It seems I get asked at least once a month if I think someone should buy a netbook, or a notebook… and to be honest, I’m always hesitant to answer that question because I’ve never had the chance to really put one through the paces.  The specs on them “look” okay and the prices are generally awesome, but how would they really perform on a normal everyday use basis?  Well, in mid-January Verizon Wireless was kind enough to let me borrow one for a month so I could get a better feel for them.  Before we dive in to what I think about it though, first lets take a step back and define “netbook”, and look a little closer at the unit I tested.

Sooo… what is a netbook?

   So what makes a netbook different from a notebook?  Well, not much these days.  When the netbooks started showing up in stores in late 2007 / early 2008, they admittedly got a bit of a bum rap because the manufacturers built them severely underpowered; in many cases with just enough power to run a browser and maybe an email client, proving frustrating to even the most novice of users.  Since the form factor has caught on though, the power battle has taken hold and most models will hold their own quite nicely next to a standard notebook.  The major delineation at this point is size and subsequent lack of peripherals (optical drive, tons of ports, etc., etc.).  With a netbook, you will see screen sizes of anywhere from 10.1 inches (like the one I tested) all the way down to smallest of the small with 5 inches; any smaller and you’d call it a phone.  There comes a point where they are just too small, in my opinion… not because of screen size, but because of the size of keyboard that goes along with that ultra small screen.  As I mentioned earlier, you will also notice that in the name of conserving size and cutting weight, some things you are accustomed to have been shaved off; like a CD / DVD-rom drive.  Another common trait you will find as of late is the addition of a built-in mobile broadband card letting you connect to the internet virtually anywhere, and truly putting the “net” in netbook.

   The particular netbook I got my hands on is a HP mini 1151NR.  This unit comes equipped with an Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz (single core) processor, 1 GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive.  It also features a 10.1 inch screen, 802.11 b/g WLAN, LAN, Bluetooth, 2 USB ports, stereo speakers with built-in mic, built-in web cam (640×480), and of course, built-in mobile broadband… all wrapped up into a 2.4 pound bundle of computing joy.  This particular device ships with Windows XP SP3 Home Edition, but other models are available with Windows 7 (and I actually loaded this one with Windows 7 Professional just as a goof).  Now here is the really awesome part; as tested, this device is priced at $199 with a $50 mail-in rebate and a 2 year service contract from Verizon.  $200 for a laptop.  That ain’t too shabby in my opinion!

Well? Did it work?

   Not wanting skimp out and do a half-way test scenario where I just use the system as a toy when I had time to play with it; I actually decided to push my other systems to the side and use this as my only computer for a whole month.  That meant loading all the applications I commonly use like Microsoft Office 2007 (as well as 2010 beta for part of the test), VMware vSphere client, TweetDeck, our corporate VoIP call manager, Office Communicator, Microsoft Live Writer, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Fireworks (yeah, I like it better than Photoshop), and our corporate antivirus client to name the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  Additionally, for half the test (two weeks) I ran the system with Windows 7 Professional installed, complete with desktop gadgets and Aero, AS WEL AS the applications I listed above.  My job and my hobbies have me on my computer at the very least 10 hours per day, so it is fair to say that this little guy didn’t get much of a break.

    So how did it work?  Pretty darn good actually.  The keyboard, while not too much smaller than a standard sized laptop keyboard, did take a little getting used to.  The buttons of the built-in touchpad are placed on either side instead of below, and I quickly found myself using it with two hands (one hand moving the pointer and the other doing the left clicks) which also took some getting used to, but ultimately wasn’t a deal killer… I actually got pretty quick with it and in fact using it that way made dragging and dropping easier than one handed (I never use a mouse, much to the dismay of my co-workers).  I found the speed of the machine, believe it or not, to be actually better with Windows 7 than with Windows XP, and I think I know why.  HP builds these laptops with a 42k RPM hard drive, which is SLOW by anyone’s standards. Windows 7 is optimized to work more from RAM than Windows XP is, thus in the heat of battle at the office that hard drive was getting thrashed in XP and caused noticeable lags, whereas it was much more tolerable in Windows 7.  Windows 7 did run out of RAM on me a few times while I was doing some photo editing, but that is to be expected with 1GB of RAM.  The nice thing about this is that all the performance bottle necks of the system are easily fixable.  For less than $200 more you could add a smoke’n fast solid state hard drive and another 1GB of RAM (for a total of 2GB, which is the maximum supported) and I’m confident you wouldn’t be feeling any slow downs.  That would make this a REALLY nice laptop for right at $400, a good value for sure.

