Joey deVilla: Fast Food Apple Pies and Why Netbooks Suck

A very interesting read on netbooks and why having something in the middle of established form factors can suck. In fact, I’ve made some of these same arguments when talking against tablet PC’s that didn’t have a convertable keyboard option with them. Way too slow to write everything down if you can type 120wpm on a keyboard. Similarly I’ve argued against email on phones in the past because tapping out full paragraphs with a stylus, on-screen keyboard, or physical keyboards (a la Dash) is just far too painful to make it useful. Why shouldn’t a new device or form factor fill this void?

And so enters the netbook, which very often has a small screen with a miniscule resolution and as little as 85% of a full size keyboard… why would I like these restrictions, considering that I bought a Lenovo S10 in the past? Well, for quick meetings at work they are pretty freakin’ great. For watching movies, they are pretty good. For coding and gaming, it’s fair. For having portable “hard drive” that can have my entire PC experience and preferences in a 2.43 pound package that will drive Aero on Windows 7 [RC] and project HD resolutions to external monitors, it’s great…

Wait, movies, coding, and gaming on a notebook? Yes, I said that. You haven’t had that experience? That’s because all Atoms are not the same chip…
Continue reading Atoms Aren’t All Atoms →