Backpacking: A Netbook is an Essential Item, Not a Luxury One

Carrying all their needs in one convenient bag, backpackers travel light, travel cheap, and travel smart. Most people would agree though that a computer is an essential item these days.
Space is at a premium, so by packing a netbook something else will have to be left at home. After clothes and toiletries though, is there anything more important than a computer? In case you are still unconvinced, here are some reasons why netbooks are perfect for backpackers…
Reason #1 – Size
Backpacks have to be carried around a lot, and whilst you might not think that a few extra pounds makes much of a difference, they do. Netbooks weight that little though, most are around a pound or so, that you will hardly even know that you are carrying it. A larger laptop is not only heavier, it is also more difficult to conceal, whereas a small, discrete netbook can be hidden away from the eyes of opportunistic thieves.
Reason #2 – Features
Netbooks continue to pack in more and more features these days. Just a few things that backpackers can use them for include writing emails to keep family and friends up-to-date with their adventures, uploading photos to Facebook, writing a travel blog, or phoning home on Skype. Also, thanks to the power of the Internet, a range of tools and extensive travel information are just a click away from the savvy backpacker. Backpackers can quickly get a variety of directions and information on attractions in a few short minutes.
Reason #3 – Affordability
Costing between $200-400, netbooks are affordable, especially when compared to the cost of standard laptop computers. It is important to keep costs down, because the more money spent prior to traveling, the shorter the trip will probably have to be. Even that amount may initially seem prohibitive though, however, just think of the accumulated costs of paying to use computers in Internet shops for the whole duration of a trip away. Spending even a dollar or two a day in them soon adds up.
Reason #4 – Memories
For those eager to preserve the memories of their trip, netbooks offer a variety of ways to do so. In addition to word processing devices and web browsers for journaling and blogging, most netbooks now include a webcam and microphone. With the large size of the hard drive there is no need to hold back at all. You can save as many details of your trip as you want to.
So, for a small investment of money, a netbook can turn a traditional backpacking trip into an even more rewarding and informed experience. By taking one, you really will be the envy of everyone else, who will feel unprepared compared to you.
Also, remember that you can still use your netbook after you return from your travels. They are a great piece of equipment to have in general, so bear that in mind if you are thinking that you can not justify buying one just for backpacking.

Notebook Laptop Review – Samsung N140 Netbook

The Samsung is the latest 10″ netbook. Its a direct replacement for the original NC10 netbook. It improves on that in a number of ways. It has better sound quality, bigger touch pad, better processor and a better operating system with Windows 7 Startup. It is very similar in design to the NC10 and has the same battery and screen resolution as before.One of the advantages of this netbook is that it has a great matt display. The screen is very bright and you should have no problems using this outdoors. The text is not sharp however you do get used to it. The matt display though is not usually found in netbooks and is much better than a glossy display. Another great thing to mention is that it is very quiet. Sometimes you may wonder if it even has a fan. This is one of the quietest netbooks I have used and this lack of noise is very impressive.The touchpad is and ideal size and it has multi touch scrolling. It isn’t too noisy and has a nice texture. There is nothing at fault with the keyboard. It is a standard keyboard which takes the up the full width of the netbook and this ensures that the keys are large. The audio quality is good and it has stereo speakers and SRS technology. Sound comes from the bottom and the volume is decent.One of the disadvantages is that the lid has a glossy finish and picks up too many fingerprints. The battery life isn’t too good compared to the other netbooks out in the market. The 5200 mamp battery lasted for about 5 hours when used at 60% brightness and just web browsing and watching youtube videos. There is only one slot for RAM so if you want to upgrade you will have to open up the machine.The netbook comes with windows 7 startup. There a few restrictions on this operating system but it is ideal for a netbook. Overall this netbook is good for doing work on the go.

