The Reason Why You Really Should Get a Netbook Computer

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Specialty features aren’t exclusive to larger laptops, either. Already, the HP Mini 1000 is bundling mobile broadband, a modem that functions with cellular networks to acquire a broadband signal. One can accomplish (though not master) gaming??”once considered to be an absurd activity on a netbook??”on the ASUS N10Jc, due to an Nvidia graphics chipset. (The N10Jc also includes Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics, so you can switch amongst the two chipsets to enhance graphics power and to prolong battery live.) Several netbooks have already been spotted running Windows 7, Microsoft’s successor to Windows Vista, plus the Dell Inspiron Mini 12 is currently the only netbook shipping with a 12-inch screen. And several laptop makers have imbued their netbooks with sex appeal, even for the modest price points of these units. The two HP Mini 2140 and also ASUS EeePC 1002HA have sleek-looking aluminum frames.To be sure that future, if manufacturers are able to keep netbook prices down, the sky’s the limit.

To some degree, the new thing — the iPad — supplanted the not-so-new thing — netbooks. Still, analysts say, the tablet effect is only part of the answer. Sales of netbooks, they note, were slowing even before the iPad went on sale in April. And the products themselves are hardly substitutes for each other; one is all no-frills efficiency, the other more an appealing luxury, priced at $500 and up.
To find a netbook that does all that you’d like it to perform, you’ve got to follow some basic configuration guidelines. Focus on the os. Linux is cheap and very user-friendly, but average users are definitely familiar and comfortable with Windows. What it comes down to is the support, functionality, and compatibility that Windows offers with an enormous array of hardware and software applications??”whereas with Linux, users would possibly not prefer to take the time to learn a new interface, install a program, or figure out how to get a device to work with a particular driver. And when Windows 7 rolls out, it’s even tougher for Linux to get a foothold in the netbook market. You’ll find two types of hard disk drives: solid-state drives (SSDs) and spinning harddrives. While SSDs have faster transfer speeds, are more durable, and have longer life spans than their traditional counterparts, you pay a premium for these advantages. Most netbooks are available with spinning harddrives that can store up to 160GB worth of data. Shoot for a hard drive that has a capacity of at least 60GB and a rotational speed of 5,400 rpm.

Instead, it is more likely that makers of netbooks oversold a product that underperformed. In the United States, analysts say, early adopters of new technology helped propel the netbook surge, attracted by the new entrant’s feather-light weight and low cost. But early adopter buyers, analysts say, tend to be picky consumers. The netbooks they bought were underpowered PCs that performed sluggishly and could not handle many popular software applications.

Today, tablets are all the rage, including the iPad from Apple and a host of new entries starting to come from rivals like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Research In Motion and Samsung. But less than two years ago, in 2009, netbooks were seen as the earth-shaking force in the industry, potentially changing the economics of the business and undermining the technology leaders, Intel and Microsoft.

Remember the Last Big Thing in computing? You’ll be forgiven for having forgotten it was the netbook — a small notebook computer with a slender price tag, about $300.

The extent of the changed fortunes for the product became truly evident recently, when year-end sales tallies were calculated. In the holiday season, for example, retail sales of netbook computers in America fell 38 percent from a year earlier, according to the market research firm NPD.
Setting up Your Netbook
Don’t undervalue the functionality of these machines. They’re not just limited to Web surfing, compiling spreadsheets, or word processing. It is easy to offload your photos coming from a camera and edit them using a program like Adobe Photoshop Elements 7. With some patience, you may transcode video to another format using Windows Media Encoder 9 or edit video footage using Adobe Premiere Elements 7, or run all of your music library off of a program like Apple iTunes. A mini netbook computer can play video from sites like YouTube or simply a movie from an external USB drive, unmarred by distortions and lag. Businesses are considering these pint-size laptops as you can run various e-mail clients on them, put them on a network, use a VPN client, and secure these with antivirus and antispyware suites.

Editor’s Note:
dont. you’ll be better off with xp.