While very few are still buying netbooks, many manufacturers have continued to release the small Intel Atom-powered computers (see Asus, Toshiba, etc.). However, Dell isn’t going to be one of those companies.
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Not only are the Inspiron Minis being put in the grave, but the company confirmed for us that it will not be releasing new netbooks based on Intel’s forthcoming Cedar Trail platform. In other words, it is done with the category.
To be honest, I wasn’t aware anyone was still making netbooks.
Starting in late February, developers can submit apps starting at $1.49 and charge as much as $999. We’re not sure why Microsoft chose to set the bar above the 99-cent mental barrier, but there’s some great news for developers when it comes to revenue share — like other app stores, Microsoft will take 30 percent of the proceeds at first, but reduce its cut to 20 percent after your app does $25,000 in sales. More reason to have a blockbuster program, we guess! There’s also a 70–30 split for in-app transactions, but only if you use Microsoft’s billing system — the eBay app, for instance, uses PayPal and doesn’t pay Microsoft a thing.
I owned three netbooks back in the day. The first was the original netbook, the Eee PC 701 4G. While the “4G” had nothing to do with its network connection, the machine wasn’t half bad.
It was all the way bad.
I later moved on to the HP Mini 1000 and then the Dell Mini 9. The HP had a fairly decent keyboard, and the Dell Mini 9 ran OS X 10.5 Leopard like a champ.
Fundamentally, however, all three of these notebooks had the same problems — small screens, crappy keyboards and trackpad and Windows XP. But more on all of this in a bit.
The Tablet Killed the Netbook Star
As netbooks trudged on from the 701’s 2007 launch, they slowly became more fragmented. Screen sizes slowly grew, the Intel Atom processor showed up in most models, and some even eventually got Windows Vista.
What a winner.
When Apple announced the iPad in January 2010, Steve Jobs discussed the netbook:
Jobs was right. While the netbook was already on decline by early 2010 — at least in mindshare. The iPad, however, seems to have just about killed them off.
This All Seems Familiar
Starting this quarter, Intel has been pushing “ultrabooks” on to the market. These machines are all built around a set of specifications from the chip maker. They all have SSDs, CULV Intel processors and 11.6 or 13.3-inch displays.
Sounds familiar? It should — mainly because the MacBook Air wasn’t around in 2007 for PC companies to copy.
“Ugh, this keyboard!” That may not have been the very first sentence I typed on the chiclet panel, but it was surely amongst the second or third. As I mentioned before, the plastic deck feels shockingly cheap, and the matte keys sprouting out of it are no different; they are flimsy, mushy, and grossly flat. The spacing on the keyboard is perfectly adequate, but why Acer had to make the arrow keys smaller than a peanut (literally) is beyond me.
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It probably won’t come as a shock that the 3.5 x 2.5-inch touchpad similarly suffers from quality issues. It too feels overly plasticy and chintzy like a Fisher Price toy. But I am happy to report the responsiveness of the multitouch surface is better than I expected — I didn’t encounter any jumping cursors and two-finger scrolling was relatively smooth for a Windows laptop.
The S3 isn’t the most expensive or the nicest ultrabook on the market. However, it was one of the first, and one of the cheapest. To be honest, its low price appeals to the people who walk into a Best Buy to buy a computer without any research.
The problems Stern outlines in her review — and other ultrabook reviews — aren’t new to the tiny, Windows-based notebook world.
Is It All About Power?
While ultrabooks may look and feel like netbooks, the processors tucked inside have improved over their ancestors. Coupled with SSDs, these new machines are even faster. However, PC builders can’t seem to get the rest of the package right.
I’ve been playing with Windows 8 on an HP 6730b, and have collected some thoughts below:
While the Installer (at this point) looks like Windows 7, the Setup screens are all Metro. This means lots of solid green and thin text.
Setup is simple. It quickly joined my wireless network, which is unlike previous Windows versions.
You can create a Local account, or sign in with a Windows Live ID. Doing the latter allows Windows to sync preferences and other information across computers via the cloud. You can “upgrade” to using a Live ID at any time.
The new Start menu (interface?) is cool, but sort of overwhelming. I like the “Live Tiles” idea on Windows Phone 7, but the laptop shows so many of them it’s almost too much information.
This interface is also cluttered. AND WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GREEN?
Clicking “Desktop” from Start will launch … well … the Windows we’ve all come to know over the last few years. While it is probably critical that Microsoft doesn’t go all-Metro at once, it feels very jarring to move and back and forth between the interfaces. It seems that Windows 8 has dual personalities. One is wearing a tie, while the other is going batshit crazy from its first shot of heroin.
This leads to some duplication of services. For example, there’s a Metro-based Control Panel, and one in the Desktop environment.
Overall, it feels very fast. I’ve only had one crash in my few hours of testing.
I wonder how much Metro will be used by desktop and notebook users. My guess is that many will view it as most OS X users view Dashboard: helpful every once in a while, but mostly useless.
I really want to see this on a tablet.
It took several minutes of looking around to figure out how to shut down the computer.
For a tablet-focused event I don’t think you will find much disagreement that Microsoft has hit the mark with Metro. Metro feels like it belongs when used with a tablet – it’s smooth, it’s easy to use, it’s gesture-driven, and it’s finger-friendly. Virtually everything Windows Phone 7 did well as a touch screen OS has been ported over to Metro and it shows.
The converse of that is that Metro feels awkward and out of place when used with a mouse and keyboard as a laptop/desktop. It fails to take advantage of the precision of the mouse or the fact that not everything needs to be in size 28 font when sitting down to use a computer. At this moment it feels like trying to use a tablet with a mouse and keyboard, which isn’t far off from what it really is in the first place.
Having lived with the pain of Vista pre-SP1, I can tell you that the problems currently facing Apple with Lion are worse. Much worse. In fact, it’s such a nuisance that I’ve decided to install Snow Leopard into a different partition and switch to the old OS for the time being, keeping Lion so I can keep an eye on future updates to see if they fix these issues.
I don’t think many would say 10.7.0 is without bugs, but this really just seems like link bait.[1. Crap, I fell for it, didn’t I?] Vista was a serious piece of crap out of the gate, and honestly, still is in many respects.
While the company is still largely beloved by the public, sentiment seems to have turned against them amongst their peers, and even amongst many of the startups around Silicon Valley. While these tensions have been building for months — and even years, in some cases — we’re seeing this on display more clearly than ever now thanks to the patent issue(s).
But why? Why is Google now a villain to many in the industry? I don’t believe it’s because they’re evil, I believe it simply relates to the Plainview quote. Increasingly, Google is trying to do everything. And they have the arrogance to think that they can. And it’s pissing people off.
“Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other’s throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what’s going on,” Google Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, wrote this week when accusing those two companies of trying to destroy Android. And he’s right. After decade of being bitter rivals, Apple and Microsoft now seem to have aligned interests. But you don’t have to wonder what’s going on, it’s very apparent: they both hate Google.
The relationship between these three companies will shape the course of the industry for years to come.