Gadgets

Last night, I decided it was time that I get myself a netbook. These tiny form-factor laptops have been around for a while now, however, I initially brushed them off as an underpowered machine that casual computer users would buy to avoid breaking the bank while still having basic Internet and emailing abilities.

I’ve changed my mind about who needs a netbook after lugging my 17″ hoss of a laptop for the past 13 months.  Don’t get me wrong:  I love the power of my full-sized portable. I have been using it as my primary machine to teach online courses, create websites, and wrangle technology since I got it. It’s fast, full-featured, and gets the job done.  Its weight, though, leaves something to be desired when I just need to check email or or look up some basic information while I’m not at home. A lighter weight, lighter duty machine would fill the bill. This type of machine is a netbook.

After weighing the build quality and price of several netbooks that Best Buy had to offer, I decided to go with the Asus Eee PC 1015PE. So far, I have been very happy with my choice. The little netbook boots fast, is snappy, and gets about 8 hours of battery life  while surfing and checking email. Typing on the 85% chicklet-style keyboard takes a little getting used to, but after about 12 hours of exposure, my fingers are having little trouble touch typing. The trackpad is spacious and responsive, and the click button that sits below it works well enough for right and left clicking.

On the comical side, the text in most of the Asus-created apps features poorly-translated English. For example, after finishing with the registration app, the congratulatory text said, “Now your new machine can get your downloads from us.” I’ve been using products from Taiwanese companies for years and this is expected. I don’t think this diminished the overall experience and I’m not judging at all: I cannot imagine becoming even semi-fluent in any Asian language, as the speech patterns and tones are beyond me. Nonetheless, it is pleasantly comical to read when feeling out a new gadget.

The 1015PE comes with Windows 7 Starter, which I’ve heard many people complain about. My take on it is that Starter is perfect for a netbook. Many of the customization options are disabled and it doesn’t have Media Center enabled, but given the limited power of a netbook, this is a virtue.  You don’t need all the bells and whistles of the more fully-featured versions on a netbook. If you think you do, you probably don’t need a netbook in the first place.  I have no intentions on upgrading from Starter: Its light-and-lean feature set is exactly what this lilliputian machine needs.

To sum up, I’m happy with the 1015PE and would recommend it to anybody who needs a small machine with good battery life that is capable of consuming basic information.

I’ve had my Amazon Kindle (Wi-Fi only) e-reader for a little over a week now. I don’t regret my purchase at all. It’s an absolute joy to use.  The screen is so good that I’m not sure how you could make it look more like paper.

The Kindle solves a couple problems for me. For one, I’m running out of room for new books. I have a lot of books I may never open again, for for some reason, I feel compelled to keep them. Storage is even harder considering that many of my books are programming and tech books that are thick and heavy. I have a couple cheap bookshelves that probably couldn’t take another pound. With the Kindle, I could fit every book I own into it’s light, 7-inch frame. Granted, there aren’t many of the books I will repurchase for the Kindle, but considering I’ll be buying new tech books for the rest of my life, the Kindle will be hosting thousands of pages of silicon-derived goodness before you know it.

The second problem my Kindle solves is the closest bookstore is an hour and half away. I know I can buy books online, straight from Amazon, but I really like the fact that I can get previews of books right on the Kindle. I realize Amazon has allowed you look inside books on it’s website for a long time, but I really do prefer the Kindle’s paper-like screen for reading longer works. There’s also the instant-gratification aspect of having a book in under a minute. That will come in very handy the next time I get stuck trying to configure a Squid proxy server and need to figure out the problem 10 minute ago.

I think the Kindle will even allow me to start reading more fiction, since it’s so easy to tote around. While I’m waiting for Beck to come out of Bath and Body Works, I can catch up on some reading. I’m currently working my way through Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule, the first book in the Sword of Truth series. And since the Kindle has a decent WebKit-based web browser built-in, I can always catch up on the latest news or Facebook gossip anywhere I can snag some free wi-fi.

If anybody has been sitting on the fence as to whether an e-reader is worth it, I can tell you they are if you like reading at all. As always, your mileage may vary, but for me, it was a very wise purchase.