    One of the things I really appreciated about the HP was the built-in mobile broadband.  I used it multiple times, but it really saved my butt twice.  Both times I was driving down the road and got that oh-so-dreaded afterhours phone call from someone needing technical help.  In both cases I was able to quickly pull over and let the wife take over the driver’s seat while I logged on to the internet and started working on the problem servers.  The convenience of being able to ride down the road and work online is unspeakably valuable.  Sure you can accomplish this by tethering a cell phone to a standard laptop, but then you have to deal with remembering to bring the cable with you and trying to manage a cell phone sliding around while you work.  You could also just get an air-card, but again, you have to remember to bring it with you and then hope you don’t accidentally knock the antenna or device itself off.  Having the air-card built right in to the laptop is the way to go in my opinion.  Nothing else to keep track of; it just works… which in my mind is what a netbook is all about. Computing convenience.

Who should buy one?

    So is a netbook right for everyone?  Well, probably not.  Lets be honest here; these machines are not going to be great video editing machines, hard core photo editing machines, or gaming machines.  They would, however, be a perfect fit for those “average computer users” (i.e. email, IM, internet, word processing, etc) or people who are on the go a lot.  I personally enjoyed using it and was a little sad to see the little guy go.  I’ll be giving some serious thought into purchasing one in the future.

– Dan Thompson

    Basically foursquare is a location-based social network.  Users load an app on their iPhones, Androids, or other phones. When they visit somewhere like a local restaurant or park, they “check-in” which then announces their presence at the location (and can then be broadcast on your twitter and Facebook profiles). 

Now, here’s the hook. 

    With the app, you can search for locations near you that other people are talking about and see tips they’ve left like “be sure to try the Bang Bang Shrimp at BoneFish in Bearden”.  At the most basic level, Foursquare is a centralized forum for local consumers to tell others about good places to eat, shop, and enjoy.  The idea for businesses is that your location could go “viral—meaning suddenly a lot of people could be coming through your doors because of the buzz being generated online.  Pretty neat idea.

    Because businesses want people coming through their doors a lot, business owners incentivize foursquare users for frequenting their stores.  Users get points for checking in and doing various activities, and they get badges (think Farmville awards) for various accomplishments.  The top foursquare users who visit any given location have the chance to be “mayor” of that spot.  The idea is that businesses would offer loyalty rewards to mayors like free or discounted products.  The natural extension for business owners is that it would generate competition among Fousquare users to earn discounts and drive them to participating stores and restaurants.  Knoxville’s Foursquare community is young but growing.  As a matter of fact, if you’re heading to the Healthy Living Expo at the Knoxville Convention Center, check-in to foursquare when you get there and you’ll get $2 off the admission price at the door!

    Obviously with technology like this there are certain security concerns.  Linking this to your various Twitter and Facebook accounts, while contributing to the “viral-ness” of the site, also subsequently could open you up to cyberstalking.  Users should definitely take  a step back and consider just how integrated they want this in their digital lives and how much information they want to be broadcasting before taking part.

Till next time!

