Photographs, Photographers and Photography

Making it work with your DSLR.

One of the nicer features of my hacked netbook is its ability to read the SDHC card from my Panasonic G1 using its built in card reader slot as well as its ability to run Lightroom and Photoshop, if at a rather poky speed, meaning what I was used to on the old G4 iMac.

Apple will make card reader and camera connectors available with the launch of the iPad on April 3:

The left one connects to your camera, a connection which I have found to be molasses slow in the past. The other allows you to simply insert the SDHC card into the connector for download.

While Apple should be chastised for not integrating a card reader into the body of the iPad, at least this means you can get your snaps from the camera for preview on a decent sized screen, the small LCD screen in the camera being pretty much useless for those of us with 50+ years old eyes.

What is unclear is whether Panasonic G1 RAW will be supported by the iPad’s native photo processing application, iPhoto. And as you can be sure that it will take the slowpokes at Adobe half a generation to port Lightroom to the iPad, iPhoto is what you will likely have to use. Still, that’s not all bad. iPhoto is fine for preview and light processing and you can still take your snaps for subsequent upload to the home machine with Lightroom at a later date. I’m not sure how one goes about using the iPad as a RAW file storage device but am confident this will be possible, in much the same way the device stores JPGs and MP3 tunes. Maybe one can use MobileMe as conduit storage when on the road, though uploading 10mB RAW files using wireless is not my idea of fun.

As regards Panny RAW support, this page confirms that Aperture v3 supports G1/GH1/GF1 RAW (that only took Apple 18 months from the introduction of the camera) but I cannot find out whether iPhoto in the iPad will. I’m using iPhoto ‘09 (v 8.1.1) on my desktop and it does not import G1 RAW files showing only a JPG preview then refusing to import anything. One workaround would be to shoot JPG+RAW, I suppose, which will at least allow preview of your images, but until a proper RAW reader application is available that strikes me as a weak option.

I suspect that the demand from photographers and videographers for a broad range of import and preview formats will see the iPad gestate into a very useful traveling device for preview and illustrative use.

There’s also a handy iPad to VGA adapter, in addition to Component and Composite (ugh!) variants:

This will make it easy to plug in your iPad to the big screen TV for picture and movie viewing. Pictures can then be moved to the desktop machine by performing a sync, much as with the iPhone.

To cut a long story short, I have reserved a 32gB (non-3G) iPad and will check it out on April 3. I am avoiding the 3G model as AT&T’s already overloaded network will only get worse when the iPad ramps up bandwidth demand and with free wi-fi broadly available there is little need for yet another usage fee.

I opted for the middle of the road 32gB version, figuring it as follows:

OS etc. uses 2gB
Our eight year old’s iPhone games, to be ported to the iPad, consume another 4gB. The boy has his needs, after all.
Tunes will be another 2gB or so.
Leaving 24gB which is equal to 3 8gB SDHC cards’ worth or 1,800 RAW originals. That’s a lot, especially after the cull.
Which means that my travel outfit is the diminutive G1 with two lenses (kit and 45-200mm zooms) and a 1.5lb iPad + a few ounces for its charger.

That little lot represents firepower and competence we could only have dreamt of a mere 5 years ago. The main lie in the iPad’s specs will, I’m sure, prove to be the battery life. Jobs’s “up to 10 hours” spin will probably translate into something closer to 5-6 hours, but that is still more than adequate for moderately heavy use.

One more unusual use for me will be as a device to display cooking recipes. I enjoy cooking and the keyboard-free surface should resist splatters well. We will see. Somehow I don’t see greedy little piggie Mr. Jobs giving me a free replacement should I drop the original in the frying pan ….

Let’s hope this device proves as reliable as the iPhone, not like the other awfully unreliable Apple hardware I have had to contend with over the ages. Apple is smart to use a reservation system as it will allow them to allocate the skimpy first batch of 200,000 iPads to stores with the highest demand. For example, there’s unlikely to be any such demand in the deep South. The iPad may be a touchscreen device usable even by those with hamburger fingers, but a modicum of reading skills is a prerequisite to use. That means higher allocations for those of us living in civilization.

Of course, if I don’t like the gadget when I test it in the Apple Store, I’ll buy it anyway and flip it for a quick 20% gain on the way out the door, as only pre-ordered unit quantities are being shipped to stores. So if you think you can get one on a walk-in basis, you are going to have to deal with the arbitrageur types like me!

Hasta la vista Apple.

