Magento is Changing...

A while back, I made a review about Magento shopping carts.  Well, it’s been 2 years and a few things have changed and a few things have stayed the same…

I had quite a few gripes against Magento shopping cart the last time I used it and I still do, but my list has shortened, but also grown.  For the Mom & Pop DIY shopping cart, Magento may be out of your league, unless you know a programmer or can figure out PHP.  On the backend, Magento is still not a user-friendly shopping cart.  However, on the front-end, Magento is one of the best shopping carts you’ll find and that’s the important part.

Security and Magento
One of the big gripes I had about Magento 3 years ago were security issues.  Thankfully, many of those issues have been resolved.  With proper hosting and data collection, Magento cart is about as secure as any shopping cart online and that’s a big improvement.  But, you need to know what you can and can not do, in order to keep Magento shopping cart PCI-DSS compliant.  The good new is, many of those issues can be solved by choosing a hosting company that’s PCI-DSS compliant.

One big fail for Magento is AVS reporting in the admin section. By default, there’s no AVS results when an order is processed and that’s HUGE! AVS results let you know if the shipping or billing address matches that of the card used for the online transaction.  Without that information, fraud is a real concern. There are ways to incorporate AVS into Magento, but as of the latest build, (1.5 CE) there is no method to show AVS for one of the more popular card processing companies and that’s a HUGE oversight!

Magento Hosting
Good luck!  Almost any server can ‘host’ Magento Shopping cart, but many are underpowered.  Think of Magento as a 2,000 lb rock.  Think of the $9 a month hosting as a car. Yes, a car will move a 2,000 lb rock, but not for long and not at anything approaching a good speed.  You need both horsepower and torque and just like in the world of cars, you’re going to pay a premium for something that will provide your with good results. I think a fair minimum price per month, for reliable Magento hosting is $25 a month and that’s if you have only a few products and only a few visitors. You’ll get what you pay for, to a point and then there’s other factors to consider as well.  Magento hosting can be a nightmare. I’ve been through about 6 hosting companies so far, I’ll post result on those in the coming weeks.

Layered Navigation
If you don’t have layered navigation, you’re behind. Magento uses layered navigation out of the box and does it well, with a little configuration.

Google Voice coming back to iPhone App store

Ah yes, Google Voice is coming back to the ‘official’ iPhone. As you may be able to tell from the screen cap, I am using a Cydia iPhone at the moment. Why? Because I needed a functional version of Google Voice for my iPhone. Yes, there is a HTML5 version in the App store, but it’s a castrated version with little functionality.

When it becomes available on the App Store, expect the price to be $2.99 and worth every penny. I bought the previous version from the Apple Store, then I bought a version from Cydia and I will buy the next version when it hits the Apple Store. Why? Because it’s worth it. If you haven’t used Google Voice, then it won’t matter to you, but if you have, then you’ll understand how great this app can be. It still cost less than that Starbuck’s thing I drink and I have no problem supporting this developer.

So many thanks to Steven Kovacs for resubmitting his app and an ‘it’s about time’ to Apple for finally giving users what they want!

the ASUS 1201N

I really did like my Acer One. It was the coolest little netbook I used, until now. The Asus 1201N is a little pricey for a netbook, but it’s a huge difference from the netbooks of yesterday…

Dual Core on a Netbook? I know, it sounds crazy, but yes. The Atom 330 processor is a dual core processor and while it won’t blow your hair back, it sure takes the Asus 1201N out of the realm of netbook and into the world of laptop. And it does it with style and a level of processing you don’t see in netbooks. I’m loving it!

12.1 inch screen. At only 2 inches larger than the Aspire One, it would seem the Asus 1201N wouldn’t be the much of a differnce, but it’s a huge difference – mucho! My math is rusty, but that’s about a 45% increase in screen area. It’s big enough for most uses, but small enough to be very portable.

Battery life if pretty good on the Asus 1201N even though I’ve read a lot about it being less than great, it’s better than the Aspire One battery life – that’s for sure. I am getting 3hrs+ on the battery alone and it’s good enough for me.

