Slashdot Mirror

As a backup?

I thought the U1 was scrapped. Yes they said they were moving forward with Android but I didn't see anything anywhere about that form factor being resurrected.

One big part of why the U1 had that form factor, was that it was really a Windows system and a Linux system - which I personally thought would have made for a pretty awful transition when you detached (nothing against Linux, it's just that the systems were too different to switch to on the fly). Moving to Android means they would not have to go through such contortions, and can build it cleaner based on one OS....

The best source for the netbook implications of the information released at this Financial Analyst Day is http://www.notebooks.com/2008/11/13/live-at-amds-financial-analyst-day-2008/ and the author notes, towards the bottom, that AMD concede they can't compete with the highest battery life available from their competitors. (As an aside, it bugs me that AMD can do a die shrink or improve their chip steppings and get a better performance-per-watt figure than Intel, but can't put that all together in a competitive mobile CPU, chipset, video and wireless combination.)

I'm actually inclined to agree with AMD's stance on this. Incidentally, I think this is the original article that all these other news sources are paraphrasing and it has more information.

You are undoubtedly right that now netbooks are available people who were previously stuck at full laptop level but only need a netbook will migrate. And we're seeing that. But not all the people who buy a netbook will find it suits them in the end. I was very tempted to get one, nearly did, but eventually decided that nice though the Eee PC looked, it ultimately wasn't quite powerful enough for my needs. The supposed advantages of netbooks / mininotebook are excellent portability, battery life and cheapness. But they're not actually that cheap - they're priced too high. Oh, they're cheaper than modern laptops, but UK£300 for an Asus Eee PC (about $US450, probably cheaper outside the UK), is still a significant purchase for most. Significant enough that spending an extra £150 / £200 for something obviously more powerful (and with more screen real estate), is less of a factor. For most people, the decision is more likely to be based on the portability (battery life is getting pretty good for full laptops these days and places to plug them in more commonplace, so less of a concern). Netbooks are more portable, but they're still not exactly mobile phones. And at the same time, laptops are getting lighter. A student who walks around with a netbook all day long might benefit from this, but a travelling salesman in his car, or a holidaying Slashdotter on the train... I think a lot of people prefer the power and the screen size of a laptop.

Netbooks seem to have done well because they are a new market segment and people who naturally fall to that segment are shifting from laptops or getting in for the first time now. Or because they're new and they're trendy. But what AMD are reporting is that actually sales compared to laptops are fairly small and there is also an uncommonly high level of returns on netbooks which suggests people realising they don't suit their needs either. We're also seeing a failure of the principle of the netbooks by their manufacturers as they implicitly concede that there is a demand for more power by releasing increasingly expensive and more powerful netbooks - a sign that they are trying to overlap more with the bottom end of the laptop market.

So netbooks - certainly have their market, but AMD might well be right to focus on real laptops where they may well take a strong lead over Intel. AMD have had their ups and downs, but most of those downs have been due to either not having as much money to throw around as the giant Intel, or sheer luck (Intel's Israeli lab unexpectedly turning up an unforecasted power boosting design). In terms of strategy, AMD have usually been pretty strong turning out, if not always the most powerful chips, usually the best price to performance ratios.

Oops, I forgot to mention the video which shows (from the outside) how the calibration is done. I'm not sure if this link will work as the URL is a mess, but you can also find it in Notebook.com's original post.

No paper: Pantone's huey calibration software is run, the lid is closed and reopened a minute later.

MOD PARENT UP!!!!

(It's AMAZING how many people do not read critically and constructively here.)

This is JUST the sort of solution I think I am looking for, although $300 is a bit steep for me these days. If it were, say, $200, I'd love it for CAD work. Having USB means, it seems to me, avoiding some issues with X-server configurations, but I could be wrong. It also seems to mean not needing a beefy video card.

See, I use a Gateway P-6301:

http://www.notebooks.com/2007/10/11/gateway-p6301-and-p6822-notebooks-the-holidays/

http://blog.miqike.com/index.php?load=read&id=329

(No, and sadly, I have failed miserably at getting ndiswrapper to work, so no wireless. Have to go with a USB wireless antenna. And, no bluetooth, so I'll have to find a USB based b/t device, too. Multimedia panel doesn't work, other than lighting up if I press buttons or swipe the volume panel. Otherwise, the BEST thing in it for me is the serendipitous discovery of 2-drive bay in it, accessed on the bottom side, and, nicely, not underneath the keyboard.)

and it has 2 MB of shared RAM, up to 256. When using VirtualBox (which grants only 128 MB max to video) but, with vista running inside, and PCLOS2007 as the host, the system fast enough for me. In PCLOS, I have all kinds of kewl composite effects (tho, no Compiz or Beryl fun yet) yet even running natively on the same hardware, I see a 1.0 windows experience index for both business/gaming. 5.9, oddly, for hard drive (well, it's not odd), and 4.2 & then 4.3 for some other item I can't remember.

So, I'm finding it really nice to have to not regret my purchase of this laptop since I care more about splitting screen activities (one for CAD, the other for documentation (word processing and database stuff) than about gaming on this laptop. (I installed the SOF Gold from 1999/2000 in Vista in PCLOS, and it wouldn't even START or run graphics. But, in Linux (the Loki version/production of SOF Gold), it ran, but ran crappily, unbearably laggy.)

Probably many of us would love a 17" laptop display (less the weight, though) in a laptop, BUT not be forced to spend $120 or so more for a beefier graphics card. If I can/could scrounge up some $250 and find this thing on sale, it would be kewl.

I just wonder, though: Is anyone making or considering making LCDs that share or offload from the machine most of the graphics work? I mean, a GPU in the LCD? It could even be just off-board RAM inserted into a slot. This way, maybe the hardware could more intelligently communicate with the laptop and speed up the laptop's performance.

Also, it would be nice if the honkin $300 LCDs would become thinner and lighter so as to be carried as a second LCD for those who tote the thing around but don't want a suitcase. I wouldn't suggest showing off in Borders or such with the 2nd LCD (it'd look like you were dragging your office there), but it could be quite useful for displays (when a $500 projector might not be desired, even if it's as small as half a cereal box), especially to share a presentation with clients sitting opposite of you, and when you need breathing room, OR to discourage them from looking at any passwords you might have.

If one could self-design apps for this split-screen (say, as in some X-server options), the user could have the "client/customer" panel that lacks sensitive fields shown on the "operator"/consultant side of the app.

Hope I didn't ramble too much.