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Inexpensive Atom-Powered 'Netbooks' Popular at Launch
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Good point. We may see if Apple releases a netbook after Leopard is improved in its new form as Snow Leopard.
bought an acer aspire one for my girlfriend to carry to and from the library at uni about a week ago and we are both loving it. The thing is tiny, but very easy to type on (unlike the 9" eee pc's!), is fast and has a great battery life. What more could you ask for for £300?
I will buy one at christmas for myself
I will buy one at christmas for myself
Really? Try typing up a 15 page report in the field on a Touch or giving a Powerpoint or collaborating on a Word document while flying between meetings or...
The iPhone and Touch are turning out to be great for games though.
Perfect!!! Just want i want/need
Hey, my kids primarily use their eMac, it's about due for the upgrade.... give me one and then the mini i bought can move to Home Theater stuff when it retires from recording their School classes in May.
Let the KIDS have something cheaper, younger.... hook them young...
The MSI wind has a 10" screen.
An almost full-sized keyboard.
You can plug in the Apple 802.11n board for 270Mbit WiFi
Can have 2GB Ram 80GB hard drive (or use an SSD)
And as has been said, it runs OS X beautifully.
Here's what it looks like in a shop.
On the downside, the trackpad is pretty poor. And the 3 cell battery only lasts 2hours.
I am sure Apple could make it sweeter still.
C.
An almost full-sized keyboard.
You can plug in the Apple 802.11n board for 270Mbit WiFi
Can have 2GB Ram 80GB hard drive (or use an SSD)
And as has been said, it runs OS X beautifully.
Here's what it looks like in a shop.
On the downside, the trackpad is pretty poor. And the 3 cell battery only lasts 2hours.
I am sure Apple could make it sweeter still.
C.
can compete, I'll be first in line.
That might very well be the case. I can't see it being very snappy. It won't be "molasses in January" slow, but running Leopard on an 867MHz G4 PowerMac with 768MB, while a workable proposition, was not something I'd want to have as my main PC.
Hence why I think it would make a good "eMac" - inexpensive, but still able to run OS X and Apple applications well enough to make it usable for base users. It could also become really popular with the "email-only" crowd.
One interesting thing is that I am sure Windows XP is not fun on these machines, and Vista is (likely) impossible. As such, as these machines gain popularity, Microsoft must be worried that they are all running Linux and not Windows, cutting them out of the revenue pie. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft responds to the threat.
I'd attribute that more to the disk drives then the operating system.
Leopard is great on an iMac but on my MacBook it's sluggish when it comes to drive access. You really notice it then.
A device with a 3.5" screen and soft keyboard can do more than a $399 netbook which has an 8.9" or 10" display, 80GB+ HDD, 1GB of RAM, usually three USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth, a 95% full size keyboard, trackpad, and can run Windows XP, Vista, or Mac OS X (yes, Mac OS X has been hacked to run on the MSI Wind and other netbooks).
http://forums.msiwind.net/mac/first-post-updated-leopard-installer-disc-for-msi-wind-t857.html
Stop being delusional
I'm glad I read some posts before making my own because you stated exactly what I wanted to say except you said it way better. Thanks. There's no way a smartphone of any type will eventually replace notebooks.
No offense, but just because you aren't doesn't mean that nobody else out there is. I quickly found after buying my iPhone that I was rarely ever using my MacBook anymore, so I sold it as opposed to letting it continue to sit at home and collect dust.
Sure, I'd be more than willing to take a look at a "netbook" if Apple decides to ever release one. However, it's not something I'm just dying to run out and buy or anything, as I'm getting by just fine at the moment with nothing more than an iMac at home and an iPhone for when I'm out.
Really? Try typing up a 15 page report in the field on a Touch or giving a Powerpoint or collaborating on a Word document while flying between meetings or...
The iPhone and Touch are turning out to be great for games though.
Such a sad truth that is.
I hate those tiny notebooks for one reason - they are that same stupid notebook design.
The business of computers is run by nerds that can't figure their way out of paper bags 99% of the time, and redesign the same old thing. Apple is one of the few true innovators, and should be conquering this market with an enlarged iPod Touch called an iTablet. wtf, apple.
Most people don't need the power of a full laptop, and definitely not the power of a full desktop unit. Most folks want word processing, spreadsheets, internet, document reading, simple games, scheduling, sound and image viewing, for almost all of their computer usage. Our low end processors on the Mac line can do all that more than adequately.
Why is the industry still stuck in some 1989 haze in terms of design? Why is apple still emulating the basic designs of yesteryear? Go mobile, already, not seated and uncomfortable away from power outlets.
The business of computers is run by nerds that can't figure their way out of paper bags 99% of the time, and redesign the same old thing. Apple is one of the few true innovators, and should be conquering this market with an enlarged iPod Touch called an iTablet. wtf, apple.
Most people don't need the power of a full laptop, and definitely not the power of a full desktop unit. Most folks want word processing, spreadsheets, internet, document reading, simple games, scheduling, sound and image viewing, for almost all of their computer usage. Our low end processors on the Mac line can do all that more than adequately.
Why is the industry still stuck in some 1989 haze in terms of design? Why is apple still emulating the basic designs of yesteryear? Go mobile, already, not seated and uncomfortable away from power outlets.
