Posts Tagged ‘Netbook’
This article is about any peripherals you may be interested in getting for your netbook to increase your comfort and productivity, if they are more useful at home or on the go and also If it is a DIY project or something that you have to buy. The advice I give here is just that, advice, you don’t have to buy or do any of the suggested things that I say here in this article, just do what you feel.
There are a few peripherals I will advise you get but they will depend on the hardware you have. This means that I will have different suggestions for different machines and also a general list that all can use. I will start with a general list.
General
This is a list of peripherals that I will suggest all groups should invest in but like I said before you don’t have to this is just a list of things I think will make your netbook use easier.
- Wallet/Case/Bag
- Mouse
- USB key/external Hard Drive
- Laptop Tray
Case/Wallet/Bag
Your new netbook will need protected at least so a soft wallet of some kind will help with this. Everyone that owns a laptop should have one, at the very least. Many netbooks will come with a wallet as standard, but if you are like me and got the basic model this may not be the case. This is something that you could make yourself out of a great number of materials, depending on your skill levels and is also the cheapest item to buy. I will be writing about making one in a future article. You may want to get/make a case so you can keep all your other peripherals in as well this will be a bit more than the wallet to buy and a little more complicated to make but can be a good investment especially if you travel a lot and want to have the netbook and peripherals protected in transit. The wallet and the case will be still small enough to fit in a bag of whatever design you like. You may also want to buy a laptop bag and hold everything in it. The only problem with this is that they look like they have a laptop in them so are targets for thieves, although more and more bags have a laptop pouch in them now. But then you can carry anything you like in them. This item will be more expensive than the first 2.
Mouse
The track-pad on most netbooks are very small and this means that when you are moving the cursor or scrolling down a web-page or document you will need to make many movements. This however doesn’t have to be the case, if you get a mouse. You could get a cheap optical mouse with a wire or go all out and get a wireless mouse. I bought a wireless mouse in matching colour and I love it. You could even use an old mouse you had for your desktop although the cable will be a bit long and you must ensure that it is a USB mouse and not PS2.
USB Key/External Hard Drive
This device will be used to store any files that you may have that will not fit on your main netbook hard drive. The USB key is also used to install Linux distributions as well as help restore windows if there are any problems. The USB hard drive could be used for backups as could the USB key if it is big or your netbook drive is small.
Laptop tray
This is more of a comfort thing than a needed peripheral but I would recommend it anyway. This device is useful if you are going to be sat in a position that does not give the use of a desk. For example if you are in bed or in the garden. This peripheral is definitely something for home rather than travel but if you have room then why not take it with you. There are some good DIY laptop tray instructions on line but I will cover some here at a later date.
older/smaller model netbook
Older models stuck very close to the netbook ideal in that it was a true cheap mini notebook for the masses. It was designed with the Internet in mind and so didn’t come with much hard drive space, in fact they didn’t have hard drives they had slid state disk, which is just a USB key style of storage. Because of this it would have Linux as the OS, as it doesn’t need much room. As a knock on effect of having Linux came with less memory as well. The thought behind a small drive is not just for the cost benefit but also the thought that the user will be on-line most of the time and that they could store files on-line. The list of peripherals I would recommend getting are:
- Memory upgrade
- Larger battery
- SD card
Memory Upgrade
The older models of netbook tend to have only 512MB of memory but this is not always the case. I would recommend you have at least 1GB of memory in your netbook. This is of course up to you but when I put an extra 1GB in my netbook it gave it a much needed performance boost. I know that some netbooks are difficult to upgrade in this way. I have an Acer Aspire One and it was a bit of a nightmare to upgrade but more on this in another article. You can try this on your own or you can pay to have a professional do it, if it is more difficult than just opening a flap on the bottom and inserting a fresh new stick of memory that is.
Larger Battery
Most old models of netbook come with a small 3 cell battery. For some this may be adequate but for most you will want to get at the very least a 6 cell battery for the model of netbook you own I managed to get a 9 cell battery and this boosted the time I can have my netbook on from 2 hours to about 6-7 hours.
SD card
As I said above if you have an older model netbook you will possibly have a Linux model if so you may also have only 8GB of storage on your netbook. If so you should get a USB key as said above or you could get an SD card and have this inserted for more storage. If you have the Acer Aspire One you may have a model that has 2 SD card slots, one is for temporary insertion to remove photos and the like from your cameras SD card. But the other is meant for permanent use of an SD card to boost the amount of on board storage. This is very helpful for keeping files stored to leave your main drive for installing programs.