64bit operating systems run great on the Asus 1201N. So far, I’ve used several 64bit OS on this thing: Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Windows 7. I would normally write a how to install the OS on a netbook, but this thing is just like installing an OS on any other machine. It’s straightforward and not confusing at all. If you install Windows 7 Home Premium 64b OS, your COA number will work. You may have to call to authenticate, like I did, but it does work. You will need a 64b copy of Win7 Home Premium however. Installing from a USB took about 22 minutes – fast.

Streaming Video. This thing streams video very well, but not perfect. Despite the Nvidia ION and 4GB of RAM on a WIN7-64 OS, I can not get good performance from NetFlix streaming HD video. Regular video quality is rather good though. I don’t know if the limitation is Silverlight or not, but HD streaming video from Netlix stutters. YouTube HD looks great though, so I think the weakness is either the NetFlix codec or SilverLight.

4GB RAM. The Asus 1201N comes with 2GB of RAM, but it’s easy to upgrade to 4GB. Even thought the FFSB is only 533, the Nvidia ION can use a 800 connection to the RAM, so use 800 RAM instead of  533. You’ll be glad you did. AAnd spend the extra $15 to get the lowest latency possible.

It’s hot! Yes, the exhaust on the ASUS 1201N can be warm, to almost hot, particularly when watching streaming videos. It does get warmer at the exhaust than any other netbook or laptop I’ve used, but it’s only hot at the exhaust port and I can live with that. It won’t burn you, but you will notice it.

Overall Performance: Excellent. If you were expecting laptop performance, you’re going to be disappointed. But only a little. I’m really impressed with how much the ASUS 1201N can do. I was looking for something along the lines of the Aspire One in performance with a larger screen, but instead ended up with near laptop performance, with netbook size and weight.

Be careful when ordering. I ordered 3 Asus 1201N netbooks before I finally got the right one. That’s right, I was sent the wrong computer 3 times, by 3 different companies. Each time, I was sent the ASUS 1201PN which is a single core, single thread processor. Read the fine print and don’t be fooled.

It seems a lot of people are having problems getting their one-click yahoo email working. So I am going to try and make the one click yahoo email login a little easier for everyone.

You will have to create a shortcut for your yahoo email. I don’t recommend using Internet Explorer, because it WILL change the link. So use Firefox, Opera, Safari or something else. Right click on the desktop of wherever, but you will have to manually create a shortcut. This method works GREAT for iPhones, Blackberrys and other internet enabled phones.

Create your internet shortcut:

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.src=ym&.intl=us&.bypass=&.partner=&login=USERID&passwd=PASSWORD

The USERID and PASSWORD will have to be your user id and password – really. Many times, you will be taken to a screen to enter your password the first time you click this shortcut. Click “log in as different user” and click the shortcut again. This will usually solve the password question and clear out the cookie from your previous session.

If your email isn’t a US yahoo.com email, you might have to change the login server to match the mail server as well as the intl= for example, if you’re using yahoo7 the Australia version, you’ll need to make a few changes to match your country.

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.tries=&.src=ym&.last=&promo=&.intl=au&.bypass=&.partner=&login=USERID&passwd=PASSWORD

This will work for Australia yahoo emails eg: username@yahoo.com.au  Change the au to whatever your country’s code is de, br, id, etc.. this WILL work for most countries, but a few countries will require your to change the login.yahoo.com as well. This seems to be dependent on if you are using the classic Yahoo mail version or the new mail version. Try different settings for yahoo services and such.

Advanced and optional settings:

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.src=ym&.intl=us&.bypass=&.partner=&login=USERID&passwd=PASSWORD

This will take you to yahoo mail. If you wanted to got to My Yahoo instead, use “my” in place of “ym” – there are a lot of others as well…

https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.tries=&.src=ym&.last=&promo=&.intl=au&.bypass=&.partner=&login=USERID&passwd=PASSWORD

Sometimes you’re going to need these in the url and sometimes you won’t. If you’re having problems, removing or adding these setting sometimes helps get you into your account easier or faster. YMMV

And ALWAYS log out when you’re done. If you don’t, the next time you click on the link, you WILL be asked for the password. Logout when you’re done!

