Where else are you going to get an ultraportable in an affordable package?
If you're looking to spend say, less than 800 Euros or so, you don't have a lot of choice. Everything else in the sub-1000 price range is 15.4" and up, with a few 14"ers thrown in for good measure.
Show me a "real laptop" for a few bucks more than a netbook (meaning 500 Euros) that has a 10" screen and 6+ hours of battery life... If there was one, I'd have it.
As for computing power - hell, I haven't fired up my desktop for anything other than gaming since I got my netbook. No need:)
That's strange, it's about Hibernate's about twice as fast as a full boot here, both on my desktop and my netbook. Usually there's a Firefox window (20+ tabs) and the usual Outlook 2007, uTorrent, Winamp, Pidgin and Foxit reader open when I hibernate, and it's still a lot faster than a full boot.
I dunno what it's like wherever you're living, but here in Germany, the Blu-Ray adoption rate is atrociously low. I'm studying electrical engineering, which means most of my "colleagues" are very tech savvy and always want the newest gadgets, but I don't think I know _anybody_ who's got a Blu-Ray drive (unless it came with a new PC or laptop), let alone a standalone Blu-Ray player...
Actually, I think it has something to do with Feedburner wigging out today... every time I click on a Slashdot link in Google Reader, I get a Feedburner error.
Actually, they do this in a lot of Asian countries already - In Thailand, for instance, you can buy most originals (localized, of course) for about $10-$20, and the pirated copies are also around $5... Hence the reason why I only paid $20 for my HL2/CS Source pack back when it came out:) - and that was the international English version - IIRC the localized Thai box version was $10.
UT2003 cost me $10 too...
I'd be surprised if they don't do this in China too. I'm guessing game piracy isn't as much of a problem as regular program piracy - you can buy a pirated game on a CD or DVD for $5, but you can buy a DVD full of software (say 200-500 programs on a 4.7GB DVD-R) including all the serial numbers and keygens for the same price - if you were to buy all that legitimately, you'd be paying 1000x as much...
I live in Europe, and if I was still using Steam (or gaming, for that matter), I'd be seriously pissed. Why do we have to pay more for our games? Currency exchange rates exist for a reason...
I'm actually surprised so few people actually noticed (or care about) that part of the article...
... if the students are paying for it in any way, shape or form, they should be able to put ANYTHING they want on there.
If it's a completely school/government-financed computer, on the other hand (which is, IMO, the only viable option for an educational tool), lock it down so that it can't be used for anything else. Otherwise, what's to stop the DAUs (duemmster anzunehmender User - German for stupidest possible user) from running IE6 without security updates, or Kazaa or other trojan, virus, and spyware-infested software? This would have a serious impact on classes where the computers are actually needed, because most of the time in class would probably be spent getting the system cleaned...
Not to mention games - I have a hard time not firing up Worms Armageddon on my Pocket PC during lectures at Uni - now just imagine how hard that's gonna be for a 6th grader... Lock it all down!
Hey, touchscreens are great and all, especially on small devices like smartphones or PMPs, but for the 24"+ monsters they're calling monitors these days, I'll stick with a halfway decent mouse...
The thing is, even with monitors which display colors correctly (yeah, the Dells are OK in that respect... but I'd rather have a nice EIZO:P), the reaction times are still horrid compared to CRT. Even the newest 2ms "gaming grade" monitors lag and blur... Until someone finds a way to alleviate these problems, I won't be getting rid of my CRT.
Good eye! I never would've noticed that. It does seem to be an arpeture grill monitor though, since it definitely has wires. Maybe Samsung were able to combine the two technologies? Just grasping at straws here, I have pretty much no knowledge whatsoever of CRT tech (other than the benefits over TFT, of course:P)...
I was hopeful in this regard about 5 years ago - but after all this time, nobody has managed to produce a TFT display that displays accurate colors while ALSO providing reaction times that are OK for gaming & video... I'm starting to give up hope, to tell the truth. So I'm just going to use a TFT for web surfing and Word, and a CRT for everything else...
I'm just not looking forward to replacing the CRT when it starts to die in a few years.
As a matter of fact, the 959NF is one of the few Arpeture grille CRTs that Samsung produced, IIRC - and yes, I do have the tell-tale wires across my screen;)...
I know exactly how you feel - moved my Sony G520 (another one of those beautiful 1600x1200@100hz models) to my girlfriend's house a few days ago and replaced it with a Samsung SyncMaster 223BW, and though the TFT looks great for text, I've gotta say - the whites and blacks are awful. Not to mention the reaction time (*shudders*)... just moving the mouse around the desktop, I can easily tell the difference between TFT and CRT (I've still got my SyncMaster 959NF arpeture grille CRT as a second monitor).
Really makes me sad to think that I'll never see another Trinitron... the picture quality was simply outstanding.
But when it comes to text (so basically any office work, e-Mail or just surfing the net), LCDs kick ass - FAR less eyestrain.
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Where else are you going to get an ultraportable in an affordable package?