Netbook – Your Ultimate Guide

A netbook is a computer similar to a laptop. This is for Internet access and for wireless communication. Its primary function is to browse the Internet and access application on the World Wide Web thus the name netbook, which is a portmanteau for Internet and Notebook.Netbooks are usually only a few pounds in weight and mostly around 5 to 12 inches in size. Since it is used for Internet access, they do not require high specifications. They usually run on operating systems like Microsoft Windows XP and Linux. Netbooks’ history can be traced from way back mid-1990s where Network Computer (NC) made their concept of the small laptop. For the term “netbook”, it was started in 2007 where Asus EEE Pc made its launching. Soon, the netbooks took the laptops market share because of its handiness and its price.These “mini” laptops have low requirements for hardware as well as software as it only runs application from the Internet. Some of them do not even have the conventional hard drives or optical disc drives (CD drive). Netbooks use solid-state storage device because these devices use less power and more durable than what laptops have.Netbooks also has Wi-Fi support that allows users to access the Internet anywhere and everywhere. It is the feature that most people are after for the netbooks; its accessibility to the Internet with its compact and handy body.Windows XP and Linux are the operating system (OS) that runs in netbooks. However, Google is currently developing a new OS that can run in it. The Google Chrome OS, which will be release in 2010, will be targeting the netbooks.These small Internet computers have revolutionized the computer usage. With these powerful features, what more can you ask for?

Samsung N130-13B 10.1-Inch Netbook

Specifications: There is just something about the design of blue Samsung netbooks that make them so irresistible. Previously, the blue Samsung NC10 netbook was one of the best selling models in the market. Now, this spot has been taken over by the new blue Samsung N130-13B model. This model comes with a set of entry-level netbook specs that will prove to be more than sufficient for many users. It has a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM and a 1.6Ghz Atom processor. This model runs on the Microsoft XP (SP3) OS. It also comes with 3USB ports and a 3-in-1 memory card reader.

Design: The design of the Samsung N130-13B resembles the design of the Samsung GO netbook. It has a smooth and rounded fell to it. It measures at about 10.7 x 7.4 x 1 inches and weighs 2.82 pounds. The external casing of netbook has a light navy blue matte finish. Other than that, almost all other parts of the netbook are white in color (including the sides, screen bezel and keyboard area). Overall, this model has a very stylish and chic appearance.

Features & Performance: The Samsung N130-13B would make an excellent buy if you are looking for a basic netbook to perform light daily computing tasks. It is very good-looking, well priced and very functional. This model runs on a 6-cell battery that can last up to 5.8 hours on one full charge (which is about average for a netbook). At the moment, the Samsung N130-13B netbook is priced at (approximately) an affordable $294 per unit.

Netbook Buying Guide

Electronics exist in a quickly changing environment. A new version of that still shiny and pricey toy you’re been longing for always seems to be just around the corner. Netbooks are no different and you can take advantage of this to get a great price on that ultra portable and practical netbook. This simple guide shows you how to find a great netbook deal so you can get the most out of your money. Find a specific netbook model you want. It could be a top of the line netbook with a huge screen and a seemingly never ending battery life or a more conservative model with a smaller screen and a shorter battery life. Do some research and find out when a newer model at the same price point as the netbook you’re looking at is being released. When this newer version goes on the market (or is even just about to be released), there will be a drop in price on your favorite pick. This is the time to purchase!If you’d rather not wait around for a price drop and want a netbook fast, then you’ll have to buy one at the current market price. Luckily, this ‘wait for a drop in price’ technique can be used backwards as well. You can be sure that you’re getting a good deal on that netbook if its price recently dropped because a newer version was just released. There are various websites that monitor past product price which you can use to see if a recent price reduction has occurred. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of buying the latest and greatest model out there when you can get something with slightly less horsepower for a much more reasonable price.

Top Netbooks Revealed!

