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HTC Shift + ThinkPad X300 + MacBook Air = Perfect Notebook?
Tom's Hardware has an interesting look at the HTC Shift, the newest contender in the ultralight portable arena, with a strong compare and contrast to the other two heavyweights, the ThinkPad X300 and the Macbook Air. "As some of you know, I actually like the Macbook Air but found the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 to be a vastly more useful product in the class. I'm one of the few folks that have been using an early version of the HTC Shift , a smaller screened ultra light tablet with a keyboard and a touch screen which is superior to both offerings in some ways and just released on Amazon.com for $1500 (someone screwed up, this wasn't supposed to happen until next week). This got me thinking: The perfect next generation ultra-sexy notebook should be a blend of all three products."
Shouldn't that be "lightweights?"
There's so much wrong with this thing. A thumbpad that sits to the right. A EEE PC sized screen to run Vista or a hardware switch that turns it into Windows Mobil, aka a cell phone. Why not just get what he really wants for $400?
It's got is WAN but those should be available for EEE as a USB device. Is there anything this can do that EEE does not?
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=216934&cid=17629948
My perfect laptop includes the following.
15-17" monitor
5" attachable monitor
webcam and mic on the front panel
as big as a keyboard as possible in relation to the monitor
swappable battery, dvdrw and >4 usb ports
and wifi
This is a very confusing headline.
All I want is an EEE pc with a GSM radio.. I wonder how long I will have to wait for something like that.
it's a toy. Don't buy it because it's too expensive. Tom's hardware is a joke in the meantime.
In my mind, if you want a laptop, there are two rifts. Either one that will serve alongside a desktop sibling which will be vastly more powerful, or a desktop replacement.
So either an EeePC or a MacBook Pro/IBM notebook. The HTC is EeePC at nearly the MBP price. Yuck.
Yr doin' it wrong.
Purple Monkey Dishwasher? "Hey I know, instead of thinking of a coherent thought for the title I'll just throw in product names randomly, no one will notice!"
I know this is Slashdot and the above statement is probably true but come on, at least pretend like you can speak in complete sentences.
This bit was written by the ever adorable Rob Enderle?
/. front page.
I'm surprised it even made it to the
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
How about some revised parsing for those front-page titles, webmaster?
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader
I got far more than 2.5 hours out of the air at a conference, running compiles and mysql database work enough that the fan was on 100%.
Test your net with Netalyzr
The Air has style. It's about style. It's about the young female executive showing off her style, while getting work done. It gets the work an executives need done, done. Nothing else, but whether you like it or not how you look is a big factor in promotions.
A lesson I wish I had learned when I was 20 instead of thinking what I produces would do me any good.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
So... long battery life and strong wireless, plus "usable", "comprehensive" and "beautiful". How is this a blend again?
I wouldn't trash the article entirely for this (hell, the insight into keyboard size on the HTC makes it at least mildly useful already), but it's a bit bare.
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
I'm an admitted Mac fanboy, but it would be really helpful for other readers if I could 'Wiki' you - can you cite your sources? I could use them, too.
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader
800x480?! Why not just give us four handy red 7 segment displays to interact with.
Sure, I understand that small computers have small screens, but my aging ipac has a 640x480 screen the size of a baseball card and fits in my pocket. I take it that people who want small light computers are also blind? A screen that size could be 1400x900 and still be very usable.
Sheldon
has a small 800 x 480 pixel 7" touchscreen
For the same price I can get an ultraportable (3lbs) Sony VAIO with ~10" screen, real keyboard (only slightly scrunched), 1280x768 screen, and real everything else including optical drive and WAN radio. Heck, I've had two models over 5 years, wishing only for a stronger case and boot-from-USB; I carry it everywhere.
I'm not sure where the author thinks this toy is usable for anything but an overblown cellphone without the phone.
Next...
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
This slashdot. verb no good here!
Monstar L
Isn't the same guy who gushed over a Ferrari branded Laptop>
The perfect automobile would blend the speed of a Bugatti Veyron, the durability and off-road-ability of a Hummer H1, and the price of a Tata Nano.
I'be be perfectly happy (actually ecstatic) for a reborn DOS based HP-200 with the addition of a back light and 802.11b. My HP-200 did everything I needed from a portable and I do miss it. I have seen nothing on the market at any price that begins to provide the features the HP-200 provided in a comparable (or smaller) size.
OldFart
a laptop with a case made from eighth inch stainless steel diamond pattern floor plate...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Yeah, I want all that plus a quantum processor, and the whole thing should weigh negative one pound (velcro strips included).
The thing most of you people are not realizing is that the shift has tablet functionality which neither the eee pc, x300, or airbook have. Not only that, but it runs windows mobile as well as vista. I also believe it is GSM quad band/HSDPA (or at least it was supposed to when I read about it 5 months ago), so essentially it can replace your phone, PDA, and travel laptop. If I had 1.5k sitting around I'd definitely get one.