New/large models
The newer models tend to be between 10 and 11.6 inches and they tend to have a full keyboard, larger screen. They also tend to have at least a 6 cell battery as well so there are not much that this netbook needs other than what has already been mentioned. But if there are peripherals out there that are invaluable for the new netbooks I will let you know.
There you have it a good list of peripherals that will make any netbook experience better. Notice that nowhere in the list have I advised you get a USB DVD drive, this is because I don’t think that it is necessary at all. If you need one for your work or you have a particular need by all means get one, I just believe that it is not needed. you may think how do I install software? You can buy and download software on-line, and if you have Linux you will have a program that will allow you to download and install it for you built in to your OS. Do remember that you do not have to buy any of the devices mentioned, you could make them or use old devices that may still work. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or a difference of opinion please drop me a comment or an email.
In this article we will be talking about XP and Linux and if they are better for your netbook with a list of pros and cons for each. By the end of this article you will know the difference and you will know what is right for you. If you are looking for the answer to “what is a netbook” that was a previous post. Now most of you will have windows XP, installed and some will have Linux installed, weather that is the original OS that was installed or another distribution you installed after. Some may even have Google android OS or have a test copy of windows 7 installed. I will discuss only windows XP and Linux here but may in future articles talk about other OS.
XP
I will start with XP as most people will be familiar with it at the very least if not used it. Windows XP is an OS that has been brought out of retirement as Microsoft saw that Linux was the dominating OS in the netbook market and found that Vista was not a viable option to market as a netbook OS. So windows XP is a relative newcomer to the netbook OS market, although it is now the more dominant, allegedly. There are some good points and some bad points to running this OS on a netbook and they are:
Good Points
- Compatibility
- familiarity
- Support
Compatibility
The compatibility of XP exists as just about every program developer develops for the Windows OS. So just about every program that is ever written has a windows version if it is not exclusive to windows in the first place.
Familiarity
Just about everyone and their dog that has ever owned a computer has had a copy of windows and most windows versions are mostly the same just with added eye candy and added functionality. This means that it is easy to do the things that you need to do to be productive.
Support
There are many help files and places on the internet that will help you whenever you are in trouble and if you can’t find what you need there you can call any number of technical help desks that deal with any technical difficulty you may have regarding windows, although you may have to pay for these, so you are in good hands. There are also many security patches that will be downloaded and installed on your system using the windows update software to keep windows secure and up to date.
Bad points
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Cost
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Slow
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Resource hungry
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security
Cost
There is a cost associated with windows. That cost may not be too much on its own but coupled with resource hungry bad point does add up. The fact that windows costs the manufacturer of the netbook money means that that is added to the cost of buying the netbook. But because windows needs more memory and hard drive space means that they will also add cost to the netbook as it needs more resources to run. Also there are no free programs that come installed on your Windows netbook so you will think that you will need to buy these as well. If you want Microsoft products then you will need to pay. But I will advise you that there are many free alternatives to the pay for applications that you may want to consider just to save you some money, I will be talking about that in a future post.
Slow
Any program that you run on a netbook is going to run slower than a modern notebook or desktop PC. The fact is though that because windows XP is resource hungry, means that it will run even slower on your netbook. Windows XP was not designed to run on a computer that is comparable in speed to a computer of a few years ago.
Resource hungry
Windows XP needs a lot of hardware to run. It firstly takes more room on your hard drive so this needs to be bigger so you can store programs on your system. There are more processes running in the background, every process needs memory, this means that you need more memory. The down side to this is explained above but you get the idea.
Now reading here you may be thinking that I am a Microsoft hater, but I am not. I have a desktop PC that has Windows XP running on it, I like it, I am a gamer and need it for all the games I play. I am however a Linux user and I love this OS as well but for different reasons.
Security
Windows has many problems in regard to security. There are many viruses and spyware that are gunning to ruin your day and your computer. There are software suites out there that will combat these threats but they slow your netbook down, as they use up your netbooks resources.
Linux
Linux is a free OS that is used for its speed and security on many computers, professional and personal all over the world. There are many distributions (distro) of Linux that are all different in some way. Some distro’s are tailored for performing particular tasks, but all distributions can be customized in many different ways by the user. So if you have some programming skill, or would like to learn, you can delve into the programs code and change it if you want. The good and bad points of this OS will seam to be the mirror image of XP but there are differences between the two OS.
