hey guys I’m new to the forum I actually don’t have a TR but Im thinking about it. Anyway due to the fact that the screen is pretty small I was wondering if something like apple’s expose’ would come out for windows.
After some searching I found a link to a forum where a guy has written a program with very similar functionality. I figured some of you guys would like to have a go at it.

http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/index.php?showtopic=5032&st=15

You have to register on the forum to access it but Im using it right now and its worth checking out IMO.

What is Apple’s Expose?

I’ve used that software before and it’s “fun” but it’s really not that useful. Part of it is that it’s slow even on fast systems because it’s not hardware accelerated like the native OS X expose software.

The author says hardware acceleration maybe in the next version but I doubt even that will be really good until the next version of Windows comes out (with the Desktop Compositing Engine).

Alt + Tab is still a pretty effective way to switch between apps. You can even download Microsoft’s powertoy feature that adds little previews while you’re alt-tabbing so you can see what apps are running.

Here’s more information on Apple’s Expose

It’s definitely a cool feature that works well since Mac OS X offloads a lot of the onscreen compositing to the graphics card, allowing for all the eye candy. The Windows version has a long way to go, but I’m pretty happy with the standard way of switching now and can wait until Longhorn for Expose-esque tricks. 

So it doesnt work well on the tr Ive used it at work on a 1.5 p4 and it works great. I never noticed it being slow.

[quote author=“crrodz”]So it doesnt work well on the tr Ive used it at work on a 1.5 p4 and it works great. I never noticed it being slow.

Well, it’s not that it doesn’t work well but rather it’s not exactly what you would expect if you’re thinking it works just like Expose. The TR has plenty of horsepower to run the program but it remains to be seen if the program becomes more mature.

I love brilliant little freeware apps like this. That said, I question the entire idea of Expose on a Windows box. To my jaundiced eye, Expose is an innovative solution to the problem of not being able to switch between windows within the same program easily on a Mac. In Windows, each IE window for example, is its own item on the taskbar whereas on the Mac, all of the IE windows are a single item on the dock. Alt+Tab on Windows can cycle you though all the open IE windows, but the same operation on a Mac will send focus to the next app, not the next window. I currently have 10 IE windows open and at a single click I can see the titles of all 10. The “intelligent” taskbar in Windows works extremely well for something of this nature.

The other problem I have is that several of the business apps I have open (SQL Enterprise manager, GroupWise, Explorer in details view and Dreamweaver) look pretty similar - if not identical - in thumbnail view. I shouldn’t have to roll my mouse over everything to figure out what it is. I can just click the icon on the taskbar. None of the icons look the same. This might be more practically useful if I used just browsers or graphics apps. That said, it’s much more practically useful than Sun’s unique attempt at 3D window managment .

If it handled my iTunes plugins and Yz Shadow better, I might add this to my ever-growing stable of very cool but ultimately useless “chrome” apps. At the very least it would tick off my Mac buddies by co-opting their Mac OS bragging points while keeping what’s intrinsically good about the Windows UI.  8)

Ive got a question, right now Im trying to figure out which to buy the tr or the apple 12” superdrive. gaming is not a major concern although I would like to every so often. I mostly browse the web, program, and create some web content. Also are there any 12” notebooks that you know of that dont use the intel graphics.

I went with the TR2 over a 12” PowerBook since I alternate between Apple and Sony every time I buy a computer. That said, I had a chance to check out the PowerBook, and it’s a pretty good deal for the money. If you can get a student discount, then a SD model can be had for about $1600-$1700.

PowerBook Pros:

DVD burner
Nice iApps (iDVD and iMovie in particular)
Non integrated GPU with non-shared VRAM
Built-in Bluetooth
Nicer keyboard
Metal body construction
DVI out
Easy to upgrade hard drive
Max OS X
Only $129 for an extra battery as opposed to $300 from Sony

PowerBook cons:

Heavier than TR
Screen resolution is “meh”
Screen brightness is lackluster compared to TR
Less third-party software support
Less real-world battery life
Runs hotter than TR
No built-in camera
No PC Card slot
No Memory Stick reader
AirPort card $100 extra

It comes down to basically what you’re comfortable with, Windows has come a long way in terms of UI friendliness and usability, and OS X kind of took a step back from OS 9 in some respects, though Panther is great. You really can’t go wrong with either one.

Sony’s own 12” V505 notebook uses ATI Mobility Radeon with 16MB for the Pentium 4-M model and 32MB for the Pentium M model.

just checked out the v505 it looks pretty neat. has anyone used it. and does anyone know anywhere where i can read about peoples experiences with it.

[quote author=“crrodz”]just checked out the v505 it looks pretty neat. has anyone used it. and does anyone know anywhere where i can read about peoples experiences with it.

You can try http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony but I didn’t see many posts for the V505 model. Also, there are two different types of V505s on the market. Most people will likely have the older Pentium 4-M based models as the newer Centrino Pentium M based models only came out about 2 months ago.
My only gripe now is that the newer V505s still don’t have the XBRITE screen. Sony was supposedly putting them on all new products. Other than that, it’s a decent system for the money.

Well, most Pentium M based notebooks have pretty good battery life compared to Pentium 4M notebooks. Given its faster processor speed, I doubt it will last as long as the TR series but it should still be pretty good.

The specified battery ratings are 1.5-3.5 hours for the standard battery. I think you can basically assume around 2 maybe 2.5 hours depending on what you’re doing. They do sell a high capacity battery that doubles that. So, i guess that’s actually kind of average. You’ll have to decide whether that’s a big deal breaker for you…otherwise getting a double capacity battery to start would be best.

The TR manages great battery life because it designed to from the ground up. It also has a smaller screen (even though it’s far superior in terms of contrast and brightness) and it uses 1.8” hard disk technology. Even though some of us bemoan the fact that it’s not easily changeable it does consume far less battery life than 2.5” hard disks.

Okay I’m thinking about getting the v505 like you suggested. I found it on amazon for 1,649.99 on sale. the specs are
1.4Ghz Centrino
60Gb HDD
512MB RAM
32MB Radeon 9200

do you think its worth the price. The way I figure i could also shop around for the extended battery for the price I would be paying for the TR and getting a little more speed/gaming ability. I value your opinions thanks