The Tale of Two Tablets

And no, neither of them is an iPad -- although I'll mention that too.

The group I work with at school recently purchased a couple of tablets – the Asus T91 and Lenovo S10-3t – for use in the field. Being the resident techie, I volunteered to evaluate the two units and put them through their paces and figure out which best served our needs. To sum up my findings, the Asus T91 is a limited but brilliant machine – possibly the best tablet PC I’ve used to date. The Lenovo S10-3t is a definite no-buy.

Read more below.

The Asus T91:

This is the smallest and lightest netbook that I’ve seen to date. It has an 8.9-inch screen and correspondingly small keyboard (both the same size as my Asus 901). That also means it has an incredibly small footprint and weighs less than 1 kg (2.1 pounds). It is also significantly slimmer than my 901 thanks to no battery bulge.

The T91 feels slow and underpowered. The performance improved somewhat after replacing the 1 GB of RAM with the 2 GB chip from my Asus 901, but is still quite sluggish. It’s perfectly fine for running most applications, but switching between them or running many programs simultaneously will slow the system down considerably.

With Wi-Fi on, I’m able to get around 4 to 5 hours out of the unit. With Wi-Fi off, power management set to low levels, and the screen dimmed to about 33%, I was able to squeeze out close to 7 hours out of the unit.

What really makes the T91 shine is its use as “digital paper.” James Kendrick calls inking the best little-known technology of the decade and I have to agree. It’s a shame Microsoft never developed this further and it is something I wish Apple incorporated into the iPad. (I understand why Apple didn’t, but using the T91 really makes me wish the iPad had an active digitizer and a stylus, as well as capacitive touch.) Maybe Microsoft will get it right with the Courier?

Below is an example of some notes I took during a recent seminar showing what you can do with digital ink:

A limitation of the T91 in regard to inking is that, unlike my Lenovo X61 Tablet, the T91 uses a touch screen. What this means is that I have to keep my hand off of the screen as I write. It’s small enough that after using it about 30 minutes, I learned to rest my hand on the bezel as I wrote. An inconvenience, but one I was able to adapt to.

What makes the T91 such a great device is its light weight and (with judicious use of power management) the ability to go nearly all day without recharging. It’s the first computer that I’ve used that would be a serious contender for replacing paper for me for note-taking. The ability to change the color of ink and rearrange text is wonderful in use. My Thinkpad weighs twice and much and only gets about an hour or so of batter life making it impractical in this regard.

Other things that make the T91 great include the fact it has no fan or hard drive (it has 32 GB of flash storage instead and two SD slots for memory expansion). This means it is completely silent and has no moving parts, and expect that this makes it more rugged than most netbooks.

Comparing the T91 to the iPad:

First, I will say that these are two entirely different products and each will do things the other will not do. Overall, the T91 is probably a more robust substitute for my ThinkPad than the iPad would be, being able to do most anything the ThinkPad can do – just with a smaller screen and keyboard and a much slower processor.

Advantages of the T91 over the iPad:

• Running any and all Windows-based software. For me, programs I routinely run include:
  • NetLogo.
  • Stata.
  • Python.
  • Microsoft Office.
  • Windows Live Writer (blogging software).
• Built-in VGA port for making PowerPoint presentations (the iPad has an optional VGA dongle you can buy).
• Two(!) built-in SD card slots.
• Two USB ports.
• A stylus that is much more precise than the Pogo Stylus on the iPhone or iPad. This allows me to write nearly as finely as I would on paper, including writing out and solving complex mathematical formulas.
• Multitasking (although this advantage will go away with multitasking coming to the iPad this fall).
• Webcam.
• Flash.
• A tactile keyboard. (My playing with an iPad makes me think this is less critical for short periods of writing than I originally thought. And you can pair the iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard.)

Advantages of the iPad over the T91:

• Magic!
• It runs (non-Flash) video much, much better than the T91.
• Brilliant display.
• 3G cellular connection (on the 3G iPad).
• GPS (on the 3G iPad).
• eReader software (both iBooks and Kindle).
• Lighter weight (1.5 vs. 2.1 pounds).
• Much, much thinner.
• A larger, higher-resolution screen.
• Much, much faster/more responsive to use.
• Double(?) the battery life (10 hours vs. 5 with wi-fi on).
• A fantastic touch interface rather than one that is often slow and unresponsive.
• Thousands of Apps that are only going to get better and make the iPad more useful over time.

If you can’t tell, I like both machines. Each for very different reasons.

Below is how the T91 compares to the iPad in size. Notice how much of a difference there is when it comes to thickness.

What About the Lenovo S10-3t?