Reflective, glass and metal: $40 product image

Product photography is an area I’ve been working with for a while and have learned a lot about what and why to shoot an item, in a particular way, not only for aesthetic reasons, but also tested placement principles to increase conversions.

For good product images, you can expect to pay $15-20 per finished image. At this price, your pictures should be suitable for web and most print ad applications. However, this price is for items which are easy to photograph. Outdoor shoots are more expensive as are items which are difficult to photograph: glass, metals, transparent and reflective materials.

The DIY product photography for web copy is going to run about $3000 in initial cost (camera, lens, lighting, for a minimum setup and that’s assuming you already have the graphic computer and software. Then you have to take all the pictures, process and photoshop the product pictures and then your product images are ready for the web or print.

It’s often less expensive to hire a product photographer to take all your product images than to do everything yourself. Many product photographers will give you a daily rate, which runs around $1000 and will return you anywhere from 50 to 80 quality images, ready to use. Of course, finding and getting the products to the photographer can be task in and of itself. Thankfully, a lot of product photographers work via UPS or FedEx and return the items to you when the shoots are complete. Expect a turn around anywhere from 8 to 14 days, depending on the products, number of items,distance, etc. Be sure to use a bonded and insured photographer if shipping your items for photographing.

Where to find a product photographer? Well, they’re not easy to find, as it turns out. I’ve used a few photographers, mainly portrait, wedding and event photographers and I guess static objects just weren’t their medium. Product photography is meticulous and calculated where most photography captures the moment, product photographers create the moment. It takes a different kind of photographer to create a moment rather than capture one. With FedEx, you can use the same people Tiffany’s uses to shoot their million dollar jewelry, of course, they’re just a little higher than the $20 per image companies.

…if the product photographer has to iron clothes, they charge extra

A good example of a less expensive product photograph $10 image

There are product photographers who aren’t as expensive, but their work isn’t as striking as the more expensive photographer, but they turn out a very nice product at a very reasonable price, usually $10 – 14 per image (40 image minimum is standard). These images are not really suitable for gloss print publications, but they’re great for web, fliers, newsprint and television.

Keep in mind the garbage-in-garbage-out for product photography. If you send a pair of scuffed up shoes, your images won’t be as good. Photoshop and hiding flaws can only do so well in high resolution photographs.

For help finding a reputable drop-ship product photographer, check out.

Product Shooters
1019 3rd Ave South
Nashville, TN
615-259-9822

Mall of the Emirates

Generally used in shopping mall design, the Gruen transfer refers to the moment, when a shopper enters a mall and is purposely distracted by ‘scripted disorientation’.  The layout, the sites, the lighting, the music, even the plants are all designed to distract the shopper from their original intention. The effect of this distraction is a “slower walking pace and glazed eyes”(1).

While this is all fine and dandy for your brick and mortar stores, does the Gruen tranfer apply to online shopping and ecommerce? In a word – absolutely.

eCommerce is determined by the speed of byte or so we think. Most in ecommerce know, that the longer someone lingers, the less likely that person is to make a purchase. Right? Well, let’s say sometimes yes and sometimes no. It’s a little more complex than a fast loading page…

GoDaddy Gruen
If you have a domain hosted with GoDaddy or have registered a domain with Godaddy, you know, the checkout process is long. You’re going to be prompted with at least 4 pages of suggested additions, each more confusing to use and you’re more likely to add an item to your cart by mistake. Enough of those people proceed with checkout just so they don’t have to go back and figure out how to remove the item. I call it “the baby in the cart” technique, but I am sure there’s a better name. Regardless of nomenclature, it works and that’s the real bottom line. But beware, this method can really backfire in the wrong market. GoDaddy is the Park Place of domain registrars and they can do pretty much anything they want and get away with it.

