Intel Core i5. Whoooosh!

OK, let me say this from the beginning – if you are buying a new laptop for school, for anything – get a Core i5.

I’ve had the opportunity to be able to try out a laptop with the new chips, and to sum it up – it’s fast. Really, really fast. Think of things that you do often on your computer – web browsing, gaming, note taking in word, watching videos on Youtube, listening to music on iTunes, chatting with friends in AIM, updating things on Twitter, watching shows on Hulu.

I went through a few days worth of these usual things – and the experience is insane. Load times when opening applications is effectively non-existent. Hulu videos just played, at full resolution, with almost 0 lag. CDs ripped into iTunes in minutes, and huge downloads – including the entire game of Portal on Steam, a task that brought my not underpowered Macbook down for almost a day, finished in under an hour. The game itself ran flawlessly. Flash games ran so fast that a friend of mine had trouble playing, being so used to a slower speed. Youtube videos streamed and loaded in seconds, even in HD. The Zune software, which I had been running at a snails pace on my netbook, was fluid and fast. Word, always a pain to load, taking forever to open, just was there.

But, while all these individual facts are impressive – the ease that the i5 handled everything I usually do on a computer was fantastic. But, I felt that this wasn’t enough yet. So did all the above tasks again – at the same time.

The total list of multitasking involved – playing 2 Hulu videos in HD, playing a Flash game, running a 720p Youtube short film, writing this post in Microsoft word, an assortment of sticky notes, 5 Gadgets, Paint, Solitare, downloading an iTunes update, ripping a CD, playing tracks in iTunes, streaming music from the internet in Zune, downloading and playing a 1080p HD movie trailer, playing two flash games, as well as running Portal off Steam. Oh, and Tweetdeck.

The result – I gave up. The i5 handled it all without a hitch, only maxing out at 80% of the processor’s speed. Part of it is just it being fast, part in the hyperthreading feature that lets it boost itself from a 2.27 Ghz speed to 2.54 (which, during the Multitasking mayhem test, it was full time). It was seriously, seriously, impressive.

Battery life was also never an issue – took a whole day’s worth of usage just fine.

If you’re looking for a laptop, particularly for school, there are some important things to consider besides processor however – a good keyboard for note-taking is huge, since that’s typically the most important thing you’ll need it for. If you’ve got a big campus, make sure that you look at the weight of the laptop – a few pounds doesn’t sound like much, but added to 3 textbooks, 8 notebooks, and 13 folders it adds up a lot.

But overall, based on my experience with the i5, it’s a huge positive – and something that, if you’re a student looking for a laptop and want to have a flawless way to run everything you do (and all of it at the same time), consider the i5.

As a disclaimer in accordance with FTC guidelines, the laptop mentioned above was lent to me by Intel for the purpose of this review as part of Intel’s Youth Review Program.

Microsoft’s Kin. Not to be confused with the Kindle. (click thumnail to Awesome-size)

Today, Microsoft announced there latest phone offerings – the Kin 1 and Kin 2. Unlike most other tech we cover, the Kin brand is designed for teens. Which makes it obviously something of interest on this particular site.

To jump right in – hardware. As can be seen above, there are two models of Kin – the Kin 1 and Kin 2. Both have similar features, and run the same Kin version of WinPhone7, with touchscreens, slideout QWERTY keyboards, etc. Differences include size – the Kin 1 being the smaller, squarish one, with a 5.o megapixel camera/SD video, mono speaker, and 4 GB of memory built in, compared to the Kin 2′s larger screen and keyboard, stereo speakers, 8.0 megapixel camera/HD video and 8 GB of memory. Neither is expandable with microSD cards. Both have the same Tegra chips in the Zune HD, and are quite fast looking, at least in the demo videos.

So, software then. Before we get the the Kin specific stuff, first the basics – has a browser, Bing search, and Zune software built in – so it should be pretty nice for music. But it’s NOT a smartphone – Microsoft built the Kin for Social. So no Apps.

