New toy, day 2

May 4, 2010 - Reading time: ~1 minute

Still like the netbook.  Still a little annoyed at the lack of bluetooth, but I'll get over it.  It has this face recognition thing for logging in, which seems silly but it works, most of the time.  Not especially quick.  The only real problem I have so far is that the screen and the surround for the screen are very glossy, so if it's at all light outside the reflection makes it very hard to see the screen - you have to turn the brightness all the way up, and even then it's a bit tough.  With CRT monitors, AGAR (anti-glare anti-reflection) was always a big deal, and that was something that LCDs were good at without much effort, so I'm not sure why they would have (apparently intentionally) taken something that is otherwise great for use outdoors and made it almost impossible to use in the sunshine.  Eh.


New toy

May 3, 2010 - Reading time: ~1 minute

I am now plus one Lenovo S10-3 netbook.  Seems fun.  The Fry's in Burbank had a much better selection of them than the one in Houston.  Also, I couldn't get anyone at the Fry's in Houston to talk to me (at least nobody in the computer department).  The touchpad is ... OK.  Still getting used to it.  The IdeaPad I played with in the store was apparently an S10-2, which had actual physical mouse buttons just below the touchpad; the one I took home has a single-piece thing which looks nice but is a bit awkward if you want to click and drag.

The thing that really surprised me about the netbooks is the lack of Bluetooth support.  Bluetooth isn't great for a lot of things because it's not blazing fast, but ... it is great for things like wireless mice, cell phones, headphones, and so on.  No stores I went to had any netbooks with built-in Bluetooth in stock; online I found an HP Mini 210 with a Bluetooth option, but the Mini 210 in the store didn't have it.  I ended up with a dongle, which is fine but it eats up a USB port and sticks out the side a bit.  Oh well.