This afternoon I was able to successfully upgrade my Lenovo ThinkPad T60 to Windows 7 Beta (build 7000).

The upgrade took forever (about 2 hours). This was contrary to my experience installing a clean copy of Windows 7 on a virtual machine.

My ThinkPad T60 is my production laptop. I use it about 30% of the time during any given week – mostly at when I am away from the office.

So far, all of my applications that I had installed previously are working. All of the drivers I had installed previously are also working (no red X’s in device manager).

I decided to do an in-place upgrade to save me the trouble of downloading and installing drivers. I may try a clean install in the coming weeks if I feel that my system is acting up because of the upgrade.

For the record – I never recommend doing an in place upgrade of an OS – clean installs are the way to go. But I am making an exception here simply because things like driver compatibility with a beta is sketchy at best. If there were published Windows 7 drivers – I would have gone directly to a clean install.

As I have more time to play with this I’ll keep you updated.

Yesterday I met with Bill Lambert at ArcSpecs. He asked how my experience with the Storm has been and I thought I would share my comments with all of you.

Three or so weeks into using the Blackberry I’d have to say that I am about 70% happy with it. If Verizon released a new windows mobile phone today, I would probably run out and buy it.

Since my last update – attachments are now working on my phone. I am not sure how this problem was solved as the only changes I’ve made to the phone is that I removed the BES Mailbox and HTML Email Viewer applications (they expired and I was not sure I wanted to pay the asking price for them ($20 for BES Mailbox, $10 for HTML Viewer).

The reason that Windows Mobile OS is so appealing to me is that it is a breeze to setup and administer. ActiveSync is THE best mobile sync platform out right now – hands down. In addition, although I have gotten better at using the touch screen/keyboard of the storm I still prefer the standard keyboard. I discovered that the touch screen on the storm does not respond when you have leather gloves on. I need to use my phone in the cold! I wonder if iPhone users have this same problem.

So for now, I will limp along with the Storm. I love the screen, it has a nice camera. I think that the “click” screen is nicer then a touch only screen (like the one on the iPhone). At CES 2009 Microsoft talked about mobile devices being a focus for them in the coming year (I’ve heard that before). I hope that means more phones, specifically, phones that will work on Verizon’s CDMA network.
 
In a perfect world – I would like the Treo Pro to work with Verizon. Or the Storm (form factor) with a pull out keyboard and running Windows OS.

Here are my other Blackberry Stom posts:

A week with the BlackBerry Storm: Day 1
A week with the Blackberry Storm: Day 2
A week with the Blackberry Storm: Day 3
A week with the Blackberry Storm: Day 4
A Week with the Blackberry Storm: Wrap Up

Recently I was in need of a laptop and decided to save some money by buying a used one from a private seller on Craigslist. Here are some of the things that I did to make sure I was getting what I was paying for.

1. Ask for the serial number and if the seller was the original owner. In my case, I was buying a used Dell Latitude D630. Most Dell products have a service tag number which can be traced back to the original purchaser. If the seller doesn’t want to give you this information – they may be hiding something and you should look else ware.
2. Verify the information. If you contact Dell support and give them the information, they will verify the purchaser with the service tag and product. With IBM and HP products this may be more difficult because they owner may not have registered the product.
3. Check the warranty.
   • For Dell, click here then click Warranty Information (on the left).
   • For HP, click here.
   • For IBM, click here.
4. Get pictures. If you want to verify it is in working condition, ask for a picture of it “working.” Make sure it doesn’t have physical damage.
5. Clarify with the seller if the system comes with or without the manuals and CDs. I recommend that you make sure you receive as much of the original packaging, documentation, and CDs as possible. Make sure you receive the CD(s) for Windows XP.
6. Pay with a traceable source of funds like a check or PayPal.
7. If you are not prepared to do these things – buy refurbished equipment directly from the manufacturer. It may cost a little bit more – but the peace of mind will be worth it.
   • Offical Dell Outlet Store
   • Offical IBM/Lenovo Outlet Store
   • Official HP Outlet Store

Happy Shopping!