If it’s not clear from my posts lately, I absolutely love my new netbook. I have owned it two weeks now and am pleasently surprised with the capability of the Atom processor and everything it enables me to do. Today at work, I came across this amazing photo of an Atom processor (that hasn’t been packaged out of course) next to a grain of rice. It just blew me away that so much capability is enabled by such a tiny processor.
I wrote a post about a new gadget on the way and I had every intention of posting hints about my new purchase each day or two until it arrived. Then reality hit. I have been traveling for work again and just haven’t had the time to do much outside the scope of my day job. Well, it turns out that my new Acer Aspire One is on a FedEx truck on the way to my house right now.
Why an Aspire One? Here are my thoughts:
Each of the available netbooks are so similar that I thought it wouldn’t make a huge difference which one I chose.
I had the chance to put my hands on a Linspire version at a brick and mortar store.
The keyboard has traditional key placement so I can touch type on it.
1GB of RAM and the 120GB hard drive will get me going without the need to hack the system right away (although the geek in me will probably do it anyway).
I want time on a device that is readily available to consumers (more on this at a later date).
The blue marbled finish is cool - how’s that for superficial?
Through work, I have had or will shortly have the chance to play with quite a few different netbooks, so I will write up some comparison posts as chance allows. Of course there will be a post about my impressions later today or tomorrow after I get it in hand!
This afternoon I took the comforters off our children’s beds and drove them down to the laundromat for a much needed wash. Of my imaginary list of the top 10 places that could benefit from a wifi connection, laundromats are now number one! It is a place you are guaranteed to wait and the alternatives are poor. Today, all the younger people were texting on cell phones and the older people were watching Judge Joe Brown on a 24 inch television with some of the world’s worst reception.
I recognize that the average laundromat patron has less disposable income than the audience at Starbucks. I bet however, that a good percentage of the people I saw today own a laptop and could have made fairly productive time out of their wait if they had a connection to the internet. Even if they aren’t willing to pay extra for it, a good wifi signal could be a differentiating feature for any business where you have to wait around like that.
I have to begin by saying that I LOVE OneNote. It is a feature rich application that has some phenomenal features. It is a bit difficult to use across multiple systems if they aren’t on the same network (although you can use removable media, it’s a pain). In addition, OneNote mobile is a tragedy and Microsoft doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Evernote on the other hand is under extensive development and it seems that every time you turn around, they have added a new feature. I have tried to use it a couple of times in the past, but today I have decided to give it a one month challenge. From now until the end of September, I will only use Evernote for my note taking needs.
The driver behind this decision is in part due to my recent data loss when my laptop died. OneNote has a pretty nifty automatic backup function that saved most of my notes, but I was then out of sync between my different computers. It took me quite some time to get notes moved and reorganized. I love the concept of having the same Evernote data available on all my computers, my phone, and on the web. I feel like this gives me accessibility to my data that OneNote cannot deliver. We’ll see how this goes and I’ll certainly keep everyone updated.
We’re not big TV fans in our house, but we have been glued to television watching the Olympics since they started. Last night I broke out the Q1 to get some other work done while sitting on the couch. I was able to balance our checkbook, do some online banking, read some gadget reviews during commercials, and check the Olympic stats/back stories. Sure, I could have done all of this on a standard laptop, but not as comfortably as with the Q1. As a matter of fact, I had turned on my Lenovo T61, but then shut it down because I didn’t want it on my lap and passing it back and forth to my wife was a pain.
I’ve never been crazy about the term “companion device” when people talk about UMPC’s, but last night the Q1 truly felt like my companion (as much as computer hardware can anyway).
Admittedly, I’m a bit caught up in the whole netbook movement right now. With HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, MSI, and unofficially Toshiba all on board (representing more than 70% market share in the U.S.), there is only one major vendor missing. Yesterday I commented on Gartner forecasting future sales of these very small notebooks, but this morning I came across a statistic that puts that 50 million number into perspective: the total notebook market in 2008 is forecasted to be 228.8 million units. If netbooks are incremental sales (which I believe they largely are), that means that netbooks could represent roughly 20% of the notebook market. That’s something you can’t ignore.
Apple is going to have to join this game soon because they have way too much to lose. Some might say that they have a lot to lose in average selling price by introducing a small, inexpensive notebook. By the same logic, you could argue that an iPod shuffle is a threat to the iPod Touch or iPhone - it’s absurd. The reality is that the Shuffle services a different segment of the market and acts as an expensive exposure to Apple’s MP3 player lineup. [Raise your hand if you've ever upgraded your iPod to a newer, faster, sleeker model!] It is only a matter of time before we see an Apple branded netbook on the market where Apple will hope to see the same upgrading consumer behavior.
