Net books aren't all bad.

As an "IT Guy" I spend a bit of time on blogs reading about technology and what's new and what's good.  I've seen a lot of news about netbooks.  A lot of the new is good but there are a few bloggers that hate netbooks and feel they shouldn't exist.  Reasons for this include weak processors and small screen sizes.  Both are true but I think there definitely is a market for netbooks.

I recently acquired a netbook during the holidays and I have to say I'm very happy with it.  Before I got it (as a gift) I understood the limitations of netbooks so I wasn't completely disappointed.  With only 1.6GHZ processor and 1 GB RAM you can't run Google SketchUp with some of the serious drafting that I tend to do at work.  But it works perfect for a portable media center.

First thing I did was install free VLC so I could watch all the DivX-ed movies and shows I have.  I already had 65+ movies compressed for a portable format which kept the file sizes low.  But with 250 GB HDD I wasn't too concerned.

Next was to install Boxee.  This really helps my netbook look and feel like a media player.  I had to do some renaming of video files so they could be understodd by Boxee but it was worth it.

I then copied all my eBooks (which are mostly in PDF format) to the netbook and installed free Foxit Reader.  This is an attempt to use my netbook as an eReader of sorts.  I open the PDF file, rotate the document 90 degrees clockwise (or counter) then hit F11 to go fullscreen.  BAM!  eBook reader.

Next move will be to copy all my audio books to it.

I would instantly recommend a netbook to anyone who's looking for a lightweight (physically and processor-wise) media player.  The battery life for the netbook I have is well over 8 hours.  I've not fully tested the capacity while watching movies back to back but so far I don't have to recharge it very often and I use it all the time.

My isues with Peek.

For those of you who don't know what a Peek it you can find out here.

I got the Peek because I wanted to connect to my email accounts and replace my cell texting all for the monthly price of $20. At first I liked it. It was new and exciting. I got on the message boards and learned a lot about it and some things it can do. For example I can update my Twitter AND Facebook status at the same time if I send a message to Ping.fm.

Basically, i never sent it in to get the latest firmware update from 1.04 to 1.08. I just didn't want to be without it for a week while it was in New York. I also didn't want to pay for shipping.

Then the outages came. You see, once you set up your accounts in your Peek, Peek Corporate acts as a middleman. They monitor or ping your email accounts (with version 1.04) every 5 minutes, grab the emails and send them to your Peek. Version 1.08 is supposed to have PUSH technology and be much more "instant". Well the servers went down and people weren't getting upset that they weren't getting their info. This is the main, if not only, reason I didn't want to get a Blackberry.

This is the straw the broke the camel's back. I get an email from my wife at 3 pm in my gmail account. Since I'm at my desk all day I read sent email, reply and forget about it. At 4:13 pm my Peek beeps informing me I have new emails. I'll give you ONE guess concerning which emails I get. Gold star for you!! The exact emails I got from my wife over AN HOUR AGO.

Version 1.08, or Pronto as they call it, is supposed to let me see attached jpgs and PDFs and such but is it really worth it?? I don't think so. PLUS, now I have to carry around TWO gadgets instead of a single cell phone. I think I'm gonna sell my Peek on eBay and go back to cell texting.

End of rant.