But, Kin does have some seriously slick stuff when talking social. First off, Kin Loop. It’s a real time feed from all your social sites – Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. as well RSS feeds showing you what’s going on. Social connectivity is huge – just drag and drop stuff to forward to your friends, using the Kin Spot – a little green dot on the bottom of the screen, choose contacts, and go. It works for pictures, videos, news articles – it’s highly cool looking, and looks like its actually getting how teens use phones. Contacts work akin to the Palm Pre – just log into your email, social networks, Twitter – and it combines them all into one contact, which is a cool and handy plus.

The camera software is similarly built, with social features built in – allowing you to upload straight from your phone to your social sites.

But coolest of all is Kin Studio. Kin Studio is, as Microsoft describes it, your Kin online. It’s everything from your phono, automatically synced to the Kin Studio site – allowing you to access, sort, and most importantly, backup everything on your phone – from Contacts, to texts, to pictures and videos, sorted with a cool timeline to manage it. Also has the same features as the phone, allowing updating all your statuses and the Kin Spot sharing. Studio also seems to help with keeping space free on your phone, which is a nice plus.

The Kin 1 and 2 will be Verizon exclusives, launching sometime in May. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but I’d expect it to be an the cheaper side, since they’re marketing to teens, and we tend to be rather cheap (aka broke). Also, I’d be betting on the 2 costing a bit more then the 1, but we’ll have to wait and see.

For more info, videos and shots of the devices, check out the Kin site here.

Oh, yeah. It also makes calls.

[Sources include Kin.com, Engadget hands-on]

The last thing a Mac ever displays…

For computers today, backing up a hard drive is easy. Really easy. Macs – you have Time Machine; Windows – dozens of alternatives. But, chances are, YOU, the teenager reading this – don’t. Because, you (like me) are lazy. After all, the backup popup (“You haven’t backed up your files in a while – would you like to now?”) serves to annoy and is ignored more often then not, and the odds of YOUR hard drive failing – when does that happen?

The point of all this? Well, actually, there is one. See, about two weeks ago, my laptop’s hard drive failed. Everything – gone. 3 years of schoolwork, documents, pictures, projects, movies, music, applications – everything from the template to my school’s newspaper to my pictures from summer camp – totally gone. I suddenly was that guy – and man, did I wish that I had backed up some of this stuff – schoolwork especially.

If I can, through these years of writing, get one thing out to you, it is this – don’t mess around with backups. Yes, I know that many of you reading this won’t care – the odds are against it – but trust me: you don’t want this to happen to you. If you don’t want to do a whole backup drive – use a flashdrive to hold your most important stuff, or use Dropbox and store it in the cloud.

But seriously – learn from my mistakes. TeenTechBlog exists to help you – teens – with tech. I’m trying right now to help you – I had a few files on Dropbox, which at least had some recent school stuff. If your computer goes down, you don’t want to deal with data loss too.

But go now – open your document folder, and copy some stuff to a drive. You won’t regret it.

Cramberry. Online Studying, with Awesome.

Finals season is coming, and that means its time to break out the books to cram, with of the famous rubber-banded decks of flash-cards. Which brings me to this post.

I use flashcards a lot, especially on vocab or language tests, requiring memorization of large amounts of words. However, I also don’t like flashcards – I hate making them, I hate when I lose one or two and miss studying those on a test, and they’re just overall annoying.

Enter Cramberry.net – an online flashcard site that allows you to make flashcards digitally, and study them there. The site is very simple, and very smooth, allowing you not only to easily create your own deck of flashcards but share them too- with your classmates, or the world- via posting a main site, accessible to all; if you need a set on U.S. State Capitals, for examples, you’re in luck: you can find it without writing a word. It also tracks progress on the cards as you review them, and shows cards you get wrong more to help learn them. Furthermore, through a compatible iPhone app called Flash-Me, you can access your cards on the go (costs $4, though, and I haven’t been able to try it out).

Interested in making your own? Easy. Just make an account, and create a new deck. Then write up the front and back of each ‘card’ in your deck, and the site offers a quiz in which they randomize the cards and present either the front or back of each card, you testing yourself to know its other side. As you’re going, it even slips in the ones you initially answered incorrectly to guarantee you know the cards and will ace the test. Also, foreign languages work, so you can study for language classes without hassle, which is a nice plus.