Here is my prediction of what an Apple netbook will look like:
Sleeker than everyone else - we’re talking about Apple here
Available in black or white - they seem to be afraid of other colors
Included Bluetooth connectivity - for the full lineup of Bluetooth accessories already available
Solid web cam - expect to see iChat as a marketing angle
16 GB flash drive available - I believe this is why they are moving to Snow Leopard
Intel Atom processor - although they might be talking us into a custom version
Priced around the $600 mark - they always price at a premium
There you have it - my official prediction of Apple into the netbook market. Honestly, I could be completely off the mark. I know nothing more about Steve Job’s plans than he knows about what I’m having for lunch (Steve, it’s leftover stir fry if you would like to trade information). I think there is some writing on the walls here that can’t be ignored though. Heaven knows there is enough demand for the thing!
The first time Josh Bancroft showed me his iPhone, he (half-way) jokingly said, “Let the countdown begin.”
“To what?” I replied.
“Until you buy one” he said.
Well, in the end, I chose the Touch over the iPhone, but Josh knew me well. :^)
Today I find myself wanting an Apple computer worse today than ever before. You want to know why? It’s so that I can play with the developer kit for the iPhone/Touch. I’m not a professional programmer by any means, but I am a hobbyist and I would love to play in the world’s newest mobile playground. Now if I could just convince my wife that I need an Apple computer worse than our kids need to go to Disney in May…
As a true geek, I have an unhealthy appreciation for hardware just for hardware’s sake. It’s alright though, because I am seeking professional counseling. I have cut the number of trips I make each week to the Apple Store and Best Buy just to drool on the hardware in half and my counselor says I’m making fine progress. She tells me that most people do not share this addiction and that it is not healthy.The reality is that hardware alone is well…kind of boring for most folks. The hardware is like the engine in your car. It has inherent value and represents thousands of hours of engineering. Yet without a transmission and chassis, it will never get you where you want to go. As an integral part of a complete automobile, you must have all of the components working together to have any real value. Similarly, computers require a combination of hardware, software, drivers, etc working together to work properly.
Taking the automobile analogy a bit further, in the average consumers mind it’s the body of the car that gets most of the attention. The average car buyer is more concerned about how the car looks than the merits of the exhaust system. Similarly, in the computing world, it’s usually the software that gets most of the attention. User interface, usability, and eye candy are important at every level from the operating system to the web browser. A beautiful interface on barely adequate hardware will always have more consumer appeal than an inferior interface on the latest hardware offering.
It turns out my iPod Touch has a pretty good email client. Like every other email application in the world, it has a delete button for getting rid of your unwanted mail, but Apple implemented theirs with class. When you touch the trash can, the icon tilts to the side, the lid pops up, and your message is sucked down into the trash in an animated vortex that has never made spam more fun to delete! [I have included a video below for those who have never seen it - I apologize for the video quality] I introduce this as an example that well written software can be powerful, fun, and liberating. Many developers could take a few dozen lessons from the team at Apple (who clearly understand this concept).
The reality is that well written software is not as common as it should be. It takes time and effort to really think through the user interaction and implement it effectively. As a geek who likes to dabble in Visual Basic once in a while, I know how difficult it is to write extraordinary code. Salute to the software developers of the world who are willing to do it though…you’re making a difference!
Wow, I thought that HP had given up on the iPaq line of PDA’s. It has disappointed me that they haven’t done any development on what I always considered to be the best PDA hardware lineup available. Today I read over on thewired that they are getting ready to release two new PocketPC phone editions. Very cool.
The 600 series phone pictured here is a candy bar style with a touch sensitive scroll wheel running Windows Mobile 6. I’d love to see one of these in person.
I have loved my Q1 from day 1. I was very pleased when Frank Garcia of Ultra Mobile PC Tipsposted a link to the HID drivers for the touch screen. After my last rebuild, I’m having a bit of an issue with the drivers that is easier to show than explain. I’ll let the video do the talking.
If there is anyone else out there having this problem, I would like to know - particularly if they have a workaround.
Wow, I thought that HP had given up on the iPaq line of PDA’s. It has disappointed me that they haven’t done any development on what I always considered to be the best PDA hardware lineup available. Today I read over on