Many moons ago I reviewed a little product called the Archos 5 Internet Tablet, one of the first Android devices I’d ever played with for any length of time. It was a bit like an Android phone except without the phone part, and it was great for watching video and reading books, webpages, etc. Essentially it was a PDA, but that’s an old-fashioned term that went out with the 90s! These days such things are called tablets. Or iPod touch.

Anyway, I quite liked the Archos 5, though it was early days with Android tablets and it was hard to make out what real use it would be. I think we got a bit caught up in how it wasn’t a phone instead of thinking of it as an updated and awesome PDA-like thing. That’s how I came to think of it, and that’s why I liked it.

But, alas, the tablet had to go back and I sought solace in other Android devices. I’m a fan of the Motorola Droid and I’m really starting to dig the HTC Evo 4G. But in all honesty, the phone I really want is an Archos 5 Internet Tablet you can make calls from. So imagine my excitement when we heard about the Dell Streak at CES this year. And now it’s finally got a release date (end of July) and a price ($499).

I did not get to touch the Streak myself, alas, but I know its roughly the same size as the Archos 5 as it has a 5-inch screen and looks pretty thin. 5 inches seems huge for a phone, I know, but honestly what I want is a small tablet that happens to make calls. The Evo 4G is a pretty massive phone, and that mans I can view web pages, read my RSS feeds, and watch video on a reasonably-sized screen. The Streak will hopefully give me all that and more.

You can’t see, but I’m bouncing up and down right now just thinking about it.

The price is a bit steep, yes. $499 is about what the least expensive iPad costs. But that iPad doesn’t have 3G. Plus, that’s only for the unlocked version of the device. Through the carrier (AT&T) it will be less, we just don’t know how much less yet. Still, I’ll be buying the unlocked one, anyway, since I have no intention of switching to AT&T.

Hopefully we’ll get the Streak in for review well before the launch date. Then guess who’s going to lobby to do the review?

At first, this is awesome. You think: yay, now I don’t have to buy a USB drive! Then after a few events or a big one like CES, you look around and think: I will never have to buy a USB drive again in my life. Maybe even into my next life. It’s a sea of memory, all segregated into 1 and 2GB chunks.

Today I’m transferring all of the press material I need to my work computer and wiping the drives. I’ll keep a few of the larger ones, but I don’t need 27. I really don’t. If you happen to see me in the next few days, don’t be surprised if, instead of a Jelly Baby, I offer you a flash drive. The latter is inedible but will be more useful.

I made some backups before with the program that came with my hard drive, but as they’re old and not incrementally updated over time, they’re a bit obsolete at this point. I’ve installed a new program that will make a full backup and update it incrementally, which is good. However, I can’t delete the old backups and it’s driving me insane.

I tried just deleting the folder, but it’s too big, obviously. I tried deleting folders inside the backup, but some won’t delete and give me that access denied message. I finally figured out how to use the DOS prompt to delete files that are undeleteable but then, lo, those files are all still there.Even after the command prompt window ran for hours claiming it was deleting those files. I don’t get it.

I’m not sure if this is because that hard drive is connected to my router and not to my computer via USB or if something else is up. But the folder contains almost every file that was on my computer at one time simply mirrored to the HD.

I’ve thought of a few ways I could try fixing this, like connecting it via USB to a notebook and trying to DOS delete thing or even going into the drive from Linux and deleting since it’s Windows that seems to feel these files should hang around forever. Any suggestions from the more knowledgable amongst you on other ways I could go about this are appreciated.

However, this shall not deter me from backing up my files. That particular hard drive is getting somewhat crowded, but I have another 500GB one sitting around here, so maybe I’ll make my local backups there. I’m setting the program to make a full backup monthly while the online storage will make backups as I go along every day. Smart, yes? You should do the same. Most people need prodding when it comes to backups, just like they need prodding to go to the dentist. So. Go get your teeth cleaned but not before you set up some kind of automatic backup for yourself. Hurry!

He even has the same netbook I do, a Samsung NC10. Yet he still feels that the portability and usability of an AlphaSmart is far, far better. He also cites battery longevity. Though I’ll agree that years of battery life is better than a few hours, ever since I got my NC10 I haven’t felt chained to an outlet. (It’s the 7+ hours of battery life, I love it, so.) And while it is great to have a machine that allows you to concentrate on just one thing, writing, the device is just a little too unitasking for me.

