Mari Silbey

Mari’s tech career started when she became the default “IT guy” in her first job out of college. Since leaving help-desk duties to the experts, she’s focused on trends in technology as a consultant, writer, reporter, analyst and at-home gadget tinkerer. Her current paid gig is with the non-profit organization US Ignite where she focuses on how networks and digital technologies impact smart cities. All posts on ZNF represent her own opinions and not those of US Ignite. Mari is a sucker for anything in the digital media space and covers interesting happenings in cable, telecom, and whatever else she feels like. Find her on Twitter at @msilbey.

One Year With My Eee PC

Mari Eee PC 1000HA 2009 It was right about this time last year that I bought my Asus Eee 1000HA. It was my first netbook, and I fell in love with the price and portability. Now here it is a year later, and I have a more nuanced perspective on my little black book. About a month ago the hard drive failed, and I went through a nightmare of trying to recover data (my own fault) and finding a temporary machine to use. Luckily the Eee PC was still under warranty, so I sent it back with a trusty RMA number and got a replacement hard drive for free. There seems to be evidence now that netbooks do indeed fail more often than other laptops, but the Asus brand is more reliable than most. Just my luck.

Now that I’ve got my Eee back, I’m evaluating what I still love and don’t love about it. Let’s start with the good stuff. The weight and size of the hardware is awesome. I literally put it in my bag and then wonder a few minutes later if I’ve forgotten my computer because the bag feels so light. I also love that it’s so small because it means I can carry my Eee virtually everywhere. The netbook is why I’ve lasted so long without a smartphone. (Much to Dave’s chagrin.)

Before I got the Eee, I heard some complaints about the keyboard. It’s slightly smaller than a full-size keyboard, and the right Shift key is further out to the side. Frankly, not only do these issues not bother me (and I’m a touch typist), but the keyboard response is excellent, with perfect resistance in the keys. Another pro: the six-cell battery keeps me juiced up for a reasonably long time. Operating on Wi-Fi, I get about three and a half hours of power after a year of use.

Now the not so good stuff.

Three Apps Coming from Comcast, Including… Xfinity?

With the NBCU news drowning out other Comcast conversation, I thought I’d take this moment to tally up the gifts the MSO has promised to all the good little subscriber girls and boys this year. First and most important, TV Everywhere, er, On Demand Online, um, Xfinity is scheduled to roll out before the start … Read more

Verizon Upgrade Tip

Looking to upgrade your Verizon phone, but fear paying full price? There’s good news. First off, even if you signed a two-year contract to get your last phone, you’re eligible to upgrade after only a year. That means that instead of purchasing a full-price Droid, for example, you can get the subsidized price if you’re … Read more

Five Digital Photo Gifts for 2009

Scrapblog QuickMix kit

My favorite digital photo sites have some new surprises for 2009, and I’ve checked out a couple of new-to-me sites with holiday goodies too. If you’ve stocked up on digital photos all year, here are five gift ideas that take advantage of your personal image archive.

QuickMix Scrapbooks

Digital scrapbooking site Scrapblog has introduced new QuickMix kits to take some of the work out of making your own photo creations. In theory these kits are going to cost money in the future (there are still plenty of no-cost features on the site), but for right now the QuickMix packages are all free. Choose a themed kit (several holiday choices), upload or import photos, and Scrapblog generates a digital scrapbook for you. You can then customize the finished product any way you like – with more photos, digital stickers, etc. – and order prints or gifts. For a 25% discount on keepsake books, calendars, greeting cards, and postcards, type in coupon code HOLIDAY25 at checkout.

Mosaic Moo Frames

Moo Mosaic Frame

If you’re familiar with Moo for printing business cards, take a look at what you can do with Moo for the holidays. The company is selling a new Mosaic Frame that you can fill with custom Moo mini cards. Since all mini cards are the same size, this frame is one you can update easily with new photos-on-cards at any time. Available in white or black for $39.99.

Skinit!

It seems the Skinit folks are everywhere, and now they’ve partnered up with Snapfish to turn your photos into skins for cameras, phones, laptops, music players, and PDAs (?!). In case you didn’t get the custom-made Flip Mino, now you can add your own after-market, personalized imaging. Skins are not only removable, but supposedly scratch-resistant. Use coupon code PHOTOSKINS20 for 20% off skins at Snapfish through Monday. Or check out pre-made designs at the Skinit site.

A Starring Role

If you’ve got any kids to buy for this year, check out the CenterStage books available on Shutterfly. Pick from Spongebob, Dora, or Diego, upload the kid’s photo and basic details (name, age, etc.), and presto! You get back a personalized storybook with the little tyke in a starring role. Books run $39.99 each, but you can get them for 25% off through December 2nd.

Give the Gift of Photo Scanning

The best gift I ever gave my dad was a digital photo frame filled with old slides I’d scanned from his Peace Corps days. I still highly recommend this as a gift idea, but if you don’t have the time, or access to the old slides/negatives/photos you need, there are now a few places that offer scanning as a service. ScanCafe is one of these, and it offers photo restoration to boot. Consider wrapping up a ScanCafe gift card this year. At 29 cents per scan, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of even a $25 card.

And as a bonus, if none of the ideas above strike your fancy…

Black Friday Shopping with Sony and Apple

While I avoided the lines at 4:00 in the morning, I couldn’t resist stopping by the local King of Prussia Mall later in the day yesterday to see how Black Friday was shaping up. Frankly, the mall wasn’t as crowded as I expected it to be, but there were still more than a few folks … Read more

Turkey Weekend TV Online

Thanksgiving weekend is a time for turkey, travel, and television. Beyond the requisite football, we get the start of TV holiday specials – a mix of sentimental schlock and comedy classics. If you’re watching online, the options are wide-ranging. Here are a few to get you started. Hulu Hulu for the Holidays is underway, with … Read more

Real Time Mobile Reviews from Retrevo

There’s nothing like the holiday season to get you in the gadget shopping mood. However, even if you’ve done all your homework on what to buy, sometimes it’s hard to avoid the impulse purchase, particularly when there are so many shiny toys in all the store windows. Earlier this year, gadget site Retrevo launched its … Read more

Tales of a Geek Squad Recovery

Geek Squad data recovery

There are so many lessons to take away from my recent experience in netbook hardware failure, it’s hard to know where to begin. A resounding vote for cloud computing and distributed risk? How about, beware of irony and over-praising your gadgets? Or simply when it rains (first the washing machine breaks down, then the car…), it pours. No, here’s the moral of the story I like: when your computer dies on a weekend, it’s good to know the Geek Squad is around for data recovery.

My beloved Asus Eee 1000HA has served me well for eleven months, but last Friday everything changed when a system config error popped up my screen. I couldn’t even boot in safe mode, and every attempt to break away from the error screen resulted in a cycle that landed me right back where I started. Miraculously I had the Windows XP recovery CD and an external CD/DVD drive on hand, but even after I figured out how to re-order the boot sequence, it became clear to me I would lose all of my data if I ran the recovery disk. A call to Asus tech support also confirmed that an F9 reset would wipe my files, and that I would need to get a full back-up before attempting the process. (Tech support would not provide any advice on how I might accomplish such a back-up with no working operating system.)

At this point you may be wondering whether I have ever considered backing up my data on a regular basis to avoid this type of disaster. I have backed up in the past to one of our Western Digital external hard drives, but even with the help of the Clickfree back-up solution I picked up in January at CES (it runs a differential back-up every time you plug it in), I’ve never managed to get into a regular routine. Before last week, it had been several months since I’d run a back-up, and I was panicked at the thought of losing the many files existing solely on my Eee PC.