My new netbook
April 04, 2009
I’m not exactly a gadget freak but I got myself a nice blue Acer Aspire ONE D150 today. I got this more out of necessity than anything. It’s only been a few hours of tinkering but I already love it. Aside from the tiny keyboard and the unfortunate placement of the Japanese/English switch keys, it’s such a well-designed machine. I’m really looking forward to some more blog writing away from home. It will face its first test in the Philippines next week.
Although the specs don’t compare to my desktop and on paper look similar to my 7 year old laptop, the Lappy 2, as it has been newly christened, will serve a severe need for mobile computing. It’s ridiculously light and portable. It’s boasting a battery of 3 hours with this 3-cell battery that came with it but I’m highly skeptical of it and I’ll probably pick up a 6 or 9-cell battery soon enough.
I’m in the process of installing all my standard things: firewall, antivirus, iTunes, etc., and I’m absolutely in love with Windows Live Sync – a great service that lets me keep documents in conformity across three computers now. It used to take a lot of manual copy and pasting but now all of that is automated.
The tiny webcam built into the machine is surprisingly clear. The speakers are kind of pathetic but I don’t expect to blast many tunes while travelling anyway. I’ll bring earphones for that.
This netbook could be bought for a mere 100 yen if you sign up with E-Mobile for a two year mobile internet contract. I didn’t want that since I have a wireless network at home and cafes here often offer free internet. I paid 45,000 yen but got a hundred bucks off with the Yodobashi Camera points I’ve saved over the last year or so!