What can I say? After placing this next to the Asus, there was no comparison -- universally agreed to by everyone in my office. The Lenovo was larger, came with Windows 7 Starter instead of Home Premium (which meant no special tablet features); was much, much heavier, thicker, and bulkier than the T91; and had no stylus. The few touch-specific pieces of software it had, such as a simulated 3D environment that let you move photos around, felt more like a science fair project than a legitimate business tool. Dimensions on which the Lenovo beat out the Asus when it comes to specs include:

• Larger hard drive (250 GB instead of 32 GB).
• Faster processor (1.66 GHz vs. 1.33).
• Longer battery life (8 hours vs. 5).
• Larger screen (10.1” vs. 8.9”).
• Bigger keyboard (but I find the Asus isn’t too bad).

Besides these characteristics, we all liked the Asus T91 much, much better. It is smaller, lighter (2.1 vs. 3.3 pounds), has a stylus, responds equally well, and seems better built for a touch. Especially with no stylus and crippled tablet features with Windows 7 Starter, I cannot recommend the Lenovo on any dimension. (To be fair, James Kendrick has a different opinion. Then again, he tested a model with Windows 7 Home Premium.)

BOTTOM LINE:

If you’re looking for a tablet/netbook I recommend you strongly consider the Asus T91.

If you’re looking for something larger than the T91, you might want to look into the Asus T101 instead. (It’s faster, has a larger hard driver, bigger keyboard and monitor, bigger, and heavier (2.8 vs. 2.1 pounds) than the T91.)

Avoid the Lenovo. Whatever netbook tablet you get, make sure to get a model with Windows 7 Home Premium and at least 2 GB of RAM.

Of course, if running Windows programs or inking doesn’t matter so much to you, you might want to consider looking at the iPad too.

The iPad: First Impressions

My initial impressions:

I think Apple clearly has a winner here.  From some early reviews I've read, the speed on this thing really screams and is significantly faster than the iPhone 3GS.  I’m very impressed by how much Apple has been able to pack into this device and by what they have chosen to leave out.  The pricing of both the iPad and data services are below many commentator’s expectations, making me continued to be impressed with Apple’s marketing acumen.  Steve Jobs is positioning this as a device to replace both eReaders and netbooks.  While he didn’t intend it, I think it also has the potential to replace an iPhone for many people too.  Read on for more of my thoughts.

First the specs (via Gadget Lab):

• The tablet is 0.5 inches thick and weighs 1.5 pounds.
• It has a 9.7-inch display with 1024 x 768-pixel resolution. It also has capacitive multitouch that’s similar to the iPhone.
• The device runs Apple’s own processor, a 1-GHz Apple A4 chip — possibly the fruits of of Apple’s $278 million acquisition of PA semiconductor in 2008.
• The iPad will have 16-GB to 64-GB flash storage.
• It includes speaker, microphone and accelerometer so you can use the device in both landscape and portrait mode. There’s also a compass.
• It has up to 10 hours of battery life and one month of standby time.
• It offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
• It will include optional 3G access from AT&T. For $30 a month, users can get unlimited data. For iPhone users already crying out in pain about their bondage to the AT&T network, here’s something to sweeten the deal: No contracts are required for the data plan. iPad users can cancel their data connectivity at any time.
• Unlimited data will cost $30 or users can pay $15 for up to 250 MB of data.
• The iPad will cost $500 for 16 GB, $600 for 32 GB and $700 for a 64-GB model. But if you want 3G connectivity, add another $130 to the price tag.

Is the iPad a Kindle Killer?

In a word, no.  Or at least not entirely.  The Kindle will still have some strong selling points among bibliophiles (its primary market).  eInk is nicer than computer screens for reading for extended periods of time.  Battery life measured in days rather than hours.  Cheaper price point.  Smaller size.  Lighter weight.  Lack of distraction.  All of these features will appeal to hard core readers.  However, among more casual readers, Apple has just given strong reason not to buy a Kindle.  Amazon has already responded by announcing an app store for the Kindle and changing the revenue split it offers to independent authors.  Expect more innovation coming soon including cheaper prices.  I would love to see Amazon offer a "Pocket Kindle" similar in size to the Sony Pocket Reader.  (With a 5-inch rather than 6-inch screen.)  This would further distinguish the Kindle in size from the iPad.  I for one also appreciate the text-to-speech capabilities of the Kindle -- something there was no indication the iPad could do with books.  Also, with the ability to sync books to an iPad or iPhone via the Kindle App, one could think of the Kindle and iPad as compliments rather than substitutes.

But with a price point starting at $499 and the ability to purchase iWorks, I do think the iPad has killed off Plastic Logic's Que.  Relative to the iPad, the Que is significantly more pricey and much more limited.  I think most business folks the Que is trying to target will have a tough time justifying the extra expense just for eInk.

I think the iPad also destroyed the Kindle DX at the DX’s current price point.  (Expect to see a $100 reduction in the DX ASAP.)  The DX has never been quite as popular as the Kindle 2, to begin with and for an extra $10, people can now get an iPad.  No comparison.

Is the iPad a Netbook Killer?

In a word, mostly.  With a price point starting at $499, the iPad represents a serious disruptive technology invading the netbook marketplace.  A couple things keep me from fully saying yes.

