Are Netbooks Causing Stress? Lets Find Out.

I have yet to jump on the huge net book bandwagon. I have a beautiful Toshiba notebook that very adequate for my computing needs. It is larger than a net book to be sure, however, I have heard quite a few rumblings in the technical community about the limitations of the net books. Folks get really excited about the ability to be able to slip a net book into a purse, briefcase, day minder or other small carrying case and they have instant portability. Here are a few things to consider before spending the average price of $399.00 on a small edition of a real notebook PC.

Think of all the things that you want or need to do with your computing technology. You need at the very least to be able to send e-mail, surf the web, do some word processing and perhaps update your blog if you want to. Did you know that all of that and more can be done on a smartphone? It’s true. Right now I have a Samsung Instinct. Not very smart at all. It can check e-mail and browse the web in a very limited capacity. I will be purchasing an Iphone this winter for my Christmas present. Here is the story, my wife accidentally dropped her prescription glasses into our daughters oven (yea, don’t ask) and then she turned the oven on. Thirty minutes later she checked to find out if her glasses were done. Have you noticed the tongue-in-cheek sarcasm? Anyway, her lenses were cooked and cracked to perfection and now she has to go out and spend $700.00 on a pair of new lenses.

This works in my advantage. She felt so bad about it and it was very easy to ask if I could get my Christmas present just a little early. The Iphone in Canada is supposed to cost $199.00 for the 16 gig model and I am drooling about it already. I think that the Iphone is a fantastic replacement for a net book, and, it doubles as a camera and a cell phone as well. I’m pretty sure that I can get much more mileage out of a great smartphone than I can a net book. And here is another little tidbit for you to peruse. Motorola has released its newest phone that has been dubbed one of the few authentic iphone killers. It is very slick and runs the android software, and get this, it will include turn by turn GPS navigation for free. Something that the competition just hasn’t got.

I will give you updates as soon as I have my new toy in my hand. Oh, and yes, you can update your blog from your iphone. There’s an app for that. In my humble opinion, a good smartphone can most likely prove to be more valuable to the majority of folks than a netbook. Let’s just do some simple math here. A reputable netbook costs $399.00 and does not come with an optical drive, has limited amounts of storage hard drive space and runs slowly on windows XP. For just a few hundred dollars more, you can move into a legitimate and dedicated notebook computer that has much more functionality and certainly wont have to be upgraded nearly as often as a netbook. Send me your thoughts on netbooks. Do you own one? Would you give up your netbook for a powerful smartphone? Leave a comment below. I may be completely wrong here, so, help me set myself straight. Thanks for stopping by. Rick