As I Xi It v2.3

I never thought I’d be so thrilled with the purchase of a new battery for my netbook! The original 3 celled battery that came with my Aspire One initially gave me some 2 – 2:30 hours for Wifi and web surfing. About six months later, it dropped to around 1:20 hours. Pitiful for a mobile device.

So, the other day I decided to get an extended battery, one of those 9 celled ones and it might be about three times the size of the original battery, but it gives me about 6 – 7 hours of continuous use! Due to its size and design, it sticks out the rear and increases the hight at the back. Normally when I’m typing on a desktop keyboard, I like to have it flat, but with the netbook raised at the back, I actually find it more comfortable when typing reclining, on my knee or on a table. There is one issue though, with the back raised, it could slide around if you used it on a desk, so to solve that, I stuck on some rubber tape to the bottom of the battery.

It’s well worth the £55 or so I paid for it. Made by some third-party, Camera Sino it says. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s also made in China.

Original 3 cell on the left, brand spanking new 9 cell on the right.

I ordered myself the Sony Microvault Tiny 4GB. They weren’t kidding when they said it was tiny, it’s a lot smaller that I expected and disappears into the back pocket of my Moleskine. It comes with this girly looking pastel pinky-purple silicone thing to protect it. Can’t say that it’s the fastest USB drive out there, but it does the business. I seem to have so many of these USB things of varying capacities, not entirely sure what to do with this one. It’s too slow to run Linux off it.

Here’s a couple of macros with my A590 IS. Not bad for £66 delivered.

In search of a more capable point & shoot to complement my big 40D and very small Ixus i5, I picked up the A590. It’s kinda chunky, but quite nice to hold. The pics it takes aren’t bad either. I’ve managed to get CHDK to run on it, but haven’t had time to really fiddle around with it all that much.

You know what? I never realised that there was a Crumpler store in London till yesterday. It’s on New Oxford Street.

My old Logitech Notebook mouse was starting to skip a bit and the cable kept on being snagged on things when I used it out on location, so I thought I should get a new mouse to go with my new netbook.

The Logitech VX Revolution is considered by some to be the “mutts nuts” of notebook mice and it’s certainly one of the best notebook mice I’ve used. The build quality is on par with the Logitech MX510 which I use for my desktop. It’s got oodles of buttons including my favourite forwards and backwards buttons for more efficient web browsing. The cool features of note for me are the zoom slider and the metal scroll wheel with hyper-fast scrolling. You can adjust the traction of the scroll wheel with the flick of a switch underneath from clickety-click to smooth frictionless free wheeling (not official Logitech terms) great for uber long documents. The only issue I have with the mouse is the stiff zoom slider, but I think with use it should ease up.

Being a wireless mouse, it’s got a USB receiver which is quite small (not as small as those in Logitech’s Nano range) and tucks into a hole at the rear (*insert tawdry orafice joke here*) which also switches off the mouse at the same time. There’s also an eject button to get it out. It all makes for a very compact and neat package. If one wishes to leave the receiver plugged in, there is an independent on/off switch too.

Ergonomically, it fits the contours of my hand and is as nice to use as my MX510. It uses a laser sensor as opposed to an optical sensor or even a trackball (remember those??!). It’s nice and responsive which is what you’d want from a mouse. You can tweak the mouse behaviour with the included SetPoint software. Overall, its a great piece of kit.

Together with my new mouse, I also picked up a Belkin Mouse Trap. It looks like a taco with a zip and I suppose the orange innards makes it look even more taco-ey if you flipped it inside out. It’s basically a circular piece of neoprene with a zip around the edge. You can use it to store various bits and pieces like a mouse, USB stick, pen and a cable. If you’ve got one of those flat, credit card sized mice, you could probably tuck in a tiny netbook power adapter as well. It’ll be a snug fit, but possible. When you open out the taco mouse trap out, it becomes a mouse pad. For about a fiver (£5), its a useful addition to any travelling netbook/laptop set up.

In the mice line up pic in the gallery below, I am aware that the MX510 on the left looks exactly like its predecessor the MX500. Reason being that I found my old faulty MX500 and swapped the case out since the blue MX510 was looking a bit worn and decrepit. So now, its a MX510 in MX500 clothing. From the looks of it, the current MX518 appears to have the same casing as the earlier MX’s so it’s probably switchable, of course this will void your warranty.

The Logitech MX510 mouse which I use for my desktop really matches my Aspire One!

I still find it comical how small my netbook is. My desktop mouse is about a third of the size of the thing. For comparison, to the left is my Logitech Notebook optical mouse which is more size appropriate for the netbook. I’ve actually ordered myself a Logitech VX Revolution which should be on its way to me soon. In case you haven’t realised, yes, I do like Logitech mice. I find them far less flimsy than Microsoft mice.

When I say desktop, I mean desktop in the physical sense rather than the virtual kind.

I’d love to have one of these for my desk – Click here!

I thought I’d jazz up my Aspire One with a cool vinyl decal of Domo. Apparently, he farts when he’s upset.

There’s nothing quite like a toothy monster to say – “Hands off my netbook”.

Thought I’d post a few pics of my new netbook.