In my ongoing quest to banish every last piece of Apple’s awful hardware from the home, I have now purchased two non-Apple keyboards in the last six months, both my Apple wireless ones having failed in that period, refusing to pair with their respective computers. One was the white model the other the aluminum slim version. Looks great – but strictly for display only.

One replacement is wired and is the Kensington Slim Type for Mac. It comes with downloadable software for use with Macs and features proper scissor key mechanical switches for that traditional ‘long throw’ feel which those of us over 7 years of age grew up with.

The Kensington Slim Type for Mac keyboard

At $27 it has been working nicely for six months now and I even found a nice keyboard skin to keep it clean for some $10 more.

The other is the HP Wireless Elite. I have lost all trust in Apple’s Bluetooth as a wireless keyboard technology. The aluminum one which just failed was used with my home theater Mac Mini and would constantly lose pairing with the Mini, displaying an obnoxious message in the center of the screen in the middle of watching a movie. When I am luxuriating in the beauty of a Penelope Cruz or Kate Beckinsale on the screen, the last thing I need to be reminded of is Apple’s crappy products.

Having had good experience with the RF wireless technology used in the Microsoft Wireless Mouse I wrote of earlier I decided to stick with that technology and purchased an HP Elite RF Wireless Keyboard, my wild spending ($33) getting me a slim black keyboard with numeric keypad, an RF USB dongle and an ominous looking CD full of software for Windows users. I discarded the latter, plugged in the RF receiver to the back of the Mini, pressed a couple of keys as instructed and, hey presto!, a perfectly working keyboard which pairs instantly and avoids the need for that ridiculous “enter a number” pairing process dictated by Apple for its wireless garbage. The USB receiver is a little larger than the one for the Microsoft mouse and flashes a veritable klieglight blue diode every time a key is depressed, so either install it out of sight or apply a couple of turns of black electrician’s tape. A real genius designed that part. For reference, the keyboard is some 11 feet from the dongle.

The HP Elite RF Wireless keyboard.

No need to do anything software wise and the OS X System Preferences->Keyboard->Modifier Keys screen even allowed me to disable the Caps Lock button which I like to do as a matter of course. The volume and mute keys work perfectly and are well isolated top right for ease of use in the dark. Interestingly, the elegant gloss chrome side panels match the appearance of the Microsoft RF Wireless Mouse and the whole thing simply works out of the box and has yet to unpair itself. Quality of construction, fit and finish are beyond criticism and the keys adopt that short throw feel used in Apple’s current range. The keyboard comes with two AAA batteries installed and you can blow through two of these before you have equalled the cost of one piece of Apple’s jewelry. Recommended.

To be avoided.

As I value reliability over looks, stability over price, I have been an Apple OS X devotee for a decade now. Windows drove me to OS X. But it would be hard to be unhappier with the reliability record of Apple’s hardware which I have experienced. Here, more or less in chronological order, is the list of that company’s hardware I have used over the past decade and what happened to each.

• iMac 17″ PPC, 1.25gHz – still working great if a bit slow by modern standards. 10 years old. Good for web surfing.
• Airport Extreme ‘UFO’ style’ router. Nothing but stability problems. Given to a friend.
• Airport Express ‘G’ model. Impossible to program and totally unstable. Returned for refund.
• iBook #1 – DVD drive failed after 30 months. Replaced (awful job) and sold.
• iBook #2 – DVD drive failed after 27 months. Replaced and given to a friend.
• iBook #3 – HDD failed. Battery failed after 27 months. In surgery now.
• iMac G5 20″ PPC, 1.8gHz – started to overheat after 2 years’ use. Sold before it could blow.
• Airport Express ‘N’ model. Refused to extend network despite much telephone time with Apple. Returned for refund.
• iMac 20″ Intel C2D, white model (wife’s). Graphics processor failed after 2 years. Not economical to repair. Recycled.
• iMac 24″ Intel C2D, white model. Graphics processor started to fail after 2 years. GPU board replaced and additional cooling (fans and holes) added. Still limping along. Not sure what to do with it as it is full of ventilation holes so not easily sold.
• Airport Extreme router ‘N’ model. Unstable out of the box. Replaced under warranty. Replacement continues to work fine.
• MacBook #1 12″, Intel C2D. Repaired twice under warranty for a wireless problem – Apple replaced the wifi card twice. No use. Complete computer replaced under warranty after 9 months of use. This one broke me, I confess and started my Hackintosh quest.
• MacBook #2 12″ Intel C2D. Warranty replacement for the above. Sold as quickly as possible before new problems could arise. Replaced with a $300 hacked netbook which is perfect after 15 months’ heavy use, not to mention that it runs 40F cooler.
• Mighty Mouse – three models – all died from faulty scroll wheels just outside the warranty period. Replaced with a Microsoft RF wireless mouse.
• White wireless keyboard. Has started to refuse to pair with the iMac 24″.
• Aluminum wireless keyboard. Has refused to pair with anything over the past week. Must be a solidarity thing with the white variant, above.
• Mac Mini – too new to fail (wife’s). May reluctantly buy AppleCare at the two year warranty point to get at least one more year out of it.