One of the reasons I stopped using my AlphaSmart is that it was crap for editing. Sure, it would allow you to get some words down on the screen and drive forward. However, you certainly can’t edit really well on that thing, or go back through what you’ve written and try to take stock in a meaningful way. And only seeing 4 lines of text at a time felt like far too little. You can’t edit already-existing text. And if you’ve typed a major chunk of your novel on the thing, good luck trying to get a sense of the structure.

Not that Marko claimed the Neo could do any of these things. These were just my reasons for giving the machine up. I needed a gadget that would allow me to do all of my writing tasks, from the first draft through to the editing stage, that was easy to carry, light, and had a reasonably-sized screen. Aftre I accomplished that with my Eee PC, my next goal was a netbok with long battery life so I wouldn’t have to worry about outlets. And here were are.

Having read through his whole review, though, do you think that the Neo has enough advantages over a netbook to justify putting the latter aside?

What’s a minidisc, you might ask? It was the best thing since CDs, my friends, and I believe I bought my first one in the year 2000, ten years ago. The one in the bag was my second, as the first was either lost or stolen (can’t remember which). I loved this gadget to death and eschewed all others, including MP3 players.

Minidiscs were more awesome than the MP3 players out at that time. And even after the iPod came out it was still a while before I decided that an MP3 player would suit me better. Apparently I couldn’t bear to give up my beloved player, though.

Did you know you can still buy minidisc players? Weird.

I put the bag back in the closet on top of my Alphasmart, another device I couldn’t live without for a long time. It was my proto-netbook, though I was always yearning to do more with it. Still, it was a great writing companion. You typed whatever into the Alphasmart — which could hold quite a bit of text — then transferred it to your computer via the PS/2 keyboard port. No, it wasn’t perfect, and USB connectivity would have been more useful (that was the second generation), but it allowed me to carry around a device with full-sized keys that I could write on whenever I had some time, yet didn’t kill my back with heaviness. Like I said, proto-netbook.

Next to the Alphasmart sits another bag with my N64 in it along with all of my games. I looked inside about a month ago and found my old Neuros MP3 player. Loved that thing, too…. until it broke. (After a year. It was pretty crap.) But yes, it’s still in there. Right next to my (now non-working) HP Jornada 545 PDA. Though that lasted much, much longer than a year — I believe it finally gave up the ghost in 2007.

Yes, I have trouble letting go.

I know I should get rid of all that stuff. After all, I obviously don’t use it, anymore. I have a new MP3 player, a netbook, and I don’t play console games much anymore. But every time I come across them I feel a wave of affection. At one time or another in the last decade, my digital life revolved around these devices. They were awesome, in their day, and just tossing them out (or even sending them to be recycled at Gazelle.com) doesn’t seem quite right. I’m sure I’ll feel differently if I’m ever forced to move, but for now the closet remains their home.

What about you, what gadgets do you still have around your house even though they’re no longer working or obselete? Why did you love/like them when you used them and what tech replaced them in your heart?

If you’re looking for a netbook, these are the ones I suggest:

10-inch Netbooks

Samsung N Series

I actually own a Samsung NC10^[1] — after playing with dozens of netbooks for months, this is the one I chose to take home forever. I love it. It has a great keyboard and screen and lasts a long time and weighs less than 3 pounds so I can easily carry it with me everywhere. N Series netbooks are usually good, but this is one of three that I particularly recommend.

Since Samsung released the NC10 last year they’ve put out a couple of updates. The first was the N110 — it has a slicker case, a larger touchpad, and a higher capacity battery that lasts over 7 hours (the regular NC10 lasts 6.5). Sadly, it also has a glossy screen, which is a problem for some people. Recently Samsung brought the N140 to the US^[2], which again has a slightly different case and design and is more powerful. Weirdly, it has the same battery as the NC10, so it only gets 6.5 hours. But this is plenty for most people. Plus, it has a matte screen and Windows 7.

All of these netbooks have great keyboards, which is one of the most important factors, and long battery lives, which is the other most important factor. You’re not going to get stellar performance with most netbooks, but none of these are pokey or frustrating to use.

So, which one should you get? I advise getting the N110 because it has the longest battery life. And now that the N140 is out, you’re bound to find it for less than $400, maybe even less than $350. If you’re on a tighter budget, go looking for the NC10 as it is likely to be even less. As long as you can get the NC10 or N110, I say the N140 isn’t strictly necessary. But once those are gone, the N140 isn’t a bad choice at all.