Buffering… Loading… Please Wait?
An often under recognized function of ecommerce is patience. The patience of the shopper. Pages need to load, we know that, but what the shopper does while the page is loading is as important as the why they’re waiting. The Gruen transfer occurs on the macro and also a much more personal level with ecommerce. There’s nobody around to distract them, so you need to keep them occupied, even when they’re waiting for pages to load.

Wait for it…
The shoppers percieved time waiting for a page to load is greatly influenced by their level of participation. That participation is influence by even the simplest of methods: a “loading bar”. Two identical pages, with identical load times will be perceived as a different time, by simply adding a “loading message”. With a loading message, viewers were tuned into the loading message and their gaze (and mouse) was less likely to drift or exit.  By simply adding a loading message on checkout pages and pages that required filing, the viewer was willing to wait up to 60% longer, while their perceived wait time remained the same (2).  However, the loading message also played a role on the perceived wait time. “Loading” seemed to rank the highest in time vs. perceived time while “Please Wait” had the lowest perceived wait time. Maybe you shouldn’t tell the shopper their waiting: postponed, lagged, on-hold, delayed…. let them know something is happening and they’ll wait for it. Tell them to wait or just having a twirling cursor isn’t enough. You need to distract the shopper from realizing how long it takes and just showing the shopper something is happening has a higher conversion than no information.

You Might Also Like
Shoppers who bought widget A also bought widget B. The Gruen transfer is about culture and the culture of shopping applies to the online approach as well. New clothes, the latest styles, that must-have new device, they’re all driven by a desire to be in the herd and there’s nothing more compeling to an object as those desired by others. Enough consumers will react to this scripted distration to make it worth while. Offering suggested items in the cart that are relevant to the item they chose not only increases conversions, it also increases average checkout totals and that’s your bottom line.

Suggest to a friend, add to wishlist, add to registry, you might also like. they’re all intended to distract you to increase your time on site and increasing your cart total. And it works.

The bottom line, getting customers served quickly is important in ecommerce, but there are things an ecommerce sight can use to increase time on the site while making the shopper believe it was a fast experience. Those who do it well can expect an increase in traffic, conversions and profits.

1: Crawford M., (1992), The World in a Shopping Mall, in Sorkin M., (ed.), Variations on a Theme Park: the new American City and the end of Public Space, Hill & Wang, New York, (1992)

2: Nicholson P, (1998), Call to Non-Action; Buffer the Web, Dawhoo.com  (1998)

ASPDotNetStoreFront SWF Image Viewer Popup

SWF Image Viewer Demo (this is a live site, so if you order something, you will be charged!)

If you are using ASPDotNetStoreFront for your shopping cart, then you know how the popup image viewer looks and to me, it doesn’t look all that great. After working with ASPDNSF for some time, I am finally starting to ‘get it’ and I thought I would share some of my secrets for working with this shopping cart.

You’re going to need a little working knowledge of ASPDNSF to do this, so if you’re not comfortable doing this yourself, contact me and I can set this up for your site. The code provided below does work, but is not as complete as it could be… (I can’t give away all my secrets). If you need help setting this up and would like the complete package (including SWF viewer), I charge a flat rate of $250 to set this up and it comes with everything you’ll need, plus a few extra tweaks you’re not going to find in this guide.

First of all, you’re going to need a SWF for making a gallery page. I used Zoomify Design as it’s inexpensive, simple to use and works very well. Zoomify Design costs $29 and it’s worth every penny to me. I am going to assume you know how to use Zoomify and if you don’t, read the documentation. It’s pretty easy and once you get it set up, it’s easy to make the files for your call to a SWF popup image viewer.

Create a flash directory to store your files on your server. I created my flash folder inside the root of the website, but you can choose almost any location, as long as the folder is readable.

You’re going to need to have a custom product.xml package. You can just copy one of existing product.XML packages for your products. I used product.SimpleProduct.xml.config Be sure and give your XML a new name, I use product.Flash.xml.config

Edit the XML package and look for this line of code in your XML package. It will appear in several place and it’s best to edit them all.

