MSI Wind Review: The Month Of Joy
The MSI Wind U100.
I bought an MSI Wind U100 exactly one month ago. I paid $350 at Best Buy for the following configuration:
- 120 GB hard drive
- 10" screen
- 3-cell battery
- 1 GB of RAM
- 1.3 megapixel video camera (above screen)
- Ports: (Left of keyboard) 2 USB 2.0 ports. (Right of keyboard) ethernet port, VGA port, headphone and mic ports, SD card slot, 1 USB 2.0 port. No BlueTooth.
- Operating System = Windows XP Home
The short review? I LOVE my Wind.
Mac Notebooks* Over The Years
The 15-inch MacBook Pro
On the eve of Apple's launch of their next generation of MacBooks, Fortune has posted a collection of photos detailing the evolution of Apple notebooks, from 1989 to the present. Mac Rumors is the site to visit for the latest pre-release speculation.
Likely changes to the product lines include:
- Single-cut aluminum cases for both MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
- A starting price of ~$800 for low-end MacBooks.
- Enhanced graphics via migration to NVIDIA chips.
- Blu-ray support.
- Release of a networked HDTV (unlikely).
* The change in nomenclature from "laptop" to "notebook" was prompted by early efforts to increase processor speeds and allow portable computers to act as desktop replacements. While this change allowed consumers to forgo the purchase of a desktop computer and set aside more money for their laptops, (formerly a secondary luxury for the traveling business person or software professional), a key side-effect was increased heat generated by the faster, more powerful processors. Powerbooks, and then early MacBook Pros, got so hot that customers complained of burning and blisters on their legs when they used their portable computers on their laps for extended periods.
To minimize the risk of lawsuits and to discourage people using these computers on their laps, the industry as a whole changed the nomenclature used when describing these products. Instead of "laptops," portable computers are now exclusively referred to as "notebooks." Different name, same thing.
("Netbooks," is an even younger term denoting a subset of portable computer that weighs in at around two pounds, has a max screen size of ten inches, a weaker, more energy efficient processor, no built-in media drive (CD/DVD), and is meant to be extremely portable, inexpensive, and primarily used for accessing the Internet while on the road. The Asus Eee PC 4G was the first netbook to make a splash, but they have been so successful that nearly all major notebook manufacturers will be offering their own netbook by the end of 2008).