1) No Flash Support.  While Apple has not commented about this, a webpage Jobs loaded on the iPad during his presentation showed a “missing plug-in” box.  I suspect this may have been intentional to gauge commentator’s reactions to flash not working on the iPad.  I find this disappointing.  For the iPad to fully replace netbooks, I would like to see it be able to watch streaming videos from websites such as Hulu and Netflix.

2) No Multitasking.  Again, this is something that Apple has not officially commented on, but it appears that the iPad runs only one app at a time – just like the iPhone.  This means you can’t as easily swap between working in multiple applications (such as two Word documents at once) or run Pandora or Rhapsody in the background while working on a document.  (Of course, iTunes should still work – it’s one of the few apps Apple lets run in the background.)  As a blogger, a lack of multitouch would make it onerous to cut and past hyperlinks into blog posts.

Of course by the time the iPad goes on sale, both of these issues may be addressed.  If they are, I suspect my netbook won’t see the light of day very often.

Is the iPad an iPhone Killer?

In a word, partially.  As someone who uses his iPhone least frequently as a phone and more as a mobile computing platform, I could see the iPad and a cheap cell phone meeting most of my needs.  (Having said that, I don’t plan on ditching my iPhone anytime soon.)  I know a lot of people who wish they could purchase a data-only cellular plan for their iPod Touch.  With the introduction of this option on the iPad, I think a lot of people will begin to wonder why other devices can’t offer the same no-contract option?  I am thrilled to see the $30 per month data plan option on the iPad and expect other wireless providers to eventually be forced to compete.  That’s great news for consumers.  Of course, the great thing about the iPhone is that it’s always in my pocket (plus it has a GPS and built-in camera).  That’s something the iPad won’t be able to claim.

In A Nutshell

The iPad looks to be a significant and important new technology that has the potential to replace eReaders, netbooks, and iPhones to varying degrees.  It is a game changer not only on the technology front, but also on the business models behnind it.  The iPad beats out much of the potential competition on both price and features.  Why do I have the looming feeling that my bank account is about to go down?

ASUS Smartbook Confirmed for 2010 — Around $180

James Kendrick:

The smartbook has been a category of devices that has been slow to appear since Qualcomm started pushing it earlier this year. The smartbook is basically the result of putting smartphone capability into a highly mobile notebook form. The idea is to have a highly mobile device with ubiquitous connectivity, at a price even cheaper than that of netbooks. The smartbook will have a smartphone processor, like the Snapdragon, and an OS optimized for light computing. Kevin recently wondered when the smartbooks would appear, and it turns out he might not have much longer to wait.

ASUS, creator of the EEE PC and thus the netbook craze, had embraced producing a smartbook at one time, only to back off from the possibility in subsequent statements. CEO Jerry Shen has ended the speculation, saying that the Taiwanese company will produce a smartbook for release in the first quarter of 2010, for a price equivalent to about $180.

The statement came during an investor conference in Taiwan, and Shen claimed that the ASUS smartbook device could be the “secret weapon” that helps ASUS recreate the peak reached with the original EEE PC release. ASUS had demonstrated a branded smartbook earlier this year at CompuTex (pictured right), but the device quickly disappeared from view and hasn’t been seen again.

Apple Financial Results - No Netbook Needed

James Kendrick:

Netbook enthusiasts have called for Apple to produce its own version of the low-cost notebook. There have even been analysts that stated Apple ignores the hot netbook market at its own peril. Apple has held firm that they would never produce such a “sub-standard” type of device. The firm’s stellar financial results announced yesterday can be viewed as a loud raspberry to those who want Apple to make a netbook.



The model Apple has always used for its computer business is simple — make premium computers that sell at a high profit margin. That model is still working just fine, as the quarterly results prove yet again. Apple sold over 3 million Macs in the last quarter, of which 2/3 were notebooks. The total profit was $1.67 billion on revenues of $9.2 billion. This performance is outstanding in any economy, much less a down economy, and there is no reason for Apple to change the way it does business. My take on these numbers is that Apple would be crazy to introduce a cheap netbook. There’s no way Apple can make a 36.6% margin in the netbook segment and they’d be crazy to try.

As much as I'd love to have an Apple netbook, I can't disagree.

1 in 5 Notebooks Shipped Is A Netbook

Actually, it's a little more than that:



I was just noticing in my Criminal Procedure class the other day how many of the other law students in class were using netbooks. Given the weight of our case books, it's no wonder people are looking to cut down on the size and weight of the computers they carry... not to mention their impressively low price.

If you're in the market for a netbook, here are some nice tips for shopping for one. (HT Brad Linder)

LAPTOP's Netbook Buyer's Guide Video from LAPTOP Magazine on Vimeo.

I'm still happy with my Asus Eee 901, but agree with the guy in the video that 10-inch models are probably better for most people. (I can touch-type on my netbook's keyboard, but it is tiny!) I also think that most people should go for a netbook with a six-cell battery. I can often squeeze over 7 hours out of my netbook and it's wonderful not having to worry about plugging it when I'm on the go or in class. I also have an external monitor and keyboard I can hook it up to in my office at school -- effectively turning it into a low-powered desktop.

