For the past 2 months I’ve been working on a series of posts called You Grade The Brands. I’ve been reading the reviews we did of notebooks and netbooks in 2009, going brand by brand, to suss out common strengths and weaknesses amongst a company’s laptop line. It’s been a very illuminating process. Also, I never knew there were so many laptops in the world. Lordy!

I’m putting up the last post sometime today, but you can check out all of the others here. We hit all of the major notebook vendors from HP, Acer, and Dell on down to Samsung, MSI and Fujitsu (with a lot more in-between). If you’ve ever owned a laptop, please click on the company’s post and let us know how you’d rate your experiences with that brand.

We’re looking for both positive and negative feedback on everything from how long it lasted, how often it broke, how tech support was, how much you loved using it, anything.

Also, if you’re in the market for a laptop, you might want to check out the posts to see if the brands you’re interested in are likely to have the features you need.

I keep forgetting to mention the awesome holiday contests going on at Laptop Magazine right now. Every week we’re giving away new, cool gadgets. From now until December 28th you can enter to win an HP Mini 311 11-inch netbook with fancy ION graphics. And starting on December 21st you can enter to win the Toshiba NB205 (the model that comes with Windows 7, I believe). Two of my favorite netbooks available for free. Can’t get any more awesome than that. Click here for details or to enter.

It’s as if Acer has been reading my mind (or my blog). We just reviewed the new Acer Aspire Timeline 1810T, a netbook-sized laptop with a CULV processor inside. It’s not quite my dream machine — I’d prefer 10-inches to 11.6 — but still closer to the performance I want in a smaller form factor.

The $700 price tag doesn’t excite me. Nothing over $500 ever does. If we ever get a 10-inch CULV notebook I would hope that the price would drop to that, at least. And then my poor Sammy netbook would be in a bit of danger.

Now that Acer has taken this step, I hope other computer manufacturers follow. If\Samsung updated their N line with CULV netbooks there would be no keeping me from the store.

In the review of the ASUS UL30 I mentioned that the boot time is a slow 1 minute and 16 seconds. This slowness also applies to coming out of hibernation. In both cases it probably has to do with the number of programs running on startup and in the background. So if you do buy this notebook, I suggest you go in and do some pruning. (I can’t since this is a review unit.) This should improve both boot and wake time.

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.

Someone asked me how I managed to get writing done on the subway when I don’t like to use laptops on my lap. I find the whole lap thing mostly inconvenient, but it depends on so many variables: seat height and depth, whether I can comfortably slouch, and how hot the laptop in question gets on the bottom.

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.

Today I’m commuting with the UL30 on the New York subway. I usually do a bit of writing during my 30 minute train ride in the mornings because my bag acts as a decent table and I can usually get a seat. I’m still using my bag as a table, but noting some differences.

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.

(This was supposed to go up yesterday, but I got home late and was tired.)

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!

Last week I reviewed a new CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) notebook from ASUS called the UL30 (more precisely, the UL30A). The UL series laptops come in various sizes, including 12-inch, but I reviewed the 13-inch model. It’s 4 pounds, a smidge less than an inch thick, and lasts for about 10 hours on a charge. You can read my review here.

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.

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I’ve been to the café – it’s just around the corner from my apartment, so not too long a walk. The UL30 didn’t take up a lot of space on the tiny table and easily found a bunch of wi-fi hotspots. I love that café because there are always a lot of people sitting around talking about the gadgets they use. Something about cafés draws a tech-enhanced crowd.

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.

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As many of you know, I freelanced in the city for a long time. I was on a neverending quest to find a great café with wireless and plenty of outlets. There were several great places in the city that have Wi-Fi but no outlets, or very few outlets, thus you’d have to do a little musical plugs with the others around you. What a difference a few months make. I found a new (to me) coffee bar and took a seat without even looking for an outlet. Turns out they don’t have any at this particular seat, but hey, I just don’t care!

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.

The May issue of Laptop Magazine is on the stands (has been for a bit, actually) and includes two contributions by yours truly. One is the massive roundup of Linux reviews I did and another is a tips article on how to live without an optical drive.

I’ve steadfastly resisted the temptation to buy an external DVD drive for my netbook mainly because of the research I did for that piece. I haven’t had trouble installing any program I have on disc and in the past few months I’ve installed various Linux distros from USB drives (over and over and…).

It’s very odd to me that, when I was in college, having a CD-ROM drive was a big deal, then it was a big deal if you could get a DVD drive included, and then came the wonders of writable DVD drives which seemed so fancy and awesome. Now we’re back to having computers with no optical drive. But considering how you can download almost anything you need from media to software, it isn’t such a big deal any more.

I try not to feel old when I think of things like this…

Anyway, go buy Laptop Magazine. It’s a great issue even beyond my small contributions. 31 free apps that don’t suck! And more.

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.