A little while ago Laptop Magazine’s Avram Piltch IMed me the following video from CNBC:

I was prepared to watch another vaguely interesting segment about whether the new PC vs. Mac ads were making a difference to consumers, etc., but instead I spent almost the entire time making this face: >:O  I was so completely appalled by how much CNBC Silicon Valley Bureau Chief Jim Goldman was straight out lying about Macs.  It wasn’t just that he got a few things wrong, he took wrong, fed it some steroids, and then sent it to the gym for 6 months.

It was a lot of wrong.

Avram does an excellent job of taking Goldman’s points apart on Laptop’s blog.  I think I started to see red when the guy said that Photoshop comes with a Mac but you have to buy it fr the PC.  I don’t know what crazytown Jim lives in.  Or perhaps he’s never had to buy a Mac for himself, therefore doesnt know that these programs do not magically appear on the hard drive. 

I had a fleeting thought that maybe he was talking about iPhoto, but then dismissd it.  No one would mistake iPhoto for Photoshop.  After all, I have not yet been able to figure out how to make the free version of iPhoto that comes with Macs resize an image.  Yes, a basic function such as resizing is beyond iPhoto’s capailities as far as I can tell.  If it can resize, the functionality was hidden.  Mac people are free to correct me.  

Another thing he said made me roll my eyes forever:  ”If your PC breaks down — Macs tend not to — if your PC breaks down…”

Stop right there, Sunny Jim.  I know too many Mac users to even give you credit for being ignorant on that one.  Macs break down, crash, get messed up, just like any other computer.  They may be more durable overall, but they are not so much less likely to break that you can make a statement like that on national television.  All technology breaks, whether through manufacturer flaws or human error.  And I’ll bet the percentage of problems caused by human error is about the same on both kinds of computers.

This is why people do not respect Mac cultists.

And its a shame because, as Avram pointed out, there’s no need to lie in order to make a case that Mac gives users value over PCs in some instances.  It depends on who you are and what you want.  This is a partculrly egregious lie because Jim Goldman is supposed to be a journalist.  But he’s no better than a blogger.  And we all know about them.

It’s sold by a third party and there’s a 2 – 3 day delay, but the product page lists the Samsung N110 as “In Stock”.  It’s just a few dollars more than the Samsung NC10 Special Edition and about $50 more than the original NC10.

If you end up getting one, tell me how you like it!

The Samsung NC20 arrived in our office today.  It has to go back from whence it came in a week, which saddens me.  I haven’t had a chance to play with it much, but it’s essentially a 12-inch NC10, and I love me the NC10.

Having a 12-inch system stretches the definition of netbook a bit, I agree.  My boss told me long ago (I think the day I interviewed) that he felt consumers who go for netbooks really want 12-inch ultraportables that don’t cost an arm and a leg.  Figure out how to combine the 12-inch form factor with a $350 asking price and you can go swimming in the money you’ll make.  (I’m paraphrasing here.)

Dell came out with the Mini 12, but it had a slow hard drive, 1 gig of memory, and Vista.  Yeah.  Even though you can get it with XP now, I don’t see the Mini 12 tearing up the netbook charts.  The NC20 may have a better chance — after all, the 10-inch version is pretty popular.  I think it all hinges on our review :)

As does, I suppose, my true desire for it.  We’ll see how I feel after I’ve played with it for a bit.

So, two bits of news you might find interesting if you spend all of your time looking at tiny laptops and loving them.  First, I updated our faceoff of 10-inch netbooks so I could add the newest Eee PC (1000HE) and the new MSI Wind and the Acer Aspire One, which now comes in a 10-inch version.  Back in November the Samsung NC10 was the best.  Now… well, go read.  However, despite everything the Samsung is still my favorite netbook and I’ll be buying one in March.

Also, about that Acer Aspire One…

When we first tested the battery it lasted almost 8 hours.  Like 3 minutes shy of 8 hours.  And all across the land there was rejoicing.  Then we found out that Acer didn’t plan to put that battery on all the Aspire Ones, just the first batch.  Subsequent batches have a lower capacity battery (why?  I don’t know. ) and thus less life.  We actually got that “normal” battery in yesterday and the test results are in today:  4:24.  Ugh.