If your primary use of a computer is surfing the web or running word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation programs, a netbook is probably more than enough computer for you. Given their size, weight, battery life, and price -- it's no wonder these little guys are selling like hotcakes.

Full Day Computing Has Arrived!

About a month ago, one of my professors bought two EEE 1000HE netbooks after I recommended them to him for running PowerPoint at a conference he was organizing. I was his tech guy at the conference, so I had the chance to play around with them for about a week beforehand and discovered that their higher-capacity batteries (8700 mAh) were interchangeable with the lower-capacity battery (6600 mAh) of my Eee 901.

Yesterday, I found out one of my classmates bought an Eee 1000HE as well. He wanted it for the size, not the battery life and was generous enough to sell his battery to me at a good price in exchange for my battery. The real-world results have been incredible.

WI-FI OFF, 25% BRIGHTNESS, MAXIMUM BATTERY LIFE



Here is what I got on my Eee 901 with all wireless features off, 25% brightness, and maximum battery life settings. Plenty of power for modifying a paper I was working on for school. I got over an hour of use on it on a two-way subway ride to Bethesda today and the battery was still registering 90% of power.

WI-FI ON, EXTERNAL MONITOR, MAX BATTERY LIFE

These results were so good, I decided not to bring the AC adapter to me when I took it into the office this afternoon. I hooked it up to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse and turned Wi-Fi on. This is what the battery meter registered after several hours of use. Assuming a linear decline in battery life, this would translate into just over 8 hours of use at full charge.



WI-FI ON, 25% BRIGHTNESS, MAXIMUM BATTERY LIFE

By the time I got home tonight (and after it had been sitting in my bag in standby mode for several hours), this is what it registered with the same settings as above, but with Wi-Fi turned on. This translates into over 7.5 hours of battery life!



Needless to say, I am impressed! This truly makes my Eee 901 possibly the best travel computer ever. With XP and a solid-state drive, this is the most reliable and durable PC I've ever owned. Weighing in at less than 2-1/2 pounds and with the same footprint as my Kindle, this is a computer I wouldn't hesitate to bring anywhere and would hardly ever need to worry about it running out of power.

In case you can't tell, I'm extremely pleased.

P.S. -- I wonder why Asus doesn't start bundling these batteries with the 901? They don't add any additional size or weight to the device.

The MacBook Air Mini?

Is Apple coming out with a netbook? This picture could just be a clever Photoshop, but it sure looks nice.

Here are the rumored specs:

• 10.4″ WXGA display.
• 1280 x 768 pixel with LED backlighting.
• NVIDIA MCP79
• Intel Atom Z740 1.83GHz with 1MB L2 cache.
• 2GB DDR3-800.
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
• 64GB Solid State Drive.
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n
• 1 x USB 2.0
• 1 x Mini Display Port
• Battery Li-Ion 5100mA

And an $899 price tag.

Stay tuned.

Deal of the Day: A Tiny Windows XP Laptop for Only $280

Amazon is currently selling the Asus Eee PC 901 for $280. That's only $15 more than I paid for mine last semester -- and I bought mine used off of Craigslist. That's $80 less than what I paid for my Kindle and this gets you a full-blown Windows XP computer. It only weighs 2.5 pounds, has flash-based storage, and I can get up to about 6+ hours of battery out of it. It makes it a great travel companion or note-taking device for school. (If you can live with the tiny keyboard.)

My 901 had started slowing down a bit. I bought an external DVD drive yesterday and just finished reinstalling XP, which seems to have sped it up quite a bit. I also installing Microsoft Office on in for the first time. Between the refresh and new software, I think some new life is getting breathed into this little machine.

I remain very happy with my 901 and would heartily recommend it for someone looking for a second computer. Be aware of its limitations (only 12 GB of storage (split into two partitions) and tiny keyboard), but at this price, it's a real steal.

If you're looking for something similar without quite so many limitations, I have read good stuff about the Eee PC 1000HE. It has a bigger screen and keyboard, a 160 GB hard drive, up to 9.5 hours of battery life(!), weighs 3 pounds, and is selling on Amazon for $388.

The Asus Eee T91 Netbook Tablet

A closer look at the Asus Eee T91 Netbook tablet. Reviews say it's smaller than my Eee 901. That means it's awesome for carrying around and a bit tight for typing. At just over 2 pounds, this is a computer (like my 901) that you could carry almost anywhere.

Here is a brief rundown of the specs:

• Size: 8.5" x 6.5" xy 1.1"
• Weight: 2.2 pounds
  
• 8.9" glossy LED-backlit WSVGA (1,024 x 600) screen
  
• Intel Atom Z520 processor
  
• Intel US15W chipset
  
• 1GB DDR2 memory
  
• 10/100 Ethernet
  
• 802.11 b/g wireless (n not confirmed)
  
• Bluetooth
  
• 32GB SSD
  
• Windows XP Home Service Pack 3
  
• Optional 3G data connectivity, GPS and DVB-T TV Tuner
  
• Integrated webcam (resolution not confirmed)

This would potentially make a great PDF reader as well as a go anywhere computer. A 10-inch version is also coming out soon, but that doesn't seem to be getting as much attention.