Are you confused about the new generation of laptops? In three easy steps, you`ll be a novice no more! Netbooks are defined as the lighter, more compact, yet surprisingly powerful younger sibling to the laptop. Entrepreneurs on the go, students and anyone who has a need for mobile computing, owes it to themselves to investigate all that is new and shiny on the netbook scene! Treat the prospective purchase of a netbook as you would any other purchase. You and your netbook will spend much time together – take one out for a spin and kick the tires before you make your decision! Knowing what your needs are, how much you are willing to spend and what the performance ratings are on the models you are attracted to will make the purchase must less painful! Complete these three steps to reveal your perfect match: 1. Sit down and think about your needs. Knowing the answers to these questions will help to focus your search and discussions with any sales associates! Will you be using your netbook for business, pleasure, or strictly gaming? This will give you some idea of whether you need a large amount of memory and what type of software might optimize your computer experience. Know what you will be doing the most … Excel spreadsheets, genealogy charts, putting together a recipe book for the church? There are software programs which will make your life easier – and some of them may come included at no charge with your netbook! 2. Compare Value! Visit the individual websites of the models which interest you. It is suggested making a sheet with several columns on to keep track of the information gathered. How much memory does the computer have? – Which software is included? – What are the associated costs of the upgrades you might wish? 3. Read consumer reports! Before making any type of purchase, I recommend reading consumer reports. Consumer Reports tests consumable goods and reports back on the good, bad and the ugly in each category. Look and see how your perfect match compares to the other top models tested and how the model you were thinking about purchasing matches your needs. 4. Find a bargain! Log onto online stores to see if the model you have selected is on sale online or in an area store. Most of the top netbooks range in price from US $299 – $399. There are many sites which compare netbooks and other consumable goods. According to the web site Laptopmatrix, the top netbooks were listed as: Samsung; Acer Aspire One; Asees Eee PC901; Lenovo Idea S10; MSI Wind u100; Dell Inspiron Mini; Asees Eee PC 1005HA. Most of the entries on Laptopmatrix website were comparable in memory, etc. with the exception to the Lenovo model which had considerably less memory. Consumer Reports, however, list the top three netbooks as the Acer Aspire One models, in this particular order: Acer Aspire One A0751h 1259; Acer Aspire One AOA 150; Acer Aspire One AOD 156-1165. To find information on these and any netbooks you may be interested in, please visit the manufacturer`s website for more complete information – and live happily ever after with your perfect match!

Aspire One netbooks already running Moblin were on display at the news conference

Court delays British hacker’s extradition to U.S.: Gary McKinnon’s extradition to the U.S. was delayed by the European Court of Human Rights, whose ruling allows him to stay in the U.K. at least until the court reconvenes on Aug. 28 and can further consider his case. U.S. prosecutors have charged McKinnon, who lives in London, with hacking into U.S. military networks, knocking 2,000 computers offline and deleting 2,455 user accounts as well as logs related to tracking Navy vessels. He has been fighting extradition, saying he was bullied by U.S. authorities into confessing in exchange for a lesser sentence.Later this year, In Technology will release a version that supports the China-developed 3G mobile standard that the country is currently trying to promote, TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access). The company declined to give details of the computer’s microprocessor, which it called the “AMD Super Mobile,” or how it will make phone calls from Windows XP.Apple’s MacBook Air is 4mm thick at its thinnest point and 19mm at its thickest, by comparison.The X-Slim 340 comes with a 4-cell HP DV6000 battery as standard and the potential for 7-hours of run time, according to MSI. An 8-cell battery is also available.More people have been added to the project to reduce the delays, he said, declining to give further details. Sony Ericsson is working closely with its manufacturing partner HTC, he said. Plans to sell the Xperia X1 in other countries won’t be affected by the delays, despite the initial shortage of phones, according to Brusewitz. The new Kindle is a minuscule 0.36-inches thick, nearly half the depth of the original model. It’s also shed nearly two pounds, weighing in at 10.2 ounces. While it’s still another device to tote along in your laptop bag, the Kindle 2 is easily smaller than the pile of books it displaces. We’ll have to wait for real-world testing to gauge the Dell1691P battery life, but Amazon claims it’ll go up to four days in regular use. And unlike the original, you don’t need a separate power adapter to charge the Kindle 2; just tap into a USB port. Netbooks meet a need. Smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone, are intended for what DisplaySearch analyst John Jacobs calls a three-minute experience–enough time to check e-mail or call the office. A notebook is for longer sessions, maybe three hours. A netbook fits in between. It’s designed for a 30-minute experience including Web access, e-mail and document editing. Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, says netbooks are travel-friendly, fit well with enterprise hot-swap repair procedures (since they are easy to manage) and thus can work for both IT managers and mobile professionals such as sales agents.Microsoft executives, such as Robbie Bach, speaking at the International CTIA Wireless Conference in Las Vegas in April 2009, are going out of their way to demonstrate Windows 7 running on netbooks. Bach was promoting Windows 7 on netbooks at the conference because many netbooks, such as the high-end HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam edition, include built-in support for 3G networks. This promotion of the low-cost computers as a platform for Windows 7 raises the question: just how good is the experience of running Windows 7 on a netbook?Aspire One netbooks already running Moblin were on display at the news conference. Moblin was developed for netbooks, which are mini-laptops built for mobility with low-power microprocessors, 10-inch screens and six-cell HP 2710P battery for long run times. An updated version of the operating system, Moblin 2.0, was released last month, and it has proven popular at Computex Taipei 2009.A number of netbooks were on display at the news conference, running several different versions of Moblin on various netbooks, including Suse Moblin, Xandros Moblin, Linpus Moblin, Red Flag Moblin and Ubuntu Moblin running on netbooks from Hewlett-Packard, Asustek Computer, Micro-Star International and Hasee Computer.Still, because of their razor-thin profiles, these are the executive status symbols of our time. When you’re carrying a beauty like the Apple MacBook Air, the Dell Adamo, or the Lenovo ThinkPad X301, those making due with a lesser model can only look up with PC envy.