<xsl:value-of select=”aspdnsf:LookupProductImage(ProductID, ImageFilenameOverride, SKU, ‘medium’, 0, $AltText)” disable-output-escaping=”yes” />

Comment out the code so it looks like:

<!–<xsl:value-of select=”aspdnsf:LookupProductImage(ProductID, ImageFilenameOverride, SKU, ‘medium’, 0, $AltText)” disable-output-escaping=”yes” />–>

It’s better to comment it out, in case you make a mistake, it will be easier to fix. Right below the code you just commented out, place this bit of code to call the SWF.

<a href=”flash/{ProductID}/viewer.htm” target=”_blank”><img src=”images/product/medium/{ProductID}.jpg” /><br /> <center>Multi Image Viewer</center></a>

The areas in red are the only changes you will need to make a change to the code to make it work. Change the href path to reflect the location of the folder and the name of the htm file that calls the swf within the product folder. The {ProductID} pulls the dynamic file name for each image so leave that in tact. This code can be modified to suit your needs. Now upload the product.XML file into your XML folder on your webserver.

Choose the item you want to use the SWF multi image viewer. Each product has a unique user ID number and that’s what you’re going to name the folder that contains the SWF viewer and image files. Process the images per the directions for Zoomify and upload the folder into the flash folder on the website. (eg: upload the folder 2345 to the /flash directory on your website.

Go to your edit product page and choose the XML package you created for the item and you’re done. Be sure and check out the new page to make sure it looks the way you want and everything is working. A few lines of code, a little preperation and you’ve turned your vanilla ASPDNSF image viewer into a powerful and dynamic image viewing system that’s going to increase sales and make your customers very happy.

Here is a working example on a live site.

If you would like to have me do this for you and give you the complete package, with everything ready to go, contact me and I will try and get back with you as soon as possible. Please leave a phone number and a good time to contact you.

Aspire One with Kubuntu

I have the ‘slow’ SSD Acer Aspire One.  It’s the SSD that’s slower and doesn’t have the write speed of the better SSD Aspire One, but I am quite happy with the performance of Kubuntu on my little Aspire One.  I did install the additional 1GB RAM, which is another process all together.  With the slower SSD and 1.5GB of RAM, I have Kubuntu running like a top and I love it!

Known issues: the WiFi led won’t light up after installing Kubuntu.

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase.  You want to install Kubuntu on your Aspire One and need a little help?  Well, I’ll help as much as I can, so here it goes…

Estimated Time for Install Kubuntu on the Acer Aspire One: 2 Hours

You will need:
Computer with Windows OS (I know)
Min 2GB USB Flash that you can erase all data on.
Kubuntu 8.04.1 ISO (Like Ubuntu, 8.04 will not work on the Aspire One)
Ubuntu8convert2.exe
Cat5 Cable with Internet connection

Creating a bootable USB with Kubuntu Live CD

1. Download the Kubuntu ISO from here http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/download and save it on your hard drive.
2. Download the Ubuntu8convert8.exe from http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Ub8convert2.exe  I know, it says Ubuntu, but it works for Kubuntu too.
3. Insert your USB drive into the Windows machine and make note of the drive letter (If the drive letter is higher than K: you’re going to have problems, so change the drive letter if needed to something below K that doesn’t conflict with other drives.
4. Run Ubuntu8convert2.exe you will be prompted to extract the contents. (I extracted to Y:) Be sure you have around 1GB free on the drive you’re going to extract to.  DO NOT EXTRACT TO THE USB!!   A new folder has been created called “Ubuntu8″
5. Copy the Kubuntu ISO into the Ubuntu8 folder.  You can just drag and drop it, but be sure you have enough room on the hard drive to accommodate the size of the ISO.  You should now have the Ubuntu8 folder on your hard drive with the Kubuntu ISO inside the Ubuntu8 folder, there will also be other files inside the Ubuntu8 folder
6. Click on fixu8.bat inside the Ubuntu8 folder (If you’re using Vista or logged in as restricted user, right click and run as administrator).  A command window will open and begin the process of copying the files and preparing the USB to be bootable.   Follow the directions of the prompts!!  You will need your USB drive letter, enter it when prompted.  This process can take a rather long time and seems to get longer with larger USB.  DO NOT STOP THE PROCESS!!