Besides being a tablet, relative to my Eee 901, I also like the fact that this is thinner and has a 32 GB SSD drive and is slightly smaller in size. I don't like that it gets slightly less battery life and am not sure if I like the glossy screen on it. I'm curious how the battery life of the 10-inch version will compare. (The Eee 1000HE is advertised at getting up to 9.5 hours of life between charges. Come out with a tablet that can do that and Asus just might have a repeat customer.)

The T91 should be coming out in just a few more months. While no final pricing has been set, it's expected to sell for around $500.

(HT Portable Monkey)

Asus Launches Convertible Touchscreen Netbooks

It has an 8.9-inch touchscreen, weighs 2-pounds, and has options for a TV tuner and built-in GPS. It should be available in the next 3-6 months.

Looks like they're coming out with a 10-inch version too.

My First Netbook!

(Studying Con Law at Cosi in Arlington on Saturday, after my visit to the White House.)

I mentioned a few days ago that I joined the netbook revolution and promised more details. Last Friday, I bought a used Asus Eee 901 -- a small 6.9"x8.9" netbook that weighs less that 2-1/2 pounds. I couldn't be more pleased with it so far.

As I was writing about using a netbook as an e-book reader a week ago, I talked myself into thinking that the Asus Eee 901 would be best for this purpose -- a combination of tiny size, long battery life (6+ hours), and flash based memory (no moving hard drive) made me think it was the perfect device for reading PDF files. After writing that post, I checked on Craig's List and found one on sale for $285. I met the guy selling it in Manassas last Friday, talked him down $20, and sealed the deal. Turns out we graduated from the same high school.

What I got for $265 was a fantastic little computing companion. Here are some of my initial impressions so far:

• The device is incredibly tiny. By far the smallest and lightest laptop I've ever owned.
• The keyboard is correspondingly tiny -- the same size as on the original Asus Eee. I find I can touch-type on it, but have the same issue with the right shift key that many Eee owners have complained about. I probably type at somewhere in the neighborhood of 75% of my normal typing speed with it.
• This thing goes into and out of standby in a flash. I'm talking like 2-3 seconds. Practically speaking, it's just as good as being instant-on.
• With wi-fi on and brightness at a reasonable level, I'm getting ~ 5-6 hours out of this easy. I think I could get more if I turned off the wireless connectivity and believe Asus's claims of up to 7-8 hours of battery life.
• Did I mention this runs full-blown Windows XP?
• This has an odd combination of a 4 GB and 8 GB flash drive for a total of 12 GB. What's been a little frustrating is that the operating system is on the 4 GB partition (a faster performing solid-state drive), while the 8 GB is used more for data and program storage. Unfortunately, a lot of programs install default onto the C: drive (the 4 GB) and I'm quickly fighting it filling up. Once I get the hang of managing this a little better, I don't think it will be as much of an issue.
• Because this is flash-based memory, it means it doesn't use virtual memory (the constant read-write would wear out the flash memory). This makes the unit fairly responsive, but it can only handle limited multi-tasking relative to my ThinkPad. I have to take better care than I'm used to about not running too many programs simultaneously (3 or 4 are usually fine) or having too many webpages open at once.
• It's a great tool for blogging.
• The small size, long battery life, and near instant-on make this usable in far more settings than a traditional laptop.
• This thing feels solid. Unlike my Sony, I have little fear about the fragility of this device. The lack of hard drive makes this even more so. I can think of many trips I've made overseas where I wouldn't bring a normal laptop. I wouldn't think twice about bringing my Eee.
• I loaded Picasa onto this and it turned it into a rapid photo viewing tool. It has a built-in SD card reader which means I can pop in a card from my digital camera and scan through my photos on the 8.9" screen faster than I would have thought possible. Next to a quality digital camera, a netbook should be a photographer's best friend.
  
• This has a multi-touch trackpad, similar to the one found on the new MacBooks, but a little less sophisticated. I primarily like being able to use two fingers to scroll up and down on web pages, in documents, zooming in and out of photographs, etc. Other multi-touch features still need some refining. The multi-touch is still a fun feature to have and especially nice for zooming in and out of and cropping photos.
• Much to my surprise, this can run my 1,900 x 1,200 pixel 24-inch monitor without any problems (after I downloaded the latest XP updates that is). It seems to slow down the system slightly, but is still very usable. (In contrast, my Sony VAIO will only support up to 1,600 x 1,200 resolution.)
  
