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More toys, before christmas
Sep. 2nd, 2011 10:49 amAlways did love tech shopping - but I've had no excuse recently. Now that I'm setting up my new massage office, I decided it was absolutely essential that I have a small machine for that location. (This is absolutely false reasoning, but it made me feel justified in making a purchase!)
I also wanted something small and light to travel with, particularly since we are headed on an 11 day cruise soon. Carrying my 17" laptop seemed overkill. I considered tablets, but they are underpowered, and lack proper support for various things, like Flash. Even where these things are supported, some of the sites I like (Hulu for example) are unavailable.
I decided what I really needed was a netbook. After reading endless reviews of what are essentially very similar machines, I settled on the Toshiba NB505-N508BL:
It is by no means high end; it performs relatively well on most tests, and was able to stream Hulu and YouTube content without flicker, which tells me it should be good enough for my purposes. And it's cheap!
I bought the optional memory upgrade to 2GB, and plan to add another 2GB using the ReadyBoost feature. The 250GB drive is more than sufficient for my business needs, and for taking our music and pictures on trips with us.
I already have a Kindle, but I might consider adding iRotate to the netbook, and using it as a Kindle replacement. (iRotate is a free utility that makes use of the inherent ability of most graphics cards to rotate the screen 90 degrees. For some reason, this never seems to be accessible easily either from the graphics card's own utilities, or Windows.) I'll be able to load all my Kindle books onto the netbook using the PC version of the Kindle reader. First though, I'll have to ensure iRotate isn't buggy or a resource hog. I did find an HP device that folds out 180 degrees, which might make a better 'eBook' - but with the future of HP uncertain, and the fact that the graphics card on that unit slightly under-performed the Toshiba, I decided against it.
I considered, and immediately ruled out, tablets, including the iPad. Yes, they are nice and shiney, but they really are still more toy than tool, and overpriced. (I just saw they anticipate Amazon will release a tablet for under $300 before Christmas, but it's too late - the netbook is on it's way!)
I also wanted something small and light to travel with, particularly since we are headed on an 11 day cruise soon. Carrying my 17" laptop seemed overkill. I considered tablets, but they are underpowered, and lack proper support for various things, like Flash. Even where these things are supported, some of the sites I like (Hulu for example) are unavailable.
I decided what I really needed was a netbook. After reading endless reviews of what are essentially very similar machines, I settled on the Toshiba NB505-N508BL:
It is by no means high end; it performs relatively well on most tests, and was able to stream Hulu and YouTube content without flicker, which tells me it should be good enough for my purposes. And it's cheap!
I bought the optional memory upgrade to 2GB, and plan to add another 2GB using the ReadyBoost feature. The 250GB drive is more than sufficient for my business needs, and for taking our music and pictures on trips with us.
I already have a Kindle, but I might consider adding iRotate to the netbook, and using it as a Kindle replacement. (iRotate is a free utility that makes use of the inherent ability of most graphics cards to rotate the screen 90 degrees. For some reason, this never seems to be accessible easily either from the graphics card's own utilities, or Windows.) I'll be able to load all my Kindle books onto the netbook using the PC version of the Kindle reader. First though, I'll have to ensure iRotate isn't buggy or a resource hog. I did find an HP device that folds out 180 degrees, which might make a better 'eBook' - but with the future of HP uncertain, and the fact that the graphics card on that unit slightly under-performed the Toshiba, I decided against it.
I considered, and immediately ruled out, tablets, including the iPad. Yes, they are nice and shiney, but they really are still more toy than tool, and overpriced. (I just saw they anticipate Amazon will release a tablet for under $300 before Christmas, but it's too late - the netbook is on it's way!)
