Tech Special: Gateway EC Series - Ultra light yet Powerful

Gateway has been producing great new models for the past couple of months ever since the revolution of the netbooks started. Now with the power of the new CULV chips in the market they have come up with a series that is both beautiful and bold without the heavy feeling one gets in their pockets when they purchase it.

The newly launched EC series of Gateway gives their consumers the power to choose between the 11.6" models to 13.3" models that they boast can last well over 8+ hours with heavy computing and a video card from Intel that promises to deliver High Performance 3D graphics.

Here are the things that the EC Series 11.6" models have to offer:

Easy-Carry All-Day

Want the freedom of all-day computing combined with an easy-carry size? Then the 11.6" Gateway® EC Series Notebook is made for you. Boasting Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 and energy-saving Intel® Core™2 Solo ultra-low voltage processing, our cherry red EC1801i laptop puts power in your pocketbook: 2GB memory, a 320GB hard drive, a media card reader, multiple ports including HDMI™, and a wealth of connectivity thanks to Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g/draft-n wireless and Bluetooth® 2.1. And this EC weighs only 1.35kg. Connect, create and compute when you want, where you want, with the 11.6" Gateway® EC1801i Notebook.

Specifications

Processor:	Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology Intel® Core™2 Solo Processor SU3500 (1.4GHz, 3MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Operating System:	Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 32-bit
Display:	11.6" HD Ultrabright™ LED-backlit TFT LCD 1366 x 768 resolution; high-brightness (200-nit); 16:9 aspect ratio
Chipset:	Mobile Intel® GS45 Express
Memory:	2GB 667MHz DDR2 dual-channel support (1 × 2GB) Expandable to 4GB (2 DDR2 slots total, 1 DDR2 slots available)
Hard Drive:	320GB 5400rpm SATA
Color:	Cherry Red
Media Reader:	Multi-in-1 media card reader, supporting:Secure Digital™ (SD), MultiMediaCard™ (MMC), Memory Stick™ (MS), Memory Stick Pro™ (MS Pro), xD-Picture Card™ (xD)
Video:	Integrated 3D graphics, featuring Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (Intel® GMA 4500MHD) with up to 1759MB of Intel® Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0 (64MB of dedicated video memory, up to 1695MB of shared system memory), supporting Microsoft® DirectX® 104
Audio:	Optimized 2nd-generation Dolby® Sound Room® audio enhancement, featuring Dolby® Headphone, Dolby® Natural Bass, Dolby® Sound Space Expander High-definition audio support Sony/Philips Digital Interface (S/PDIF) support for digital speakers MS Sound compatible Built-in microphone
Network:	10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN, Wake-on-LAN ready Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100 (dual-band quad-mode 802.11a/b/g/draft-n) Wi-Fi Certified™ network connection, featuring MIMO technology Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
Pointing Device:	Multi-gesture touchpad supporting: - Circular-motion scrolling - Pinch-action zoom - Page flip
Webcam:	Integrated 0.3 megapixel webcam
Ports/Other:	3 USB 2.0 1 HDMI™ port with HDCP support 1 VGA 1 headphone/speaker/line-out jack with S/PDIF support 1 microphone-in jack 1 RJ-45 LAN 1 AC adapter connector
Dimensions:	22.1-30mm H x 285mm W x 204mm D
Weight:	1.35kg with 6-cell battery
Battery:	62.16W 5600mAh 6-cell lithium-ion battery pack
Warranty:	1-year parts and labor limited warranty
Software:	Gateway Recovery Management Microsoft® Windows Live™ Essentials Wave 3 Microsoft® Works Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 (60-day trial) Norton Internet Security™ 2009 (60-day trial)

Based on my research this laptop has been pegged with a starting price of P 35,892.00 both from Villman and Asianic.

Where to Buy:

Find this Gateway product in a retail store near you

View Retailers

This will definitely be a good competition for the other CULV laptops that have been released by other more known brands. With ACER as their main partner along with eMachines, one can definitely learn to trust Gateway.

Wellness Wed: Financial Health

I have written a lot of articles that have focused on the body and mind's well being. Today am focusing on something that affects us all directly and indirectly no matter how healthy we may be. Financial Health, is something that a lot of us know that we need but have failed to focus properly on. We accept that fact that in order for us to eat we need to work, however, many have ignored the fact that we can start investing for our future to save us from the toils of labor when we get too old to work. Some have focused on savings which is good, but even better are those that have done research into the topics of Passive income. Sadly though many do not even think about any of these things and do not know exactly where their money is going.

When is the right time to think about money and one's future? The answer to that is now. As responsible parents, one should already be teaching the value of saving to their children. As adults we should already be practicing this philosophy as our future is at stake and more so with our loved ones that will benefit from it eventually.

