Netbooks

Video courtesy of asus

Way back in January 2010, Lenovo announced the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook. It featured a display that detached from the keyboard and turned into a standalone tablet. It ran Windows 7 Home Premium in its keyboard notebook mode and ran Lenovo’s own Skylight OS when in tablet mode. It generated quite a bit of buzz. But, it did not appear as an actual product. If it did, it does not appear in Lenovo’s website as viewed in the U.S.

Asus, on the other hand, is reported to have shipped a very similar product.

ASUS ships Eee Pad Transformer as its Android 3.0 tablet (Electronista)

It runs Android in both notebook (physical keyboard) and tablet mode. This is interesting since Google has repeatedly said that Chrome OS is for devices primarily designed for keyboard input (like notebooks and netbooks).

I could not find any information about U.S. availability of the Eee Pad Transformer.

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I’m a fan of Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular. Various versions of Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) have made their home on my first netbook, an Acer Aspire One, for several years now. That’s a screenshot of UNR 10.04LTS on my Aspire One seen to the left. UNR is a version of Ubuntu Linux with a graphical user interface tuned for netbooks’ relatively small low-resolution displays (typically 1024×600 or lower).

Starting with Ubuntu’s next major release (version 11.04), netbook users will not have to download a special release. With version 11.04, Ubuntu Linux will not differentiate between a “desktop” edition and a “netbook” edition. There will, however, still be a Ubuntu Server edition.

Ubuntu Netbook Edition folded into Ubuntu for next release (Canonical Blog)

Ubuntu 11.04, codenamed Natty Narwhal, is currently scheduled to be released on April 28.

Do you remember the transformer-like Dell Inspiron Duo convertiable netbook that flipped its lid (so to speak) to switch from a traditional keyboard configuration to a slate/tablet configuration? Its design drew a lot of attention. But, then reviews started appearing about the $550 heavy device’s short battery life (less than 3 hours) and somewhat sluggish performance. If you buy it directly through Dell.com, it still costs $550. However, if you buy it through the Microsoft Store, you can get it for $400.

Dell Inspiron Duo Convertible PC (Microsoft Store)

The Duo has good specs:

- 10.1-inch HD display
- Intel Atom N550 dual core processor
- 2GB RAM
- 320GB hard drive
- Windows 7 Home Premium

Then, there’s the 4-cell battery (instead of 6) that is rated at up to 4 hours but delivers less according to reviewers.

Via Liliputing

I have neither evaluated the dell Adamo thin notebook or closely followed the model line. I mention it here, however, as an example of the someone odd inability of otherwise competent and successful companies to effective compete with Apple’s product categories.

Dell Adamo, spunky MacBook Air rival, is no more

Dell Adamo product line failure may be even more puzzling because Dell had ultrathin notebooks years before Apple launched the first Air models (which created a buzz but did not sell well). Dell’s Latitude X1 was extremely thin and light but suffered from a battery life of about 90 minutes (on a good day).

Apple doesn’t create product categories, it redefines them and makes them successsful sellers. And, even Apple doesn’t get it right on the firs try all the time. Here are some of Apple’s category redefiners.

- iPod: MP3 players were in a race to the bottom with terrible user interfaces when Apple came along with its expensive, high capacity iPod which featured the unique and useable clickwheel.
- iPhone: Touchscreens (actually resistive screens that required a stylus) were being phased out of phones by 2007 as most manufacturers settled in on either emulating RIM’s Blackberry with a thumb keyboard or Nokia’s soapbar form factor. Now, RIM has touchscreen models and Nokia is scrambling to survive.
- Apple TV: The first and second generation models were interesting but did not become popular. The 2010 Apple TV, on the other hand, took off with its low price ($100) and easy to use Internet TV access. This is one exception to the rule since firms like Roku have produced highly competitive products.
- iPad: Tablet computers had struggled in their tiny vertical market niches for a decade. The iPad redefined how people think about and use tablet computers and managed to destroy the low-end netbook market too,.
- MacBook Air: The first models generated interest but not much sales because of their high price and low processing power. The 2010 model with its $1000 starting price and relatively high performance took what was left of the netbook market and ultralight notebook market.