Good points
- Cost
- speed
- security
- support
- software
Cost
It is free, you can download and install Linux free anytime anywhere. What else can be said.
Speed
Linux doesn’t need the resources that windows does so can run on less. But if it runs on a computer with the same hardware as a windows machine it will run faster. I am talking real world application not benchmarks. There are distro’s that come with resource hungry software suites but they still seam to run faster than windows. This point alone reinforces the fact that Linux is the OS for the netbook revolution.
Security
Out of the box Linux is more secure than windows. There are still threats but you will not need an anti virus or spyware programs and because of this your system will run faster still.
Support
Many people will tell you that Linux is hard to use, this is relative to what you want to do. But there is a community out there that are eager to help you. There are many forums and website help pages and believe it or not there are help desks that you can call to get help with, you will need to pay for this though. Also there will be a slew of updates and when the next version of the distro comes out your OS will offer to upgrade for free. no need to buy a new license, in fact there is no license.
Software
Your OS will come installed with software to perform most tasks. Word processing, email, web browsing and even games and programming. And if there is no software installed to do the task you need then there is usually software catalog that you can look through that will download and install the software that you need, for free.
There are many good points to running Linux on your netbook, but as with everything there are some bad points with Linux.
Bad points
- Compatibility
- Familiarity
Compatibility
There are hardware and software that will not work in Linux. In fact all the software that you buy from a computer shop will not work in Linux, unless it says it does on the box. There is software that will help with that for example Wine is a windows compatibility layer that will run windows programs, but not all. Most new hardware will either not have full support or at worst none at all. But Linux does do a good job of detecting and installing the correct drivers for your hardware when install Linux for the first time. The best thing you can do is when you are shopping for new hardware look for Linux compatibility either on the box or on the internet.
Familiarity
Not many people have used Linux so they may find it a little difficult to use but it does use the same principals as windows so you will get used to it very quickly. The main differences are with ware the menus are and what they contain. There are also differences in how the file system works that can make things difficult if you are doing something other than basic computer tasks.
I think Linux is the perfect OS for your netbook bad points aside it is a powerful, robust and speedy OS that you should at least try before you dismiss it. There are distro’s that have “Live CD” and this will boot from the USB key so you can try it without installing anything although it will run slower in this way.
So how do you decide what OS is for you. If you have windows installed and you need a program that will only run in windows then your decision is made for you. Although you could try it out and if you like it install it along side windows. If you don’t have a preference then just try it out. You will find out soon enough. Thank you for reading and I hope you come back to find out more about the capabilities of your netbook and some tweaks to improve your netbook experience.
If you have come to this page hoping to find out what a netbook is, I apologize but this article is about what to do with the new netbook once you get it out of the box. If you need to know “what is a netbook” then click the link and read about it here, the article is called what is a netbook?
OK so you have the box that contains your brand new netbook, you have taken the netbook out of the box what do you do now. You can take in the perfume that is new computer smell, you can then either read the manuals or throw them to one side but what then. What do you do now? What I would do, and did do, is play with it and get acquainted with it, do this for however long you like, I played with mine for over a week just too find out all I could about the Operating System that was installed and the hardware I needed to use to do the things I want. Playing with the OS is more necessary if you have bought a Linux netbook. I bought the Acer Aspire One with the custom version of Linspire Light Linux on it, and so didn’t know what to expect. I had a good play around on it. I didn’t like it that much, so that meant I would now have to find a Linux distribution I did like, but that is for another article. For all you Windows XP owning netbooks I would still recommend you try a Linux distribution even for a little bit just to see if it improves your netbooks performance, I will be writing another article to explain more about this but you don’t have to wait to play around.