In short, Cramberry is a simple, useful tool that allows you to study flashcards easily and effectively- and its free. So check it out and good luck on those finals.

ooooooo – Colorful.

Alrighty everyone, the biggest news of the week just landed. As Apple tends to do around the pre-holiday season (like now), they announced today the new updates to their iPod lines.

Nano:

Among the several updates to the product line is the heavily rumored 4th generation Nano, which I think is awesome (Orange iPods = Awesome). With a screen long enough for wide screen video and photo playback yet a continuing the slender design of the 1^st and 2^nd Gen Nanos, it looks really good– and ridiculously thin, as in paper thin.

It turns on it’s side to watch movies, using an  accelerometer (like the Touch/iPhone) that senses when you turn the Nano on it’s side for features like Cover Flow. The accelerometer also brings a “shake to shuffle” feature that shuffles your music when the iPod is shaken (very fun and cool). The software remains mostly unchanged from last year’s iPod Classic/Nano software, with the exception of a new “Genius” playback software, which automatically generates iPod On-the-Go playlists based on similar types of songs found on your iPod. And not to fear: all the old games from the last Nano still work on this model.

Prices were changed as well.  For $150, instead of a 4 GB of the 3rd gen, your money now buys an 8 GB version, and a new 16 GB version goes for the extra $50 ($200 total), that previously would’ve gotten you an 8 GB. Both are available in an astounding 9 colors. (Once again, Orange iPods = Awesome!).

Touch:

Also coming out today is the new iPod Touch. Since Apple’s spent the past year or so developing the software ecosystem for the Touch and iPhone, obviously it stays the same. However, new features were added with built in Nike+ iPod Touch support– no little plug on the bottom of the iPod needed though you still must purchase the shoe receiver separately. The Touch also received physical volume control buttons similar to the iPhone, receiving speakers (FINALLY!) and an even thinner design then ever (yes, appearently thats possible).

Price here was cut to $230 for 8 GB, $300 for 16 GB, and $400 for 32 GB. The iPod Touch and iPhone also get the 2.1 software update, available free for iPhone owners and purchasers of the 2.0 update (C’mon Apple, stop charging for software updates already–its just plain ridiculous.), which adds the new Genius feature (see above) to the Touch and iPhone, as well as fixing numerous bugs, especially those regarding applications and dropped calls on the iPhone (we know you iPhone users must have had some of them).

New iPod Touch, with Nike+ Application on left, but notice the thinness!!!!

iPod Classic:

The iPod Classic was also updated today with a bump in storage for the old 80 GB, now boasting 120 GB for the same price as its predecessor– $250. Attention all Storage Lovers: the 160 GB model has been discontinued– buy them while they’re still in stock (at a lower clearance price too ).

Itunes:

You wouldn’t think good ‘ol iTunes would be left out in the ‘Let’s Rock” event would ya? iTunes also received an update with iTunes 8, which includes the “Genius” playlist generator (see above) that in addition to making entire playlists in iTunes based on a specific song, it will recommend similar songs from the iTunes Store (nice way to make a sale Apple ). iTunes also gets a new visualizer and a different album view called Grid (similar to Cover Flow except better formatted for non-touchscreen devices. Instead of scrolling horizontally, you just go through a list by the Album art). Also, NBC returned to iTunes (Heroes and the Office are back. Woohoo!) and HD TV shows were added as well.

For some hands-on reviews of all these Apple announcements, see here.

WOW!! Lot of stuff here. Anyways, stay tuned for our own review of iTunes 8 (which is available now- click here), and feel free to sound off in the comments on what you think of these new Apple announcements, as well as if you’ll be springing for one of these new iPods.

Pix and Info from Apple.com

Want to be the next TeenTechBlog? Dont count on it lol, but for those among us who share our desire to express ourselves to the broader world despite not yet even at drinking age, we would like to inform you about about an incredible institution, TeenInk.

Founded in 1989, TeenInk publishes submitted work written by teenagers (at no charge for submission) in their national monthly magazine, their website, and if you’re good enough, their books of collected works. Sorry– they dont pay you for your work.

But if it offers any consolation, we don’t make a penny off this blog either. Check it out! And if you do write something, or have written for them in the past, let us know in the comments.

Picture of Books published by Teen Ink