You may have heard of netbooks (see my previous article on the subject). Well, now there are more…

Asus has released a thinner Eee PC, the s101, which trades a bit of thickness for a chunk of change. It costs about $250 more than an equivalent regular-sized Eee PC, but for those who want the thinnest computer possible on the cheap, this is a good bet. If you want something closer to a regular notebook, Asus also has the N10 series for people looking for a slightly more substantial computer. It’s bigger than an Eee PC, but keeps the 10″ screen and Atom processor. What it expands: hard disk space and graphics capabilities (if you get the more expensive model, you can switch between integrated an nVidia Geforce 9300M graphics). Also, it costs more, more in line with a rasonably spec’d budget 15″ notebook. Due t the large hard drive on the N10, it comes with Windows Vista installed by default.

Averatec, a lesser-known but high-quality notebook manufacturer, has their own netbook, with a hard disk, a webcam and Windows XP Home. You get a memory card reader thrown into the deal as well. The screen size: 10.2 inches. The price: $480, at the moment.

Dell will be releasing the Mini 12, complete with a dual-core processor, hard disk, twelve-inch screen and full-sized keyboard, in November. If it works as well as it looks, I’ll probably buy this one. People may say that this is not a netbook, due to its large screen, to which I respond “Fine, it’s an ultra-cheap ultraportable that’s more powerful than computers three times the cost a year and a half ago”. In my opinion, this is the ultimate “student PC”, for taking notes, writing reports and doing general low-power tasks while staying low on both weight and price. I feel this with such conviction that, had the Mini 12 with its pre-release specs been out in February of this year at its projected price ($600-$700) I’d be using it, instad of my Macbook Air, to write this article.

HP has released a ten-inch (or nine-inch if you want to save $50), plastic-case netbook by the name of Mini 1000 . The computer seems to perform quite well for its intended purpose, and it’s relatively customizeable, similar to the Dell Mini 9. Regardless of configuration, at this point the Mini 1000 comes with Windows XP. The computer is also less expensive than HP’s previous netbook (the MiniNote) was at launch, though now the MiniNote can be had for as little as $300.

Lenovo has also gotten into the game with its Windows-XP-powered IdeaPad S10. As with other Lenovo (fka IBM) products, the S10 is a solid product all-around at a decent price. On the other hand, its battery isn’t very large, and the white plastic design says “TOY” rather than “tool”, something you probably don’t want when you’ve spent $500 on a miniature computer.

Samsung has introduced a 10″ netbook of their own, the NC10. It seems well-heeled spec-wise (including the battery, which is six cells, huge for a netbook), with a price that’s quite competitive. The battery life is a claimed seven hours, which is nice to see in a hard-disk-based netbook. The operating system is…can you guess…that’s right, Windows XP Home.

Sylvania (yes, that Sylvania) has introduced a second netbook, this time based on the Intel Atom processor (like almost every other netbook at this point). It runs a specialized version of Ubuntu (the same underlying operating system used on the lower-end Dell Mini 9 netbooks) via a hard drive (as opposed to flash memory). Its redeeming quality: price; the computer is a mere $350.

It seems that a pattern is emerging for netbooks: flash storage or an 80GB hard disk if you’re cheap, a larger hard disk (or maybe a larger SSD) for more money. For screen size, you get an 8.9″ or 10.2″ display, depending on price (both at 1024×600 resolution). For an operating system, Linux is for the cheaper computers (always customized for netbooks, never the same customization or distribution), Windows XP for the higher-end ones. The processor: an Intel Atom N270 single-core 1.6GHz model. Webcam presence and resolution depends on the computer you’re looking at, but one is usually there. Soon Intel will release a dual-core Atom, and SSDs will grow in capacity and speed for a given price. Screens will get higher-resolution as well, and eventually we’ll see Windows 7 running on these netbooks. In short, you’re looking at a rather homogeneous but exciting new frontier for computing at this juncture, one that’s great in almost every way for students.

For more tech news, visit http://yanntx.info/cat/tech/

The McCain Campaign has been bitten by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Several of their YouTube videos, including political advertisements, were taken down upon DMCA complaints from who-knows-where, possibly the studios whose shows can be seen, albeit briefly, in the ads. McCain’s legal counsel has asked YouTube to exercise discretion about the takedown notices, ignoring them if “fair use” applies,, however the DMCA makes no provision for such a thing and for YouTube to make such arbitration would lead it down a slippery slope out of safe haror provisions, thus making it a much, much more restrictive environment for posting videos. All of this is rather ironic, but very much needed; McCain supported the DMCA’s legislation a few years back.

Speaking of YouTube, it is now the second-largest search engine on the web. Google is number one, Yahoo ranks third. If you count Google and YouTube as a single entity, there’s no chance of catching up unless aliens suddenly abduct the colorful company.

Sandisk’s SlotMusic initiative is now in full force, though the idea is downright dumb. Basically you’re lookig at a casette-player model (no track information one album per piece of media) except instead of casettes you’ve got tiny MicroSD cards. It’s a nice way to sell flash memory for Sandisk, and at least SlotMusic cards don’t have to be rewound after playing, but if you have a midrange cell phone (or, for that matter, one of several of Sandisk’s MicroSD-slot-equipped Sansa players), there’s absolutely no point in getting the $20 SlotMusic player. Nor, in my opinion, any reason for not just downloading your music from Amazon’s MP3 store to a regular MP3 player or a regular McroSD card, which can be found for around $5 per gigabyte nowadays.

Don’t want the temptation of a ringing phone while driving? By working with cell carriers, Aegis Mobility wants to help, forwarding calls to voicemail and pausing text message reception if you’re traveling at a high rate of speed, presumably down the freeway. Problem: you could be in a bus, or in the passenger seat. Interesting, though…what do you think?

