Netbook

In this week’s column, I was planning to dive into the juicy MacBook Air features. However, I will be postponing that follow-up column a bit so that I can have a chance to test the MacBook Air. This week, I will share with you my hands-on experience with the infamous $99 CVS Sylvania netbook, which I wrote about a couple of months ago. For comparisons with what I will refer to as a “classic” netbook, I used an Asus Eee PC 2G netbook....

Surprise, surprise! The $99 netbook made its arrival at CVS earlier than predicted. The netbook appeared in the CVS flyer during Labor Day weekend. Locally, the Danville CVS did not get any of the netbooks in the first shipment. This was due to the small size of the store’s temporary location, as their new location currently is under construction. However, they do expect to receive some in future shipments, once they move into their new store in October. The Harrodsburg CVS received only three in the first shipment, but those netbooks sold out very quickly.

Hooray for another successful installation of Windows 7 on a netbook. This time the netbook experimented upon was an Eee PC 901 using the newly-released Windows 7 Release Candidate. The 901 netbook had 2GB RAM and 20GB Solid State Drive (SSD) for storage. The caveat was that it actually had two separate SSD drives making up those 20GB. The primary drive was a fast 4GB SSD, while the other 16GB SSD was a much slower one. First, a visit was made to Microsoft's Web site to acquire an activation key code for the Windows 7 RC. The Windows 7 RC disk image then was downloaded from the site and burned to a DVD. Next, the installation tools were assembled - the 901 netbook, the Windows 7 RC DVD, the activation key for Windows 7 RC and an external DVD drive.

The end of August brought yet another big name into the netbook arena ? Disney. Disney joined forces with Asus to create the Disney Netpal netbook. The Disney Netpal netbook is a kid-friendly, durable re-branded Asus Eee PC. The Disney Netpal netbook comes in two colors ? Magic Blue and Princess Pink. The Magic Blue Netpal is a gorgeous blue featuring a pattern of tiny Mickey ears all over it. The Princess Pink Netpal is pearl white with a pink princess design ? think castle, princess, flowers, hearts and crowns.

Nokia, one of the world's leading cell phone makers, is preparing for the launch of its Booklet 3G netbook. The netbook will run exclusively on AT&T's 3G wireless network and is exclusively being sold at Best Buy. The Nokia Booklet 3G netbook weighs less than 2.76 pounds. The netbook is incredibly thin ? measuring a little more than two centimeters. That's less than an inch thick, folks! The Nokia Booklet 3G netbook is made of an aluminum casing with a glossy finish ? think smooth and silky!

Free WiFi Internet access for anyone who needs it is a wish many folks have desired. Now it seems several companies are starting to make that wish come true. Last week, McDonald's announced that more than 11,000 of its 13,000 U.S. restaurants will offer free WiFi for their patrons in mid-January. Eventually, free WiFi will be provided in all of McDonald's U.S. locations. The free WiFi access offer will come with no purchase required and no time limits. The small catch is that the offer applies only to the McDonald's restaurants powered by AT&T Wireless.

A reader wrote and requested more information about the file I mentioned to enhance the CVS Sylvania Windows CE netbook. They wanted to know what they needed to do after they downloaded the software megapack file. In addition, they wanted more specifics about the programs the file contained. For starters, simply unzip the file onto an SD card, a USB flash drive or directly on the internal flash drive of the netbook. Then, to run the programs contained in the file, simply click on the .exe files.

Last week, Apple launched the newest line of their MacBook Air computers. The launch makes me chuckle inside when I think back to the launch of netbooks. Apple spent most of the time bashing the netbook form factor when it stole headlines and the computer market nearly three years ago. Now, along comes Apple rolling in with their new MacBook Air line. They simply appear to be the Mac version of a high-end netbook. Sure, the new MacBook Air looks fancy, it has slightly better hardware and of course, Apple’s lofty pricetag, too. Yet, when it all boils down to it, it’s basically a glorified netbook.

When the netbook crazy took off, one of the common complaints dealt with the netbook’s keyboard. Some claimed the keyboard was too cramped while others complained of the layout of the keys. The netbook keyboard complaints made me chuckle after a recent experience setting up a new laptop. I began to think about the many other laptops I’ve set up in the past, which brought me to this topic of keyboard layouts. Most PC desktops and laptops have from six to seven full rows of keys.

A reader wrote and requested more information about the file I mentioned to enhance the CVS Sylvania Windows CE netbook. They wanted to know what they needed to do after they downloaded the software megapack file. In addition, they wanted more specifics about the programs the file contained. For starters, simply unzip the file onto an SD card, a USB flash drive or directly on the internal flash drive of the netbook. Then, to run the programs contained in the file, simply click on the .exe files.

In this week’s column, I was planning to dive into the juicy MacBook Air features. However, I will be postponing that follow-up column a bit so that I can have a chance to test the MacBook Air. This week, I will share with you my hands-on experience with the infamous $99 CVS Sylvania netbook, which I wrote about a couple of months ago. For comparisons with what I will refer to as a “classic” netbook, I used an Asus Eee PC 2G netbook....

Last week, Apple launched the newest line of their MacBook Air computers. The launch makes me chuckle inside when I think back to the launch of netbooks. Apple spent most of the time bashing the netbook form factor when it stole headlines and the computer market nearly three years ago. Now, along comes Apple rolling in with their new MacBook Air line. They simply appear to be the Mac version of a high-end netbook. Sure, the new MacBook Air looks fancy, it has slightly better hardware and of course, Apple’s lofty pricetag, too. Yet, when it all boils down to it, it’s basically a glorified netbook.

Surprise, surprise! The $99 netbook made its arrival at CVS earlier than predicted. The netbook appeared in the CVS flyer during Labor Day weekend. Locally, the Danville CVS did not get any of the netbooks in the first shipment. This was due to the small size of the store’s temporary location, as their new location currently is under construction. However, they do expect to receive some in future shipments, once they move into their new store in October. The Harrodsburg CVS received only three in the first shipment, but those netbooks sold out very quickly.

Free WiFi Internet access for anyone who needs it is a wish many folks have desired. Now it seems several companies are starting to make that wish come true. Last week, McDonald's announced that more than 11,000 of its 13,000 U.S. restaurants will offer free WiFi for their patrons in mid-January. Eventually, free WiFi will be provided in all of McDonald's U.S. locations. The free WiFi access offer will come with no purchase required and no time limits. The small catch is that the offer applies only to the McDonald's restaurants powered by AT&T Wireless.

Nokia, one of the world's leading cell phone makers, is preparing for the launch of its Booklet 3G netbook. The netbook will run exclusively on AT&T's 3G wireless network and is exclusively being sold at Best Buy. The Nokia Booklet 3G netbook weighs less than 2.76 pounds. The netbook is incredibly thin ? measuring a little more than two centimeters. That's less than an inch thick, folks! The Nokia Booklet 3G netbook is made of an aluminum casing with a glossy finish ? think smooth and silky!

It's official! Microsoft will be offering Windows 7 for netbooks directly from the Microsoft Store. In fact, it will be the only place to purchase the downloadable versions of Windows 7. All editions of Windows 7 are being made available in a downloadable format as to make it easy to get Windows 7 for, not only netbook users, but others without an optical drive in their systems. Internet users are able to pre-order the downloadable Windows 7 editions prior to the official release of the OS. When Windows 7 is released on Oct. 22, Internet users can directly download the OS to a USB drive onto their netbook.