Netbook vs Laptop: who wins? You decide

Intel has recently posted a webpage which lets the user decide between the netbooks and notebooks. By the article, it becomes very clear that the Intel is not happy the way the netbooks are affecting the sales of the notebooks. Couple of days we highlighted the fact, how the netbooks are affecting the sales of the notebooks.

click to see bigger image

From the chart given above (taken from this Microsoft link), it is clear that they perceive netbooks as devices for just surfing the web.

  • Multitask: According to MS, you cannot multi task on a netbook. Right now, I am multi tasking fairly nicely on my EEE 1000H with concurrently running Photoshop CS3, 2 Firefox Windows with each having 8 tabs and WMP 11 (running in the background playing my favorite tunes). No hiccups.
  • Create and Edit Videos: I use Windows Movie Maker all the time on my EEE 1000H and it works great for video editing on the go
  • Encode Music: I use Goldwave application to edit music and apply filters on the music and I do not face any particular slowdowns
  • Watch HD movies: 1080p with coreavc codec. ’nuff said
  • Play Games: Netbooks are able to play most of the games that came around 4-5 years ago. Netbooks were never meant to replace your PSP, Xbox etc anyway
  • Run Complex office software: Office 2007 works fine on my netbook without any slowdowns

I personally use my netbook for everything. Even for heavy duty tasks like audio editing and video editing, it works great. The Atom CPU provides more than enough power for my needs. I am not a gamer. Perhaps that is the reason, I do not yearn for the Core 2 Duo processor in my netbook.

I can fully understand that the netbooks are affecting the sales of the notebooks, but misguiding customers especially by a company like Intel was not expected.

Also read:

Netbooks destroying notebook market?

ASUS to keep 8.9-inch netbook for the procurement market

We have heard several times(here and here) about the ASUS phasing out the 8.9-inch netbooks soon. Now, they have decided to keep them for the procurement market. But, reports do say that ASUS will eventually phase them out as they want to concentrate more on the 10-inch netbooks. The report also said that the company will also keep the 7-inch models for the telecom market.

I still do not completely agree with their decision of phasing out the 8.9-inch models. I love my EEE 1000H and other 10-inch netbooks that I have, but they are not as portable as EEE 900, whose size is quite similar to the EEE 700-series.

[via digitimes]

Microsoft: 96% Of Netbooks Run Windows?

There is no doubt in the fact that the netbooks have become very popular among the consumers. In fact, it is so popular that almost every notebook manufacture has a netbook under its brand. That is why we completely agree with the statement by LeBlanc who is a Microsoft in-house blogger.

The growth of Windows on netbook PCs over the last year has been phenomenal

He further pointed out that those who bought linux netbooks returned them after sometime and bought themselves a netbook running Windows XP. Well, according to me it is due to the stubborn mindset of the people. They have all developed a notion that Linux is only for geeks. They do not want to spend few days learning the new OS.

On the brighter side, he confirmed that there will be a netbook version of Windows 7, which will be highly optimized.

[via informationweek]

HTC to launch Internet enabled feature phone later this year – will not be running Windows Mobile?

Digitimes is reporting that HTC is planning to launch an Internet-enabled feature phone later this year. However, contrary to what we would think, this would not be running Windows Mobile (or Android). It would instead be running BREW MP. HTC will be bundling it with wide range of flash applications to provide multimedia services to the user.

Last year, HTC did give us all a hint that they will be launching an updated version of the HTC Advantage (X7510), but we did not know that it would not be running Windows Mobile.

For those who do not what BREW MP is: It is a mobile platform made by Qualcomm

Learn about BREW

Twitter for Windows Mobile

There are two several ways to twit on a Windows Mobile:

  1. The best way is to use a dedicated twitter application like Pocketwit which is a freeware. With it, you can post to Twitter using a URL you want to share, a picture you have stored on your smartphone, or a picture you just snapped with the camera, and you can even insert a GPS link showing your location.
  2. HelloTwitFace: It gives you the ability to post your status on Twitter and Facebook or HelloTxt
  3. ceTwit
  4. Twobile
  5. Tinytwitter
  6. You can just redirect the mobile browser to http://m.twitter.com and you will be taken mobile webpage of the twitter. It is fairly bandwidth friendly.

