It was time for me to upgrade my laptop… and based on cost vs. features I opted to go with the Inspiron 9300, a 17-inch widescreen (1900×1200) “desktop replacement” multimedia notebook with integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, CD/DVD writer, 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce video card, Pentium M 750 1.86GHz/533MHz FSB, 512MB DDR2/533MHz, and other good features — except for the battery life (don't buy the standard battery) and what seems to be display “light leaks” (only noticeable when using dark backgrounds), so far I like the notebook — again, price vs. feature, it was a very good deal; I will give it some more time and see how it goes. When I called customer support (in India) about the “light leak”, it was hard to communicate with them and overall not helpful. The notebook did bring a bunch of software crap I ended up uninstalling. Pictured below is my home development setup, with my new notebook on the left, next to my new (yepper, another toy!) GEMPLUS (U)SIM dev kit with SATSA/JSR 177 support — thanks Remy/GEMPLUS! To the right is my multi-headed system – the half circle on top of the center screen is a Space Shuttle tile from my days @ NASA (the day I got that, I was on the lab, and they put it on the oven until red-hot literally, and I grab it with the tip of my fingers without burning myself – pretty amazing technology), and all the stickers on the screen are from my daughter decorating my systems… :-)
My next upgrade (or toy) will be a new handset (note in the above picture my current and old Treo 300 handset; I must upgrade!) — but I am still trying to decide on that one… Minimum requirements are: 3G-based, pen-based, I would like a keyboard, speakerphone, support all the latest Java JSRs, dual-camera (i.e. support video calls), Bluetooth, IR, large/sweet display… And note that I didn't specify any OS. Any suggestions?
ceo