If you're looking to spend say, less than 800 Euros or so, you don't have a lot of choice. Everything else in the sub-1000 price range is 15.4" and up, with a few 14"ers thrown in for good measure.
Show me a "real laptop" for a few bucks more than a netbook (meaning 500 Euros) that has a 10" screen and 6+ hours of battery life... If there was one, I'd have it.
As for computing power - hell, I haven't fired up my desktop for anything other than gaming since I got my netbook. No need :)
That's strange, it's about Hibernate's about twice as fast as a full boot here, both on my desktop and my netbook. Usually there's a Firefox window (20+ tabs) and the usual Outlook 2007, uTorrent, Winamp, Pidgin and Foxit reader open when I hibernate, and it's still a lot faster than a full boot.
You using XP or something else?
I dunno what it's like wherever you're living, but here in Germany, the Blu-Ray adoption rate is atrociously low. I'm studying electrical engineering, which means most of my "colleagues" are very tech savvy and always want the newest gadgets, but I don't think I know _anybody_ who's got a Blu-Ray drive (unless it came with a new PC or laptop), let alone a standalone Blu-Ray player...
Actually, I think it has something to do with Feedburner wigging out today... every time I click on a Slashdot link in Google Reader, I get a Feedburner error.
Actually, they do this in a lot of Asian countries already - In Thailand, for instance, you can buy most originals (localized, of course) for about $10-$20, and the pirated copies are also around $5... Hence the reason why I only paid $20 for my HL2/CS Source pack back when it came out :) - and that was the international English version - IIRC the localized Thai box version was $10.
UT2003 cost me $10 too...
I'd be surprised if they don't do this in China too. I'm guessing game piracy isn't as much of a problem as regular program piracy - you can buy a pirated game on a CD or DVD for $5, but you can buy a DVD full of software (say 200-500 programs on a 4.7GB DVD-R) including all the serial numbers and keygens for the same price - if you were to buy all that legitimately, you'd be paying 1000x as much...
I live in Europe, and if I was still using Steam (or gaming, for that matter), I'd be seriously pissed. Why do we have to pay more for our games? Currency exchange rates exist for a reason... I'm actually surprised so few people actually noticed (or care about) that part of the article...
... if the students are paying for it in any way, shape or form, they should be able to put ANYTHING they want on there. If it's a completely school/government-financed computer, on the other hand (which is, IMO, the only viable option for an educational tool), lock it down so that it can't be used for anything else. Otherwise, what's to stop the DAUs (duemmster anzunehmender User - German for stupidest possible user) from running IE6 without security updates, or Kazaa or other trojan, virus, and spyware-infested software? This would have a serious impact on classes where the computers are actually needed, because most of the time in class would probably be spent getting the system cleaned... Not to mention games - I have a hard time not firing up Worms Armageddon on my Pocket PC during lectures at Uni - now just imagine how hard that's gonna be for a 6th grader... Lock it all down!
Good point, I was assuming they'd be replacing our familiar input-options completely...
Hey, touchscreens are great and all, especially on small devices like smartphones or PMPs, but for the 24"+ monsters they're calling monitors these days, I'll stick with a halfway decent mouse...
The thing is, even with monitors which display colors correctly (yeah, the Dells are OK in that respect... but I'd rather have a nice EIZO :P), the reaction times are still horrid compared to CRT. Even the newest 2ms "gaming grade" monitors lag and blur... Until someone finds a way to alleviate these problems, I won't be getting rid of my CRT.
Good eye! I never would've noticed that. It does seem to be an arpeture grill monitor though, since it definitely has wires. Maybe Samsung were able to combine the two technologies? Just grasping at straws here, I have pretty much no knowledge whatsoever of CRT tech (other than the benefits over TFT, of course :P)...
I was hopeful in this regard about 5 years ago - but after all this time, nobody has managed to produce a TFT display that displays accurate colors while ALSO providing reaction times that are OK for gaming & video... I'm starting to give up hope, to tell the truth. So I'm just going to use a TFT for web surfing and Word, and a CRT for everything else...
I'm just not looking forward to replacing the CRT when it starts to die in a few years.
As a matter of fact, the 959NF is one of the few Arpeture grille CRTs that Samsung produced, IIRC - and yes, I do have the tell-tale wires across my screen ;)...
Just take a look at the specs in the manual... http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/200308/20030830151753968_BH59-00266G-06en_AQ19.pdf
I know exactly how you feel - moved my Sony G520 (another one of those beautiful 1600x1200@100hz models) to my girlfriend's house a few days ago and replaced it with a Samsung SyncMaster 223BW, and though the TFT looks great for text, I've gotta say - the whites and blacks are awful. Not to mention the reaction time (*shudders*)... just moving the mouse around the desktop, I can easily tell the difference between TFT and CRT (I've still got my SyncMaster 959NF arpeture grille CRT as a second monitor).
Really makes me sad to think that I'll never see another Trinitron... the picture quality was simply outstanding.
But when it comes to text (so basically any office work, e-Mail or just surfing the net), LCDs kick ass - FAR less eyestrain.