Due to their favorable price points, and how very mobile they are, netbooks — small, light portable computers — remain one of the hottest hardware categories. If you’re in the market for one, I posted some shopping tips on them back in early March. Since that post, there have been quite a few developments on the operating system front, which may affect any planned netbook purchases you may have. Here are some of the key issues that you should factor in if you have your eyes on a new netbook.
Read the rest of this entry »
Netbooks have become a hugely popular hardware category, and I’ve been using them for more than a year, including trying many of the new models. Making compromises is part of the design of netbooks, so it’s important to evaluate them in a hands-on way when you go to buy one. In this post, you’ll find five tips for better netbook shopping.
Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been using netbooks for over a year now; they’re great for the times when I just want to tote a lightweight machine for performing basic tasks, or even cruise around the house, working in various places. They’re also a very hot product category. If you’re new to netbooks, or thinking of getting one, in this post I’ll round up four utilities for Windows netbooks that will make working with them much easier and more efficient.
Read the rest of this entry »
Netbooks — small, light and inexpensive portable computers — have become very popular in the past year, and come in enough flavors that many web workers may want to consider getting one. I use an Asus Eee PC netbook as a secondary machine for mobile work, when I don’t want to carry a heavier notebook. Netbooks guarantee compromises, though, and there are a few key areas where you should closely study compromises you may have to make, before you buy.
Here are four significant examples.
Read the rest of this entry »
Back in October I wrote about the myth of all-day computing, noting that the need for a 24-hour battery cycle is perhaps diminishing in the face of altering and fragmenting usage patterns – particularly the rise of the netbook and the iPhone.
Indeed, last week ReadWriteWeb and the BBC’s celebrated Ian Forrester noted that the iPhone is Apple’s Netbook, representing almost half of all traffic through wifi networks.
Regardless of hyperbole, there’s mounting evidence that cellphones are indeed displacing laptops. Back in October, the Wall Street Journal published a piece on whether it was Time To Leave The Laptop Behind, analyzing the impact of smartphones on laptop usage.
Some of the more interesting findings from Nick Wingfield’s article included…
- Mobile workers rely on their laptops to create PowerPoint presentations and do other heavy-duty computing. But then they leave the laptops in their offices, homes or hotel rooms and take their smart phones out into the world — to client meetings, say, or factory visits.
- ‘road warriors’ are going even further, ditching their laptops entirely and doing all their mobile work from smart phones.
- in a survey of 1,402 technology users, only 3% of smart-phone users said they rely exclusively on a smart phone when they’re on the road. 52% said they could envision using a smart phone in the future as their sole computing device.
- 12,000 of Verizon’s field technicians have moved over to BlackBerrys…replacing 1′500 laptops and eliminating the need to buy 5-7′000 more in the future.
Though the laptop sales remain undiminished, usage patterns are certainly fragmenting and will only deepen as performance increases and prices decrease. Already, I’m finding myself using Mail, Twitterific and Google as much on my iPhone as my MacBook Pro.
I wonder how many other web workers are seeing their attention dividing increasingly between their smartphone and laptop.
If you’re not familiar with “netbooks”, you’re missing out on a potentially great little web-working tool. And I do mean little as these are small, fully-functional notebooks that are easy to use on the go. They tend to offer long battery life as well, due to low-voltage processors and small, LED backlit displays.
There’s a new functional trend emerging with these portable productivity tools now that Asus is starting to offer integrated wireless broadband in the product line.
But that begs a question about wireless connectivity: do you go with integrated or opt for a plug-in solution?
Read the rest of this entry »
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
