So I’m preparing to leave Facebook, and I’ll make sure to delete all my information in there in an attempt to protect my privacy. I’m going to focus on my own homepage and blog instead, so that people who really want to follow me can still do so.

Incidentally, here’s an article on Lifehacker describing what you could do, if you agree on the above.

One such annoyance is Windows Explorer in Windows 7 and Vista. When you dive into sub-folders by double-clicking in the right-hand pane, the left-hand pane doesn’t expand to reflect where you are. That’s a pity, because that has been in there ever since Windows 95, a brief 14 year-long period of doing it right.

Here’s how to fix it:

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Click the button “Organize” in the toolbar.
3. Select “Folder and Search options”.
4. Check the box “Automatically expand to current folder”. While you’re in here, also check the box “Show all folders”.

Why Microsoft chose to hide useful functionality like this is simply beyond me. But there’s the solution, go fix it yourself. Thanks to Ronnie at Technet for this info.

Compare the two screenshots below. First, the German layout is identical to the English except for the swapped “X” and “Y” keys. Germans like that, but they miss easy access to the German umlaut keys. To get to these, one must press-and-hold a vowel and select the umlaut from a popup menu.

Now look at the second image. Notice that there are more keys on the right-hand side – these are the Danish “umlauts”. How nice that they are directly accessible! Other umlauts are still available in the usual manner.

Question: when these umlauts made it into the Danish layout in OS 3.0, why hasn’t the German layout changed, too? (Perhaps it doesn’t matter because the built-in spell check properly replaces vowels with umlauts.)

My plastic brain is dead. Long live my plastic brain! This post marks the official end of my “Age of Psion” that started eleven years ago,

Introducing…

Despite the uncertainties I have mentioned earlier, I recently decided to replace my plastic brain with an Apple iPhone 3G. It still lacks a real keyboard, but I have accepted that “a real keyboard” does not exist in so small devices anymore. To my delight, I have found that the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard is surprisingly useful and actually allows for faster typing than on cell-phone type buttons.

Why Apple? Well, let’s look at modern alternatives to my Psion: The market is divided between Nokia (Symbian), Windows Mobile, and Apple iPhone. The iPhone is surrounded by a lot of hype (and sometimes even too much) but the benefit is that vendors think of iPhone first and of other platforms later, if at all. Given that I am doing a lot of things online, the choice was actually quite easy — I chose the platform that gets the most attention. I didn’t even factor in the latest news about DRM-free music because I will be staying with the music I already own. And there are many, many useful applications that are free even without hacking or unlocking the iPhone.

Why now? I’ve been looking for a Psion replacement since 2001, and nothing on the market convinced me. But it’s not just a question of technology anymore, it’s also a question of phone bills. I wanted to switch to a new cell-phone contract in order to get flat-rate Europe-wide calls and cut my monthly phone bills in half. And when getting a new contract, there’s the chance to get a subsidized new cell phone too — including a choice of the iPhone. There even is a very generous data plan. In effect, by switching operator and getting this phone, I can now place calls and be mobile-online non-stop without a care as to the costs. And that’s a great benefit! 
(My phone number remains unchanged.)

First impressions? I was aware that I could not move my Psion habits right onto the iPhone, but it’s important to me that my new brain can do at least anything my old brain could do. Obviously it can do more (like music, Internet, camera, GPS etc.) but can I also use it for the things that I used my Psion for? Yes, it can. There are many differences in terms of how it works and such, but with a selection of (free) add-on software installed, I have a plastic brain that is in every way as good as the old, and then some.

A netbook may be convenient in the sense that it provides mobile computing and even Internet access, but it may not be the best way to achieve that. If you’re vacationing and need a place to dump the photos off the camera, fine — but on the daily commute, it is still rather big and heavy. After all, even the lightest ones weigh just over a kilogram.

Since UMTS is not built-in and immediately ready, the routine of plugging in the USB modem and starting the connection is reminiscent of ye olde days of the analog modem. Even the time it takes to get online is the same, slow process. Admittedly, once the netbook is online the connection is really broadband, but you have to prepare for going offline again in time, because just hanging up the line before unplugging the modem takes some time.

I want a device that is even smaller than a netbook, or at least smaller than the one I am testing at the moment. But an even smaller laptop would no longer be useful and if today’s market is anything to go by, it may not even support UMTS.

