Netbook shopping
WebWorker Daily has a timely article on Netbook shopping. There are four criteria listed (which seem pretty obvious to me, but WWD does have a wide audience)-
- A comfortable keyboard
- Solid battery life
- Wireless broadband option
- Affordable external storage
So far, so good. Might I add another one?
- Machine works when you get it out of the box, and when it doesn’t you can return it easily.
You may have guessed that the return of my Acer Aspire One laptop hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, it’s still sitting here waiting for collection. It is supposed to be collected today, but confidence, as they say, is not high.
WebWorker Daily does have a more useful post here about renting desk space through the UK-based site Desk Space Genie. Whilst not of specific interest to me, the idea of renting a desk in an office for freelance work appeals, you get the buzz and camaradarie(!) of the office, avoiding the loneliness of homeworking. The only snag is that there are only two office spaces at the moment within 50 miles, and they are both further than my current commute!
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Acer Aspire One AOD150-1165
I was looking for a compact laptop that I could use between home and work and also take on my frequent road trips to visit my family. My biggest gripe about laptops in the past has been the short battery life, so I was very pleased when my Acer came from Amazon yesterday (April 9th) with the 5800mAh battery. I don’t know about speed with the standard 1GB memory because I replaced mine with 2GB (so easy a caveman can do it) before I ever turned it on. But it boots up fast and is surprisingly quick. I love the size. It fits perfectly in my leather notebook. I touch type and while the keyboard is a little small it is very easy to get used to. Like some have reported, the touchpad buttons are a little stiff but they have a positive feel to them. It’s a non-issue with me because I hate touchpads in general and use them only in a pinch. I found a nice little Logitech USB mouse for about $19 that’s even a perfectly matching cobalt blue. The first option you will need for most any of these netbooks is a good USB DVD burner to load your software and make backup emergency disks. I bought one just before I bought the netbook. The 10″ display is bright and extremely sharp. The setup was simple I was up and running on my wireless network in less than 5 minutes. Most of my time was spent removing bloatware and building emergency recovery disks. This is really a great little computer with a solid feel and very attractive to look at. At the price you cannot beat this little netbook.