My current ‘work’ computer where I do all my Lightroom and Photoshop work is the best of both worlds, based on the above experiences. Assembled from off-the-shelf inexpensive PC parts it has mechanical reliability and low repair costs if anything fails. By far the costliest component, the Intel C2Q CPU, ran $230. The twin 22″ Dell IPS monitors I use have nice matte screens, the pair costing in aggregate about half of the amount Apple is asking for their cheapest external monitor with its awful glossy screen. Everything is easily upgraded if the need arises, right down to the CPU.

As Windows is to operating systems what Apple is to hardware (meaning I refuse to use either) the PC is hacked to run OS Snow Leopard, is equal in performance to Apple’s costliest hardware and has been rock stable in the six months since construction. And it runs 40-50F cooler than any Apple Mac I have used.

Doubtless someone will write pointing out that Apple’s EULA claims to prohibit installation of OS X on non-Apple hardware in the US (it’s not legal in Europe so have at it, those of you across the pond) but frankly, given my experiences with Apple’s hardware, what choice do I have? And I paid for the software. It is the height of arrogance to tell me I cannot use it on a machine of my choice.

So our household is down to an absolute minimum of Apple hardware – one 10 year old iMac, one Mac Mini, no mice, no keyboards, one Apple Airport Extreme router and one iPhone. The latter has been a model of reliability, just like the Hackintosh I assembled in desperation.

Amazing – or admirable, depending on your point of view – how almost all the Apple hardware failures I have experienced have occurred just after expiration of the warranty period.

So if I pause and wait when the iPad debuts, you will understand why. For the most part I propose to avoid Apple’s awful hardware as much as I try to avoid politicians. Both are equally trustworthy.

iMac G4. The only reliable Mac we have ever owned.

Blah.

I put my predictions on the line yesterday and blew it in two major respects – the price (I reckoned on $1,000) and the lack of Blutetooth (iPad has it).

Having watched today’s presentation and read the tech specs of Apple’s new touch screen tablet computer, here are my first reactions:

The Good:
• Great entry price at $499+tax
• 802.11n high speed wifi
• I make the full diagonal to be 12.13″ so the 9.7″ claimed for the display area is likely true – that’s a good size
• IPS screen technology will be great for accurate color photograph display if it can be profiled properly
• 1.5lb light weight – but no mention of how much the charger weighs – I assume it takes forever to charge through a low current USB cable connection
• Claimed 10 hour battery life – though I have difficulty believing that
• Integrated with iTunes store for books, magazines, movies, music
• If you have an iPhone/Touch you already know how to use it
• Lots of apps already available though most will have to be rewritten to take advantage of the full definition
• Bluetooth – let’s hope it works with existing wireless keyboards
• No need to pay twice for tunes and apps if I read that right – the iPhone version can also be loaded on the iPad at no extra cost
• Nice looking iBook application
• iWork and iLife upgraded for touchscreen use
• Components of iWork may be separately purchased
• iPhone OS – lean, mean and hopefully fast
• Claimed ‘instant on’
• Monthly 3G telco plan available – no long term contract

  The Bad:

• Glossy screen
• No iChat camera
• Poor storage capacity (16gB in base model – that’s only 1,600 RAW files – not much for an extended trip) but maybe the USB port is not crippled and will allow use of external HDDs
• Uses AT&T not Verizon in the 3G (add $130) versions
• No indication whether you can upload Lightroom or similar apps and whether the custom CPU can handle it
• If it doesn’t run Excel and Word say goodbye to any corporate sales. Like it or not, these are the standard
• No touch screen feedback when keys are activated
• No indication whether the telco chip will support Verizon technology
• No SDHC/SDXC card slot – bad oversight – more things to forget for your next trip
• 4:3 screen not 16:9 – who makes movies on 4:3 any more?