I would not rec the N130, Samsung’s “value” netbook. It is pokey and only lasts 4 hours and 44 minutes on a charge. I am also not that fond of the Samsung GO.

Toshiba mini NB205

Most people at LAPTOP really, really like this netbook. And I will say that it’s quite snazzy looking. Plus, it lasts 8.8 – 9.25 hours on a charge, depending on which model you get. The reason I am not as gung-ho on it is that I am not a huge fan of island-style keys. The keyboard on the NB205 is good, though, and if you like that type of key then go for it. It performs well, looks good, and lasts a long time.

When buying an NB205, keep a few things in mind. Toshiba put out a bunch of different model numbers for this netbook, so when you go to their site or Amazon or something, you’ll see about half a dozen different machines with names like NB205-N210 or NB205-N330BL or whatever. Sometimes I wonder if companies are out to confuse us purposefully.

The difference between the N2** models and the N3** models is the keyboard. The N3** models have the island-style keyboard and the N2** ones have a standard keyboard. I didn’t get a chance to try the standard keyboard, so I can’t say whether it’s better or worse. But all of my colleagues seem to think the island-style keyboard is superior.

Another thing to look out for when purchasing is if the model has Windows 7 or XP. The XP model should be a bit cheaper and it gets longer battery life, so I would suggest going for that.

When searching for this netbook on Amazon be careful you’re looking at the model # you want. On some pages if you change the color it will give you a completely different model, not the same model but in black or whatever. So check the specs and do a bit of hunting around. Like I said, XP is better and the model #s that start with NB205-N3** are what you’re looking for. Here’s a helpful Amazon link for you.

11.6 Inch Systems

Most people who ask are in the market for a 10-inch system. That’s my favorite size as well, so that’s usually what I recommend. But some folks like to have a bigger screen and 11.6-inch netbooks are all the rage these days. I have two recs in this category and one of them isn’t even really a netbook.

HP Mini 311

If you’re going to get an 11-inch system, you might as well get one that has some oomph. The Mini 311 has something most netbooks don’t: a discrete graphics chip. For those of you who have no clue what that even means or don’t care, this matters most when you’re doing two things: watching videos and playing games.

Netbooks can play Hulu, YouTube, etc. just fine. It isn’t the absolute best experience, but it’s also a 10-inch screen, so you’re not looking to recreate the cinema or anything. But the 311 is cool because it does smooth full screen video and HD video and, when the newest version of Flash comes out, can do full HD. You can also play games like Spore or WOW, though on the lowest quality, so you’ll have some fun in-between writing. The battery life is quite good for a system with a separate graphics card: 5 hours, 43 minutes. And the price is nice as well: starts at $399.

Acer Aspire 1410

Though this system is 11.6 inches and only $399, it’s not actually a netbook. It’s an ultraportable laptop. What’s the difference you ask? Performance. This notebook has a more powerful processor so it behaves more like a regular laptop. You won’t be able to do some major gaming or video editing or whatever on it. However, unlike a netbook, it isn’t going to slow down once five or six programs get going at once. Yet it’s still portable and light and inexpensive and lasts 6 and a half hours.

You won’t get the same graphics performance on this as on the Mini 311, but you will get good HD video playback and smooth full screen Hulu.

Those are my suggestions for anyone looking to get a netbook. There are many others out there and you can see very comprehensive reviews on LAPTOP Magazine’s website. But, after all these months, I haven’t come across a netbook that made me want to give up my Samsung NC10. The Toshiba is nice, just not my style. And I like these 11-inch systems, but the 10-inch form factor works best for me.

Hope this post helps those of you looking for a netbook. Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments, too.

Notes

1. Technically an NC10 Special Edition, which has a larger touchpad and better battery than the typical NC10
2. This is the netbook featured in that hilarious video a few months back with the model whose boyfriend dumped her before she got to Paris

Of course, I couldn’t bring the TARDIS in without some daleks showing up. You see the black one menacing my poor police box there. They’re lurking in many corners. See:

This one thinks he’s being crafty:

I also brought back my photos since they always bring a smile to my face. Cute kids will do that to you.

I’m trying to decide if my desk is geeky enough or if I need to add a Doctor action figure to round it all out.

He’s surrounded by several of the devices that I need to now plug into him. Every time I do, he emits movie-correct beep beep boop sounds, much to the delight of my co-workers.

