running. DHL was here very early and I’ve had a fun day setting up this super screamer that Microsoft and AMD sent me.

I’m going to relax and watch a little TV now.

The nice folks at AMD recently provided an Acer Ferrari 5000 with 2 gigs of RAM and swapped out the hard drive for a faster 7200 RPM upgrade from the stock configuration. With the latest ATI (AMD) video driver for the Mobility Radeon x1600, I’m convinced I have the coolest and fastest laptop on the planet. I thought the Ferrari 4000 was to die for, but the 5000 is even better.

The 5000 provided to me had an included Atheros a/g wireless radio. While that works fine with all my a/g routers and access points, I have some draft N equipment as well. With the Ferrari, I felt the need for speed. Vista does not have any 64 bit Draft N Atheros drivers at this point (altho there are drivers for Atheros 802.11 a/g). I don’t know what those folks are doing. However, there ARE in box drivers for Broadcom based draft N for x64 so that is what I’m using.

12/28/06: The Ferrari 5000 was provided by AMD and not part of the Microsoft/AMD program. Through the MS/AMD program, I received a Velocity Micro MCE Vista desktop and disclosed it as such.

I was pretty excited to discover that the Windows Photo Gallery application in Windows Vista includes easy to use photo editing tools and redesigned image import and organizational tools. The new editing features included in Windows Photo Gallery rival those found in several third party add-on programs that I’ve used over the years. Windows Photo Gallery now allows easy transfer of digital images to Windows Movie Maker as well as transfer of images to the brand new Windows DVD Maker. These tools all work together in a very intuitive manner and provide amateur photo enthusiasts with the tools they need to easily organize, rate, edit and distribute their digital images.

I’ve recently spent a fair amount of time showing a neighbor with a new digital camera how to use the features for image and photo handling in Microsoft Windows XP. While Picture Tasks in Windows XP allows her to perform a number of functions, there are no tools included to perform basic photo editing. She needs a third party program to do simple things like remove red eye and/or crop her photos.

Not everyone takes perfect pictures every time, and many new amateur photographers don’t know that adjusting exposure and/or color can “save” a bad image and turn it into a great one. Various external programs of varying complexity ranging from “free” to several hundred dollars are available to perform these tasks. There’s usually a steep learning curve, except for a few that offer auto adjustment modes.

I jumped on the digital camera bandwagon early on. I currently shoot with a Nikon D200 DSLR and also use a relatively new Nikon Coolpix P2. The D200 uses Compact Flash cards. I’ve programmed this camera to store images in both high quality JPEG and Nikon NEF RAW file formats to have the greatest flexibility in image editing and management. The Coolpix P2 uses Secure Digital (SD) cards and stores images using the JPEG file format.

Windows Photo Gallery handles an impressive number of file formats. I’ve been able to view and edit all the images I’ve shot with my two cameras except those shot in RAW format. For purposes of writing this column, I set my D200 to shoot both RAW and JPEG. The difference between RAW and JPEG is that JPEG is processed in the camera and RAW is normally processed on the computer (providing more power and control). Some RAW support will be available when Vista ships. Camera makers like Nikon and Canon will have RAW codecs available for download (and will eventually ship them with cameras) that will enable you to view RAW files in Windows Photo Gallery. Applications will be able to take advantage of API’s built into Vista and the upcoming RAW codecs to convert to formats (such as JPEG) for editing.

On the first warm Saturday in March, I jumped in the car and headed for the Stone Zoo in Stoneham Massachusetts to try out my new D200 with a new 18-200mm zoom lens. I also brought the travel sized Coolpix P2. When I returned home later that day, I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to try out the digital imaging capabilities of Windows Vista.

In this article, I’ll explain:

• How to get the images from the camera to the computer
• How to add images already on your hard drive to Windows Photo Gallery
• How to edit and improve your pictures using the Fix menu
• How to print your photos, order prints and share edited images with friends and family

How to get the images from the camera to the computer

Before you can start using the many features of Windows Photo Gallery, you’ll probably need to go through a one time device detection and driver installation so that you can transfer images to your computer. Windows Vista smartly detects cameras connected via USB and treats them as removable hard drives.

I decided to try the built in 8-in-1 media reader in my desktop with the 4GB Compact Flash card I use with my D200. I removed the card from the camera and inserted it in the appropriate media reader slot in my desktop computer. Discovery, driver installation and the display of AutoPlay options were fast. Windows Vista performed the following functions automatically:

1. Detected the Compact Flash card and installed device driver software (see Figure 1)

Figure 1:Windows Vista automatically detects camera storage when the camera is first connected with a USB cable.

2. Displayed a message that a driver was successfully installed
3. Displayed available user choices using AutoPlay (see Figure 2)

Figure 2: After recognizing the Compact Flash card as a removable disk, Vista automatically displayed the available choices.

I next used the Import function to add the JPEG images to Windows Photo Gallery.

Windows Vista displayed a message indicating the number of picture discovered and displayed the option to enter a tag as shown in Figure 3. Windows Vista and Windows Photo Gallery in particular allow you to augment files, including images with rich metadata to help you find, identify and sort files. I’m hoping to be able to write about how tags and ratings help enrich the end user experience in a future article.

Figure 3: I created a tag named “zoo shots” which become part of the rich meta data that can be associated with files in Windows Vista

I then connected the Coolpix P2 via USB to the same computer so that I could import the images from the second camera into my zoo shots collection. Device discovery was again fast and easy as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Windows Vista quickly completes auto-discovery and confirms successful device driver installation for the Coolpix P2 camera.

Note: If Windows Photo Gallery is already open, you can also import from a camera (or scanner) by selecting the File menu, Import from Camera or Scanner.

