The recent news of Microsoft (MS) wanting to rebrand netbooks as "low-cost small PCs" got me thinking... WHY? Don't you think it's pretty long to keep saying the multi-syllable "low-cost small notebook PC" instead of just a two-syllable "netbook"? I don't know about you but I am so sticking to just "netbook". Here's a funny chart I found on what can be classified as a netbook:


I never intended to buy one... at least for myself, because a netbook is just a lightweight and small version of the traditional laptop aimed at Internet usage and emailing. Hey, I can do that with my phone and my Ipod Touch! But when my mom was constantly complaining at how my old laptop just dies on her when she's trying to type with it, I knew I had to do something, or in this case, buy a netbook. So when Mother's Day came, I told her I was getting her one, on the condition that it'd also double/triple as her birthday gift as well as for their [my parents'] 40th wedding anniversary gift. LOL!

Now, the big question. WHICH NETBOOK TO GET??? There's Lenovo, Asus, Acer, Benq, MSI, HP Mini, you name it... there are too many choices out there and with the same specs and prices!!! Accordingly, each model has its own strengths and weaknesses, but I can't really tell the difference myself. Netbooks though are not designed for heavy programs such as Photoshop or large image processing; they can, however, deal with most Office applications such as Excel and Word very easily.

The first thing I considered was the price. (Of course, who doesn't?) Good thing Thinking Tools, Inc. was having a Midsummer Madness Promo so I headed there to check out what they had... and my choices were trimmed down to the following:



Apparently, the new Asus EEE PC had the Mac-inspired chiclet keys! And it also had the new Atom N280 (1.66 Ghz) processor with 9.5 hours of battery life!!! Sweet specs for a pretty sweet price tag! Plus Wireless N!!! I knew I made the right choice as we've had it for almost a month now and I'm really impressed with the battery life! And it comes with Star Office so you don't have to install MS Office on this baby. Okay, so the netbook is slightly heavier and bigger than the others but you can't go wrong with its performance. My mom actually watched the entire 25 episodes of Boys Over Flowers on this little thing!

And so since it had the Macbook feel with it, I decided to tweak it a wee bit and now it looks like a Macbook wannabe!!! ^_^ Well, not even half the speed of Mac OS X but for a fraction of the price... I couldn't be happier!

Check out the pics below:





See? What did I tell ya? It's actually running on WinXP, by the way.

Now here's a stolen shot I took while my mom had her hair styled while using the computer. Shhh! I hope she doesn't read this blog. ^_^ Hehe! *Peace, Ma!



And here are more shots of her while she was happily playing with her new toy. Oh and do you guys know that last year, I got her a PSP because she was asking for one? HAHAHA! My mom is quite a techy senior citizen! My, my... I wonder who I got my gadget girl impulses from? Hmmm...





Bookworm (as well as other Popcap games) runs pretty smooth on the netbook. I think because I upgraded the RAM to 2 GB. Tee hee.



Alright, Ma!!! Are You Happy??? ^_^



Yup, I think she really is. :) I love you, Ma! ^^,

And thanks for letting me borrow it from time to time especially when I'm out...
Yet I won't even dare compare it, but really, this is the next best thing to a Macbook White. LOL!


⋆✌㋡ღ⋆ ia\m/^_^\m/ai 陳美西