With the exception of the Apple TV, none of Apple’s competitors have mounted effective attacks on Apple’s category leaders.

There was much about 2010 that left a lot to be desired. But, it was a very good year for gadget fans. I started out 2010 using an HTC Touch Pro2 (Windows Mobile 6.1) as my main voice phone. The iPhone 3G was my main data phone (having never upgraded to the 3GS) and I had just started re-experimenting with Android in the form of the Motorola Droid in November.

In the photo to the left, you can see the iPhone 3G & 4 in the top row. The Droid, Nexus One, HTC Touch Pro2, and HTC HD7 are left to right in the bottom row.

The Touch Pro2 was retired as my main voice phone in favor of the Nexus One after the Android OS 2.1 upgrade which finally provided a decent and usable Bluetooth stack for hands free operation. The HTC HD7 (Windows Mobile 7) replaced the Nexus One as my main voice phone in November. Apple released the iPhone 4 during the summer which replaced the aging 3G which had become a slug of a phone with the iOS 4 upgrade. The Moto Droid has become sidelined over the months. I rarely use it anymore. And, unless Verizon gets the iPhone, I’ll probably turn off my Verizon account and retire the Droid. Like the now SIM-less Nexus One, the Droid could become an iPod touch-like WiFi only email/web browsing device.

Apple’s iPad appeared in April and changed the way I worked worked. It actually replaced the Asus Eee PC T1000HA netbook running Windows 7 that had been my main mobile work device for over a year. You can see the Asus Eee PC T1000HA in the bottom of the photo to the left under the MacBook Air. An iPad and Apple Wireless (Bluetooth) keyboard was my netbook replacement combo between April and October when the redesigned MacBook Air appeared. The MacBook Air’s near instant on and resume from sleep combined with its more powerful OS X platform and accompanying apps redefined the netbook experience for me (even though Apple doesn’t consider it a netbook). And, I now find myself bouncing between the iPad and MacBook Air depending on what I need to do.

I skipped the entire Android tablet scene so far because I believe that everything released in 2010 was simple a trial run much like all the Android phones prior to the Motorola Droid were, in my opinion, beta test-like releases. I expect to jump into the Android tablet scene sometime in 2011.

2011 should be another great year for mobile devices. Apple should introduce its 5th generation iPhone. And, it might even be available through Verizon in the U.S. The 2nd generation iPad should make its way out the door too. Then, there’s the various “other” platforms from HP, Palm, and Microsoft that should find their way into various tablet-like devices. Windows Phone users are waiting for a major firmware update of some kind. And, let’s hope that Windows Phone devices with front-facing cameras and support for Bluetooth keyboards appear too. Finally, Android 3.0 based phones and tablets should appear sometime in 2011.

I wish everyone a safe and happy New Year! See you back here in 2011!

In Technololgy Review’s article,

The Year in Mobile

writer Erica Naone claims that in 2010 Apple invented a new category of mobile device. I humbly disagree with that notion. Microsoft’s Tablet PC appeared a decade earlier. And, one could make the argument that Apple’s own Newton MessagePad appeared even earlier than that. Conceptually, Alan Kay’s Dynabook concept emerged in 1968. And, I’d argue that Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek prop designers had props that appeared close to our current concept of tablets in various forms way back in 1966.

Although Apple can’t take credit for inventing the tablet category, it did something ever more remarkable, in my opinion. It introduced not one but two products that each redefined what had been a dead or dying category: Tablets and Netbooks.

1. It succeeded where others had failed by re-inventing the tablet and creating the mega-successful iPad. In fact, Apple succeeded where Microsoft failed twice (so far) – the Tablet PC and UMPC.