Can you identify all that crap? A pat on the head goes to anyone who can. I’ll give you a hint on the penguin: it’s actually a USB flash drive with Ubuntu pre-loaded. R2 is also surrounded by my fancy Logitech keyboard and mouse, seen here:

The last time I worked here I had a pretty geeky cubicle with a TARDIS hub and Daleks menacing me from every corner. I think I need to get back to that. I’ll get (yet another) hub for my desk at home that’s not quite as fun then bring the Doctor Who toys back.

Any other suggestions for geeking out my cubicle?

As I said in my last post, I am definitely a netbook person when it comes to computers I carry around all the time and use anywhere. However, my needs and experience are not necessarily everyone’s. I can see the UL30 or other ultraportables being great machines for people who travel a great deal, folks going on extended trips (particularly abroad), and people with access to tables on their long commute.

Not everyone needs or wants to carry a laptop around all the time just in case you have a spare moment to write on them. Not everyone rides a cramped and crowded subway. I fall into the realm of Power User for netbooks, so what I need and do are on the extreme end of what mainstream consumers want.

That said, the UL30 came pretty close to being the kind of machine I want for a secondary computer. Perhaps if systems like this and with this price had come along before netbooks, I would be perfectly content. It has all the things I wished for back in the day. (The Day being 2 years ago. Sad, I know.)

I’m back to carrying my NC10 around now. Seshet missed me, I can tell. She always gets a little nervous when a new, cool netbook or notebook lands on my desk. However, I can say with some authority that I still think the Samsung NC10 (and its subsequent update the N110) is the best netbook I’ve ever tried. I’m glad I own one and I won’t be trading it for a fancy ultraportable any time soon.

The laptop does include a solution to that in the form of ExpressGate, ASUS’ instant-on OS. This boots up in about 10 – 15 seconds and from there you can access a web browser, Skype, music and pictures. The one thing I wish this instant-on had was a notepad or something so I could do some simple writing tasks (like these posts) without booting the full OS. I can’t access the web on the subway, so even being able to access GoogleDocs doesn’t do much for me.

Boot and wake time can be tweaked, like I said, so it’s not a tragedy.

Meanwhile, I’ve taken the system to several press events this week and it’s not as convenient for taking notes as my netbook. My NC10 wakes up pretty quickly and it’s easier to perch on the edge of a small table or my lap for notes. Of course, if I had a tablet it would be even easier, but we won’t get into that right now.

So again, I find myself wishing for my NC10 instead of the UL30. I do still really like this machine in general. It’s just not a netbook.

For me, this experience reinforces what I’ve always thought: though light and inexpensive 12 and 13 inch laptops have wonderful screen real-estate, when looking for a laptop to carry around with me everywhere at all times, the 9 and 10 inch sizes are better. Even 11.6 is more than I need.

But when it comes to power, I do find myself wishing that 10-inch netbooks came with CULV processors so that I could run more programs at once. Perhaps that will happen sometime in the near future. Or the new Intel Atom “Pine Trail” will provide the power I seek.

The subway is bad for lap typing because my lap slopes downward when I’m sitting. After trying to find a good solution I finally came up with the perfect combination. My ful messenger bag and the Cool-Lift. The ful is square and flat, so it makes a good, steady surface. The Cool-Lift corrects for the small amount of slope that would usually put it off balance, and the straps around my waist keep the whole thing secure. This is how I type with the NC10 and how I’m able to still write with the UL30.

I’m using the messenger/backpack convertible, which is also flat on the back, in the same way. The strap sits a bit differently on my back and I’ve had to do some adjustments with the Cool-Lift, but otherwise it’s a great setup.

I still find that I need more elbow room than I normally would and that using the trackpad is not quite effortless. I use two hands, which I am told is unusual. YMMV.

I think I’m ready to declare that my netbook is better for writing on the subway.  The UL30 isn’t bad or anything, but given the choice I would stick with my smaller laptop.

Firstly, I need more elbow room with the UL30 due to the bigger keyboard and the placement of the touchpad. Normally I’m not always hitting my neighbors but today I am. This is definitely less convenient for typing on a semi-crowded subway.

Sometimes when I don’t have a lot of elbow room I still get out my netbook and read a bit, but I don’t see myself doing that with the UL30. I’m sort of surprised at the difference the few inches make.

I might get better hang of it as the week goes on, so I’ll reserve final judgment for Friday.