You have now created a bootable USB Live with Kubuntu 8.04.1

Installing Kubuntu on the Acer Aspire One

1. Plug the USB into your Acer Aspire One with the power turned OFF and power on the unit.
2. Press “F12″ when the machine starts to pull up the boot menus  F12 allows you to choose which device you will boot.  Choose the USB device
3. Plug in your Acer Aspire One with a Cat5 cable that has internet (this isn’t mandatory and won’t cause a problem, but it will make things easier during install)
4. Choose Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer.  Notice, it says Ubuntu and NOT Kubuntu, that’s OK and no need for alarm.  The install option may work, but it’s not what I used.  Let the machine load. It takes about 4 minutes for me from the USB on the Aspire One to load the Kubuntu OS from the USB Live.
5. Let it load! If you’re using the Aspire One, there will be a prompt saying, you’re using restricted drivers, wait until this prompt pops up and close it.
6. Click the Install icon on the desktop.  You will be prompted to choose your language, then time zone, keyboard layout until you get to “Prepare disk space”
7. Choose “Guided – use entire disk” unless you don’t want to and you know what you’re doing.  You WILL loose everything that’s stored on the hard drive
8. Let it install.  There are a few prompts, like are you sure you want to do this?  If you’re sure, then continue. The install is going to take a while (40 minutes for me) and is a good time for a coffee and donut break.   When the install is complete, you will be prompted.
9. Reboot.  You will want to reboot!

You have installed Kubuntu, but you need to ‘fix’ a few things.

1. Plug your Cat5 into your Acer Aspire One.  You’ll need to enable DHCP on your router.  If you don’t know what DHCP is, then you probably have it enabled, so don’t worry.
2. Boot your machine.  The first time is going to take a little longer than normal as you’re going to be prompted for user name, password and such.  Don’t forget your user name and password!
3. Open a terminal window no, this isn’t scary, it’s really quite easy.  Go to “K” which is where “Start” is on windows, then go to utilities and open the terminal.
4. Get ready to do a little typing, but this is going to get your WiFI working, so it’s worth it.Into the terminal type:
   sudo apt-get update
wait for the machine to do its thing.  Then type into terminal
sudo apt-get upgrade

   These will get the latest updates for your new OS

   Now, let’s get those wifi drivers ready!  Into the terminal, one a a time, type in:
   wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz
tar xzvf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz
   We are NOW using the current builds which will change directories, depending on the build.  The above step will show the directory that was created (mine was madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3816-20080742) this directory WILL change every time a new snapshot is made.  You will see the directory listed in the files extracted in the terminal (This IS easier than it sounds)
   cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3816-20080742 (This will change when new snapshots are made)
   sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

   Sweet, you’ve just donwloaded the WiFI drivers for your Acer Aspire One, now let’s install them!  Type into the terminal, one line at a time:
   make
sudo make install
sudo -i
echo ath_pci >> /etc/modules

You may or may not need the sudo on the last line before echo.  If you get an error without sudo, then add sudo.  If it still won't work, try kdesu.

   Now, we’re almost done.  Here’s the last line you need to type into the terminal
   exit

Viola!  You are done.  You now have Kubuntu installed on your Acer Aspire One.  I had to reboot to get the WiFI to work, so you might want to do it to.

Optimize and tweak your Kubuntu install

There are a lot of setting inside Kubuntu and if you want to have your OS running as fast as possible, you might want to get rid of some of the edsktop efffects and change the OS partition type from ext3 to ext2.

To change the desktop settings and much more in your Kubuntu install, go to “K” in the taskbar and then “Run” type in “kcontrol” and you will be prompted with w huge list of settings for the desktop to help optimize performacne.  I got rid of all the GUI effects and the bouncy cursour (which I hate).

To change the filesystem from ext3 to ext2, which I would recommend, you’re going to need the same bootable USB with kubuntu and follow the directions here.