• This works fantastically well as a PDF viewer. I rotate the PDF file and hold it open like a book. The screen size is 8.9" diagonal with a resolution of 1,024 x 800 pixels. Text can get a little small, but it is highly readable. If I hold it so the screen is on the left and the trackpad buttons on the right, the buttons are correctly placed so that the bottom button advances a page in Acrobat Reader and the top button goes back a page.
• I downloaded Eee Rotate which rotates the screen and the trackpad orientation by 90 degrees. This lets me read my RSS feeds in Google like this was a book too. I just hit the space bar to advance to the next entry.
• The 6-cell battery makes this a bit back-heavy -- something I need to stay cognizant of if I balance it on something.
• It is whisper quiet. I mean almost zero sound. I have to hold it up to my ear to even tell if the fan is on.
  
• The Eee 901 has a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam -- the first webcam I've ever owned. (Here's an online program that simulates Apple's PhotoBooth.)
  
• I find myself feeling the need to carry my ThinkPad much less now that I have this. The battery life on this is so good, I also don't feel the need to bring the power adapter along.
• This will probably do ~ 75% of what I want a computer to do. (And I consider myself to be a bit of a power user.) For most consumers, I'd expect that number to be closer to 90-95%.
• Netbooks are far more capable machines than I realized and am more convinced than before that a netbook combined with an external mouse, keyboard, and monitor are all the computer most people need. If a netbook was your only system, I'd recommend one with a larger keyboard and built-in hard drive, such as the Samsung NC10 or Asus 1000HA. Both sell for $350-$500 new and come with 160 GB hard drives -- much larger than my ThinkPad's.
  
• Several of my classmates have seen this and love the idea of carrying something small to take to class and type notes on. Particularly with the back-breaking size of many of our case books, this is a very welcome thought.

If you can't tell, I really love this thing so far. It's the best $265 I've spent in a long time. I'll continue to pass on my impressions as I get to use it a bit more. For now if I could, I'd give it 5.5 out of 5 stars.

Below is how the Eee 901 compares in size with my Lenovo ThinkPad X61 tablet and my Sony TX-750 (which is back in the shop -- again!). The yellow rectangle represents my Thinkpad, the blue my Sony, and the green the Eee 901. Like I said, it's tiny!



You can read reviews of the Eee 901 here, here, here, and here. Jkkmobile also has this comprehensive video review:



Here's another video review comparing the Eee 901 to several other netbooks.

If you're looking for a versatile laptop for school, travel, or just knocking about and don't need too much power, I'd suggest looking at a netbook of some sort. They're incredibly compact devices that can get a lot of battery life (if you get one with a 6-cell battery). They also keep dropping in price, with many people expecting to see new ones selling for ~ $200 sometime next year. Highly recommended!

Joining the Netbook Revolution

More details to come...

A Netbook as an eBook Reader?

My cousin and her husband were visiting my parents for Thanksgiving and my cousin brought her Eee PC along. As usual, I found myself quite enamored by the little device. On Friday, I went in to Panera in my hometown to do some writing for school, and I saw a man reading his Amazon Kindle. I asked him about it and he beamed when describing how much he loved it -- essentially the same reaction I've gotten from nearly everyone I've spoken to who owns one. I would love to get a Kindle myself, but think I will continue to wait for version 2.0. (Particularly seeing how Amazon is sold out until February.) Seeing the man with his Kindle in Panera after playing with my cousin's netbook started me thinking -- why not use a netbook as an eBook reader? (Apparently, I'm not the first one to have this idea.)

As I've written before, one of the biggest hang-ups I have with the current crop of eBook readers is that they don't do a good job allowing you to simply copy PDF files on to them to read. Amazon has a conversion process and Sony can read some PDF files, but I read a ton of academic articles and other PDF content that tends to be fairly graphic intensive. Most eBook readers do a very poor job rendering these kinds of files, but netbooks would be able to handle these with no problem. I've been a little wary of the original batch of netbooks as they only had ~ 2-3 hours of battery life, but new ones are coming out that get up to 6+ hours of juice . That would make for a great all-day reading companion.

I'm particularly drawn to the Asus 901, one of the smallest netbooks, for several reasons:

• This would definitely be a secondary computer for me and not my primary one. As such, I think the trade-off for smaller size would be worth the limitation of the smaller keyboard. I'd still use my ThinkPad for any major work I'd do.
  
• The tiny size would make it a fantastic travel companion for flying with only carry-on luggage.
  
• Flash memory, while limited in capacity (12 GB), would mean this has no moving parts -- making it far more durable (great for travel), boot faster, and put out less noise than a similar computer with a hard drive. I could compliment the storage with a USB drive and/or SD cards if need be.
  
• It has among the best battery life (up to 8 hours) of any Netbook I've seen reviewed.
• One of the primary purposes I'd have for getting something like this would be to experiment with using it as an eBook reader. The smallest possible size and weight would be ideal for this. So would the lack of moving parts. The Asus 901 also appears to have the best viewing angle of comparable netbooks -- a feature that would be critical for reading.
  

The other huge selling point with me about the Asus 901 is that it also has a multi-touch trackpad -- similar to the new MacBooks:



CNET has another video review here.