I’ve discovered something about Central Park’s wireless: it doesn’t cover the whole park. It doesn’t even cover areas I would expect it to, like Strawberry Fields (lots of tourists taking pictures of the mosaic that spells Imagine) or the bandshell or along the length of the line for Shakespeare in the Park. Frustrating. Wireless should be ubiquitous, especially in public parks. Just thought I’d mention that.

After today’s errands, I came to the park again because I was promised more drumming and some house music. So here I am. Carrying the UL30 in my backpack has been much better than the messenger bag. This is definitely the way to go. However, I prefer messengers over backpacks because they give you much easier access to your stuff and are a bit more secure. Not being able to carry it with that style as comfortably as I do my NC10 is a mark against the UL30 for me. For folks who don’t walk around a city and take a subway everywhere, this might not be as big a deal.

I live in a walking city, so it’s sometimes hard to put myself in the mindset of people who mainly get around in cars. When is an ultraportable desireable for those folks? I would say if you travel a lot you don’t want a heavy laptop weighing you down. Or if you do much moving between locations during the day. College students or messengers or even people who work in office parks where the meeting is in a different building than your office/cubicle. In all of these cases, portability is a major factor. If you don’t have to walk 20 blocks, the UL30 in a briefcase or messenger is probably not going to phase you.

Tomorrow I will begin my working week, and that means the commuting test!

This machine is actually a perfect one for writers. It’s powerful enough to handle many programs open at once, unlike netbooks that get kinda slow after 4 or 5. The keyboard is full-size and easy to type on. It doesn’t have the spring I like best, but it doesn’t hinder typing in any way. The big screen is great for writing and editing. And it’s skinny and light enough to carry around all the time.

Well, I think it might be. So I’m putting that last part to the test. I’m leaving my Samsung NC10 at home for a week and carrying around the UL30, instead. This weekend I’m going to write with it. (More than blog posts, hopefully.) During the week I’ll write with it on the train, like I usually do.

Today I’m taking the UL30 to my favorite café in my neighborhood and then to Central Park to hunt for free Wi-Fi and a drum circle.

After that I ran a few errands and came down to Central Park. I’m not wearing my normal messenger bag because, by itself, it’s a little heavy. My NC10 doesn’t weigh me down, even in that, but the UL30 is 1.2 pounds more. You wouldn’t think that extra pound would make a big difference, but it does. My shoulder hurts a bit more than usual, but I don’t feel really weighed down the way I used to with my large screen laptop. Still, I can tell. Carrying this isn’t quite effortless.

The bag I’m using now is a bit smaller and lighter by itself. It also converts into a backpack, which is what you need when tech is straining your shoulder a bit. IN backpack mode I barely feel the weight.

Now I’m sitting by the bandstand enjoying the late summer evening and a group of excellent drummers. Earlier in the day the UL30 didn’t do that great with direct sunlight. The glossy screen is too reflective.

If you’re the type of person to sit and type in the dark, then you might not be down with the lack of backlit keys. I don’t usually type in the dark, so it’s less of a consideration for me. The light from the screen is plenty to see by.

Now I’m going to settle in for a little writing since that’s why I came out here in the first place. The UL30 is at 92% currently.

Today’s adventures are almost over. Once they kick me out of this place I’ll head home. Having carried the UL30 around all day, I can conceive doing so on a regular basis. I definitely felt it, but not yet so much that I’d rather leave it at home than take it with me just in case I can get some writing done. We’ll see how I feel at the end of next week.

For a long time, I stuck with MusicMatch Jukebox, a player that sometimes came free with new computers and to which I became very attached. I liked the way MMJB displayed and organized my library, plus it had a ton of options. The best one was a feature which would help me identify the ID3 information of a track by looking it up on a CD database and tag it accordingly. This tool also conveniently renamed tracks, individually or in swaths, based on the tag information. I was in the process of cleaning up my moderately-sized MP3 collection when MMJB completely died on me one day.

Under normal circumstances this would not be a problem — just re-install or download again. But no. You see, many years ago Yahoo purchased MusicMatch (which was also a content site with the ability to stream stations of music by similar artist or genre, similar to Last.fm today) and that eventually became Yahoo!Music. Along with the site came the player, and soon I began to get random pop-ups informing me that MMJB was now Yahoo Jukebox (or something, I admit I was too angry to pay close attention) and that support for my version of the program would end soon. I didn’t want the new, intrusive and horrendous Yahoo version of the player, so I stuck with mine. Eventually support ended and the popups mostly went away.