I personally use m.twitter.com as the Pocketwit takes a while to start.

[via microsoft]

Updated: Thanks to freewarepocketpc.net for letting us know about other twitter applications.

Intel believes high-end machines need SSD. What about netbooks?

From fudzilla,

Intel advises its customers that the high end system from Intel should have both SSD and HDD. For $1100 or more Intel propagates that a user should get Core i7 920, X58 motherboard 4GB memory, even that would be hard for Nehalem system that usually feature 3GB or 6GB. X25-M Intel“s mainstream SSD drive, 750GB HDD.

I like the idea of HDD and SSD in a single machine, but I wonder why Intel is still not producing SSDs meant for netbooks. May be they think that the netbooks are good enough with HDDs and they do not have a need for SSDs. Fortunately, there are some netbook manufactures who do not think this way. Take MSI Wind U115 for example, which was the first netbook with both SSD and Hard Disk drives built in. The HDD can be used to store big files while the SSD can be used to drive the OS.

Benq to launch AMD Neo-based netbooks in Spring

Benq, third largest netbook maker in China, is planning to introduce a number of thin notebooks based on AMD’s Neo and Intel’s CULV platforms later this spring. The ones on the roadmap include a 12.1-inch and 13.3-inch netbooks notebooks in May, 2009.

However, nothing more is known about the notebooks at this moment. That said, if they stick to the Sempron U210 processor, the price of the notebooks is going to be affordable.

[via digitimes]

MyHome – Get Windows Mobile 7 interface

Windows Mobile 7 is still more than an year away from making its debut, but folks at SHBT have come up a software which looks a lot like the sliding panel interface found on the Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphones (non-touchscreen based).

While Microsoft did not being the sliding panel interface in Windows Mobile 6.1, they are bringing it in the Windows Mobile 6.5.

SHBT MyHome is available for 14.95 euros from here

[via solsie]

Compal to develop netbook based on Android platform

About a month back, we heard rumors of ASUS to come up with Android based netbooks at the end of this year. Looks like, manufactures are thinking that there is a lot of potential in Android-netbooks. May be that is why Compal Communications, a Taiwanese mobile phone manufacture has plans to develop netbooks based on the Android platform. Right now, it is looking for the vendors that may be interested in Android netbooks.

Whenever I hear about such big manufactures talking about making Android based netbooks, only one question arises in my mind, “What is the need of running a mobile phone OS on a nebtook when it can run Windows XP and Windows 7 so nicely“. If the rumors of Android netbook are really true, then I am pretty sure that we will soon start hearing rumors of netbooks coming from Nokia and Apple.

All of my netbooks either run Windows XP or Windows 7. I do not see the need to run a mobile phone OS on my netbook that has the capability to run desktop OS. Period.

[via digitimes]

Redfly Mobile viewer impressions from a netbook and Windows Mobile user [Video]

Redfly recently released a viewer that can run on PCs. This viewer lets you to view and use your device’s screen directly from the PC. Now, Redfly is not the first company to comeĀ  up with such solution. Many other companies like SOTI have been offering similar solutions from quite a lot of time. What makes the Redfly different then? Well, it lets you:

  • use different resolutions (800×480, 800×600, 1024×600 and 1024×768)
  • has a projector mode which basically runs the Redfly applications full screen (useful when you are connecting your notebook to a projector)

I decided to load it on my netbook (EEE 1000H) instead of my laptop as netbook is something which I carry almost everywhere I go. Here is a video showing the real-life performance of the Redfly Viewer.

The Opera browser crashed at 1024×600(or x768). Google Maps loaded but did not display the maps. However, Excel Mobile and Word Mobile worked fine. The dictionary application occupied only one quarter of the screen. Contrary to what people must be thinking, it is not Redfly’s fault. Most of the developers just hard code their applications to certain resolutions.

Download Redfly Viewer here

You will also need to download the appropriate device driver. Select and Download from here

Tip: I recommend putting the toolbar in Autohide mode as it takes a lot of ‘vertical’ space.