The thing with portable computers is that we take them everywhere. We’re not tied to a desk when we need to work. We can work on a kitchen counter, type with one hand while carrying it around with the other, or even work in bed. Heck, I use my netbook in bed most of the time. It’s rather comfy working in bed, of course, but how comfortable is it, really?

A study done by Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) published by Core77 featured a variety of netbook usability factors on non-Windows surfaces. Read more…

The lucky writers at Gizmodo were able to get their hands on five new netbooks powered by Intel’s Pine Trail (Atom N450) processor. The netbooks are:

- Sony Vaio W
- Toshiba NB 305
- HP Mini 210 HD
- Acer Aspire One 532h
- Dell Mini 10 HD

Of these 5 netbooks, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 came off as the best of the Pine Trail netbooks with HD. Read more…

Smish is an app that lets you organize… apps on your computer. It can work on any PC, and a Mac client is coming soon. Read more…

In three years, netbooks have entered the computer market and have been successful beyond any computer manufacturer’s dreams. If there’s anything the Asus Eee PC 701 and its descendants proved, there are people willing to sacrifice a bit of computing power for a huge price difference and portability. But I wonder, how far have netbooks gone? There’s really no other way to look at it than seeing it in graphs and the like so we’d be able to take it all in. Read more…

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is one of the best netbooks out there at the moment. Come on, how could it be not good when it’s carrying the ThinkPad brand? The 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, AMD Neo MV-40 single core CPU, and AT Radeon HD 3200 graphics make it one of the best choices to get when shopping for a netbook.

But it looks like Lenovo’s got something else up their sleeve. According to rumors, they’re going to make a 10-inch ThinkPad that’s going to be rocking an Intel Atom processor. From Liliputing:

It looks like Lenovo is also planning to launch a smaller version of the laptop with a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display. An Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor option also appears to be on its way. It’s not spelled out specifically, but it’s likely that the Atom CPU will be tied to the smaller screen.

While a number of reviewers have given the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e high marks for its keyboard, build quality, and overall design, it gets pretty lousy battery life for a modern ultraportable. Swapping out the AMD CPU for a low power Atom processor could go a long way to address that.

Say what you want about the ThinkPad’s looks, but I think it looks pretty neat. Seriously considering the future 10-inch ThinkPad X100e as a possible netbook purchase if my laptop proves to be too big to carry around.