How to add images already on your hard drive to Windows Photo Gallery

By default, Windows Photo Gallery includes the contents of the Vista Pictures folder. Adding additional content not stored in the default location is easy. You can even add photos stored on another computer on your home network. I’d been regularly transferring images wirelessly from the Coolpix to a computer running Windows XP Professional using the WiFi capabilities of the Nikon. Since I’d shot two media cards worth of photos with the Coolpix, I transferred the second batch of photos over my wireless 802.11 a/g network to the XP computer to see how Windows Photo Gallery would handle networked content. I was impressed!

Add folders to Windows Photo Gallery by following these steps:

1. Select the File menu in Windows Photo Gallery
2. Select Add Folders to Gallery
3. The Add Folders window is automatically displayed
4. Browse to the location to be added, highlight the folder and select OK.
5. The new folder will appear in the Photo Gallery Folders list

Figure 5: Browse to the target location or type in the name of the folder you wish to add to Windows Photo Gallery.

Tip: When you add photos to the gallery, a Vista style browse window appears. You can browse to the folder you wish to add, or as a shortcut, type in the Path in the field that is provided. If you have images in a shared folder on a different computer on your network, you can type in the UNC path. The UNC path starts with a double backslash followed by the computer name. In the example in the image above, I started typing in \\gifthorse and after a few letters were typed, Windows Vista displayed the shared folders in a drop down list. I clicked to select the shared network folder with images to be added to the gallery. See Figure 5.

How to edit and improve your images using the Fix menu

Once I had added all the images I’d shot from the zoo trip to the gallery, it was time to try out the editing features.

Tip: Although Windows Vista automatically keeps an intact copy of an original image that you can revert to, I find it best to save an extra copy an image before I edit it. To do this while in Fix mode, select the File menu, Duplicate. This lets me look at images side by side for comparison after editing is completed.

To access editing features, select the image to be edited and click the Fix menu. (The Fix menu items will display on the right.)

1. Select Auto Adjust and Windows will automatically adjust the exposure and color
2. Select Adjust Exposure to manually adjust either or both the Brightness and/or Contrast
3. Select Adjust Color to adjust any or all of the following:
   • Color Temperature (see Figure 6 for an example)
   • Tint
   • Saturation

As you move the sliders to adjust Exposure or Color the change is made instantly. If you make an adjustment you don’t like, click the Undo arrow. If you use my tip above, you’ll always have a copy of the original image if you later decide to compare and don’t like the results.

Figure 6: As I moved the Color Temperature slide to the right, the colors became warmer.

Two of the Fix menu features that I think I will use frequently are the Crop Picture and Fix Red Eye. Crop Picture can turn an uninteresting or too busy or confusing image into a better shot.

How to Crop a Picture

1. Select Crop Picture
2. Select a Crop mode
   • Original allows you to drag the corners and move the center of focus
   • Custom allow you to drag the corners and the sides to create custom sizes such as panorama style
   • Other settings allow you to select standard print sizes such as 8 x 10, 5 x 7, 4 x 6, or 3.5 x 5 as shown in Figure 7

Figure 7: I am cropping this image to an 8 x 10 standard size in landscape format which I think makes a more interesting picture.

3. Rotate Frame allows you to instantly switch from portrait to landscape crop and back again.

Note: There is an Undo/Revert arrow that can be used if you are not happy with the cropped result.

While I didn’t end up with any photos that needed Red Eye correction on my trip to the zoo, I still had a few old photos in my collection to use to try Photo Gallery’s Red Eye correction capabilities. Red Eye is usually caused by using flash. While some digital cameras offer a way to fix this in the camera, many do not. Fortunately, Windows Photo Gallery includes a feature to quickly and easily do this.

To fix Red Eye

1. Select the Fix menu.
2. Zoom in on the red eye area. To zoom, click the magnifying glass and then use the slider to enlarge the area.
3. Use your mouse to draw a rectangle around an eye. Make the rectangle as small as possible but be sure to include all the color area to be changed.
4. The correction is displayed instantly.

Figure 8: I’ve zoomed in on a red eye to correct using the zoom slider and draw a rectangle enclosing the area to correct.

How to print your photos, order prints and share edited images with friends and family

After I’d edited the pictures I shot on my trip to the Stone Zoo, I couldn’t wait to share the best of the group with friends and family. I’ve got an HP Photosmart 8450 printer connected via Ethernet to my router. I wanted to print a couple of photos to show my neighbor.

To print a photo:

1. Select the image to print
2. Click the Print menu
3. Specify the size, DPI quality size and type of paper, etc. as shown in Figure 9
4. Click Print

Figure 9: With my fully supported HP Photosmart 8450, I have a wide variety of ways to print great photos!

Ordering professional prints from one of the online providers Fujifilm, Shutterfly, or Kodak Easy Share Gallery (formerly Ofoto) couldn’t be easier. These printing companies can all be accessed from the Print menu, Order Prints.

I was easily able to email my best shots to my cousin in Florida from within Windows Photo Gallery. As in Windows XP, images can be scaled to several sizes and are automatically attached to a new message in Windows Mail for you.

The Create menu in Windows Photo Gallery links to Windows Movie Maker and the new Vista DVD Maker as well as Create Data Disk (CD). Select a group of images and then select Create, Movie. The selected images are sent to Windows Movie Maker which opens automatically. Place a writable DVD in your DVD-RW drive, select a group of images, and then select Create, DVD. Windows DVD Maker will open. It’s really easy and intuitive.

Summary

Windows Photo Gallery supplies all the tools that an amateur digital photographer needs and is one of the easiest to use applications I’ve used. It is seamlessly integrated with other Windows applications to share digital content. I can’t wait for my friends and family who have needed help over the years to transfer, improve, and share their digital photos to upgrade to Windows Vista.