Laplink giving away laptops

Laplink Software, Inc. today announced the start of a Laptop Giveaway featuring two free Lenovo^® ThinkPad^® Edge laptops. The contest will be centered around popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as utilize blogs and forums. The contest will run from now to mid-November.
 

Those that want to win the free laptop must complete the following steps:

1. Fill out the entry form: http://www.laplink.com/laptopgiveaway
2. “Like” the Laplink Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/laplinksoftware
3. “Follow” Laplink on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/laplink

Once the entry is complete, participants can get additional entries by talking about Laplink and its products using approved keywords and interacting with the Laplink team on Facebook and Twitter. 

Laplink will post content each day on their blog, Twitter and Facebook for contestants to share and start conversations between Laplink and all contestants.

At the conclusion of the contest, entries will be randomized and two winners will be drawn. All entrants have a chance to win, but the more entrants participate in the contest the better chance they have to win.

Laplink will be including some of their software utilities as part of the prize package. PCmover^®, the #1 best selling migration solution, will also be sent with the new laptop to ensure a smooth migration from the winner’s old PC as it is the ONLY software that actually moves programs, files and settings from an old PC to a new one, eliminating the need to do the time consuming migration manually.

Pepcom: MobileFocus San Francisco

Fine wines flowed among—but not on—the wonderful gadgets and apps that enhance life in the mobile lane as Silicon Valley met Napa valley in San Francisco at Pepcom MobileFocus. Pepcom evidence is that mobile gadgets fall into a few categories: what could loosely be termed mobile phones, handheld devices that can be held in a single hand while texting, surfing the web, checking e-mail, shopping, watching a sit-com, and maybe even making a voice call; cameras (both in a phone and stand-alone), and the services that improve the texting, shopping, etc. experiences. Check the MCC journal for pictures and details about vendors and products.

Lexmark Genesis

Lexmark has just announced their latest inkjet All-In-One printer, the Genesis. We attended a webinar on the Genesis and it sounds like they picked the perfect name for it. The dictionary meaning of Genesis is: "The coming into being of something; the origin". The Genesis is the start of a new way to scan.

As you can see in the picture above, the Genesis has a very different form factor. It's has a 40% smaller footprint and a look that doesn't detract from it's surroundings. The target market is high-end home users and small offices, like a doctor's office.

The new AIO uses a 10MP image sensor instead of the normal scan bar we're all used to. This means the whole scanning process is MUCH faster. You have an immediate preview of your document or pictures on the built in screen and the Flash Scan process works in under 3 seconds! The default scan resolution is about 300 dpi and that should satisfy almost all users.

It uses the same 100 and 100XL series ink cartridges as their current printers. Unfortunately, the Genesis can't use the 105XL black cartridges that we've come to love. The 105XL ink cartridge is aimed at a different market that has a greater need for high capacity B&W printing.

The Genesis should be available around the end of the year at a price of $399. Considering what it can do, it sounds like a bargain. It is both PC and Mac compatible, including the iPad.

We are really looking forward to doing a hands-on review of the Genesis, it just may be the start of something new.

For more information go to:
http://www1.lexmark.com/content/en_us/products/genesis/genesis.shtml

Free software

I received this offer today and want to pass the information on.

Note: I have not tested this software so I can't give it a recommendation.

We are starting our Time-limited giveaway promotion for the shareware product - 
PDFTiger at 
http://www.pdftiger.com/giveaway.html, this giveaway promotion will be ended on 
Oct 21, 2010. During this time PDFTiger is for 
free for all users and visitors. Could you please tell your readers/visitors 
about this time-limited giveaway?

With PDFTiger, users will be able to convert a PDF document into Word with only 
3 mouse clicks. PDFTiger preserves the original 
quality of the PDF files and converts both text and images. Users can convert 
the entire PDF or selected pages only and event 
convert multiple files in the batch mode, which may come in very handy when 
working with large book or document archives. 

In addition to the Word format, PDFTiger can convert PDF files to DOC, RTF, TXT, 
BMP, JPG, GIF, TIF, HTML and SWF files. 
Finally, the program has a very simple and nice-looking interface that will take 
a moment or two to get used to.

PDFTiger is also a PDF creator that quickly and accurately creates PDF documents 
from Word, Excel, Powerpoint, text, Images and 
all printable files. 

PDFTiger is worth $39.95 USD, but this giveaway is 100% free and full 
functional.

Giveaway page: http://www.pdftiger.com/giveaway.html

October newsletter

I was recently asked why we don't put the table of contents for each of our issues on the blog so people will know what to look forward to, or to see what they're missing. Here's my answer!

Mothly Computer Chronicle

October issue

News and Views
  Chuck Hajdu's monthly comments

Tecnology Spotlight
  GoodSync for Mac

Sights & Sounds of Multimedia
  Access 2010 Quick Steps, Plustek SmartPhoto P60, Using Office Web Links

Upgrading Your Netbook Computer
  Double your RAM with Kingston and Crucial RAM

Netbook accessories
  Innergie mCube Pro, Duracell Universal 40 watt AC Adapter

Pentax OPTIO W90 digital camera review

Content Insider
  She's young, She's praticed, She's good and She's not alone

eBook Review
  Cooking for Geeks

The Deals Guy

Netbook problems

I've been testing the Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook version on some netbook computers and have run into some problems.  I've created a bootable flash drive, just as I always do, with 2GB of persistence. That combination has always been a winner for me and I had high hopes for this version.


The first netbook I tried was my first netbook, an ASUS Eee PC 900. It's old and slow but wonderfully light and compact. I was very surprised when the ASUS skipped the flash drive on boot and loaded WinXp. The ASUS booted fine using a flash drive with 10.04 so I thought something was wrong with the flash drive. I created another bootable drive and had the same problems.

I then tried the two drives I'd created with a Gateway LT2030u and it worked perfectly! Curious.

I'll be writing this whole experience up for an upcoming newsletter article but here's the quick version of my experiences with flash drives using Ubuntu Netbook 10.01:

ASUS Eee PC 900: won't boot at all
Gateway LT2030U and Samsung N220: works perfectly
Lenovo S12 and S10-3: major boot problems and IF it loads there are many hardware problems

Universal USB Installer

If you're like me you love to try the latest versions of Linux and still keep your original OS on your Netbook. The software you'll need to make your bootable USB stick is the Universal USB Installer. The latest version, v.1.8.0.5, is now available for free download:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/