Low end processors? When has Apple used Celeron, Pentium Dual Core, or the OEM variants of the Core processors with less cache or a slower FSB?
It makes all the sense in the world for Apple to offer a cheap sub-notebook (netbook). With the economic situation going on right now, people don't want to spend $1200 on a computer. I know many people who balk at Apple because of the price. While the mini is an option they prefer a laptop. It would be a great way to get people to jump ship and try out OS X and see what they are missing. Hard core users will prob purchase them as well just to tool around, but will always opt for the powerful machines.
I do think they will eventually release a cheap netbook but we could be at least a year away from something like that.
I do think they will eventually release a cheap netbook but we could be at least a year away from something like that.
So what they need is a good keyboard, for word processing. A small, adequate screen, for image viewing. Yeah, sounds like they don't need an Eee PC...
Uhh, why would Windows XP be no fun on these machines? Windows XP came out in 2001 and is relatively lightweight compared to most "modern" operating systems. It runs just fine on my MSI Wind.
Right now, I have Thunderbird, Google Chrome, Firefox 3.0, Word 2007, Adobe Photoshop CS3, eBay Turbo Lister running along with uTorrent, AVG Antivirus, Trillian, and Privoxy running in the background.
My machine is not slow, it's not bogged down, and it works perfectly fine. So I must ask, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Geek Bench Mac Mini G4 1.25GHz = 565
Geek Bench Mac Mini G4 1.42GHz = 816
Geek Bench Atom single core 1.6GHz running Leopard = 952
I thought about that excuse months ago when I try to defend the Palm OS for not multi-tasking.Aaah, okay, so it seems there is market for this.
I doubt Apple would release a netbook. MacBook Mini? Lol
Oh yea, it seems a lot of people seem to be complaining about OSX mobile cannot run a few programs at once, but like Apple says, it will SLOW DOWN your phone, its a compromise, but hey, if you like your phone to run as slow as WM, go and get a WM phone instead.
eventually, I think its not a real argument.
However, there is an argument of screen size, multitasking for a small screen device just doesn't feel important to me.
I love mine too, I worried a little bit about Dell and Lenovo when I bought my AA1, but turns out AA1 is a much better deal than those two, IMHO.bought an acer aspire one for my girlfriend to carry to and from the library at uni about a week ago and we are both loving it. The thing is tiny, but very easy to type on (unlike the 9" eee pc's!), is fast and has a great battery life. What more could you ask for for £300?
I will buy one at christmas for myself
XP is fine, and many people installs Vista on it. You can goto any forum for these computer users and check for yourself.
Windows has already outdone Linux on the netbook market.
XP does performs better than Vista on ATOM, but its not impossible, HP's mini note has Vista running on VIA. 1.0GHZ.
For XP. With QT addressbar (Vista style breadcrubms folder path), Launchy (app launcher), windows desktop search, rocketdock (full featured dock), Its as good as Vista and OSX for my current day to day use. (I can't change UI too much, so obviously its not as pretty as OSX or Vista).
Its not powerful, buts its more than enough for most users. It has no problem with VlC playback, Office 2007, some games, avidemux video editor, encoding videos as well.
Its, in a word, just a normal laptop, super cheap.
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Not to mention that an Apple netbook would cannibalize higher margin MacBookAir sales.
Remember that the Air was a response to netbooks. I remember Jobs talking about the Air being the same weight as a netbooks but with a usable 13" screen rather than 9-10" and a full size keyboard.
Apple will certainly stick to the Air concept rather than scale the laptop down to a netbook size and kill margins.
I wouldnt be surprised to see a tablet released at a netbook price range though, maybe with a slide out keyboard like the OQO.
I'm not that concerned about a low price point for an Apple netbook. It's the form factor I'm interested in.
I had a 520c that had about a 9" screen and for it's time it was a beautiful little machine for the net as well as other desktop apps.
I also had a 12" iBook that was just about perfect in size for me. I gave it to a young relative and I've noticed that other than the processor it's overall specs are similar to some of the netbooks.
And many of you have never even seen a 170 PowerBook which blew away any other notebook of it's time.
The Air may be thin, but it's wide, and I found it underwhelming when I tried one out.
My point is that nobody's talking about Apple building junk. They have built some really beautiful small machines in the past. Why not now?
I had a 520c that had about a 9" screen and for it's time it was a beautiful little machine for the net as well as other desktop apps.
I also had a 12" iBook that was just about perfect in size for me. I gave it to a young relative and I've noticed that other than the processor it's overall specs are similar to some of the netbooks.
And many of you have never even seen a 170 PowerBook which blew away any other notebook of it's time.
The Air may be thin, but it's wide, and I found it underwhelming when I tried one out.
My point is that nobody's talking about Apple building junk. They have built some really beautiful small machines in the past. Why not now?
Of course Sony's going to downplay the success of the cheap ultraportables. How else are they going to sell you on a $3000+ Vaio TZ?
Honestly though, the HP Mininote is looking mighty good. If they adopt the Intel Atom, I'd buy one in the heartbeat. I love my Eee 701, but the keyboard and display are a pain at times.