Netbook No

Ever get the feeling you are not supposed to buy something...? I'm feeling that way about a netbook.

I had decided that if I found a good deal on a netbook, I would splurge on it. My budget was less than $250, and with the sales I did not think this was gonna be that hard.

First was the NewEgg deal on Black Friday. They had an Acer Aspire AOD250 for $190. Unfortunately, everyone else tried to get it, and they probably had like 3. NewEgg's servers crashed, and while the item was in my cart, the sale got canceled. Hey, not everything works out.

Undaunted, a few days later, I found a Compaq at Best Buy. This time it was going for $180, but it was a 3 cell. Still, at that price I couldn't pass, but it had to be picked up at a local store. The next day, all 5 Best Buys in my area were out of them. Ok, I figure I will keep looking online.

This last week, I found an Asus 1005HA refurb at B&H Photo. It was going for $260 with the shipping and tax, but I figured I needed to expand the budget a little bit. Besides, it was blue. I am not sure, why, but I would like a blue netbook, and this one met that requirement. I ordered it, and I have not dealt with B&H before, but I figured they have been around. Two days later, I am checking on my order to track the package, and literally simultaneously, they are calling me. They tell me that while the item was on the site, they have nothing to ship me. They offer me free shipping on something else, but I doubt anyone will remember by the time I would order anything. Somehow, I wasn't shocked by this phone call.

At this point, I can purchase the netbook, but it was cost closer to $300. At that price point, I will just wait for CES. The N450 Atom chip promises a smidge more performance, and even lower overall power consumption. And who knows if Tegra is coming out for real this time in a smartbook.

At any rate, when these same retailers complain that sales are down, perhaps they should look at their own practices and not wonder why...

Jonas

Nothing To Buy

I'm not sure if it is a function of knowing too much, the products not being quite right, or just a down economy having me skittish. However, for the time being, I just can't seem to buy anything, even with Black Friday just around the corner.

For example, we can start with Blu-ray players. Nope, never bought one. I am still using my DVD player, a Sharp, from 2001. Sure I might like one. While the prices have come down, of course, the longer I wait, my expectations go up. Now, not only do I want the player, but also something that can play NetFlix, and YouTube, oh and Hulu would be great too. Never mind nothing does the Hulu part, but hey, I can hope, right. Clearly the $149 Blu-ray at Wal-Mart is not gonna do it.

Move on to a new HDTV. This time I'd like a 32" LCD. 720p is ok, but I would like for it to not only offer awesome picture quality, but also be internet connected. I've accepted that whatever TV I buy will be the last one for several years. Hence, I want it to be the very latest and greatest. Last year, very little new came out in this area, just some mild incremental improvements. Therefore, I've skipped over this purchase for a year, and wait to see if anything piques my interest at CES this year.

On to GPS gear. I would like a new one, but not truly need it. My maps are from 2005, but with the cost of the update, I could just put it towards a new unit. With MSN getting ready to abandon their service, the GPS companies have to be doing something to make their units better without it. I also notice that Garmin hasn't come out with something for a while which adds to the curiosity. There are units that have free ad supported traffic now, but I'm wondering what the next big thing will be. Network traffic like the Dash Express pioneered? Time based traffic patterns? Better integration to Google Maps? Or something even better? Yup, keeping the wallet closed on this as well.

Which leads us to netbooks. I would love one that could do the following: all day battery, 11" screen, non Win XP OS, can display PDF's, under 3 pounds, and decent processing power. By decent, I mean faster than my Athlon XP-M 2200+ processor, which the current N270 is not, and the Z520 is even more notches slower. Oh, and before you suggest a CULV, I would like this unit to cost around $250 or so. Ok, this might be a pipe dream, but I want something powerful enough to justify lugging it around, but cheap enough that I won't be heartbroken if it disappears. It is not a matter of being careful, but there are times when I just can't have it with me at all times at work. While I've been watching for a sale, I realize that what I want is just not happening for now. Once again, I've gotta wait as the coming wave of smartbooks may fulfill most of this, although, I may have to go to a 10" screen. Check out the video below to see what should be coming in the next several months that may eat the current crop of netbooks for lunch.



At any rate, for now, it just appears that there is nothing quite right to purchase. Perhaps it is just me, or the greater economic times. Here's hoping to better stuff in 2010!

Jonas

Netbook Became a Notbook

So I had decided on getting one of those netbooks. The idea of portability,and terrific battery life seemed just too great to pass up on, and the low prices seemed too good to be true. I had decided in a Toshiba NB205, which retailed for $349. I was gonna buy it online, but decided that it was worth the trek to my local B&M see it before purchase.

What a total let down. The item appeared to be a hunk of plastic, and not even high quality at that. After a few minutes, this netbook thing was totally out of my system, and I wanted to look elsewhere to see what I could buy. There was also the issue of the Atom N270 processor. A while back I had decided that anything I bought computerwise should be dual core, and the Atom simply isn't. Wasn't the point of a new laptop to get something faster?

I rounded up the usual suspects, and decided to go through some online retailers sites looking for a totally awesome deal. At 10 inches it was only netbooks. At 12 inches I couldn't find much besides the HP dv2 which ran hot enough to toast bread on, and at 13 inches the price was going up, not down. Believe it or not, for whatever reason, at 14 inches, I stumbled upon a good deal, actually a really good one in my mind.

It is the MSI VR420. TigerDirect, as part of their back-to-school sales had it for $399 (they are all sold out now as this thing was a hot seller). It included a 14" screen, an optical drive, 2 Gb of RAM, and 160 GB hard drive. Best of all, this baby has a dual core processor, the Pentium T2410, which runs at 2 GHz. It is basically a Core 2 Duo with half the cache. The OS is also Vista Premium which I prefer, and not XP which for whatever reason, I detest at this point. As a bonus, the Windows 7 upgrade will be coming next month for ten bucks shipping cost, which sweetens the deal one step further.

I got it last month, and it has been a pleasure to use. While my 15.4" notebook rarely gets moved from its connection to the printer, this 14" model is often shifting locations, and is frequently on the kitchen table, in the den, or in the dining room. Compared to my 15.4" Acer, it is just enough smaller, lighter and thinner to not sit in one spot. In the end, the biggest competition to netbooks in my mind is real notebooks with more robust hardware. While I didn't get an all day battery life of a netbook, I gained, for close to the same cash, a much larger screen, and a more powerful computer. As I keep seeing netbooks increase the screen size, I can see why they keep growing up to something more sizable and useful.

Jonas

NudgeCast 6/24/09

Click to Play

Thoughts on notebooks versus netbooks, and putting Bill's tips to use.

Download the mp3 here.

NudgeCast 4/15/09

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WiFi troubles, and how a netbook saved the day.

Download the mp3 here.

NudgeCast 4/1/09

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What I don't understand about Samsung netbooks.

Download the mp3 here.

Jonas

NudgeCast 3/25/09

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The Nudgecast with that I seemed to keep on thinking of one more thing, including a response to our reader comment.

Download the mp3 here if you prefer.

NudgeCast 2/25/09

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Thoughts on netbook trends, and a wireless router issue. Also, an incredibly useful website of the week.

Download the mp3 here.

NudgeCast 12/10/08

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Miscellaneous thoughts on the netbook, and the Atom processor that powers it.

Download the mp3 here.