Reducing SSD wear
Follow the directions in this post in the section about “Reducing SSD Wear” at http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1233#p1233 Ubuntu users seem to report errors using this method, but using Kubuntu, I have had no errors.  But I also can’t ‘see’ a difference in performace.

Special Thanks!

Special thanks go out to Aubrey, WanderingStar and sbemail over at the Aspireoneuser.com forum.  Without their help, I would not have been able to install the WiFi drivers.

Aspire One Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Mini-Notebook – Seashell White Intel Atom N270 1.60GHz 512MB DDR2 533 SDRAM and 8GB Solid-State Drive 8.9″ WSVGA LCD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Fast Ethernet 802.11b/g Linux AspireOne

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In the last few years, the ultra portable notebook market has really taken off.  The ultra portable notebooks rest firmly somewhere between a PDA and a full size (full power) notebook we all know and love.  Until very recently, the Ultra portable notebooks have been little more than glorified PDAs with a computing power on par with high end cellphones.   Combined with small screens, low power and micro storage , the ultra portable ‘sub notebook’ wasn’t ready for the mainstream and was the realm of the micro Linux tech communities and people who built their own computers.  Thanks to some recent additions to the sub notebook market, the new ultra portables are ready for the masses.

One of the greatest features of these ultra portable notebooks (sub notebooks) is the SSD (Solid State Drive).  Not only are SSDs much lighter than their spinning cousins, SSD drives aren’t prone to failure from shock like standard platter hard drives.  There are no moving parts in a SSD, so those little bumps aren’t going to scratch and damage the solid state drive like the standard hard drive.  Solid state drives also use about 5% of the power of the standard HDD and this means a big boost in battery life. The problem with the SSD is the cost, these things are expensive and because of the limitations, most ultraportables have store capacities as low as 2GB.

The real attraction to the ultra portable notebook market is the ultra portability.  You’ve seen pictures on the net, but until you have one in your hands, you won’t believe how small they really are.  I mean small!  These are smaller than most books and will fit easily into a purse.  How’s that for portability!

Ultra Portable : The New Beginning

In the uber competitive laptop market, Asus came in under the radar not too long ago with the Asus EEE PC 700 series.  A small ‘sub notebook’, the Asus EEE PC was fitted with with a diminutive  7″ screen, miniature keyboard and the power to match.  It was a really cool mini laptop, but with a 900mhz CPU, 512MB RAM and a 2GB SDD, the Asus EEE PC just doesn’t have the horsepower that consumers need in a laptop, even if the laptop is tiny.

Asus EEE PC 900 Series

Now this is what I’m talking about, 8.9″ LCD finally made viewing the ultra portable laptops a little easier.  Storage increased from a ridiculous 2GB to an acceptable 12GB model.  But what I was really missing from the EEE PC series was the Intel Atom processors.  The Asus EEE PC still didn’t have enough ‘umph’ to make it much more than a PDA and could not handle the pressure of mainstream computing needs.  The Asus EEE PC 900 series still used the 900mhz processors.  With the lack of CPU, the Asus 900 series was still little more than a internet device and not really functional for speedy application use.  And even though the screen got bigger, the Asus EEE PC 900 series still had a tiny keyboard that’s hard to use.

Acer Aspire One

Finally, something better! The Acer Aspire One picked up where Asus left off.  Using the best features of the EEE PC, Acer’s Aspire One starts with the 8.9″ screen, which at 1024 width, is wide enough for all websites and allows enough screen to do some real work.  And that’s about where the similarities end to the Asus EEE PC.  Asus fell behind with the 900mhz processor, but Acer jumped in the market with an Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU in the base model of the Acer Apire One.  This is HUGE!  You can actually run graphics programs with large files and not have a crash.  Another area where Acer must have been listening to the Asus crowd is the keyboard.  Asus users had been complaining about the tiny keyboards since the 700 and the 900 had the same keyboard size – ugh!  One of the features many users of the Aspire One like the most, seems to be the bigger keyboard.  Rather than the tiny keyboard of the EEE PC, the Aspire One’s keyboard is a 95% keyboard.  That means, the keys are more like a real keyboard and you can ‘touch type’ a lot easier.

