Mike's Quarter - technology and cool gadgets blog » My Reviews

Best netbook computers at the moment? Asus or something else?

Mike — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:00:38 +0000

I’m a very lazy person and i hate carrying heavy stuff around, like my everyday laptop (that has around 6 lbs). That’s why I’ve been planing to buy something smaller: a netbook (one of those small laptops with 10-12 inch displays) .

I needed something that would provide me decent performances and good autonomy, would have as sturdy construction but would look OK (not something made of cheap plastic) and won’t be either heavy, nor expensive.

I know, I have high expectations But believing such devices exist on the market, I started looking for reviews and offers for the best netbooks of this moment. I found a lot on information and netbook reviews , and in the following lines I’m going to tell you more about it.

Netbooks - best summer 2009 offers

Actually, I’ve been following the netbooks subject for quite a while now. I tried quite some of them, including several Asus EEE PCs, the Aspire One and the Dell Mini, but all of them had something wrong: poor display, resolution, construction, keyboard or extremely high prices. But now there are so many offers of netbooks on the market that i believe i can find something suitable for me.

The 10″ models – 2009th mainstream netbooks

I didn’t even considered laptops with a smaller screen, because they have lots of problems (tiny screen and resolution, jammed keyboards, etc). So i first stated looking at the 10 inch display devices. And there are quite a few now, as this size has become mainstream in the netbook class.

Asus 1000H (and 1000HG) line + Asus S101H

They are the best Asus has to offer at the moment in this class. In terms of specs, there’s nothing missing: Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1Gb of RAM, 160 GB storage drive, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, 10.1″ screen (1024 x 600 px resolution), Windows XP OS, etc . THe 1000HG version even has an intergated 3G modem . You can read more about the Asus EEE 1000HG here, actually.

Asus 1000h - great price/quality raport

This line looks decent enough, but nothing out of ordinary. They come with an almost normal sized keyboad that won’t bother you even if used for a longer time. And they have great autonomy: the standard model has a 6 cell battery – up to 6 hours of life , but there are also versions with a 9 cell heart (beyond 10 hours of life). There’s also a more stylish version, slimmer, better looking and made of better materials, the Asus EEE PC S101H.

The prices for these devices are quite good. You can get the ordinary 1000H for around $400 and the 1000HG for around $450. The S101H hasn’t reached stores yet, but it’s reckon to have a price tag around $600 . There are other 10″ Asus netbooks too, you can check them out right here, on Amazon .

MSI Wind U100

There are many versions of the MSI Wind 100. They have the same specs as the Asus devices above. I can’t say they’re better, they’re the same. I had one for about 2 weeks when my laptop had a trip to the service and there’s nothing i can say wrong about them. The standard Wind with a 6 cell battery and up to 6 hours autonomy will cost you around $400, but you can find it here for just $369 .

MSI Wind U200 - perhaps one of the best 12" netbooks to come

Acer Aspire One

This one is the same as the EEE PC’s and the Wind above. Same specs, same construction, same screen. Just a different exterior and a better price. Cause the 10.1″ Acer Aspire One can be found for as low as $329 .

These are perhaps the best such models on the market. There are others too, like the Dell Mini (i won’t recommend this one, it has a horrible keyboard and looks like a piece of junky plastic) , the Toshiba Mini or the Samsnugn NC10. And also the soon to come Vaio W, the first true netbook from Sony, and the first high class name to enter this competition. More About the Sony Vaio W you can find here.

The 12″ models – the perfect compromise

Asus S121 - the 12'er from Asus EEE Series

There aren’t a lot of 12″ netbooks on the market yet. Actually, there are only two models available on Amazon, the Samsung N120 and the Dell Mini 12M. They have similar specs as the 10″-ers above: Intel Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, decent storage space, etc, but bring up a bigger screen with better resolution, thus a bigger work space. And that’s a great ad-don. The two models from above are not so expensive either: around $400 for the Samsung N120 and around $330 for the Dell Mini (only some colors) .

But, there are lots of ther models soon to reach the stores in this class, during this summer or this fall. The noticeable names will be the MSI Wind U200 , the Acer Aspire Timeline 1810T or the Asus S121 . They will have 12″ screens, resolutions of (1280 x 800px or 1366 x 768px resolutions), perhaps newer and more powerful Intel ATOM CPUs, 2 Gb of RAM, etc . They will boost autonomy to around 8-10 hours and will cost 500-700 bucks.

I for one believe these 12″ netbooks are the best compromise for now between power and portability. But, as this segment is evolving so fast, I’m not really convinced i should buy one in the next 2-3 months or wait too see what else is going to reach the stores during the Winter sales period (especially on Black Friday).

Anyway, i presented you the best netbooks at the moment. I couldn’t quite review them in this article, but if you need more info on a particular model, don’t hesitate to post a comment and I’ll try to help you.

Online store CMS – episode 3 (and hopefully the last one)

Mike — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:38:57 +0000

As you know from my previous episode about online stores CMS, i had to decide between Joomla + Virtuemart, Magento and x-Cart. After more than a month of testing them, i finally decided for the fourth one: Prestahop.

