Be Excellent To Each Other

So here I am thinking that Mrs Chinny might like a netbook for Christmas. Therefore she can sit with a cup of tea and watch Strictly Come X-Factor Dancing On Ice and also use the internet.

Being a Mac owner of some 16 months I know nothing about Netbooks. Why would I? Steve hasn't acknowledged they exist and certainly doesn't produce one. Whenever I look at one all I become overcome by the implant that Apple has placed in my head that says they look cheap and not aluminium enough.

So here I am on the Ebuyer site:

http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computers/cat/Netbooks

Lots to choose from there. Don't want to go totally overboard as it will mainly be used for web stuff. However I notice that most of the netbooks use XP, an OS that is nearly 8 years old. Should I be looking at Windows Vista or 2009 units? What is a decent spec.

If you were Mrs Chinny, which one would you buy.

Has to be from Ebuyer for as I'm already ordering some other stuff from them.

Cheers ears.

There will be no Vista netbook, it's proven utterly inadequate. There may be 7 ones coming down the pipe.

The Samsung NC10 is about the best (performance and battery life) and Currys are currently knocking them out at £239. Er, £259, apparently. I'm sure the TV ad says £239 though.

My brother runs Win 7 on a net/notebook quite happily; Win 7 seems to have much better power-saving options than Vista did.

I can heartily recommend the Acer Aspire One. I got one last year for MrsP for almost the exact same reasons you stated. The model I bought came with Linux but I shoved XP on it to stop the little woman bursting into flames. I believe you can even install Mac OS on there if you're so inclined.

Yeah, I think the licenses are much more expensive though, MS were basically giving XP away.

There's a £20 rebate on the NC10, so it is effectively £239.

You answered your own question - if it will mainly be used for web stuff, XP is fine. People seem quick to forget that XP is a brilliant OS.

Also, Steve is brining out a netbook next year, I think.

The netbooks are all much of a muchness, get one you like the look of. I have an Advent / MSI Wind one.

And then stick OS X Leopard on it.

Or stick with XP, it's entirely OK for this sort of thing.

The NC10 really is great, it's always been top of the Register list. Having fondled one in John Lewis at £329 only to find they were out of stock, I was gutted. If I needed a laptop I'd be buying one at £240, even from DSG.

I'm tempted anyway.

The only one I want more is that new Acer that's got the desktop dual-core Atom with nVidia chipset/graphics, that costs >£400.

I've got an NC10 and it's great.

Have ordered the Aspire One.

Cheers all!

Theres netbooks with the ion graphics card out now. The samsung NC50 has it but Im not sure its got a dual core atom, thats going for £380, Asus are meant to be releasing a dual core one though in january for around the same price.

Which model?

This one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161005

V Nice. Aside from the colour, that's the same as the one I have. Battery can be a bit disappointing, but it'll get her through an evening I reckon

RAGE QUIT.

( )

I'm quite well predisposed towards Acer even if they did steal money off me for a copy of Vista that never turned up. My old Acer laptop was better than most other Windows laptops I've seen and cost a fraction of the price.

Of course now I have a Mac I realise that I was worthless scum who didn't know any better. All hail Steve!

You see, . Very, very much so. It's a fantastic little machine. I love it.

We've also got an N510 in the office - the Ion-based one - and it's also lovely, albeit a bit pricey.

I fucking love my Acer Aspire One. It was seriously one of the best £250 I have ever spent. Yet I never use it.

"What fresh madness is this?" I hear you all cry. I don't use it... but the missus does. All the time. And while she's on that, happily doing whatever it is she does on it, I can play on the 360 in peace.

Money very well spent.

When you say "missus"...?

I'm kinda scared that netbooks now outclass my ibook.

I'm very tempted to get one but it makes more sense to save up for a new macbook or some sort.

It would be nice to be able to do things quickly again.

Nah, the CPU in a netbook isn't as quick as the 1.6GHz would suggest. Unless your iBook is really, really old.

I used to like the idea of a Netbook. If there was a Mac OS X one. But then that may never exist, wouldn't be in my price bracket, and more importantly, I find regular-sized notebook computers like the, err, MacBook infuriatingly small and fiddly to use properly as it is, never mind anything smaller. I can see why Netbooks exist, and for some people they must be a very handy bit of kit, but they don't really appeal to be to be honest.

It's very likely that Apple are releasing a netbook.
Like I said earlier.

If apple release a netbook I'll be very tempted. Something inbetween an iPhone and a 12" notebook.

Talking of which, I'm still gutted that apple killed the 12" line. It's the perfect size (as long as you have an external monitor).

Oh and it's a 1.3Ghz iBook. Held up fantastically all things considered. Worth every penny of the £600 quid I paid close to 5 years ago now.

My money is on a tablet form factor, 7-9" screen, no keyboard, running iPhone OS. Not a netbook.

*cuts off chicken's head*
*plays pan pipes while the corpse dances around a roulette wheel*
*chicken falls over*
The market says: £4000 price point.

I could see something like that.

For bonus points it would link in with your normal mac, to be it's external monitor/touch pad.

That you can just pick up and take with you.

It makes apple sense. Selling their mad fans two computers instead of one.

I reckon both.
WE SHALL SE. E.

That would be nice. The tablet MacNetBook idea, with touch screen and everything. It could be like the PADDs from Star Trek, but non-fictional.

I misread that as 'non-functional'...

Have you seen this?

Malc

What's typing like on these tablet PCs? My mind can't think of any way it wouldn't be awkward for either your neck or wrists, unless they were small like phones.

It's a bit fiddly on my Samsung Q1U. If I did a lot of typing, I'd get one of the small Apple aluminium keyboards for it.

On the other hand, it's a much more natural form factor for browsing than a netbook, because with the touchscreen you can cradle it in your arm and sprawl on the sofa. As opposed to peering down at a netbook down in your lap.

I guess I'm looking at tablets the wrong way: as a touch-screen PC. Their use is probably better at things less typing-centric, then, as I see no way to have one perform the function of keyboard and monitor at once for any length of time, without resorting to an external keyboard as you mentioned.

That looks awesome.

Yeah, I was very tempted, but I think I will wait for the 2nd version of it.

It was supposed to have 2 freeview receivers built in to it, but they seem to have left them out.

Malc

Edit: 1080p = 1920x1080

They mean the computer is capable of playing the video, and you are able to connect it to a larger screen.

That's what they mostly do, Archos I mean, make hand held media players that can connect to HD TVs for playing videos on.

Malc

I'm out of touch with modern technology, so I have not seen that before. But that is almost exactly what I imaged, but as a Windows PC.

Don't be too disheartened, that's only a couple of months old, however, it does run windows.

Malc

big question for me, could a new fancy dan netbook play team fortress 2? the ones with the graphic card hard ons?

Ion based ones, yeah. I tried running hl2 on the aspire one and it wouldn't even start

The Ion-based ones (eg, the Samsung N510) should be ok. I got HL2 to load on my NC10, but the title screen got about 3fps and then it crashed hard, so I gave up after that.

And use your cock as a stylus whilst waiting for your tug arm to go numb.

Funny you should say that, because both Grim... and MyFinger, independantly, visited a porn site within seconds of picking it up.

In your bookmark bar?

I had to install Flash to get Youporn working and everything.