Yeah, 4:24 isn’t horrendous, but it’s not 8 hours!  It’s not even 5!  Meanwhile, the Eee PC got over 7.

ASUS really stepped up their game with the 1000HE (even if it could use a better name).  I’m pleasently surprised.

But I’m still buying a Samsung.

The other day I wrote a story about people putting Android–the Google operating system for phones–on netbooks.  I can’t say that it was my most exciting assignment ever.  I put porting Android to the EeePC on a long list of things people do just because they can.  Possibly because it’s cool.  Sometimes because they want to stretch their abilities and test their own limits.  But the end result for everyone is not always practical.  Yes, you can put Android on some netbooks, but it doesn’t work all that well and won’t connect to the app store/market, either.

Perhaps I’m being a bit curmudgeonly.  I use my netbook to get work done, so I need it… working.  But for developers, figuring out how to port things to different platforms and hardware is work.  Still, I always look at news of this type with a bit of skepticism.

Yesterday Brad Linder (of Liliputing) and Adam McDaniel put up instructions on how to create a LiveUSB of the HP Mi Edition version of Linux (which is basically Ubuntu with some semi-extensive tweaks).  This is big news for anyone interested in the Mi OS because up until now you could download it but the install would overwrite everything on your hard drive.  Most Linuxes have the ability to make LiveCDs or LiveUSBs so you can try a distro out and, as far as I know, all of them can install alongside an existing OS (in theory).  But I don’t know if HP expected there to be this kind of interest in the Mi Linux.

Anyway, Brad and Adam spent some time figuring out how to tweak things, so now anyone with a lot of time who isn’t turned off by using Terminal can spend an hour making a LiveUSB of this (admittedly sleek) OS.  Does this fall into Because You Can?  Maybe not.  After all, the OS is usable and meant to run on a netbook.  On the other hand: look at all this tech speak!

I’ve already been promised that I don’t have to do it.

One of the many things my boss and I agree about is that laptops should come in more colors. I personally would also like to see more laptops come in patterns and prints — you know, artistic stuff. But really, anything beyond black, grey and white would be appreciated.

Some laptops come in red, and that’s cool. The Samsung NC10 comes in dark blue, also cool. There’s pink… well, I have issues with pink, as do some other people. I don’t dislike pink totally. But I do dislike the idea that making a notebook pink means it will appeal to women.

There aren’t enough patterns, as I said. And there are some tragically overlooked colors: green, purple, dark orange, brown, teal. I could start whipping out the names of shades from Benjamin Moore, but you get the point.

I think that netbook makers are being especially remiss in not doing something similar to Dell’s Design Studio. I think many people would buy a netbook with less than perfect specs if they got the chance to choose from over 100 really cool designs.

Also, it looks like branded netbooks might be on their way. Yesterday my colleague Dana went to ToyFair and saw some netbooks at the Sakar booth. For those of you who don’t know, Sakar makes electronics, mostly for kids, that are branded with some popular toy or company name. Hello Kitty, Crayola, G.I.Joe, etc. If you go into a Radio Shack, say, and pick up one of those $20 Hello Kitty cameras for little girls, Sakar is probably behind it.

They had pink, purple, red and silver on display. The pink is very hot pink/fucia, so perhaps not intended for Hello Kitty. It’s more of a Barbie pink.

Right now the netbooks run a kid-friendly Linux, which is apt. Click over to Laptop Magazine’s blog for the deets, if you’re so inclined.

No patterns as of yet, but if Sakar plans to use these netbooks as the base for branding, then we’ll probably see something cute and different. Keep your eye on the local Toys R Us!

Hello Kitty isn’t really my thing, I admit. I would not run out to buy an HK netbook, no matter how cute. But maybe this will prompt other netbook makers to get more creative in their designs and consider putting something funky and different on the chassis. I await this day with great patience…