While getting used to the OS you will be getting used to using the netbook hardware. The keyboard, screen and the track-pad, remember everything is going to be smaller and the most important to get used to is the keyboard, this may take time to get used to especially if you have a small netbook but not too much time if you have a large model with a full size or near to full size keyboard. I bought a 8.9 inch version that has quite a small keyboard but not too small that it is difficult to type on, in fact after a week I could touch type as I could on a normal keyboard, maybe even faster as there is not too much space between the keys so there is less distance to travel. Try and get used to the track-pad as well as this is the method most used especially when traveling. Somme are set up differently and they will all be smaller than there notebook brethren, you may need to play with the sensitivity so that you can use it without lifting a finger to go from one side of the screen to the other, this will help when you are dragging and dropping files. The screen can be a little different for most people as they mostly have a resolution of 1024×600 this will change how you view documents and websites, you will find yourself scrolling an awful lot more than with a bigger screen. The only thing I can say here is stick it out it is not that bad, just remember that for this little inconvenience you have a smaller, lighter, cheaper and easier to carry around computer. When you can hear yourself starting to moan about having to scroll all the time just remember how much money you saved on the computer itself and from not having any chiropractor bills for your bad back from carting a heavy laptop about. Another thing that you will gain from playing around is you will find out exactly how long the battery lasts and not the projected (guessed) time. You will then be able to tell if it lasts as long as you want it to, if not then you can always buy a notebook mouse.
What benefit will I have had with all this playing with my new toy. Well it will tell you if the netbook was all that it needs to be and it will let you know if you can improve the experience with some peripherals or if all is lost and you need to return it o the shop. After all this playing around you should have found out if:
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XP or Linux fits your needs
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if you need to get a notebook mouse
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how long the battery lasts and if you need a bigger one
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if this netbook is good enough for you
I hope you enjoy playing around and discovering the ins and outs of your new netbook and that you will never have to do anything as drastic as returning it to the shop. Have a great day and see you soon I hope.
In the last article “What is a netbook” I described the basic
characteristics but didn’t really get into the component
specifications that make up a netbook. In this article I will explain
the specifications and options so as to advise you what to look for
when you are buying a netbook. This article will help further answer
the what is a netbook question that you are here to have answered.
So you have a basic grasp of “what is
a netbook?” and you are now interested in buying your very own
netbook, but what is it that you look for? Just now most new netbooks
will all have the same technical specifications in that the processor
and memory will be the same (although try and get as much memory in
it as you can). Now the main point of a netbook is so you have a very
mobile net surfing platform for accessing email, RSS, Blogging,
Tweeting, facebooking and other Internet based activities. Although
you will be able to finish that work that you took home at the
weekend and do some media playback. There are also many web based
applications you can use to do any work that you may have like using
Google docks for word processing, what does this mean for the
specifications of the netbook, first it means that the components of
a netbook are far from cutting edge but they don’t need to be. It
also means that the components are not too power hungry which means
that the battery will last longer.
What specifications to look at
The processor and memory tend to be the Intel Atom processor and
most tend to have about 1GB of memory, so you don’t really need to
look to much into these specifications. The components you do need
to consider when buying your new netbook are the following:
- Hard drive
- Screen size
- Keyboard layout
- Battery
- Operating System
- Ports & built in peripherals
Hard Drive
There are 2 types of hard drives that
are used in the netbook they are either normal Hard Drives (HD) or
the Solid State Drives (SSD). The normal HD is usually sold in 120GB
to 160GB drives all though there have been models of netbook with
more. This drive is used for netbooks that have windows XP installed
as it takes up a lot of space on the drive. The thing with a normal
HD is that as they have moving parts it will use up more power so the
batter will not last as long and also the netbook will not be as
robust and is more likely to be damaged if you drop the system. The
netbooks with SSD storage usually come in 8GB to 16GB but there have
been models with 32GB as well. The reason they are smaller is because
they are a little more expensive than a normal HD so to offset the
cost of the drive Linux is installed instead of windows XP. The good
thing about the SSD versions are the opposite to normal HD models so
they use less power and are more robust. That are the main
differences to the 2 types of drive
Screen Size
This option is probably the most important as this will decide the
size of the machine itself and therefor the weight, resolution and
size of the keyboard. Earlier models had 7 inch screens and this
severely limited the machine. Now the most common sizes are 8.9, 10
and 11.6 inches. The bigger the screen the more clear everything will
be to see and also the better the resolution that can be displayed.
Most people are used to viewing things on at least 17 inch screens so
the size of a netbook screen can be surprising to many people. I
would definitely recommend going to a computer shop that shows them
working, even if you plan on buying them online just to look at the
screen and see for yourself how comfortable on the eyes it is and
also to see how programs are displayed on the small screens. The size
to go for here will depend on how much money you are wanting to spend
as the sizes are not really that wildly different that it will effect
how mobile the devices are.
