We’ve said it before and we’ll probably say it many more times in the future.  Netbooks can easily do the majority of the tasks that people mostly do on their computers.  Also: people like netbooks because they are highly mobile and very cheap compared to "real" computers.  That’s the gist of an article on Wired. 

"I’d like to think that [netbooks] are finding a form factor andweight that fits human beings better," Kay said, "but I’m presumingthat it is because many people use only a small part of what they coulddo on their larger machines, and much of what they do use computers forcan be done through a browser or a few simple apps."

Where have you read that before?  The article does point to some new technologies that Intel and Phoenix are working on to improve the netbook experience which tells me that 2009 will be the year of the netbook, far more than this year.  It’s a great time to be a mobile gadget freak.

I’m killing time before Barb gets home from running some errands, so I figured I’d make use of a spare memory module I have lying around the house. I don’t know if mainstream consumers are going to mod or upgrade netbooks, but another possible differentiator for these devices could be how easy they are to upgrade. It couldn’t be any easier to get at the guts of the MSI Wind. I simply removed the battery and then the nine visible screws on the back of the device. Yes, one was under the warranty sticker; I’m a rebel I tell ya! Once the screws were undone, it was just a matter of carefully separating the device base from the body. I actually found it far easier than on my prior UMPCs. This was also one of the things I didn’t like about the Acer Aspire One: there’s no quick-and-easy way to get the internals of that netbook.Here you have full access to the RAM slot in the middle, the hard drive and the wireless card that’s on the left side. I’m considering a swap of that card so I can use WiFi on the Wind with Mac OS X. The Realtek card in the Wind isn’t supported by the Mac operating system and rather than wait for a driver to appear, it’s likely faster to get a supported card. Speaking of fast: the entire upgrade took me under five minutes from start to finish… and I was slow and cautious.

What looks to be the footprint of a business card, weighs two ounces and can hold up to 60GB of your data? Hands up, who said the “MiniStation Shinobi“? *looks for hands* OK, props to the uber-geek in the back of the room with the “Luke, I am your father” T-shirt on. While not learning to speak Klingon, he clearly noticed the announcement of this little data contaniner from Buffalo.The Shinobi measures a small 3.4 x 2.2 x 0.2-inches and holds one of those tiny 1.8-inch drives inside along with a self-contained USB 2.0 interface. Just plug in to your notebook for access to your data; no external power required. Hmm, what are the odds that the Shinobi could be opened up easily? I wouldn’t mind super-sizing this to a Large with one of the new 250GB Toshiba drives if the interface would work. According to Everything USB, you should find these next month: $119 for the 30GB model and $169 to double your data pleasure.

Nokia quietly announced yesterday it is refocusing its business mobility business by stopping development and marketing of the "behind-the-firewall business mobility solutions". 

“We have very strong relationships with industry leadingenterprise technology partners such as Cisco and Microsoft, as well asa broad range of operator and retail channel partners. Together withthem, we will use our expertise in devices, as well as the combinedchannel footprint and customer base, to deliver a range of unbeatableend-to-end offerings for business. The initial success of the Nokia E71with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync is a great example of theattractiveness of our new approach,” said Niklas Savander, EVP,Services & Software, Nokia. “We will also continue with ourinvestment strategy to develop key consumer internet services in areassuch as music, games, media, messaging and context based services.”

Nokia looks to be turning its attention more to the consumer space which fits with their making Microsoft’s Exchange Server support available to all the S60 line.  That move brought enterprise support to the individual Nokia customer and paved the way for this strategy change.  Unfortunately this announcement means the venerable syncing solution from Intellisync will be shut down and no longer available as Nokia bought them in 2005.

(press release)

I am sick, I admit it.  It started a long time ago but I had suppressed it for a good while.  I started getting the fever again when I played with Kevin’s MSI Wind in San Francisco.  So small and light yet a real fighter.  Still I held on and fought the netbook fever.  Even yesterday seeing the little Asus EEE PC in Best Buy I fought the sickness although admittedly that was easier with the too tiny keyboard on the Asus.

Then today I get ready to head out to the coffee shop where I know I’ll be safe.  No way I’ll see any fine netbooks there to get my motor running and bring the fever back to a high boil.  Then I made a big mistake.  I threw the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 into its little sleeve and headed to the coffee shop.  Sure the U110 is not a netbook, it’s way too expensive to meet that category requirement.  But it was too late, the small form factor with its 11.1-inch screen is just barely bigger than those 10-inch netbooks.  The nice keyboard is only slightly bigger than those on the bigger netbooks and the 3 pound weight is near netbook weight.

As I sit here typing this the fever is growing nearly out of control.  A full-featured netbook can do this so easily and carrying it around couldn’t be easier.  Darn you Lenovo and your U110.  I was so close and now..

Now to decide on the perfect netbook if one exists.  My needs are simple, it must have a 10-inch screen so the keyboard will support touch typing with my big hands.  It must run Windows XP so I can use all the utilities I already have honed to perfection to do this kind of work.  A 6-cell battery is a must and probably a second one to come along for extended trips.  That’s about all of my requirements for the moment.  Which one best fits the bill for me?  There’s just SO MUCH netbook information out there I can’t digest it all.