But then the program itself began to break down.

It wouldn’t start properly every time — sometimes looking for updates to software on servers that probably didn’t exist anymore. Shutting down always required intervention from the Task Manager. One day I stopped having the ability to burn CDs.

I finally had to give the program up.

In my search for a replacement I discovered something about music and media players: a lot of them suck!

Before MMJB I used RealPlayer, but that had pretty limited functionality, horrible library management, and no tag tools to speak of. Windows Media Player wasn’t much better, but it was okay in a pinch. WinAmp failed to impress me, as did Songbird (that app is really not ready for prime time). I despaired of finding a comparable program and started to investigate re-downloading an old version of MMJB, even if I couldn’t activate the Pro mode.

Then someone suggested MediaMonkey. That person saved my musical life.

MediaMonkey is an audio player by Ventis Media. It isn’t designed for just one device, like iTunes, and offers users many tools to help organize and manage large music libraries for free. It can play a plethora of file types, including ogg. The Gold version offers even more tools.

The default look of MediaMonkey is very reminiscent of MMJB — the main area is split into three columns. From left to right, an explorer column with access to tracks, playlists, and optical drives; a detailed track listing window with configurable headers; a Now Playing column.

Along the top is the usual suite of buttons with easy access to typical functionalities. The bottom of the screen is dedicated to the seek bar, controls, track info, and equalizer button.

On a netbook this can all seem crowded, but the View menu allows me to decide which of these or a few other options are displayed.

I particularly appreciate the Explorer column because it allows me to find music in several ways: by artist, album, title, genre, year, rating, playlist, location, On the Computer, classification (tempo, mood, etc), even the web. It will also list podcasts in a separate dropdown so it’s easier to manage those separate from regular MP3s. As simple as this seems, there were very few programs I tried that gave me all this in a satisfactory manner.

I haven’t had a chance to try out all of the functions — I’m going to try burning a CD soon and, when I’m feeling adventurous, syncing my MP3 player. I’ve been spending time working with the Tag utilities.

MediaMonkey gives you an option to AutoTag from information found on the web, AutoTag from the file name, AutoOrganize files and, under Advanced, sync tags and clean them up according to ID3v1 or v2 standards.

Though the app is far more robust than most others I’ve tried, it still doesn’t quite measure up to MMJB’s tagging abilities. AutoTagging from the web searches Amazon.com for album information and attempts to apply it to your track or selection of tracks. But Amazon’s database doesn’t have enough discrete fields or data to be 100% effective in this regard. Also, the search engine is a bit hinkey, so you have to fiddle a bit. Basically, you need to know exactly what album you’re looking for. MMJB’s was a bit more intuitive and only needed a little information to find the correct data.

AutoTag from File Name is also not as useful as it could be, as the engine counts plain spaces as delimiters. So, if my file name is:

John Barrowman – Time After Time – 06.mp3

And I try to tell it to tag the file:

– –

The engine will get confused by the space and list the artist as John and the track name as “Barrowman – Time After Time – 06” or something like that. MMJB was a bit smarter than this.

Luckily, MediaMonkey is one of those programs with an active community and involved developers. It’s not exactly open source, but the development of the software is influenced by the users. This may mean more involvement than most casual users want, but for someone who is very particular about what she wants, I’m willing to put in the effort.

Another thing I plan to do soon is play around with the library maintenance function to see if it’s useful.

If you have a large music collection and hate iTunes, then MediaMonkey is your best bet. It’s probably your best bet even if you like iTunes. You’d probably enjoy it even if you want a simple, easy music player — MediaMonkey doesn’t try to do more for you than you ask of it. Though, after using it for a while, you’ll probably get curious about some of the more complex functionality and give some of it a try.

These appeal to my inner child: Transformers USB drive, hub and optical mouse.

Found here. Aren’t they awesome? I’m especially partial to the one that transforms into Ravage.

In terms of USB drives, 2GB is too little for me to bother with, no matter how cute the idea is. I could be persuaded into buying the hub, though.

Right now my favorite thing in the world is my Cool Lift notebook pad. It’s just a small bit of foam with some raised bits to tilt my netbook up at a small angle — not too different from this Lapworks model, my other favorite. I bought the Cool Lift because I like writing during my subway commute but have never been able to type comfortably with my netbook on my lap. Putting it on top of my bag worked out all right some of the time, but sometimes there was still unfortunate downward sloping and the bottom would get really hot. I considered getting another Lapworks lapdesk, but it seemed overkill for my tiny netbook.