I may have to seriously consider one of these -- possibly after the beginning of the year. Now if only they'd come out with a tablet version of one of these and I'd be set!

See reviews of the Eee 901 here, here, here, here, and here. You can currently buy the 12 GB XP version on Amazon for $349 and the 20 GB Linux version for $436. (What amazes me is that the XP version is currently cheaper than the Amazon Kindle which sells for $359.)

If you're looking for something a little larger, the Samsung NC10 also looks like a good system. it has a 10.2-inch screen, comprable battery life, and a larger keyboard. It sells on Amazon for $488.

Hands-On Review of the Averatec All-In-One PC

Laptop Magazine:

Averatec recently announced an 18.4-inch All-In-One with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor. Today that snazzy system landed at our office for an exclusive hands-on. Now the Averatec All-In-One isn’t a netbook - it doesn’t have a battery, its got a large LCD display attached to it, and comes with a mouse and keyboard - but its $549.99 price point, specs, performance and its bottom base sure remind us of one.

We have been playing around with the all-in-one for the last few hours and can say that it hands down beats the Eee Box.

Follow the link for the review, including a video of the unit.

For more photos and detailed description of the unit, see my previous post on the Averatec All-In-One. Here is a brief run-down of the specs:

• Thickness: 1.3-inch base, .59-inch LCD
• Built-In Webcam & MIC
• Piano Black Design
• Weight approx 4 lbs.
• Microsoft Windows XP ULCPC
• Intel ATOM CPU: N270 (1.6GHz / 533MHz FSB / 512K)
• 18.4″ Widescreen LCD (1680 x 945)
• 1GB DDR2 System Memory
• 160GB SATA HDD
• Super Multi Dual Layer DVD Burner
• 802.11 b/g wireless LAN integrated
• Integrated webcam (1.3M) and 5 USB 2.0 ports
• 4-in-1 Memory Card Reader
• 15 pin D-Sub Video out port

It has more than enough computing power for the average consumer and at $549 (including an integrated 18" display), it's hard to see how you can go wrong with one of these.

Happy Birthday, Eee PC!

The computer that launched the netbook revolution just turned one-year-old today:

One year ago ASUS began selling a notebook that would change the laptop industry. It was October 16, 2007 that the ASUS Eee PC 701 went on sale in Taiwan (don’t believe us, Wikipedia says so!), ten days later LAPTOP Magazine was one of the first media outlets to review the sub-notebook. Today, we threw that little one-year-old (and now outdated) notebook its first birthday party, with cake and hats and even noise makers (pictures and video of the first-ever laptop birthday party below).

Why a party for the little guy and not any others? Because no matter how you look at it that 7-inch mini-notebook, which was priced at $399 at the time, set off a spark within the laptop industry.

Since its debut 360 days ago, mini-notebooks, now dubbed netbooks, have begun to run off the manufacturing lines of the top laptop companies. HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer all have their own netbooks on the market today. Why? In part, the birth of the ASUS Eee PC proved that consumers were interested in a smaller, low-cost laptop for children or to complement their larger PCs.

ASUS sold over 350,000 Eee PCs in the fourth quarter of 2007 and had sold 1 million by June of 2008. And according to recent reports, the company has now shipped 4 million. That original Eee PC 701 was only the start of ASUS’ plunge into the category and, since then, they have released over 10 netbook models.

More after the link.

Happy birthday, little guy! So young and you've already helped change the world.

P.S. -- To celebrate it's birthday, the Eee just became the first netbook to break the $300 price barrier:

Let's get the sub-$300 netbook party started! Pereira just pinged me to share this Best Buy link which shows the white Asus Eee PC 900A available for $299. This is basically the same model as the 900, but the "A" stands for Atom. As in 1.6 GHz Intel Atom. So it still comes with Linux pre-installed on the 4GB SSD drive and includes 1GB of RAM which is more than plenty. My original Eee PC was pretty zippy when running Linux with just half of that.

At one point, there was discussion of netbooks being an impulse purchase right off the shelf. At under $300, that becomes much more of a likely reality if you can find them on the shelf to begin with. I just checked stock at the nearest five Best Buy locations and sure enough, they all have 'em.

I think I'm starting to drool...

(HT James Kendrick)

Lenovo S10 -- The Best Netbook Yet?

Wired thinks so:

It's pint-sized, light (2.7 pounds), and bereft of big power, featuring the now-standard 1.6-GHz Atom CPU and 1 GB of RAM. But dig deeper and you'll find a series of impressive upgrades over the competition: The most visible is a 10.2-inch LCD vs. the 8.9-inch screen that's become the norm on mini-notes. Another modest upgrade puts a 160-GB hard drive at your disposal, the largest among all netbooks we've seen. And you get Windows XP, not yet another Linux of the Month flavor that you'll have to learn from scratch (and thankfully not Vista, which runs like molasses on these machines). Performance isn't great, but compared to the category, it's at the top.