Prestashop is a new store CMS with its final realease being launched just this summer. But that doesn’t mean it ain’t as good as the others and even better on some aspects. So here’s why i chose this software.

Prestashop pro’s:

it’s free
it’s very easy to install and use, both for the buyer and the shop admin
it has only the basic stuff and it displays all the info you need without oversaturating the layout
it has a clean TABLE-less template and also, it has a very customizable template system, which allows you to make your own theme in just hours if your php, HTML and CSS skills are decent
It has lots of intereting add-on modules that are really easy to use: newsletter, rss feed, Adsense and Analytics integration, latest products, last viewed products, featured products etc, etc
it has a nice Ajax effect for the cart (yea, bling bling, but i like it)
SEO friendly URL structure with proper tweaking
and i could continue this list for a while…

Prestashop’s cons:

it’s a simple online store CMS but i feel that there are some parts missing: related products and user reviews modules are the most important ones
lacks advanced filters and mutiple shop administration, features that Magento has, but afterall, these aren’t even needed for a basic shop
i think that’s about it

That being said, you can see why i chose to use this software. I’ll update the post later on, once i manage to finish my themes and set up the stores. I’m still working on that. In the meantime, if you too are in need of an online store CMS, give Prestashop a try. Here are the frontpage and admin (login info: Username : demo@prestashop.com Password : prestashop_demo ) demos.

That brilliant idea

Mike — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:02:49 +0000

I’ve been searching for the idea, that brilliant blog idea that will bring me a lot closer to success. I’ve even tried a few, but none worked as i was expecting and most of the projects got dropped in time. But there are some people that managed to find that sparkling idea. So i’ll show you the best two i saw during the last months.

First of all, the funny cat pics collection on Icanhascheezburger. Everything there is amusing, starting from the weird site name, continuing with the theme’s header and finishing of course with the personalized pictures. Cause unlike other cat pictures, these ones come with some great messages. Actually have to say that the message makes 75% of the job. But i still have to wonder where do these dudes find that pictures and how do they get those amazing message ideas.

The site is extremely successful considering it’s just an year old and you can see that from the Alexa rank and the tons of comments each post gets. That being said, people like good humour. Finding this site today made me think i should perhaps revive my old Funny site project… If only i would have the time…

The other site is a little more popular. Voted Best 2007 blog name by the readers of Performancing.com this blog used the brilliant name resemblance with the Money making Mogul John Chow to create a huge buzz on the blogosphere last summer. We’re of course takling about JohnCow.com. And it paid off, as it has lots of dedicated readers nowadays and the owner has built quite a notoriety. The funny writing style, combined with informational quality, were part of the receipt of course, but i doubt this site could have emerged so fast if it wasn’t for the name.

Are there any other brilliant blogs ideas you’ve come across in the last year? Please share them with us.

Happy holidays

Mike — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:54:32 +0000

Dudes, i’ve kind of neglected you latelly. But that’s because i had an eye desease and the doctor prohibited me to stay in front of the PC. Anyway, since i won’t be around in the next week either, i wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy and Better i hope New Year. And stay tuned on Mike’s Quarter, lots of nice things will happen here this coming year

Happy birthday to me

Mike — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:47:52 +0000

Hey guys. Sry i couldn’t post anything lately, but I’m trapped in a continuous party. Yesterdays has been my birthday, today’s my name day, tomorrow is Friday, then the weekend… Well, it’s kind of hard. But I’ll be back soon

Halo 3 sucks

Mike — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:49:00 +0000

I had Halo 3 on my desk today. And I’ve tried it. And it sucks.

Don’t get me wrong, the game has some astonishing graphics, but i find it extremely hard to control my soldier with a game pad instead of the classic mouse. The only way i could hit some moving aliens was to go between them in a killing spree, shooting continuously with that machine gun. Very annoying… And it’s not just because I’m not used to game pads, you just physically can’t…

As you might have guessed, I’m a big fan of PC games instead of consoles. OK, consoles are great for some kinds of games, like Mortal Kombat or something with cars, but as for the other genres… Again,they suck. So, until i can use a keyboard and a mouse on Xbox 360, I’ll stick to my old PC, regarding of how good will console games going to look graphically. It seems that they had in mind this option, but i doubt it had an ending..

Linkbait example: Win 2500$ dollars

Mike — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 07:50:49 +0000

One of the best ways to grow your site is to ensure yourself you get exposure. A linkbait post might be what it takes to achieve this, like this post i found on Ashwin’s blog, via SEO-reloaded. It’s about getting some bucks, a lot of bucks, 2500 $ actually, if you are lucky enough to win his contest.

All you have to do to enter the competition is post this couple of words on your blog, like i do.