Keyboard Layout
This is another of the more important aspects to look into when
buying a netbook. Now the size of the screen will impact this so the
smaller the netbook the smaller the keyboard and also the layout will
differ to squeeze it all in. This is where going into the shop and
try typing. I think this aspect of the netbook will sway the decision
to buy one model over another as there is nothing worse than using a
PC when the keyboard is uncomfortable to use. There are netbooks
that have full keyboards so look out for these if this is important
to you.
Battery
The battery is not that important I just thought I would include
it just for information. Most netbooks will come with a 3 cell
battery which means that the netbook will last about 2 hours but
there are some netbooks that have the option of a 6 or even 9 cell
batteries. I would try and get the biggest battery you can afford but
you can always buy the netbook with the smaller battery and get a
larger one later.
Operating System
Here is where you may not have a choice when buying your netbook
but I will get into that in another article. Here I will advise that
the main Operating System OS on sale is Windows XP. But there are
models with Linux and even Windows Vista, and in the future windows 7 will be available. If faced with a choice of Windows XP or Vista definitely go with XP. Vista is a little too slow for a netbook so avoid it. At the time of writing Linux on a netbook is not that common, compared with when the netbook started, this is strange as
the Linux OS is perfect for the netbook, because it doesn’t use as
much system resources to do anything and is much more secure. But
this is your choice If you need windows for a particular application
then go with it if you are not that particular about that then you
may be better off with Linux. I would give it a try and I will be
writing articles in the future about what your options are in the
regard to Linux so watch this space.
Ports
The options here are mostly the same as well but they can differ
so look at it anyway. The ports that should be on your netbook should
be at the very least 3 USB ports, an SD card reader, a microphone
port, a headphone port, a VGA port and an Ethernet socket. If they
are not there then don’t bother. There are models with HDMI ports,
this is the replacement port for computers and HD TVs. They will all
come with built in wifi some will have bluetooth and others will have
a 3g pin card slot for on the go Internet connection but these are
just extra options. As long as the netbook has what you want this
part is easy.
So once you have had a look through all that you can come to your
decision. I will always recommend you go see the model you are
interested in and compare them to all the others at your local PC
shop that has them out on display. Have a good play around on one and
then make your decision. I hope this has helped, but if you would
like to ask any other questions please leave a comment or contact me
through the contact me link in the menu. Thank you for reading have a
great day.
So you want to find out the answer to the question “what is a netbook” and you want to know if they are any good or if they are perfect for your on the go computing needs. well look no further all will be explaned. You have either bought a netbook, you are one of the many people who would like to know more about them before you buy or you have no idea what they are you just heard someone talk about them, well this site is for all of you but this particular article is for the “what is a netbook” crowd.
So what is a netbook, well a netbook is a small and light notebook usually between 8 and 11 inches, with no dvd/cd drive and uses less power hungry components and are very cheap, thats it. So what is the big deal then? Well that would be the size and cost, very small. Did I mention that they are very cheap. The thing with the computer industry, everyone has been buying over powered monster computers telling themselves that they don’t need all that power but in case I do need it one day I will have it. This is not the way to buy a computer, just like any other product you should buy what you need. So what are the capabilities of these netbooks? Well they are not as powerfull as other notebooks so they will run slower than their big brothers but they are perfect for browsing the internet, checking email and anything else really, just a little slower. The only thing you won’t be doing is rendering 3d, anything, or playing the latest games, although you can play some games. So the last question is should I get one? The only person that can answer that is you but with a little help from me and the articles I will write in the future you will be better prepared to answer that. Well I hope I have answered your questions but if not please feel free to coment or email me through the contact us link above. thank you for reading and have a great day.
I bought a netbook about 4 months ago an Acer Aspire One and since then it has been a great time of discovery. I was discovering the world of the mini laptop or netbook, about the hardware, the software, the netbook centric operating systems and also good alternatives for applications with Internet based alternatives. But what is a netbook some of you may be asking. This website has been created to answer this question and also help with what you can do with a netbook and all the accessories for one that I would recommend buying, all through my personal experience. After reading the posts on this blog you will be able to answer the question What is a netbook so you can spread the news about how great these netbooks are and with the power of your wallet let “the Man” know that this is not just some passing phase and to get them asking the question that you asked “What is a Netbook?”.