All this and it's only $469. It's specs put it in good competition with my Sony and it has a hard drive 33% larger than my ThinkPad's (which is larger than the Sony). And it's only a fraction of what I paid for either. Not bad at all...

Apple To Sell $800 Laptop?

This sounds like very good news:

The Inquisitor is running an exclusive story today claiming Apple is preparing their retail stores for selling an $800 laptop. The article claims that the notebook line will cover models ranging from a new low price of $800 up to $3,100. This low priced notebook (for Apple) may have to do with the reported Apple "brick" manufacturing process that supposedly can produce much cheaper notebooks for Apple.

Kevin Tofel thinks Apple will come out with a netbook. I hope he's right!

Intel Modifies Asus Eee to Boot in 5 Seconds

Breaking the five second barrier:

So many want to see Instant On systems, and it certainly makes sense to see that on Netbooks. A couple of Intel Engineers at a recent Linux conference did some hacking and were showing of a Asus Eee PC that cold boots into a Fedora desktop in five seconds. Turns out they knocked out a couple of services that they felt were redundant and created a patch that allows read-ahead operations. That last move allows things to happen concurrently and not sequentially.

Also intriguing the same process allowed them to boot a Lenovo notebook with a HDD in 10 seconds.

Via SlashGear

If laptop/netbook manufacturers could combine this with 8+ hours of battery life into a small form-factor tablet PC, that would be a mobile computing dream come true. Near-instant on/off could potentially stretch the useful life of a device like this to much longer than the rated battery life by simply shutting it off for a few minutes when it's not being used. (That's how I used to use my HP Jornada 820 and other instant-on devices I've owned over the years.) The flexibility this could add -- particularly to smaller computing devices -- cannot be overstated.

(HT Kevin Tofel)

The Netbook Revolution

Wired Magazine:

You may not know it yet, but the next computer you buy is going to be a netbook. The numbers say so.

Despite their compromised feature sets and puny screens, netbooks have pulled an all-out coup d’état on the portable PC market. Currently, nine out of the top 10 best-selling laptops on Amazon are netbooks. Over 2008, manufacturers shipped 10 million netbooks. And looking farther ahead, ABI Research forecasts that manufacturers will ship 200 million ultra-mobile devices, including netbooks by 2013 -- which is about the same anticipated size as the entire laptop market worldwide.

Who could have guessed that low prices and ultra portability would have struck such a chord with consumers?

"I'd like to think that [netbooks] are finding a form factor and weight that fits human beings better," Kay said, "but I'm presuming that it is because many people use only a small part of what they could do on their larger machines, and much of what they do use computers for can be done through a browser or a few simple apps."

It's great to see PC manufacturers finally designing computers smaller and more simply -- in line more with what most consumers use rather than pushing for higher power and more complex operating systems. (Which have a tendency to cancel each other out.) I think we are witnessing a tremendous shift in the computer industry that will shake-up desktops and portable systems alike. As more computing is done through web browsers, operating systems become increasingly less key to selecting a computer, making Windows and Apple's OS X easier to compete against. This competition should not only lower prices, but also lead to more reliable operating systems and computers that are easier to use. I can't wait to see what's coming next!

(HT James Kendrick)

Avaratec 18" Desktop Netbook For $550

Looks like netbooks are about to go after the desktop market as well. This is sure to drive down prices of many desktops and is a way to get Windows XP revitalized.

Before you read any further, we'll tell you the catch. It's not actually a netbook. It's just powered with the specs of a netbook. This Avaratec All In One features an 18.4 swiveling screen, 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, DVD burner and Windows XP. Sure, you can call it an underpowered iMac ripoff, but then you'd be missing that the whole system runs only $550 and can mount on your wall like an LCD TV.

• Thickness: 1.3-inch base, .59-inch LCD
• Built-In Webcam & MIC
• Piano Black Design
• Weight approx 4 lbs.
• Microsoft Windows XP ULCPC
• Intel ATOM CPU: N270 (1.6GHz / 533MHz FSB / 512K)
• 18.4″ Widescreen LCD (1680 x 945)
• 1GB DDR2 System Memory
• 160GB SATA HDD
• Super Multi Dual Layer DVD Burner
• 802.11 b/g wireless LAN integrated
• Integrated webcam (1.3M) and 5 USB 2.0 ports
• 4-in-1 Memory Card Reader
• 15 pin D-Sub Video out port

This Averatec All In One should be available in the US by the holiday season in black only.

This looks like it would be a fantastic PC for surfing the web, watching DVDs, web-chatting, e-mailing, watching YouTube, blogging, writing, etc. -- about 90% of what most consumers use PCs for. Toss in some free software like OpenOffice and this is all the computer most people would ever need.

This will be selling for $550 and I expect price drops to come soon as more suppliers enter this market. Just like mobile netbooks, I'll be the entry of units like this into the computer marketplace has a lot of computer manufacturers shaking in their boots.

Read more on this and see more photos here.