– Dan Thompson

    Alright, I’ve thumbed through loads of leaked Black Friday ads, been privy to some insider information, and the best deal of the season I’ve seen so far is at (believe it or not) Staples.  They’re going to have an early bird special on an HP laptop with a 15.6” screen, 3GB of RAM, 160GB Hard drive, and pre-loaded with some Windows 7 goodness for only $299.98!!!  This deal will only be available in stores, so I’d recommend showing up early.  I have talked to a representative of the stores and they claim they’ll have plenty in stock for the morning rush… but I’d count on those going fast.  While you’re in the store, check out the Garmin Nuvi they’ve got for $119.99 if you’re in the market for a GPS (that’s $100 off!).  They’ll also have an HP 8GB flash drive on sale for $12.99… and you KNOW those make great stocking stuffers for computer geeks.

   If that is not quite what you’re looking for, here are some links you’ll want to check out before you go shopping to make sure you’re getting the best deals:

black-friday.net – Check out the bar down the right-hand side for the stores you are thinking of stopping by.  The links take you to all the known sales they’ll be having.  This site is updated regularly, so pay close attention!

bfads.net – Click the ad scans link at the top to check out all the leaked ads that will be in Friday’s news paper.  This is a great way to start planning your morning shopping sprees.  Also check out the guides link at the top for some helpful information on the differences between products.  This might help you make up your mind if your stuck on something.  This site has been around for a few years and is always a reliable source for good information.  Write this one down for next year!

cybermonday.com – If you know exactly what you’re looking for but want to make absolutely certain you’re getting the best deal; check out this site.  Put in the item you’re looking for in the search bar and it will go out and find the sales on that particular item that are currently going on.

  In addition to these, I’ve recently reviewed two products I think are going to be a big hit this holiday season: the MiFi mobile hotspot and the Motorola Droid.  Give those a look if you’re struggling for ideas on what to get those hard-to-buy-for techie people!

Keep your eye on this blog as I’ll be posting the videos from my WBIR morning show interviews on all the Black Friday deals real soon!

– Dan Thompson

    I’ve had fun talking about the OS in BETA form (First Impressions and Introducing Win 7), but our work isn’t finished yet.  Stay tuned for articles in the near future discussing “XP Mode”, which I mention in today’s spot, as well as some insight to the deployment and management of the new operating system.

– Dan Thompson

– Dan Thompson

      The discussion focuses on what we’re telling people online that we shouldn’t be, and it’s a valid question to consider while you’re interacting with the online community.  Seemingly harmless statements like, "It’s so nice to be on vacation," could lead to bad circumstances for you and/or your family.  How well do we know our online "friends"?  How comfortably should we be telling the world that our houses are unoccupied for a week? This man learned the hard way (link). 

      And this is nothing new, but our online image is as good as reality.  The trend for employers to do online searches of potential employee’s names keeps growing as we represent ourselves online more and more.  Bashing somebody’s product or brand could come back to haunt you.  To take it one step further, there’s at least one documented case of an employer requiring job candidates to reveal usernames and passwords for their online/social media presence.  These companies are trying to see what kind of people they’re hiring and use the web to peek into our lives. Yikes!

      So should we just not talk about ANYTHING online?  I recently posed this question to Martin Roesch, the CEO of a well respected network security company I follow on Twitter who openly discussed current business travels in Europe online.  His response was that he didn’t think he fit the profile of someone who would get broken in to since his house is well secured and though HE was out of town… the rest of his family was not.  For others though, this might not be the case.  He later made a good point that "people should use their judgment about the risk profile that they live within" and act accordingly.

      As a full disclosure, I recently discussed my own vacation to the Southwest on Facebook, but I did NOT mention it on Twitter.  I just don’t know a large majority of my followers and don’t feel comfortable sharing that type of information with them.  That’s my level of comfort, though… what’s yours?

For other things to consider, check out the video and let me know what you think.  Am I too paranoid?

– Dan Thompson

P.S. Special thanks to Mr. Roesch.  I promise I’ll stop cyberstalking you now.

– Dan Thompson

– Dan Thompson

– Dan Thompson

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