Asus EEE PC vs. Acer Aspire One

CPU:  Acer Aspire One beat the Asus EEE PC 900 by a mile!
Acer Aspire 1 = 1.6GHz Intel Atom
Asus EEE PC 900 =  900mhz

Screen: Acer Aspire One beat the Asus EEE PC 900, but it was close.  The Crystal Brite screen on the Aspire One made Acer the winner:
Acer Aspire 8.9″ with Crystal Brite
Asus 8.9″

Storeage*: Asus EEE PC 900 beats the Acer Aspire One, but only in the SSD models
Acer Aspire One 8GB SSD
Asus EEE PC 12GB

Additional Storeage: Acer Aspire One beats the Asus EEE PC 900
Acer Aspire One: 3 USB and 2 SDHC slots
Asus EEE PC 900: 2 USB 1 SD slot

Looks: The Acer Aspire One looks and feels better than the Asus EEE PC 900
Acer Aspire One : Solid feel and nice looking.
Asus EEE PC 900: If it didn’t show fingerprints so bad, it would have been a tie.

Layout:  Acer Aspire owns Asus EEE PC 900
This one isn’t really fair.  The Acer Aspire one is 24mm wider than the Asus EEE PC 900.  While that’s only about the width of my thumb, Acer made the most of it by using a larger keyboard layout which make typing much easier.  Also, the Acer Aspire has the additional USB and SDHC slots and that’s something you don’t want to under estimate with the small SSD in these.

Overall, I choose the Acer Aspire One.  It has more power, bigger keyboard, more storage options and a great desin.  After you get yours, be sure and check around the forums for all the tweaks, mods and accesories that are going to make the Acer Aspire One the next ultrportable to beat in 2009!

Aspire One Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Mini-Notebook – Seashell White Intel Atom N270 1.60GHz 512MB DDR2 533 SDRAM and 8GB Solid-State Drive 8.9″ WSVGA LCD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Fast Ethernet 802.11b/g Linux AspireOne

High gas prices got you down?  Take advantage of high gas prices and shop online.  With gas hitting record highs, the economy slowing down and everyone pinching pennies, it’s time to position your online store to take advantage of high gas prices.

Save Money: Shop Online

If you don’t think $4 a gallon gas is hurting your customers, think again.  But rather than looking at high gas prices as a negative, it’s time to make some lemon aide!  Shopping online can actually save your customers a lot of money, so use it!  Even when you figure in the cost of shipping, it’s probably cheaper for your customers to shop online than it is for them to drive to your store.  And if you offer free shipping, it’s easier than ever to shop online!

Save Energy : Shop Online

You may be thinking this rather obvious approach is easily seen by your customers, but it’s never a bad idea to state the obvious.  I remember seeing “Vegetarian Bread” at the grocery store the other day.  Only one bread maker was marked as vegetarian, but I bet there were more than a few breads on the isle that were suitable for vegetarians, however only one brand used this marketing approach, which seemed to work as their space was almost empty.  Saving energy is a selling point, so use it!

When the mailman delivers your customer’s package, they didn’t drive all that way to deliver one package.  The truck is loaded with items that are going to other houses.  This is energy efficient product ‘car pooling’.  It saves energy, natural resources and if your mail truck is like the one that delivers to my house, it’s also ‘green’.

The Online Store

Yes, the online store is not only saving money, energy and the planet, it’s a way to keep your store open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  And with an online store, you’re not serving just your local customers, you’ll be serving customers all over the globe!  As energy prices get higher, more and more people are shopping online to save moeny and time.

eCommerce : Online Store

If you don’t already have an online store, it’s time to get one.  Most online stores pay for themselves within a few months and can really add a great source of revenue to your business.  And if you don’t have time to manage your online store, we can manage your site for you. Give us a call or fill out the contact form and we can get you started with online sales and jump start your business for much less than you think.