Netbooks – The Next Generation of PC Mobility

In the past year the miniaturization and low-power consumption trends in silicon chip design have come to a head in personal computer manufacturing. Culminating in the creation of a laptop with less than half of an average PC’s weight, size and energy profile, these phenomenal new advancements are called netbooks. Netbooks are different from traditional laptops in that they contain no optical drive, meaning they have no CD or DVD bay. The savings in weight, power consumption and processor speed mean that these machines are built for cruising the internet, watching streaming online video and word processing/e-mail services. Their weight and size make them extremely portable, with some being not much larger than a paperback book. With so many new makes and models of netbooks emerging it can be difficult to make a smart decision when shopping for a new mobile PC, but keeping a couple of key aspects in mind might make the entire process much easier. Step 1 – Size Constraints Due to the portability and extreme battery life of netbooks (some, like the Asus Eee PC have been known to last as long as 5 hours on a single charge) their size and weight might be the only things constraining it in terms of portability. What good is a laptop with an eight hour battery life if it weighs 30 pounds, or won’t fit in the back of your car? That’s where your keen sense of judgment comes in. Coming with screens ranging from seven to 10 inches, netbooks offer the full spectrum of LCD screen options. If you plan on taking your laptop with you everywhere you go, and plan on using it primarily for emailing and word processing – a smaller screen may be the best bet. With the increased mobility you sacrifice viewing area, but if you aren’t doing photo editing or other screen real-estate intensive tasks, then the larger screen may be a waste. Once you’ve decided on a screen size, you’re well on your way. Step 2 – Processing Power Due to their limitations, netbooks are being paralleled to smart phones, like the iPhone or Blackberry. Unfortunately for smartphones, they are nowhere near capable of the processing power of most netbooks. Armed with an Intel Atom power-sipping processor, mobile PCs are becoming a better and better option for the professional on the move. Extensible with USB ports, Bluetooth and firewire – netbooks simply offer a much wider range of possibilities than a smart phone. So, when shopping for your netbook, be sure you purchase one that has enough RAM (512 MB will work, but 1 GB is recommended) to power your laptop for whatever you will need it for. Step 3 – Aesthetics and Selection Once you’ve decided on the size and speed of your netbook you need to think about aesthetics. What color would you prefer? Gloss or matte finish? Do you want an onboard webcam and microphone? Then make sure to seek out those features when shopping. Whatever your tastes may be, netbooks offer a little bit of something for everyone and at an ultra-affordable price.