Excellant!
>>In the history of Macs, from 1984 forward, there has never been a single successful remote attack on the OS.
>>No other operating system on the planet can state that as a medal of honor.
Ah yes, the mind control broadcast towers are working as planned...
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
HTC Shift ThinkPad X300 MacBook Air Perfect Notebook?
What the heck does this mean, anyway? And no, I don't want to read the article.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
The perfect notebook fits in your pocket. And while I don't think the perfect notebook needs a large screen, most people would disagree with me. Ergo, it's not on the market yet (until some kind of weird unfolding tech comes out, or people use projectors, or something like that).
there has never been a single successful remote attack on the OS.
Put it this way: a really successful remote attack is one which nobody ever learns about, so it's ridiculous to claim that any given operating system has never been exploited. I guarantee that Macs have been cracked at some point in their history. I think it doesn't happen more often because Mac owners don't have anything on them that anyone would want.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I can't think of a single application other than email that can be used efficiently at this resolution. Web browsing is pretty pointless with sites wanting 1024 or more these days. How in the world could you edit photos and videos on something like that? What about playing any games? Word and Excel might work fine, but man, could you imagine having to fight with only being able to see only a couple rows at a time?
What a nightmare. It really sounds more like a contender for the OQO and other micro devices of its kind. Not the Macbook Air.
Fuck HTC.
I bought an AT&T Tilt (HTC TyTN II Rebrand) and it came with the Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset that's supposed (and was advertized) to have ATi hardware 3D rendering and hardware video assist. It seems, however, that even though these features were advertised, HTC users weren't given them. Some amateur research says that it's because of a Broadcomm patent lawsuit against Qualcomm with a judgement preventing them from making drivers (but they were allowed to sell what processors were already being made under other contractual obligation).
See this Firehose article. The videos on htcclassaction.org demonstrate the issue very well.
In order to properly combine the three notebooks, you need to divide by 3, viz:
(HTC Shift + ThinkPad X300 + MacBook Air)/3 = Perfect Notebook?
However, it may be more appropriate to use a geometric mean:
[(HTC Shift)(ThinkPad X300)(MacBook Air)]^(1/3) = Perfect Notebook?
A third option is simply to stack them together and run a truck over them.
More research is needed in this area.
In Soviet Slashdot, verb good no article.
In the RSS feed, it shows up as "HTC Shift + ThinkPad X300 + MacBook Air = Perfect Notebook?" I wonder why the plusses don't show up on the actual site.
I'm getting a little disturbed by the whole "We hate it because the battery's not removable". Even here in the Tom's review they make the somewhat insane claim that the machine isn't portable because you can't swap batteries.
Well let me tell you, if you're going to load yourself down with extra batteries (and one supposes, a power supply), an optical drive then it's not that portable anymore either. Maybe you'd be happier with a T61 Thinkpad or a full blown MacBook? Swiss Army Knife isn't the intended purpose of the Mac Air, I'm sorry but it's not. And the twits at Tom's Hardware aren't going to trudge around with extra batteries for their HTC device either. Do you know why?
Because it's really a phone. Do you (yes I know there's a herd of unmedicated nitpickers out there waiting to correct me) really drag extra batteries around with your for your phone? I mean when you're NOT scaling El Capitan.....? Hey wait a minute that must mean the iPhone and the iPod are horrible products too because of the battery thing.
My ultimate laptop has a 4:3 screen and not the widescreen crap.
:)
If I want wide screen, I'll use dual monitors so web pages and documents are still 4:3.
Its interesting to note that I do have said laptop. Its a Pentium 3 with a 15" 4:3 screen.
I had to go back that far to find one with a 4:3 screen. Its wonderful though.
Whats the extra space created by the screen used for? A second hard drive.
Perfect for people in the market for an ultra-portable laptop, maybe? (Which from your specs is obviously not you.) Why do you need that explained to you? It's clear from the context of the story.
Seriously, why the hell does every story about ultra-portables have someone saying something about them being too small or that you can get a larger laptop with better specs for less money? Every time I see such posts it makes me hang my head and wonder how people can be so freaking dense.
I assume you mean no other desktop OS, what about VMS or Nonstop or z/OS?
I don't care if this thing makes hot grits for me in the morning. There is no saving grace for a $1500 laptop that can't display most of the web sites I visit in their entire width.
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
I own MacBook Air among other laptops in my home. This is just different device and I'd say with just different approach on portable computing, if I can say so. I really can not get why people comparing it just by features? Because it does not have 5 USB ports as any 5kg weight Asus laptop has and does not have DVD drive?.. Well, IMHO it is kind of irrelevant. It is as same as compare BMW Z4 with... let's say Huyndai Amica (both are small) and complain that Amica has much more features (extra seats, extra doors, bigger space for cargo etc).
