With a greater number of people switching to netbooks, reports recently have been putting out reasons as to why exactly netbooks have been gaining ground in companies and organizations. For one, netbooks are typically much cheaper than laptops, which mean that firms can afford to provide netbooks to all users who do not have to do any spectacular things, and require only the very minimum. Secondly, netbooks with Windows OS can be used managed just like any other laptop using tools from Altiris and MS.

Netbooks usually have 10%-15% less power consumption when compared to typical laptops, and leave an overall smaller footprint on the environment. Netbooks are a good way to get the Linux OS’s foot in the door. Some netbooks even come with Novell SUSE or Ubuntu Remix preloaded. Intel has even released Moblin (a mobile Linux netbook), and google chrome’s OS is also supposed to be targeted at the netbook crowd.

However, with all the good things, there are bad. Netbooks severely lack multimedia utilities such as DVD players. It’s even been reported that a netbook takes up to 6 times longer to load iTunes than a normal laptop. While this may sound like nothing at all, it can be the end-all be-all for some people. With such a fast paced world where people want to watch their movies on the go without the hassle of trying to sign up for movie sites, it can be a dilemma. Possibly even more devastating is the fact that it struggles so to load music. I know I would hate not being able to listen to music while studying or taking notes.

But if you can overlook the utter lack of MM utilities, and enjoy it for what it is, it is pretty awesome. IT’ll get your work done, your notes taken, your tasks accomplished, and if movies and music mean that much to you, try a nifty site called Youtube. In the end you’ll end up saving money and if storage and multimedia is a huge deal, you can always buy plug ins.

This amazing little netbook can turn into a very cool looking picture frame. Litl, a startup company based in Boston, has expelled a laptop that can be used either as a regular netbook, or you can flip it so that I can stand up similarly to an easel. The netbook, called a Webbook, is a device equipped with a 12’’ screen and a pivoting hinge that can change how the netbook is positioned and looks. If you twist it, it can either look like a picture frame or a traditional laptop. The manufacturers, Litl, have said that when the Webbook has its screen bare, it is awesome for passive activities such as playing music or displaying photos, watching the news or programs, or even browsing extensive web content.

In terms of innards, the Webbook doesn’t really have the rights to brag. It comes with a 1.6 Ghz processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM, a 2 gigabyte flash memory card, a camera, and Wi-Fi connectivity, with a USB port, 2 infrared ports, & an HDMI port. It’s obviously intended to be used as a cloud computer because it sure can’t store much on it. Mostly all you can do is mess around online and store a few photos or mp3s.

The company assures us that the Webbook will also be able to come with channels/feeds from popular websites such as Shutterly, Facebook, Flickr, and The Weather Channel. It’s a cute idea, but it’s a bit expensive for a cute idea with not a lot to brag about. At 700 bucks (with the optional remote for an additional 20 bucks) I personally just don’t feel that it has the goods to back up the price. Perhaps rigging up a nice desktop theatre would be a much more attractive alternative.

The world’s topmost maker of mobile phones, Nokia has planned to diverge into fast-growing sector of notebooks by making “mini-laptops”. Yes, Nokia will soon be entering laptops market from its traditional mobile market and has decided to branch out.Over the last quarters, Nokia has seen a decline in its profit margin with the slump in demand of traditional handsets whilst the sales of Smartphone are still accelerated. The phone market is shrinking some ten percent; over and above this research firm IDC has expectations of netbooks shipments growing more than 127 percent from the year 2008 towards the sale of 26 million units more which will outperform overall PC market which is expected to remain flat.
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