Want to know if you are financially healthy? Here is a checklist quiz to see if you are:

For Students: Financial Health Checklist.
Others: Financial Fitness Quiz

After taking that quiz here is a video that will help you understand more as to the need to take care of your financial health.

Wellness Wed on Empty Streets: Benefits of Reading to a Child

As a child I can vaguely remember my parents sitting at my bedside reading short stories for me every single day. They got this book filled with magical stories for every single day of the year. I would ask them to read for me and when they were done I would have questions that would seemingly never end till they say it was time for me to go to bed. My parents probably didn't know what I am about to share with you now about what that did for me and how I turned out as an adult, but I guess I was lucky cause they did it for me out of love. I am sure that many of you may have the same story that I have had growing up and we must admit there are times when we even tell those stories to the little people as they go to sleep.

Cool thing about this practice is that not only are we able to bond with our kids, we are actually helping them, as our parents did in the past, build a solid foundation with regards to our mental and emotional well being.

Here are some of the other things that I have found out through several sources as to the benefits of reading to kids:
* Reading enables your kid to bond with you giving your child a sense of intimacy and well-being.
* The intimacy of reading to your kid is such a pleasurable experience for him that he will have a positive attitude towards reading as he grows up.
* Reading calms your child, especially when he is restless.
* It can promote increased communication between you and your child.
* Children who are exposed to language by hearing words that are read to him and in a conversation tend to do very well in school.
* Reading trains them to have a longer attention span, which is an important skill for your kid to have.
* It builds listening skills and imagination.
* The child learns more about colors, shapes, numbers, and letters, while your older children discovers an expanding chain of knowledge. This goes from simple toy cars, to trucks, to machinery, and to outer space explorations.
* Books can teach your child about relationships, situations, personalities, ethics, and differentiate good and from what is bad. Fantasy books provide material for his imagination and free play. Fairy tales fascinate your kid, and help him distinguish between what is real and what is not.

To add to that here is a Youtube video documentary as to this same topic:

Now, before you go off to your child to read him that overly read story that he or she has so over zealously requested to hear, think about how that child is going to grow to be a person that is going to have a solid footing as he or she takes that very first step of independence as an individual. Am sure you shall be one proud parent ;)

Empty Streets' Software Recommendation: Digeus Registry Cleaner

I love trying out new software, especially those that promises to help our Operating System and speed things up for us. But there has to be a lot of research that needs to be conducted prior to using just anything, most especially if it is readily available for download from the internet. So when I was offered to try out a new registry cleaner I had to do a little research to check it out.

The registry cleaner that was provided to me for testing is called Digeus Registry Cleaner. I did a search on daddy G's seach engine (Google) and tried to look if anyone else has had an opportunity to test this software out. So far the verdict has been quite favorable from those that I have seen and read.

Another thing that I also had to check out was the company's profile and I have discovered that this is a company that was just recently established (2008) and has had a good growing support since then. They have a constant 24/7 customer support line to help anyone out that may encounter any issue with their products. They are multi software oriented and their diversity is note worthy.

These are the types of software solutions that they offer:

* Multimedia: Broadcasting tools, internet TV/Radio players
* Graphics: Screen Capture, Image Editing software
* Internet Applications: Email Extractors software
* System utilities: System Optimization and Diagnostics, Registry cleaners and Disk Cleaners software,

With all that being said, let me now start with the review.

Installation from their website was quite easy - and if you dont know how to install the software they even have a complete instructional guide that will help you figure out how. The software file size is also amazingly compact with only less than 2MB to download - making it a breeze to get.

After the installation, all I had left to do was scan the system. Using the system and navigating around it is pretty easy as there aren't any complicated options to choose from.
After the scan was completed I was shocked at what I saw - over a thousand registry errors, most of it came from software that I had previously installed and uninstalled and much more. Personally I use a freeware registry scanner that I thought does a great job but compared to this I realized that there are really limits to using free stuff.
Over all I was satisfied with the results and my system is running a lot faster than it did before. Web browsing was seamless to be honest as I am writing this review. It has delivered what it has promised by fixing these complaints.

- Slow Boot up
- Longer Machine Response Time
- Unexpected System Crashes
- BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)
- Unresponsive System
- Slower Internet Browser Response
- Slow Start Up of Your Favorite Software

With all that being said I would strongly recommend for you to try out this software, you can even try a free scan to examine and test the product to see what it can find in your system. You might get surprised yourself.

It is also important to take note that registry cleaning is only one of the few things you can do to speed things up, try defragging your computer and clearing your internet's cache to help speed things up even more.

Here is the site for the Digeus Registry Cleaner

Till the next time. xoxo :)

Recommendation: Sublife #1 by John Pham

The first issue of John Pham's new series, Sublife, is out and I highly recommend you do yourself a favor and grab a copy. It's one of the best comics I've read in a while, especially the second half. And like all of John's books, it's gorgeously produced.