  The Ugly:

• Dumb as a brick name – “Honey, where’s the iPod?” said with an American accent reminds me of this
• Ugly broad black bezel
• Will cannibalize MacBook and Touch sales and hurt AAPL stock – hard to see how this generates net incremental sales
• Lower margin in an attempt to grab netbook market share – bad for the stock
• Probably fragile – a big expanse of bendable glass and lots of fingerprints to contend with on that glossy screen, not to mention your own reflection when in use
• No support for Adobe Flash – whether you like it or not, that’s the default application for much video on the web

I would like to have seen more emphasis in today’s weak, self congratulatory presentation on other uses, like universal remote functionality, ability to host a business projection, photography, etc.

However, at that price, if the virtual keyboard works reasonably well and if the dockable external keyboard is well priced, this will be a significant challenger to low margin netbooks made by the competition unless the system is so locked that you cannot use applications of choice. Who in their right mind, for example, prefers iWork Numbers to Microsoft Excel for serious number crunching or Pages to Word for heavy duty word processing? My sense is that the old “never buy v1.0 of anything” rule applies strongly here and that my $400 netbook with its 500gB HDD, 802.11n and an SDHC reader, not to mention a real keyboard, just got a new lease on life. Even if it weighs one pound more – worth it for the matte screen alone.

Disclosure: No AAPL positions.

Hype day is tomorrow.

Because I am both a user and an investor, Apple products interest me. Tomorrow, Steve Jobs will ladle additional hype on what is already the most over-hyped product since the iPhone.

I believe that the iSlate tablet will be a technological tour de force …. and a near-term commercial failure.

iSlate – artist’s impression

But first, let me pitch in my 3 cents’ worth (50% more valuable than the average out there, but still largely worthless) and guess at the tech specs. Much of this is pretty obvious based on leaks from suppliers. Either way, you can check me against tomorrow’s hyperama:

Hardware: 

• 10.1″ glossy, diagonal touchscreen
• ARM 1gHz low power consumption CPU
• 6 hr (10 hr in JobsSpeak) flat, non-user changeable battery
• 2.5mm standard headphone jack
• Crappy built-in speakers (”Greatest sound since Carnegie Hall” – JS)
• Virtual keyboard with vibration touch feedback
• 64gB SSD (”Huge” – JS)
• SDXC slot card reader
• iPhone socket, no USB sockets, to preserve connectivity premium
• Aluminum rear case
• Appearance like a large iPhone (”A design revolution” – JS)
• Fragile glass screen which will break as soon as you look at it (”Titanium tough” – JS)
• Broadcomm multi-carrier processor (VZ/TMO/T) for 3G
• 802/11n (let’s hope) wifi
• No Bluetooth
• Universal remote capability
• Under 2 lbs with charger (”Weightless” – JS)

  Software:

• iPhone OS, not OS X
• iWork and iLife adapted to touch technology
• iTunes integrated to include books, magazines, enhanced games and newspapers
• Lightroom Touch (just kidding – it will take sleepy Adobe 2 years)

After the hype dies down, however, I believe the device will be a near-term commercial failure. There are a couple of reasons. First, I believe Apple will not include Bluetooth, making it impossible to use an external keyboard. To do otherwise would be to cannibalize their laptop offerings. So long term typing will be impossible on a flat, virtual keyboard, just like on the iPhone.

But the biggest cause of failure will be the price. Apple enjoys fabulously high profit margins on its costly hardware and cannot afford to sacrifice those or the stock, already priced for perfection, falls out of bed. So add up the component prices and you get $999 at a 35-40% margin. Absent the rabid fans, who in his right mind, in an economy headed for the toilet (or going deeper into the toilet, if you prefer) is going to blow a big one on a device like this when he already has an iPhone/Touch and a MacBook? Sure, give me Bluetooth and this is the perfect replacement for my netbook. But I simply don’t Bluetooth happening for reasons explained above.

Fine, so there will be two versions, like with the iPhone/Touch. The $999 wifi only one and a $599 one with 3G and a carrier subsidy. Now that carrier will charge the user $50-60 monthly for the 3G connection, so now your $600 toy has suddenly cost you over $2000. And you want yet another monthly bill in our post-Armageddon economy?

So my guess is that the technology in the device will be wonderful and, as the introduction will include promises that books etc. will be available through iTunes (content is King), near term hype will push Apple’s stock along and the fans will line up come the July availability date. But I fail to see how Apple will sell many of these in this economy at $999.