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

Oh, and if you happen to win, you must have a working Paypal account… Anyway, i don’t know if that’s a fake or the prize is for real, but we’re going to find out after August 20, the competition’s ending date. Till then, keep on posting, as there are a couple of people already in, and their numbers are growing exponentially. Oh, and don’t forget, fingers crossed If i happen to win there’s a drink for everyone

Aftervote, a webmaster’s search engine

Mike — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:34:27 +0000

When someone speaks of a search engine, our mind immediately flies to some of the big names, like Google, Yahoo, MSN or Ask.com. Yes, they get you good results if you’re just a normal web surfer, but if you happen to be an experienced web developer you will want something more. Imagine getting multiple ratings and number of votes on social bookmark sites, while allowing groups and friends, and you’ll get what’s Aftervote all about: a webmaster’s search engine.

Searching "mike’s quarter" on Aftervote

Aftervote is not an ordinary search engine. It pulls results from Google, MSN and Yahoo, thus having a big number of crawled pages, and proides some additional details about the results, like Alexa ranking, Google PR, number or Diggs or Stumbles and many others. And unlike other services that provide similar results, this Ajax backbones site get them pretty fast. Of course, it’s a little slower than an ordinary search engine, but it provides much more complex results…

A controverted part of Aftervote is its search results voting system. Like other voting systems used on Digg or Reddit for example, this one allows you to promote/demote search results, in order to make future searches more suited to your tastes. Theoretically, if you use Aftervote for a long time, the idea should make sense, but are you willing to replace your everyday search engine (Google, of course ) with Aftervote? I guess not…

Aftervote is fully customizable

Aftervote is fully customizable, allowing you to change what info’s to be shown and even has 3 default profiles (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced), for those users too lazy to stick their noses in the settings menu. Firefox users might love it even more, as Aftervote can be added straight to the search bar.

In the end, the conclusion is simple: Aftervote is not even trying compete Google or Yahoo, having a more tight niche of users. But, for web developers and people who want to know more about a site in just seconds, it’s a great tool.

Make Money Online – John Chow’s style

Mike — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:37:29 +0000

I’ve been reading John Chow’s blog, Make Money Online, for a while and i always liked his posts. The guy claims to be a Dot Com Mogul, and from what I’ve read here, he surely has an idea about what it takes to succeed in the online business.

I’ve spotted the "Review Me" feature on JohnChow.com a couple of months ago, but i didn’t really wanted to profit from it until i would have become a dedicated reader. I have to admit that my favourite category on John’s blog is "Make money online". Actually, searching this phrase on Google will get you a top result for the blog, and that’s something, considering we have more than 250 million results here… This makes me confident the guy knows what he’s talking about, so i keep reading his posts and note the ideas, in order to put them on practice sometime in the future on my own blogs.

Decent looks but quality information: JohnChow.com

I’m amazed with the exponential growth of John’s RSS subscribers numbers, as this seems to be one of my worst problems here on MQ. Another testimony of the quality of the material oh JohnChow.com i guess… Like a month ago he passed the 5000 margin, and now he’s getting closer to the 6000 barrier every day.

Good job John. I hope you’ll keep on with the great work, and maybe we’ll even meet sometimes in the future at Computex or CES to chat as famous blog owners (Yeah, like this one is ever going to get as big as JohnChow.com…:) ).

DarwinAwards.com – is it a good way to die?

Mike — Wed, 23 May 2007 07:34:02 +0000

Here’s my first review. Not the most lovely site, but definitely an interesting one. DarwinAwards.com is not about technology or research as you might be expecting, is about the stupidest deaths of people all over the word. Yap, a little sick. But it’s funny.

From the beginning, the site’s motto kicks you:

The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it…

And thereby insuring the next generation will be one idiot shorter, of course.

The site starts back in 1993 and has given these prizes every year from then, so has quite some background. And the stories get many more from year to year, that meaning the human genome is not really improving, but degrading. That really won’t amaze anyone, ay?

After seeing the succes of this site, some Hollywood names decided they could profit from the ideea and make a movie from it. I haven’t seen it, so i can’t really say nothing about it, but peoples general opinion is not so great, like you can see here.

Graphically, the site looks dull and kind of old. But it’s not about graphics here, is about content. Just check some of the titles: Chimney cleaning Grenade , Mining for Elephants , Library Return and so many more. Visit the site yourself but be carefull, some of the articles here might be shoking. So i will rate the site at 15+ at least, or maybe 18. So kids, stay out of there.

Mike's Quarter - technology and cool gadgets blog » My Reviews

Best netbook computers at the moment? Asus or something else?

The 10″ models – 2009th mainstream netbooks

Asus 1000H (and 1000HG) line + Asus S101H

MSI Wind U100

Acer Aspire One

The 12″ models – the perfect compromise

Similar posts you might enjoy

Online store CMS – episode 3 (and hopefully the last one)

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That brilliant idea

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Happy holidays

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Happy birthday to me

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Halo 3 sucks

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Linkbait example: Win 2500$ dollars

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Aftervote, a webmaster’s search engine

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Make Money Online – John Chow’s style

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DarwinAwards.com – is it a good way to die?

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