In my search for better alternatives I found the Cool Lift, which has almost the same dimensions as my Sammy. It also weighs next to nothing yet has shown no signs of collapse.

I sometimes use the Cool Lift on tables at cafes, but not as much — on a flat surface my netbook remains relatively cool. Just not when it’s on top of my canvas bag, the fabric blocking all the vents and such.

This accessory gets high scores on all the points that matter. It’s small, lightweight and portable, so I don’t mind carrying it around all day, it perfectly fulfills the function I bought it for, and it doesn’t cost a lot ($10 at Amazon).

The keyboard in question is the Logitech G11, a model made for gamers. It’s notable for several features, including how freaking big it is and the blue backlit keys. But the main reason I bought it and brought it to work are the 18 programmable keys that grace the left edge of my happy beast.

Back when I started working at Laptop I quickly determined that if my wrists were going to survive all the repetitive Photoshop commands and massive copying and pasting I would have to find a way to make it so I didn’t have to move my hands around as much. Keyboard shortcuts are definitely my friends, but many of them require two hands to do comfortably. Plus, I need to use the mouse. The ideal situation would be to have one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse.

I figured there had to be a keyboard out there for people who wanted this – my job is not so super-specific that this is a niche need. In fact, my current job is in marketing, not mainly web content, and I found the need just as pressing. I would guess that a majority of people who work office jobs could use a keyboard that helps with repetitive shortcut tasks. Yet I have not found a keyboard that caters to people like us.

There are plenty of gaming keyboards. Plenty. Too many, really. Logitech devotes something like 33% of their keyboard line to gamers. There ia only 1 “Natural” keyboard, which is a nod to office environments and ergonomics, but no keyboards made with designers, coders, or repetitive shortcut users in mind. The fact that the G11 is exactly what I need is a fluke, not a feature.

Not that I’m complaining – I couldn’t ask for a better keyboard. The programmable keys give me exactly what I need, allowing me to execute simple shortcuts (like Ctrl+C) and more complex combinations (Ctrl+N, Enter, Ctrl+V for pasting a new image into Photoshop) with just one press of a button. And when I have to do a series of the same command over and over, having each on one key allows me to get into a rhythm quickly and complete the work faster. I also love that the 18 keys have 3 modes, so really you have 18×3 keys you can program and can switch modes when you switch apps or tasks or whatever.

The keyboard could still use a few improvements, all of which could come about after a 20 minute conversation with someone who uses it for more than 12 hours every day.

I don’t get why my demographic is ignored in this product space. There are many millions of us and many thousands of companies that employ us. One would think that the potential for selling that many units would make the upper echelon at Logitech, Microsoft, Kensington, and any number of mainstream keyboard makers drool with anticipation. Is it that they aren’t paying attention? Or maybe I am missing a whole category of keyboard products currently hidden from my view.

The sad coda to this story is that Logitech doesn’t seem to favor the G11 very much and now produces many gaming keyboards with far fewer programmable keys or no dedicated ones on the left at all. Perhaps they discovered that this function was not desired by gamers. I say: forget them and re-brand that keyboard for the office set! We don’t need the backlit keys or the media controls up top. Just give us something functional, easy to configure, and comfortable and we’ll spend the money. Or we’ll force our companies to.

One thing I find interesting about the netbook craze is how netbook-specific communities pop up very soon after the netbooks are announced or come out. Back when the original Eee PC came out I found a lot of great information on EeeUser. I was unfamiliar with Linux, so the tutorials and explanations I found there on how to add programs and make my BlueTooth dongle work really helped. Now with almost every new entrant into the netbook category you’re likely to find a community of dedicated users.

I found SammyNetbook when I was attempting to make the hardware on the NC10 play nice with Windows 7.  That’s also where I found out that Fedora works on it out of the box, which was very useful in writing my Linux piece. Someone there pointed me to Linux on my Samsung and I intend to read and contribute there a lot over the next few weeks. I’m putting Linux Mint on my Samsung, but I’m waiting until the next version comes out. Ubuntu, which Mint is based on, is set to have better compatibility with netbooks, so it follows that Mint will, too.

I think it’s awesome that if you buy a netbook you’re likely to find a group of people who also have one and are dedicated to solving problems, trying new things, and extolling its virtues.