In a year or two the price will drop significantly, content will have grown, the fragile screen and bad code and overheating issues and carrier bottlenecks will have been addressed and Bluetooth will be added. Then it will start making serious money and the laptop computer as we know it will become a tablet device.

Disclosure: Long AAPL call options.

Everyone is getting on the bandwagon.

Notice anything here, from my news reader?

Yup, it’s the year of the tablet computer. Quite why all these manufacturers are rushing to market when they have no delivery system for content – books, games and movies – I don’t know, but the one that does, Apple, will announce its version on January 27 and I suspect it will be worth waiting for. Sales are rumored to start in April, 2010. A direct, wireless link to iTunes is a given.

I’m hoping for not just a playback device but also a half-decent computer which will allow processing of pictures in Lightroom or the like. Here’s hoping.

Artist’s rendering.

Disclosure: Long AAPL call options at the time of writing.

Any day now.

That P. T. Barnum of the digital age, Steve Jobs, knows how to milk free publicity. Before being fired from Apple in May, 1985, he joked that Apple was a ship that leaked from the top. He had not yet learned the power of silence.

Then, upon rejoining Apple just over ten years later, he knew better. The less you said the more they wrote and speculated about the next Great Thing, and while I have no idea how much this strategy garnered in free publicity for the iPhone, you can bet the amount was huge. I doubt there was a more anticipated introduction of a consumer gadget in the history of consumer gadgets.

The next Great Thing, the touchscreen iTablet, will likely be introduced on January 27, 2010 and there are so many indicia of the device’s imminent arrival that it’s hardly a long shot prediction.

iSlate/iTablet – artist’s rendering.

Books, magazines and newspapers getting readied, games being redesigned for larger screen resolution, components procured, a meeting hall booked for a January Apple special, leaks from parts suppliers in Taiwan and China and, most recently, disclosure that the iSlate.com domain has been registered in Apple’s name for a couple of years. iSlate sounds pretty neat to me. A nice throwback to the days of Moses delivering the Ten Commandments.

This device is unlikely to be as earth shattering as the iPhone because it will be perceived as costlier, for one. Consumers still naively believe that the iPhone costs $100-$200 when the all in 2 year contract cost is closer to $2,000. But it’s tempting to speculate what the iSlate will cost. My guess is that the $599 number bruited about is unrealistic. The iPhone, with its miniscule screen, would cost that at retail absent the telco’s subsidy.

If the iSlate really is to have a 7-10″ touchscreen in glorious color, 3G, wifi and a long life battery, $1300 is more like it, and that would dictate lower margins than Apple’s existing MacBook Pro. Still, Apple did mention at their last earnings call that they anticipate falling gross margins going forward and it’s unclear whether this reflects an attempt at increased market share (not consonant with their traditional thinking) or, maybe, a lower than usual margin on the iSlate. So I’m guessing $999. That will make it less than the blockbuster expected, the economies of the west still being in recovery from a brush with death, and the effect on the stock will not be a happy one.

This will, I believe, be a “buy the rumor, sell the news” type of investment opportunity.

But I think the device’s relevance to educated consumers (who constitute a small minority of cell phone users, let’s face it) will be great. It will become the news delivery tool of choice for those who prefer not to waste their time on the pap passing for news on the networks or on cable – I’m reminded of the old saying that the front page of any major newspaper has more news than a 30 minute network news broadcast. It will become a powerful marketing tool for those seeking to display pictures, models, sketches, ideas on the fly. Engineers, design professionals, doctors and investment gurus will love it. You will watch movies and play games on it. And it will be a wonderful tool for the display of photographs, maybe with limited processing tools included. Imagine using such a tool in the studio as a preview device connected to your DSLR in live view mode with an art director peering at the screen over your shoulder.

And for a company which never lets form take a back seat to function, you can bet that the iSlate/iTablet/iWhatever will look absolutely fabulous. I can’t wait to see what it’s all about. The introduction date is January 27, 2010.

Disclosure: I am long AAPL call options. If you think this blog is a source of investment advice, I can get you a deal on a bridge in Brooklyn.

It’s the one you always have with you.

Forget Apple’s overpriced offerings, high heat output and poor reliability. Get a netbook for a fraction of the price and enjoy the matte screen with which it comes standard.

The netbook is my Computer of the Year for photographers and anyone whose life is data intensive. Mine is the MSI WInd but any netbook pretty much does the trick.

