My new netbook (an Asus Eee PC 1005HA-P, $379 from Amazon) just arrived, and I’m busy admiring, fiddling, learning a new operating system (Windows XP vs. OS X), and getting that maddening music to stop.
The Asus’s default screen saver is an ad for itself, embellished with spooky elevator music that made me think I’d stumbled into a David Lynch movie. First thing I learned:
- Click Start button at lower left, menu comes up
- Open Control Panel
- Click on Display
- Click on screen saver tab
- Choose anything but “Eee PC_1005HA” from dropdown menu
- (I emailed myself some photos and made my Screen-Saver ‘My Pictures slideshow’)
Now that I’ve shut it up, I can’t wait to take this little charmer on the road. I plan to use it as a mobile phone (with Skype, which came already loaded on the machine), a GPS device (not sure how that will work), a boombox, a photo archive, a notebook, and a blogging hub.
Here’s what I’ve noticed so far about the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-P:
1. Wifi
The wifi works great. No problem finding public wifi hotspots at the museum where I work, the café where I caffeinate, or the kitchen table where I try to find room to eat and work amid piles of books and maps and unpaid bills. You're shown a list of possible carriers, and you chose to connect to one or more. Many on the list will be unavailable without a password, but some (if you're in a good spot) will be free access.
2. The Mac to PC blues
As a dedicated Mac user I’m having some PC adjustment issues. I tried to drag the aliases on my desktop to what I thought was the “dock” in the lower right hand corner. It wasn’t a dock. Also, I have a hard time finding things—especially things I’ve just downloaded. All of this will work out, I’m sure, but I’ll state the obvious: Macs are more intuitive than PCs. Too bad Apple doesn’t make a netbook for under $400.
3. Security and viruses
As a former denizen of mostly virus-free MacLand, security and viruses on PCs do worry me. A MacPal of mine half-joked, ‘So will I have to scan your emails for viruses now?’ I don’t know whether to go with Norton Internet Security (which came on the Asus, ready to be installed, but costs $69.99 for a one-year download) or free virus protection from AVG. I didn't have to think about stuff like this when I stuck with Macs.
4. Great battery life
No cord, no problem—this Asus has 10.5 hours of battery life. Forty minutes of use took it from 100 to 95% charged.
5. Ok display screen
The screen was a little hard to see as I sat in my window seat at my favorite café--the Richmond District grey-sky glare is perhaps even worse than direct sunlight. But by shifting my position vis-a-vis the glare I made it work.
6. Keyboard
At 92% of normal, it doesn't feel too cramped.
7. Touchpad
The touch pad will take some getting used to—there aren’t separate left and right click buttons—but there are some cool features, like when you spread two fingers apart on the touch pad you magnify what’s on the screen. Pulling two spread fingers together minimizes what’s onscreen.
8. Envy and lust
While I sat at my café noodling away, more than one guy cruised my Asus. I didn’t buy the machine to provoke techlust, but I have to admit it’s a nice side benefit.
9. Don’t touch
It's a definite fingerprint magnet. I keep wiping it off with the hem of my shirt, like a classic car dude with his chamois.
Today vs. back in the day
But if I get a little bent out of shape about fingerprints, or the video not working on my first Skype call, or that the Asus doesn’t turn cartwheels or serve me coffee, I remind myself of how it used to be, back in the day.
When I lived in Quito, Ecuador, in the 1980s, staying in touch meant a trek to the international phone office, waiting up to an hour for the one-ringy-dingy operators to place your call, then being summoned to your own little booth, with a scarred wooden door and a phone so heavy it would have made a decent murder weapon. If you went to that much trouble to make a call, you had better have something important to say (though I rarely did). Even in the late 1990s, when I brought my early iBook to Oaxaca, there was no voice over internet protocol; my calls home were from the pay phone in the zócolo. Often I had to shout to be heard over the marimba music.
See also: Search for the Top 5 netbooks continues and Top 5 netbooks winnowed down to very top.
Comments
great article ... practical info and love your sense of humour. as a mac user that bought a similar tiny netbook ... an msi to take on the road ...I'm still finding the switch a bit tricky, esp. the worry about viruses. I went with the free AVG, but you must keep downloading updates. didn't want to spend $70 when the netbook only cost $299. I too wish mac made a cheap netbook! mac is so much more intuitive and user-friendly, but the macbook can get weighty in a backpack on the road.
very informative article. I love the way you incorporate tech info with travel and humor.
If this machine had been available a couple of years ago when I bought my light and small Dell xps m1330, perhaps I'd gone for this as it's a lot cheaper. BTW, I've always had Dell PC's and never had any virus problems. I use MacAfee on my desk top computer and whatever comes with the Dell laptop.
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