What I need is that my trusty old Psion Series 5mx suddenly grows an antenna and discovers the Internet. It already has the right size screen, a very useful keyboard, and great battery life. It just needs Internet as well.

There does not seem to be such devices on the market. There are Blackberrys with their poor keyboards and small screens; these are good for checking business emails and today’s agenda, but not much more. There are the Nokia flagships, and they might work, but they have very small screens and they are not touch screens, so there is a lot of keyboard navigation required. By coincidence, a man next to me on the train was just now using his Nokia E90 and I talked to him a bit. He was very pleased with the device but thought that writing longer texts (like this post) is still difficult.

So what am I to do? I could keep the netbook just because it’s convenient to not be bound to the desk, for travelling, and so on — but not use it for the commute because it’s not practical for that — and this fills a need I don’t really have at the moment. The fact remains that I am not convinced that a netbook is the solution to my need because, as I described in the beginning, even the small netbooks are still too big and heavy, and an Internet connection is not completely straightforward.

Size, weight, Internet-ability. These are the major criterias I keep mentioning, and netbooks just don’t win. The problem is that the next-smaller devices are smartphones like Nokias and iPhones, and such devices fulfil those three criterias but fail others that are just as important — having useful applications and input methods. I want something in between, something that is pocketable but works. And I haven’t found that grail yet, so I must continue looking. Perhaps I can take a Nokia for a test-drive.

Really long battery life is important. In fact I think that is probably the most important factor to look for. Most laptops and netbooks can run for 2½-3 hours, but that means you’ll need to recharge it at least (twice?) daily, especially as the battery becomes older. The netbook I’m testing easily runs for 7 hours on a charge (yes, seven hours). Not worrying about recharging lets you concentrate on getting something done, so get the netbook with the longest battery life.

Size matters. Get the smallest, lightest netbook you can afford (with a good battery!). If it’s too big or too heavy, you’ll end up not bringing it along after all. I’d set the limit at one kilogram (not counting the charger which you shouldn’t need anyway).

Online is better than offline. If you can’t be online all the time, then make sure your most important things work well offline. I use Google Calendar, which does not yet work offline — bummer! Built-in UMTS is rare and expensive, but my USB UMTS stick works very well. The driver software is smart enough to avoid using UMTS whenever it recognizes a working WLAN connection.

Your fingers are not too big. Most netbook reviews are dissing the small keyboards, but that is undeserved. You can type well on any size keyboard — believe me, I’ve used the Psion PDA and can type as fast on that as on a normal keyboard even though it is almost half as big. The reason is that the keyboard must be well constructed, not made of simple buttons like those on a cell phone.

A large touchpad is practical. Surfing means a lot of pointing and scrolling, so get a netbook with a large touchpad. If it’s too small, you’ll need several sliding motions to move the cursor across the screen, so a bigger touchpad brings more comfort of use. The touchpad must also allow scrolling; those that understand gestures are most practical. By the way, I prefer the mouse buttons to be next to each other in front of the touchpad, rather than on either side. Too bad that touch screens are so rare.

The display can be too good. The netbook I’m using has a 10-inch, 1280×768 display, and the excellent resolution of the small screen means that the fonts become hard to read. A resolution of 1024×600 or so is much easier on the eyes. And the display must be glare-free, otherwise it’s just an expensive mirror.

Attention. Fellow commuters don’t stare nearly as much as I would have expected – but they sure did when my wife took the netbook to work. Sexism? Anyway, realize that mobile computing is not yet quite common.

If you find a netbook with 8 hours battery life, weighing 800 grams, and with a touch screen — please let me know.

Perhaps I’ll just keep it?

According to some rumors, this will be the download URL: gears.google.com/chrome/?hl=en but the URL just redirects to the Google homepage. This redirect will probably just be turned off at launch, so keep an eye on it.

The factor that “did it” was that I just sat down and typed two blog posts for fun. It took a few minutes. Okay, so I just wrote those two posts on my Psion Series 5 which is not online, so I can’t actually post this until later. But I can write it now, and I like to write. I couldn’t type that much or that fast on an iPhone. I don’t deny that it’s a really cool device, but it’s not good for typing and that is what I want. Either I keep my Psion alive longer still, or I need to find some neat micro laptop. Stay tuned.