Now, for curious people a bit semi-numbers of performance. Machine is 1.8GHz CPU since 1.6GHz is not the point: if you decide to buy it, then you buy it right (in my opinion). I did not got it with SSD because for me it is too pricey so far. So, I use Windows XP on VmWare sometimes, because I develop stuff for web and MSIE still on rails, unfortunately, and also I need other Windows-only software. I also tried to play on this thing various 3D games, watching video (of course!), music stuff, Flash sites, Photoshop things and so on. Folks... it just that works fast enough and never gets hot. I also surprised of HDD's 4200rpm must be too slow. However, in fact, as for such machine it is not.
Lenovo X300 or MacBook Air or something else -- each product should be reviewed according to damn CUSTOMER'S OWN NEEDS. Is it not stupid to look at a product that does not match somebody's specific needs and say "this product does not match everybody's needs"? Lenovo X300 match needs for those who does not care screen size, keyboard comfortability but care about DVD drive, need Windows/Linux/*BSD as main OS, wants it rather smaller by width then height. MacBook Air are for those, who want it lightweight nearly 1kg, but still need normal keyboard with backlight and decent screen size. Among other users, MBA definitely perfect for writers, for business, for (maybe) programmers (like me) and for wives on sofa. :-)
I am not bashing anything or saying that MBA is something mega-incredible. I just feel sick when reading bullshit articles, called "strong opinion" though they just comparing apples with oranges: each product is individual and has its good or bad points.
I'm not near smart enough with linux and xen to know if this would work, but couldn't you have 2 OS's installed, a minimal one and then a full featured one and the user could switch between the two. The minimal one would give maximum battery life and the other would allow for power usage. Would it work?
The N810 is a tablet, runs Linux, has GPS, wifi, etc etc. And a third the cost, same resolution display, but fits in the shirt pocket nicely.
The Panasonic R7 is the best ultralight IMHO... 2 pounds weight, 2 gig ram, dual core CPU 1024x768 graphics and 8 hour battery life. Passive cooling (no fan) means it quiet too.
There is an enormous financial cost for trying to go from a 3 lb. device to 2 lbs and certainly a loss of functionality in terms of screen size and keyboard utility. The one rule breaker to this is the Eee PC which weighs only two pounds, but costs $400 (or less depending on the configuration). Of course, it's not a terribly powerful device relative to a desktop, but it will probably suffice for most on the go surfing needs. One model that is overlooked here is the OQO model 02. It is generally expensive, but there is a $499 discount on selected models via a link at http://backpackcomputing.com/
Get a ThinkPad. Each of the current series (that's R, T, X) offers at least one standard aspect model. Z series are no longer produced (merged with T widescreen), the X300 is the only current model without a direct 4:3 variant, but X60[ts] take good care of that.
Me fail English? That's unpossible!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
That is a brilliant formation of an argument! Completely a priori, so it stands on its own without any experiential proof.
Of course, it also could be used to argue that aliens are inhabiting our bodies without our knowledge, because a really successful alien attack would happen without anyone knowing about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_argument
That is a brilliant formation of an argument! Completely a priori, so it stands on its own without any experiential proof.
Yep. Just about as reasonable as the original claim that Macs have never been cracked, huh.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
i've been on 1920x1280 17" laptops for a couple o yrs now, and simply cant abide by 4:3 when i sit down in front of one.
( esp. given the 'panel' arrangements of the various ide's i use day to day)
and of course, using dual screen still puts an ugly great blob of monitor bezel between the bits you want to look at.
That would be acceptable if I then didnt lose the maximize feature. :P
lose the maximise feature?
que?
minimize iconifies the window down to task bar, restore ( or click, or tab through ) return it from whence it came: size location and all. ( windows, linux, mac, all the same behaviour iirc ).
you probably already use non-maximised windows for things like new emails, instant messenger chats/buddy lists, etc, so realising you can do the same with web browsers/word processors is a pretty easy step... 16:9 res only makes it all the more usable.
pretty easy to get the hang of too, and most window managers ( again, windows, linux, mac ) allow customisation of the behaviour when you double click a title bar, just in case you cant break old habits.
oh, and you can always maximise a window with a quick click to cover the full viewport if your application ( and use ) is suitable for it.
how is it you think you lose 'maximise' behaviour?
Every window on my screen at the moment is maximized. I dont run programs any smaller.
Also even if I did, I would lose the snap feature where a window sticks to the edge of the screen.
Little things like that are even more annoying than 16:9 for me.
why is no one mentioning this?.....DELLs XPS 1330 is superior to all of the above and cheaper in similar configs(the shittiest 1330 houses the base MBAir).....i know dell is sour in this community, but trust me....this model is the real deal....