The ASUS eee PC line starts at $250

Is it just my imagination or are tiny notebooks taking over the technology market this holiday season? Everywhere I look stores, online retailers and home shopping networks are selling these stylish mini notebook computers that come in every color imaginable with most of the power and functionality of a standard notebook computer. On top of that, nearly every major notebook manufacturer is selling at least one model of these ultra portable, ultra connectible netbooks (the new term for the sub-notebook/ compact laptop/ mini pc- referring to their configuration as a device optimized for internet usage). These little machines might be half the size of a “fully functional” notebook and half the price, but they certainly aren’t half the machine. With 1 GB of memory, 1.3 to 1.6 GHz processors, up to 160 GB hard drives, a weight of less than 3 lbs, and a battery life of up to 8 hours, these netbooks are sub nothing- these are some serious specs.

Dell’s Inspiron Mini starts at $399

Even the fact that you lose out on a DVD drive doesn’t really seem so bad when you think about the mobility of these machines. They have internal wireless 802.11 b/g/n connectivity as well as Bluetooth capabilities, and with mobility like that who needs the ability to burn or watch a DVD? This is the age of email and wireless downloading via iTunes after all. Who needs a physical DVD when you can download movies and music to your machine wirelessly? Who stores files on backup disks when you can use an external USB hard drive or send your files to an online storage solution in the clouds? And who needs to distribute materials via disks or use DVDs to share presentations when email is so efficient and USB flash drives so convenient?

This new wave of mobile computing is nothing new of course. For years companies have been fighting to find the perfect blend of size and functionality for ultra portable laptops to serve the business class. Of course one of the most notable examples of the ultra portable notebook is the Macbook Air, which was announced by Apple earlier this year boasting its record as the world’s thinnest full size notebook computer. Of course in order to achieve this delicate juxtaposition of slim and full sized, concessions were made: they removed the DVD drive and the hard drive was cut down, although the price of the notebook increased dramatically.

It’s actually pretty ironic that Apple began the crusade supporting the lack of a DVD drive for the Macbook Air and even came out with MobileMe to provide alternative backup solutions for mobile computer users and yet they are still on the full sized, full priced models, while other manufacturers are cutting the same corners and creating more portable and more affordable machines. The Macbook Air is wonderful and all with its thin design and near weightlessness, and even the full size keyboard seems like a must, but all that seems useless when you want a notebook that can fit into your handbag and that 13.3 inch screen just doesn’t make the cut! The prices of these little machines are also unbeatable, with some models starting at as low as $250! Of course the cheap price tag produces allegations that these netbooks might also be cheaply made, but so far no major problems or defects have come to fruition.

Of course, just because most of these netbooks are relatively inexpensive does not mean that there are not a few companies maximizing profits with special models. HP for example has come out with what they are calling the “first digital clutch.” This HP Mini series notebook, styled by renowned fashion designer Vivienne Tam, hit the runway this summer as a fashion accessory. Of course this model has a higher price point than the standard Mini series machine and it is a number closer to something you would expect on a full sized, full function notebook computer, but that’s the price of fashion as they say!

Whatever the make or model, these little netbooks certainly seem to be the next wave of mobile computing technology that has taken over the market. I project that after the New Year we will be seeing much more of these little computers popping up all over the place. College campuses, coffee houses, on flights and trains all across the globe, I have a feeling these little computers are going to make a big splash!

{Prices listed for models are in some cases approximations based on internet prices and are therefore not guaranteed to be accurate or reflect the price of the exact model shown.}
{This has been reposted from blackalligator.blogspot.com}

Friday afternoon my new Macbook case arrived in the mail (very fast shipping from Utah to the East Coast) and as promised I have taken a few pictures to post and with them I will add a bit of a review for those of you who are interested. As far as I know, this is one of the first reviews of this product (I can’t find any others) and I think I may have been one of the first to order this case! So, I hope my eagerness over receiving it is a benefit to those of you who are looking for a good case for your laptop, or were even thinking about an Isis Dei case but haven’t seen many good reviews of their products. I am going to write this review with the aid of my pictures, so hopefully you get the idea of how this case works- its positives and negatives- as though you yourself were opening it up for use for the first time.

Exterior Design and Durability, 3 out of 5:

This first picture (above) shows the exterior of the case. As I may have mentioned in my previous post, this is a memory foam cover style case that functions as a sleeve case for travel protection (you can put your Mac inside and then tote it around in another bag), as well as an everyday protective cover. Right now as I type this my Mac is securely inside the case, safe from debris or dirt that might possibly stick to it.