2. Apple’s iPad somewhat unexpectedly destroyed the previosly strong netbook market momentum.

3. Then, Apple reinvented the netbook in the form of the 2010 version of the MacBook Air. This is all-the-more surprising for two reasons:
3.1. Earlier MacBook Air models could be considered to be a market failure.
3.2. The MacBook Air, at two to three times the cost of a typical netbook, is probably much more profitable per unit sold than netbooks which were probably generating low single digit percentage profit margins.

The MacBook Air not only revitalized the very category it had nearly destroyed with the iPad but also introduced a netbook-like device that is probably reasonably profitable.

It is for these reasons that in a year of many terrific mobile computer device releases, Apple’s iPad and MacBook Air are tied in my category of 2010 Best Mobile Computing Devices.

If the $499 starting price for the WiFi-only iPad is still to high for you, you may want to look at a less expensive mobile platform. How about a netbook?

The netbook has had a short but interesting history. It emerged as a curioustiy in 2007 running only Linux variants. Then, it took flight in the summer and fall of 2008 as reasonably priced well built Windows based netbooks took the world by storm. Then, there was its fast fall from public mindshare and marketshare as the iPad seemed to overwhelm the sub-$1000 mobile computing space since its introduction in April of this year.

Electronista notes that Taiwan, home of most (all?) netbook manufacturers is seeing netbook prices pushed down. A dual-core netbook is said to be available for $408US.

Netbook pricing may be getting desperate to combat iPad

It is easy to find netbooks (of the single core variety) in the $300 range in the U.S. I’ve even spotted a few at a local office supply store. It may be ironic that Apple’s iPad may be the factor that finally drives netbooks to the $100 price hoped for the the pioneering One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program.

I sat staring at a MacBook Air (11.6-inch model) that refused to boot just a few weeks ago. Fortunately, I remembered reading about the SMC Reset procedure a few years ago, looked it up, and tried it on the Air. This revived it. And, I haven’t run into the problem since. But, it has been on the back of my mind since then.

Mac SMC Reset: Something That Might Help if Your MacBook Air Does Not Boot

Apple released a firmware update for both the 11.6 and 13.3-inch MacBook Air 2010 models yesterday that might help people like me stop worrying about the problem.

MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.0

This update resolves a rare issue where MacBook Air boots or wakes to a black screen or becomes unresponsive. This update is recommended for all 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air (late 2010) models.

I bought an Asus T1000HA netbook in January 2009 for the specific purpose of using it with Windows 7 (beta). This netbook has been running Windows 7 for nearly two years now. And, for most of that time, it was my primary netbook (having been recently replaced by a MacBook Air). I booted up the T1000HA this weekend and noticed its battery was losing its charge much faster than it had compared to a week or two ago.

Windows 7 notice the battery issue too, notified me via the power options status bar pop up, and suggested replacing the battery. I’ve had other notebook batteries get old and need replacement. But, this is the first time that Windows itself recommended battery replacement. It is also the first time I’ve had a battery go bad after less than two years of use.

Engadget has had their Google Cr-48 Chrome notebook for a few days and provided their opinions of the prototype device.

On The Road With Cr-48: The Chrome Notebook Is Both Shiny And Tarnished

- Overall hardware impression is poor
- Rubber-like coating feels odd
- Only a single USB port
- Terrible trackpad
- Slow operation
- Adobe Flash very slow
- Confusing error message when booting without a 3G or WiFi connection available

- Search button preferred over Caps Lock button
- Thumbs up for window-switching and full screen mode buttons
- Battery life may be better than the rated 8 hours

The negative hardware comments do not concern me too much since this is not a production device. We can hope that hardware manufacturers get the message and provide their Chrome OS notebooks with enough resources to provide reasonable performance levels. On the other hand, if Google wanted to make a good first impression with the 60,000 units they shipped as preview units, they should have provided a notebook with better performance.

I’m still not convinced that a browser-only platform is sufficient. But, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief until production or near-production devices arrive next year.