The MSI Wind U100

Your $330 gets you a 10″ screen, a 5 hour 6-cell battery, three USB2 and one Ethernet port, a webcam and microphone, wi-fi, VGA out, external speaker and headphone sockets and an SDHC card reader, together with a carrying case and weighing all of 2.8 lbs. It’s almost light enough to take anywhere. Doubtless next year’s model will be even lighter. And the hard plastic case absorbs knocks far better than a metal one, does not dent and wears exceptionally well. And you get a choice of colors. Mine is pearl white.

‘Experts’ – who never seem to use the devices they pontificate about – will tell you its garbage, falls apart in no time, has a lousy screen, is slow, etc. Let me correct all of that. I have 53 weeks of extremely hard use on mine as of the time of writing and, except that the logos above the status lights on the lower right of the palm rest have worn off, it works as perfectly as when it was new. The screen is simply outstanding, the near-full size keyboard almost as good, it runs very cool and the reliability has been faultless.

How abut the OS problem? The Wind, like most netbooks, comes with Windows XP, though you can get it with Ubuntu if Unix is your thing. If you must run OS X the Wind can be hacked with some effort. (How? It’s called Google.) If you want to make things even easier get a Dell Mini 10v and hack that – much simpler (I am assured by people far smarter than I in these things) and even cheaper at $279, postage paid from Dell. The Dell will even run wifi using Airport, without any need to change the wifi card. New netbooks are now sporting Windows 7 which has garnered good reviews – who knows, maybe Microsoft finally got it right?

What is the purpose of such a device? It’s quicker to say what it is not good for. Long Photoshop or Lightroom sessions or movie editing which dictate processing power and a properly profiled screen are not its forte. But as a truly portable device which will store any number of photos from your digital camera on the road and allow proper preview and culling of bad snaps it excels, using the built-in SDHC card reader. For CF cards from my 5D I use a small adapter which ran me a few dollars.

There is little justification in buying one of those small screen downloaders cum hard disk devices when you can have the 10″ widescreen a netbook offers. Best of all, its half the weight of a notebook computer and its low power consumption Intel Atom CPU puts out very little heat, meaning your lap does not fry after 10 minutes of use. With the Wind you can crank up the 1.6gHz Atom CPU to run at 2.0gHz at the touch of a button when connected to the mains. That’s a feature supported by Intel and does not void the warranty. And you can swap out the battery in a few seconds for a fresh one.

I use mine mostly for following news and stocks on the road and have lost track of the number of trades I have placed using this fine tool. And at $330 if you lose it who cares, as long as you use password protection for your accounts and data? By default it comes with a 160gB HDD but I swapped mine for a 500gB one from my MacBook and upped the standard memory from 1gB to 1.5gB – it will handle 2gB. Lightroom 2 runs fine if not super fast and I have even used CS2 on occasion. The speed of both applications is comparable to what I remember enjoying on my G5 iMac a few years ago.

MSI Wind running Lightroom 2 quite happily.

There are lots of choices in the netbook market at around the same price, and I have no axe to grind for MSI’s version (of which there seem to be many) other than to say that it works well, and that I sold my MacBook within one month of getting my Wind. Make of that what you will. I do not believe it makes sense to buy a costlier device as something better will come along in a year and you will have lost more than you should. Give it to your kids and buy the latest model in a year. The only aftermarket accessory I added to mine, after the HDD and RAM, was an international power brick which will work with non-US sockets – a few dollars on eBay.

Netbooks have no optical disk drive so if you must view movies on the road simply rip them to the HDD using your desktop computer. Place them on an 8gB $20 SDHC card which will hold several. Mine will play two full length uncompressed movies on a charge and delivers excellent sound quality using earphones. The screen is 1024×600 pixels which is identical in aspect ratio to the widescreen format adopted by most movies today. The on board speakers are worthless if good sound is required. An add-on drive is too power hungry and too bulky, defeating the point of a netbook – instant computing anywhere.

The built in camera won’t make you look like a supermodel but works fine for video chats.

The netbook computer has destroyed profit margins in the small computer business – the reason Apple refuses to make one – and I recommend it without reservation if you value utility over fashion and believe, as I do, that real computing is done at home using a big screen, not a laptop.

Note: This site is optimized – as best as possible – for viewing on a 1024 x 600 notebook screen. That’s a bit of a squeeze as my preferred picture size is 800 pixels on the long side – meaning I can just about get it all in with landscape snaps – but dictates some scrolling with portraits. If you turn off the status (bottom) and bookmark (top) bars in your browser it’s even better. Laptops are generally 1280 x 800 or so, and should pose no issues.