Obviously from the name, you can tell that the design is a goldfish print of sparkling koi scales that wrap around a majority of the case. One thing that differed from the images I found on Isis Dei’s website is that this case is actually more white than gold. The case itself seems to be a plain white memory foam case, screen printed with the koi scale design, embellished with the Isis Dei logo and specialty zipper (we will get to that later). The quality of the exterior design of the case is a solid ‘good’ on the scale from ‘poor’ to ‘excellent’ (poor, fair, good, excellent being the scale) as it is free from flaws for the most part, but I fear that with use the gold might begin to flake off as screen printed objects tend to do. The care directions say to spot treat this case and not wash it, obviously because you would run the risk of damaging the print. Actually, when I received the case in the mail there were small areas where the design looked like it had been damaged slightly in transit, and I fear that the design on the case might damage easily if it were to get scratched. This has nothing to do with the protection abilities of the case, but I still think its worth mentioning that if you are someone who will not take care to make sure the case is protected, you run the risk of doing damage to the exterior design.

Protection and Functionality, 4 out of 5:

Now, in terms of protection and not pure aesthetics, this is a ‘good/excellent’ on the quality scale. This is memory foam 5 mm thick, I believe, and it does a great job of cushioning the laptop while it is inside. I love how you can push your finger into the foam, feel it compress under your finger and then watch it bounce slowly back to place. I have been doing this a lot this weekend, and I have to say it gets an ‘excellent’ rating for that, since it has never failed to return to its original form after I compress it. Where it gets a less than ‘excellent’ protection rating is in the dimensions of the case. When my laptop is securely inside and all zipped up in place, the case still seems a little too big, as if my Mac can move around in there. Basically, it’s not as tight a fit as a sleeve cover would be, but this might be because the style of the case functions as protection when the laptop is open inside of it, as well as when it is closed, and therefore an unavoidable requirement for the dimensions. If so, I understand it is necessary to forgo the exact fit for functionality (as I did get this case to function as a protective cover as well as a sleeve for portability). However, it still bums me out!

Now, here is a detail image of the side of the case as it is opened by the zipper. As you can see the zipper hardware is personalized with the Isis Dei name and logo in a matching gold color. This is a nice touch of course, as details matter to me! This picture also does a great job of illustrating something I mentioned earlier; that the case is more white in color than I expected. Mostly, because it has a thick white zipper 3/4ths the way around the case. I am not thrilled about this, I wish it had been gold instead of white or that the design was able to continue onto the zipper. The images on the website seem to suggest that the koi scale design continues past the face of the cover and really makes no indication of the white pipping either. Another element of the case captured by this image is the width of the zipper on either side as it unzips. As you can see, the top portion of the zipper is thicker than the lower portion- this is because when the case opens, the upper lip ( I will call it; the fold of material that keeps the zipper from scratching the machine) is thicker than the lower- so that the ports of the Mac are accessible while the machine is in use. Now, this is an ‘excellent’ feature of the case because you need to be able to access the ports while the case is in use!

Now, there is one downside to the fact that the lower lip is thinner than the upper lip of the zipper, and that is the fact that there is nothing keeping the bottom of the case attached to the Mac itself. As the next photo and this one above also illustrates, there is a thin flexible strap of elastic that keeps the screen of the mac connected to the top of the case, however, the lack of a similar strap on the bottom really ends up creating a functionality and protection problem. I think I might end up sewing on a strap myself to each of the bottom corners so that there is something keeping the bottom of the case connected to the laptop- I like to carry and move my laptop around and I don’t like that the bottom of the case pulls away from the machine

The funny thing is, the top straps aren’t even necessary because the upper lip actually bends over the corners of the screen, keeping it in place without the use of the straps. So really, they should have just put those elastic straps on the bottom because the top stays up fine on its own!

Additional Features, 5 out of 5:

Finally, as you can see in this image, the ports of the case are all accessible while the Mac is in use. This is one of the best features of the case, and what really sets it apart from other cases, including those that Isis Dei has made previously. There is actually one more ‘excellent’ feature about this case that I almost neglected to mention- the heat disbursement! I don’t know exactly how this works, but apparently this case is equipped with some new form of heat dissipating material (I guess the foam??), so you can keep the laptop in the case and on your lap and not receive the usual second degree burn. I am really loving this feature because I love to keep my Mac on my lap when I work, but I always end up needing something between me and the Mac- this eliminates that problem altogether!

Now, I would like to make some sort of concluding remark on the case overall and also respond to something that Isis Dei says about this case on their site. They call this one of their first “luxury” cases, and I am at odds with that term, personally. I do think that they added a few elements to this case that make it more functional (access to ports and heat disbursement) and also more aesthetically pleasing (pretty koi print and nice golden hardware), but I feel as though the quality overall was not something I would describe as luxurious. However (!), when you take into consideration the fact that this case was only $32 -I paid more than that for my old, less functional, and less attractive neoprene sleeve- I think you are certainly getting a lot for your money and would fully recommend this case to others!