Acer – Paving the Way For the Netbook Generation

What is so cool about the Acer Aspire One netbook? What are the reviews saying and should you drop your cash on the counter to get one? These are all things potential customers are asking themselves when it comes to this new netbook device. First, let’s take a look at the basics.

What exactly is a netbook? Netbooks are designed to be “cloud computers” more or less, which means less hardware and more power in storing information and applications in the clouds-or the internet in laymen’s terms. For an increasingly mobile generation, this is a great idea. It’s also excellent for an increasingly more wired and connected generation. People are hooked on mobile devices and they are becoming more popular every day. That is why computing devices like the Acer Aspire One are getting such a great response-people love small portable computing devices they can take to a café, take to work, take to the beach-you name it and the Acer Aspire One can go there. With just an 8.9 inch screen-it’s easy to take anywhere you want it to go.

Another great thing about these netbooks is they often come at a much lower price than a typical laptop. This has to do with several factors, and the Acer Aspire One is a great example of this. For example, the One comes installed with a version of Linux that is open source and so, it is free of charge. This greatly reduces the price of the netbook since there is no included cost to license an operating system like, let’s say, Windows XP. Although if you are in dire need of a Windows operating system you can make the extra hundred dollars or so to have it licensed and installed.

The Acer Aspire One is a great netbook for a few major factors. One thing that I personally never enjoyed about netbooks is their cramped keyboards. The Acer Aspire One feels like a real mid-sized keyboard you can feel comfortable typing on. This type of thing goes a very long way since typing on a ridiculously small keyboard can get old and annoying extremely quickly. I even returned a netbook-I got so sick of the keyboard (after two hours!) Luckily, the Acer Aspire One doesn’t suffer from this problem.

A great added bonus of netbooks is their battery life. When you’re on a smaller device you can power it more easily with less added weight-making it much more mobile. For example you won’t have to haul around an AC adapter anywhere you want to access the internet on your Acer Aspire One, you can just rely on the battery to keep you going throughout the day. Some netbooks can go for as long as 4-8 hours on certain batteries. If you’re a road warrior or constantly mobile you might want to look further into an Acer Aspire One for your mobile computing needs.

Sony VAIO VPC-W111XX/T 10.1-Inch Netbook Review

Specifications: The Sony VAIO VPC-W111XX/T netbook comes with a Intel N280 processor (1.66GHZ), 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard disk. It has a 10.1-inch LEB backlit LCD display and is powered by a 3-cell battery. In terms of connectivity, this model has 2 USB ports, an Ethernet (10/100) port, a VGA output, a SD card slot, Memory Stick Duo card slot, headphone jack, microphone jack, wi-fi (802.11b/g/n) and Bluetooth connectivity (2.1).

Design: The Sony VAIO VPC-W111XX/T netbook comes in brown, pink and white (yes, no black). It measures at 10.5 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches and weighs in at 2.6 pounds. The external casing has a stylish matte surface. All they keys on its keyboard is isolated (like those on Apple computers) and it feels pretty good to type on despite its size. The memory card slots are located on the front, while the other ports and jacks are located on the side.

Features & Performance: The Sony VAIO VPC-W111XX/T netbook works just like any netbooks in the market. It runs on Windows XP and can handle most simple computing tasks pretty well. A feature that makes this model stand out from the rest it’s the VAIO Multimedia Streaming software that enables data stream between DLNA-enabled appliances (like your PC or PS 3). Besides that, there is nothing much that differentiates this model from the rest. Its battery lifespan hovers around just 2.5 hours, which is not much compared to many other competing models (such as the Asus 1005HA and the Toshiba Mini)

Overall: One of the major characteristics of the Sony VAIO VPC-W111XX/T netbook is its price. It currently costs around $499 a piece, which is more that $100 more that other popular netbook models. As much as I would like to justify the price (being a Sony fan), there really isn’t much good reason for a consumer to fork out the extra dough on this model. Maybe the premium is paid for the ‘glitz and glamour’ that comes with the brand name. The Sony VAIO VPC-W111XX/T netbook is best left for Sony fans and those who just can’t get over its gorgeous design.

Next Page »