Well, as spectacular as a netbook can be if it shares 95% of the features and components of its brethren, that is. Wired caught a glimpse of the LG X110, affectionately known as “MOMO” on the United Arab Emirates LG site. MOMO means More Mobile, which it like “a little bit pregnant” to me. I suspect the name has to do with the integrated wireless broadband option and that “MO HSUPA” was too hard to pronounce.Aside from the 3G feature, the X110 is MO of the same: 1.6 GHz Intel Atom, 10-inch WSVGA display, 80-, 120- or 160-GB drive, 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth and 1.3-megapixel webcam. One difference that jumps out: the X110 comes with Windows Vista Home Basic, something that’s pretty rare in the netbook space currently dominated by Linux and XP these days. Oh, and the occasional OS X version too. Update, to get a better idea of the keyboard (which is a good differentiator), I found a large size image of the original pic I posted. Here’s the MSI Wind-like keyboard look of the X110. It has a full-sized Right-Shift key, so it makes the first cut for me.

Sure it’s not safe to surf the web and drive a vehicle in the first place, but I’ve actually been productive with wireless broadband as a passenger in the car. Terry Retter from InfoWord tested the same situation with WiMAX and… well, let’s just say “under construction” might be a sign of the times. Terry tested the service in Reno, Nevada for about a month and it worked reasonably well as a primary home office Internet connection. Downloads were between 1.5- and 2.0-megabits per second, which are pretty comparable to the EV-DO speeds I get in my home. I usually see uploads around 500 kbps, but Terry only averaged around 300. Bear in mind that signal strength and other factors will heavily influence network performance.The service really crashed and burned when moving; Terry tested it in his car and found it unusable. This is interesting since we saw vehicles at CES in January to show off WiMAX on the move. He simply couldn’t maintain a connection in a moving vehicle, even when in coverage areas. I’m still not sold on the service, even though the pricing is better than what I’m paying today. If coverage were available in my area, I’d be hard pressed to change my wireless broadband provider: I need to have confidence that the service is going to work without fail and I can’t be running around only to find out the connection I thought I had isn’t available. Thoughts?

Most of us who travel for business end up developing a routine we employ when we get to the hotel.  This practice is to get the environment ready for working sessions and getting down to business.  Digital Nomads has a nice article where the author lists what he does in every hotel room to process it for business.  There are some nice things to do, many I have done myself:

Disaster prevention
I have a fear of being late, so I immediately make sure all the timezones on my clocks are correct. I set the hotel clock alarm and alsohave a wake up call. About 10% of the time one of these will fail. Ialso set my phone which acts as an alarm clock.

If I’m giving a presentation, I put a USB drive with the files inthe safe in the room. This has actually saved me twice when there werecomputer issues and once when there was a flood.

Take a look at the article and leave a comment here with any tips you might have for processing your hotel room for getting work done.  One thing on my personal list is to always bring a travel power strip.  Hotel rooms never have enough outlets and they are always poorly placed so I bring my own to keep all my stuff plugged in and working away.

With a majority of people not liking bandwidth caps, now might be a good time to check out BitMeter2, a free Windows application to help you monitor data usage. I tend to use the VZ Access software provided by Verizon Wireless for my general data usage, but BitMeter2 offers far more features. With it installed, you can:

• View realtime upload and download statistics
• See historical data over the past few hours, days or weeks
• Export your usage data into a spreadsheet. Useful for when you get “cut-off” unfairly, no?
• Enter the bandwidth cap number from your ISP and receive a warning when you’re close to the limit
• View your data on a web-interface, which of course is funny. You’re using bandwidth to check out how much bandwidth you’ve used… sounds like a bad, recursive Web 2.0 joke to me although I’m sure it’s useful

There are other net-monitoring tools out there, but BitMeter2 is worthy of consideration for a PC that’s on the go and relies a limited-use data plan.

That’s the opinion of Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation and the creator of the open source GNU system.  Stallman recently told the Guardian exactly what he thinks we do when we embrace cloud computing.

"It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign,"

"Somebodyis saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody sayingthat, it’s very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make ittrue."

This is a common argument that many have against cloud computing. Giving up of control over vital data requires an awful lot of trust in the keeper of it. 

"One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing isthat you lose control," he said. "It’s just as bad as using aproprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer withyour copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietaryprogram or somebody else’s web server, you’re defenseless. You’re puttyin the hands of whoever developed that software."

Let’s hope that Stallman is not a prophet about the cloud as it is certainly gathering the steam of acceptance more each day.  I must admit that the lack of control over my data has been the biggest obstacle for me to clear in adoption.  I remember not that long ago when ALL data was stored on some corporate server somewhere, even our communications, and we all shouted hallelujah when personal computers came along giving us control over our own data.  It seems to me the cloud is just us giving the data back to the servers we don’t control as Stallman says.