Google’s Android phone operating system apparently has a “kill switch” in it, so Google can turn off malicious applications that might make their way onto the phone. Apple has been found to have such a procedure as well, however it seems people find Google’s option more admissable, since Google told everyone about the switch, the software is open-source so the switch can be disabled, and Google has no control over applications’ entrance into the market. As opposed to Apple, who in all honesty sould be able to shut off such applications before they get through te rather fickle iTunes App Store submission process.

Want a cheap laptop? How about a really cheap netbook? Best Buy is selling the Asus Eee PC 900A for $300. Granted, there’s no optical drive, the processor is on the slow side (Intel’s Atom chip) and you’re not going to store much on the unit’s built-in 4GB flash-based hard disk alternative. But, if you can handle the tiny keyboard, mini-sized screen and Linux operating system, you’ve got yourself one tiny laptop at an amazingly low price.

Want something slightly more substantial? Though the Lenovo IdeaPad Y430 that I looked at last week has gone up a whopping $150 in price (hey, it was a good deal!) Buy.com has a promotion on the last-gen IdeaPad Y510. This solid machine’s price? A cool $500, shipped.

A final DMCA debacle: Quote Unquote Records had their site taken down for posting copyrighted music…their own copyrighted music! What’s more, the music, offered for free, wasn’t coyrighted in the regular sense, but licensed under the more liberal Creative Commons system (which I use on my non-Oredigger blogs). Copyright paranoia at work? Absolutely.

Antec is getting into the Halloween spirit with their “Skeleton” case. The rather audacious substitute for your average computer component cavern has a practical use as well, beyond the flashing lights and the gargantuan 250mm fan up top: components are dead-easy to swap out. So whether you like to tinker or troubleshoot, the Skeleton case may be worth a look, even past October 31st.

You may have heard about Dell launching your new best friend late last week: the Mini 9. It’s the latest in a stream of “netbooks”, small, cheap laptops whose main purpose is to tap into the cloud” wherever and whenever you want. They’re small, light and cheap, well-suited to note-taking duties on-campus though unfit for much above that. One of these little buys won’t be your main computer, but it could certainly be a nice accessory.

So let’s compare the ones available now. All come either with their own flavor of Linux or with Windows XP (except for the HP MiniNote, which can be had… slowly… with Vista).

1. The Asus Eee PC is probably the most well-known example of the netbook phenomenon. It has been available for the longest, starting with a seven-inch screen and a low-powered Celeron processor and working up to a 10-inch-screen model with both solid state and magnetic storage options. They’re the most widely available of any netbook, and with the new Intel Atom processor (which most other netbooks have) can last long enough on a charge to get through even the longest of school days. On the other hand, the higher-powered Eee PCs are more expensive, costing as much as $600, and the keyboard on the Eee PC is small enough that, on a 9-inch model I tried, it was impossible to touch-type. The Eee PC started off with Asus’ own version of Xandro Linux but has increasingly turned to Windows as the operating system of choice. Reviews can be found here.
2. Sylvania, Everex and a few others have slapped the gOS operating system on a reference design from Via called the Nanobook. With a seven-inch screen, a hard disk drive and a tiny touchpad, it’s best to avoid these systems, despite their very low price, which can run around $300. If you don’t believe me, check this review.
3. The HP MiniNote was HP’s answer to the Eee PC shortly after the Eee came out. The computer uses a Via processor and has a hard disk powered option. Its features mirror a standard laptop with a low-power processor more than they do a netbook, as does the price: the computer ranges from $500 to $800, a big premium over other models of similar size. However thee slow processor holds this computer, which can run either SuSe Linux or Windows Vista Business, behind when it comes to regular laptops, and the price premium may be just too much to deal with. For more information, here are a few reviews.
4. The MSI Wind was heralded as the amazing next-generation netbook, and was the first one to include an Intel Atom processor, though the Asus Eee PC quickly followed suit. It has many of the regular-laptop-class features of the HP MiniNote, but has a 10″ screen and costs around $500. It comes with Windows XP, but Vista seems to run as well or better, something that can’t be said of most netbooks. On the other hand, battery life isn’t good and it’s hard to find the Wind to buy it. For more info, here’s a review of the Wind.
5. Acer’s Aspire One is cheaper than any other Intel Atom-based netbook out there. It also has a few unique features, like dual SD card slots: one for quick card reading, the other to augment main storage for the system. It runs Linpus Linux Lite (say it three times fast) or Windows XP, and can be had with either a solid state disk or a hard drive. As a warning, the lowest-end $330 model only comes with a 3-cell battery, so battery life won’t be more than a few hours, especially if you want to, say, watch video on the unit. There is, however, a model with a 6-cell battery; it’s just more expensive. Here are some reviews of the unit.
6. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9, with its mid-mounted function keys (but no F11 and F12) is the latest entrant into the Netbook market. It gets a good bit over three hours on a charge doing relatively heavy work, so its four-cell battery should hold out longer in lighter-use situations. The operating system, other than Windows XP, is a Dell-customized version of Ubuntu Linux, a more mainstream variant than the other manufacturers use, one that Dell has used with other, larger, computers before. The computer ranges in price from $350 to $500, depending on features added, and is the easiest to upgrade of all the netbooks. One more thing: you can get the lowest-end model for just $100 with purchase of a higher-end Dell laptop at the moment, though by the time you read this the promotion may have changed. The keyboard is small, and options on the system don’t get very high-end, but the Mini 9 seems to be a very promising entrant into the field. For a review, go here.

That’s it for the current lineup of netbooks. Expect Gateway to come out with one shortly, and Apple to sit on their hands for awhile. Then again, tomorrow Apple intros some new products, I’m told maybe something in this vein (bigger than the iPod touch) will surface….