Will the Dell Streak Flop? In Search of the Sweet Spot.
In a few days you can plunk down $500 to buy this beauty directly from Dell. Or you can spend the same amount and get the Real Thing – the iPad. Or you can buy the HTC EVO. And that’s the problem with the Streak. It’s neither a tablet, nor a phone. Of course not [...]
Office Depot Deceptive Advertising
For being a netbook-fan I admit I am in the market for a super-slim lightweight laptop. The market has evolved, the current slimbooks are only slightly more expensive than netbooks, and I find the 13.3” screen size an ideal compromise between portability and straining my eyes with the tiny screens. So I was quite happy [...]
Look Who’s Talking: ASUS, the Designer Brand
Brand vs. Quality. Which Would You Pay For? – I asked recently, making the case that “trusted old brands” like HP are producing inferior quality, while formerly “no-name cheapo” component maker ASUS is becoming a household name. They are basically doing what Honda, Toyota (and now the Koreans) did to the car business. Sure, ASUS [...]
How Long Before You Dumped Your Netbook Into Garbage?
Michael Dell, founder of Dell,told an audience at Churchill Club that the infatuation with Netbooks only lasts for 36 hours ”If you take a user who’s used to a 14- or 15-inch notebook and you say ‘Here’s a 10-inch netbook,’ they’re gonna say ‘Hey, this is so fantastic. It’s so cute. It’s so light. I [...]
1984
Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States. – says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano justifying why the Obama administration largely upheld the Bush-era regulations about intrusive border searches of travelers’ laptops, cellphones and other electronic devices. I’ve heard that reasoning before. No, [...]
CrunchPad, Netbooks and Vacuum Cleaners
We covered the CrunchPad a fair bit here, so it’s only natural to report it’s inching closer to Launch. Or is it rather slipping? The Straits Times visited Fusion Garage, the Singapore-based company that’s developing the CrunchPad, and published details. It’s now expected to hit the market in November, just in time for Christmas shopping. [...]
Intel Relaxes Rules on NetBook Resolution. Next Obstacle is Screen Size
I often spoke up against idiotic screen size / resolution limits that render Netbooks close to useless, yet the de facto industry standard appears to be 1024 x 600. What’s wrong with that? Well, nothing, unless you plan to browse, or in fact interact with web sites, since websites today are designed at a resolution [...]
Google Chrome OS: Pre-Announcement in Classic Microsoft-style
Image via Wikipedia There’s hardly anything to add to the actual announcement- the whole world is talking about it, and I don’t just mean TechMeme entirely taken over: when Reuters, The New York Times and just about all mainstream media reports it, you know there’s something big – but is it nuclear? We’ll have to [...]
Update to Workingpoint / Netbooks Post
Just a quick note (since those who have read the original may miss the news) that I’ve updated my post on WorkingPoint, formerly Netbooks. The title is changed too, and it speaks for itself (addition in italics): Netbooks Emerges from Hibernation as WorkingPoint: SaaS for SMB, with Nicer UI but Reduced Functionality.
Netbooks Emerges from Hibernation as WorkingPoint: SaaS for SMB, with Nicer UI but Reduced Functionality.
(This post is now updated, see bottom)Netbooks, provider of an Integrated SaaS Business Suite for Very Small Businesses came out of hibernation with a new name: WorkingPoint. In the never-ending debate of all-in-one vs. best-of-breed I tend to represent the “old-school” which believes in the value of having one tightly integrated system for most business [...]
Microsoft Bans Netbook Use When the Sun is Shining, the Sky is Blue and on Weekends
Which is about now… so in compliance, I am typing this on a desktop. Joke apart, the latest Decree From The Monopolist: hybrid netbooks (both SSD and harddisk) are banned from sale with Windows XP Home edition. No kidding. Nothing new, of course, just another attempt in a series of blows by Microsoft to try [...]
CrunchPad Getting Close to Launch – Now Really Sexy Situational Device.
I admit I was skeptical when Mike Arrington first announced he wanted to build a lightweight Web Tablet. But a few month later we saw the first prototype, which was not particularly attractive – but real. Mea Culpa, I was wrong. The second prototype was already quite likable, albeit not as sexy as as the [...]
LCSNPC – So Much More Friendly than Netbook. Thank You, Microsoft
(This is an image-only post, sorry if it did not properly come through in your feed reader) Related posts: Microsoft to use a new term for netbook Microsoft Wants to Rebrand Netbooks ‘Low-Cost Small Notebook PCs’ MS redefines “netbook” to push up Win 7 price Microsoft Says That The Term ‘Netbook’ Should Be Abandoned Microsoft: [...]
NetBooks Will Not Replace e-Readers
PC World has jumped the shark with the bombastic title: Bye-bye Kindle, E-reader Screens Coming for Netbooks. It’s all about start-up Pixel Qi’s new screen which can operate as traditional backlit color LCD or as a black-end-white e-paper that hardly consumes energy and most importantly reduces eye-strain. PC World jumps to the conclusion: E-reader makers [...]
Screen Size: The Next Plan to Cripple Netbooks in Order to Protect a Dying Market
The proliferation of affordable netbooks is good for everyone – consumers, that is. Computer manufacturers loath it (high volume, low margin business) and so does Microsoft: they can’t exactly sell $100+ worth of software on a $200 machine. So they come up with all sorts of evil plans. First there was the Windows 7 plan: [...]
