Discussions

Honestly, i don't completely know what a netbook is still, but i'm learning. I get the hardware part, but the perfect use case, not so much. I was told it was this in between, newly emerging hybrid/mutant breed descended from laptops... you're supposed to use it for single tasking... while you're traveling... at the coffee shop... it's tiny enough, but powerful enough... for.... for what i kept wondering? So i asked people about their stories, and the consensus seemed to be - "you use it for im, email, basic web browsing... maybe some really basic office guy work... no, not photoshop, illustrator, full adobe suite type stuff. Yes, its a real computer", i kept being told... My natural response was, "Oh, so a super iphone with keyboard?" - and i get a mixed of displeased responses... some immediately say "NO, its more powerful."... others say "kind of" and changed the subject.

I have my blackberry curve and my G1, and i often take over my business partners iPhone to keep up with the latest amusements (aka I Can Has Cheezburger Failblog app)... So as you can imagine, i am slightly confused still... i use my curve for iming and email and phone calls... and the G1 i use for gps and web browsing (and games and silly apps)... so from their basic list, don't i do all of that stuff with my phones? But without the need for wifi when i'm on the go?

So i've been taking my eeePC on little trips ~ firstly, i'll be honest, i've been a mac girl for a while now, its just been a nicer user experience since my winxp days what feels like eons ago ~ so hardest thing to get used to was playing with Windows again... I've also been dying to get my paws on ubuntu... so i lasted a few days before we Ubuntu Eee'd the little guy. And it was pretty, and fun, and exciting, and new again.

Wikipedia says: A netbook is a small to medium sized, light-weight, low-cost, energy-efficient laptop, generally optimized for internet based services such as web browsing and e-mailing.

So next step, i took it out, to the deli! Figured i'd try it out, get some work done, see what happened... well i didn't think that one through so well (i was famished! first goal was finding the food!), no wifi at the deli, and didn't get it properly tethered to my phones... ended up doing email on the phone, and checking in on my sites on the G1. What i did notice though was how nice it was to have something so portable to toss in my bag on the way out... and perhaps MOST fascinating of all was watching the waitress coo over it. Tiny white laptop, i guess it falls in that cutesy range? Not quite the "look" i was going for, but hey, it's all good in the name of research? She was enamored by the thing, so big points for the adorableness!

So I guess my big question to you is this: What is the ideal use case for the NETBOOK category? Are you a Netbook user? If yes, i'd love to hear your story ~ i'm usually a graphics heavy macbook pro kind of girl, and on the road the phones do enough ~ 90% of my "work" is either emails or living on photoshop+firefox with splashes of illustrator and text editors mixed in between... I'm trying to figure out what the perfect fit is for a netbook ~ what's that ideal use case like, and is it a good fit for in my life? I suppose if i had sent my parents off on their jetsetting with one they could vidchat me from around the globe? So like a super phone when you have wifi? Hmmm... perhaps i should send my eeePC off with someone on their travels and see how that works out? Thoughts?